''The Tao of Pooh'' is a 1982 book written by Benjamin Hoff. The book is intended as an introduction to the Eastern belief system of

Taoism Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the '' Ta ...

for Westerners. It allegorically employs the fictional characters of

A. A. Milne Alan Alexander Milne (; 18 January 1882 – 31 January 1956) was an English writer best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh, as well as for children's poetry. Milne was primarily a playwright before the huge success of Winni ...

's ''

Winnie-the-Pooh Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear and Pooh, is a fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard. The first collection of stories about the character was the book ''Win ...

'' stories to explain the basic principles of philosophical Taoism. The book was on the ''New York Times'' bestseller list for 49 weeks. Hoff later wrote '' The Te of Piglet'', a companion book.

Background

Hoff wrote the book at night and on weekends while working as a tree pruner in the Portland Japanese Garden in Washington Park in Portland, Oregon.

Synopsis

The book starts with a description of the

vinegar tasters ''The Vinegar Tasters'' (; ; , ) is a traditional subject in Chinese painting, and later spread to other East Asian countries. The allegorical composition depicts the three founders of China's major religious and philosophical traditions: Confucia ...

, which is a painting portraying the three great eastern thinkers,

Confucius Confucius ( ; zh, s=, p=Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; or commonly zh, s=, p=Kǒngzǐ, labels=no; – ) was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. C ...

, the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in L ...

, and Laozi over a vat of vinegar. Each tasting the vinegar of "life," Confucius finds it sour, the Buddha finds it bitter, but Laozi, the traditional founder of Taoism, finds it satisfying. Then the story unfolds backing up this analogy. Hoff presents Winnie-the-Pooh and related others from

's stories as characters that interact with him while he writes ''The Tao of Pooh'', but also quotes excerpts of their tales from Milne's actual books ''

'' and ''

The House at Pooh Corner ''The House at Pooh Corner'' (1928) is the second volume of stories about Winnie-the-Pooh, written by A. A. Milne and illustrated by E. H. Shepard. It is notable for the introduction of the character Tigger. Plot The title comes from a stor ...

,'' in order to exemplify his points to the reader and the characters. Hoff uses many of Milne's characters to symbolize ideas that differ from or accentuate Taoist tenets.

himself, for example, personifies the principles of ''

wu wei ''Wu wei'' () is an ancient Chinese concept literally meaning "inexertion", "inaction", or "effortless action". ''Wu wei'' emerged in the Spring and Autumn period, and from Confucianism, to become an important concept in Chinese statecraft and T ...

'', the Taoist concept of "effortless doing," and '' pu,'' the concept of being open to, but unburdened by, experience, and it is also a metaphor for natural human nature. In contrast, characters like Owl and Rabbit over-complicate problems, often over-thinking to the point of confusion, and

Eeyore Eeyore ( ) is a fictional character in the ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' books by A. A. Milne. He is generally characterized as a pessimistic, gloomy, depressed, anhedonic, old grey stuffed donkey who is a friend of the title character, Winnie-th ...

pessimistically complains and frets about existence, unable to just ''be''. Hoff regards Pooh's simpleminded nature, unsophisticated worldview and instinctive problem-solving methods as conveniently representative of the Taoist philosophical foundation. The book also incorporates translated excerpts from various prominent Taoist texts, from authors such as Laozi and

Zhuang Zhou Zhuang Zhou (), commonly known as Zhuangzi (; ; literally "Master Zhuang"; also rendered in the Wade–Giles romanization as Chuang Tzu), was an influential Chinese philosopher who lived around the 4th century BCE during the Warring States ...

. However, one poem included in the book attributed to

Lu Yu Lu Yu (; 733–804) or Lu Ji (陆疾), courtesy name Jici (季疵) was a Chinese tea master and writer. He is respected as the Sage of Tea for his contribution to Chinese tea culture. He is best known for his monumental book ''The Classic of ...

of the Tang Dynasty was actually written by Song Dynasty poet

Lu You Lu You (; 1125–1210) was a Chinese historian and poet of the Southern Song Dynasty (南宋). Career Early life and marriage Lu You was born on a boat floating in the Wei River early on a rainy morning, November 13, 1125. At the time of his ...

Reception

The book was on the ''New York Times'' bestseller list for 49 weeks. It has been used as required reading in certain college courses.

Copyright recapturing

In April 2018, Hoff wrote a letter to his publisher informing them that he planned to recapture the copyright for ''The Tao of Pooh'' on December 15, 2018. He cited revised U.S. copyright law and explained that his reasoning for wanting to recapture the copyright was what he deemed general mistreatment by the publisher and a lack of acknowledgement of his accomplishments by them. He was able to successfully recapture the copyright. Hoff published all of the correspondence about this process on his personal website.

# Foreword # The ''How'' of Pooh? (p. 1) # The Tao of ''Who?'' (p. 9) # Spelling Tuesday (p. 23) # Cottleston Pie (p. 37) # The Pooh Way (p. 67) # Bisy Backson (p. 91) # ''That'' Sort of Bear (p. 115) # Nowhere and Nothing (p. 141) Ap # The Now of Pooh (p. 153) # Backword (p. 157)

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tao Of Pooh, The Taoism in popular culture Works about Taoism 1982 non-fiction books Religious studies books Winnie-the-Pooh books E. P. Dutton books

Background

Synopsis

Reception

Copyright recapturing

Table of contents

See also

Notes