Talk:Wu wei
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I'm stumped by the following statement: "As a person diminishes his doing—by 'doing', the Taoist means all those actions we commit purely to benefit us..." Can you elaborate on what this means? Sunray 04:26, 2005 Jun 6 (UTC)
Here's what I've got so far: "As a person diminishes his doing—by 'doing', by which the Taoist means those actions we commit purely to benefit us..." This sentence needs more work, but I'm not at all sure I have got the sense of it. Thoughts? Sunray 04:34, 2005 Jun 6 (UTC)
- O.K. that's better. I will continue editing. Sunray 14:54, 2005 Jun 6 (UTC)
I'm not sure of the meaning intended here: "... to effect a proper calendar in time and his country will be well governed" (first sentence in the second paragraph). A calendar is usually "a system of calculating the days and months of the year." It can also be a chart, a timetable or a list relating to time. Do you mean a structure of time or an event, an outcome, or... Sunray 00:45, 2005 Jun 8 (UTC)
- One possible meaning could be: to effect a proper outcome in time so that his country will be well governed. Sunray 01:15, 2005 Jun 8 (UTC)
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- Stumped here too. I think the sentence works quite well within the paragraph without that phrase. The sentences following provide the necessary elaboration. I have edited accordingly. Hope no one objects. Excellent entry! -Jmh123 06:27, 22 July 2005 (UTC)
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[edit] Talk: Origins
"Some philosophers, for example Wang Chong, have questioned this theory. However, it has proven curiously prophetic in certain modern research such as fractal theory."
Can anyone please explain what fractal theory has to do with wu wei? Otherwise, I propose we delete this text.
--PiKeeper 03:58, 4 November 2005 (UTC)
- I don't see the relevance. No problem deleting the sentence, IMO. Sunray 06:50, 4 November 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Headings
I've added some headings in an attempt to begin to structure the article. I'm not at all confident that they are the right headings, so please feel free to adust them as you see fit. Sunray 01:07, 2005 Jun 8 (UTC)
[edit] No Monkeying Around
Benjamin Hoff in The Tao of Pooh suggests that "Wei" means monkey/claw, and translates "Wu Wei" as "No Monkeying Around". This suggestion is reproduced all over the Internet, but doesn't seem to have any support from real Chinese scholars. And yet even if it's not true, it's a nice story (si non è vero, è molto ben trovato) - so is it worth mentioning here? --RichardVeryard 21:31, 24 July 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Immortality
Article says: "Zhuang Zi proposed an illustration of this idea: a tree with a twisted trunk will not be cut by any lumberjack and will live its whole life in peace, thanks to its uselessness." This, I could argue, is an allegory for not cutting your life short through meddling, and has little if anything to do with immortality. This theme runs throughout both sources; cf. TTC: "The forceful do not choose their place of death." If we have a consensus, we could replace this with an appropriate parable from Chuang Tzu, where the Heaven might fall and the whole world may come to an end, but the sage will not be harmed because he is not attached to anything.
