The Blue Cliff Record of Chan Master Foguo Yuanwu

至聖命脈。列祖大機。換骨靈方。頤神妙術。其惟雪竇禪師。具超宗越格正眼。提掇正令。不露風規。秉烹佛煅祖鉗鎚。頌出衲僧向上巴鼻。銀山鐵壁。孰敢鑽研。蚊咬鐵牛。難為下口。不逢大匠。焉悉玄微。粵有佛果老人。住碧巖日。學者迷而請益。老人愍以垂慈。剔抉淵源。剖析底理。當陽直指。豈立見知。百則公案。從頭一串穿來。一隊老漢。次第總將按過。須知趙璧本無瑕纇。相如謾誑秦王。至道實乎無言。宗師垂慈救弊。儻如是見。方知徹底老婆。其或泥句沈言。未免滅佛種族。(普照)幸親師席。得聞未聞。道友集成簡編。鄙拙敘其本末。時建炎戊申。暮春晦日。參學嗣祖比丘(普照)謹序。

The very lifeblood of the supreme sages, the great mechanism of the successive patriarchs, the wondrous prescription for changing one's bones, the subtle art of nourishing the spirit: all of this belongs to Chan Master Xuedou. He possessed the true eye that went beyond the school and out of all rules; he raised the true command without revealing any style, wielded the tongs and hammer that cook buddhas and forge patriarchs, and sang out in verse the very nose-handle of the monk's upward turn. A silver mountain and iron wall: who dares to bore into it? A mosquito biting an iron ox: there is nowhere to sink its teeth. Without meeting a great craftsman, how could one fully know its profound subtlety? So there was the old man Foguo, who during his days dwelling at Blue Cliff, when students came confused to ask for instruction, took pity on them and let fall his compassion, scooping out the source and dissecting the principle to the bottom, pointing directly in the open light of day, so how could any view or knowledge still stand? A hundred cases are strung through from beginning to end; a whole line of old fellows are pressed down in turn. You must know that the jade disc of Zhao never had any flaw, and Lin Xiangru merely deceived the King of Qin. The utmost Way truly lies in wordlessness, and the teacher lets fall compassion in order to rescue what is faulty. If you see it this way, you will know the old-womanly kindness that goes all the way through. But if you are still stuck in phrases and sunk in words, you inevitably wipe out the Buddha's lineage. (Puzhao) was fortunate to attend the master's seat in person and hear what I had never heard. Fellow practitioners compiled it into a brief volume, and I clumsily set out its beginning and end. In the wuxu year of the Jianyan era, on the last day of late spring, written respectfully by the Dharma-heir bhikshu (Puzhao), a student of the school.

自四十二章經入中國。始知有佛。自達磨至六祖傳衣。始有言句。曰本來無一物為南宗。曰時時勤拂拭為北宗。於是有禪宗頌古行世。其徒有翻案法。呵佛罵祖。無所不為。間有深得吾詩家活法者。然所謂第一義。焉用言句。雪竇圜悟。老婆心切。大慧已一炬丙之矣。嵎中張煒明遠。燃死灰復板行。亦所謂老婆心切者歟。大德四年庚子。四月初八日癸丑。紫陽山方回萬裡序。

Only after the Sutra of Forty-Two Sections entered China did people know there was a Buddha. Only after Bodhidharma, with the transmission of the robe down to the Sixth Patriarch, were there words and phrases. The one who said that originally there is not a single thing was the Southern school, and the one who said to wipe it diligently at all times was the Northern school. Then Chan verses on the old cases circulated in the world. Their followers had a method of overturning verdicts, scolding buddhas and cursing patriarchs, leaving nothing undone. Now and then some deeply attained the living method of us poets. Yet as for the so-called first principle, what use is there for words and phrases? Xuedou and Yuanwu were all too old-womanly in their kindness, and Dahui already burned it with a single fire. Zhang Wei, called Mingyuan, of Yuzhong, relit the dead ashes and carved the blocks to print it, which may also be called old-womanly kindness. In the fourth year of Dade, the gengzi year, on the eighth day of the fourth month, a guichou day, written by Fang Hui, called Wanli, of Ziyang Mountain.

碧巖集者。圜悟大師之所述也。其大弟子大慧禪師。乃焚棄其書。世間種種法皆忌執著。釋子所歸敬莫如佛。猶有時而罵之。蓋有我而無彼。由我而不由彼也。捨己徇物。必至於失己。夫心與道一。道與萬物一。充滿太虛。何適而非道。第常人觀之。能見其所見。而不見其所不見。求之於人。而人語之。如東坡日喻之說。往復推測。愈遠愈失。自吾夫子體道。猶欲無言。而況佛氏為出世間法。而可文字言語而求之哉。雖然亦有不可廢者。智者少而愚者多。已學者少未學者多。大藏經五千餘卷。盡為未來世設。苟可以忘言。釋迦老子便當閉口。何至如是叨叨。天下之理。固有不離尋常之中。而超出於尋常之表。雖若易知。而實未易知者。不求之於人。則終身不可得。古者名世之人。非千人之英。則萬人之傑也。太阿之劍。天下之利劍也。登山則戮虎豹。入水則剸蛟龍。人之知之。盡於是已。然古人有善用之者。乘城而戰。順風而揮之。三軍為之大敗。流血赭乎千里。是豈可以一己之所能。而盡疑之哉。自吾聞有是書。求之甚至。嵎中張氏。始更刻木。來謀於予。遂贊而成之。且為題其首。大德九年歲乙巳。三月吉日。玉岑休休居士。聊城周馳。書於錢唐觀橋寓舍。

The Blue Cliff Collection was composed by the great master Yuanwu. His chief disciple, Chan Master Dahui, burned and discarded this book. All kinds of dharmas in the world are to be shunned as attachments. What Buddhist disciples revere most is none other than the Buddha, and yet at times they scold him. This is having self and no other, going by self and not by the other. To abandon oneself and pursue things must end in losing oneself. When the mind is one with the Way, and the Way is one with the myriad things, filling the Great Void, where is there that is not the Way? It is only that ordinary people looking at it can see what they have seen but cannot see what they have not seen. If one seeks it from others and others tell him, it is like Su Dongpo's parable of the sun: guessing back and forth, the further one goes the more one misses. Since our Master Confucius embodied the Way and still wished to be wordless, how much more so the Buddhists, whose teaching is a world-transcending dharma: can one seek it through written words and speech? Even so, there is something that cannot be discarded. The wise are few and the foolish many, those who have studied are few and those who have not are many. The Tripitaka's more than five thousand scrolls are all established for future ages. If words could be forgotten, old Shakyamuni should have kept his mouth shut; why would he be so garrulous? The principle of the world indeed does not depart from the ordinary and yet goes beyond the ordinary; although it seems easy to know, in truth it is not easy to know. If one does not seek it from others, one will never get it in one's whole life. The famous people of old were either the finest among a thousand or the best among ten thousand. The Taie sword is the sharpest sword under heaven. Climbing mountains, it kills tigers and leopards; entering water, it slays flood dragons; what people know of it stops there. Yet among the ancients there was one who used it well: he ascended the city wall to fight and swung it with the wind, and the three armies were thereby utterly defeated, the blood dyeing a thousand li red. How could one, because of what one can do oneself, doubt it entirely? Since I heard of this book, I sought it very earnestly. Only when Master Zhang of Yuzhong carved the blocks again did he consult with me. So I helped bring it about and also inscribed this at the head of the volume. In the ninth year of Dade, the yisi year, on an auspicious day in the third month, Layman Xiuxiu of Yucen, Zhou Chi of Liaocheng, wrote this at his lodging by Guanqiao in Qiantang.

或問。碧巖集之成毀孰是乎。曰皆是也。齴齲來東單傳心印。不立文字固也。而血脈歸空諸論。果誰為之哉。古謂不在文字不離文字者。真知言。已使人人於卷簾聞板竪指觸腳之際。了卻大事。文字何有哉。拈花微笑以來。門竿倒卻之後。才涉言句。非文字無以傳。是又不可廢者也。甞謂祖教之書。謂之公案者。倡於唐而盛於宋。其來尚矣。二字乃世間法中吏牘語。其用有三。面壁功成。行腳事了。定槃之星難明。野狐之趣易墮。具眼為之勘辨。一呵一喝。要見實詣。如老吏據獄讞罪。底裡悉見。情欵不遺一也。其次則嶺南初來。西江未吸。亡羊之岐易泣。指海之針必南。悲心為之接引。一棒一痕要令證悟。如廷尉執法平反。出人於死二也。又其次則犯稼憂深。繫驢事重。學弈之志須專。染絲之色易悲。大善知識為之付囑。俾之心死蒲團。一動一參。如官府頒示條令。令人讀律知法。惡念才生。旋即寢滅三也。具方冊。作案底。陳機境。為格令。與世間所謂金科玉條清明對越諸書。初何以異。祖師所以立為公案。留示叢林者。意或取此。柰何末法以來。求妙心於瘡紙。付正法於口談。點盡鬼神。猶不離簿。傍人門戶。任喚作郎。劍去矣而舟猶刻。兔逸矣而株不移。滿肚葛藤。能問千轉。其於生死大事。初無干涉。鐘鳴漏盡。將焉用之。烏乎。羚羊掛角。未可以形跡求。而善學下慧者。豈步亦步。趨亦趨哉。知此則二老之心皆是矣。圜悟顧子念孫之心多。故重拈雪竇頌。大慧救焚拯溺之心多。故立毀碧巖集。釋氏說一大藏經。末後乃謂。不曾說一字。豈欺我哉圜悟之心。釋氏說經之心也。大慧之心。釋氏諱說之心也。禹稷顏子易地皆然。推之輓之。主於車行而已。爾來二百餘年。嵎中張明遠。復鏤梓。以壽其傳。豈祖教回春乎。抑世故有數乎。然是書之行。所關甚重。若見水即海。認指作月。不特大慧憂之。

Someone asked: Of the making and the destroying of the Blue Cliff Collection, which is right? The answer: Both are right. Bodhidharma came to the Eastern Land and transmitted the mind seal alone, setting up no written words; that is indeed so. But who, after all, composed the treatises on the bloodline and on returning to emptiness? The ancients said that what is neither in written words nor apart from written words is truly knowing speech. If one has already led everyone to finish the great matter amid rolling up a blind, hearing a board, raising a finger, or striking a foot, what use are written words? After the flower was held up and smiled at, and after the flagpole was toppled at the gate, once one touches on words and phrases, without written words there is no transmission; this too cannot be discarded. It was once said that the books of the patriarchal teaching, called gong'an (public cases), were initiated in the Tang and flourished in the Song, and have long been so. The two words originally belong to the language of official documents in worldly dharma, and their use is threefold. First, when one has completed the work of facing the wall and finished the travels on foot, but the guiding star is hard to see clearly and the wild-fox interest is easy to fall into, one with the eye examines and discerns for him, with a shout and a rebuke, wanting to see his true attainment, as an old official, holding a case, judges a crime, seeing the bottom of it with nothing in the facts omitted; this is the first. Next, when one has just come from south of the ridge and has not yet drunk from the Western River, when the forked road of the lost sheep is easy to weep at and the needle pointing at the sea always faces south, compassion receives and guides him, with a blow and a scar demanding realization, as a magistrate enforcing the law reverses a verdict and saves a man from death; this is the second. And next, when one fears damage to the crops and the matter of the tethered donkey is serious, when the will of one learning chess must be single and the color of dyed silk easily saddens, a great good teacher entrusts it to him so that his mind dies on the meditation cushion, and in every movement and every inquiry, like an official's posted ordinance letting people read the statutes and know the law, a wicked thought, as soon as it arises, is extinguished; this is the third. Preparing volumes as the basis of a case, setting out the occasions and circumstances as rules and orders, how were these at first different from what the world calls golden rules and jade regulations, or the books of clear and open response? This is probably what the patriarchs had in mind in setting up the gong'an and leaving them to show the monasteries. How could it be that since the age of the decline of the Dharma, people seek the wondrous mind in rotten paper and hand the true Dharma over to talk, who even exhaust spirits and ghosts yet still do not leave the account books, rely on other people's doorways, and let others call them young gentlemen? The sword is already gone yet the mark is still cut on the boat, the rabbit has already run off yet the stump is not moved, their bellies full of tangled vines, able to ask a thousand turns; with regard to the great matter of life and death, at first they have no connection, and when the bell sounds and the water clock runs out, what will they do with it? Alas. The antelope hangs by its horns and cannot be sought in traces, and one who learns well from Liuxia Hui is not one who steps when others step and hurries when others hurry. Know this, and the hearts of both old masters are right. Yuanwu, caring much for his descendants, took up Xuedou's verses anew. Dahui, with the heart of one rescuing people from fire and water, resolved to destroy the Blue Cliff Collection. The Buddhists spoke a whole Tripitaka, yet at the end said they had never spoken a single word. How could that be deceiving me? Yuanwu's heart is the heart with which the Buddha spoke the sutras. Dahui's heart is the heart that the Buddha avoided speaking. Yu, Ji and Master Yan were the same, changing places. Pushing and pulling, the point lies only in the cart's moving along. In recent times, over two hundred years on, Zhang Mingyuan of Yuzhong has had the blocks carved again so that it will be handed down for a long time. Is this the patriarchal teaching returning to spring, or does the world have its own fixed number? Even so, the circulation of this book is of great weight. If one sees water and takes it for the sea, or takes the finger for the moon, then not only Dahui would worry about it.

