The parable of the butcher provides a very simple story on how a butcher has earned mastery of his craft that significantly offers a good moral story. The butcher narrates how much he is different from an average cook. According to him a good cook only sharpens his knife once a year but an average cook regularly sharpens his knife every month in an attempt to keep it sharp and efficient (Pei). However, the butcher said that if it is constantly sharpened, the blade might easily break because it will lose its thickness and soon it will no longer be useful and the average cook would necessarily have to throw the knife away to have it replaced. The moral of this story the need to perfect one’s skill in order to gain mastery. However, perfecting one’s skill is not simply limited to filling one’s mind with all the rote information. Rather, the butcher says it needs to use all the senses to function rather than concentrate on one.
Zhuangzi presented a similar philosophy in the achievement of the Tao. Tao is a philosophical principle translated as “the way” or the “the doctrine” (LaFargue). According to Zhuangzi, there is a necessity to be able to achieve perfection and mastery of the way. Nevertheless, the Tao is difficult to understand because the principle of the Tao asserts that in order of one to achieve perfect one should necessarily realize that the Tao does not exist (Fowler). This is somewhat trivial but reflecting on the Tao it only suggest that in order to learn one has to realize that they don’t know everything and they should be humble to accept that perfection does not exist but mastery does. Perfection is different from mastery. Mastery asserts that one has to be sensitive of everything and not ignore the little details because they provide the bigger clarity as with the case of the cutting through the joints instead of hammering on solid bones which could strain the knife as explained by the butcher.
Works Cited
Fowler, Jeaneane. An introduction to the philosophy and religion of Taoism: pathways to immortality. Eastbourne, United Kingdom: Sussex Academic Press, 2005. Print.
LaFargue, Michael. Tao and Method: A Reasoned Approach to the Dao De Jing. New York: SUNY Press, 1998. Print.
Pei, Ming. "Carving Up an Ox." 29 September 2014. The China Page Website. Web. 24 November 2014.
