''The Te of Piglet'' is a 1992 philosophical book written by

Benjamin Hoff Benjamin Hoff (born 1946) is an American author. He is best known as the author of '' The Tao of Pooh'' (1982) and '' The Te of Piglet'' (1992). In 2006, he denounced the publishing industry and announced his resignation from book-writing. His book ...

as a companion to his 1982 work ''

The Tao of Pooh ''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 for Westerners. It allegorically employs the fictional characters of A. A. Milne's ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' st ...

''. The book was published by

Dutton Books E. P. Dutton was an American book publishing company. It was founded as a book retailer in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1852 by Edward Payson Dutton. Since 1986, it has been an imprint of Penguin Group. Creator Edward Payson Dutton (January 4, ...

and spent 21 weeks on the ''Publishers Weekly'' Bestseller List and 37 weeks on the ''New York Times'' Bestseller List.

Synopsis

In ''The Te of Piglet'', the Piglet character of the ''

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 ...

'' books explains the Chinese concept of '' Te'', meaning 'power' or 'virtue'. Hoff elucidates the Taoist concept of 'Virtue — of the small'; though, he also uses it as an opportunity to elaborate on his introduction to

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 ...

. It is written with many embedded stories from the

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 ...

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 commonly means Virtue — not only because he is small, but also because he has a great heart or, to use a Taoist term, Tz'u. The book goes through the other characters —

Tigger Tigger is a fictional character, an anthropomorphic stuffed tiger. He was originally introduced in the 1928 story collection '' The House at Pooh Corner'', the sequel to the 1926 book ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' by A. A. Milne. Like other Pooh char ...

Owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

, Rabbit,

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 ...

and

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 ''Winn ...

— to show the various aspects of humanity that Taoism says get in the way of living in harmony with the

Tao ''Tao'' or ''Dao'' is the natural order of the universe, whose character one's intuition must discern to realize the potential for individual wisdom, as conceived in the context of East Asian philosophy, East Asian religions, or any other phil ...

Reception

The ''

Palm Beach Post ''The Palm Beach Post'' is an American daily newspaper serving Palm Beach County in South Florida, and parts of the Treasure Coast. On March 18, 2018, in a deal worth US$42.35 million, ''The Palm Beach Post'' and ''The Palm Beach Daily News'' we ...

'' stated that although the first book was a "sleeper hit", the ''Te of Piglet'' "falls short as a companion to heTao 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 ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' 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."The Te of Piglet
''Publishers Weekly''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Te of Piglet, The Taoism in popular culture Works about Taoism 1992 non-fiction books Religious studies books Winnie-the-Pooh books Dutton Penguin books Pigs in literature

Synopsis

Reception

See also

References