而圜悟又將為之去粘解縛矣。昔人寫照之詩曰。分明紙上張公子。盡力高聲喚不譍。欲觀此書。先參此語。大德甲辰四月望。三教老人書。

And Yuanwu would again have to loosen and untie them. A former poem on a portrait says: Clearly the young Master Zhang on the paper, shout as loud as you can he does not answer. If you want to read this book, first investigate this line. Written by the Old Man of the Three Teachings on the fifteenth of the fourth month of the jiachen year of Dade.

師住澧州夾山靈泉禪院評唱雪竇顯和尚頌古語要

The master, dwelling at Lingquan Chan Monastery on Mount Jia in Lizhou, commented on the key words of Reverend Xuedou Xian's verses on the old cases

垂示雲。隔山見煙。早知是火。隔牆見角。便知是牛。舉一明三。目機銖兩。是衲僧家尋常茶飯。至於截斷眾流。東湧西沒。逆順縱橫。與奪自在。正當恁麼時。且道。是什麼人行履處。看取雪竇葛藤。

Introduction. Seeing smoke across a mountain, you already know there is fire. Seeing horns over a wall, you know there is an ox. Raising one and understanding three, weighing at a glance down to the ounce, this is everyday tea and rice for monks. As for cutting off the many streams, surging up in the east and sinking in the west, going against and with, vertical and horizontal, granting and taking free: at just such a time, tell me, whose walking ground is this? Look at Xuedou's tangled vines.

【一】舉梁武帝問達磨大師(說這不唧𠺕漢)如何是聖諦第一義(是甚繫驢橛)磨雲。廓然無聖(將謂多少奇特。箭過新羅。可殺明白)帝曰。對朕者誰(滿面慚惶。強惺惺果然。摸索不著)磨雲。不識(咄。再來不直半文錢)帝不契(可惜許。卻較些子)達磨遂渡江至魏(這野狐精。不免一場懡㦬。從西過東。從東過西)帝後舉問志公(貧兒思舊債。傍人有眼)志公雲。陛下還識此人否(和志公趕出國始得。好與三十棒。達磨來也)帝雲。不識(卻是武帝承當得達磨公案)志公雲。此是觀音大士。傳佛心印(胡亂指注。臂膊不向外曲)帝悔。遂遣使去請(果然把不住。向道不唧𠺕)志公雲。莫道陛下發使去取(東家人死。西家人助哀。也好一時趕出國)闔國人去。他亦不回(志公也好與三十棒。不知腳跟下放大光明)。

[Case 1] Cited: Emperor Wu of Liang asked the Great Master Bodhidharma (these bracketed remarks are Yuanwu's interjected comments, not the words of people in the case: Speaking of this clumsy fellow. The original text has a variant character here, meaning not nimble), "What is the first principle of the holy truths?" (What kind of stake for tethering a donkey is this?) Bodhidharma said, "Vast emptiness, nothing holy." (You still think there is something special? The arrow has already passed Silla. Terribly clear.) The Emperor said, "Who is facing me?" (His face full of shame and fluster. Insisting on being clever, he naturally gropes and finds nothing.) Bodhidharma said, "I don't know." (Ha. If he comes again he isn't worth half a copper.) The Emperor did not accord. (What a pity. Still, it's somewhat better.) Bodhidharma then crossed the river to Wei. (This wild fox spirit. He can't avoid a fit of vexation. From the west to the east. From the east to the west.) Later the Emperor brought it up and asked Master Zhi. (The poor boy thinks of his old debts. Someone beside him has eyes.) Master Zhi said, "Does Your Majesty know who that man was?" (He should be driven out of the country along with Zhi. He deserves thirty blows. Bodhidharma has come.) The Emperor said, "I don't know." (Yet it is Emperor Wu who can bear Bodhidharma's case.) Master Zhi said, "That was Avalokitesvara, the Great Being, transmitting the Buddha's mind seal." (Pointing wildly. The arm does not bend outward.) The Emperor regretted it. So he sent an envoy to invite him. (Sure enough, he can't hold himself. I said early he was clumsy.) Master Zhi said, "Don't say that Your Majesty sends an envoy to fetch him," (When someone in the east family dies, the west family helps mourn. He too should be driven out of the country together.) "even if everyone in the whole country went, he would not return." (Zhi too deserves thirty blows. He doesn't know that great light is shining beneath his own feet.)

達磨遙觀此土有大乘根器。遂泛海得得而來。單傳心印。開示迷塗。不立文字。直指人心。見性成佛。若恁麼見得。便有自由分。不隨一切語言轉。脫體現成。便能於後頭。與武帝對譚。並二祖安心處。自然見得。無計較情塵。一刀截斷。灑灑落落。何必更分是分非。辨得辨失。雖然恁麼。能有幾人。武帝甞披袈裟。自講放光般若經。感得天花亂墜地變黃金。辨道奉佛。誥詔天下。起寺度僧。依教修行。人謂之佛心天子。達磨初見武帝。帝問。朕起寺度僧。有何功德。磨雲。無功德。早是惡水驀頭澆。若透得這箇無功德話。許爾親見達磨。且道。起寺度僧。為什麼都無功德。此意在什麼處。帝與婁約法師傅大士昭明太子。持論真俗二諦。據教中說。真諦以明非有。俗諦以明非無。真俗不二。即是聖諦第一義。此是教家極妙窮玄處。帝便拈此極則處。問達磨。如何是聖諦第一義。磨雲。廓然無聖。天下衲僧跳不出。達磨與他一刀截斷。如今人多少錯會。卻去弄精魂。瞠眼睛雲。廓然無聖。且喜沒交涉。五祖先師甞說。只這廓然無聖。若人透得。歸家穩坐。一等是打葛藤。不妨與他打破漆桶。達磨就中奇特。所以道。參得一句透。千句萬句一時透。自然坐得斷把得定。古人道。粉骨碎身未足酬。一句瞭然超百億。達磨劈頭與他一拶。多少漏逗了也。帝不省。卻以人我見故。再問對朕者誰。達磨慈悲忒殺。又向道不識。直得武帝眼目定動不知落處。是何言說。到這裡有事無事。拈來即不堪。端和尚有頌雲。一箭尋常落一鵰。更加一箭已相饒。直歸少室峰前坐。梁主休言更去招。復雲。誰欲招。帝不契。遂潛出國。這老漢只得懡㦬。渡江至魏。時魏孝明帝當位。乃此北人種族姓拓跋氏。後來方名中國。達磨至彼。亦不出見。直過少林。面壁九年。接得二祖。彼方號為壁觀婆羅門。梁武帝後問志公。公雲。

Bodhidharma, seeing from afar that this land had people of Mahayana capacity, crossed the sea and came specially. He transmitted the mind seal alone and showed the way to those lost. Setting up no written words, pointing directly at the human mind, seeing nature and becoming buddha. If you see it this way, you have a share of freedom, you are not turned by any words, you are complete and manifest as you are, and afterwards you can converse with Emperor Wu and naturally see the place where the Second Patriarch pacified his mind. With no emotional dust of calculation, cut off with one knife, free and unburdened, what need is there to distinguish right and wrong, weigh gain and loss? Even so, how many can do it? Emperor Wu once put on the kasaya and personally lectured on the Light-Emitting Prajna Sutra (in Sanskrit, "prajna" is wisdom), and was so moved that heavenly flowers fell in confusion and the earth turned to gold. He discerned the Way and served the Buddha, issued edicts to the whole land, built temples and ordained monks, and practiced according to the teaching, and people called him the Buddha-Mind Emperor. When Bodhidharma first met Emperor Wu, the Emperor asked, "I have built temples and ordained monks; what merit is there?" Bodhidharma said, "No merit." This was already dirty water poured over his head. If you can penetrate this saying of "no merit," I'll grant that you have personally seen Bodhidharma. Tell me, why is there no merit at all in building temples and ordaining monks? Where does the meaning lie? The Emperor, with Dharma Master Louyue, Great Master Fu and Crown Prince Zhaoming, had debated the two truths, true and conventional. According to the teaching, the true truth is used to show that things are not existent, and the conventional truth is used to show that they are not nonexistent. True and conventional are not two: this is the first principle of the holy truths. This is the most wondrous and profound place for the teaching schools. The Emperor took up this ultimate point and asked Bodhidharma, "What is the first principle of the holy truths?" Bodhidharma said, "Vast emptiness, nothing holy." The monks of the whole world cannot jump out of it. Bodhidharma cut him off with one knife. How many people today misunderstand, and go to play with the spirit, glaring and saying, "Vast emptiness, nothing holy." Happily, it has no connection. My late teacher Wuzu once said: If anyone can penetrate just this "vast emptiness, nothing holy," he can go home and sit in peace. Likewise tangling in vines, one may just smash his lacquer bucket for him. Bodhidharma is especially remarkable here. So it is said: If you penetrate one phrase, a thousand phrases and ten thousand phrases are penetrated at once. Naturally you can sit it out and hold it fixed. The ancients said: Even if one's bones were ground to powder and body shattered, it would not be enough to repay; one phrase made clear surpasses a hundred billion. Bodhidharma crowded him head-on, and it leaked out in many ways. The Emperor did not awaken, and because of his view of self and other, asked again, "Who is facing me?" Bodhidharma, excessively compassionate, again said to him, "I don't know." This left Emperor Wu's eyes fixed and moving, not knowing where it landed. What kind of speech is this? Here, whether there is business or no business, the moment you take it up it is unbearable. Master Duan has a verse: One arrow ordinarily brings down one eagle; with another arrow he is already excused. Going straight back to sit before Shaoshi peak, let the Liang ruler not speak of calling him again. And he also said: Who wants to call him? The Emperor did not accord, and so Bodhidharma quietly left the country. This old fellow could only be vexed, and crossed the river to Wei. At that time Emperor Xiaoming of Wei was on the throne, of northern stock, surnamed Tuoba, later named as China. Bodhidharma went there, did not come out to be seen, passed straight through Shaolin, faced the wall for nine years, and received the Second Patriarch. There they called him the Wall-Gazing Brahmin. Emperor Wu of Liang later asked Master Zhi. Master Zhi said:

陛下還識此人否。帝曰。不識。且道與達磨道底。是同是別。似則也似。是則不是。人多錯會道。前來達磨是答他禪。後來武帝是對他志公。乃相識之識。且得沒交涉。當時志公恁麼問。且道作麼生祇對。何不一棒打殺。免見搽胡。武帝卻供他欵道不識。志公見機而作。便雲。此是觀音大士。傳佛心印。帝悔遂遣使去取。好不唧𠺕。當時等他道此是觀音大士傳佛心印。亦好擯他出國。猶較些子。人傳。志公天鑒十三年化去。達磨普通元年方來。自隔七年。何故卻道同時相見。此必是謬傳。據傳中所載。如今不論這事。只要知他大綱。且道達磨是觀音。志公是觀音。阿那箇是端的底觀音。既是觀音。為什麼卻有兩箇。何止兩箇。成群作隊。時後魏光統律師。菩提流支三藏。與師論議。師斥相指心。而褊局之量。自不堪任。競起害心。數加毒藥。至第六度。化緣已畢。傳法得人。遂不復救。端居而逝。葬於熊耳山定林寺。後魏宋雲奉使。於蔥嶺遇師手攜隻履而往。武帝追憶。自撰碑文雲。嗟夫。見之不見。逢之不逢。遇之不遇。今之古之。怨之恨之。復讚雲。心有也。曠劫而滯凡夫。心無也。剎那而登妙覺。且道。達磨即今在什麼處。蹉過也不知。

(Yuanwu continues:) "Does Your Majesty know who that man was?" The Emperor said, "I don't know." Tell me, is it the same as what Bodhidharma said, or different? It looks the same, but right is not right. Many people misunderstand, saying that the earlier Bodhidharma was answering him about Chan, while later Emperor Wu was answering Master Zhi, meaning to know in the sense of being acquainted. That has no connection at all. When Master Zhi asked this at the time, tell me, how should one have answered? Why not kill him with one blow and save all the smearing? Emperor Wu instead made a confession, saying he did not know. Master Zhi, seeing the opportunity, acted and said, "That was Avalokitesvara, the Great Being, transmitting the Buddha's mind seal." The Emperor regretted it, and sent an envoy to fetch him. How clumsy. At that time, when he said this is Avalokitesvara transmitting the Buddha's mind seal, it would have been somewhat better to have had him expelled from the country. It is said that Master Zhi passed away in the thirteenth year of Tianjian, and Bodhidharma only arrived in the first year of Putong, with seven years between them; why then say they met at the same time? This must be a false tradition. According to what the biography records, we need not discuss this matter now, only need to know its general outline. Tell me, is Bodhidharma Avalokitesvara, or is Master Zhi Avalokitesvara; which one is the true Avalokitesvara? Since he is Avalokitesvara, why are there two of them? Why only two, they come in crowds and ranks. At that time Vinaya Master Guangtong of Later Wei and the Tripitaka master Bodhiruci debated with the master. The master rejected forms and pointed to the mind, and their narrow capacity could not bear it, so they all conceived harmful intent and poisoned him several times. At the sixth time, his karmic conditions were complete and he had found someone to transmit the Dharma to, so he no longer saved himself, and passed away sitting upright. He was buried at Dinglin Temple on Mount Xiong'er. Song Yun of Later Wei, on a mission, met the master on Pamir carrying one shoe in his hand as he went away. Emperor Wu, recalling this, composed the stele inscription himself: Alas. Seeing and not seeing, meeting and not meeting, encountering and not encountering, now and ancient, resenting it and regretting it. He also praised: When the mind exists, one is stuck as an ordinary person for kalpas. When the mind is absent, one ascends to wondrous awakening in an instant. Tell me, where is Bodhidharma right now? You've passed him by and don't even know it.

