Introduction
The “Adventures of Mrs. Pu” are based off an ancient text, written by a man who lived in China, named Zhuangzi. Zhuangzi was a writer and was most famous for his contribution to the religion known as Daoism. Unlike some religions that you may be familiar with, Daoism has no God, no moral laws, and no Sunday school! Instead, it can be viewed as way of living.
The world Daoism comes from the word “Dao.” Dao can be either a verb (an action) or a noun (a thing). But instead of being just one action like “run” or just one thing like “cat,” Dao is all actions and all things at the same time! That is the tricky part. Dao is like a big blanket that falls over the world, covering everything that it touches. It is similar to when you turn on a light in a dark room— everything that is illuminated by light is part of the Dao. This will become clearer as you read on, but for now, consider Dao to be the basis of all things, just like how the cells in your body are the basis for you. It is the substance that things are made from.
There is a very important name in this book, Mrs. Pu. The word “Pu,” is Chinese. When you write it in Chinese it looks something like this 樸. It means: “uncarved wood.” Did you know that before your chairs and tables were in the shape of chairs and tables, they were once a tree? In order to make a chair and table from a tree, you must carve away wood. This turns it into the shape it is. The word pu refers to before the wood has been carved into these different shapes. This is a very important image in Daoism, because everything is made of the same substance, Dao, it is important not to look at things as objects separate from the rest of the world. Or in terms of tables and chairs, to see the tree behind their shapes.
This uncarved block is a symbol for what is known as pure potential. The amazing thing about an uncarved block in comparison to a chair or a table, is that you can make anything from it! It is like when you have a ball of clay before it is dry. You can bend it into any shape, big or small, long or short, bumpy or smooth. But as soon as you shape it and let it sit in the sun, it is stuck. You cannot change it into another shape without it breaking. In Daosim this state of uncarved wood is very important, because it symbolizes all of the different objects at the same time. A very famous man named Laozi once said “the greatest carving cuts nothing off” (Lau, 1982). When you carve very little away from the wood, the more potential there is inside of the block. Instead of looking at one thing at a time, like a table or a chair, in an uncarved block you can see it all at the same time. In Daoism, this is very much how the world works.
Mrs. Pu was named this because in the book she is a great teacher. She tells many stories about Daoism to Melody and Austin. Naming her “Mrs. Pu” represents her ability to see the world without prejudice, preconceptions or illusions. The commentary below will discuss some major themes seen in Mrs. Pu’s teachings and how they relate to Daoism.
Royal Relativity: Shifting Perspectives
In Daoism there are no ultimate truths, everything is relative to something else. Instead of something being big or small, bad or good, an extreme is only an extreme in comparison to other things. When Melody asks Mrs. Pu why she is so tall, Mrs. Pu tells her the story of Royal Relativity and how each animal eats, lives and behaves according to what they think is right. But upon comparison, it is clear to see that it is all a matter of perspective. Have you ever stood at the top of a very high building or been in an airplane? The world looks very different from up high than it does from down below. But the amazing thing is, everything stays the same size! It is you, your perspective, that changes.
This can be seen in the famous Daoist symbol, called a “yin yang.” A yin yang is a picture drawn in black and white, two opposite colors, that together form one object. If you look closer, there is a small white dot inside the black side of the symbol and a black dot inside the white side of the symbol. This represents that opposites may appear to be extremes, but really they are part of each other. Just like how Mrs. Pu is a tall crane and Melody and Austin are small children, they are really part of the greater whole. 
Another famous example of relativity in Daoism is known as the “Butterfly Dream.” It goes like this: “One night, Zhuangzi dreamed of being a butterfly—a happy butterfly, showing off and doing as he pleased, unaware of being Zhuangzi. Suddenly he awoke, drowsily, Zhuangzi again. And he could not tell whether it was Zhuangzi who had dreamt the butterfly or the butterfly dreaming he was Zhuangzi” (224). In this story, everything is relative— whether he is a man or a butterfly, awake or asleep. In order for this to work, you have to be able to shift between two perspectives. The reason that relativity and shifting between different perspectives is important in Daoism, is because if everything is all part of the same thing, Dao, then everything is in relation to one another. They are all part of the greater whole, just like the black and white sides of the yin yang. If you want to see a picture of the “Butterfly Dream,” go to page 15 of your book. This is a famous painting of Zhuangzi dreaming.
Wheelwright Slab: Non-Conceptuality
Daoism has a very special relationship with words. Unlike what many teachers and parents will say, in Daoism words are only a tool. They are not as important as experience. In fact, words can actually keep you from really seeing the world around you! When Melody and Austin reveal that they cannot swim, but that they’ve read about it in books and heard about it from their elders, Mrs. Pu decides to tell them the story of Wheelwright Slab.
The conversation between Wheelwright Slab and Duke Huan casts Wheelwright Slab in a heroic light. He is a good worker. When he asks the Duke what he is doing and learns that the Duke is reading the words of the ancients, Wheelwright Slab is unhappy. He does not see the point in reading the words of people who have passed away. He calls these leftovers. He says that the ancients died with what they could not pass down.
