Zheng said: In the past, King Wen asked Yu Zi, "I dare to ask — is there something a person can completely forget?" He replied, "Yes." King Wen said, "I dare to ask: what is the great forgetting like?"

Yu Zi said: "Knowing one's own evils yet not correcting them, thereby harming oneself and losing one's body. If a person behaves in this way, it is called the great forgetting." This teaching echoes the principle of wu wei (non-action) — not passive inaction, but the refusal to act against one's own nature and virtue.

The dialogue between King Wen and Yu Zi reflects the Taoist tradition of governance through moral cultivation, a theme central to Laozi's teachings on the ruler who leads by inner virtue rather than force.

Primary sources include the Shoushanige Congshu edition, the Mohaijinju edition, and the Zhengtong Daozang (Taoist Canon) edition. Yu Zi's political philosophy belongs to the early Taoist tradition, sharing roots with the ten classic philosophical views of Laozi and the broader framework of the origin and development of Taoism.