From: Zhuangzi and his later scholars in the mid-Warring States period wrote the classic Taoist book "Master of Health Preservation in Zhuangzi", the original text is as follows:
Today, I killed thousands of cows with my sword for nineteen years, but if the blade is new. There is a gap between people for a while, but the blade is not thick; Without thickness, there will be room for recovery, so 19 years, the blade is still new.
Translation:
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. Inserting a blade without thickness into a seam with a gap is wide and spacious, which is bound to have a lot of room for operating the knife. Therefore, 19 years have passed, and the blade seems to have just been ground from the millstone.
Extended data:
"A skillful craftsman knows an ox" is an allegorical story created by Zhuangzi, a representative of Taoism in the pre-Qin period. The author's original intention is to use it to explain the way of keeping in good health, thus revealing the truth that people should conform to the laws of nature.
This is an article about keeping in good health. "Health Master" is the key to health. Zhuangzi believes that the way to keep fit is to conform to nature, forget your feelings and not be trapped by foreign things. Zhuangzi advocated "knowledge/ignorance", that is, knowledge should be clearly distinguished instead of simply saying "the more the better" or "the less the better".
By the way, the more you know, the better; By the way, the less you know, the better Therefore, seeking knowledge is not only a process of increasing knowledge, but also a process of identifying whether the acquired knowledge conforms to Tao and eliminating the knowledge that does not conform to Tao. The "Tao" here can be understood as truth.
References:
Baidu Encyclopedia-Zhuangzi, Inner Chapter and Health Master