Taoism: The Parting of the Way

by Holmes H. Welch

Called "a first-rate piece of work" by T. S. Eliot, this book offers a comprehensive discussion of Taoism, one of the world's major religions, as well as a study of the Tao te ching , the best known Taoist text, and Lao-tzu as a Taoist prototype.

Genres: Philosophy, Religion, Nonfiction, Taoism, China, History, Spirituality

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1957

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only 3 stars cuz i expected more exegesis of the Tao Te Ching. I know that i wanted more of it. I NEED more. Alas, at least half of this book is history, not philosophy, not metaphysics, not religion. So if you really want a Sinologist's history of Taoism, you're sure to enjoy this more than i did.

I picked it up because i knew i'd need help with the Tao and the edition i read was Ursula Le Guin's amalgamation in which she says, "If you want to know more about Taoism, or would like some help and guidance in reading the Tao Te Ching, the best, soundest, clearest introduction and guide is still Holmes Welch's...."

Some ideas and quotes:
"The two preceding sections, by keeping the field of vision rigidly confined to the ethical level of the Tao Te Ching, presented it falsely." [i agree with Welch that the Tao is more about philosophy than about politics or moral hygiene]

"We must not make fun of mystics for inconsistency. If they said no more about their vision than what they could put in precise, apposite terminology, we would learn nothing at all. We must be content with their symbols and similes." [the Tao contains almost no direct language and i think that's its strength]

From page 165 through to about 170, Welch attempts to provide Lao Tzu's answer to how to mend America's troubles or at least to tell us how America's troubles originated. Welch's Lao Tzu impersonation rings true for me and it's a pretty damned funny but depressing portrait of the American personality.

In conclusion, i find it hard not to admire Welch for how he thinks through the question of authorship of the Tao Te Ching, which is unfairly hidden away in Appendix I at the back of the book.

I leave you with a Taoist joke of sorts (or maybe it's a Zen koan). Liu Ling was—according to Welch—the most celebrated drinker among the Seven Sages as well as

the person who liked to go about his house naked. Once he was interrupted by some stuffy Confucian visitors. They expressed surprise at the absence of trousers. Liu replied, "The whole universe is my house and this room is my trousers. What are you doing here inside my trousers!"

[Conrad Zero · Rating 5 out of 5]

My love of Taoist philosophy lead me to add a BA in Eastern Philosophy onto my Computer Science degree (One I like, and one to pay the bills. I'll let you decide which is which.) While writing my senior research project, I discovered Welch's Taoism: The Parting of the Way. I just reread this book after a lifetime of reading writings, translations and interpretations of Eastern Philosophies. Welsh does an admirable job putting this extremely slippery, volatile and nebulous subject into context.

It's not a necessary text for those who want to experience Taoism. In fact, all the history and interplay with the other rulers, religions and rebellions might be distracting. Like reading about the life and upbringing of Jean-Claude Killy won't make you a better skier.

That said, it's a good resource for those who want to talk intelligently about Taoism to someone else. If you want to understand how Taoist philosophy relates to elements like alchemy, Buddhism, Confucianism, immortality, Yellow Turbans, magic mushrooms, Celestial Emperors, and even the Taoist Church, then this book is essential reading. Ditto if you are already versed in the Tao Te Ching and Chuang Tzu and just want to explore the history and influences behind the philosophy.

Lao Tzu would likely not approve, but I do. I've never dog-eared so many pages in a book, underlined as many words or starred as many paragraphs as I have in this book.

[Jordan Youd · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book because Ursula K Le Guin suggests it as a good primer on philosophical and historical Taoism. I read it as a way to gain a deeper understanding of the Tao Ti Ching, and it provides just that. I won’t say that it was an enjoyable read, for the reason that it was quite dry and so technical that unless Taoism is a pre-existing interest of yours there is no reason to read this book. By pointing this out, I realize that I am suggesting that most readers shouldn’t read The Parting of the Way, but if Taoism is in your wheel house, then this book ought to be treated as essential reading.

