Records of the Transmission of the Lamp, Volume Eighteen

和之含山人也。九歲謝親。居佛慧院。踰六年。得度受具。又五年。荷包謁長蘆信禪師。得其大略。有傳圓悟語至者。師讀之。嘆曰。想酢生液。雖未澆腸沃胃。要且使人慶快。第恨未聆謦欬耳。遂由寶峰依湛堂。客黃龍叩死心禪師。次謁圓悟。一日入室。悟問曰。見見之時。見非是見。見猶離見。見不能及。舉拳曰。還見麼。師曰。見。悟曰。頭上安頭。師聞脫然契證。悟叱曰。見箇甚麼。師曰。竹密不妨流水過。悟肯之。尋俾掌藏教。有問悟曰。隆藏主柔易若此。何能為哉。悟曰。瞌睡虎耳。後歸邑。住城西開聖。建炎之擾。乃結廬銅峰之下。郡守李公光延居彰教。次徙虎丘。道大顯著。因追繹白雲端和尚立祖堂故事。乃曰。為人之後。不能躬行遺訓。於義安乎。遂圖其像。以奉安之。上堂曰。凡有展托。盡落今時。不展不託。墮坑落壍。直饒風吹不入。水灑不著。檢點將來。自救不了。豈不見道。直似寒潭月影。靜夜鐘聲。隨扣擊以無虧。觸波瀾而不散。猶是生死岸頭事。拈拄杖。劃一劃雲。劃斷古人多年葛藤。點頭石不覺拊掌大笑。且道笑箇甚麼。腦後見腮。莫與往來。上堂。目前無法。萬象森然。意在目前。突出難辨。不是目前法。觸處逢渠。非耳目之所到。不離見聞覺知。雖然如是。也須踏著他向上關捩子始得。所以道。羅籠不肯住。呼喚不回頭。佛祖不安排。至今無處所。如是則不勞斂念。樓閣門開。寸步不移。百城俱到。驀拈拄杖。劃一劃雲。路逢死虵莫打殺。無底籃子盛將歸。上堂曰。百鳥不來春又喧。憑欄溢目水連天。無心還似今宵月。照見三千與大千。上堂。摩竭陀國。親行此令。拈拄杖。卓一下曰。大盡三十日。小盡二十九。僧問。為國開堂一句作麼生道。師曰。一願皇帝萬壽。二願重臣千秋。曰。祇如生佛未興時。一著落在甚麼處。師曰。吾常於此切。曰。官不容針。

A man of Hanshan in Hezhou. At nine he took leave of his parents and lived at Fohui Cloister. More than six years later he received ordination and full precepts. Five years after that he shouldered his bag and paid homage to Chan Master Xin of Changlu, getting the general outline. When someone brought him Yuanwu's words, the master read them and sighed: 'Thinking of vinegar produces saliva; though it does not yet wash the intestines and soak the stomach, it makes a man glad.' He only regretted not having heard the man's voice. He then went from Baofeng to rely on Zhantang, lodged at Huanglong to question Chan Master Sixin, and next paid homage to Yuanwu. One day he entered the room. Wu asked: 'When seeing is seeing, the seeing is not the seeing; the seeing still departs from seeing and the seeing cannot reach it.' He raised his fist and said: 'Do you see?' The master said: 'I see.' Wu said: 'A head on top of a head.' At these words the master was cleanly in accord and certified. Wu shouted at him: 'What do you see?' The master said: 'Though the bamboo is dense, it does not hinder the water from passing.' Wu approved. Soon he had him take charge of the canon. Someone asked Wu: 'Storekeeper Long is so gentle and yielding — what can he do?' Wu said: 'He is a dozing tiger.' Later he returned to his district and resided at Kaisheng in the west of the city. In the troubles of Jian Yan he built a hut below Tongfeng. The prefect Li Guang invited him to reside at Zhangjiao, and he next moved to Huqiu, where his way became greatly renowned. Because he recalled the precedent of Chan Master Duan of Baiyun establishing the ancestral hall, he said: 'As a successor of a man, if I cannot personally carry out his bequeathed instructions, how can I be at peace in righteousness?' He then had his portrait painted and enshrined it. He ascended the hall and said: 'Whatever is unfolded and set forth falls entirely into the present time. Not unfolding and not setting forth, one falls into pit and ditch. Even if the wind cannot blow in and the water cannot sprinkle you, looking at it afterwards you cannot save yourself. Do you not see it said: it is just like the moon's reflection in a cold pool, a bell's sound in a still night — it loses nothing when struck, and does not scatter when it touches the waves. Yet it is still a matter on the shore of birth and death.' He picked up his staff, drew a line, and said: 'Cutting off the ancients' kudzu vines of many years. The nodding stone cannot help clapping its hands and laughing. Tell me, what does it laugh at? When you can see the jaw behind the head, have nothing to do with him.' He ascended the hall: 'Before the eyes there is no dharma, yet the ten thousand things are dense. The meaning lies before the eyes, yet it stands out and is hard to distinguish. It is not a dharma before the eyes, yet wherever you touch you meet it. It is not reached by ear and eye, yet it does not depart from seeing, hearing, sensing, and knowing. Even so, you must tread on his upward latch before you have it. Therefore it is said: a net cannot hold him, calling does not turn his head; buddhas and patriarchs do not arrange him, and to this day he has no place. If so, then without labouring to gather your thoughts the doors of the tower open, and without moving a step you reach all hundred cities.' Suddenly he picked up his staff, drew a line, and said: 'Meeting a dead snake on the road, do not beat it to death; carry it home in a bottomless basket.' He ascended the hall and said: 'The hundred birds do not come, yet spring is again noisy; leaning on the railing the eye overflows with water joining sky. With no mind it is like tonight's moon, shining on the three thousand and the great thousand.' He ascended the hall: 'In the country of Magadha he personally carried out this command.' He picked up his staff, planted it once, and said: 'The great month has thirty days; the small month has twenty-nine.' A monk asked: 'How will you speak the one phrase for opening the hall for the state?' The master said: 'First, may the emperor live ten thousand years; second, may the great ministers live a thousand autumns.' [The monk] said: 'Just so, before the Buddha was born and beings existed, where did one move come to rest?' The master said: 'I always press exactly here.' [The monk] said: 'The official gate does not admit a needle.'

更借一問時如何。師曰。踞虎頭。收虎尾。曰。中間事作麼生。師曰。草繩自縛漢。曰。毗婆尸佛早留心。直至如今不得妙。師曰。幾行巖下路。少見白頭人。問。九旬禁足。意旨如何。師曰。理長即就。曰。祇如六根不具底人。還禁得也無。師曰。穿過鼻孔。曰。學人今日。小出大遇。師曰。降將不斬。曰。恁麼則和尚放某甲逐便也。師曰。停囚長智。問。雪峰道。盡大地撮來如粟米粒大。拋向面前漆桶。不會打皷。普請看。未審此意如何。師曰。一畝之地。三虵九鼠。曰。乞師再垂指示。師曰。海口難宣。問。如何是大道真源。師曰。和泥合水。曰。便恁麼去時如何。師曰。截斷草鞋跟。問。如何是佛法大意。師曰。虵頭生角。問。古人到這裡。因甚麼不肯住。師曰。老僧也恁麼。曰。忽然一刀兩段時如何。師曰。平地神仙。問。萬機休罷。千聖不𢹂時如何。師曰。未足觀光。曰。還有奇特事也無。師曰。獨坐大雄峰。紹興丙辰。示微疾而逝。塔全軀於寺之西南隅。

'What about borrowing one more question?' The master said: 'Squat on the tiger's head, gather in the tiger's tail.' [The monk] said: 'What of the matter in between?' The master said: 'A fellow bound by a straw rope.' [The monk] said: 'Vipashyin Buddha set his mind on it long ago, yet to this day he has not attained the wonder.' The master said: 'How many rows of the road below the cliff; few see a white-haired man.' [A monk] asked: 'What is the meaning of the ninety days of restricted walking?' The master said: 'If the principle is long, then comply.' [The monk] said: 'And can one whose six faculties are incomplete still keep it?' The master said: 'Pass through his nostrils.' [The monk] said: 'Today the student has made a small outing and a great encounter.' The master said: 'A surrendered general is not beheaded.' [The monk] said: 'Then the master lets me go my own way.' The master said: 'Keeping the prisoner grows his wisdom.' [A monk] asked: 'Xuefeng said: gather up the whole great earth, the size of a millet grain, and throw it before you — a lacquer bucket. Not understanding, beat the drum. Everyone please look. What does this mean?' The master said: 'One acre of ground, three snakes and nine rats.' [The monk] said: 'I beg the master to point it out again.' The master said: 'A sea mouth is hard to proclaim.' [A monk] asked: 'What is the great Way's true source?' The master said: 'Mixing mud and joining water.' [The monk] said: 'What if one goes off just like that?' The master said: 'Cut off the grass shoe's heel.' [A monk] asked: 'What is the great meaning of the Buddha-dharma?' The master said: 'A snake's head grows horns.' [A monk] asked: 'When the ancients reached here, why would they not stay?' The master said: 'The old monk is like that too.' [The monk] said: 'Suppose a single knife cuts it in two — what then?' The master said: 'A god on level ground.' [A monk] asked: 'When the ten thousand mechanisms are all put to rest and a thousand sages do not carry it off — what then?' The master said: 'Not yet worth a look at the view.' [The monk] said: 'Is there still anything extraordinary?' The master said: 'Sitting alone on the Great Hero Peak.' In the bingchen year of Shaoxing he showed slight illness and passed away. His whole body was enshrined in a stupa at the southwest corner of the monastery.

