Pu in /'s / means
simplicity (Pre-linguistic Purity) .
The “primitivist”
ideal as expressed mainly in the Laotse/Laozi. It metaphorically
represents the result of forgetting mingnames and desires.
Translations include simplicity, “raw” wood, and D. C. Lau's more
elaborage “uncarved block.” The detailed translation more
sensitively expresses Laotse/Laozi's point in using the metaphor in
the context of a view of names as “cutting” things into types and
Laozi's distinctive theory that such socially constructed
distinctions (institutions) control us by controlling our desires.
When societies adopt names or terms, it does so in order to instill
and regulate desires for one of the pair created by the
name-induced distinction. Thus Taoist forgetting requires
forgetting names and distinctions, but in doing so, frees itself
from the socially induced, unnatural desires that cause strife and
unhappiness in society (e.g. status, rare objects, fame,
authority). Hence: “The Nameless uncarved block thus amounts to
freedom from desire.” (TaoTeChing/DaoDeJing 37)
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