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Master Hui (Huishi) called to Zhuangzi, saying: “The King of Wei handed down to me the seed of a large calabash, and the fruit of my tree is a full five stone (500L). Full of liquid, its weight could not support itself. Splitting it to make a dipper, it then seemed so open that it couldn’t contain anything. It was so extremely empty and large that I deemed it useless and smashed it.” Zhuangzi said: “Master is so solid and clumsy at using the large. The Song people were good at making medicine to stop turtle hands, from generation after generation of washing silk wadding. Travelers heard of it, and asked to buy some for 100 gold. The clan gathered to strategize and said: “Generation after generation we’ve been washing silk wadding, but not counting much gold. Now we can sell our technique for 100 gold, we should do it.” So the travelers got it, and told the King of Wu. There was difficulty in Yue, so the King of Wu sent a general. In winter, he gave the Yue people a water battle, and greatly defeating the Yue people, broke ground and appointed his general. For those able to stop turtle hands, some get appointed, some aren’t allowed, this is the difference in its use. Now master has a gourd of five stone, why not consider it being a large jug and float on a river or lake? And saddened that it is wide open and can’t contain anything? Then master really has the heart of fleabane.

Cook Ting was cutting up an ox for Lord Wen-hui. As every touch of his hand, every heave of his shoulder, every move of his feet, every thrust of his knee — zip! zoop! He slithered the knife along with a zing, and all was in perfect rhythm, as though he were performing the dance of the Mulberry Grove or keeping time to the Ching-shou music.

“Ah, this is marvelous!” said Lord Wen-hui. “Imagine skill reaching such heights!”

Cook Ting laid down his knife and replied, “What I care about is the Way, which goes beyond skill. When I first began cutting up oxen, all I could see was the ox itself. After three years I no longer saw the whole ox. And now — now I go at it by spirit and don’t look with my eyes. Perception and understanding have come to a stop and spirit moves where it wants. I go along with the natural makeup, strike in the big hollows, guide the knife through the big openings, and following things as they are. So I never touch the smallest ligament or tendon, much less a main joint.

“A good cook changes his knife once a year — because he cuts. A mediocre cook changes his knife once a month — because he hacks. I’ve had this knife of mine for nineteen years and I’ve cut up thousands of oxen with it, and yet the blade is as good as though it had just come from the grindstone. There are spaces between the joints, and the blade of the knife has really no thickness. If you insert what has no thickness into such spaces, then there’s plenty of room — more than enough for the blade to play about it. That’s why after nineteen years the blade of my knife is still as good as when it first came from the grindstone.

“However, whenever I come to a complicated place, I size up the difficulties, tell myself to watch out and be careful, keep my eyes on what I’m doing, work very slowly, and move the knife with the greatest subtlety, until — flop! the whole thing comes apart like a clod of earth crumbling to the ground. I stand there holding the knife and look all around me, completely satisfied and reluctant to move on, and then I wipe off the knife and put it away.”

“Excellent!” said Lord Wen-hui. “I have heard the words of Cook Ting and learned how to care for life!”