—"Zhuangzi was accompanying a funeral when he passed by Huizi's grave.
Turning to his attendants, he said, 'There was once a plasterer who, if he got a speck of mud on the tip of his nose no thicker than a fly's wing, would get his friend Carpenter Shi to slice it off for him.
Carpenter Shi, whirling his hatchet with a noise like the wind, would accept the assignment and proceed to slice, removing every bit of mud without injury to the nose, while the plasterer just stood there completely unperturbed.
Lord Yuan of Song, hearing of this feat, summoned Carpenter Shi and said, 'Could you try performing it for me?' But Carpenter Shi replied, 'It's true that I was once able to slice like that—but the material I worked on has been dead these many years.'
Since you have died, Master Hui, I have had no material to work on. There's no one I can talk to any more.'"
[The Complete Works of Zhuangzi, translated by Burton Watson, Section 24]
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