慶元府育王山佛智端裕禪師

Chan Master Duan Yu, Fozhi, of Yuwang Mountain in Qingyuan Prefecture

吳越王之裔也。六世祖守會稽。因家焉。師生而岐嶷。眉目淵秀。十四驅烏於大善寺。十八得度受具。往依淨慈一禪師。未幾。偶聞僧擊露柱。曰。你何不說禪。師忽微省。去謁龍門遠．甘露卓．泐潭祥。皆以頴邁見推。晚見圓悟於鍾阜。一日悟問。誰知正法眼藏向這瞎驢邊滅卻。即今是滅不滅。曰。請和尚合取口好。悟曰。此猶未出常情。師擬對。悟擊之。師頓去所滯。侍悟居天寧。命掌記室。尋分座。道聲藹著。京西憲請開法丹霞。次遷虎丘。徑山謝事。徇平江道俗之請。庵於西華。閱數稔。勑居建康保寧。後移蘇城萬壽及閩中玄沙．壽山西禪。復被旨補靈隱。慈寧皇太后幸韋王第。召師演法。賜金襴袈裟。乞歸西華舊隱。紹興戊辰秋。赴育王之命。上堂曰。德山入門便棒。多向皮袋裡埋蹤。臨濟入門便喝。總在聲塵中出沒。若是英靈衲子。直須足下風生。超越古今途轍。拈拄杖。卓一下。喝一喝曰。祇這箇何似生。若喚作棒喝。瞌睡未惺。不喚作棒喝。未識德山臨濟。畢竟如何。復卓一下曰。總不得動著。上堂。盡大地是沙門眼。徧十方是自己光。為甚麼東弗於逮打皷。西瞿耶尼不聞。南贍部洲點燈。北鬱單越暗坐。直饒向箇裡道得十全。猶是光影裡活計。撼拂子曰。百雜碎了也。作麼生是出身一路。擲下拂子曰。參。上堂。動則影現。覺則冰生。直饒不動不覺。猶是秦時𨍏轢鑽。到這裡。便須千差密照。萬戶俱開。毫端撥轉機輪。命脈不沈毒海。有時覺如湛水。有時動若星飛。有時動覺俱忘。有時照用自在。且道正恁麼時。是動是覺。是照是用。還有區分得出底麼。鐵牛橫古路。觸著骨毛寒。上堂曰。行時絕行跡。說時無說蹤。行說若到。則垛生招箭。行說未明。則神鋒劃斷。就使說無滲漏。行不迷方。猶滯殻漏在。若是大鵬金翅。奮迅百千由旬。十影神駒。馳驟四方八極。不取次啗啄。

A descendant of the king of Wu and Yue. His sixth-generation ancestor was prefect of Kuaiji and settled there. The master was born precocious, with deep and fine brows and eyes. At fourteen he drove the crows at Dashan Monastery; at eighteen he received ordination and full precepts. He went to rely on Chan Master Yi of Jingci. Before long he happened to hear a monk strike the exposed pillar and say, 'Why do you not speak Chan?' and the master had a slight awakening. He left to pay homage to Longmen Yuan, Ganlu Zhuo, and Letan Xiang, all of whom esteemed him for his brilliance. Late in life he saw Yuanwu at Zhongfu. One day Wu asked: 'Who would have known that the treasury of the true dharma eye would be extinguished at the side of this blind donkey? Is it extinguished now or not?' [The master] said: 'Please, master, shut your mouth.' Wu said: 'This still has not left the ordinary feelings.' As the master tried to reply, Wu struck him, and the master at once let go of what had stuck. He attended Wu at Tianning, and Wu had him take charge of the secretariat and then share the seat, and the sound of his way spread widely. The judicial commissioner of Jingxi invited him to open the teaching at Danxia, and he next moved to Huqiu. When Jingshan resigned, he complied with the request of the monks and laity of Pingjiang and built a hut at Xihua. After several years he was by edict made to reside at Baoning in Jiankang, and later moved to Wanshou in Suzhou and to Xuansha and Shoushan Xichan in Min. He was again by decree appointed to Lingyin. The empress dowager Cining visited the prince of Wei's residence and summoned the master to expound the dharma, and bestowed a golden-brocade robe on him. He begged to return to his old retreat at Xihua. In the autumn of the wuchen year of Shaoxing he answered the summons to Yuwang. He ascended the hall and said: 'Deshan strikes as soon as one enters the gate — most bury their traces in the leather bag. Linji shouts as soon as one enters the gate — all bob about in the dust of sound. If you are a spirited patch-robed monk, you must make the wind rise under your feet and surpass the ruts of past and present.' He picked up his staff, planted it once, gave a shout, and said: 'Just this — what is it like? If you call it a blow or a shout, you are not yet awake from dozing. If you do not call it a blow or a shout, you have not recognized Deshan and Linji. After all, what is it?' He planted it once more and said: 'In the end you must not move it at all.' He ascended the hall: 'The whole great earth is the monk's eye; the ten directions everywhere are one's own light. Why is it that when Purvavideha beats the drum, Aparagodaniya does not hear? When Jambudvipa lights a lamp, Uttarakuru sits in the dark? Even if you can speak it perfectly here, it is still a livelihood in light and shadow.' He shook his whisk and said: 'Smashed to a hundred bits. What is the one road of getting out?' He threw down the whisk and said: 'Investigate.' He ascended the hall: 'When it moves, shadows appear; when it awakens, ice forms. Even if you neither move nor awaken, you are still a Qin-era drill. When you get here you must have a thousand differences secretly illuminated and ten thousand doors all open. At the tip of a hair turn the wheel of mechanism; let the life-vein not sink into the sea of poison. Sometimes you are awake like still water, sometimes you move like a flying star; sometimes movement and awakening are both forgotten, sometimes illumination and function are free. Tell me, just at such a time, is it movement or awakening, illumination or function? Is there anyone who can distinguish?' The iron ox lies across the ancient road; touching it chills bone and hair. He ascended the hall and said: 'In walking, cut off the traces of walking; in speaking, have no track of speaking. If walking and speaking arrive, then the target rises and invites the arrow. If walking and speaking are not clear, then the divine spearhead cuts off. Even if you speak without leakage and walk without losing direction, you are still stuck in the shell's leak. If you are a great golden-winged peng bird, you surge a hundred thousand yojanas; if you are a ten-shadow divine colt, you gallop to the four quarters and eight extremes. You do not peck at random'

不隨處埋身。且總不依倚。還有履踐分也無。剎剎塵塵是要津。上堂曰。易填巨壑。難滿漏巵。若有操持。了無難易。拈卻大地。寬綽有餘。放出纖毫。礙塞無路。忽若不拈不放。向甚麼處履踐。同誠共休慼。飲水亦須肥。僧問。如何是賓中賓。師曰。你是田庫奴。曰。如何是賓中主。師曰。相逢猶莽鹵。曰。如何是主中賓。師曰。劒氣爍愁雲。曰。如何是主中主。師曰。敲骨打髓。師蒞眾。色必凜然。寢食不背眾。唱道無倦。紹興庚午十月初。示微疾。至十八日。首座法全請遺訓。師曰。盡此心意。以道相資。語絕而逝。火後目睛齒舌不壞。其地發光終夕。得設利者無計。踰月不絕。黃冠羅肇常。平日問道於師。適外歸。獨無所獲。道念勤切。方與客食。咀噍間若有物。吐哺則設利也。大如菽。色若琥珀。好事者持去。遂再拜於闍維所。聞香匳有聲。亟開。所獲如前而差紅潤。門人奉遺骨。分塔於鄮峰西華。諡大悟禪師。

'and do not bury yourself anywhere. And you depend on nothing at all. Is there still a share of practice? Every land and every mote is the vital crossing.' He ascended the hall and said: 'It is easy to fill a great gulf; it is hard to fill a leaking cup. If one has grasp and maintenance, there is neither difficulty nor ease at all. Take away the great earth and there is ample room to spare; let out a single hair and there is blockage with no road. Suppose you neither take away nor let out — where will you practise? Sharing sincerity, sharing sorrow and joy, even drinking water must make one fat.' A monk asked: 'What is the guest within the guest?' The master said: 'You are a field-storehouse slave.' [The monk] said: 'What is the host within the guest?' The master said: 'Meeting, yet still rude and crude.' [The monk] said: 'What is the guest within the host?' The master said: 'The sword's breath melts the sorrowful clouds.' [The monk] said: 'What is the host within the host?' The master said: 'Pound the bone and beat the marrow.' When the master faced the assembly his countenance was always stern. He neither slept nor ate apart from the assembly, and he proclaimed the Way without weariness. In the first ten days of the tenth month of the gengwu year of Shaoxing he showed slight illness. On the eighteenth the head seat Faquan asked for his final instruction. The master said: 'Exhaust this mind and intent, aiding one another with the Way.' His words ended and he passed away. After the fire his eyes, teeth, and tongue did not decay. The ground there gave off light the whole night, and relics were obtained beyond counting; for more than a month it did not stop. The Daoist priest Luo Zhaochang had long asked the master about the Way. He happened to be away and returned with nothing obtained. His resolve for the Way was earnest; just as he was eating with a guest, something seemed to be in what he was chewing, and what he spat out was a relic, as large as a bean and amber in colour. A curious person carried it off, and so he bowed again at the cremation site and heard a sound from the incense box; he opened it at once, and what he obtained was as before but rather more ruddy. His disciples received the remaining bones and divided the stupas between Maofeng and Xihua. His posthumous title was Chan Master Dawu.

