1、The Preservation of LifeHuman life is limited, but knowledge is limitless. To drive the limited inpursuit of the limitless is fatal; and to presume that one really knows isfatal indeed!In doing good, avoid fame. In doing bad, avoid disgrace. Pursue a middlecourse as your principle. Thus you will gua
2、rd your body from harm,preserve your life, fulfill your duties by your parents, and live yourallotted span of life.Prince Hueis cook was cutting up a bullock. Every blow of his hand,every heave of his shoulders, every tread of his foot, every thrust of hisknee, every whshh of rent flesh, every chhk
3、of the chopper, was inperfect rhythm, -like the dance of the Mulberry Grove, like theharmonious chords of Ching Shou.“Well done!“ cried the Prince. “Yours is skill indeed!“Sire,“ replied the cook laying down his chopper, “I have always devotedmyself to Tao, which is higher than mere skill. When I fi
4、rst began to cutup bullocks, I saw before me whole bullocks. After three years practice,I saw no more whole animals. And now I work with my mind and notwith my eye. My mind works along without the control of the senses.Falling back upon eternal principles, I glide through such great joints orcavitie
5、s as there may be, according to the natural constitution of theanimal. I do not even touch the convolutions of muscle and tendon, stillless attempt to cut through large bones.“A good cook changes his chopper once a year, - because he cuts. Anordinary cook, one a month, - because he hacks. But I have
6、 had thischopper nineteen years, and although I have cut up many thousandbullocks, its edge is as if fresh from the whetstone. For at the joints thereare always interstices, and the edge of a chopper being without thickness,it remains only to insert that which is without thickness into such aninters
7、tice. Indeed there is plenty of room for the blade to move about. Itis thus that I have kept my chopper for nineteen years as though freshfrom the whetstone.“Nevertheless, when I come upon a knotty part which is difficult totackle, I am all caution. Fixing my eye on it, I stay my hand, and gentlyapp
8、ly my blade, until with a hwah the part yields like earth crumbling tothe ground. Then I take out my chopper and stand up, and look around,and pause with an air of triumph. Then wiping my chopper, I put itcarefully away.“Bravo!“ cried the Prince. “From the words of this cook I have learnedhow to tak
9、e care of my life.“When Hsien, of the Kungwen family, beheld a certain official, he washorrified, and said, “Who is that man? How came he to lose a leg? Is thisthe work of God, or of man?“Why, of course, it is the work of God, and not of man,“ was the reply.“God made this man one-legged. The appeara
10、nce of men is alwaysbalanced. From this it is clear that God and not man made him what heis.“A pheasant of the marshes may have to go ten steps to get a peck, ahundred to get a drink. Yet pheasants do not want to be fed in a cage.For although they might have less worries, they would not like it. Whe
11、nLaotse died, Chin Yi went to the funeral. He uttered three yells anddeparted. A disciple asked him saying, “Were you not our Mastersfriend?“I was,“ replied Chin Yi.“And if so, do you consider that a sufficient expression of grief at hisdeath?“ added the disciple.“I do,“ said Chin Yi. “I had thought
12、 he was a (mortal) man, but now Iknow that he was not. When I went in to mourn, I found old personsweeping as if for their children, young ones wailing as if for theirmothers. When these people meet, they must have said words on theoccasion and shed tears without any intention. (To cry thus at onesd
13、eath) is to evade the natural principles (of life and death) and increasehuman attachments, forgetting the source from which we receive this life.The ancients called this evading the retribution of Heaven. The Mastercame, because it was his time to be born; He went, because it was histime to go away. Those who accept the natural course and sequence ofthings and live in obedience to it are beyond joy and sorrow. Theancients spoke of this as the emancipation from bondage. The fingersmay not be able to supply all the fuel, but the fire is transmitted, and weknow not when it will come to an end.“
