Effortless Action: Wu-wei As Conceptual Metaphor and Spiritual Ideal in Early China

by Edward Slingerland

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 the so-called "paradox of wu-wei," or the question of how one can consciously "try not to try."

Methodologically, this book represents a preliminary attempt to apply the contemporary theory of conceptual metaphor to the study of early Chinese thought. Although the focus is upon early China, both the subject matter and methodology have wider implications. The subject of wu-wei is relevant to anyone interested in later East Asian religious thought or in the so-called "virtue-ethics" tradition in the West. Moreover, the technique of conceptual metaphor analysis--along with the principle of "embodied realism" upon which it is based--provides an exciting new theoretical framework and methodological tool for the study of comparative thought, comparative religion, intellectual history, and even the humanities in general. Part of the purpose of this work is thus to help introduce scholars in the humanities and social sciences to this methodology, and provide an example of how it may be applied to a particular sub-field.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Spirituality, China, Psychology, History, Religion

368 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

I'm Distinguished University Scholar and Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia. I work in a lot of academic areas, including early Chinese thought, comparative religion, cognitive science of religion, virtue ethics, cognitive linguistics and science-humanities integration.

My first trade book, Trying Not to Try, was published by Crown/Random House in March 2014. My new book, Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization, is forthcoming from Little, Brown Spark on June 1, 2021. I have also published many academic books, translations, articles and book chapters.

For information about my books, articles, teaching and research, please see my personal website: edwardslingerland.com

Reviews

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Non-action" is the nearest translation of the Sanskrit word "naishkarmyam," which expresses a specific quality of the doer, a quality of non-attachment whereby he enjoys freedom from the bondage of action, even during activity. It expresses a natural and permanent state of the doer. Whether he is engaged in the activity of the waking or dreaming state, or in the inactivity of deep sleep, he retains inner awareness. It is a state of life where Self-consciousness is not overshadowed by any of the three relative states of consciousness -- waking, dreaming, or sleeping. In this state of "naishkarmyam," the doer has risen to the fourth state of consciousness, "turiya"; this, in its essential nature, is Self-consciousness, the pure absolute state of bliss-consciousness --Sat-Chit-Ananda --but yet is inclusive of the three relative states of consciousness.

Effortless Action: Wu-Wei as conceptual metaphor and spiritual ideal in early China, is Edward Slingerland's attempt to come to an understanding of the state of naishkarmyam, but in a Chinese context. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, from whence the first paragraph of this review was borrowed, really sheds light on the reality of Wu-Wei (non-action), which has long puzzled Sinologists.

More than the author's fresh attempt to understand Wu-Wei as a conceptual metaphor, I enjoy the wonderful translations of the five seminal Chinese sages that appear in this volume: Confucius, Laozi, Mencius, Zhuangzi, and Xunzi. For instance, the following, from Xunzi:

What do human beings use to know the Way? I say that it is the heart/mind. What does the heart/mind make use of in order to know? I say it is tenuousness, unity and stillness. The heart/mind never stops storing, but it still possesses what is called tenuousness. The heart/mind never stops being divided, but it still possesses what is called unity. The heart/mind never stops moving, but it still possesses what is called stillness.

When people are born they begin to acquire a degree of awareness, and with awareness comes intention. Intention is the result of storing. However, there is still that which is called tenuousness: not allowing what has already been stored up [in the heart/mind] to harm what is about to be received is what we call tenuousness. As soon as we are born, the heart/mind begins to accumulate awareness. With awareness comes differentiation. Differentiation implies the simultaneous awareness of two things, and the simultaneous awareness of different things leads to division. However, there is still that which is called unity: not allowing awareness of one thing to harm awareness of another thing is what we call unity. When the heart/mind is asleep, it dreams; when it is unoccupied, it wanders off on its own; and when it is employed, it schemes. Therefore, the heart/mind never stops moving, but it still possesses that which is called stillness; not allowing dreams or fantasies to disorder one's awareness is what we call stillness.

One who has yet to attain the Way but is seeking it should be told about tenuousness, unity, and stillness. Once these qualities are attained, the tenuousness of one who intends to receive the Way allows it to enter; the unity of one who intends to serve the Way allows him to do so completely; and the stillness of one who wishes to contemplate the Way will allow him to be discerning. One who, understanding the Way, is discerning and able to put it into practice is an embodier of the Way. Tenusouness, unity, and stillness are what is referred to as the Great Clear Brightness.

In the words of the Gita, "Established in Being, perform action."

[Marian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant discussion on the very old conflict between sudden enlightenment and gradual cultivation, salvation through faith versus salvation through good deeds or spontaneous action versus arduous self-cultivation. It appears that both extremes are equally paradoxical in nature, the only answer to the paradox being: shut up and just do it :)

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slingerland effectively makes a case that wuwei (an ideal for human life in the world that Slingerland translates as"effortless action") is a central - and properly religious - concern of all the major classical Chinese thinkers, even where the term may not appear frequently in the writings associated with them.

Using cognitive metaphor theory to inform his method, he considers many metaphorical ways by which a human predicament and measures to address, indeed to overcome, it point to a shared concern with attaining effortlessness. The discrepancy between the predicament and its overcoming, such that the practitioner must attain effortlessness evinces, for Slingerland, an enduring "paradox of wuwei" which all the thinkers considered must confront and, on Slingerland's reading, all ultimately fail to resolve completely.

In presenting each thinker and the writings associated with him, Slingerland follows a loose schema that typically includes an account of human "fallenness," a "soteriological strategy" with both cognitive and behavioral aspects, a summary of the subject's conception of wuwei and how to attain it, and a diagnosis of the distinctive way in which the paradox of wuwei reasserts itself in each case.

Slingerland's use of cognitive metaphor theory seems overly arbitrary to me. Further, I suspect in his use of the theory, it bears preconceptions about what in human conduct is literal and what metaphorical, what is concrete and what abstract, what is descriptive and what normative, which probably distort the thought in the texts and mislead us as to their interpretation. It is notable that in his more recent, more popular re-presentation of much of the argument (in Trying Not to Try, which I have also reviewed at http://marginalia.lareviewofbooks.org... ), much of that methodological apparatus has been supplanted with a more empirically grounded use of more basic cognitive science findings.

[Kaidi Pan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great study on an extremely difficult and philosophically important concept.