Yes! Zhuangzi's Cook Ting story one my lifetime favourite touchstones It informs a profoundly richer way to approach the design of sociotechnical systems. Thanks to Jonathan for referencing this valuable dual-language
archive! Since to translate is to write, here’s Burton Watson’s rendering, which also gets the essence, somewhat more fluidly:
Cook Ting was cutting up an ox for Lord Wen–hui. At every touch of his hand, every heave
of his shoulder, every move of his feet, every thrust of his knee—zip! zoop! He slithered the knife
along with a zing, and all was in perfect rhythm, as though he were performing the dance of the
Mulberry Grove or keeping time to the Ching-shou music.
‘Ah, this is marvelous!’, said Lord Wen-hui. ‘Imagine a skill reaching such heights.’
Cook Ting laid down his knife and replied, ‘What I care about is the Way, which goes beyond
skill. When I first began cutting an oxen all I could see was the ox itself. After three years I
no longer saw the whole ox. And now — now I go at it by spirit and don’t look with my eyes.
Perception and understanding have come to a stop and spirit moves where it wants. I go along
with the natural makeup, strike in the big hollows, guide the knife through the big openings, and
follow things as they are. So I never touch the smallest ligament or tendon, much less a main joint.
‘A good cook changes the knife once a year – because he cuts. A mediocre cook changes the
knife once a month – because he hacks. I’ve had this knife of mine for nineteen years and I’ve cut
up thousands of oxen with it, and yet the blade is as good as though it had just come from the
grindstone. There are spaces between the joints, and the blade of the knife has really no thickness.
If you insert what has no thickness into such spaces, then there’s plenty of room – more than enough
for the blade to play with. That’s why after nineteen years the blade of my knife is still as good as
when it first came from the grindstone.
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Had to follow up Brenda's post with some Zhuangzi.
His cook was cutting up an ox for the ruler Wen Hui. Whenever he applied his hand, leaned forward with his shoulder, planted his foot, and employed the pressure of his knee,
in the audible ripping off of the skin, and slicing operation of the knife, the sounds were all in regular cadence. Movements and sounds proceeded as in the dance of 'the Mulberry Forest' and the blended notes of the King Shou. The ruler said, 'Ah! Admirable!
That your art should have become so perfect!' (Having finished his operation), the cook laid down his knife, and replied to the remark, 'What your servant loves is the method of the Dao, something in advance of any art. When I first began to cut up an ox,
I saw nothing but the (entire) carcase. After three years I ceased to see it as a whole. Now I deal with it in a spirit-like manner, and do not look at it with my eyes. The use of my senses is discarded, and my spirit acts as it wills. Observing the natural
lines, (my knife) slips through the great crevices and slides through the great cavities, taking advantage of the facilities thus presented. My art avoids the membranous ligatures, and much more the great bones. A good cook changes his knife every year; (it
may have been injured) in cutting - an ordinary cook changes his every month - (it may have been) broken. Now my knife has been in use for nineteen years; it has cut up several thousand oxen, and yet its edge is as sharp as if it had newly come from the whetstone.
There are the interstices of the joints, and the edge of the knife has no (appreciable) thickness; when that which is so thin enters where the interstice is, how easily it moves along! The blade has more than room enough. Nevertheless, whenever I come to a
complicated joint, and see that there will be some difficulty, I proceed anxiously and with caution, not allowing my eyes to wander from the place, and moving my hand slowly. Then by a very slight movement of the knife, the part is quickly separated, and drops
like (a clod of) earth to the ground. Then standing up with the knife in my hand, I look all round, and in a leisurely manner, with an air of satisfaction, wipe it clean, and put it in its sheath.' The ruler Wen Hui said, 'Excellent! I have heard the words
of my cook, and learned from them the nourishment of (our) life.'
The instigating thread that inspired this quote from Zhuangzi:
Hi Friends,
Can we work together to plan sometime in late April? Here is what I’ve heard so far.
Don’t use the word time
Think about time
Oh the oxymoron :)
JR
Hi Jessica and Sharon,
cc: PHuN co-directors and Xin Wei
We’re very much looking forward to talking about a praxis workshop for the Fall! Could we find some time April 21, 1:30 or 2pm?
A couple of signposts/take-aways from the Synthesis Campfire yesterday:
-enacted event and experience as a set of critical practices
-vis a vis the critical discourse: what are non-reductive distillations of this knowledge who are not co-present (papers, presentation, videos, films, performative presentations?)
