Abstract
Zhuangzi's stories of craftsmen are unusual and inspiring. They ostensibly describe how craftsmen practise various skills in extraordinary ways. Actually, at the heart of the process is the pursuit of dàoful well-being. This chapter starts with Zhuangzi's most cited and visited story, Cook Ding, in which the cook describes a developmental course about how he acquires the amazing skill of butchering oxen. The most illuminating and fascinating part of the story is about the end stage at which the cook attains the dào when he achieves and fulfils the mastery skill successfully. The end state of dào is also the state of dàoful well-being. To me, the story of Cook Ding is about the process and the aim of education. The Dàoist state of well-being refers to living contentedly in an effortless, nonself-conscious, natural way. According to Zhuangzi, practising the skill is a Dàoist way of pursuing well-being. This chapter will discuss the educational implications of the activity of practising skills in three aspects: first, wúwǔo (nonself), which refers to the private state of the individual master; second, xiusheng (cultivation of the body), which involves the bodily exercise and the interaction with the physical world; and third, yănsheng (nurturing life), which indicates the optimal functioning of dàoful well-being, such that the individual and the surrounding world can be benefited.