聖諦廓然(箭過新羅。咦)何當辨的(過也。有什麼難辨)對朕者誰(再來不直半文錢。又恁麼去也)還雲不識(三個四個中也。咄)因茲暗渡江(穿人鼻孔不得。卻被別人穿。蒼天蒼天。好不大丈夫)豈免生荊棘(腳跟下已深數丈)闔國人追不再來(兩重公案。用追作麼。在什麼處。大丈夫志氣何在)千古萬古空相憶(換手槌胸。望空啟告)休相憶(道什麼。向鬼窟裡作活計)清風匝地有何極(果然。大小雪竇向草裡輥)師顧視左右雲。這裡還有祖師麼(爾待番欵那。猶作這去就)。自雲有(塌薩阿勞)喚來與老僧洗腳(更與三十棒趕出。也未為分外。作這去就。猶較些子)。

Holy truths, vast emptiness (the arrow has already passed Silla. Hm) When will it be made clear? (Past. What is hard to make clear?) Who is facing me? (If he comes again he isn't worth half a copper. Gone again like that.) Still saying "I don't know" (Among three or four. Ha.) And so he quietly crossed the river (Unable to pierce another's nose, he was pierced himself. Heavens, heavens. What a fine man.) How could he avoid brambles growing? (Beneath your feet it is already several fathoms deep.) The whole country chased him and he would not return (Two layers of cases. What is the use of chasing? Where is it? Where is the great man's spirit?) For ten thousand ages vainly remembered (Switching hands and beating the chest. Praying to the empty sky.) Stop remembering him (What are you saying? Making a living in a ghost cave.) The clear wind sweeps the earth, what limit is there? (Sure enough. Great and small, Xuedou rolls in the grass.) The master looked at those to the left and right and said: Is there a patriarch here? (You are waiting to retract your confession. Still taking this stance.) Someone says there is. (Falling in a heap.) Call him over to wash this old monk's feet. (Drive him out with thirty more blows, it wouldn't be excessive. To take this stance is still somewhat better.)

且據雪竇頌此公案。一似善舞太阿劍相似。向虛空中盤礴。自然不犯鋒鋩。若是無這般手段。才拈著便見傷鋒犯手。若是具眼者。看他一拈一掇。一褒一貶。只用四句。揩定一則公案。大凡頌古只是繞路說禪。拈古大綱據欵結案而已。雪竇與他一拶。劈頭便道。聖諦廓然。何當辨的。雪竇於他初句下。著這一句。不妨奇特。且道。畢竟作麼生辨的。直饒鐵眼銅睛。也摸索不著。到這裡。以情識卜度得麼。所以雲門道。如擊石火。似閃電光。這箇些子。不落心機意識情想。等爾開口。堪作什麼。計較生時。鷂子過新羅。雪竇道。爾天下衲僧。何當辨的。對朕者誰。著箇還雲不識。此是雪竇忒殺老婆。重重為人處。且道。廓然與不識。是一般兩般。若是了底人分上。不言而諭。若是未了底人。決定打作兩橛。諸方尋常皆道。雪竇重拈一遍。殊不知。四句頌盡公案了。後為慈悲之故。頌出事跡。因茲暗渡江。豈免生荊棘。達磨本來茲土。與人解粘去縛。抽釘拔楔。剗除荊棘。因何卻道生荊棘。非止當時。諸人即今腳跟下。已深數丈。闔國人追不再來。千古萬古空相憶。可殺不丈夫。且道。達磨在什麼處。若見達磨。便見雪竇末後為人處。雪竇恐怕人逐情見。所以撥轉關捩子。出自己見解雲。休相憶。清風匝地有何極。既休相憶。爾腳跟下事。又作麼生。雪竇道。即今箇裡匝地清風。天上天下有何所極。雪竇拈千古萬古之事。拋向面前。非止雪竇當時有何極。爾諸人分上亦有何極。他又怕人執在這裡。再著方便高聲雲。這裡還有祖師麼。自雲有。雪竇到這裡。不妨為人。赤心片片。又自雲。喚來與老僧洗腳。太殺減人威光。當時也好。與本分手腳。且道。雪竇意在什麼處。到這裡。喚作驢則是。喚作馬則是。喚作祖師則是。如何名邈。往往喚作雪竇使祖師去也。且喜沒交涉。且道。畢竟作麼生。只許老胡知。

Now, take Xuedou's verse on this case: it is like one skilled at dancing the Taie sword, sweeping around in empty space and naturally not touching the blade. Without this sort of skill, the moment one takes it up one sees the blade wound and the hand harmed. If one has the eye, one sees his every taking up and putting down, every praise and blame, using only four lines to wipe clean one case. Generally, verses on old cases only circle around and speak of Chan, while commentaries on old cases just settle the case according to the statement. Xuedou pressed on him and said right off: Holy truths, vast emptiness. When will it be made clear? Placing this line under the opening line is truly remarkable. Tell me, how after all can it be made clear? Even with iron eyes and copper pupils, you would grope and find nothing. Here, will it do to estimate it with sentiment and consciousness? So Yunmen said: Like a spark struck from stone, like a flash of lightning. This tiny thing does not fall into mental scheming, thought, or feeling. By the time you open your mouth, what can you do? Calculating all your life, a hawk passes Silla. Xuedou said: You monks of the whole world, when will you be able to make it clear? Who is facing me? Putting "Still saying I don't know" after it. This is Xuedou being too old-womanly, helping people again and again. Tell me, are "vast emptiness" and "I don't know" one or two? For one who has finished, it is understood without being said. For one who has not finished, he will certainly split it into two pieces. People elsewhere commonly say that Xuedou takes it up once more. They do not know that the four lines already exhausted the case in verse. Later, out of compassion, he sang out the events. And so he quietly crossed the river. How could he avoid brambles growing? Bodhidharma originally came to this land to untie people's bonds and loosen their fetters, to pull out nails and remove wedges, to clear away brambles. Why then does he say brambles grew? Not only then: beneath each of your feet right now it is already several fathoms deep. The whole country chased him and he would not return. For ten thousand ages vainly remembered. A real shame: not a great man. Tell me, where is Bodhidharma? If you see Bodhidharma, you see Xuedou's final way of helping people. Xuedou, fearing people would chase after emotional views, turned the pivot and gave his own view, saying: Stop remembering him. The clear wind sweeps the earth, what limit is there? Since you must stop remembering him, what about the matter beneath your own feet? Xuedou says: Right here the clear wind sweeps the earth; in heaven and earth what limit is there? Xuedou took up a matter of ten thousand ages and threw it before your face. Not only did Xuedou then have "what limit," you all have "what limit" in your own share as well. Then he feared that people would get stuck here, and applied further expedient means, saying loudly: Is there a patriarch here? Someone says there is. Xuedou here is truly helping people, earnest piece by piece. And he says himself: Call him over to wash this old monk's feet. That greatly reduces his awe-inspiring light. It would have been good then to give him a native hand and foot. Tell me, where does Xuedou's intent lie? Here, calling it a donkey is right, calling it a horse is right, calling it a patriarch is right; how do you name and describe it? Often people say Xuedou is ordering the patriarch around. Happily, it has no connection. Tell me, in the end what is it? Only the old barbarian is allowed to know.

不許老胡會。

(Yuanwu continues:) The old barbarian is not allowed to understand.

垂示雲。乾坤窄。日月星辰一時黑。直饒棒如雨點。喝似雷奔。也未當得向上宗乘中事。設使三世諸佛。只可自知。歷代祖師全提不起。一大藏教詮注不及。明眼衲僧自救不了。到這裡。作麼生請益。道箇佛字。拖泥帶水。道箇禪字。滿面慚惶。久參上士不待言之。後學初機直須究取。

Introduction. Heaven and earth are cramped. The sun, moon and stars all turn dark at once. Even if the staff falls like raindrops and the shout is like thunder rushing, it still does not match the matter within the upward-turning school. Suppose all buddhas of the three times: they can only know it for themselves. The successive patriarchs cannot raise it in full. A whole Tripitaka's explanations cannot reach it. A clear-eyed monk cannot save himself. At this point, how does one ask for instruction? Say the word "Buddha" and you drag mud and water. Say the word "Chan" and your face is full of shame. Long-practiced superior people do not wait for it to be finished. Beginners and latecomers must investigate it straight.

【二】舉趙州示眾雲(這老漢作什麼。莫打這葛藤)至道無難(非難非易)唯嫌揀擇(眼前是什麼。三祖猶在)才有語言。是揀擇是明白(兩頭三面。少賣弄。魚行水濁。鳥飛落毛)老僧不在明白裡(賊身已露。這老漢向什麼處去)是汝還護惜也無(敗也。也有一箇半箇)時有僧問。既不在明白裡。護惜箇什麼(也好與一拶。舌拄上顎)州雲。我亦不知(拶殺這老漢。倒退三千)僧雲。和尚既不知。為什麼卻道不在明白裡(看走向什麼處去。逐教上樹去)州雲。問事即得。禮拜了退(賴有這一著。這老賊)。

[Case 2] Cited: Zhaozhou addressed the assembly, saying (What is this old fellow doing? Don't tangle in these vines.) "The utmost Way is not difficult" (Not hard, not easy.) "It only dislikes picking and choosing." (What is before your eyes? The Third Patriarch is still here.) "As soon as there are words, it is picking and choosing, it is clarity." (Two heads, three faces. Don't show off. When a fish moves the water turns muddy; when a bird flies, feathers fall.) "This old monk is not within clarity." (The thief's body is already exposed. Where is this old fellow going?) "Do you still cherish and protect it or not?" (Defeated. Even so there is one or half of one.) At the time a monk asked, "If you are not within clarity, what do you cherish and protect?" (Good to press him. Tongue against the roof of the mouth.) Zhaozhou said, "I don't know either." (Press the old fellow to death. Retreat three thousand.) The monk said, "If the Reverend does not know, why does he say he is not within clarity?" (See where he runs to. Chase him up the tree.) Zhaozhou said, "Ask your questions and be done. Bow and withdraw." (Fortunate to have this move, this old thief.)

趙州和尚。尋常舉此話頭。只是唯嫌揀擇。此是三祖信心銘雲。至道無難。唯嫌揀擇。但莫憎愛。洞然明白。才有是非。是揀擇。是明白。才恁麼會。蹉過了也。鉸釘膠粘。堪作何用。州雲。是揀擇。是明白。如今參禪問道。不在揀擇中。便坐在明白裡。老僧不在明白裡。汝等還護惜也無。汝諸人既不在明白裡。且道。趙州在什麼處。為什麼卻教人護惜。五祖先師當說道。垂手來似過爾。爾作麼生會。且道。作麼生是垂手處。識取鉤頭意。莫認定盤星。這僧出來。也不妨奇特。捉趙州空處。便去拶他。既不在明白裡。護惜箇什麼。趙州更不行棒行喝。只道。我亦不知。若不是這老漢。被他拶著。往往忘前失後。賴是這老漢。有轉身自在處。所以如此答他。如今禪和子。問著也道。我亦不知不會。爭奈同途不同轍。這僧有奇特處。方始會問。和尚既不知。為什麼卻道不在明白裡。更好一拶。若是別人。往往分疏不下。趙州是作家。只向他道。問事即得。禮拜了退。這僧依舊無奈這老漢何。只得飲氣吞聲。此是大手宗師。不與爾論玄論妙。論機論境。一向以本分事接人。所以道。相罵饒爾接嘴。相唾饒爾潑水。殊不知。這老漢。平生不以棒喝接人。只以平常言語。只是天下人不奈何。蓋為他平生無許多計較。所以橫拈倒用。逆行順行。得大自在。如今人不理會得。只管道。趙州不答話。不為人說。殊不知。當面蹉過。

Reverend Zhaozhou ordinarily raised this topic, and it was only that he disliked picking and choosing. This is from the Third Patriarch's Inscription on Faith in Mind: The utmost Way is not difficult, it only dislikes picking and choosing. Just do not hate or love, and it is thoroughly clear. As soon as there is right and wrong, it is picking and choosing. It is clarity. If you understand it just so, you have passed it by. Riveting nails and gluing: what use can they be? Zhaozhou said: It is picking and choosing, it is clarity. Nowadays those who study Chan and ask about the Way, if not in picking and choosing, sit within clarity. This old monk is not within clarity. Do you still cherish and protect it or not? Since none of you are within clarity, tell me, where is Zhaozhou? Why does he tell people to cherish and protect it? My late teacher Wuzu once said: Letting down a hand seems to give it to you. How do you understand it? Tell me, what is the place of letting down a hand? Recognize the meaning of the hook's head, do not take the fixed star of the scale as the mark. This monk came out and was truly remarkable. He seized on Zhaozhou's empty spot and went to press him. If you are not within clarity, what do you cherish and protect? Zhaozhou did not use blows or shouts at all, but only said, "I don't know either." If it were not for this old fellow, pressed like that, one often forgets what came before and loses what comes after. Fortunately this old fellow has a place of free turning of the body. So he answered him like this. Chan students now, when asked, also say: I don't know, I don't understand. Alas, they travel the same road but not the same track. This monk had something remarkable, and so could ask: If the Reverend does not know, why does he say he is not within clarity? An even better press. With anyone else, one often cannot explain it. Zhaozhou was a master and only said to him: Ask your questions and be done. Bow and withdraw. This monk still had no way to deal with this old fellow, and could only swallow his breath.

