3 pieces from Zhuangzi — each retold in modern English and traced to its source.
Prince Hui watches his cook carve an ox with such fluid precision that blade and bone seem to part by mutual agreement. The cook has been using the same knife for nineteen years. He explains why — and the prince concludes he has learned something about living.
The King of Wei sends Huizi a gift — seeds for a gourd that grows to an impossible size. It can't hold water, can't be a ladle, can't do anything a gourd is supposed to do. Huizi smashes it. Zhuangzi is unimpressed by the smashing.
A master carpenter walks past the most spectacular tree he has ever not-looked-at. His apprentice is mesmerized; his master is unmoved. That night, the tree visits the carpenter in a dream — and asks a question that cuts deeper than any adze: who, exactly, is the useless one here?