潭州大溈佛性法泰禪師

Chan Master Fatai, Foxing, of Dawei in Tanzhou

漢州李氏子。僧問。理隨事變。該萬有而一片虗凝。事逐理融。等千差而鹹歸實際。如何是理法界。師曰。山河大地。曰。如何是事法界。師曰。萬象森羅。曰。如何是理事無礙法界。師曰。東西南北。曰。如何是事事無礙法界。師曰。上下四維。上堂。推真真無有相。窮妄妄無有形。真妄兩無所有。廓然露出眼睛。眼睛既露。見箇甚麼。曉日爍開巖畔雪。朔風吹綻臘梅華。上堂。寶劒拈來便用。豈有遲疑。眉毛剔起便行。更無回互。一切處騰今煥古。一切處截斷羅籠。不犯鋒鋩。亦非顧鑑。獨超物外則且置。萬機喪盡時如何。八月秋。何處熱。上堂。涅槃無異路。方便有多門。拈起拄杖曰。看。看。山僧拄杖子。一口吸盡西江水。東海鯉魚𨁝跳上三十三天。帝釋忿怒。把須彌山一摑粉碎。堅牢地神合掌讚歎曰。諦觀法王法。法王法如是。以拄杖擊禪床。下座。上堂。達得人空法空。未稱祖佛家風。體得全用全照。亦非衲僧要妙。直須打破牢關。識取向上一竅。如何是向上一竅。春寒料峭。凍殺年少。上堂。今朝正月已半。是處燈火繚亂。滿城羅綺駢闐。交互往來遊翫。文殊走入閙籃中。普賢端坐高樓看。且道觀音在甚麼處。震天椎畫皷。聒地奏笙歌。上堂。渺渺邈邈。十方該括。坦坦蕩蕩。絕形絕相。目欲眎而睛枯。口欲談而詞喪。文殊普賢全無伎倆。臨濟德山不妨提唱。龜吞陝府鐵牛。虵齩嘉州大像。嚇得東海鯉魚。直至如今肚脹。嘻。上堂。火雲燒田苗。泉源絕流注。娑竭大龍王。不知在何處。以拄杖擊禪床曰。在這裡。看。看。南山起雲。北山下雨。老僧更為震雷聲。助發威光令遠布。乃高聲曰。閧弄閧弄。上堂。開口有時非。開口有時是。麤言及細語。皆歸第一義。釋迦老子碗鳴聲。達磨西來屎臭氣。唯有山前水牯牛。身放毫光照天地。上堂。得念失念。無非解脫。是甚麼語話。成法破法。

A son of the Li family of Hanzhou. A monk asked: 'Principle follows phenomena and changes, encompassing the ten thousand existents yet remaining one mass of empty stillness; phenomena follow principle and merge, equalizing a thousand differences yet all returning to the ultimate. What is the dharma-realm of principle?' The master said: 'Mountains and rivers, the great earth.' [The monk] said: 'What is the dharma-realm of phenomena?' The master said: 'The ten thousand things in dense array.' [The monk] said: 'What is the dharma-realm of principle and phenomena unobstructed?' The master said: 'East, west, south, north.' [The monk] said: 'What is the dharma-realm of phenomena mutually unobstructed?' The master said: 'Above and below and the four quarters.' He ascended the hall: 'Push truth and truth has no mark; exhaust delusion and delusion has no form. Truth and delusion both have nothing; vast and open the eye is exposed. Once the eye is exposed, what do you see? The morning sun melts the snow on the cliff; the north wind splits open the winter plum blossom.' He ascended the hall: 'Take up the precious sword and use it at once — how could there be hesitation? Raise the eyebrows and go at once — no more turning back. In every place it leaps over past and present; in every place it cuts off the net. It does not touch the blade's edge, nor is it looking and mirroring. Standing alone beyond things, let that be set aside. What about when the ten thousand mechanisms are utterly exhausted? In the eighth month, autumn — where is the heat?' He ascended the hall: 'Nirvana has no different road; skillful means have many gates.' He picked up his staff and said: 'Look, look. The mountain monk's staff swallows the West River in one gulp; the carp of the Eastern Sea leaps up to the thirty-three heavens. Indra is enraged and smashes Mount Sumeru with one slap into powder. The firm earth god joins his palms and praises, saying: Observe the dharma of the dharma king; the dharma king's dharma is thus.' He struck the Chan bed with his staff and descended from the seat. He ascended the hall: 'To have attained the emptiness of person and the emptiness of dharmas is not yet to match the ancestral buddhas' family style. To have realized total function and total illumination is also not the patch-robed monk's essential wonder. You must break open the firm barrier and know the one opening that faces upward. What is the one opening that faces upward? Spring cold, biting sharp; it freezes the young to death.' He ascended the hall: 'Today the first month is already half over; everywhere lanterns are in confusion. The whole city is crowded with silk and gauze, coming and going at their play. Manjushri walks into the noisy basket; Samantabhadra sits upright on the high tower watching. Tell me, where is Guanyin? Shaking heaven they beat the painted drum; deafening earth they play the pipes and sing.' He ascended the hall: 'Vast and remote, it encompasses the ten directions. Flat and broad, it cuts off form and mark. The eye would look and the pupil withers; the mouth would speak and the words are lost. Manjushri and Samantabhadra are wholly without device; Linji and Deshan may as well raise and sing. The turtle swallows the iron ox of Shaanfu; the snake bites the great image of Jiazhou. It frightens the carp of the Eastern Sea, which to this day has a swollen belly. Hee.' He ascended the hall: 'Fire clouds burn the field sprouts; the spring source cuts off its flow. The great dragon king Sagara — where is he, one does not know.' He struck the Chan bed with his staff and said: 'Here. Look, look. South Mountain raises clouds; North Mountain rains. The old monk will further make the sound of thunder to help send forth the majestic light far and wide.' He then said in a loud voice: 'Rumble, rumble.' He ascended the hall: 'Sometimes speech is wrong, sometimes speech is right. Coarse words and fine words all return to the ultimate truth. Shakyamuni's is the sound of a bowl rattling; Bodhidharma's coming from the west is the stink of shit. Only the water buffalo before the mountain, its body giving off a hair's radiance that lights heaven and earth.' He ascended the hall: 'Gaining a thought, losing a thought — none of it is other than liberation. What sort of talk is this? Making a dharma, breaking a dharma —'

皆名涅槃。料掉沒交涉。智慧愚痴。通為般若。顢頇佛性。菩薩外道。所成就法。皆是菩提。猶較些子。然雖如是。也是楊廣失駱駝。上堂。欲識佛去處。祇這語聲是。咄。傅大士不識好惡。以昭昭靈靈教壞人家男女。被誌公和尚一喝曰。大士莫作是說。別更道看。大士復說偈曰。空手把鉏頭。步行騎水牛。人從橋上過。橋流水不流。誌公呵呵大笑曰。前頭猶似可。末後更愁人。上堂。憶昔遊方日。獲得二種物。一是金剛鎚。一是千聖骨。持行宇宙中。氣岸高突兀。如是三十年。用之為準則。而今年老矣。一物知何物。擲下金剛鎚。擊碎千聖骨。拋向四衢道。不能更惜得。任意過浮生。指南將作北。呼龜以為鼈。喚豆以為粟。從他明眼人。笑我無繩墨。

'are all called nirvana. This is utterly without connection. Wisdom and foolishness are both prajna. A muddled Buddha-nature, and the dharmas accomplished by bodhisattvas and non-Buddhists, are all bodhi. Still somewhat better. Yet even so, it is also Yang Guang losing his camel.' He ascended the hall: 'If you would know where the Buddha goes — just this sound of speech is it. Bah. Layman Fu did not know good from bad, and with his bright, numinous teaching ruined other people's sons and daughters. He was shouted at by Master Zhi: 'Layman, do not say that. Try saying something else.' The layman then spoke a verse: 'Bare-handed I hold the hoe's handle; walking, I ride a water buffalo. A man crosses over the bridge; the bridge flows, the water does not.' Master Zhi laughed heartily and said: 'The first part is still passable; the last is more worrisome.'' He ascended the hall: 'I recall the days when I wandered abroad; I obtained two things. One was a diamond hammer; one was the bones of a thousand sages. Carrying them through the universe, my spirit towered high. Thus for thirty years I used them as my standard. Now I am old — of the one thing, who knows what it is? I throw down the diamond hammer and smash the bones of a thousand sages; I cast them onto the crossroads and can no longer begrudge them. Let me pass this floating life as I please, pointing south and calling it north, calling a turtle a soft-shelled turtle, calling beans millet. Let the clear-eyed laugh at me for having no plumb line.'

