Archer without a string

Meaning

An archer without a string cannot make his skill effective. The comparison applies to an operator attempting the work without salt: salt is an enabling condition, not a decorative addition. It belongs to an appeal to craft testimony and cited authorities, including glassmakers, rather than to a separately demonstrated experiment. The surrounding comparison with quicksilver’s non-wetting behaviour likewise serves to illustrate a property of the sages’ water; it does not identify that water as ordinary quicksilver. Neither image should be made into an independent instruction for selecting a material.