[J.D. Steens · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the first chapter, Welch discusses the problem of interpreting Lao Tsu and Tao Te Ching: whether the writing was a compilation of numerous writers over an extended period of time that reflected differing perspectives, or whether Lao Tzu even existed at all. This is the most interesting part of the book (the author also writes about the four primary schools of Taoism that subsequently emerged, three of which focused on how to achieve life after death, and how Taoism eventually merged with elements of Buddhism and Confucianism).

This uncertain history does not stop Welch from treating Tao Te Ching as a comprehensive and systematic philosophy of life. Humans are good. It is society that corrupts. Aggression begets aggression. Inaction is good for it lets our good natures emerge and flower. By inaction, Welch means, for example, not to push morality on others and not to stand out in rank and value. We need "an anonymity program," he writes, and we need to minimize our desires ("You need not," he simply states). While the Tao can give us lessons for modern life, Welch says it is a challenge for most of us who are "unable to reconcile ourselves to a quieter role on the earth."

The style of Tao Te Ching "is one of extraordinary compression," the author says and reading it is "an act of creation." One gets the sense that this is what he has done in putting forth some of his "inaction" perspective as it might apply to modern-day life. The key point in this regard is that he downplays the role of strength, thinking it leads only to aggression and counter aggression, and simplistically dismisses strength and its contribution to survival by saying it didn't work for the dinosaurs. Ergo, peace through strength doesn't really work. That's not real and it may not be an accurate reading of the Tao which also teaches balance. Balance means both not to impose and to resist being imposed upon. This point the author does not stress.

[Jeffrey Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book; I don’t think I could have read it—I certainly couldn’t have read it as profitably—before I became a thoroughgoing atheist-by-way-of-skepticism. Really worthwhile because Welch: 1) makes it clear how extremely ambiguous the original is (its ambiguity being partly because of the Tao Te Ching’s origins and textual changes being lost in the unrecorded past; the other part because of its poetic or gnomic style), which means that interpretations can vary widely, being mostly ethical or speculatively philosophical; and 2) describes the origins and streams of the Taoist church in alchemical and other means of striving for physical immortality, in a polytheism that is either interior or exterior, in a great misinterpretation of the Tao Te Ching, and in a melding of principles that may be found in the TTC, in Buddhism, and in Confucianism, showing how the Taoist church has little or nothing to do with the TTC. If I’ve gotten that much right, I’m quite certain that I’ve left out much that I should have included. I think the most important bit of my little writeup here, is that the objectivity and critical distance afforded by my shift to atheism made it possible for me to read Welch’s book without a TTC interpretation of my own interfering.

[Dave Franklin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Holmes Welch’s “Taoism” is a concise study in three parts: Part One: The Problem of Lao Tzu, dedicated to discussing the problem of problem of the historicity of Lao Tsu and the philological challenges posed by the” Tao Te Ching.” Part Two: Tao Te Ching, addresses the basic concepts presented in the text, Inaction, the Uncarved Block, Tao, and Seeking the Ancestry. Part Three: The Taoist Movement explores the historical presence and influence of Taoism across the past 2500 years.

The history of Lao Tzu and Taoism is much debated. Welch notes various theories and exhibits varying translations of the” Tao Te Ching.” Despite ambiguities and some controversy, Welch presents the text as a comprehensive and coherent philosophy of life. Humans are noble savages often corrupted by social arrangements. Aggression fosters more aggression, and competition is enervating the soul. Inaction is recommended as the preferred course in most circumstances, even though we in the West find such an approach to be counterintuitive. Welch does offer caveats regarding a Taoist foreign policy for statesmen, however. Welch does relate the Tao to the approach advocated by some Christians and avers that it can give us lessons for modern life.

The “Tao Te Ching” can be interpreted to support almost any path taken. While Welch highlights the quietest aspects of the Tao, the contraries do not necessarily support an unequivocal interpretation. That said, the author has written a balanced and readable account of a way of life, if not a major religion.

