The Cook Dissects an Ox庖丁解牛

龍菲

“庖丁解?！背鲎浴肚f子·養(yǎng)生主》，比喻技藝純熟、高超，發(fā)揮起來得心應(yīng)手。

In the Warring States Period， there was a cook who was very 1）skilful at2）dissecting oxen. King Hui of Liang was surprised at his skill and asked， “Howskilful you are！ How did you make it？” The cook replied， “At the beginning， Ididnt know the 3）inner structure of an ox. So it often took me not only a lot oftime but also great strength to dissect them. Later on， I kept practicing againand again. And finally I 4）mastered the inner structure of an ox. Thats why Ican do it skilfully. Now look at my knife， which I have used for nineteen years.It is still as sharp as a new one.”

Hearing this， King Hui of Liang nodded with his thumb up， “Nice！ Nice！ Iam inspired a lot by your words.”

1） skilful adj. 熟練的

2） dissect v. 剖析；解剖（人或動植物）

3） inner adj. 內(nèi)部的

4） master v. 掌握；精通

戰(zhàn)國時有個廚師擅于宰牛。梁惠王見他宰牛如此嫻熟，便問道：“你的技術(shù)如此高超，究竟是怎樣練就的呢？”廚師說：“我剛宰牛時因為不知道其身體結(jié)構(gòu)，不僅速度慢，而且要花很大的力氣。后來經(jīng)過反復(fù)練習(xí)，我完全掌握了牛的身體結(jié)構(gòu)，所以再宰起牛來就得心應(yīng)手了?？?！我的刀，雖然已經(jīng)用了十九年，卻還如新的一樣鋒利。”

梁惠王聽后不由地點頭稱贊：“不錯！不錯！聽了你的話，我深受啟發(fā)?！?/p>

Fill in the blanks：

1. The cook mastered the inner structure of a cow after keep_____again and again.

2. The cook had used his knife for______years.

Know More

In the story， Zhuang Zi used the knife as a metaphor for human beings andused the inner structure of an ox as a metaphor for the complex society. In hisopinion， dissecting an ox with a knife is a metaphor for human life in society.

This idiom vividly illustrates that as long as you master the objective lawand use it flexibly， you can be liberated from necessity and get real freedom. Inrepeated practice， we should also pay attention to mastering the method， ratherthan blindly repeat.

在這個故事中，莊子以刀喻人，以牛體組織喻復(fù)雜的社會，以刀解牛喻人處世。

該成語形象地說明了人只要掌握了客觀規(guī)律并靈活運用，就能從必然中解放出來，從而獲得真正的自由。在反復(fù)實踐時，我們也應(yīng)該注意掌握方法，而不是盲目重復(fù)。

參考答案：

1. practicing 2. nineteen