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.
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?
Confucius's prize student wants to march into a tyrant's court and save a kingdom with virtue and reason. Confucius tells him he'll be dead before lunch — then teaches him something no one can argue with: how to become empty enough that the world has nowhere to push back.