The Te of Piglet

The Te of Piglet . . . in which a good deal of Taoist wisdom is revealed through the character and actions of A. A. Milne's Piglet. Piglet? Yes, Piglet. For the better than impulsive Tigger? or the gloomy Eeyore? or the intellectual Owl? or even the lovable Pooh? Piglet herein demonstrates a very important principle of Taoism: The Te—a Chinese word meaning Virtue—of the Small.

The author and the characters from the Pooh books engage in dialogue elucidating the Taoist principle of Te, the Way of the Small.

What is Te? What is Taoism? What has Piglet to do with either? Te (pronounced "Deh") is Chinese for Virtue. Taoism is a Chinese philosophy. (Practically speaking, it's more than "Chinese," and more than "philosophy," but we'll get into the whys and hows of that further on, inside this book). And Piglet has quite a bit to do with both. What exactly? In the first place . . . That is, he . . . What we mean is . . . Perhaps we'd better let the author do the explaining. In any event, Piglet not only has quite a bit to do with Te and Taoism; he also has quite a bit to do with you and me - as have Te and Taoism - whoever we may happen to be, whatever we may happen to be doing. And that is a Very Useful Thing to Know. As you will see.

Publishers Weekly

Like Hoff's bestselling The Tao of Pooh , this more topical and sobering sequel uses characters from A. A. Milne's children's classics to illustrate the Taoist philosophy of living in harmony with nature. Piglet shows the Way, turning his smallness into an asset and embodying Te (pronounced deh ), the Chinese word for virtue. Illustrated with drawings from the original Pooh books and quoting liberally from them, this forceful New Age sermon condemns the rape of the environment, unsafe, unnecessary nuclear power plants, the bloated military budget, computers in the classroom, giant corporations, jingoist support for the Persian Gulf war and a succession of ``self-centered, ignoramus Conservative'' presidents. 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. (Sept.)

Benjamin Hoff grew up in a rural area a few miles from Portland, Oregon—at the opposite end of the valley in which Opal Whiteley wrote her diary. As a child, he, like Opal, preferred to spend his time outdoors, observing animals, insects, and plants. From an early age, he, too, loved to write. He is tha author of the bestselling The Tao of Pooh and The Te of Piglet.