Cook Ding

Prince Huei employed a man named Ding, a butcher of such art he could carve a steer and the steer didn't even notice that it was dead. The Prince sent for the man and asked him to explain this.

Cook Ding said,

: "When I first began to carve bullocks, I saw before me whole bullocks. But after three years practice, I saw whole animals no longer. I began to work with my mind and not my eye. My mind moves without the attention of my senses, gliding through the joints and cavities in the natural construction of the animal."
: "I don't touch the great muscles and tendons, still less attempt to cut bones. A good cook changes his chopper once a year because he cuts muscle and tendon. An ordinary cook, once a month, because he hacks bone. But though I've had this chopper nineteen years, and cut up thousands of animals, its edge is fresh as if from the whetstone."
: "You see, at the joints there are always interfaces, and the edge of a chopper being without thickness, it remains only to insert it into such an interface. Indeed there is plenty of room for the blade to move about."
: "Nevertheless, when I come upon a knotty part which is unfamiliar, I am all caution. I fix my eye and stay my hand, and gently apply my blade until the part yields like earth crumbling to the ground. Then I remove my chopper, stand up, and look around. Then, wiping it, I put it carefully away."

Or more poetically:

: A cook was butchering an ox for Duke Wen Hui.
: The places his hand touched,
: His shoulder leaned against,
: His foot stepped on,
: His knee pressed upon,
: Came apart with a sound.
: He moved the blade, making a noise
: That never fell out of rhythm.
: It harmonized with the Mulberry Woods Dance,
: Like music from ancient times.
: Duke Wen Hui exclaimed: "Ah! Excellent!
: Your skill has advanced to this level?"
: "What I follow is Tao,
: The cook puts down the knife and answered:
: Which is beyond all skills.
: "When I started butchering,
: What I saw was nothing but the whole ox.
: After three years,
: I no longer saw the whole ox.
: "Nowadays, I meet it with my mind
: Rather than see it with my eyes.
: My sensory organs are inactive
: While I direct the mind's movement.
: "It goes according to natural laws,
: Striking apart large gaps,
: Moving toward large openings,
: Following its natural structure.
: "Even places where tendons attach to bones
: Give no resistance,
: Never mind the larger bones!
: "A good cook goes through a knife in a year,
: Because he cuts.
: An average cook goes through a knife in a month,
: Because he hacks.
: "I have used this knife for nineteen years.
: It has butchered thousands of oxen,
: But the blade is still like it's newly sharpened.
: "The joints have openings,
: And the knife's blade has no thickness.
: Apply this lack of thickness into the openings,
: And the moving blade swishes through,
: With room to spare!
: "That's why after nineteen years,
: The blade is still like it's newly sharpened.
: "Nevertheless, every time I come across joints,
: I see its tricky parts,
: I pay attention and use caution,
: My vision concentrates,
: My movement slows down.
: "I move the knife very slightly,
: Whump! It has already separated.
: The ox doesn't even know it's dead,
: and falls to the ground like mud.
: "I stand holding the knife,
: And look all around it.
: The work gives me much satisfaction.
: I clean the knife and put it away."
: Duke Wen Hui said: "Excellent!
: I listen to your words,
: And learn a principle of life."

-- ChuangTse, Chapter 2, 1, 3.

The butcher soon became the duke's chief assassin. The trick to assassination, of course, is not in the killing but in finding an opportunity to kill. With his skill advanced beyond all levels, though, the butcher could carve an opponent into a hundred pieces, while he suspected nothing but pleasant conversation was happening and never noticed he was killed.

Hey, great! But where can I get a decent steak around here?

Substitute the butcher with "programmer", ox with "computer" or "problem to solve", cutting with "programming in the danger of errors and bugs," and read again.

So, a master programmer programming in the danger of errors and bugs to his computer - the computer falls apart without a sound, the computer doesn't even know it's crashed and falls to the ground like mud??? Think I'll try ExtremeProgramming instead :)

Where can I get one of them knives with no thickness?

You already have one. It's called a distinction (WhatsaDistinction).

There is a similar consternation in those learning about percussion; specifically, how to repair cymbals which have developed cracks. There is no point to filling or welding the cymbal - its particular sound depended on its metal being continuous, and introducing a foreign substance makes it a very nice hubcap. Instead, you have to do a very specific small amount of destruction - drill a hole a hair wider than the crack at each end. The crack's tendency to lengthen is dependent on different rates of flex on either side of the end of the crack - a small force, to be sure, but enough because the end of the crack is effectively a point. The hole, on the other hand, makes it so that the ripping force is applied to its entire circumference, and thus easily accepted by the metal.

: Oh? http://www.drumdojo.com/cracked_cymbal_fixes.htm

I am reminded of RolandBarthes' writing on ChopSticks.

CategoryStory CategoryEasternThought