Taoism
Taoism, or Daoism, is a religious or philosophical tradition of Chinese origin which emphasizes living in harmony with the Tao. The Tao is a fundamental idea in most Chinese philosophical schools. Taoism differs from Confucianism by not emphasizing rigid rituals and social order, but is similar in the sense that it is a teaching about the various disciplines for achieving "perfection" by becoming one with the unplanned rhythms of the universe called "the way" or "dao". Taoist ethics vary depending on the particular school, but in general tend to emphasize wu wei, "naturalness", simplicity and the Three Treasures: 慈 "compassion", 儉 "frugality", 不敢為天下先 "humility"; the roots of Taoism go back at least to the 4th century BCE. Early Taoism drew its cosmological notions from the School of Yinyang, was influenced by one of the oldest texts of Chinese culture, the I Ching, which expounds a philosophical system about how to keep human behavior in accordance with the alternating cycles of nature; the "Legalist" Shen Buhai may have been a major influence, expounding a realpolitik of wu wei.
The Tao Te Ching, a compact book containing teachings attributed to Laozi, is considered the keystone work of the Taoist tradition, together with the writings of Zhuangzi. By the Han dynasty, the various sources of Taoism had coalesced into a coherent tradition of religious organizations and orders of ritualists in the state of Shu. In earlier ancient China, Taoists were thought of as hermits or recluses who did not participate in political life. Zhuangzi was the best known of these, it is significant that he lived in the south, where he was part of local Chinese shamanic traditions. Female shamans played an important role in this tradition, strong in the southern state of Chu. Early Taoist movements developed their own institution in contrast to shamanism, but absorbed basic shamanic elements. Shamans revealed basic texts of Taoism from early times down to at least the 20th century. Institutional orders of Taoism evolved in various strains that in more recent times are conventionally grouped into two main branches: Quanzhen Taoism and Zhengyi Taoism.
After Laozi and Zhuangzi, the literature of Taoism grew and was compiled in form of a canon—the Daozang—which was published at the behest of the emperor. Throughout Chinese history, Taoism was nominated several times as a state religion. After the 17th century, however, it fell from favor. Taoism has had a profound influence on Chinese culture in the course of the centuries, Taoists, a title traditionally attributed only to the clergy and not to their lay followers take care to note distinction between their ritual tradition and the practices of Chinese folk religion and non-Taoist vernacular ritual orders, which are mistakenly identified as pertaining to Taoism. Chinese alchemy, Chinese astrology, Chan Buddhism, several martial arts, traditional Chinese medicine, feng shui, many styles of qigong have been intertwined with Taoism throughout history. Beyond China, Taoism had influence on surrounding societies in Asia. Today, the Taoist tradition is one of the five religious doctrines recognized in the People's Republic of China as well as the Republic of China, although it does not travel from its East Asian roots, it claims adherents in a number of societies, in particular in Hong Kong, in Southeast Asia.
Since the introduction of the Pinyin system for romanizing Mandarin Chinese, there have been those who have felt that "Taoism" would be more appropriately spelled as "Daoism". The Mandarin Chinese pronunciation for the word 道 is spelled as tao4 in the older Wade–Giles romanization system while it is spelled as dào in the newer Pinyin romanization system. Both the Wade–Giles tao4 and the Pinyin dào are intended to be pronounced identically in Mandarin Chinese, but despite this fact, "Taoism" and "Daoism" can be pronounced differently in English vernacular; the word "Taoism" is used to translate different Chinese terms which refer to different aspects of the same tradition and semantic field: "Taoist religion", or the "liturgical" aspect – A family of organized religious movements sharing concepts or terminology from "Taoist philosophy". "Taoist philosophy" or "Taology", or the "mystical" aspect – The philosophical doctrines based on the texts of the I Ching, the Tao Te Ching and the Zhuangzi.
