Ziran (自然) — Naturalness, Self-So-Ness

Ziran (自然) means literally 'self-so' — the condition of things being what they are without external compulsion or artificial arrangement. The Dao De Jing (Chapter 25) establishes ziran as the ultimate principle in its fourfold hierarchy: 'Humanity follows Earth, Earth follows Heaven, Heaven follows the Dao, the Dao follows what is naturally so.' Even the Dao itself does not impose but follows ziran, making it the ground beneath the groundless. Ziran is the experiential correlate of wu wei: where wu wei describes the sage's manner of acting, ziran describes the world's manner of being when left unforced.

Cross-Tradition Resonances