From
《道德经》 chapter 5 (Tao Te Ching):
天地不仁，以万物为刍狗；圣人不仁，以百姓为刍狗 (Heaven and Earth are not benevolent; they treat the ten thousand things as straw dogs. The sage is not benevolent; he treats the hundred clans as straw dogs).
刍狗 were straw dogs used in ritual - honored during the ceremony, discarded after. Laozi's point: Nature and the sage act without partiality, not without care - a Daoist ideal of
无为 (non-interference).