These texts were linked together as "Taoist philosophy" during the early Han Dynasty, but notably not before. It is unlikely that Zhuangzi was familiar with the text of the Daodejing, Zhuangzi would not have identified himself as a Taoist as this classification did not arise until well after his death. However, the discussed distinction is rejected by the majority of Japanese scholars, it is contested by hermeneutic difficulties in the categorization of the different Taoist schools and movements. Taoism does not f
Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree
Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree is a 1966 animated featurette based on the first two chapters of the book Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne; the film was produced by Walt Disney Productions. Its songs were written by the Sherman Brothers and the score was composed and conducted by Buddy Baker; this featurette was shown alongside the live-action feature The Ugly Dachshund, was included as a segment in the 1977 compilation film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Winnie-the-Pooh is introduced as a bear living in the Hundred Acre Wood. After doing his Stoutness Exercises, he is disappointed to find, he hears a bee fly by and decides to climb a nearby honey tree, but as he reaches the beehive, a branch he is sitting on breaks, causing him to fall and land in a gorse bush. Pooh's best friend Christopher Robin gives Pooh a balloon and he tries his best to trick the bees by disguising himself as a Little Black Rain Cloud by rolling in a muddy puddle and floating up to the bees' nest. Without looking, he eats them with the honey.
They fly around inside his mouth causing him to spit them out. One of the bees is the chief. By now the other bees have realised what is going on and they fly out to meet him as his disguise starts to drip revealing that he is in fact a bear. General Stinger angrily flies up and stings his bottom; the sudden hit causes him to jam his bottom in the hive. General Stinger starts laughing heartily at Pooh's expense; the now nervous Pooh admits to Christopher Robin that these are the wrong sorts of bees, is shoved out of the hole by them who proceed to chase him away. Pooh, still hungry, decides to visit Rabbit’s house, as Rabbit "uses short, easy words like'how about lunch?' and'help yourself, Pooh." Rabbit reluctantly invites Pooh in, where Pooh helps himself to jars of honey. When Pooh has eaten all of the honey in Rabbit's house, he tries to leave, but is too large to fit through Rabbit's door. Rabbit tries to free Pooh by pushing him through his door, but realizes he will need help to get Pooh out, leaves via his back door to fetch Christopher Robin for help.
Owl flies past and tries to give Pooh advice, but is interrupted by Gopher, who claims he can use dynamite to blast Pooh out of the hole. Despite the effort of Christopher Robin and Rabbit pulling together, Pooh does not budge. Pooh is worried he may be stuck for a while, while he is, Rabbit decides to decorate Pooh's bottom so he will not have to face looking at him being stuck for so long, he decorates Pooh's bottom into a moose-like "hunting trophy". While he is doing this and Roo visit Pooh and give him some honeysuckle flowers which make Pooh sneeze, ruining Rabbit's moose. Rabbit is forced to put up a "Don't feed the bear!" Sign after Pooh tries to get honey from Gopher. Rabbit feels him move a bit. Ecstatic and Christopher Robin gather the whole of the Hundred Acre Wood to get Pooh out. Everyone except Rabbit pulls from outside. Rabbit shoves Pooh with a running start, Pooh is launched free from Rabbit's door and into the air while the others fall to the ground, they watch as Pooh shoots into the hole of another honey tree.
The gang finds him stuck in the tree headfirst. Christopher Robin shouts up to him not to worry, but Pooh is eating the honey that fills the inside of the tree and tells his friends to take their time. Sterling Holloway as Winnie the Pooh, a bear who loves honey. Junius Matthews as Rabbit, a rabbit, obsessive-compulsive and loves planting his vegetables in his garden. Bruce Reitherman as Christopher Robin, a seven-year-old boy and Pooh's best friend. Hal Smith as Owl, an owl who loves to talk about his family. Howard Morris as Gopher, a hardworking gopher who lives underground and falls into his hole. Clint Howard as Roo, Kanga's energetic young joey. Barbara Luddy as Kanga, a kangaroo and Roo's mother. Ralph Wright as Eeyore, an old grey donkey who's always losing his tail and talks in a slow deep depressing voice and tone. Dallas McKennon, Jimmy MacDonald, Ginny Tyler as the Bees Sebastian Cabot as The Narrator "Winnie the Pooh" "Up, Down and Touch the Ground" "Rumbly in My Tumbly" "Little Black Rain Cloud" "Mind Over Matter"All songs were written by Robert & Richard Sherman, who have written most of the music for the Winnie-the-Pooh franchise over the years, subsequently incorporated into the 1977 musical film, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, an amalgamation of the three previous Winnie-the-Pooh featurettes including "Honey Tree".
