以有涯随无涯，殆已；已而为知者，殆而已矣！
The questions which we put to that which we know only by being ignorant cannot have confines yet cannot be without confines.
为善无近名，为恶无近刑。
If when we wrench everything apart there are objects, each in its own position past or present, and we cannot afford to leave any of them out of account, then can it be denied that there is a grand total of all?
缘督以为经，可以保身，可以全生，可以养亲，可以尽年。
Why not after all put your questions to it?
庖丁为文惠君解牛，手之所触，肩之所倚，足之所履，膝之所踦，砉然向然，奏刀然，莫不中音，合于桑林之舞，乃中经首之会。
文惠君日：“，善哉！
Why be bothered by doubts?
If you use the undoubted to unravel the doubted and transfer it to the undoubted, this is to have too much respect for the undoubted.
技蓋至此乎？
Use the unlevel to level and your levelling will not level, use the untested to test and your testing will not test.
”庖丁释刀对曰：“臣之所好者道也，进乎技矣。
The sight of the eye is only something which it employs, it is the daemonic in us which tests.
始臣之解牛之时，所见无非全牛者。
It is no new thing that the sight of the eye does not prevail over the daemonic; and is it not sad that fools should depend on what they see and confine themselves to what is of man, so that their achievements are external?
三年之后，未尝见全牛也。
Therefore the capacity of the eye to see presents dangers, the capacity of the ear to hear presents dangers, the capacity of the heart for perilous ambi- tions presents dangers.
方今之时，臣以神遇而不以目视，官知止而神欲行。
依乎天理，批大郤，导大窾，因其固然；技经肯綮之未尝，而况大軱乎！
All ability in what concerns the organs presents dangers.
When the dangers become actual it is too late to mend, as misfor- tune grows complications multiply, recovery depends on effective action, success depends on prolonged effort; and is it not sad that men should think of the organs as their greatest treasures?
良庖岁更刀，割也；族庖月更刀，折也。
Therefore that there is no end to ruined states and massacred peoples is because we do not know how to put our questions to it.
今臣之刀十九年矣，所解数千牛矣，而刀刃若新发于硎。
NOTE 'The ultimate Yin': Instead of exerting his energies in the active or Yang phase to unravel a problem, the sage lets them withdraw in the passive or Yin phase to an absolute stillness in which he sees problems unravel of themselves.
彼节者有閒，而刀刃者无厚。
The 'axis': The still point at the centre of us from which we can watch the cycles of events as though from the motionless centre of a rotating wheel (cf. p. 53).
以无厚入有閒，恢恢乎其于游刃必有余地矣，是以十九年而刀刃若新发于硎。
Cook Ting was carving an ox for Lord Wen-hui.
虽然，每至于族，吾见其难为，怵然为戒，视为止，行为迟，动刀甚微。
謋然己解，如土委地。
As his hand slapped, shoulder lunged, foot stamped, knee crooked, with a hiss! with a thud! the brandished blade as it sliced never missed the rhythm, now in time with the Mulberry Forest dance, now with an orchestra playing the Ching-shou.
'Oh, excellent!' said Lord Wen-hui.
提刀而立，为之四顾，为之踌躇满志，善刀而藏之。
'That skill should attain such heights!
文惠君曰：“善哉！
What your servant cares about is the Way, I have left skill behind me.
吾闻庖丁之言，得养生焉。
When I first began to carve oxen, I saw nothing but oxen wherever I looked.
”
公文轩见右师而惊曰：“是何人也？
Three years more and I never saw an ox as a whole.Nowadays, I am in touch through the daemonic in me, and do not look with the eye.
恶乎介也？
天与，其人与？
With the senses I know where to stop, the daemonic I desire to run its course.
I rely on Heaven's structuring, cleave along the main seams, let myself be guided by the main cavities, go by what is inherently so.
”曰：“天也，非人也。
A ligament or tendon I never touch, not to mention solid bone.