至道無難(三重公案。滿口含霜。道什麼)言端語端(魚行水濁。七花八裂。搽胡也)一有多種(分開好。只一般。有什麼了期)二無兩般(何堪。四五六七。打葛藤作什麼)天際日上月下(覿面相呈。頭上漫漫。腳下漫漫。切忌昂頭低頭)檻前山深水寒(一死更不再活。還覺寒毛卓竪麼)髑髏識盡喜何立(棺木裡瞠眼。盧行者是它同參)枯木龍吟銷未乾(咄。枯木再生花。達磨遊東土)難難(邪法難扶。倒一說。這裡是什麼所在。說難說易)揀擇明白君自看(瞎。將謂由別人。賴值自看。不幹山僧事)。

The utmost Way is not difficult (Three layers of cases. Mouth full of frost. What are you saying?) Words are the tip, speech is the tip (When a fish moves the water turns muddy. Seven flowers, eight splits. Smearing done.) One has many kinds (Better to separate them. It is just the same. When will it end?) Two has no two kinds (How can it bear it? Four, five, six, seven. What is the use of tangling vines?) At the edge of the sky the sun rises and the moon sets (Presented to your face. Overhead vast and wide. Beneath your feet vast and wide. Be careful not to raise your head or lower it.) Before the railing the mountains are deep and the water cold (Dead once and never alive again. Do you still feel the hair on your skin stand up?) The skull knows everything, why is there joy? (Glaring in the coffin. Lu the layman is his fellow student.) The dragon's cry in the withered tree has not yet dried up (Ha. The withered tree blooms again. Bodhidharma roams the Eastern Land. Here "dried up" means not yet dry, not interfering.) Difficult, difficult (Heterodox dharma is hard to support. Said the other way around. What place is this? Speaking of hard, speaking of easy.) Picking and choosing, clarity: look for yourself (Blind. You still think it is up to others. Fortunate to look for yourself. It has nothing to do with this mountain monk.)

雪竇知他落處。所以如此頌。至道無難。便隨後道。言端語端。舉一隅不以三隅反。雪竇道。一有多種。二無兩般。似三隅反一。爾且道。什麼處是言端語端處。為什麼一卻有多種。二卻無兩般。若不具眼。向什麼處摸索。若透得這兩句。所以古人道。打成一片。依舊見。山是山。水是水。長是長。短是短。天是天。地是地。有時喚天作地。有時喚地作天。有時喚山不是山。喚水不是水。畢竟怎生得平穩去。風來樹動。浪起船高。春生夏長。秋收冬藏。一種平懷。泯然自盡。則此四句頌頓絕了也。雪竇有餘才。所以分開結裹算來也。只是頭上安頭道。至道無難。言端語端。一有多種。二無兩般。雖無許多事。天際日上時月便下。檻前山深時水便寒。到這裡。言也端。語也端。頭頭是道。物物全真。豈不是心境俱忘。打成一片處。雪竇頭上太孤峻生。末後也漏逗不少。若參得透見得徹。自然如醍醐上味相似。若是情解未忘。便見七花八裂。決定不能會如此說話。髑髏識盡喜何立。枯木龍吟銷未乾。只這便是交加處。這僧恁麼問。趙州恁麼答。州雲。至道無難。唯嫌揀擇。才有語言。是揀擇是明白。老僧不在明白裡。是汝還護惜也無。時有僧便問。既不在明白裡。又護惜箇什麼。州雲。我亦不知。僧雲。和尚既不知。為什麼卻道不在明白裡。州雲。問事即得。禮拜了退。此是古人問道底公案。雪竇拽來一串穿卻。用頌至道無難。唯嫌揀擇。如今人不會古人意。只管咬言嚼句。有甚了期。若是通方作者。始能辨得這般說話。不見僧問香嚴。如何是道。嚴雲。枯木裡龍吟。僧雲。如何是道中人。嚴雲。髑髏裡眼睛。僧後問石霜。如何是枯木裡龍吟。霜雲。猶帶喜在。如何是髑髏裡眼睛。霜雲。猶帶識在。僧又問曹山。如何是枯木裡龍吟。山雲。血脈不斷。如何是髑髏裡眼睛。山雲乾不盡。什麼人得聞。山雲。

Xuedou knew where he had landed, so he wrote the verse thus. Having the utmost Way is not difficult, he follows with: Words are the tip, speech is the tip. Raising one corner and not returning with three corners. Xuedou says: One has many kinds. Two has no two kinds. It is like three corners returning with one. Tell me, where is the tip of words and the tip of speech? Why does one have many kinds? Why does two have no two kinds? If you do not have the eye, where will you grope? If you penetrate these two lines, then as the ancients said: Making it all one piece, you still see that mountains are mountains, water is water, long is long, short is short, heaven is heaven, earth is earth. Sometimes one calls heaven earth. Sometimes one calls earth heaven. Sometimes one calls a mountain not a mountain, calls water not water. How after all can one get to peace and steadiness? When the wind comes the trees move. When the waves rise the boat rises. Spring gives birth, summer grows, autumn harvests, winter stores. With one level-hearted mind, it is all quietly exhausted. Then these four lines of verse are suddenly cut off. Xuedou still had talent to spare, so he separated them again for the ending. It is only adding a head on top of a head, saying: The utmost Way is not difficult. Words are the tip, speech is the tip. One has many kinds. Two has no two kinds. Though there is not so much going on, when the sun rises at the edge of the sky the moon goes down. When the mountains are deep before the railing the water is cold. Here, words are the tip, speech is the tip. Every single thing is the Way. Every thing is wholly true. Is this not the place where mind and objects are both forgotten, made into one piece? Xuedou is too solitary and steep at the head, and at the end leaks out quite a lot. If you investigate through and see thoroughly, it will naturally be like the finest taste of ghee. If you have not forgotten emotional understanding, you will see seven flowers and eight splits. You cannot possibly understand such talk. The skull knows everything, why is there joy? The dragon's cry in the withered tree has not yet dried up.

盡大地未有一箇不聞。僧雲未審龍吟是何章句。山雲。不知是何章句。聞者皆喪。復有頌雲。枯木龍吟真見道。髑髏無識眼初明。喜識盡時消息盡。當人那辨濁中清。雪竇可謂大有手腳。一時與爾交加頌出。然雖如是。都無兩般。雪竇末後有為人處。更道難難。只這難難。也須透過始得。何故。百丈道一切語言。山河大地。一一轉歸自己。雪竇凡是一拈一掇。到末後須歸自己。且道。什麼處是雪竇為人處。揀擇明白君自看。既是打葛藤頌了。因何卻道。君自看。好彩教爾自看。且道。意落在什麼處。莫道諸人理會不得。設使山僧到這裡。也只是理會不得。

(Yuanwu continues:) In the whole earth there is not one who has not heard. A monk said, "I wonder what passage the dragon's cry is." Shan said, "I don't know what passage it is. All who hear it lose themselves." There is another verse: The dragon's cry in the withered tree truly sees the Way; when the skull has no consciousness, the eyes first become bright. When joy and knowing are exhausted, the news is exhausted; how can that person discern clear within the muddy? Xuedou may be said to have great hands and feet. He sang all of it out to you at once, crossing and intermingling. Even so, there are not two kinds. At the end Xuedou has a way of helping people. Again he says: difficult, difficult. Even this "difficult, difficult" must be penetrated. Why? Baizhang said: All speech, mountains and rivers and the great earth, each is turned back to oneself. In every taking up and putting down, Xuedou must in the end return to himself. Tell me, where is Xuedou's way of helping people? Picking and choosing, clarity: look for yourself. Since it is a verse tangling in vines, why then does he say, "look for yourself"? Lucky to let you look for yourself. Tell me, where does the meaning land? Don't say that you all fail to understand. Even this mountain monk, right here, simply doesn't understand.

垂示雲。一機一境。一言一句。且圖有箇入處。好肉上剜瘡。成窠成窟。大用現前不存軌則。且圖知有向上事。蓋天蓋地又摸索不著。恁麼也得。不恁麼也得。太廉纖生。恁麼也不得。不恁麼也不得。太孤危生。不涉二塗。如何即是。請試舉看。

Introduction. One opportunity, one circumstance. One word, one phrase. Just wanting to have an entrance. Gouging a sore in good flesh. Making a nest and a hole. When the great function appears, it does not preserve rules. Just wanting to know the matter of upward turning. Covering heaven and covering earth, yet groping and not finding. This is acceptable. Not this is also acceptable. Too finical. This is not acceptable. Not this is also not acceptable. Too lonely and precarious. Not touching these two paths, how is it right? Please try to bring it up.

【三】舉馬大師不安(這漢漏逗不少。帶累別人去也)院主問。和尚近日。尊候如何(四百四病一時發。三日後不送亡僧。是好手。仁義道中)大師雲。日面佛月面佛(可殺新鮮。養子之緣)。

[Case 3] Cited: Great Master Ma was unwell. (This fellow leaks out a lot. He has implicated others.) The temple director asked, "Reverend, how has your honored condition been these days?" (Four hundred and four illnesses break out at once. Three days later he won't see off a dead monk. A good hand. Within the way of benevolence and righteousness.) The Great Master said, "Sun-faced Buddha, Moon-faced Buddha." (So fresh. The affinity of raising a child.)

馬大師不安。院主問。和尚近日尊候如何。大師雲日面佛月面佛。祖師若不以本分事相見。如何得此道光輝。此箇公案。若知落處便獨步丹霄。若不知落處。往往枯木巖前差路去在。若是本分人到這裡。須是有驅耕夫之牛。奪飢人之食底手腳。方見馬大師為人處。如今多有人道。馬大師接院主。且喜沒交涉。如今眾中多錯會瞠眼雲。在這裡。左眼是日面。右眼是月面。有什麼交涉。驢年未夢見在。只管蹉過古人事。只如馬大師如此道。意在什麼處。有底雲。點平胃散一盞來。有什麼巴鼻。到這裡。作麼生得平穩去。所以道。向上一路千聖不傳。學者勞形如猿捉影。只這日面佛月面佛。極是難見。雪竇到此。亦是難頌。卻為他見得透。用盡平生工夫。指注他。諸人要見雪竇麼。看取下文。

Great Master Ma was unwell. The temple director asked, "Reverend, how has your honored condition been these days?" The Great Master said, "Sun-faced Buddha, Moon-faced Buddha." If the patriarch had not met people with the matter at hand, how could he have this radiance of the Way? In this case, if you know where it lands, you walk alone in the cinnabar sky. If you do not know where it lands, you often go astray before the withered tree and the rock. If a person of the original portion comes here, he must have the hand and foot to drive away the plowman's ox and snatch the hungry person's food, and only then will he see Great Master Ma's way of helping people. Nowadays many say: Master Ma was receiving the temple director. Happily, it has no connection. Now many in the assembly misunderstand, glaring and saying: Here, the left eye is the sun face, the right eye is the moon face. What connection does it have? Not even dreamed of in a donkey year. They only go on passing by the ancients' business. As for Master Ma speaking like this, where does his intent lie? Some say: Bring a cup of Pingwei powder. What nose-handle is there in that? Here, how can one get to peace and steadiness? So it is said: The upward road is not transmitted by a thousand sages; students toil in vain like monkeys grasping at shadows. This very "Sun-faced Buddha, Moon-faced Buddha" is extremely hard to see. Xuedou, coming here, also found it hard to versify. Yet because he saw through it, he used all his lifetime's effort to point it out and annotate it. Do you all want to see Xuedou? Look at the text below.

日面佛月面佛(開口見膽。如兩面鏡相照於中無影像)五帝三皇是何物(太高生。莫謾他好。可貴可賤)二十年來曾苦辛(自是爾落草。不幹山僧事。啞子吃苦瓜)為君幾下蒼龍窟(何消恁麼。莫錯用心好。也莫道無奇特)屈(愁殺人。愁人莫向愁人說)堪述(向阿誰說。說與愁人愁殺人)明眼衲僧莫輕忽(更須子細。咄。倒退三千)。

Sun-faced Buddha, Moon-faced Buddha (Opening the mouth shows the gallbladder. Like two mirrors reflecting each other, with no image in between.) What were the Five Emperors and Three Sovereigns? (Too lofty. Better not deceive him. Can be precious, can be cheap.) For twenty years I have borne bitter toil (You yourself fell into the grass for you. It has nothing to do with this mountain monk. A mute eating a bitter melon.) For you I descended into the azure dragon's cave several times (Why must it be so? Better not use the mind wrongly. And don't say there is nothing special.) Wronged (It saddens people. Do not tell a sorrowing person your sorrow.) Worth telling (To whom? Tell a sorrowing person and he is saddened to death.) Clear-eyed monks, do not be careless (Be even more careful. Ha. Retreat three thousand.)