[scherzo♫ · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The main reason, however, for the obscurity of the Tao Te Ching is not its succinct and paradoxical style, but the inherent difficulty of Archaic Chinese itself. ....
Archaic Chinese--and this is true of the modern literary language for that matter--has no active or passive, no singular or plural, no case, no person, no tense, no mood. Almost any word can be used as almost any part of speech ..... And there are no inviolable rules: indeed, as soon as one makes a statement about the language, he is confronted with an exception--and this applies to the statements just made. Sometimes the segment of a Chinese ideogram called its 'radical' is omitted in writing it, a little as though we were to put down 'ization' for 'civilization.' Since the practice was more common at the time the Tao Te Ching was written, and since we do not have the original manuscript, sometimes we cannot be sure whether a copyist has not supplied the wrong radical; that is, he may have written in barbarization where Lao Tzu intended civilization."

[Sue Dounim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended for anyone interested in the history and beliefs of Taoism. With this caveat written in 2022: remember that this was last revised in 1965 and there have been really significant discoveries by Chinese archaeologists since then that have caused some major revisions of timelines and events in Chinese history.

The back cover blurb sums it up pretty well: "a comprehensive discussion of Taoism, one of the world's major religions, as well as a study of the Tao te ching, the best known Taoist text, and Lao-tzu as a Taoist prototype."

(I have to make this carp: the blurb starts out with : "Called 'a first-rate piece of work' by T. S. Eliot. . . " I'm trying to imagine a reader potentially interested in a book about of Taoism reading that and saying "Well that clinches it for me! This book must be good.". It's like a book of poetry with an endorsement by Henry Kissinger.)

[Guy Pauley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book in my nightstand clutter a few weeks ago. It had a bookmark about a third of the way through. I remembered buying it and that's just about it. It must not have made much of an impression at the time but I decided to restart it and I'm damn glad I did. It's essentially an analysis of the Tao Te Ching (not a translation though) and a history lesson of Chinese Taoism. It's a good companion to Waley's translation though, Welch references Waley quite often and both books were written in the same general time period. The Parting Of The Way does lag a bit when breezing through centuries of Chinese Taoism. It's also fairly brilliant at times and I liked that it touched on the ebb and flow of Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism popularity and the effect each had on the other as they jostled for influence.

[Yo'el Erez · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want a history of Taoism without haughty judgement and mischaracterization, this is the book. Phenomenal.

[COA · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved part 1 2 and 4 part 3 was not what I was looking for so skipped through to the philosophical sections great read though

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a follower of the Tao, I was thrilled to see this book on the library shelf of my yoga studio. Having read various translations of the Tao te Ching, I appreciated Welch's interpretation of its main ideas: that wu-wei is inaction, that inaction is nonaggression, and so forth. That being said, this would also be an ideal book for someone who is first learning about the Tao.

In addition to exploring Taoist philosophy, the book includes the legend of the author Lao-Tzu (old man) and posits who he might actually have been. There is a lengthy history of the Taoist religion which I didn't read because Welch states from the very beginning that it had nothing to do with the philosophies in the actual Tao te Ching.

At the end Welch posits what Lao-Tzu might have said to the modern world (The book was written in the 50's.). This portion was interesting though some of it is dated (as can be expected).

[Billy Kid]

This is the book on Daoism that Ursula K. Le Guin recommends in her rendition of the Tao Te Ching for anyone who reads the Tao Te Ching and wants to learn more about Daoism.

I'm about a 1/3 of my way through the text. The first Appendix got a good chuckle out of me. The text is pretty much exactly what you might expect and with Ursula K. Le Guin's seal of approval, I'm expecting the rest of it to be just as good.

[Virginia Simson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just a great great book to read and think about. I love his tone; he has an almost Taoist attitude towards his own academism!

Really, I wish I'd read this book years ago. It helps so much at putting all the different threads of thought into a workable timeline.

His admiration of Waley is a Good Thing, too.

[Adrienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the beginning chapters, particularly the discussions of the Tao, Wu-Wei, and Mu. I have returned to this book repeatedly to reread and think about the nature of Tao, the Absolute Tao, and Wu-Wei.

[Mista · Rating 4 out of 5]

tasty