A chef named Ding slaughtered cattle for Wen. Where his hand touched, where his shoulder leaned, where his foot stepped, and where his knee pressed, there was a loud sound, and the knife pierced the cow and snapped. There is no sound that is out of rhythm: it is in line with the rhythm of mulberry dance and Jing Shou's movements.

Wen said, "Hey, that's great! How can your technology be so clever? "

Chef Ding put down the butcher knife and replied, I like the law of things, which goes further than technology. When I started killing cows, I saw all the whole cows.

Three years have passed, and I have never seen the whole cow again; Now, I contact the cow with my spirit and don't look at it with my eyes anymore. My sensory perception has stopped, and I only use my mental activities. Follow the natural structure of cattle, make a big gap and eat along the gap between joints; According to the original tissue of cattle, where blood vessels are connected and bones are caked, no one has ever touched them with a knife, let alone thick bones! Good chefs change a knife every year because they use it to cut meat.

Usually cooks change a knife every month because they use it to cut bones. Now, my knife has been used 19 years. It killed thousands of cows, but the blade looked as if it had just been ground from a millstone. Because there are gaps in the joints of cattle, the blade is thin to no thickness. If you insert a blade without thickness into a seam with a gap, it will be very wide and spacious, and there will definitely be a lot of room for operating the knife.

So it has been used for 19 years, but it seems that the blade has just been ground from the millstone. Even so, whenever I meet a place where bones and muscles are intertwined, I find it difficult to deal with it, so I carefully guard against it, so my eyes are focused on one point and my movements slow down, making the knife very light. As a result, it opened with a bang and scattered on the ground like dirt.

I stood up with a knife, so I looked around, so I was carefree and satisfied, wiped the knife clean and collected it.

Wen said: "Good! I listened to master's words and got the truth of maintaining my health. "

Extended data:

This article is Zhuangzi's fable of "keeping in good health". The article begins with a vivid description of "Sister Niu". With a strong pen and ink, the author shows his leisurely expression and harmonious movements when trying to solve the problem of cattle. All hands, shoulders, feet and knees are used together, touching, leaning, stepping and touching cooperate with each other, and everything seems so harmonious and natural. "the sound is vivid, and the knife is vivid."

The sound of separation of cattle's flesh and blood, the sound of cutting cattle's bones, sometimes light and sometimes heavy, alternating with ups and downs, the sound can be heard. Then he sighed with Wen: "Good! Technical cover ends here! " It is further pointed out that we know how to understand the "god" of cattle, paving the way for the later theory from Syria to cattle.

This fable is intended to clarify "keeping in good health", in fact, it also expounds a profound aesthetic proposition, that is, artistic creation is a free creation. Zhuangzi believes that there is "skill" in "skill". Zhihu knows the movements of cattle, which is quite artistic and ornamental.

His performance is like a beautiful music and dance, with the dance steps matched with the dance music of Sanglin and the rhythm matched with the brilliant movement of Xianchi. As a creative activity with beautiful significance, it fascinates viewers. The expression of "standing with a knife, looking around, full of ambition" makes people see the joy of the creator's inner satisfaction after the work is completed.

Zhuangzi reveals that beauty is a kind of free creation through clever expression. The creation of this kind of beauty must achieve the unity of conformity with the law ("because it is natural") and conformity with the purpose ("to the point") in order to reach the realm of freedom ("to be comfortable").

"Meeting God without looking at him, and wanting to do things with Zhi Zhi as an official" is an essential state of mind in creation, which emphasizes eliminating all sensory interference and concentrating, which is consistent with what Qing Zi said when he cut his body in Zhuangzi Sheng Da, "fasting with Zen" and "forgetting myself has four shapes". This state of "contemplation" and "forgetting" is the same as that of "contemplation" and "contemplation" emphasized by modern western aesthetics, but it is 2 100 years earlier than Schopenhauer and Nietzsche.