Wu-wei

Wu wei (traditional Chinese: 無爲; simplified Chinese: 无为; pinyin: wú wéi; a variant and derivatives: Japanese: 無為(むい); Korean: 無爲(무위); Vietnamese: Vô vi; English, lit. non-doing) is an important concept in Taoism that literally means non-action or non-doing. In the Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu explains that beings (or phenomena) that are wholly in harmony with the Tao behave in a completely natural, uncontrived way. The goal of spiritual practice for the human being is, according to Lao Tzu, the attainment of this purely natural way of behaving, as when the planets revolve around the sun. The planets effortlessly do this revolving without any sort of control, force, or attempt to revolve themselves, instead engaging in effortless and spontaneous movement.

Though not politically separated until after the early Han dynasty, Sinologist Herrlee Creel considered Wu wei a distinguishing factor between more "purposive" religious Taoism, having its beginnings in governmental Huang-Lao and emphasizing a striving for immortality; and the philosophical Taoism of the Zhuangzhi, which emphasizes Wu wei in the sense of not striving, often considering the search for immortality secondary, laughable or harmful.

Sinologist Herrlee Creel writes that Wu wei, as found in the Tao Te Ching and Zhuangzhi, seems to denote two different things.

...
Wikipedia