"There was once, so the story runs, an executioner named Wang Fun, who lived in the reign of the second emperor of the Ming Dynasty. He was famous for his skill and speed in beheading his victims, but all his life he had harbored a secret aspiration, never yet realized: to behead a person so rapidly that the victim's head would remain poised on his neck. He practiced and practiced, and finally, in his seventy-sixth year, he realized his ambition. It was on a busy day of executions, and he dispatched each man with graceful speed, head rolling in the dust. Then came the twelfth man; he began to mount the scaffold, and Wang Fun, with a whisk of his sword, beheaded his victim so quickly that he continued to walk up the steps. When he reached the top, he spoke angrily to the executioner. "Why do you prolong my agony?" he asked. "You were mercifully quick with the others!" It was Wang Lun's great moment; he had crowned his life's work. A serene isle spread over his face; he turned to his victim, and said, "Just kindly nod, please."
Arthur Koestler - The Invisible Writing
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