Cook Ding was carving an ox for Lord Wenhui. His hand touched, his shoulder leaned, his foot stepped, his knee pressed — and with every swish and whistle the cleaver moved in perfect rhythm.
庖丁為文恵君解牛、手之所触、肩之所倚、足之所履、膝之所踦、砉然嚮然、奏刀騞然、莫不中音。
Philosophers
Zhuang Zhou
Born in the state of Song during China's Warring States period (4th century BCE), Zhuangzi was the great synthesizer of Daoist thought. Through vivid parables — the butterfly dream, Cook Ding carving an ox — he taught the relativity of all things and the ideal of wuwei (effortless action). Alongside Laozi, he left behind the Zhuangzi in thirty-three chapters, one of the two foundational classics of Daoism. His life of rejecting power and insisting on the freedom of the spirit continues to influence philosophy, East and West, twenty-three centuries later.
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Zhuang Zhou's Other Quotes
Once Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly, fluttering happily about, unaware he was Zhou. Suddenly he awoke, and there he was, unmistakably Zhou. He did not know whether Zhou had dreamed he was a butterfly, or a butterfly was dreaming it was Zhou.
My life has a limit, but knowledge has none. To pursue the limitless with the limited is perilous.
Heaven and earth were born together with me, and the ten thousand things are one with me.
In the northern darkness there is a fish called Kun. The Kun is so vast one cannot tell how many thousands of li it spans. It transforms into a bird called Peng. The back of the Peng is so vast one cannot tell how many thousands of li it spans.
You are not a fish — how do you know the fish's pleasure?
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My life has a limit, but knowledge has none. To pursue the limitless with the limited is perilous.
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