台州護國此庵景元禪師

Chan Master Jingyuan of the Ciyan Hut at Huguo in Taizhou

永嘉楠溪張氏子。年十八。依靈山希拱。圓具後習臺教三禩。棄謁圓悟於鍾阜。因僧讀死心小參語云。既迷須得箇悟。既悟須識悟中迷。迷中悟。迷悟雙忘。卻從無迷悟處建立一切法。師聞而疑。即趨佛殿。以手托開門扉。豁然大徹。繼而執侍。機辯逸發。圓悟目為聱頭元侍者。遂自題肖像。付之曰。生平只說聱頭禪。撞著聱頭如鐵壁。脫卻羅籠截腳跟。大地撮來墨漆黑。晚年轉復沒刀刀。奮金剛椎碎窠窟。他時要識圓悟面。一為渠儂併拈出。圓悟歸蜀。師還淛東。鏟彩埋光。不求聞達。括蒼守耿公延禧。甞問道於圓悟。因閱其語錄。至題肖像。得師為人。乃致開法南明山。遣使物色。至臺之報恩。獲於眾寮。迫其受命。方丈古公乃靈源高弟。聞其提唱。亦深駭異。僧問。三聖道。我逢人即出。出則不為人。意旨如何。師曰。八十翁翁嚼生鐵。曰。興化道。我逢人則不出。出即便為人。又作麼生。師曰。須彌頂上浪飜空。問。天不能蓋。地不能載。是甚麼物。師曰。無孔鐵鎚。曰。天人群生。類皆承此恩力也。師曰。莫妄想。問。三世諸佛說不盡底句。請師速道。師曰。眨上眉毛。問。昔年三平道場重興。是日圓悟高提祖印。始自師傳。如何是臨濟宗。師曰。殺人活人不眨眼。曰。目前抽顧鑑。領略者還稀。如何是雲門宗。師曰。頂門三眼耀乾坤。曰。未舉先知。未言先見。如何是溈仰宗。師曰。推不向前。約不退後。曰。三界唯心。萬法唯識。如何是法眼宗。師曰。箭鋒相直不相饒。曰。建化何妨行鳥道。回途復妙顯家風。如何是曹洞宗。師曰。手執夜明符。幾箇知天曉。曰。向上還有路也無。師曰。有。曰。如何是向上路。師曰。黑漫漫地。僧便喝。師曰。貪他一粒粟。失卻半年糧。上堂。威音王已前。這一隊漢錯七錯八。威音王已後。這一隊漢落二落三。而今這一隊漢。坐立儼然。且道是錯七錯八。

A son of the Zhang family of Nanxi in Yongjia. At eighteen he relied on Xigong of Lingshan. After full ordination he studied the Tiantai teaching for three years. He abandoned it and paid homage to Yuanwu at Zhongfu. Because a monk was reading Sixin's minor-gathering words — 'Since you are deluded you must gain an awakening; since you are awakened you must recognize the delusion within awakening and the awakening within delusion; delusion and awakening both forgotten, one then establishes all dharmas from the place of no delusion and no awakening' — the master heard and doubted. He went at once to the Buddha hall, pushed open the door with his hand, and was suddenly thoroughly through. He then attended Wu, and his mechanism and eloquence poured out freely; Yuanwu called him Attendant Yuan the Stubborn-head. He then inscribed his own portrait and gave it to him, saying: 'All his life he speaks only stubborn-head Chan; meeting a stubborn-head he is like an iron wall. Slipping out of the net and cutting off the heels, he gathers up the great earth as black as ink. In late years he turns again to having no knife; he rouses the diamond hammer and smashes the nest and cave. When in future you would know Yuanwu's face, raise them both up for him at once.' When Yuanwu returned to Shu the master went back to eastern Zhe. He shaved off his brilliance and buried his light, seeking no fame. The Kuo-cang prefect Geng Yanxi had once asked Yuanwu about the Way, and because he read his recorded sayings and came to the portrait inscription, he understood the master's way of dealing with people. He then invited him to open the teaching at Nanming Mountain and sent envoys to seek him out. They came to Baoen in Taizhou and found him in the assembly hall; they pressed him to accept the command. The abbot Gu was a senior disciple of Lingyuan, and when he heard his raising and singing he was deeply astonished. A monk asked: 'Sansheng said: I meet a man and at once come out; having come out I do not deal with people. What is the meaning?' The master said: 'An eighty-year-old old man chewing raw iron.' [The monk] said: 'Xinghua said: I meet a man and do not come out; having come out I at once deal with people. What then?' The master said: 'Waves in the sky above the summit of Sumeru.' [A monk] asked: 'Heaven cannot cover it, earth cannot carry it — what thing is it?' The master said: 'A hammer with no hole.' [The monk] said: 'Gods and men and the masses of beings all receive the power of this kindness.' The master said: 'Do not be deluded.' [A monk] asked: 'The phrase that the Buddhas of the three ages cannot finish speaking — I beg the master to speak it quickly.' The master said: 'Raise your eyebrows.' [A monk] asked: 'When the Sanping dharma ground was revived in former years, on that day Yuanwu raised high the ancestral seal; it began to be transmitted from the master. What is the Linji school?' The master said: 'Killing and reviving people without blinking.' [The monk] said: 'Before the eyes drawing and mirroring, yet those who grasp it are still rare. What is the Yunmen school?' The master said: 'Three eyes on the crown illuminate heaven and earth.' [The monk] said: 'Knowing before raising, seeing before speaking. What is the Weiyang school?' The master said: 'Push it and it does not go forward; pull it and it does not go back.' [The monk] said: 'The three realms are mind only, the ten thousand dharmas are consciousness only. What is the Fayan school?' The master said: 'Arrow tips facing each other give no quarter.' [The monk] said: 'How does establishing and transforming hinder walking the bird path? Returning on the road, again the wonder shows the family style. What is the Caodong school?' The master said: 'Holding the night-bright talisman in hand, how many know the dawn?' [The monk] said: 'Is there still a road above?' The master said: 'There is.' [The monk] said: 'What is the road above?' The master said: 'Black and boundless.' The monk gave a shout. The master said: 'Greedy for one grain of millet, he loses half a year's grain.' He ascended the hall: 'Before King Majestic Sound, this bunch of fellows were wrong seven, wrong eight. After King Majestic Sound, this bunch of fellows fall two, fall three. And now this bunch of fellows sit and stand in dignified array. Tell me, are they wrong seven, wrong eight'

落二落三。還定當得出麼。舉拂子曰。吽吽。浴佛。上堂。這釋迦老子初生下來。便作箇笑具。一手指天。一手指地。雲。天上天下。唯我獨尊。後來雲門大師道。我當時若見。一棒打殺與狗子吃卻。貴圖天下太平。尚有人不肯放過。卻道讚祖須是雲門始得。且道那裡是讚他處。莫是一棒打殺處。是麼。且喜沒交涉。今日南明乍此住持。祇得放過。若不放過。盡大地人並皆乞命始得。如今事不獲已。且同大眾向佛殿上。每人與他一杓。何故。豈不見道。乍可違條。不可越例。以拂子擊禪床。下座。上堂。野幹鳴。師子吼。張得眼。開得口。動南星。蹉北斗。大眾還知落處麼。金剛堦下蹲。神龜火裡走。師退居西山。耿龍學請就淨光陞座。靈峰古禪師舉白雲見楊歧．歧令舉茶陵悟道頌公案。請師批判。師乃曰。諸禪德。楊歧大笑。眼觀東南。意在西北。白雲悟去。聽事不真。喚鐘作甕。檢點將來。和楊歧老漢。都在架子上將錯就錯。若是南明即不然。我有明珠一顆。切忌當頭蹉過。雖然覿面相呈。也須一鎚打破。舉拂子曰。還會麼。棊逢敵手難藏行。詩到重吟始見功。師示疾。請西堂應庵華禪師為座元。付囑院事。示訓如常。俄握拳而逝。茶毗得五色舍利。齒舌右拳無少損。塔於寺東劉阮洞前。壽五十三。

'or falling two, falling three? Can you settle it?' He raised his whisk and said: 'Hum, hum.' On the Buddha's bathing festival he ascended the hall: 'This old Shakyamuni, as soon as he was born, made a laughingstock of himself: one finger pointing to heaven, one finger pointing to earth, saying, above heaven and below heaven I alone am honoured. Later Master Yunmen said: if I had seen him then, I would have beaten him to death with one blow and given him to the dogs to eat, just to have peace under heaven. Yet there are still those who will not let him go, saying that to praise the patriarch one must be like Yunmen. Tell me, where is the place he praises him? Is it the place where he beats him to death with one blow? I am glad there is no connection. Today Nanming is newly abbot here and can only let it pass. If he did not let it pass, everyone in the whole great earth would have to beg for their lives. Now, since the matter cannot be helped, let us together, before the Buddha hall, give each of them one ladle. Why? Do you not see it said: better to violate the rule than to exceed the precedent.' He struck the Chan bed with his whisk and descended from the seat. He ascended the hall: 'The jackal howls; the lion roars. He opens his eyes, he opens his mouth. He moves the southern star, stumbles the northern dipper. Great assembly, do you know where it lands? Squatting below the diamond steps, the divine turtle runs in the fire.' The master retired to live at Xishan. Geng Longxue invited him to ascend the seat at Jingguang. Chan Master Gu of Lingfeng brought up the case of Baiyun visiting Yangqi, where Qi had him raise the verse of Chan Master Wudao of Chaling, and asked the master to judge it. The master then said: 'Chan worthies, Yangqi laughed heartily, his eye on the southeast and his mind on the northwest. Baiyun awakened, but his hearing of the matter was not true; he called a bell a jar. Looking at it afterwards, even old man Yangqi is on the shelf, taking a mistake for a mistake. But Nanming is not so. I have one bright pearl; above all do not stumble past it face to face. Though it is presented face to face, it must still be broken with one hammer.' He raised his whisk and said: 'Do you understand? When chess meets a worthy opponent it is hard to hide one's moves; only when a poem is chanted again does the skill show.' The master showed illness and invited Chan Master Yingan Hua of the West Hall to be head seat and entrusted the affairs of the monastery to him. His instructions were as usual. Suddenly he clenched his fist and passed away. After cremation five-coloured relics were obtained; his teeth, tongue, and right fist were not damaged in the least. A stupa was raised east of the monastery before the Liu-Ruan cave. He was fifty-three.

福州玄沙僧昭禪師

Chan Master Sengzhao of Xuansha in Fuzhou

上堂。天上無彌勒。地下無彌勒。且道彌勒在甚麼處。良久曰。夜行莫踏白。不是水便是石。

He ascended the hall: 'Above heaven there is no Maitreya; below earth there is no Maitreya. Tell me, where is Maitreya?' After a long pause he said: 'Walking at night, do not step on the white: if it is not water, it is stone.'

