Tao: The Watercourse Way
{{Short description|1975 book by Alan Watts}}
{{Infobox book
| italic title =
| name = Tao: The Watercourse Way
| image = File:Tao The Watercourse Way cover Alan Watts.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = First edition
| alt =
| author = Alan Watts, Al Chung-liang Huang (collaborator)
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| country = United States
| language = English
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| subject = Taoism, philosophy
| genre = Non-fiction
| published = 1975, Pantheon
| media_type = Print
| pages = 134 pages
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| isbn = 0394733118
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Tao: The Watercourse Way is a 1975 non-fiction book on Taoism and philosophy, and is Alan Watts' last book.{{cite book|last1=Grasmück|first1=Oliver|title=Geschichte und Aktualität der Daoismusrezeption im deutschsprachigen Raum|date=2004|publisher=LIT Verlag Münster|isbn=978-3-8258-7017-1|pages=31, 124|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0mKEd-RGE2EC&q=%22Tao%3A+The+Watercourse+Way%22+Alan+Watts&pg=PA31|accessdate=2 August 2014}}{{cite book|last1=Hansen|first1=Chadwick|last2=Toropov|first2=Brandon|title=The Complete Idiot's Guide to Taoism|date=2002|publisher=Alpha|isbn=9780028642628|page=[https://archive.org/details/completeidiotsgu00toro_1/page/131 131]|url=https://archive.org/details/completeidiotsgu00toro_1|url-access=registration|quote=Tao Watercourse Way Alan Watts.|accessdate=2 August 2014}} It was published posthumously in 1975 with the collaboration of Al Chung-liang Huang, who also contributed a preface and afterword, and with additional calligraphy by Lee Chih-chang.{{cite book|last1=Columbus|first1=Peter J.|last2=Rice|first2=Donadrian L.|title=Alan Watts–Here and Now: Contributions to Psychology, Philosophy, and Religion|date=2012|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=9781438442013|pages=4, 16, 116|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-ROKoa7ZjXIC&q=%22Tao%3A+The+Watercourse+Way%22+&pg=PA231|accessdate=2 August 2014}}{{cite book|editor-last1=Crawford|editor-first1=Holly|title=Artistic Bedfellows: Histories, Theories and Conversations in Collaborative Art Practices|date=2008|publisher=University Press of America|isbn=9780761841913|page=263|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5kbIr4DRFbwC&q=%22Tao%3A+The+Watercourse+Way%22+Alan+Watts&pg=PA263|accessdate=2 August 2014}}
Synopsis
This short book (five chapters, with a Preface, Bibliography, etc.) provides a distillation of Watt's view of Taoism accompanied by historical information.{{cite book|last1=Gill|first1=Robin D.|title=A Dolphin in the Woods Composite Translation, Paraversing & Distilling Prose|date=2009|publisher=Paraverse Press|isbn=978-0984092314|pages=21, 22|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G3Pm0SAtEMwC&q=%22Tao%3A+The+Watercourse+Way%22+Alan+Watts&pg=PA21|accessdate=2 August 2014|author1-link=Robin D. Gill}} Linguistic issues are highlighted and calligraphic samples of many of the cited Chinese texts are included. As described in Huang's Preface, Watts had planned two further chapters showing how Taoism could be "medicine for the ills of the West", but these were unwritten at the time of Watts' death in 1973.
Reception
Kirkus Reviews praised the work, and stated that it was a "Good introduction to the Tao."{{cite web|title=TAO: The Watercourse Way|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/alan-al-chung-liang-huang-watts/tao-the-watercourse-way/|publisher=Kirkus Reviews|accessdate=2 August 2014}} Joseph Needham also wrote favorably of Tao: The Watercourse Way and called it an "admirable introduction to Taoist philosophy and its symbolism".{{cite journal|last1=Needham|first1=Joseph|title=The Tao—Illuminations and Corrections of the Way|journal=Theology|date=July 1978|volume=81|issue=682|pages=244–252|doi=10.1177/0040571X7808100402|s2cid=170287205}}