顺其自然
- Literal
- to follow its own natural course
- Figurative
- To stop pushing and accept whatever comes; it promises no happy ending, only the calm of not fighting what you cannot control.
Where does 顺其自然 come from?
It comes from no particular anecdote or famous passage: it is a set phrase built from 顺 ("to follow"), 其 ("its") and 自然, a word that literally means "what is so of itself." That term is central to Daoist thought, where not forcing the course of things is a virtue, and the idiom still carries that resonance. Today it belongs to ordinary talk, often used to take the pressure off something no longer in our hands.
How is 顺其自然 used? Two examples
- 该做的都做了，剩下的顺其自然吧。
We've done everything we could; let the rest take its course.
- 体检结果下周才出来，急也没用，只能顺其自然。
The checkup results won't be in until next week; getting worked up won't help, so all you can do is let things be.
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