平江府南峰雲辯禪師

Chan Master Yunbian of Nanfeng in Pingjiang Prefecture

本郡人。依閩之瑞峰章得度。旋里謁穹窿圓。忽有得。遂通所見。圓曰。子雖得入。未至當也。切宜著鞭。乃辭扣諸席。後參圓悟。值入室。才踵門。悟曰。看腳下。師打露柱一下。悟曰。何不著實道取一句。師曰。師若搖頭。弟子擺尾。悟曰。你試擺尾看。師飜筋斗而出。悟大笑。由是知名。住後。僧問。如何是奪人不奪境。師曰。覇主到烏江。曰。如何是奪境不奪人。師曰。築壇拜將。曰。如何是人境兩俱奪。師曰。萬裡山河獲太平。曰。如何是人境俱不奪。師曰。龍吟霧起。虎嘯風生。曰。向上還有事也無。師曰。當面蹉過。曰。真箇作家。師曰。白日鬼迷人。一日入城。與道俗行至十郎巷。有問。巷在這裡。十郎在甚處。師奮臂曰。隨我來。

A man of this prefecture. He received ordination under Zhang of Ruifeng in Min. Returning to his district he paid homage to Yuan of Qionglong and suddenly had an attainment; he then reported what he had seen. Yuan said: 'Though you have entered, you have not yet arrived. You should certainly apply the whip.' He then took his leave and knocked at various seats. Later he called on Yuanwu. When he entered the room, as soon as his heel touched the door, Wu said: 'Look at your feet.' The master struck the exposed pillar once. Wu said: 'Why do you not speak one phrase earnestly?' The master said: 'If the master shakes his head, the disciple wags his tail.' Wu said: 'Try wagging your tail.' The master turned a somersault and went out. Wu laughed heartily, and from this he was known. After he became abbot, a monk asked: 'What is snatching the man but not the surroundings?' The master said: 'The hegemon arrives at the Wu River.' [The monk] said: 'What is snatching the surroundings but not the man?' The master said: 'Building an altar and appointing a general.' [The monk] said: 'What is snatching both man and surroundings?' The master said: 'A thousand li of mountains and rivers attain peace.' [The monk] said: 'What is snatching neither man nor surroundings?' The master said: 'The dragon sings and mist rises; the tiger roars and wind is born.' [The monk] said: 'Is there still a matter above?' The master said: 'You stumble past it face to face.' [The monk] said: 'Truly an expert.' The master said: 'In broad daylight a ghost deludes a man.' One day he entered the city and walked with monks and laity to the Tenth Gentleman Lane. Someone asked: 'The lane is here; where is the tenth gentleman?' The master raised his arm and said: 'Follow me.'

臨安府靈隱慧遠佛海禪師

Chan Master Huiyuan, Fohai, of Lingyin in Lin'an Prefecture

眉山彭氏子。年十三。從藥師院宗辯為僧。詣大慈聽習。棄依靈巖徽禪師。微有省。會圓悟復領昭覺。師即之。聞悟普說。舉龐居士問馬祖不與萬法為侶因緣。師忽頓悟。僕於眾。眾掖之。師乃曰。吾夢覺矣。至夜小參。師出問曰。淨躶躶空無一物。赤骨力貧無一錢。戶破家亡。乞師賑濟。悟曰。七珍八寶一時拏。師曰。禍不入謹家之門。悟曰。機不離位。墮在毒海。師隨聲便喝。悟以拄杖擊禪床雲。吃得棒也未。師又喝。悟連喝兩喝。師便禮拜。自此機鋒峻發。無所抵捂。圓悟順寂。師即東下。屢遷名剎。由虎丘奉詔住皐亭崇先。復被旨補靈隱。孝廟召對。賜佛海禪師。上堂。新歲有來由。烹茶上酒樓。一雙為兩腳。半箇有三頭。突出神難辨。相逢鬼見愁。倒吹無孔笛。促拍舞涼州。咄。上堂。好是仲春漸暖。那堪寒食清明。萬疊雲山聳翠。一天風月良隣。在處華紅柳綠。湖天浪穩風平。山禽枝上語諄諄。再三𤨏𤨏碎碎。囑付叮叮嚀嚀。你且道。他叮嚀囑付箇甚麼。卓拄杖曰。記取明年今日。依舊寒食清明。上堂。舉。僧問睦州。以一重去一重即不問。不以一重去一重時如何。州曰。昨日栽茄子。今朝種冬瓜。師曰。問者善問不解答。答者善答不解問。山僧今日。向饑鷹爪下奪肉。猛虎口裡橫身。為你諸人說箇樣子。登壇道士羽衣輕。呪力雖窮法轉新。拇指破開天地闇。虵頭攧落鬼神驚。僧問。十二時中。教學人如何用心。師曰。蘸雪吃冬瓜。問。浩浩塵中如何辨主。師曰。木杓頭邊鐮切菜。曰。莫便是和尚為人處也無。師曰。研槌撩䬪飥。問。即心即佛時如何。師曰。頂分丫角。曰。非心非佛時如何。師曰。耳墜金鐶。曰。不是心。不是佛。不是物。又作麼生。師曰。禿頂修羅舞柘枝。問。東山水上行。意旨如何。師曰。初三十一。不用擇日。問。文殊是七佛之師。為甚麼出女子定不得。師曰。

A son of the Peng family of Meishan. At thirteen he became a monk under Zongbian of the Medicine Master Cloister. He went to Daci to study, then abandoned it to rely on Chan Master Lingyan Hui, and had a slight awakening. When Yuanwu again took charge of Zhaojue the master went to him. He heard Wu's general address in which he brought up the case of Layman Pang asking Mazu about him who is not companion to the ten thousand dharmas, and the master was suddenly enlightened. He fell down in the assembly, and the crowd propped him up. The master then said: 'I have awakened from the dream.' At the minor gathering that night the master came out and asked: 'Stark naked and empty of a single thing, bare-boned and poor without a penny, doors broken and family ruined — I beg the master for relief.' Wu said: 'The seven treasures and eight jewels are seized at once.' The master said: 'Calamity does not enter the gate of the careful house.' Wu said: 'When the mechanism does not leave its position, one falls into the sea of poison.' The master shouted on the spot. Wu struck the Chan bed with his staff and said: 'Have you eaten the blow or not?' The master shouted again. Wu shouted twice in succession. The master then bowed. From this his mechanism and sharpness poured out and nothing blocked him. When Yuanwu passed into quiescence the master went east downriver, and moved through famous monasteries. From Huqiu he was by edict made to reside at Chongxian in Gaoting, and was again by decree appointed to Lingyin. The Xiaozong temple summoned him for audience and bestowed on him the title Chan Master Fohai. He ascended the hall: 'The new year has its reason; boil tea and go up to the wine tower. A pair makes two feet; half of one has three heads. Standing out, even a god cannot tell; meeting, a ghost is stricken with sorrow. Blowing the holeless flute backwards, quickening the beat to dance the Liangzhou. Bah.' He ascended the hall: 'How good that mid-spring gradually warms, yet how can one bear the Cold Food and Clear Bright festivals? Ten thousand folds of cloud-mountains rear up green; one sky of wind and moon is a good neighbour. Everywhere blossoms red and willows green; on the lake the sky is calm and the wind is level. Mountain birds on the branches speak earnestly, over and over, trifling and broken, admonishing and urging. Tell me, what are they admonishing and urging? Plant your staff and say: Remember this day next year; it will still be Cold Food and Clear Bright.' He ascended the hall: he brought up: A monk asked Muzhou, 'Removing one layer by one layer I do not ask about; what about not removing one layer by one layer?' Zhou said, 'Yesterday I planted eggplant; today I plant winter melon.' The master said: 'The questioner asks well but cannot answer; the answerer answers well but cannot ask. The mountain monk today snatches meat from under the hungry hawk's claws and places himself sideways in the tiger's mouth, and will speak a model for you all: The Daoist mounting the altar, his feathered robe light; though his spells are exhausted, the dharma turns new. His thumb split open and heaven and earth went dark; the snake's head knocked down and gods and ghosts were startled.' A monk asked: 'Through the twelve hours, how should a student apply his mind?' The master said: 'Dip in snow and eat winter melon.' [The monk] asked: 'In the vast dust, how does one distinguish the host?' The master said: 'At the edge of the wooden ladle a sickle cuts vegetables.' [The monk] said: 'Is this not the master's way of dealing with people?' The master said: 'A grinding mallet stirs the noodle soup.' [A monk] asked: 'What about when mind itself is Buddha?' The master said: 'The crown parts in forked horns.' [The monk] said: 'What about no-mind, no-Buddha?' The master said: 'Ears hung with golden rings.' [The monk] said: 'Not mind, not Buddha, not a thing — what then?' The master said: 'A bald asura dances the zhe-zhi dance.' [A monk] asked: 'East Mountain walks on water — what is the meaning?' The master said: 'The first and the thirty-first; no need to choose a day.' [A monk] asked: 'Manjushri is the teacher of the seven Buddhas — why could he not bring the woman out of her samadhi?' The master said:

