运斤成风

Origin and story

In the Zhuangzi's Xu Wugui chapter, Zhuangzi passes Huizi's grave and tells a story about a man from Ying. A speck of white plaster, as thin as a fly's wing, lay on the man's nose. The craftsman Shi swung his axe with a rush of wind and removed all the plaster without hurting the nose; the man stood completely composed. When a ruler later asked Shi to repeat the feat, he answered that the partner who made it possible had died.

Zhuangzi then connected the loss to Huizi: he no longer had that person with whom to converse. The idiom praises consummate skill, while the surrounding fable also emphasizes the rare understanding between two people.