Confucius was on his way to the state of Chu and had left the woods, he noticed a hunchback catching cicadas with a lime twig as though he were picking them up by hand.

"You are very skillful," he remarked. "Is there a way to learning how?"

"There is a way," replied the hunchback. "For five or six months I practiced balancing two balls on my lime twig. When they no longer dropped, I missed only a few cicadas. When I could balance three balls, I missed only one of ten cicadas. When I could balance five, I caught cicadas as though I were picking them up by hand. I keep my body like a trunk of a tree and my arm like a dead branch. I know nothing of heaven and earth, however large they may be, nor of the many things in them, except the wings of my cicadas. I do not turn; I do not lean to one side; I would not exchange the wings of my cicadas for anything. Why shouldn't I be so successful:" Confuciys looked at his disciples and said, "Where the will is focused on one thing, the spirit achieves great strength. That is the lesson of this hunchback."

Buber, M. (1991). Chinese Tales: Zhuangzi: Sayings and Parables and Chinese Ghost and Love Stories. New Jersey: Humanities Press International.

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