Roll over, Lao Tzu!

The Tao of shameless book marketing

By Doug Collins
The Free Press

Illustration by Jim Gibbs

In college, I became fascinated with the Tao Te Ching, a book of poetry by the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, who was the legendary founder of Taoism, the religion of yin and yang. Lao Tzu's verses teach simplicity, and inspired me to live in low-rent abodes, travel on cheap second-hand bikes, seek genuineness, and even eat lentil soup.

But look what else has happened, Lao Tzu! Your philosophy has been hijacked by hundreds of American writers, all naming their books after yours. A brief check of Books in Print yielded more than a hundred The Tao of . . . titles.

"Tao" (pronounced "dow" as in "dowry") in Chinese means "the Way," and in a rough translation of the book's opening poem, Lao Tzu states, "The Tao that can be spoken of is not the real Tao." Perhaps he should have added another line: "The Tao that can be hucksterized by book publishers is not the real Tao."

First of all, Lao Tzu in his poems preferred to seek truth from such things as rivers, valleys, clay, and "the myriad creatures". He didn't really talk much about sexual matters. But a lot of current authors might have us believe he was the Dr. Ruth of the Chou Dynasty. A host of modern books are available about the Tao of love and sex, especially sex. Here's a few titles:

Well, sex certainly sells better than philosophy.

Apparently so does business advice. The real Lao Tzu wrote, "Exterminate ingenuity, discard profit, and there will be no more thieves and bandits." But there's quite a few titles about the Tao of profitable enlightenment:

Some readers interpret the Tao Te Ching as an anarchist text. You can find passages like, "The people are difficult to govern. It is because those in authority are too fond of action." But in this new age, there are a number of pop management books for Tao-conscious bosses: Were we mistaken, or has every religious leader in history in fact been a Taoist? Lo, the Tao of non-Taoist religion: My guess is that Lao Tzu would not have worried much about making par on the 8th green, but nowadays you can read about . . . If you need other kinds of self-help, then maybe these titles are for you: And if you still need more reading material, you can even read about the Tao of the Tao itself! Just peruse a copy of The Tao of the Tao Te Ching.

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Contents on this page were published in the February/March, 1996 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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