「無為而治」是中國傳統政治思想所嚮往的理想境界，自先秦以來，儒、道、法三家對此均提出各具特色的思想內涵。時至秦漢，思想家揉合諸子而產生的黃老之學，不僅為「無為而治」的觀念提供思想的養分，也為新興的帝國建構了理想的政治架構。魏晉玄學家踵武前賢，反思時代之弊，以道家的學術思想為核心，再次融合各家以往的「無為而治」成績，繼而整理出嶄新的思想體系，期望作為亂世中統治者施政的參考。本文從「『無為而治』思想的形成背景」、「『無為而治』思想的理論基礎」、「君主的心態與做法」、「『有為』與『無為』的關係」等四個方面討論魏晉玄學家「無為而治」的政治理想與實踐。本文所得的結論是：由於玄學的學術性格，所以無論何、王的「貴無」之說；嵇、阮的上古無為而治藍圖；郭象以「性」為主體之論等，畢竟和現實的政治運作沒有接軌。此外，玄學家即使提到君主心態和做法，以及「有為」和「無為」的關係，也只是原則性的宣示，以及現象背後價值觀的探討，所以我們僅可稱其為政治哲學或思想，實在難與儒、法思想運作下的國家機器相比擬。儘管如此，玄學家對傳統「無為而治」命題的拓深與豐富，而作為百代君主施政時的參考而言，其所代表的不朽價值，仍是值得我們一再肯定的。

"Wu Wei Er Zhi" (to govern by doing nothing that goes against nature) was the ideal world that traditional Chinese political thoughts expected to achieve. Schools of Confucianism, Taoism, and Law all proposed their own thoughts toward it since pre-Qin dynasty. Time to Qin and Han, "Huang Lao Zhi Zue," that thinkers fused various schools not only provided nutrition to the idea of "Wu Wei Er Zhi" but also constructed the ideal political structure of newly risen empire. Metaphysicians in Wei Jin tagged along behind the predecessors to examine the maladministration in the time and then integrated various schools' thoughts of "Wu Wei Er Zhi" in the sense of Taoism. Furthermore, they developed brand new system of thoughts and expected to be the reference of rulers in the trouble times. The study discussed the political thoughts and practice of "Wu Wei Er Zhi" in Wei Jin metaphysicians in four aspects: background of "Wu Wei Er Zhi," theory foundation of "Wu Wei Er Zhi," attitudes and actions of a liege lord, and relationship of "You Wei" (doing something) and "Wu Wei" (doing nothing). However, due to the scholarly characteristics of metaphysics, scholarly thoughts did not connect to politics in the reality, no matter "Gue Wu" of Ho Yen and Wang Bi, "Blueprint of Wu Wei Er Zhi" of Ji Kang and Ruan Ji, and "Ontology of human nature" of Guo Xiang ever tried. In addition, metaphysicians only made an announcement in a matter of principle and discussed the values behind the phenomenon, even they mentioned the attitudes and actions of a liege lord and relationship of "You wei' and "Wu Wei." Therefore, researchers could only name it as political philosophy or thoughts but not compare as a nation ruled by schools of Confucianism and Law. However, the proposition of "Wu Wei Er Zhi" of metaphysicians was rich and in depth, and it represented the immortal merit of political references which should be valued.