"Mind Over Matter" was about tempting Pooh to think about getting thinner again. The original lyrics can be heard on the soundtrack album from Disneyland Records. In the end, it ended up being the "Heave Ho" song in the final film. In 1964, when the Sherman Brothers were preparing to demonstrate "Little Black Rain Cloud" for Walt Disney, Robert Sherman reminded his brother Richard that Disney was from the Midwest and that he didn't pronounce the word "hover" like Californians would. Instead, he would pronounce it more like "hoovering"; as Richard played the piano and sang, he stumbled over the lyric, unable to get past the second line of the song. After a few tries Disney said, "Why don't you just tell us about it, Dick." The insight and inspiration for the Pooh songs came from an unlikely source, as is explained in the Sherman Brothers' joint autobiography, Walt's Time: The film's plot is based on two A. A. Milne stories: "In which we are introduced to Winnie-th
Return to the Hundred Acre Wood
Return to the Hundred Acre Wood is a Winnie-the-Pooh novel published on 5 October 2009. Written by David Benedictus and illustrated by Mark Burgess, it was the first such book since 1928 and introduced the character Lottie the Otter. In the mid-1990s, after completing an audio adaptation of Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh stories, Benedictus wrote two Pooh short stories of his own and submitted them to the trustees of the Milne estate; the trustees replied that they were unable to publish the stories because "Walt Disney owned all the rights." However, ten years Benedictus was contacted by the trustees, who explained that "the sequel rights had reverted to them" and asked Benedictus to make changes to one of the short stories and to submit some more. This collection of stories was published as Return to the Hundred Acre Wood. In Which Christopher Robinnnn In Which Owl Does a Crossword and a Spelling Bee Is Held In Which Rabbit Organizes Almost Everything In Which It Stops Raining for Ever and Something Slinky Comes Out of the River In Which Pooh Goes in Search of Honey In Which Owl Becomes an Author and Then Unbecomes One In Which Lottie Starts an Academy and Everybody Learns Something In Which We Are Introduced to the Game of Cricket In Which Tigger Dreams of America In Which a Harvest Festival Is Held in the Forest and Christopher Robin Springs a Surprise Lottie is a brand new character in Return to the Hundred Acre Wood.
Lottie is said to be a "feisty" character, said to be good at cricket and insists on proper etiquette. According to Benedictus, "Lottie the Otter embodies Winnie-the-Pooh's values of friendship and adventure seen throughout Milne's work, thus making the perfect companion for everyone's favourite bear." After 80 years, Pooh returns to Hundred Acre Woods in sequel Extract and sample illustration Publishers Weekly review "Return to the Hundred Acre Wood". Retrieved 5 January 2015
Winnie-the-Pooh: The Best Bear in All the World
Winnie-the-Pooh: The Best Bear in All the World is the second authorised sequel to A. A. Milne's original Winnie-the-Pooh stories, it was published on 6 October 2016 to mark the 90th anniversary of the publication of the first Winnie-the-Pooh book. The sequel is an anthology of each written by a leading children's author; the four contributors are Paul Bright, Jeanne Willis, Kate Saunders, Brian Sibley. The illustrations, in the style of the originals by E. H. Shepard, are by Mark Burgess; the book attracted national press coverage because of the introduction of Penguin. Each of the stories is devoted to one of the seasons in the Hundred Acre Wood, opening with "Autumn" by Paul Bright. Christopher Robin is excited to be appearing as St George in the village play, but he alarms Pooh and Piglet with talk of a dragon. Meanwhile, Eeyore is possessively guarding Something Interesting, but is it something AD or something BC? With so many questions to ask what can the friends do when Christopher Robin has asked not to be disturbed?
"Winter" by Brian Sibley introduces Penguin. Christopher Robin says, but will Penguin stay long enough for the friends to get to know him? In "Spring" by Jeanne Willis, the birds are nesting and Winnie-the-Pooh is admiring the daffodils and humming to himself when he encounters Eeyore feeling gloomy because he is convinced that another donkey is after his thistles. Pooh sets out to find this other donkey and Piglet agrees to help as long as the other donkey is not a Heffalump. In "Summer" by Kate Saunders, Christopher Robin tells Winnie-the-Pooh all about the Sauce of the Nile, which makes Pooh wonder if the river in the Hundred Acre Wood has its own sauce so he sets off with Piglet, Rabbit and the others to find out. Shortly before publication it was announced that The Best Bear in All the World would introduce a new character to the Hundred Acre Wood in the form of Penguin; the Guardian reports how author Brian Sibley was inspired to create the character by a photograph of A. A. Milne's son, Christopher with a toy Penguin.
