Taoist Idea of "Emptiness" or "Nothingness"（无为）

Use of Emptiness, a variation of Taoist idea "Power of nothingness". Emptiness can mean having no fixed preconceptions, preferences, intentions, or agenda, but in so doing many things sort themselves out. As written in Tao Te Ching, "We put thirty spokes together and call it a wheel; But it is on the space where there is nothing that the usefulness of the wheel depends. We turn clay to make a vessel; But it is on the space where there is nothing that the usefulness of the vessel depends. We pierce doors and windows to make a house; It is on these spaces where there is nothing that the usefulness of the house depends. Therefore just as we take advantage of what is, we should recognize the usefulness of what is not."

From a ruler's point of view, it is a laissez-faire approach:

So a wise leader may say:

"I practice inaction, and the people look after themselves."

But from the Sage it is so hard at any price to get a single word

That when his task is accomplished, his work done,

Throughout the country every one says: "It happened of its own accord". (chap. 17, tr. Waley)