This story is very important in Daoism, because it characterizes something known as “wu-wei. Wu-wei means “non-action.” When Wheelwright Slab tells the Duke of his occupation as a wheelwright, it is clear that Wheelwright Slab views it as a highly skilled art. It is something that “he cannot put into words” (235) And if he did, then the words he chose would not encompass the entire picture. It is something that is “non-conceptual.” Non-conceptual means without using words. Often times it is based in experience. When Wheelwright Slab works on his wheels he enters this realm of wu-wei, which is an effortless, non-conceptual action. This is why even if you’ve read a million books about how to swim, the only way to truly learn how to swim is to master it through experience. Words may teach you a lot about floating and different types of strokes, but it is not sufficient. This is why in Daoism in order to truly learn about the world you must experience it, not read about it in a book or do it because someone told you to. You’ve probably experienced this before, like learning how to ride a bicycle for the first time.
Once Melody and Austin realize this, Mrs. Pu teaches them how to swim by teaching them about how water works and letting them experience it. Water is a very important symbol in Daoism, because it is able to flow around objects with ease. This also is an example of wu-wei. The water does not try to flow in a certain direction, it simply follows its natural course.
Hiding Your Boat in the World: Formlessness
When Melody and Austin realize they are lost in the woods, they become very afraid. Austin points out that he does not recognize the oak tree up ahead, and they are not where they are supposed to be. Mrs. Pu, however, does not become afraid. Instead, she begins to tell the children a story about a poor man and a boat. This story is an example of the Daoist notion of formlessness. Formlessness means “without shape.”
In this story the man obsesses over his boat, the only thing he has ownership over. He can’t even sleep without thinking about his boat. One day, however, he hides his boat and while walking away, is approached by a butterfly. The butterfly is an allusion to the “Butterfly Dream” discussed earlier, and is supposed to be a symbol for Zhuangzi. The butterfly tells the man to not hide his boat in brambles, but to, instead, hide it in the world. If he does this, the boat can never be lost. The man is clinging so tightly to his boat, that he allows his life to be ruled by the fear of losing it. But what the man fails to realize, is that because everything is part of the Dao, it is all connected. He cannot shave off a slice of the world, his boat, and call it his own. It will inevitably disappear. By hiding his boat in the world, he embraces
this natural law, and his boat can never be lost, only moved from one part of the world to another. Similarly, Melody, Austin and Mrs. Pu cannot be truly ever lost, they are only in a different place than they expected.
Forgetting Yourself: Interconnectivity
The final story that Mrs. Pu tells when Melody’s sweet pea sprouts finally come up, is a reference to two things: 1. Another famous Chinese writer named Mencius and 2. The interconnectivity of the world. Mencius was a Confucian writer. He believed that everyone had “sprouts of goodness” inside them, making people naturally good people. In Mencius’ point of view, it is society’s role to cultivate these sprouts and let them flourish (Chan, 2002). Mrs Pu, being a Daoist, uses Mencius’ words and asks Melody what else the sweet peas needed in order to grow. Melody answers “the seeds.” This is a very Confucian answer. But Mrs. Pu points out that the seeds in the earth may naturally have the potential to grow, but that there were so many other things in the world that the sprouts depended on to grow. Rather than merely being a matter of cultivating seeds, like Mencius believed, in Daoism the world is connected— everything depends on something else. To view the seeds as individual entities capable of growing flowers would be a misnomer, because it overlooks the contribution of the soil, the sun, the clouds, the rain, Melody, her mother, and in one way or another, the entire world!
An example of this would be if you drew a circle on a page of white paper and labeled it “a seed.” In this example, the circle stands alone and is distinct from the rest of the page. But a Daoist drawing of the situation would be very different. Instead of being a circle alone on a page, it would be many circles with lines connecting them together. This is what the word interconnectivity means: that everything is entangled, just like the magpie, the cicada, the praying mantis and Zhuangzi. This is why in Mrs. Pu’s story they all “forget themselves,” because they realize that nothing is separate from the rest.
Conclusion
In this commentary you’ve learned several big words: relativity, non-conceptuality, formlessness, and interconnectivity. Despite how large these words may appear, don’t be intimidated! They all represent very basic themes of life. The goal of Daoism is to get in touch with the simple realities of the world around you. The more you think about the meanings of these words and the stories Mrs. Pu told, the more you’ll begin to see them in your everyday life. Have you every sat at the edge of a brook or by the ocean? Next time you do, think about the water and how it relates to formlessness. Next time you see a flower bloom, think about how many things contributed to its growth. And the next time you see something from a different point of view, think about how your perspective influences the way you interpret it. The more that you experiment with these ideas in your own life, the more you’ll be able to experience them for yourself.
Works Referenced
Chan, Alan K. L. (ed.), 2002, Mencius: Contexts and Interpretations, Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press.
Hansen, Chad (1983), ‘A Tao of Tao in Chuang Tzu,’ in Experimental Essays on
Chuang Tzu. Ed Victor Mair. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Ivanhoe, P. (2001). Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy. In J. Ivanhoe & B.
Norden (ED,).
Lau, D.C. (1982), Chinese Classics Tao Tao Ching. Hong Kong: Chinese University
Press.
VE TO ALL!
