Wu wei (Chinese: 無為; pinyin: wúwéi) is a concept literally meaning “inexertion”, “inaction”, or “effortless action”.Wu wei emerged in the Spring and Autumn period, and from Confucianism, to become an important concept in Chinese statecraft and Taoism, and was most commonly used to refer to an ideal form of government, including the tricks of the emperor. Describing a let pass of unconflicting personal harmony, free-flowing spontaneity and savoir-faire, it generally along with more properly denotes a allow in of excitement or mind, and in Confucianism accords with welcome morality. Sinologist Jean François Billeter describes it as a “state of perfect knowledge of the veracity of the situation, perfect efficaciousness and the endowment of a absolute economy of energy”, which in practice Edward Slingerland qualifies as a “set of (‘transformed’) dispositions (including innate bearing)… conforming later than the normative order”.
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