Wu-wei can be translated literally as "having-no-activity" or "non-action". But using this translation, one should remember that the term does not actually mean complete absence of activity, or doing nothing. What it does mean is lesser activity or doing less. It also means acting without artificiality and arbitrariness.

Activities are like many other things. If one has too much of them, they become harmful rather than good. Furthermore, the purpose of doing something is to have something done. But if there is over-doing, this results in something being over-done, which may be worse than not having the thing done at all. According to the theory of "having-no-activity", a man should restrict his activities to what is necessary and what is natural. "Necessary" means necessary to the achievement of a certain purpose, and never over-doing. "Natural" means following one's Te with no arbitrary effort. Te is a word that means "power" or "virtue", both in the moral and non-moral sense of the latter term. The Te of a thing is what it naturally is.

People have lost their original Te because they have too many desires and too much knowledge. In satisfying their desires, people are seeking for happiness. But when they try to satisfy too many desires, they obtain an opposite result. Knowledge is itself an object of desire. It also enables people to know more about the objects of desire and serves as a means to gain these objects. With increasing knowledge people are no longer in a position to know how to be content and where to stop.