In Qiguang Zhao's book "Do Nothing & Do Everything" Zhao illustrates an insight into "Wu Wei" that I have never heard before. I think it's very original. He says that the uniform, slow, circular movements in Tai Chi is "Wu Wei" - doing nothing. Newton's law says that objects will continue in its uniform motion (law of inertia) until compelled to change by an external force (friction). So in Tai Chi movements we strive to have no resistance in our movements (relaxation) and so the slow, uniform, circular motion is the same as resting (inertia). The movements mimic the uniform, circular motion of the stars and planets, and so we have non action or Wu Wei. My usual interpretation of Wu Wei was of having no visible movement and perhaps the force of the opponent was just transferred through the body an returned when it rebounded from the ground.
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