Lord Wenhui Observes His Cook Ding
Cook Ding was carving an ox for Lord Wenhui. Wherever his hand touched, wherever his shoulder leaned, wherever his foot stepped, wherever his knee pressed — with a zip! and a zhoop!, he wielded his knife with a whoosh, and every stroke was in rhythm. It was as though he moved in the dance of the Mulberry Grove, or kept time with the Jingshou music.
“Ah, marvellous!” said Lord Wenhui. “That skill should reach such heights!”
Cook Ding laid down his knife and replied, “What your servant loves is the Way, which goes beyond mere skill.
When I first began cutting up oxen, I saw nothing but the whole ox. After three years, I no longer saw the ox as a whole. And now — now I meet it with my spirit and don’t look with my eyes. My senses stop and my spirit moves as it wills. I follow the natural grain, slipping the blade through the great openings, guiding it through the great cavities, going along with what is already there. So I never touch the smallest ligament or tendon, much less the great bone.
“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 have had this knife of mine for nineteen years and have cut up thousands of oxen with it, and yet the blade is as good as if it had just come from the grindstone. There are spaces between the joints, and the blade of the knife has no thickness. If you insert what has no thickness into such spaces, then there is plenty of room — more than enough for the blade to play about in. That is why after nineteen years the blade is still as sharp as when it first came from the grindstone.
“However, whenever I come to a complicated place, I size up the difficulty, tell myself to watch out and be careful, keep my eyes on what I am 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 Wenhui. “I have heard the words of Cook Ding and learned how to care for life.”