Page Text
________________
PT. 1. SECT. III.
THE WRITINGS OF KWANG-BZE.
199
ployed the pressure of his knee, in the audible ripping off of the skin, and slicing operation of the knife, the sounds were all in regular cadence. Movements and sounds proceeded as in the dance of the Mulberry Forest l' and the blended notes of the King Shâu ?' The ruler said, 'Ah! Admirable ! That your art should have become so perfect!' (Having finished his operation), the cook laid down his knife, and replied to the remark, What your servant loves is the method of the Tâo, something in advance of any art. When I first began to cut up an ox, I saw nothing but the entire) carcase. After three years I ceased to see it as a whole. Now I deal with it in a spirit-like manner, and do not look at it with my eyes. The use of my senses is discarded, and my spirit acts as it wills. Observing the natural lines, (my knife) slips through the great crevices and slides through the great cavities, taking advantage of the facilities thus presented. My art avoids the membranous ligatures, and much more the great bones.
A good cook changes his knife every year;-(it may have been injured) in cutting; an ordinary cook changes his every month ;-it may have been) broken. Now my knife has been in use for nineteen years; it has cut up several thousand oxen, and yet its edge is as sharp as if it had newly come from the whetstone. There are the interstices of the joints, and the edge of the knife has no (appreciable) thickness; when that which is so thin enters where the interstice is, how easily it moves along! The
1 Two pieces of music, ascribed to Khăng Thang and HwangTî.
Digitized by Google
| SR No. | 007682 |
| Book Title | Questions of King Milinda Part 02 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | T W Rhys Davids |
| Publisher | Oxford |
| Publication Year | 1894 |
| Total Pages | 2240 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 38 MB |