擔頭不掛針。問。昔有一秀才。作無鬼論。論成有一鬼叱曰。爭奈我何。意作麼生。師以手斫額曰。何似生。曰。祇如五祖以手作鵓鳩觜。曰。谷呱呱。又且如何。師曰。自領出去。問。庵內人為甚麼不知庵外事。師曰。拄杖橫挑鐵蒺䔧。問。不與萬法為侶者。是甚麼人。師曰。腳踏轆轤。一日鳴皷陞堂。師潛坐帳中。侍僧尋之。師忽撥開帳曰。祇在這裡。因甚麼不見。僧無對。師曰。大斧斫三門。問僧。一大藏教是惡口。如何是本身盧舍那。僧曰。天台普請。南嶽遊山。師別曰。阿耨達池深四十丈。闊四十丈。乙未秋。示眾曰。淳熙二年閏季秋九月旦。閙處莫出頭。冷地著眼看。明暗不相干。彼此分一半。一種作貴人。教誰賣柴炭。向你道。不可毀。不可讚。體若虗空沒涯岸。相喚相呼歸去來。上元定是正月半。都下喧傳而疑之。明年。忽感微疾。果以上元揮偈。安坐而化。偈曰。拗折秤鎚。掀飜露布。突出機先。鵶飛不度。留七日。顏色不異。塔全身於寺之烏峰。

(The master continued:) 'The carrying pole does not hang a needle.' [A monk] asked: 'Formerly there was a scholar who wrote a treatise on no ghosts. When the treatise was finished a ghost berated him, saying, What can you do to me? What does that mean?' The master chopped his forehead with his hand and said: 'What is it like?' [The monk] said: 'And what of the Fifth Patriarch making his hand into a dove's beak and saying, Gu-gu?' The master said: 'Take yourself out.' [A monk] asked: 'Why does the man inside the hut not know the affairs outside the hut?' The master said: 'The staff carries an iron caltrop across.' [A monk] asked: 'He who is not companion to the ten thousand dharmas — what sort of man is he?' The master said: 'His feet tread the windlass.' One day when the drum was struck and he ascended the hall, the master secretly sat within the curtain. The attendant monk looked for him, and the master suddenly pulled the curtain aside and said: 'He is right here. Why do you not see him?' The monk had no reply. The master said: 'A great axe chops the three gates.' He asked a monk: 'The whole canon is coarse speech. What is Vairocana proper?' The monk said: 'Tiantai issues a general summons; Nanyue goes walking in the mountains.' The master said for him: 'The Anavatapta pool is forty zhang deep and forty zhang wide.' In the autumn of the yiwei year he addressed the assembly: 'The first day of the last month of autumn in the second year of Chun Xi: in the noisy place do not put out your head; in the cold place fix your eyes and look. Bright and dark have nothing to do with each other; each is given half. Being the same kind of noble man, whom will you have sell firewood and charcoal? I tell you: it cannot be reviled, it cannot be praised; its body is like empty space without shore. Call to one another, call to one another, and return — the Lantern Festival is surely the fifteenth of the first month.' The capital spread the news and doubted it. The next year he suddenly fell slightly ill and indeed on the Lantern Festival waved his verse, sat at ease, and passed away. The verse said: 'Snap the steelyard weight; overturn the notice board. Standing out before the mechanism, the crow flies and does not pass.' He was kept seven days, and his countenance was unchanged. His whole body was enshrined in a stupa at Wufeng in the monastery.

台州鴻福子文禪師

Chan Master Ziwen of Hongfu in Taizhou

上堂。不昧不落作麼會。會得依前墮野狐。一夜涼風生畫角。滿船明月泛江湖。

He ascended the hall: 'Not obscuring, not falling — how do you understand it? If you understand, you fall into the wild fox as before. One night a cool wind rises on the painted horn; a whole boat of bright moon drifts on the rivers and lakes.'

成都府正法建禪師

Chan Master Jian of Zhengfa in Chengdu Prefecture

上堂。兔馬有角。牛羊無角。絕毫絕氂。如山如嶽。針鋒上師子飜身。藕竅中大鵬展翼。等閑突過北俱盧。日月星辰一時黑。

He ascended the hall: 'The rabbit and the horse have horns; the ox and the sheep have none. Cutting off the least hair and the least down, it is like a mountain, like a peak. On the tip of a needle a lion turns its body; in the hollow of a lotus root the great peng spreads its wings. At leisure it leaps past Uttarakuru; sun, moon, and stars all at once go dark.'

建康府華藏密印安民禪師

Chan Master Anmin of the Secret Seal at Huazang in Jiankang Prefecture

嘉定府朱氏子。初講楞嚴於成都。為義學所歸。時圓悟居昭覺。師與勝禪師為友。因造焉。聞悟小參。舉國師三喚侍者因緣。趙州拈雲。如人暗中書字。字雖不成。文彩已彰。那裡是文彩已彰處。師心疑之。告香入室。悟問。座主講何經。師曰。楞嚴。悟曰。楞嚴有七處徵心。八還辨見。畢竟心在甚麼處。師多呈藝解。悟皆不肯。師復請益。悟令一切處作文彩已彰會。偶僧請益十玄談。方舉。問君心印作何顏。悟厲聲曰。文彩已彰。師聞而有省。遂求印證。悟示以本色鉗鎚。師則罔措。一日白悟曰。和尚休舉話。待某說看。悟諾。師曰。尋常拈槌竪拂。豈不是經中道。一切世界諸所有相。皆即菩提妙明真心。悟笑曰。你元來在這裡作活計。師又曰。下喝敲床時。豈不是返聞聞自性。性成無上道。悟曰。你豈不見經中道。妙性圓明。離諸名相。師於言下釋然。悟出蜀。居夾山。師罷講侍行。悟為眾夜參。舉古帆未掛因緣。師聞未領。遂求決。悟曰。你問我。師舉前話。悟曰。庭前柏樹子。師即洞明。謂悟曰。古人道。如一滴投於巨壑。殊不知大海投於一滴。悟笑曰。柰這漢何。未幾。令分座。悟說偈曰。休誇四分罷楞嚴。按下雲頭徹底參。莫學亮公親馬祖。還如德嶠訪龍潭。七年往返遊昭覺。三載翱翔上碧巖。今日煩充第一座。百華叢裡現優曇。後謁佛鑑於蔣山。鑑問。佛果有不曾亂為人說底句。曾與你說麼。師曰。合取狗口。鑑震聲曰。不是這箇道理。師曰。無人奪你鹽茶袋。叫作甚麼。鑑曰。佛果若不為你說。我為你說。師曰。和尚疑時。退院別參去。鑑呵呵大笑。師未幾。開法保寧。遷華藏。旋里領中峰。上堂。眾賣華兮獨賣松。青青顏色不如紅。算來終不與時合。歸去來兮翠藹中。可笑古人恁麼道。大似逃峰赴壑。避溺投火。爭如隨分。到尺八五分钁頭邊。討一箇半箇。雖然如是。保寧半箇也不要。

A son of the Zhu family of Jiading Prefecture. He first lectured on the Surangama in Chengdu and was looked up to by the doctrinal students. At that time Yuanwu was residing at Zhaojue, and the master was a friend of Chan Master Sheng; on this account he visited him. He heard Wu's minor gathering in which he brought up the case of the National Teacher calling the attendant three times, on which Zhaozhou commented: 'Like a man writing characters in the dark; though the characters are not completed, their elegance is already manifest. Where is the place where the elegance is already manifest?' The master was doubtful about this. He announced incense and entered the room. Wu asked: 'What scripture does the lecturer expound?' The master said: 'The Surangama.' Wu said: 'The Surangama has seven places of questioning the mind and eight returns distinguishing seeing. After all, where is the mind?' The master offered many clever interpretations, and Wu approved none. The master asked for further instruction, and Wu had him understand everything as the elegance already manifest. Once a monk asked for instruction on the Ten Mysteries Discourse; just as he raised the line 'Sir, what countenance does your mind seal have?', Wu said in a stern voice: 'The elegance is already manifest.' The master heard and had an awakening. He then sought certification, and Wu showed him the native tongs and hammer; the master was at a loss. One day he said to Wu: 'Master, stop raising cases; let me try speaking.' Wu agreed. The master said: 'Ordinarily raising the mallet and the whisk — is this not what the scripture says, that all marks whatsoever in all worlds are precisely bodhi, the wondrous bright true mind?' Wu laughed and said: 'So you have been making your living here all along.' The master said again: 'And when he shouts and strikes the bed, is this not turning the hearing back to hear the self-nature, and the nature accomplishing the supreme Way?' Wu said: 'Do you not see what the scripture says: the wondrous nature is perfect and bright, apart from all names and marks?' At these words the master was released. When Wu left Shu and resided at Jiashan, the master stopped lecturing and attended him. Wu held a night gathering for the assembly and brought up the case of the ancient sail not yet hoisted; the master heard it without grasping it, and sought resolution. Wu said: 'You ask me.' The master raised the earlier words. Wu said: 'The cypress tree in the courtyard.' The master was at once thoroughly clear and said to Wu: 'The ancients said, it is like one drop cast into a great gulf; little did they know that the great sea is cast into one drop.' Wu laughed and said: 'What is to be done with this fellow?' Before long he had him share the seat, and Wu spoke a verse: 'Do not boast of the four divisions or the end of the Surangama; press down the cloud's head and investigate thoroughly. Do not imitate Master Liang who drew close to Mazu; rather be like Deqiao who visited Longtan. Seven years going and returning you wandered at Zhaojue; three years you soared above Biyan. Today I trouble you to fill the first seat; in a thicket of a hundred flowers appear the udumbara.' Later he paid homage to Fojian at Jiangshan. Jian asked: 'Foguo has phrases he never spoke to anyone carelessly — did he ever speak them to you?' The master said: 'Shut your dog mouth.' Jian said in a shaking voice: 'This is not the principle.' The master said: 'No one is snatching your salt and tea bag. What are you called?' Jian said: 'If Foguo did not speak it to you, I will speak it to you.' The master said: 'When the master is in doubt, he should retire from the monastery and call on someone else.' Jian laughed heartily. Before long the master opened the teaching at Baoning, moved to Huazang, and returning to his district took charge of Zhongfeng. He ascended the hall: 'The crowd sells flowers, I alone sell pine; its green-green colour is not as good as red. Reckoning it up, in the end it does not suit the times; let me go home, home to the green mist. How laughable that the ancients spoke like this — much like fleeing the peak for the valley, avoiding drowning by leaping into fire. How much better to be content with one's lot and, at the edge of a foot-eight-five-inch hoe, seek out one or half a man. Even so, Baoning does not want even half.'