Sibley said, "For me, the challenge was more than just attempting to play A. A. Milne in his own literary game. I wanted to find a way of introducing a brand new character into Pooh's world, whilst being sympathetic to the tone and style of the original books; the thought of Pooh encountering a penguin seemed no more outlandish than his meeting a kangaroo and a tiger in a Sussex wood, so I started thinking about what might have happened if, on a rather snowy day, Penguin had found his way to Pooh Corner." The Stylist reports. The Independent reports that the original penguin toy is thought to have been bought at Harrods. "The toy department where Mrs. Milne bought the iconic bear hosted a huge array of stuffed animals," said Harrods archivist Sebastian Wormell. "In the early years of the 20th century, toy penguins soared in popularity as the exploits of Antarctic explorers such as Shackleton and Scott fascinated the public. We believe that the toy pictured could be Squeak, which originated in our 1922 catalogue and came from Pip and Wilfred, a popular cartoon-strip."
This is the second authorised sequel to Milne's original stories. The first, Return to the Hundred Acre Wood was written by David Benedictus and illustrated by Mark Burgess; this introduced a new character, Lottie the Otter. Another special adventure was conceived for Pooh's 90th birthday, Winnie-the-Pooh Meets the Queen, in which Pooh visits Buckingham Palace for the occasion of Queen Elizabeth II's 90th birthday
When We Were Very Young
When We Were Very Young is a best-selling book of poetry by A. A. Milne, it was first published in 1924, was illustrated by E. H. Shepard. Several of the verses were set to music by Harold Fraser-Simson; the book begins with an introduction entitled "Just Before We Begin", which, in part, tells readers to imagine for themselves who the narrator is, that it might be Christopher Robin. The 38th poem in the book, "Teddy Bear", that appeared in Punch magazine in February 1924, was the first appearance of the famous character Winnie-the-Pooh, first named "Mr. Edward Bear" by Christopher Robin Milne. In one of the illustrations of "Teddy Bear", Winnie-the-Pooh is shown wearing a shirt, coloured red when reproduced on a recording produced by Stephen Slesinger; this has become his standard appearance in the Disney adaptations. Children's literature portal Now We Are Six, another book of poetry by A. A. Milne Wikilivres has original media or text related to this article: When We Were Very Young
The House at Pooh Corner
The House at Pooh Corner 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. The title comes from a story in which Piglet build a house for Eeyore. In another story the game of Poohsticks is invented; as with the first book, the chapters are in episodic format and can be read independently of each other. The only exception to this is with Chapters 8 and 9 - Chapter 9 carries directly on from the end of Chapter 8, as the characters search for a new house for Owl, his house having been blown down in the previous chapter. Hints that Christopher Robin is growing up, scattered throughout the book, come to a head in the final chapter, in which the inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood throw him a farewell party after learning that he must leave them soon, it is made obvious, though not stated explicitly. In the end, they say good-bye to Christopher Robin. Pooh and Christopher Robin say a private farewell, in which Pooh promises not to forget him.
In Which a House Is Built at Pooh Corner for Eeyore In Which Tigger Comes to the Forest and Has Breakfast In Which A Search is Organized, Piglet Nearly Meets the Heffalump Again In Which It Is Shown That Tiggers Don't Climb Trees In Which Rabbit Has a Busy Day, We Learn What Christopher Robin Does in the Mornings In Which Pooh Invents a New Game and Eeyore Joins In In Which Tigger Is Unbounced In Which Piglet Does a Very Grand Thing In Which Eeyore Finds the Wolery and Owl Moves Into It In Which Christopher Robin and Pooh Come to an Enchanted Place, We Leave Them There In 1960 HMV recorded a dramatised version with songs of two episodes from the book, starring Ian Carmichael as Pooh, Denise Bryer as Christopher Robin, Hugh Lloyd as Tigger, Penny Morrell as Piglet, Terry Norris as Eeyore. This was released on a 45rpm EP. In 1971, singer-songwriter Kenny Loggins released a song called "House at Pooh Corner" as a duet with Jim Messina on their album Sittin' In. Although the song was written by Loggins, it had been released by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their 1970 album Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy.
