The last of the Four Perils
Taowu is one of the Four Perils, the four wicked sons of ancient rulers whom Shun banished to the four borders of the world. The other three are Hundun, son of the Dihong clan; Qiongqi, son of Shaohao; and Taotie, son of the Jinyun clan. Each is remembered as a monster because the people gave them monster-names for their crimes.
The Zuozhuan describes all four in a single speech. For Taowu, it says:
顓頊有不才子，不可教訓，不知話言，告之則頑，舍之則嚚，傲很明德，以亂天常，天下之民，謂之檮杌
“Zhuanxu had a worthless son who could not be taught, who did not understand speech; told anything, he was obstinate; left alone, he was stupid; arrogant and cruel to the virtuous, he threw Heaven’s order into chaos. The people of the world called him Taowu.” — Zuozhuan, Duke Wen Year 18
The name the people give him is the name of what he is. Taowu means something like “block-stump” — a creature so resistant to instruction that warning bounces off him. He cannot be taught, 不可教訓; he does not understand when spoken to, 不知話言. Tell him and he is stubborn, leave him and he is ignorant. The final clause gives the scale of his disorder: he throws Heaven’s order into chaos, 以亂天常.
Cast to the four borders
The speech continues with what Shun does to all four of them:
舜臣堯，賓于四門，流四凶族，渾敦，窮奇，檮杌，饕餮，投諸四裔，以禦螭魅
“When Shun served as minister to Yao, he received the guests at the four gates and banished the four evil clans — Hundun, Qiongqi, Taowu, Taotie — casting them to the four borders to ward off the demons.”
The four sons become four evils, and Shun sends them to the edges of the world. The banishment is also a defense: the monsters are posted at the borders to repel the demons that lurk there. What could not be taught is put to use. The unteachable son of Zhuanxu ends up on the frontier, set against things worse than himself.
Taowu is the last of the four to receive an entry in this atlas. Taotie and Qiongqi already have pages; Hundun remains under another name, a primal chaos figure rather than a wickedness. Of the four, Taowu is the one whose crime is purely a matter of character: he cannot learn, cannot be spoken to, cannot change. The others are greedy or deceitful; Taowu is simply blocked.