何故。富嫌千口少。貧恨一身多。冬至。上堂。舉玉泉皓和尚雲。雪雪片片不別。下到臘月。再從來年正月二月三月四月五月六月七月八月九月十月。依前不歇。凍殺餓殺。免教胡說亂說。師曰。不是罵人。亦非贊歎。高出臨濟德山。不似雲居羅漢。且道玉泉意作麼生。良久曰。但得雪消去。自然春到來。師後示寂於本山。闍維設利頗賸。細民穴地尺許。皆得之。尤光明瑩潔。心舌亦不壞。

'Why? The rich resent a thousand mouths as too few; the poor hate a single body as too many.' At the winter solstice he ascended the hall: he brought up Chan Master Hao of Yuquan's words: 'Snow, snow — flake by flake no different. It falls through the twelfth month, and again from next year's first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth months, and as before does not stop. Freeze to death, starve to death — spare us your wild talk and nonsense.' The master said: 'This is not cursing people, nor is it praise. It stands above Linji and Deshan and is not like the arhats of Yunju. Tell me, what is Yuquan's meaning?' After a long pause he said: 'Only let the snow melt away, and spring will naturally arrive.' The master later passed into quiescence on this mountain. After cremation there were quite a lot of relics; common folk dug a foot into the ground and all obtained them, and they were especially bright and translucent. His heart and tongue also did not decay.

成都府昭覺徹庵道元禪師

Chan Master Daoyuan of the Cheyan Hut at Zhaojue in Chengdu Prefecture

綿州鄧氏子。幼於降寂寺圓具。東遊謁大別道禪師。因看廓然無聖之語。忽爾失笑曰。達磨元來在這裡。道譽之。往參佛鑑．佛眼。蒙賞識。依圓悟於金山。以所見告。悟弗之許。悟被詔往雲居。師從之。雖有信入。終以鯁胷之物未去為疑。會悟問參徒。生死到來時如何。僧曰。香臺子笑和尚。次問師。汝作麼生。師曰。草賊大敗。悟曰。有人問你時如何。師擬答。悟憑陵曰。草賊大敗。師即徹證。圓悟以拳擊之。師拊掌大笑。悟曰。汝見甚麼便如此。師曰。毒拳未報。永劫不忘。悟歸昭覺。命首眾。悟將順世。以師繼席焉。

A son of the Deng family of Mianzhou. He received full ordination as a child at Jiangji Monastery. Travelling east he paid homage to Chan Master Dao of Dabie. Because he read the words 'vast and open, without holiness', he suddenly laughed and said: 'So Bodhidharma was here all along.' Dao praised him. He went to call on Fojian and Foyan and was recognized by them. He relied on Yuanwu at Jinshan and reported what he had seen, but Wu did not approve. When Wu was summoned by edict to Yunju, the master followed him. Though he had entered with faith, he was still doubtful because the thing stuck in his chest had not gone. It happened that Wu asked the assembled students: 'When birth and death arrive, what then?' A monk said: 'The incense terrace laughs at the master.' Then he asked the master: 'What about you?' The master said: 'The straw bandits are utterly defeated.' Wu said: 'When someone asks you, what then?' As the master tried to answer, Wu pressed him, saying: 'The straw bandits are utterly defeated.' The master was at once thoroughly certified. Yuanwu struck him with his fist; the master clapped his hands and laughed heartily. Wu said: 'What have you seen, that you are like this?' The master said: 'The poisonous fist is unrepaid; for kalpas without end I will not forget it.' When Wu returned to Zhaojue he made him head of the assembly. When Wu was about to pass from the world, he had the master succeed to the seat.

臨安府中天竺[仁-二+幻]堂中仁禪師

Chan Master Zhongren of the Huantang Hut at Zhongtianzhu in Lin'an Prefecture

洛陽人也。少依東京奉先院出家。宣和初。賜牒於慶基殿。落髮進具後。往來三藏譯經所。諦窮經論。特於宗門未之信。時圓悟居天寧。凌晨謁之。悟方為眾入室。師見敬服。奮然造前。悟曰。依經解義。三世佛冤。離經一字。即同魔說。速道。速道。師擬對。悟劈口擊之。因墜一齒。即大悟。留天寧。由是師資契合。請問無間。後開法大覺。遷中天竺。次徙靈峰。上堂。九十春光已過半。養華天氣正融和。海棠枝上鶯聲好。道與時流見得麼。然雖如是。且透聲透色一句作麼生道。金勒馬嘶芳草地。玉樓人醉杏華天。上堂。舉狗子無佛性話。乃曰。二八佳人刺繡遲。紫荊華下囀黃鸝。可憐無限傷春意。盡在停針不語時。淳熙甲午四月八日。孝宗皇帝詔入。賜座說法。帝舉不與萬法為侶因緣。俾拈提。師拈罷。頌曰。秤鎚搦出油。閑言長語休。腰纏十萬貫。騎鶴上楊州。癸亥中陞堂。告眾而逝。

A man of Luoyang. As a youth he left home at Fengxian Cloister in the Eastern Capital. In the early Xuan He period he was granted his certificate at Qingji Hall, and after shaving his head and taking full precepts he went back and forth to the Tripitaka translation bureau, thoroughly exhausting the scriptures and treatises. He had no faith at all in the Chan school. At that time Yuanwu was residing at Tianning, and the master paid homage to him at dawn. Wu was just then receiving the assembly into the room, and the master was filled with respect at the sight; he roused himself and stepped forward. Wu said: 'To interpret the meaning according to the scripture is to wrong the Buddhas of the three ages; to depart from the scripture by a single word is to speak as Mara does. Speak quickly, speak quickly.' As the master tried to answer, Wu struck him on the mouth, knocking out a tooth, and he was at once greatly enlightened. He stayed at Tianning, and from this teacher and disciple were in accord, and he questioned and asked without pause. Later he opened the teaching at Dajue, moved to Zhongtianzhu, and next to Lingfeng. He ascended the hall: 'Of the ninety days of spring, more than half have passed; the weather for nurturing flowers is just now mild. On the crab-apple branches the oriole's voice is lovely. Tell me, do people of the age see it? Even so, how will you speak the one phrase that penetrates sound and penetrates form? The gold-bitted horse neighs in the fragrant grass; the man in the jade tower is drunk under the apricot blossom sky.' He ascended the hall: he brought up the case of the dog lacking Buddha-nature, and said: 'The sixteen-year-old beauty embroiders slowly; below the redbud blossoms the oriole warbles. Pitiable the endless spring-longing, all in the moment the needle stops and she says nothing.' On the eighth day of the fourth month of the jiawu year of Chun Xi, Emperor Xiaozong summoned him in, granted him a seat, and had him expound the dharma. The emperor brought up the case of him who is not companion to the ten thousand dharmas and had him comment on it. After the master's comment he spoke a verse: 'Squeeze oil out of the steelyard weight; idle words and long speeches, stop. With a hundred thousand strings of cash about the waist, ride the crane up to Yangzhou.' In the guihai year, in the hall, he addressed the assembly and passed away.

眉州象耳山袁覺禪師

Chan Master Yuanjue of Xiang'er Mountain in Meizhou

郡之袁氏子。出家傳燈。試經得度。本名圓覺。郡守填祠牒。誤作袁字。疑師慊然。戲謂之曰。一字名可乎。師笑曰。一字已多。郡守異之。既受具出蜀。徧謁有道尊宿。後往大溈。依佛性。頃之。入室陳所見。性曰。汝忒煞遠在。然知其為法器。俾充侍者。掌賓客。師每侍性。性必舉法華開示悟入四字。令下語。又曰。直待我竪點頭時。汝方是也。偶不職。被斥。制中無依。寓俗士家。一日誦法華至亦復不知。何者是火。何者為舍。乃豁然。制罷歸省。性見首肯之。圓悟再得旨住雲居。師至彼。以所得白悟。悟呵雲。本是淨地。屙屎作麼。師所疑頓釋。紹興丁巳。眉之象耳虗席。郡守謂此道場久為蟊螣囊槖。非名流勝士。莫能起廢。諸禪舉師應聘。甞語客曰。東坡雲。我持此石歸。袖中有東海。山谷雲。惠崇煙雨蘆鴈。坐我瀟湘洞庭。欲喚扁舟歸去。傍人謂是丹青。此禪髓也。又曰。我敲床竪拂時。釋迦老子．孔夫子都齊立在下風。有舉此語似佛海遠禪師。遠曰。此覺老語也。我此間即不恁麼。

A son of the Yuan family of this prefecture. He left home to transmit the lamp, and was ordained after examination. His original name was Yuanjue; when the prefect filled in the shrine certificate he mistakenly wrote the character Yuan, and fearing the master would be displeased, he joked: 'Would a one-character name do?' The master laughed and said: 'One character is already too much.' The prefect found him extraordinary. After taking full precepts he left Shu, paying homage to all the venerable elders who had the Way. Later he went to Dawei and relied on Foxing. After a while he entered the room and set forth what he had seen. Xing said: 'You are far, far off.' But knowing him to be a vessel of the dharma, he had him serve as attendant and take charge of guests. Whenever the master attended Xing, Xing would always bring up the four characters of the Lotus Sutra: opening, showing, awakening, entering, and have him set down a phrase. He also said: 'Wait until I nod my head, and then you will be right.' Once the master was remiss in his duties and was dismissed. During the mourning period he had no support and lodged with a layman. One day he recited the Lotus Sutra up to 'and again they do not know what fire is, what house is' and was suddenly clear. When the mourning period ended he returned to pay his respects; Xing saw him and nodded approval. When Yuanwu again received the order to reside at Yunju, the master went there and reported to Wu what he had attained. Wu rebuked him: 'This is originally pure ground; why shit here?' The master's doubt was at once released. In the dingsi year of Shaoxing the seat at Xiang'er in Meizhou was vacant, and the prefect said that this dharma ground had long been a storehouse for vermin and that only a famous and outstanding man could revive it. The Chan monks all recommended the master, who accepted. He once said to a guest: 'Su Dongpo said: I carry this stone home; in my sleeve there is the Eastern Sea. Huang Shangu said: Hui Chong's misty rain and reeds and geese set me in the Xiao and Xiang and Dongting; I want to call a flat boat and go home, but bystanders say it is a painting. This is the marrow of Chan.' He also said: 'When I strike the bed and raise the whisk, old Shakyamuni and Confucius both stand together downwind.' Someone brought these words to Chan Master Yuan of Fohai. Yuan said: 'These are old Jue's words. In my place it is not so.'

