wu-wein.

1859 J. Edkins Relig. Condition of Chinese xiv. 260 The words Woo-wei, mean non-action. These words are, in China, a favourite philosophical phrase, used by all schools of a contemplative or mystic tendency. The Taouists, who spoke of the Eternal Reason which underlies all existences, held that it could be understood, and the perfection of our nature reached only by rest, by stillness physical and mental, by abstaining from external methods of improvement, and by disbelief in their efficacy. This they called Woo-wei, ‘to do nothing’.

1917 Encycl. Sinica 545/1 Confucius believed in the power of human nature to remain upright if properly taught; Lao Tzû believed it would keep straight if left to itself. This is his famous doctrine of Wu-wei, (Inaction or Nonassertion).

1934 A. D. Waley Way & its Power iii. 145 He slips in..wu-wei, ‘non-activity’, i.e. rule through tê (‘virtue’, ‘power’) acquired in trance.

1965 C. Chai & W. Chai Humanist Way in Anc. China 56 To govern by Wu-wei (inaction or noninterference), Shun was the one!

1970 H. G. Creel What is Taoism? i. 9 The mere idea of all this toiling for immortality is repugnant to that of wu wei, not striving.

1975 C.-Y. Chang Tao lxxiii. 194 Wu-wei does not mean that one does not act. It means that one acts but is free from ulterior motives.

1859 J. Edkins Relig. Condition of Chinese xiv. 260 One of the most interesting among the minor sects in China is that called the Woo-wei-keaon. It is an off-shoot from Buddhism.

1917 Encycl. Sinica 609/2 Wu Wei or Non-Action Society. A secret sect, variously stated as having been founded by disciples of Lao Tzû towards the end of the Chou dynasty, by Lo Huai, the originator of the Lung Hua and Hsien T‘ien sects, who lived in the 15th and 16th centuries, and to have been begun three hundred years ago... Its members are described by Edkins as ‘a kind of reformed Buddhists’.