Zhuangzi · Philosophy
Zhuangzi’s ideal of <em>wu wei</em> - acting in accord with the natural grain of things rather than forcing them - dramatized by Cook Ding, whose knife has not dulled in nineteen years because he follows the ox’s own structure and lets his spirit, not his effort, do the cutting.
You learned that wu wei (‘non-doing’) means not idleness but action so attuned to the natural course of things that it feels effortless, and that Cook Ding embodies it - carving by ‘spirit’ along the ox’s natural structure rather than hacking by force. Explain what wu wei is, and what it…
Leads to Heraclitus.
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