神宗在位時。自謂此頌諷國。所以不肯入藏。雪竇先拈雲。日面佛月面佛。一拈了。卻雲。五帝三皇是何物。且道。他意作麼生。適來已說了也。直下注他。所以道。垂鉤四海。只釣獰龍。只此一句已了。後面雪竇自頌他平生所以用心參尋。二十年來曾苦辛。為君幾下蒼龍窟。似箇什麼。一似人入蒼龍窟裡取珠相似。後來打破漆桶。將謂多少奇特。元來只消得箇五帝三皇是何物。且道雪竇語。落在什麼處。須是自家退步看。方始見得他落處。豈不見。興陽剖侍者。答遠錄公問。娑竭出海乾坤震。覿面相呈事若何。剖雲。金翅鳥王當宇宙。箇中誰是出頭人。遠雲。忽遇出頭。又作麼生。剖雲。似鶻捉鳩。君不信。髑髏前驗始知真。遠雲。恁麼則屈節當胸退身三步。剖雲。須彌座下烏龜子。莫待重遭點額回。所以三皇五帝亦是何物。人多不見雪竇意。只管道諷國。若恁麼會。只是情見。此乃禪月題公子行雲。錦衣鮮華手擎鶻。閑行氣貌多輕忽。稼穡艱難總不知。五帝三皇是何物。雪竇道。屈堪述。明眼衲僧莫輕忽。多少人向蒼龍窟裡。作活計。直饒是頂門具眼。肘後有符。明眼衲僧。照破四天下。到這裡。也莫輕忽。須是子細始得。

When Emperor Shenzong was on the throne, he took this verse to be satirizing the state, and so would not allow it to enter the canon. Xuedou first raised it, saying: Sun-faced Buddha, Moon-faced Buddha. Having raised it once, he then said: What were the Five Emperors and Three Sovereigns? Tell me, what is his meaning? It was just stated. Annotate it directly. So it is said: Casting a hook over the four seas, fishing only for fierce dragons. This single line already finishes it. Afterwards Xuedou himself sings of what he sought and investigated with his mind throughout his life. For twenty years I have borne bitter toil. For you I descended into the azure dragon's cave several times. What is this like? It is just like a person entering the azure dragon's cave to take the pearl. Afterwards, when the lacquer bucket was smashed, he still thought there was something special. It turned out only to take "What were the Five Emperors and Three Sovereigns?" Tell me, where do Xuedou's words land? You must step back and look for yourself, and only then see where they land. Haven't you seen it? Attendant Pou of Xingyang answered Yuan Lu's question. "When Sagara emerges from the sea, heaven and earth shake. What is the matter of presenting it to your face?" Pou said: "The Golden-Winged Bird King covers the universe. Within it, who is the one who comes forth?" Yuan said: "What if one does come forth?" Pou said: "Like a falcon seizing a dove. If you do not believe it, before the skull you will know the truth." Yuan said: "In that case, one bends the knee and retreats three steps with the chest forward." Pou said: "A tortoise under the Sumeru seat. Don't wait until you are branded on the forehead again." So what indeed were the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors? Many do not see Xuedou's meaning and only say it satirizes the state. If you understand it that way, it is only emotional view. This is from Chanyue's poem Song of the Young Nobleman: Brocade clothes bright and fine, a falcon on the hand; strolling about, his bearing is mostly careless. He knows nothing of the hardships of farming. What were the Five Emperors and Three Sovereigns? Xuedou says: Wronged, worth telling. Clear

垂示雲。青天白日。不可更指東劃西。時節因緣。亦須應病與藥。且道。放行好。把定好。試舉看。

Introduction. Under the clear sky and white sun, one must not again point east and sketch west. The season and the conditions also require giving medicine to suit the illness. Tell me, is it better to let go, or better to hold fast? Try bringing it up.

【四】舉德山到溈山(擔板漢。野狐精)挾複子於法堂上(不妨令人疑著。納敗缺)從東過西。從西過東(可殺有禪作什麼)顧視雲無無。便出(好與三十棒。可殺氣沖天。真師子兒。善師子吼)雪竇著語云。勘破了也(錯。果然。點)德山至門首卻雲。也不得草草(放去收來。頭上太高生。末後太低生。知過必改。能有幾人)便具威儀。再入相見(依前作這去就。已是第二重敗缺。嶮)溈山坐次(冷眼看這老漢。捋虎鬚。也須是這般人始得)德山提起坐具雲。和尚(改頭換面。無風起浪)溈山擬取拂子(須是那漢始得。運籌帷幄之中。不妨坐斷天下人舌頭)德山便喝。拂袖而出(野狐精見解。這一喝。也有權。也有實。也有照。也有用。一等是拏雲攫霧者。就中奇特)雪竇著語云。勘破了也(錯。果然。點)德山背卻法堂。著草鞋便行(風光可愛。公案未圓。贏得項上笠。失卻腳下鞋。已是喪身失命了也)溈山至晚問首座。適來新到在什麼處(東邊落節。西邊拔本。眼觀東南。意在西北)首座雲。當時背卻法堂。著草鞋出去也(靈龜曳尾。好與三十棒。這般漢腦後合吃多少)溈山雲。此子已後。向孤峰頂上。盤結草菴。呵佛罵祖去在(賊過後張弓。天下衲僧跳不出)雪竇著語云。雪上加霜(錯。果然。點)。

[Case 4] Cited: Deshan came to Guishan. (A fellow carrying a board. A wild fox spirit.) Carrying his bundle in the Dharma hall (Hard not to make people suspicious. Exposing a defect.) He walked from east to west, and from west to east. (What's the use of having Chan?) Looking around, he said, "Nothing, nothing," and went out. (He deserves thirty blows. Spirit reaching to the sky. A true lion cub. Good at the lion's roar.) Xuedou's comment: He saw through him! (Wrong. Sure enough. Dot.) Deshan reached the gate and then said, "I shouldn't be so hasty." (Releasing and gathering back. Too high at the head, too low at the end. To know a fault and correct it, how many can do that?) He then put on his full demeanor and entered again to meet him. (Taking the same stance again. This is already the second defect. Dangerous.) Guishan was sitting. (Watching this old fellow with a cold eye. Pulling the tiger's whiskers. Only such a person can do it.) Deshan raised his sitting cloth and said, "Reverend!" (Changing head and face. Raising waves with no wind.) Guishan reached for his whisk. (Only that man can do it. Planning within the command tent. Quite able to cut off the tongues of the world.) Deshan shouted and, flicking his sleeves, went out. (A wild fox's view. This shout has expedient, has real, has illumination, has function. The same sort that grabs clouds and clutches mist; especially remarkable among them.) Xuedou's comment: He saw through him! (Wrong. Sure enough. Dot.) Deshan turned his back on the Dharma hall, put on his straw sandals and left. (The scenery is lovely. The case is not yet complete. He won the bamboo hat on his head and lost the sandals on his feet. Already losing body and life.) That evening Guishan asked the head monk, "Where is that newcomer from earlier?" (A joint breaks in the east, the roots are pulled in the west. Eyes looking southeast, intent on the northwest.) The head monk said, "At that time he turned his back on the Dharma hall, put on his straw sandals and went out." (The spirit tortoise drags its tail. Deserves thirty blows. How much should the back of the head of such fellows take?) Guishan said, "After this fellow goes to the top of a solitary peak, he will build a grass hut, and scold buddhas and curse patriarchs." (Drawing the bow after the thief has passed. The monks of the world cannot jump out.) Xuedou's comment: Frost added to snow. (Wrong. Sure enough. Dot.)

夾山下三箇點字。諸人還會麼。有時將一莖草。作丈六金身用。有時將丈六金身。作一莖草用。德山本是講僧。在西蜀講金剛經。因教中道。金剛喻定。後得智中。千劫學佛威儀。萬劫學佛細行。然後成佛。他南方魔子。便說即心是佛。遂發憤。擔疏鈔行腳。直往南方。破這魔子輩。看他恁麼發憤。也是箇猛利底漢。初到澧州。路上見一婆子賣油餈。遂放下疏鈔。且買點心吃。婆雲。所載者是什麼。德山雲。金剛經疏鈔。婆雲。我有一問。爾若答得。佈施油餈作點心。若答不得。別處買去。德山雲。但問。婆雲。金剛經云。過去心不可得。現在心不可得。未來心不可得。上座欲點那箇心。山無語。婆遂指令去參龍潭。才跨門便問。久嚮龍潭。及乎到來。潭又不見。龍又不現。龍潭和尚。於屏風後。引身雲。子親到龍潭。師乃設禮而退。至夜間入室。侍立更深潭雲。何不下去。山遂珍重。揭簾而出。見外面黑卻回雲。門外黑。潭遂點紙燭度與山。山方接潭便吹滅。山豁然大悟。便禮拜。潭雲。子見箇什麼便禮拜。山雲。某甲自今後。更不疑著天下老和尚舌頭。至來日。潭上堂雲。可中有箇漢。牙如劍樹。口似血盆。一棒打不回頭。他時異日。向孤峰頂上。立吾道去在。山遂取疏鈔。於法堂前。將火炬舉起雲。窮諸玄辯。若一毫置於太虛。竭世樞機。似一滴投於巨壑。遂燒之。後聞溈山盛化。直造溈山。便作家相見。包亦不解。直上法堂。從東過西。從西過東。顧視雲無無。便出。且道。意作麼生。莫是顛麼。人多錯會。用作建立。直是無交涉。看他恁麼。不妨奇特。所以道。出群須是英靈漢。敵勝還他師子兒。選佛若無如是眼。假饒千載又奚為。到這裡須是通方作者。方始見得。何故。佛法無許多事。那裡著得情見來。是他心機那裡有如許多阿勞。所以玄沙道。直似秋潭月影。靜夜鐘聲。隨扣擊以無虧。

Jiashan put down three "dots." Do you all understand? Sometimes he uses a blade of grass as a sixteen-foot golden body. Sometimes he uses a sixteen-foot golden body as a blade of grass. Deshan was originally a lecturing monk, lecturing the Diamond Sutra in western Shu. Because the teaching says: The diamond is a metaphor for samadhi, and then, within wisdom attained afterwards, one studies the Buddha's demeanor for a thousand kalpas and studies the Buddha's fine conduct for ten thousand kalpas, and only then becomes a buddha. Those southern demon-brats, he said, say that this very mind is buddha. So in a fit of resolve he carried his commentaries and set out on foot, going straight south to smash these demon fellows. Seeing him so resolved, he was truly a fierce and keen fellow. Arriving first at Lizhou, he saw an old woman on the road selling oil cakes, so he put down his commentaries and bought a snack. The woman said, "What are you carrying?" Deshan said, "The commentaries on the Diamond Sutra." The woman said, "I have a question. If you can answer it, I'll give you oil cakes as a snack. If you can't, buy them elsewhere." Deshan said, "Just ask." The woman said, "The Diamond Sutra says: The past mind cannot be obtained. The present mind cannot be obtained. The future mind cannot be obtained. Which mind does the venerable one want to light?" Shan had no words. The woman then pointed him to study with Longtan. As soon as he stepped through the door he said: I have long admired Longtan, but now that I've come, I see no pond and no dragon. Reverend Longtan, from behind the screen, leaned out and said: You have personally arrived at Longtan. The master then bowed in ceremony and withdrew. At night he entered the room and attended standing until late, and Tan said, "Why not go down?" Shan then bade him farewell, lifted the curtain and went out, saw it was dark outside, and came back saying, "It is dark outside." Tan lit a paper candle and handed it to Shan. As Shan was about to take it, Tan blew it out. Shan was suddenly greatly awakened and bowed. Tan said, "What did you see that you bow?" Shan said, "From now on I will never again doubt the tongues of the old monks of the world." The next day Tan ascended the hall and said: There is a fellow among you whose teeth are like a forest of swords and whose mouth is like a bowl of blood; if you beat him with a staff he doesn't turn his head. Some other day he will go to the top of a solitary peak and establish my Way. Shan then took his commentaries to the front of the Dharma hall, raised a torch and said: Exhausting all the profound arguments is like placing a single hair in the Great Void. Exhausting the world's pivotal workings is like dropping one drop into a vast gully. Then he burned them. Later, hearing that Guishan was flourishing in teaching, he went straight to Guishan, and met him as a master. He did not even undo his bundle, but went straight up to the Dharma hall, walked from east to west and west to east, looked around and said, "Nothing, nothing," and went out. Tell me, what is his meaning? Could he be crazy? Many people misunderstand it, taking it as something established, which is simply unconnected. See how remarkable he is like this. So it is said: To stand out from the crowd one must be a heroic and spirited fellow. To match victory, give it back to the lion cub. If in choosing a buddha one lacks such an eye, even a thousand years would be pointless. Here one must be a master with complete command to see it. Why? The Buddha Dharma has not so much going on. How could one place emotional views in it? Where could his mental workings have such fuss? So Xuansha said: Just like the moon's reflection in an autumn pool. Like the sound of a bell on a quiet night. It follows each strike without lack.