-how to draw on embodied / practical knowledge without reifying notions of self?
best,
Garrett
From: Xin Wei Sha
Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2017 10:30 AM
To: Garrett Johnson; Jessica Rajko; Sharon McCaman (Student); Celina Osuna; Angela Sakrison (Student); Jonathan Bratt (Student); Zachary Thomas
Cc: Adam Nocek; Lauren Hayes; Brenda McCaffrey (Student)
Subject: Re: Movement Session Planning
Attachments available until Apr 28, 2017
In any transdisciplinary conversation, there’s always the risk of peace (as Stengers observed so beautifully in her essay ), of superficial agreement and understanding when that is not the case. No chance of such superficial comity here ! ;) In more conventional, terms, we’re going through some vocabulary impedance matching.
No not “time” — I say: instead of “time” can we think about how organisms (in both biological and Whitehead’s senses) and their milieux co-construct, evolve, transform, change, exfoliate, … one another.
Longo and I would like to suggest that any quantity, be it duration (not Newtonian or time as a scalar parameter ) be recognized as the result of an act of measurement, which implicates apparatus, and expectant theory.
Seriously heeding Adam, we should not spend too too much time on the “humanist" accounts of experience, including phenomenology. But we could for at least learning purposes, as a transition, start from late Merleau-Ponty (rather than his “disembodied" alternatives). To that end, someone should dig for Don Lande’s translation of Merleau-Ponty Phenomenology of Perception, and see if we can get a pdf of the Body chapters.
Patiently,
Xin Wei
___________________________________________________________
From: Adam Nocek
Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2017 1:38:02 PM
To: Xin Wei Sha; Garrett Johnson; Jessica Rajko; Sharon McCaman (Student); Celina Osuna; Angela Sakrison (Student); Jonathan Bratt (Student); Zachary Thomas
Cc: Lauren Hayes; Brenda McCaffrey (Student)
Subject: Re: Movement Session Planning
Hi, Xin Wei and all,
I couldn't agree with you more, Xin Wei, though I don't want to hate on phenomenology too much. I think Varela, Thompson, et al. have done a good deal to extend the reaches of phenomenology, but I think that's exactly why we need to be ever so careful.
The neuro/cog-sci brand of phenomenology is incredibly seductive and is indebted to a very particular history of the field -- Husserl and a _selective_ reading of M-P. There are other engagements with phenomenology that might be better-suited for "niche construction."
In his Nature Course, M-P speaks at length about the ethologist, Jakob von Uexküll (Umwelt), as does Deleuze and Guattari in ATP (and so does Heidegger in The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics, BTW). There is a very productive engagement to
be had between M-P and D&G via von Uexküll. This would surely open up a
different kind of engagement with phenomenology; it is also one that would have to take account of Raymond Ruyer's work ...this of course depends upon very careful and patient thinking:)
Thanks!
Adam Nocek
From: Brenda McCaffrey (Student)
Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2017 9:50:35 AM
To: Adam Nocek; Xin Wei Sha; Garrett Johnson; Jessica Rajko; Sharon McCaman (Student); Celina Osuna; Angela Sakrison (Student); Jonathan Bratt (Student); Zachary Thomas
Cc: Lauren Hayes
Subject: Re: Movement Session Planning
I started this semester by dipping my toe into somatic practices, and over the past month I've slammed hard onto the ground and have been transformed. I have always been 'sensitive' so I had no idea how far I could go beyond this. I am becoming proprioceptive and can never go back. I no longer sense. I perceive subtle shifts in positions of internal organs. I perceive subtle rhythms and flows in my body. All movement comes from this and flows back into it. Pre-reflection has emerged as a kind of super power.
I've played the piano since I was very young, and yesterday I sat down to play and something new occurred; I was able to play through my body in conscious and intentional ways to create music that was magical.
Yes, critical thinking about phenomenology is a fun intellectual exercise. Linear. As Giuseppe might say, try spiraling instead.
-Brenda
From: Garrett Johnson
Sent: April 3, 2017
Thanks all for this rich conversation, I’m looking forward to meeting to plan something for the Fall and see what we can get into. Looping in my collaborator Britta Peterson (Director of Dance, American University) who is also interested in this discussion.
All best,
From: Brenda McCaffrey
Sent: April 3, 2017
Beautiful!
B
