The Hunchback Catching Cicadas
In a world this big and this loud, can you see only a cicada's wing?
Original
仲尼適楚，出於林中，見痀僂者承蜩，猶掇之也。仲尼曰：「子巧乎！有道邪？」曰：「我有道也。五六月累丸二而不墜，則失者錙銖；累三而不墜，則失者十一；累五而不墜，猶掇之也。吾處身也，若厥株拘；吾執臂也，若槁木之枝。雖天地之大，萬物之多，而唯蜩翼之知。吾不反不側，不以萬物易蜩之翼，何為而不得！」孔子顧謂弟子曰：「用志不分，乃凝於神，其痀僂丈人之謂乎！」
In plain words
Confucius was on his way to Chu. Coming out of a wood, he saw a hunchbacked old man catching cicadas with a sticky pole as easily as picking things up off the ground. Confucius said, “How skilful you are! Is there a way to it?” The man said, “There is. For five or six months I practised balancing two pellets on the tip of the pole without dropping them; then I missed very few. When I could balance three, I missed one in ten. When I could balance five, catching cicadas was like picking them up. I hold my body like a rooted stump; I hold my arm like the branch of a dead tree. Heaven and earth may be vast and the ten thousand things many, but I know only cicada wings. I don't turn, I don't lean; I wouldn't trade a cicada's wing for all the ten thousand things. How could I fail?” Confucius turned to his students and said, “A will undivided becomes concentrated spirit. Doesn't that describe this hunchbacked old man!”
Key words
- 承蜩chéng tiáoCatching cicadas with a sticky pole.
- 用志不分yòng zhì bù fēnAn undivided will.
- 凝于神níng yú shénSpirit gathered to a single point.
Reading it step by step
Yesterday's Cook Ding and today's hunchbacked old man are ordinary people doing ordinary things: one carves oxen, one catches cicadas. Zhuangzi loves making such people the teachers, so much that even Confucius turns to his students and says: look.
Let's take it in three steps.
First: mastery is practised. Two pellets without a drop, few misses; three, one miss in ten; five, and it's like picking things up. That's measurable progress. We tend to think uncanny skill is talent. The old man says no: five or six months, one more pellet at a time.
Second: a still body makes a single mind. He stands like a stump; his arm is a dead branch. Because his body doesn't waver, neither does his mind. It's what Cook Ding said yesterday: “my senses stop, and my spirit moves.” Quiet the outward senses, and the spirit can gather to one point.
Third: knowing only cicada wings. “Heaven and earth may be vast and the ten thousand things many, but I know only cicada wings.” This is the loveliest line. The world is huge, but right now all I want is this one thin wing. Our attention today is cut into confetti by notifications, messages and headlines; we can barely do one thing for ten minutes. The old man reminds us that focus is itself a kind of freedom.
Confucius sums it up in eight characters: a will undivided becomes concentrated spirit.
Today, choose one task and give it twenty-five minutes: no phone, no switching. Like the old man watching only the wing.
When you focus, the world is the size of a cicada's wing.
When you focus, the world is the size of a cicada's wing.
Today's question
For something you want to master, what are its “pellets”? Write how many you can stack now, and what the next one is.
Quick check
What is the key to the old man's method?
A will undivided becomes concentrated spirit.
IV · From Truth to Beauty — From skill to Dao; the beauty of everything