The song is told from the perspective of both Christopher Robin. The first verse, told from Pooh's point of view, describes how he and Christopher's days together "disappeared all too soon" and how he "can't seem to find way back to the Wood." The second verse, told from Christopher Robin's point of view, tells of how Pooh has a honey jar stuck on his nose and how he came to him asking for help, but "from here, no one knows where he goes." The song uses these verses as an allegorical musing on the loss of innocence and childhood and the nostalgia for simpler, happier times. In 1994, Loggins re-released the song as "Return to Pooh Corner" on the album of the same name. A duet with Amy Grant, this version added a third verse, told from the perspective of an adult Christopher Robin who gives Winnie-the-Pooh to his own son and hears Pooh whisper to him, "welcome home." The song ends with Christopher Robin happy that he's "finally come back to the house at Pooh Corner." This third verse was based on Loggins' own feelings of happiness after the birth of his third son.
The song has since become a staple of Loggins' live performances, it remains one of his most personal and beloved songs. In 1988, an audio version of the book, published by BBC Enterprises, was narrated by Alan Bennett. In 1997 Hodder Children's Audio released a dramatisation produced by David Benedictus with Judi Dench, Stephen Fry, Jane Horrocks, Geoffrey Palmer, Michael Williams, Robert Daws, Sandi Toksvig, Finty Williams and Steven Webb; the music was composed and played by John Gould. Chapters 2, 8, 9 were adapted into animation with the Disney featurette Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day. Chapters 4 and 7 were adapted into Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too!, while chapter 6 was adapted in Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore. Chapter 8 was partially adapted into an episode of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh; the final chapter was adapted as a closure to The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, as well as in the direct-to-video movie Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin.
However, in the book, Christopher Robin was going away to boarding school and wouldn't be coming back but in the films he was just going to school and would come back at the end of the day, while Chapters 1 and 3 were used in segments of Piglet's Big Movie. The 2018 live-action film Christopher Robin acts as an unofficial sequel to the book, with the film focusing on a grown-up Christopher Robin meeting Pooh for the first time since going to boarding school, while the film's first scenes adapt the last chapter of the book. Producer Brigham Taylor was inspired by the book's last chapter for the film's story. Chapter 2 was released from Disney as a book, under the title Winnie the Pooh meets Tigger. In 1968 Jefferson Airplane referenced the book in their song The House at Pooneil Corners, a surrealistic depiction of global nuclear war co-written by Paul Kantner and Marty Balin, ending with the line "Which is why a Pooh is poohing in the sun". Winnie-the-Pooh The Wind in the Willows Wikilivres has original media or text related to this article: The House at Pooh Corner
The Te of Piglet
The Te of Piglet is a 1992 philosophical non-fiction book written by Benjamin Hoff as a companion to his 1982 work The Tao of Pooh. The book was published by Dutton Books and spent 21 weeks on the Publishers Weekly Bestseller List and 37 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List. In The Te of Piglet, the Piglet character of the Winnie-the-Pooh books explains the Chinese concept of Te, meaning'power' or'virtue'. Hoff elucidates the Taoist concept of'Virtue — of the small', it is written with many embedded stories from the A. A. Milne Winnie the Pooh books, both for entertainment and because they serve as tools for explaining Taoism. In the book Piglet is shown to possess great power — a common interpretation of the word Te, which more means Virtue — not only because he is small, but because he has a great heart or, to use a Taoist term, Tz'u; the book goes through the other characters — Tigger, Rabbit and Pooh — to show the various aspects of humanity that Taoism says get in the way of living in harmony with the Tao.
The Palm Beach Post stated that although the first book was a "sleeper hit", the Te of Piglet "falls short as a companion to Tao of Pooh". Princeton University's Cotsen Children's Library praised the book. Kirkus Reviews wrote "if you like marshmallow laced with arsenic, it was worth the wait". Publishers Weekly wrote "Hoff's tired attacks on the "Negative News Media" and on "Eeyore Amazons" who "call themselves feminists but... don't like femininity" weaken his presentation, but on the whole, his Taoist manifesto distills ageless personal and political wisdom, relaying an ecological message we ignore at our peril." Pooh and the Philosophers The Tao of Pooh Benjamin Hoff
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