觸波瀾而不散。猶是生死岸頭事。到這裡亦無得失是非。亦無奇特玄妙。既無奇特玄妙。作麼生會他從東過西。從西過東。且道。意作麼生。溈山老漢。也不管他。若不是溈山。也被他折挫一上。看他溈山老作家相見。只管坐觀成敗。若不深辯來風。爭能如此。雪竇著語云。勘破了也。一似鐵橛相似。眾中謂之著語。雖然在兩邊卻不住在兩邊。作麼生會他道勘破了也。什麼處是勘破處。且道勘破德山。勘破溈山。德山遂出到門首。卻要拔本。自雲。也不得草草。要與溈山掀出五臟心肝法戰一場。再具威儀卻回相見。溈山坐次。德山提起坐具雲。和尚溈山擬取拂子。德山便喝。拂袖而出。可殺奇特。眾中多道。溈山怕他有甚交涉。溈山亦不忙。所以道。智過於禽獲得禽。智過於獸獲得獸。智過於人獲得人。參得這般禪。盡大地森羅萬象。天堂地獄。草芥人畜。一時作一喝來。他亦不管掀倒禪床。喝散大眾。他亦不顧。如天之高。似地之厚。溈山若無坐斷天下人舌頭。底手腳。時驗他也大難。若不是他一千五百人善知識。到這裡也分疎不下。溈山是運籌帷幄。決勝千里。德山背卻法堂。著草鞋便出去。且道他意作麼生。爾道德山是勝是負。溈山恁麼是勝是負。雪竇著語云。勘破了也。是他下工夫。見透古人聱訛極則處。方能恁麼。不妨奇特。訥堂雲。雪竇著兩箇勘破。作三段判。方顯此公案。似傍人斷二人相似。後來這老漢。緩緩地至晚方問首座。適來新到在什麼處。首座雲。當時背卻法堂。著草鞋出去也。溈山雲。此子已後向孤峰頂上。盤結草菴呵佛罵祖去在。且道他意旨如何。溈山老漢不是好心。德山後來呵佛罵祖。打風打雨。依舊不出他窠窟。被這老漢見透平生伎倆。到這裡喚作溈山與他受記得麼。喚作澤廣藏山。理能伏豹得麼。若恁麼且喜沒交涉。雪竇知此公案落處。敢與他斷更道。

(Yuanwu continues:) Touching the waves without scattering is still a matter at the shore of birth and death. Here there is no gain or loss, right or wrong, nor anything special or mysterious. Since there is nothing special or mysterious, how does one understand him going from east to west and west to east? Tell me, what is his meaning? The old man Guishan paid no attention to him. If it were not for Guishan, he would have been broken and humbled once by him. See how old master Guishan met him as a master, only sitting and watching success and failure. If he had not deeply discerned the wind that came, how could he do this? Xuedou's comment: He saw through him. It is just like an iron peg. In the assembly it is called a "comment." Though it is on both sides, it does not dwell on either side. How do you understand his saying "He saw through him"? Where is the place of seeing through? Tell me, did he see through Deshan, or see through Guishan? Deshan went out to the gate and wanted to pull out the root, saying to himself: I shouldn't be so hasty. He wanted to bring out his entrails and heart and liver and fight a Dharma battle with Guishan. He again assumed his full demeanor and went back to meet him. Guishan was sitting. Deshan raised his sitting cloth and said, "Reverend!" Guishan reached for his whisk. Deshan then shouted, flicked his sleeves and went out. How remarkable. In the assembly many say: Guishan was afraid of him. What connection is there? Guishan was in no hurry. So it is said: If one's wisdom surpasses birds, one catches birds. If it surpasses beasts, one catches beasts. If it surpasses people, one catches people. One who has investigated such Chan takes the whole earth, the myriad phenomena, heaven and hell, grass seeds, people and livestock, and in one stroke makes a shout of it; he does not care if he overturns the Chan seat, or shouts the assembly apart. As high as heaven, as thick as earth. If Guishan had not had the hand and foot to cut off the tongues of the world, it would have been very hard to test him then. If he had not been a good teacher of fifteen hundred people, he could not have sorted it out here. Guishan was planning within the command tent, deciding victory a thousand li away. Deshan turned his back on the Dharma hall, put on his straw sandals and went out. Tell me, what was his meaning? Do you say Deshan won or lost? Did Guishan win or lose, doing so? Xuedou's comment: He saw through him. It is because he put in effort and saw through to the ultimate point of the ancients' obscure sayings that he could do this, which is truly remarkable. Netang said: Xuedou put two "seeing throughs" and made three sections of judgment, only then revealing this case, like a bystander judging the two men. Later this old fellow, slowly, until evening, only then asked the head monk: Where is that newcomer from earlier? The head monk said: At that time he turned his back on the Dharma hall, put on his straw sandals and went out. Guishan said: After this fellow goes to the top of a solitary peak, he will build a grass hut and scold buddhas and curse patriarchs. Tell me, what is his purpose? The old man Guishan had no good heart. Deshan later scolded buddhas and cursed patriarchs, beating wind and beating rain, and still never left his nest and burrow; this old fellow had seen through his whole bag of tricks. Here, can one call it Guishan giving him a prediction? Can one call it a marsh hiding a mountain, or reason subduing a leopard? If so, happily it has no connection. Xuedou knew where this case lands and dared to judge it, and said further:

雪上加霜又重拈起來教人見。若見得去。許爾與溈山德山雪竇同參。若也不見。切忌妄生情解。

(Yuanwu continues:) Frost added to snow is again taken up anew to show people. If you can see it, I allow you to study together with Guishan, Deshan and Xuedou. If you still do not see it, be sure not to produce emotional understanding rashly.

一勘破(言猶在耳。過)二勘破(兩重公案)雪上加霜曾嶮墮(三段不同。在什麼處)

First seeing through (The words are still in the ear. Past.) Second seeing through (Two layers of cases.) Frost added to snow, once nearly fell (Three sections differ. Where are they?)

飛騎將軍入虜庭(嶮。敗軍之將。無勞再斬。喪身失命)

The flying cavalry general enters the barbarian court (Dangerous. A defeated general; no need to execute him again. Losing body and life.)

再得完全能幾箇(死中得活)急走過(傍若無人。三十六策。盡爾神通。堪作何用)

How many can again be kept whole? (Gaining life in death.) Hurrying past (As if no one were around. Thirty-six stratagems. Use all your spiritual powers: what use will they be?)

不放過(理能伏豹。穿卻鼻孔)孤峰頂上草裡坐(果然。穿過鼻孔。也未為奇特。為什麼卻在草裡坐)

Not letting him go (Reason subdues the leopard. Pierce through the nostrils.) Sitting in the grass atop the solitary peak (Sure enough. Having his nostrils pierced is not yet remarkable. Why then sit in the grass?)

咄(會麼。兩刃相傷。兩兩三三舊路行。唱拍相隨。便打)

Ha! (Do you understand? Two blades injure each other. In twos and threes, walking the old road; singing and clapping along, then strike.)

雪竇頌一百則公案。一則則焚香拈出。所以大行於世。他更會文章透得公案。盤礴得熟。方可下筆。何故。如此。龍蛇易辨。衲子難瞞。雪竇參透這公案。於節角聱訛處。著三句語。撮來頌出。雪上加霜。幾乎嶮墮。只如德山似什麼。一似李廣天性善射。天子封為飛騎將軍。深入虜庭。被單於生獲。廣時傷病。置廣兩馬間。絡而盛臥。廣遂詐死。睨其傍有一胡兒騎善馬。廣騰身上馬推墮胡兒。奪其弓矢。鞭馬南馳。彎弓射退追騎。以故得脫。這漢有這般手段。死中得活。雪竇引在頌中。用比德山再入相見。依舊被他跳得出去。看他古人。見到。說到。行到。用到。不妨英靈。有殺人不眨眼底手腳。方可立地成佛。有立地成佛底人。自然殺人不眨眼。方有自由自在分。如今人有底。問著頭上一似衲僧氣概。輕輕拶著。便腰做段。股做截。七支八離。渾無些子相續處。所以古人道。相續也大難。看他德山溈山如此。豈是滅滅挈挈底見解。再得完全能幾箇。急走過。德山喝便出去。一似李廣被捉後設計。一箭射殺一箇番將。得出虜庭相似。雪竇頌到此。大有工夫。德山背卻法堂。著草鞋出去。道得便宜。殊不知。這老漢。依舊不放他出頭在。雪竇道。不放過。溈山至晚間問首座。適來新到在什麼處。首座雲。當時背卻法堂。著草鞋出去也。溈山雲。此子他日。向孤峰頂上。盤結草菴。呵佛罵祖去在。幾曾是放過來。不妨奇特。到這裡。雪竇為什麼道。孤峰頂上草裡坐。又下一喝。且道落在什麼處。更參三十年。

Xuedou composed verses on a hundred cases, burning incense and picking them out one by one, and so they spread widely in the world. He was also skilled in literary composition and had penetrated the cases; only after steeping in them until ripe did he put brush to paper. Why? Because like this, dragons and snakes are easily told apart, and it is hard to deceive a patch-robed monk. Xuedou, having penetrated this case, at the points where the joints are twisted and contrary, set down three lines and gathered them into a verse. It is frost added to snow; he nearly fell into danger. As for Deshan, what is he like? He is like Li Guang, who was by nature good at archery. The emperor appointed him General of the Flying Cavalry. He went deep into the barbarian court and was captured alive by the Chanyu. Li Guang was then wounded and ill, and was laid between two horses in a net sling. Li Guang then feigned death. Looking out sidelong, he saw a barbarian youth riding a fine horse nearby. Li Guang leapt onto the horse, pushed the youth off, seized his bow and arrows, whipped the horse south at a gallop, drew the bow and shot back the pursuing riders, and so escaped. This man had such skill: finding life in death. Xuedou brought him into the verse to compare with Deshan meeting him again and still being able to leap out of his grasp. Look at those ancients. They saw it, they spoke it, they walked it, they used it, quite heroically. Only with the hands and feet of one who kills without blinking can one become a Buddha on the spot. One who can become a Buddha on the spot will naturally kill without blinking, and only then has freedom and ease. Today some people, when asked, have the air of patch-robed monks at first, but when pressed lightly their waists break into sections, their thighs into pieces, seven limbs apart and eight scattered, with no continuity at all. So the ancients said: continuing is also extremely hard. Look at Deshan and Weishan like this; how could it be an understanding of the slack and trembling? How many can still be complete? 'Hurry away!' Deshan shouted and went out. It is like Li Guang who, after capture, devised a plan, shot dead a barbarian general with one arrow, and escaped from the barbarian court. Xuedou's verse here took great effort. Deshan turned his back on the Dharma hall, put on his straw sandals, and went out, which is spoken to his advantage. Little does one know that this old man still did not let him raise his head. Xuedou says: he did not let him off. That evening Weishan asked the head monk: 'Where is the newcomer who just arrived?' The head monk said: 'He turned his back on the Dharma hall, put on his straw sandals, and went out.' Weishan said: 'This fellow, some day, will build a thatched hut on the top of a lone peak, scold Buddhas and revile patriarchs.' When did he ever let him off? Quite remarkable. Arriving here, why did Xuedou say: 'On the top of the lone peak, sitting in the grass'? and then give another shout? Tell me, where does it land? Study for thirty years more.

垂示雲。大凡扶竪宗教。須是英靈底漢。有殺人不眨眼底手腳。方可立地成佛。所以照用同時卷舒齊唱。理事不二。權實並行。放過一著。建立第二義門。直下截斷葛藤。後學初機難為湊泊。昨日恁麼。事不獲已。今日又恁麼。罪過彌天。若是明眼漢。一點謾他不得。其或未然。虎口裡橫身。不免喪身失命。試舉看。

Introduction. In general, to prop up and uphold the teaching school, one must be a heroic fellow with the hands and feet of one who kills without blinking; only then can one become a Buddha on the spot. So illumination and function are simultaneous, rolling up and unrolling are sung together, principle and phenomena are not two, and the provisional and the real go side by side. If one lets one move slip by, one sets up the gate of the second meaning. Directly cut off the tangled vines. Latecomers and beginners find it hard to get a foothold. Yesterday it was like this, which could not be helped; today again it is like this, and the fault fills the sky. If he is a clear-eyed man, not a bit can be hidden from him. If not, lying across the tiger's mouth, one cannot avoid losing body and life. Let me bring it up and see.

【五】舉雪峰示眾雲(一盲引眾盲。不為分外)盡大地撮來如粟米粒大(是什麼手段。山僧從來不弄鬼眼睛)拋向面前(只恐拋不下有什麼伎倆)漆桶不會(倚勢欺人。自領出去。莫謾大眾好)打鼓普請看(瞎。打鼓為三軍)。

[Case 5] Cited: Xuefeng said to the assembly (one blind man leading a crowd of blind men; it is not beyond what is proper): 'Gather up the whole great earth and it is the size of a grain of millet (what kind of skill is this? This mountain monk has never played tricks with the eye) and toss it before you (I only fear it cannot be tossed down; what tricks are there?). You with a lacquer-bucket mind do not understand (relying on power to bully people; lead yourself out, and do not deceive the assembly). Beat the drum and call everyone to see (blind! beat the drum for the three armies).'

長慶問雲門。雪峰與麼道。還有出頭不得處麼。門雲。有。慶雲。作麼生。門雲。不可總作野狐精見解。雪峰雲。匹上不足。匹下有餘。我更與爾打葛藤。拈拄杖雲。還見雪峰麼。咄。王令稍嚴。不許攙奪行市。大溈喆雲。我更為諸人。土上加泥。拈拄杖雲。看看。雪峰向諸人面前放屙。咄。為什麼屎臭也不知。雪峰示眾雲。盡大地撮來如粟米粒大。古人接物利生。有奇特處。只是不妨辛懃。三上投子。九到洞山。置漆桶木杓。到處作飯頭。也只為透脫此事。及至洞山作飯頭。一日洞山問雪峰。作什麼。峰雲。淘米。山雲。淘沙去米。淘米去沙。峰雲。沙米一齊去。山雲。大眾吃箇什麼。峰便覆盆。山雲。子緣在德山。指令見之。才到便問。從上宗乘中事。學人還有分也無。德山打一棒雲。道什麼。因此有省。後在鰲山阻雪。謂嵓頭雲。我當時在德山棒下。如桶底脫相似。嵓頭喝雲。爾不見道。從門入者。不是家珍。須是自己胸中流出。蓋天蓋地。方有少分相應。雪峰忽然大悟。禮拜雲。師兄今日始是鰲山成道。如今人只管道。古人特地做作。教後人依規矩。若恁麼。正是謗他古人。謂之出佛身血。古人不似如今人苟且。豈以一言半句。以當平生。若扶竪宗教。續佛壽命。所以吐一言半句。自然坐斷天下人舌頭。無爾著意路作情解。涉道理處。看他此箇示眾。蓋為他曾見作家來。所以有作家鉗鎚。凡出一言半句。不是心機意識思量鬼窟裡作活計。直是超群拔萃。坐斷古今。不容擬議。他家用處。盡是如此。一日示眾雲。南山有一條鱉鼻蛇。汝等諸人切須好看取。時稜道者出眾雲。恁麼則今日堂中大有人喪身失命去在。又云。盡大地是沙門一隻眼。汝等諸人。向什麼處屙。又云。望州亭與汝相見了也。烏石嶺與汝相見了也。僧堂前與汝相見了也。時保福問鵝湖。僧堂前即且置。如何是望州亭。烏石嶺相見處。

