Effortless Action

About this book

"This book presents a systematic account of the role of the personal spiritual ideal of wu-wei - literally "no doing," but better rendered as "effortless action" - in early Chinese thought. Edward Slingerland's analysis shows that wu-wei represents the most general of a set of conceptual metaphors having to do with a state of effortless ease and unself-consciousness. This concept of effortlessness, he contends, serves as a common ideal for both Daoist and Confucian thinkers. He also argues that this concept contains within itself a conceptual tension that motivates the development of early Chinese thought: the so-called paradox of wu-wei, or the question of how one can consciously "try not to try.""--BOOK JACKET.