From 《
道德经》
第五章 (Tao Te Ching, ch. 5):
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).