Changqing asked Yunmen: 'Xuefeng spoke like this; is there any place where he could not get his head out?' Yunmen said: 'There is.' Changqing said: 'How so?' Yunmen said: 'You must not take it all as the view of a wild fox spirit.' Xuefeng said: 'Measured against the above, it falls short; measured against the below, it has more than enough. I will tangle with you further.' He picked up his staff and said: 'Do you still see Xuefeng?' Tut! The king's orders are rather strict; no one may seize the market. Dasui Zhe said: 'For the sake of you all I will add mud to earth.' He picked up the staff and said: 'Look, look! Xuefeng is relieving himself in front of you all.' Tut! Why do you not even know it stinks? Xuefeng addressed the assembly: 'Gather up the whole great earth and it is the size of a grain of millet.' The ancients, in receiving beings and benefiting them, had something remarkable, and it was only that they did not mind hard toil. Three times he went up to Touzi and nine times to Dongshan. Carrying a lacquer bucket and a wooden ladle, he served as rice cook everywhere, and all this was only to break through and be free in this matter. When he was rice cook at Dongshan, one day Dongshan asked Xuefeng: 'What are you doing?' Feng said: 'Washing rice.' Shan said: 'Do you wash away the sand and keep the rice, or wash away the rice and keep the sand?' Feng said: 'Sand and rice are both washed away.' Shan said: 'What will the assembly eat?' Feng turned over the basin. Shan said: 'Your affinity is with Deshan,' and pointed him to go see him. As soon as he arrived he asked: 'In the tradition from the past, do I, a student, have a share or not?' Deshan struck him with a staff and said: 'What are you saying?' From this he had an awakening. Later, when snowbound on Mount Ao, he said to Yantou: 'When I was beneath Deshan's staff, it was as if the bottom fell out of a bucket.' Yantou shouted and said: 'Have you not heard it said: what comes in through the gate is not the family treasure. It must flow out from your own breast, covering the heavens and covering the earth; only then is there a small measure of accord.' Xuefeng suddenly had a great awakening, bowed, and said: 'Elder brother, only today have you attained the Way on Mount Ao.' People today only say that the ancients deliberately made all this up to teach later people to follow rules. If so, it is slandering the ancients, and it is called drawing blood from a Buddha's body. The ancients were not as casual as people today; how could they take a word or half a phrase as enough for a lifetime? If they propped up the teaching school and continued the Buddha's life, then whenever they uttered a word or half a phrase, it naturally cut off the tongues of all under heaven, leaving no path for you to set your mind on, no emotional understanding, no wading into reasoning. Look at this address to the assembly: it is because he had met masters that he had a master's tongs and hammer. Any word or half-phrase he uttered was not a livelihood made in a ghost cave of mental calculation and consciousness; it simply stood out above the crowd, cut off past and present, and allowed no deliberation. His uses were all like this. One day he addressed the assembly: 'On the southern mountain there is a turtle-nosed snake. All of you must watch out for it.' Then the Elder Leng came forward from the assembly and said: 'In that case, today many people in this hall will lose body and life.' He also said: 'The whole great earth is the one eye of a monk. Where will you all relieve yourselves?' He also said: 'I met you at Wangzhou Pavilion, I met you at Wushi Ridge, I met you in front of the monks' hall.' Then Baofu asked Ehu: 'Leave aside the front of the monks' hall; what about the place of meeting at Wangzhou Pavilion and Wushi Ridge?'

鵝湖驟步歸方丈。他常舉這般語。示眾。只如道盡大地撮來如粟米粒大。這箇時節。且道以情識卜度得麼。須是打破羅籠。得失是非一時放下。灑灑落落。自然透得他圈繢。方見他用處。且道。雪峰意在什麼處。人多作情解道。心是萬法之主。盡大地一時在我手裡。且喜沒交涉。到這裡。須是箇真實漢。聊聞舉著。徹骨徹髓見得透。且不落情思意想。若是箇本色行腳衲子。見他恁麼。已是郎當為人了也。看他雪竇頌雲。

(Yuanwu continued:) Ehu hurried back to the abbot's quarters. He often cited such words to the assembly. As for 'gather up the whole great earth and it is the size of a grain of millet,' at such a time, tell me, can you get by with emotional consciousness and guessing? One must smash the cage, let go of gain and loss, right and wrong all at once, be free and unconstrained, and naturally break through his circle to see his function. Tell me, where does Xuefeng's meaning lie? Many people explain it emotionally: the mind is lord of the myriad dharmas, and the whole great earth is at once in my hand. Happily that has nothing to do with it. Here one must be a genuine person; even on merely hearing it mentioned, one sees through to the bone and marrow and does not fall into emotional thought. If he is a native-born wandering monk, seeing him like this is already being slack in helping others. Look at what Xuedou's verse says.

牛頭沒(閃電相似。蹉過了也)馬頭回(如擊石火)曹溪鏡裡絕塵埃(打破鏡來。與爾相見。須是打破始得)

The ox head sinks (like lightning; missed it), the horse head returns (like a spark from struck flint). In the mirror of Caoxi there is no dust (smash the mirror and I will meet you; it must be smashed to work).

打鼓看來君不見(刺破爾眼睛。莫輕易好。漆桶有什麼難見處)

Beating the drum to look, you do not see (it pricks your eyes; do not rashly say it is good; what is hard for a lacquer bucket to see?).

百花春至為誰開(法不相饒。一場狼籍。葛藤窟裡出頭來)

When spring arrives, for whom do the hundred flowers bloom? (The Dharma gives no quarter; a scene of utter disorder; stick your head out of the cave of tangled vines.)

雪竇自然見他古人。只消去他命脈上一劄。與他頌出。牛頭沒馬頭回。且道說箇什麼。見得透底。如早朝吃粥。齋時吃飯相似。只是尋常。雪竇慈悲。當頭一鎚擊碎。一句截斷。只是不妨孤峻。如擊石火似閃電光。不露鋒鋩無爾湊泊處。且道向意根下摸索得麼。此兩句一時道盡了也。雪竇第三句。卻通一線道。略露些風規。早是落草。第四句。直下更是落草。若向言上生言。句上生句。意上生意。作解作會。不唯帶累老僧。亦乃辜負雪竇。古人句雖如此。意不如此。終不作道理繫縛人。曹溪鏡裡絕塵埃。多少人道。靜心便是鏡。且喜沒交涉。只管作計較道理。有什麼了期。這箇是本分說話。山僧不敢不依本分。牛頭沒馬頭回。雪竇分明說了也。自是人不見。所以雪竇如此郎當頌道。打鼓看來君不見。痴人還見麼。更向爾道。百花春至為誰開。可謂豁開戶牖。與爾一時八字打開了也。及乎春來。幽谷野㵎。乃至無人處。百花競發。爾且道更為誰開。

Xuedou naturally saw those ancients. He needed only to stab at their vital artery and compose a verse. The ox head sinks, the horse head returns: tell me, what is he saying? For one who sees through, it is like eating gruel at the morning meal and rice at the noon meal; just ordinary. Xuedou, out of compassion, smashes it with one blow to the head and cuts it off with one line; it is truly lofty and austere. Like a spark struck from flint, like a flash of lightning, he shows no sharp edge and leaves you nowhere to get a foothold. Tell me, can you grope for it beneath the root of the intellect? These two lines say it all at once. Xuedou's third line opens a thread of a path and slightly reveals the manner, and that is already falling into the weeds; the fourth line falls into the weeds even more directly. If you generate words from words, lines from lines, meanings from meanings, making interpretations and understandings, you not only implicate this old monk but also let Xuedou down. Though the ancients' lines are like this, their meaning is not like this, and they never use reasoning to bind people. 'In the mirror of Caoxi there is no dust': how many people say a still mind is the mirror! Happily that has nothing to do with it. If you only make calculations and reasoning, when will it end? This is the talk of one's own proper place, and this mountain monk dares not depart from his proper place. 'The ox head sinks, the horse head returns': Xuedou said it clearly; it is only that people do not see it. So Xuedou so laxly versifies: 'Beating the drum to look, you do not see.' Can fools still see? He tells you further: 'When spring arrives, for whom do the hundred flowers bloom?' One could say the doors and windows are thrown open and he lays it all out for you in one go. When spring comes, in secluded valleys and wild streams, even in places where no one is, the hundred flowers bloom competitively. Tell me, for whom do they bloom?

【六】舉雲門垂語云。十五日已前不問汝(半河南。半河北。這裡不收舊曆日)十五日已後道將一句來(不免從朝至暮。切忌道著。來日是十六。日月如流)自代雲。日日是好日(收。鰕跳不出鬥。誰家無明月清風。還知麼。海神知貴不知價)。

[Case 6] Cited: Yunmen gave a pronouncement: 'I do not ask you about before the fifteenth day (half in Henan, half in Hebei; the old calendar is not collected here). After the fifteenth day, bring me a line (it cannot be avoided from morning till night; take care not to speak of it; tomorrow is the sixteenth; the sun and moon flow on like a stream).' He answered for himself: 'Every day is a good day (collect it! A shrimp cannot jump out of the measure; whose home lacks a bright moon and a cool breeze? Do you know it? The sea god knows its value but not its price).'

雲門初參睦州。州旋機電轉。直是難湊泊。尋常接人。才跨門便搊住雲。道道。擬議不來。便推出雲。秦時𨍏轢鑽。雲門凡去見。至第三回。才敲門。州雲。誰。門雲。文偃。才開門便跳入。州搊住雲。道道。門擬議。便被推出門一足在門閫內。被州急合門。拶折雲門腳。門忍痛作聲。忽然大悟。後來語脈接人。一摸脫出睦州。後於陳操尚書宅。住三年。睦州指往雪峰處去。至彼出眾便問。如何是佛。峰雲。莫寐語。雲門便禮拜。一住三年。雪峰一日問。子見處如何。門雲。某甲見處。與從上諸聖。不移易一絲毫許。靈樹二十年。不請首座。常雲。我首座生也。又云。我首座牧牛也。復雲。我首座行腳也。忽一日令撞鐘。三門前接首座。眾皆訝之雲門果至。便請入首座寮。解包。靈樹人號曰知聖禪師。過去未來事皆預知。一日廣主劉王。將興兵。躬入院。請師決臧否。靈樹已先知。怡然坐化。廣主怒曰。和尚何時得疾。侍者對曰。師不曾有疾。適封一合子。令俟王來呈之。廣主開合得一帖子云。人天眼目。堂中首座。廣主悟旨。遂寢兵。請雲門出世。住靈樹。後來方住雲門。師開堂說法。有鞠常侍致問。靈樹果子熟也未。門雲。什麼年中。得信道生。復引劉王昔為賣香客等因緣。劉王後諡靈樹。為知聖禪師。靈樹生生不失通。雲門凡三生為王。所以失通。一日劉王詔師入內過夏。共數人尊宿。皆受內人問訊說法。唯師一人不言。亦無人親近。有一直殿使。書一偈。貼在碧玉殿上雲。大智修行。始是禪。禪門宜默不宜喧。萬般巧說爭如實。輸卻雲門總不言。雲門尋常愛說三字禪。顧鑒咦。又說一字禪。僧問殺父殺母。佛前懺悔。殺佛殺祖。向什麼處懺悔。門雲。露。又問。如何是正法眼藏。門雲。普。直是不容擬議。到平鋪處。又卻罵人若下一句語。如鐵橛子相似。後出四哲。乃洞山初。智門寬。德山密。

When Yunmen first studied under Muzhou, Muzhou turned the pivot like lightning, and it was hard to get a foothold. As his usual way of receiving people, as soon as someone stepped across the door he would seize him and say: 'Speak, speak!' If the person hesitated, he would push him out, saying: 'Qin-dynasty drill bit!' (The base text writes this character as 𨍏.) Yunmen went to see him, and on the third visit, just as he knocked on the door, Muzhou said: 'Who?' Yunmen said: 'Wenyan.' As soon as the door opened he jumped in. Muzhou seized him and said: 'Speak, speak!' As Yunmen hesitated, he was pushed out of the door with one foot still inside the threshold, and Muzhou suddenly shut the door, breaking Yunmen's foot. Yunmen cried out in pain, and suddenly had a great awakening. Later, receiving people with his own way of speaking, he slipped completely free of Muzhou. Afterward he stayed three years at the residence of Minister Chen Cao. Muzhou directed him to go to Xuefeng's place. On arriving he came out from the assembly and asked: 'What is Buddha?' Feng said: 'Do not talk in your sleep.' Yunmen bowed and stayed three years. One day Xuefeng asked: 'What is your view?' Yunmen said: 'My view does not differ from all the sages of the past by a hair's breadth.' Lingshu for twenty years did not invite a head monk, and often said: 'My head monk has been born.' He also said: 'My head monk has finished herding the ox.' He also said: 'My head monk has finished wandering.' Suddenly one day he had the bell struck and went to meet the head monk before the main gate. Everyone was astonished. Yunmen did indeed arrive, and was invited into the head monk's quarters and unpacked. The people of Lingshu called him Chan Master Zhisheng, who knew all matters of past and future in advance. One day King Liu of Guangzhou was about to raise an army, and he went in person to the monastery to ask the master to decide whether it was auspicious. Lingshu already knew beforehand and calmly sat in the lotus posture and died. The king of Guang was angry and said: 'When did the Master fall ill?' The attendant answered: 'The Master was never ill. He just sealed a box and told us to present it when the king came.' The king opened the box and found a note: 'Eye of humans and gods: the head monk in the hall.' The king understood the meaning and so stopped his army, and invited Yunmen to take the abbacy at Lingshu. Later he moved to Yunmen. When the master opened the hall and preached, Attendant Ju Chang asked: 'Is the fruit of Lingshu ripe yet?' Yunmen said: 'In what year did you get word of life?' He also cited the story of King Liu having once been a seller of incense and so on. King Liu was later posthumously named Chan Master Zhisheng of Lingshu. Lingshu in life after life never lost his spiritual powers. Yunmen was king for three lifetimes, and so lost his spiritual powers. One day King Liu summoned the master into the palace to spend the summer, with several eminent elders together, all of whom were asked questions and preached by the palace people. Only the master said nothing, and no one drew near him. A palace attendant wrote a verse and pasted it on the Jade Palace: 'Great wisdom cultivated, only then is it Chan; the gate of Chan befits silence and not clamor. Of ten thousand clever words, what compares to the real? Losing to Yunmen, who never speaks at all.' Yunmen often liked to preach his 'three-word Chan': 'Gu, jian, yi!' He also preached 'one-word Chan.' A monk asked: 'One who kills his father and mother repents before the Buddha; one who kills the Buddha and patriarchs repents where?' Yunmen said: 'Exposed.' He also asked: 'What is the treasury of the true Dharma eye?' Yunmen said: 'Universal.' It simply allowed no deliberation. When he reached the plain part he would again scold people. When he delivered a line, it was like an iron stake. Later four sages emerged: Dongshan Chu, Zhimen Kuan, Deshan Mi.

