About
抱樸
Bao Pu is Scott Barnwell, a Canadian autodidact interested in ancient China, especially early Daoist philosophy.
My first memorable experience with anything Asian was the made-for-television movie Shogun, which obviously took place in Japan. Since then, (age 12?) elements of Japanese culture have been “burned in my soul,” even though I did not delve into other Asian cultures for many years.
In 1990 a friend gave me a translation of the Daodejing of Laozi. I found it amazing. There I found insightful words pointing to both things I had already experienced or observed, and to things which I had never considered before and made a lot of sense to me. I had found a kindred spirit in ancient China of all places. This was my first introduction to philosophy, to China, and perhaps even history. I quickly began buying not only every book I could find about the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi, but anything related. My choice has always been scholarly books, not the New-Agey fashionable perspective of Daoism. I try not to dismiss anything without reading it first however.
This ‘anything related’ that I began reading refers to all of the Warring States era philosophers, and Qin and Western Han, (i.e., 500 BCE to CE). I found out that the more one understood the history and cultures of ancient China the better one could gain the perspective of those ancients and understand what they had to say. So, my study has taken me on many tangents into pre-Han history. The religious cultures of ancient China have also seemed relevant to me to fully appreciate the early “Daoists” and other philosophers. Sometimes my tangents have gone to areas of ancient China which have little to do with early Daoism, like the oracle bone inscriptions (and the culture surrounding them), Western Zhou-era history, the ancient script, the pronunciation of the ancient language and geography. But I must say, for reasons I cannot explain, I have loved every minute of my learning about ancient China. Along with music, my cats and enjoying the outdoors, learning about ancient China has been a love of my life. Many people who know me can attest to this, although they do find it odd that I am so interested in things Chinese, as opposed to something closer to home.
Other areas of interest are psychology, neurology, biology, anthropology, ethology, ecology, philosophy, religion, history, music, wilderness, physical fitness, photography and NHL hockey. I believe everything I learn helps me to have a more satisfying life, to get the most of this human experience, which includes understanding how and why the other inhabitants (human and non-human) of this planet do what they do.
As for “Bao Pu” 抱樸 (抱朴), this is an idiom found in chapter 19 of the Laozi:
Eradicate knowledge, discard distinctions
And the people will benefit a hundredfold.
Eradicate artistic skills, discard profit
And there will be no thieves and robbers.
Eradicate benevolence and deliberation
And the people will return to filial piety and compassion.
But it is not enough to regard these three sayings as your task;
We should also supplement them with the following:
Display the unadorned and embrace the uncarved block,
Have little self-interest and reduce your desires.(trans. Steven Hodge)
Pu, the ‘uncarved block’ above, is a symbol of the naturalness and original simplicity of every living thing. And since to ‘Bao Pu’ (”maintain Pu“) is an aspiration of mine, it seemed a nice nickname to adopt.
A more personal website, with some of my better photography, can be found at:
http://baopu.multiply.com/