Artisan Qing's Seven-Day Fast (Zhuangzi 19)
The Dazheng chapter's graded fasting passage, translated with pinyin and commentary — the Zhuangzi's own stage-by-stage account of emptying before skilled work.
The passage
梓庆削木为鐻，鐻成，见者惊犹鬼神。鲁侯见而问焉，曰：“子何术以为焉？”
对曰：“臣工人，何术之有！虽然，有一焉。臣将为鐻，未尝敢以耗气也，必齐以静心。齐三日，而不敢怀庆赏爵禄；齐五日，不敢怀非誉巧拙；齐七日，辄然忘吾有四枝形体也。当是时也，无公朝，其巧专而外骨消。然后入山林，观天性；形躯至矣，然后成见鐻，然后加手焉；不然则已。则以天合天，器之所以疑神者，其由是与！”
Translation (with notes)
Artisan Qing carved a bell-stand (梓庆削木为鐻). When it was finished, those who saw it were astonished, as if it were the work of spirits (见者惊犹鬼神). The Marquis of Lu came to see it and asked: “What art have you used to make this?” (鲁侯见而问焉，曰：子何术以为焉)
He replied: “Your servant is a workman — what art would I have? But there is one thing. When I am about to make a bell-stand, I never let my qi scatter (臣将为鐻，未尝敢以耗气也) — I fast, to still the mind (必齐以静心).
“After fasting three days, I no longer dare to hold thoughts of congratulations, rewards, rank, or salary (齐三日，而不敢怀庆赏爵禄). After fasting five days, I no longer dare to hold thoughts of blame or praise, skill or clumsiness (齐五日，不敢怀非誉巧拙). After fasting seven days, suddenly I have forgotten my four limbs and my body (齐七日，辄然忘吾有四枝形体也).
“At that time there is no court and no ruler (当是时也，无公朝) — my skill is single and the outer world has fallen away (其巧专而外骨消). Then I go into the mountain forest and observe the heaven-nature of the trees (然后入山林，观天性). When the right form is present in the wood (形躯至矣) — then the bell-stand is already seen in it, and only then do I lay on my hand (然后成见鐻，然后加手焉). If not, I let it be (不然则已).
“This is heaven joined with heaven (则以天合天). That is why the vessel is suspected of being the work of spirits (器之所以疑神者，其由是与)!”
Word-by-word notes
- 未尝敢以耗气也 — “I never dared to let my qi scatter.” The precondition is framed as non-loss: the craftsman protects his qi the way a practitioner protects stillness. Effort is spent preventing scatter, not generating force.
- 必齐以静心 — “must fast, so as to still the mind.” 齐 here is 斋, fasting — the same word as xinzhai’s “fasting of the mind” (see xinzhai translation). The craftsman’s fast is the mind-fasting applied to work.
- 辄然 — “suddenly, all at once.” The forgetting of the body is not wrestled into existence; it arrives when the earlier layers are gone. The stages are cumulative subtraction, and the last layer falls by itself.
- 外骨消 — literally “the outer bones dissolve.” 骨 here is traditionally read as the scaffolding of external concerns; with the court gone, the outside world’s hold on the work collapses.
- 观天性 — “observe the heaven-nature.” The only positive action in the whole passage: after emptying, looking. The work is selection and release, not imposition.
- 则以天合天 — “then heaven joins heaven.” The passage’s formula for skill: one’s own emptied nature meeting the material’s nature, with no forcing between. The Dazheng chapter’s craftsman-version of wuwei.
Why this translation matters
This is the Zhuangzi’s own stage-map of emptying — three days, five days, seven days — anticipating the Tang system of zuowang by half a millennium, and using the same final formula (forgetting the body) as the ch. 6 passage. Where ch. 6 states the doctrine, ch. 19 walks it, day by day, in a workshop.
Translation problems: 鐻 (jù) is a frame for hanging bells/chimes — no clean English word; “bell-stand” is the usual choice. 骨 in 外骨消 is contested (some read it as “slip,” 滑, in a variant text); the received reading above is the standard one. Both issues are flagged rather than silently resolved.
Sources
- Zhuangzi ch. 19 (Dasheng), received text; Wikisource: https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/莊子/達生