The Three Principle Texts of Daoism translated by ... - Bad Request

2.Prince Hui's cook was cutting up a bullock. Every blowof his hand, every heave of his shoulders, every tread ofhis foot, every thrust of his knee, every whshh of rentflesh, every chhk of the chopper, was in perfectharmony,--rhythmical like the dance of the MulberryGrove, simultaneous like the chords of the Ching Shou.“Well done!" cried the Prince; “yours is skill indeed."“Sire," replied the cook, “I have always devoted myselfto Tao. It is better than skill. When I first began to cutup bullocks, I saw before me simply whole bullocks.After three years' practice, I saw no more whole animals.And now I work with my mind and not with my eye.When my senses bid me stop, but my mind urges me on,I fall back upon eternal principles. I follow suchopenings or cavities as there may be, according to thenatural constitution of the animal. I do not attempt tocut through joints: still less through large bones.”“A good cook changes his chopper once a year,--becausehe cuts. An ordinary cook, once a month,--because hehacks. But I have had this chopper nineteen years, andalthough I have cut up many thousand bullocks, its edgeis as if fresh from the whetstone. For at the joints thereare always interstices, and the edge of a chopper beingwithout thickness, it remains only to insert that which is