In this chap­ter, the nar­ra­tor seeks to explain Tao­ism to Pooh by envi­sion­ing a trip to Chi­na. The chap­ter opens with a con­ver­sa­tion where Pooh express­es con­fu­sion about Tao­ism, prompt­ing the nar­ra­tor to describe the con­cept visu­al­ly. They imag­ine find­ing a scroll in a small Chi­nese shop, show­cas­ing “The Vine­gar Tasters,” a paint­ing depict­ing three promi­nent fig­ures: K’ung Fu-tse (Con­fu­cius), Bud­dha, and Lao-tse, each rep­re­sent­ing dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives on life.

The paint­ing illus­trates how each fig­ure reacts to tast­ing vine­gar, an alle­gor­i­cal rep­re­sen­ta­tion of life’s essence. K’ung Fu-tse, with his sour expres­sion, sig­ni­fies a belief that life is out of har­mo­ny, advo­cat­ing for a rev­er­ence for ances­tors and strict adher­ence to rit­u­als as a means to cre­ate order. His teach­ings empha­size struc­ture and respect for tra­di­tions, sug­gest­ing that any devi­a­tion dis­rupts soci­etal har­mo­ny.

Bud­dha, tast­ing vine­gar with a bit­ter expres­sion, rep­re­sents the view that life is rid­dled with suf­fer­ing due to attach­ments and desires. This leads to a cycle of pain, prompt­ing the pur­suit of Nir­vana, a state beyond world­ly exis­tence.

In stark con­trast, Lao-tse smiles while tast­ing the vine­gar. He sym­bol­izes an accep­tance of life as it is, advo­cat­ing for har­mo­ny with the nat­ur­al flow of exis­tence rather than resis­tance to it. His teach­ings from the *Tao Te Ching* pro­pose that life oper­ates under uni­ver­sal laws that should not be med­dled with. Lao-tse empha­sizes that true hap­pi­ness comes from embrac­ing life’s con­di­tions and learn­ing from them, hence the shift from a sour or bit­ter expe­ri­ence to one per­ceived as sweet when aligned with the Way (Tao).

The nar­ra­tor con­cludes that while the oth­er two fig­ures see life neg­a­tive­ly, Lao-tse’s under­stand­ing trans­forms poten­tial bit­ter­ness into some­thing pos­i­tive. The essence of the teach­ing of the paint­ing and Tao­ism reflects the idea that life itself, when approached cor­rect­ly, holds sweet­ness, con­trast­ing the per­cep­tions of Con­fu­cius and Bud­dha. Upon wrap­ping up, Pooh express­es a humor­ous query, demon­strat­ing a light-heart­ed­ness that aligns with Taoist phi­los­o­phy, reveal­ing that joy and humor can coex­ist even amidst life’s chal­lenges. The chap­ter clos­es with Pooh wan­der­ing to the kitchen, hint­ing at a return to ordi­nary life after the philo­soph­i­cal jour­ney.