眉州中巖華嚴祖覺禪師

Chan Master Zujue of Huayan at Zhongyan in Meizhou

嘉州楊氏子。幼聰慧。書史過目成誦。著書排釋氏。惡境忽現。悔過出家。依慧目能禪師。未幾。疽發膝上。五年醫莫愈。因書華嚴合論畢。夜感異夢。旦即捨杖步趨。一日。誦至現相品曰。佛身無有生。而能示出生。法性如虗空。諸佛於中住。無住亦無去。處處皆見佛。遂悟華嚴宗旨。洎登僧籍。府帥請講於千部堂。詞辯宏放。眾所歎服。適南堂靜禪師過門。謂師曰。觀公講說。獨步西南。惜未解離文字相耳。儻問道方外。即今之周金剛也。師欣然罷講。南遊依圓悟於鍾阜。一日入室。悟舉。羅山道。有言時。踞虎頭。收虎尾。第一句下明宗旨。無言時。覿露機鋒。如同電拂。作麼生會。師莫能對。夙夜參究。忽然有省。作偈呈悟曰。家住孤峰頂。長年半掩門。自嗟身已老。活計付兒孫。悟見許可。次日入室。悟又問。昨日公案作麼生。師擬對。悟便喝曰。佛法不是這箇道理。師復留五年。愈更迷悶。後於廬山棲賢閱浮山遠禪師削執論雲。若道悟有親疎。豈有旃檀林中卻生臭草。豁然契悟。作偈寄圓悟曰。出林依舊入蓬蒿。天網恢恢不可逃。誰信業緣無避處。歸來不怕語聲高。悟大喜。持以示眾曰。覺華嚴徹矣。住後。僧問。最初威音王。末後婁至佛。未審參見甚麼人。師曰。家住大梁城。更問長安路。曰。只如德山擔疏鈔行腳。意在甚麼處。師曰。拶破你眼睛。曰。與和尚悟華嚴宗旨相去幾何。師曰。同途不同轍。曰。昔日德山。今朝和尚。師曰。夕陽西去水東流。上堂。舉石霜和尚遷化。眾請首座繼踵住持。䖍侍者所問公案。師曰。宗師行處。如火消冰。透過是非關。全機亡得喪。盡道首座滯在一色。侍者知見超師。可謂體妙失宗。全迷向背。殊不知首座如鷺鷥立雪。品類不齊。侍者似鳳翥丹霄。不縈金網。一人高高山頂立。一人深深海底行。各自隨方而來。同會九重城裡。而今要識此二人麼。

A son of the Yang family of Jiazhou. He was clever from childhood; histories and books he could recite after one reading. He wrote a book refuting Buddhism. A hateful state suddenly appeared, and he repented and left home, relying on Chan Master Huimu Neng. Before long a carbuncle broke out on his knee, and for five years no doctor could cure it. Because he finished writing the combined commentary on the Huayan, at night he had a strange dream; at dawn he threw away his cane and walked. One day he recited up to the Manifestation chapter: 'The Buddha's body has no birth, yet it can show birth. The dharma nature is like empty space; all Buddhas dwell within it. Without abiding and without going, everywhere one sees the Buddha.' He then understood the purport of the Huayan. When he entered the monk's register, the prefectural commander invited him to lecture at the Thousand Fascicles Hall, and his words and eloquence were vast and unrestrained, and the assembly admired him. It happened that Chan Master Jing of the Southern Hall passed by the gate and said to the master: 'Looking at your exposition, you are alone in the southwest. It is a pity you have not yet understood leaving the marks of letters. If you asked about the Way beyond the forms, you would be the Zhou Jingang of today.' The master gladly stopped lecturing and travelled south, relying on Yuanwu at Zhongfu. One day he entered the room. Wu brought up: Luoshan said, when there are words, squat on the tiger's head and gather in the tiger's tail; under the first phrase make clear the purport. When there are no words, expose the mechanism's edge like a flash of lightning. How do you understand it? The master could not answer. He investigated day and night, and suddenly had an awakening. He made a verse and presented it to Wu: 'My home is on the summit of the lone peak; all year the gate is half closed. I sigh that I am already old; my livelihood I hand to my sons and grandsons.' Wu saw it and approved. The next day he entered the room, and Wu asked again: 'What about yesterday's case?' As the master tried to answer, Wu shouted and said: 'The Buddha-dharma is not this principle.' The master stayed another five years, growing more and more bewildered. Later, at Qixian on Mount Lu, he read Chan Master Yuan of Fushan's Discourse on Cutting Away Attachment: 'If you say awakening is near or distant, how could there be stinking grass growing in a sandalwood grove?' He was suddenly in accord and awakened. He made a verse and sent it to Yuanwu: 'Leaving the grove, one still enters the brushwood; the net of heaven is vast and cannot be escaped. Who believes that the karmic conditions have nowhere to avoid? Coming home, I do not fear speaking loudly.' Wu was delighted and held it up before the assembly: 'Jue of the Huayan has seen through.' After he became abbot, a monk asked: 'The first King Majestic Sound, and the last Buddha Rucika — I wonder whom you met and studied under?' The master said: 'My home is in the city of Daliang; ask further about the road to Chang'an.' [The monk] said: 'Just so, Deshan carried his commentaries and travelled — what was his intention?' The master said: 'It will burst your eyes.' [The monk] said: 'How far is it from the master's understanding of the Huayan purport?' The master said: 'The same road, not the same ruts.' [The monk] said: 'Deshan of former days, the master of today.' The master said: 'The setting sun goes west, the water flows east.' He ascended the hall: he brought up the case of Chan Master Shishuang's passing away, when the assembly asked the head seat to succeed him as abbot, and the question asked by the attendant Qian. The master said: 'The master's course of action is like fire melting ice. Passing through the barrier of right and wrong, the whole mechanism loses gain and loss. Everyone says the head seat was stuck in one colour and the attendant's knowledge surpassed his teacher; this may be called realizing the wonder but losing the school, wholly deluded as to facing and turning. They little know that the head seat is like an egret standing in snow, its kind not uniform; the attendant is like a phoenix soaring in the crimson sky, not entangled in golden nets. One stands high on the mountain top; one walks deep at the bottom of the sea. Each came from his own quarter, and together they meet in the city of ninefold gates. Now, do you want to know these two men?'

竪起拂子曰。龍臥碧潭風凜凜。垂下拂子曰。鶴歸霄漢背摩天。僧問。如何是一喝如金剛王寶劍。師曰。血濺梵天。曰。如何是一喝如踞地師子。師曰。驚殺野狐狸。曰。如何是一喝如探竿影草。師曰。驗得你骨出。曰。如何是一喝不作一喝用。師曰。直須識取把針人。莫道鴛鴦好毛羽。

He raised his whisk and said: 'The dragon lies in the jade pool, the wind piercing cold.' He lowered his whisk and said: 'The crane returns to the heavens, its back brushing the sky.' A monk asked: 'What is a shout like the diamond king's precious sword?' The master said: 'Blood splashes to the Brahma heaven.' [The monk] said: 'What is a shout like a crouching lion?' The master said: 'Frightening a wild fox to death.' [The monk] said: 'What is a shout like a probing pole and shadow grass?' The master said: 'It will test you to the bone.' [The monk] said: 'What is a shout that is not used as a shout?' The master said: 'You must recognize the one who holds the needle; do not say the mandarin duck has fine feathers.'

潭州福嚴文演禪師

Chan Master Wenyan of Fuyan in Tanzhou

成都府楊氏子。僧問。如何是定林正主。師曰。坐斷天下人舌頭。曰。未審如何親近。師曰。覷著則瞎。上堂。當陽坐斷。凡聖跡絕。隨手放開。天回地轉。直得日月交互。虎嘯龍吟。頭頭物物。耳聞目眎。安立諦上是甚麼。還委悉麼。阿斯吒。咄。

A son of the Yang family of Chengdu Prefecture. A monk asked: 'What is the true master of Dinglin?' The master said: 'Sitting and cutting off the tongues of everyone under heaven.' [The monk] said: 'I wonder how one draws near?' The master said: 'Look at him and you go blind.' He ascended the hall: 'Sitting and cutting off in the bright sun, the traces of ordinary and sage are gone. Letting go as the hand wills, heaven turns and earth turns. It reaches the point where sun and moon alternate, the tiger roars and the dragon sings. Every head, every thing, heard by ear and seen by the eye — what is it on the level of established truth? Do you understand? Ah-sa-ta. Bah.'