A story by Zhuangzi: A hunchback catching cicadas
When Zhongni was on his way to Chu, as he issued from a forest, he saw a hunchback catching cicadas (on the point of a rod), as if he were picking them up with his hand. 'You are clever!' said he to the man. 'Is there any method in it?' The hunchback replied, 'There is. For five or six months, I practiced with two pellets, till they never fell down, and then I only failed with a small fraction of the cicadas (which I tried to catch). Having succeeded in the same way with three (pellets), I missed only one cicada in ten. Having succeeded with five, I caught the cicadas as if I were gathering them. My body is to me no more than the stump of a broken trunk, and my shoulder no more than the branch of a rotten tree. Great as heaven and earth are, and multitudinous as things are, I take no notice of them, but only of the wings of my cicadas; neither turning nor inclining to one side. I would not for them all exchange the wings of my cicadas - how should I not succeed in taking them?' Confucius looked round, and said to his disciples, '"Where the will is not diverted from its object, the spirit is concentrated" - this might have been spoken of this hunchback gentleman.'
REMARKS
This story is from the nineteenth chapter of the Zhuangzi “The Full Understanding of Life”. Both Laozi and Zhuangzi believe that there is a 'life' within one that is a source of longevity, an ancestral place from which the phenomena of one's life continue to arise. This place is to be protected (保, bao), kept whole (全, quan), nurtured and cultivated (养, yang). The result is a sagely and skillful life. We must be careful how we understand this word, 'skill.' Zhuangzi takes pains to point out that it is no mere technique. A technique is a procedure that may be mastered, but the skill of the sage goes beyond this. One might say that it has become an 'art,' a dao. With Zhuangzi's conception, any physical activity, whether butchering a carcass, making wooden wheels, or carving beautiful ceremonial bell stands, becomes a dao when it is performed in a spiritual state of heightened awareness ('attenuation' xu).
Acupuncture practice, called zhen dao (针道) in the Neijing, provides a typical example of a practical, and very lowly, skill. Acupuncture is not a purely physical therapy. The power of the will, unique to human beings, is important to the healing process. In qigong, the practice of the mental control of qi, qi can be directed along the meridians by will alone. Qi may arrive quickly and strongly if acupuncture treatment is supported by the mind's ability to control the flow of qi. Chapter 25 of the Suwen (Preservation of Health) states, "The key to acupuncture is first of all to concentrate the spirit (zhi shen 治神). ……When treating deficient conditions, use the tonification method. When treating excess conditions, use the sedation method. The important thing is to make sure that the qi in the channels arrives. You must grasp the moment. Regardless of how deep or shallow the point, or whether it is distal or proximal, when acupuncturing you must focus your qi and your shen or spirit as if facing an abyss one thousand feet deep. Everything must be done with delicate care. When manipulating the needles with your fingertips, you should handle the needles as if handling a fierce tiger. Focus all your attention."
