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wu wei
(無為;wúwéi) is a concept literally meaning "inexertion", "inaction", or "effortless action".
[..] was most commonly used to refer to an ideal form of government,including the behavior of the emperor.
Describing a state of unconflicting personal harmony, free-flowing spontaneity and savoir-faire, it generally also more properly denotes a state of spirit or mind, and in Confucianism accords with conventional morality.
Sinologist Jean François Billeter describes it as a
"state of perfect knowledge of the reality of the situation, perfect efficaciousness and the realization of a perfect economy of energy",
which in practice Edward Slingerland qualifies as a
"set of ('transformed') dispositions (including physical bearing)... conforming with the normative order".
"A man may have wisdom and discernment, but that is not like embracing the favourable opportunity. A man may have instruments of husbandry, but that is not like waiting for the farming seasons"
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