香林遠皆為大宗師。香林十八年為侍者。凡接他。只叫遠侍者。遠雲。喏。門雲。是什麼。如此十八年。一日方悟。門雲。我今後更不叫汝。雲門尋常接人。多用睦州手段。只是難為湊泊。有抽釘拔楔底鉗鎚。雪竇道。我愛韶陽新定機。一生與人抽釘拔楔。垂箇問頭示眾雲。十五日已前不問汝。十五日已後道將一句來。坐斷千差不通凡聖。自代雲。日日是好日。十五日已前。這語已坐斷千差。十五日已後。這語也坐斷千差。是他不道明日是十六。後人只管隨語生解。有什麼交涉他雲門立箇宗風。須是有箇為人處。垂語了。卻自代雲。日日是好日。此語通貫古今。從前至後。一時坐斷。山僧如此說話。也是隨語生解。他殺不如自殺。才作道理。墮坑落塹。雲門一句中。三句俱備。蓋是他家宗旨如此。垂一句語。須要歸宗。若不如此。只是杜撰。此事無許多論說。而未透者。卻要如此。若透得。便見古人意旨。看取雪竇打葛藤。

(Yuanwu continued:) Xianglin Yuan and others were all great masters. Xianglin served as attendant for eighteen years. Whenever Yunmen addressed him, he only called 'Attendant Yuan.' Yuan said: 'Yes.' Men said: 'What is it?' This went on for eighteen years, and one day he awakened. Yunmen said: 'From now on I will no longer call you.' Yunmen's usual way of receiving people mostly used Muzhou's methods, and it was only hard to get a foothold; he had tongs and hammer that pulled out nails and drew out wedges. Xuedou said: 'I love Shaoyang's new-set mechanism, who all his life pulled nails and drew out wedges for others.' He set a question and addressed the assembly: 'I do not ask you about before the fifteenth day. After the fifteenth day, bring me a line.' It cuts off a thousand differences and does not admit of ordinary or sage. He answered for himself: 'Every day is a good day.' Before the fifteenth, this line has already cut off the thousand differences; after the fifteenth, this line also cuts off the thousand differences. It is because he did not say 'tomorrow is the sixteenth.' Later people only produce interpretations following the words; what has that to do with it? Yunmen set up his own school style, and there must be a place where he helps others. After setting the pronouncement, he answered for himself: 'Every day is a good day.' This line runs through past and present, from before to after, cutting it off all at once. This mountain monk speaking like this is also producing interpretations following the words. Killing him is not as good as his killing himself; as soon as one reasons, one falls into pits and ditches. In one line of Yunmen all three lines are complete, because the tenet of his school is like this. When one sets down a line, it must return to the source; if not like this, it is only fabrication. This matter has not so many theories to discuss, but those who have not yet broken through want it so. If one breaks through, one sees the ancients' intent. Look at Xuedou tangling with the vines.

去卻一(七穿八穴。向什麼處去。放過一著)拈得七(拈不出。卻不放過)上下四維無等匹(何似生。上是天下是地。東南西北與四維。有什麼等匹。爭奈拄杖在我手裡)

Take away one (pierced seven ways and holed eight ways; where will you go? Let one move slip by), pick up seven (cannot be picked up, yet it does not let it slip). Above, below, and the four directions, none equal it (how is it born? Above is heaven, below is earth, east, south, west, north and the four corners; what is there to equal it? But the staff is in my hand).

徐行踏斷流水聲(莫問腳跟下。難為體究。打入葛藤窟裡。去了也)

Walking slowly, trampling to a stop the sound of flowing water (do not ask what is beneath your heels; it is hard to investigate; entered the cave of tangled vines and gone).

縱觀寫出飛禽跡(眼裡亦無此消息野狐精見解。依前只在舊窠窟裡)草茸茸(腦後拔箭。是什麼消息。墮在平實處)

Looking all around, writing out the tracks of flying birds (even the eye has no such news; the view of a wild fox spirit; still only in the old nest) the grass is lush (pulling an arrow from the back of the head; what news is this? Fallen into the plain and flat).

煙羃羃(未出這窠窟。足下雲生)空生巖畔花狼籍(在什麼處。不唧𠺕漢。勘破了也)

The mist is thick (has not yet left this nest; clouds rise at your feet). Flowers lie scattered by Subhuti's rock (where? A dull fellow; seen through already).

彈指堪悲舜若多(四方八面盡法界。向舜若多鼻孔裡道將一句來。在什麼處)

A snap of the fingers: lamentable is Sunyata (the four directions and eight sides all fill the dharma realm; say a line in Sunyata's nostril; where is it?)

莫動著(前言何在。動著時如何)

Do not move (where are the earlier words? What if you move?).

動著三十棒(自領出去。便打)

If you move, thirty blows (lead yourself out; strike at once).

雪竇頌古。偏能如此。當頭以金剛王寶劍。揮一下了。然後略露些風規。雖然如此。畢竟無有二解。去卻一拈得七。人多作算數會道。去卻一是十五日已前事。雪竇驀頭下兩句言語印破了。卻露出教人見。去卻一拈得七。切忌向言句中作活計。何故胡餅有什麼汁。人多落在意識中。須是向語句未生已前。會取始得。大用現前。自然見得也。所以釋迦老子成道後。於摩竭提國。三七日中。思惟如是事。諸法寂滅相。不可以言宣。我寧不說法。疾入於涅槃。到這裡覓箇開口處不得。以方便力故。為五比丘說已。至三百六十會。說一代時教。只是方便。所以脫珍御服。著獘垢衣。不得已。而向第二義門中淺近之處。誘引諸子。若教他向上全提。盡大地無一箇半箇。且道。作麼生是第一句。到這裡。雪竇露些意教人見。爾但上不見有諸佛。下不見有眾生。外不見有山河大地。內不見有見聞覺知。如大死底人卻活相似。長短好惡。打成一片。一一拈來更無異見。然後應用不失其宜。方見他道去卻一拈得七。上下四維無等匹。若於此句透得。直得上下四維無有等匹。森羅萬象。草芥人畜。著著全彰自己家風。所以道。萬象之中獨露身。惟人自肯乃方親。昔年謬向途中覓。今日看來火裡氷。天上天下惟我獨尊。人多逐末不求其本。先得本正。自然風行草偃。水到渠成。徐行踏斷流水聲。徐徐行動時。浩浩流水聲。也應踏斷。縱觀寫出飛禽跡。縱目一觀。直饒是飛禽跡亦如寫出相似。到這裡。鑊湯爐炭吹教滅。劍樹刀山喝便摧。不為難事。雪竇到此。慈悲之故。恐人坐在無事界中。復道。草茸茸煙羃羃。所以蓋覆卻直得草茸茸。煙羃羃。且道是什麼人境界。喚作日日是好日得麼。且喜沒交涉。直得徐行踏斷流水聲也不是。縱觀寫出飛禽跡也不是。草茸茸也不是。煙羃羃也不是。直饒總不恁麼。正是空生巖畔花狼籍。

Xuedou's verses on the old cases are able to do just this. He first swings the Vajra King's precious sword once, then slightly reveals the manner. Even so, in the end there are not two understandings. 'Take away one, pick up seven': many people interpret it by counting, saying that taking away one is what came before the fifteenth day. Xuedou, from the start, stamped it with two lines and then exposed it to show people. 'Take away one, pick up seven': take care not to make a livelihood in words and phrases. Why? What juice is there in a sesame cake? People mostly fall into consciousness; one must grasp it before words and phrases arise, and then it will do. When the great function appears, one sees it naturally. So when old Shakyamuni attained the Way, in the kingdom of Magadha, during three weeks he reflected on such matters: the characteristic of all dharmas is stillness and extinction, and cannot be expressed in words; I would rather not teach the Dharma and enter nirvana quickly. Here it was impossible to find a way to open his mouth. By the power of skillful means he taught the five bhikshus, and over three hundred sixty assemblies he taught the doctrine of a whole lifetime, but all was only expedient. So he took off his precious garments and put on tattered, soiled clothes; unable to do otherwise, he used the shallow parts within the gate of the second meaning to lure his children. If he had them raise the whole thing upward, there would not be one or half a person in the whole great earth. Tell me, what is the first line? Here Xuedou reveals a little of his meaning to let people see. If you look up and see no buddhas, look down and see no sentient beings, look outside and see no mountains, rivers, and great earth, look within and see no seeing, hearing, sensing, knowing, like one greatly dead coming alive again, long and short, good and bad all made into one piece, picking up each one with no different view, and then respond and use without losing what is fitting, then you will see what he means by 'take away one, pick up seven; above, below, and the four directions, none equal it.' If you break through this line, then above, below, and the four directions truly have no equal; the myriad phenomena, grasses, people, and animals each wholly display your own family style. So it is said: among the myriad phenomena, the body alone is revealed; only when a person himself consents is it truly intimate. In past years I mistakenly sought it on the road; today I see it is ice in fire. Above heaven and below heaven, I alone am the honored one. People mostly chase the branches and do not seek the root; once the root is right, the wind naturally bends the grass and when water arrives a channel forms. 'Walking slowly, trampling to a stop the sound of flowing water': when walking slowly, the vast sound of flowing water should also be trampled to a stop. 'Looking all around, writing out the tracks of flying birds': one glance with the eyes, and even the tracks of flying birds seem as if written out. Here, one can blow out a cauldron of boiling water and a furnace of coals, and with one shout shatter a sword tree and mountain of knives; it is no hard matter. Xuedou, arriving here, out of compassion, fearing people would sit in the realm of no-matter, said again: 'The grass is lush, the mist is thick.' So when it is covered over, the grass is so lush and the mist so thick. Tell me, whose realm is this? Can you call it 'every day is a good day'? Happily that has nothing to do with it. Even 'walking slowly, trampling to a stop the sound of flowing water' is not it; 'looking all around, writing out the tracks of flying birds' is not it; 'the grass is lush' is not it; 'the mist is thick' is not it. Even if it is not like any of this, it is exactly 'flowers lie scattered by Subhuti's rock.'

也須是轉過那邊始得。豈不見。須菩提巖中宴坐。諸天雨花讚嘆。尊者曰。空中雨花讚嘆。復是何人天曰。我是天帝釋。尊者曰。汝何讚嘆。天曰。我重尊者善說般若波羅蜜多。尊者曰。我於般若。未嘗說一字。汝云何讚歎。天曰。尊者無說。我乃無聞。無說無聞。是真般若。又復動地雨花。雪竇亦曾有頌雲。雨過雲凝曉半開。數峰如畫碧崔嵬。空生不解巖中坐。惹得天花動地來。天帝既動地雨花。到這裡。更藏去那裡。雪竇又道我恐逃之逃不得。大方之外皆充塞。忙忙擾擾知何窮。八面清風惹衣裓。直得淨裸裸赤灑灑。都無纖毫過患。也未為極則。且畢竟如何即是。看取下文雲。彈指堪悲舜若多。梵語舜若多。此雲虛空神。以虛空為體。無身覺觸。得佛光照方現得身。爾若得似舜若多神時。雪竇正好彈指悲歎。又云。莫動著。動著時如何。白日青天。開眼瞌睡。

(Yuanwu continued:) One must also turn over to the other side before it works. Have you not heard: Subhuti was sitting in meditation in a rock cave, and the devas rained flowers and praised him. The Venerable asked: 'Who is it that rains flowers and praises me from the sky?' The deva said: 'I am Indra.' The Venerable said: 'What do you praise?' The deva said: 'I revere the Venerable's skillful teaching of prajnaparamita (meaning 'reaching the other shore').' The Venerable said: 'Of prajna I have never spoken a single word. How can you praise it?' The deva said: 'The Venerable has no speaking, and I have no hearing. No speaking and no hearing is true prajna.' And again the earth shook and flowers rained down. Xuedou also composed a verse on this: 'The rain passes, the clouds gather, the dawn half opens; several peaks like a painting, green and towering. Subhuti did not understand sitting in the cave, and stirred heavenly flowers to shake the earth.' Since Indra shook the earth and rained flowers, where can one hide further? Xuedou also said: 'I fear that fleeing, one cannot flee; beyond the great square everything is filled; busy and bustling, who knows where it ends; eight sides of clear wind stir my garments.' Even if one is stark naked and bare, without the slightest fault, that is still not the ultimate. Then what finally is it? See the following text: 'A snap of the fingers: lamentable is Sunyata.' The Sanskrit Sunyata is translated as 'spirit of emptiness'; he takes empty space as his body and has no body to feel or touch, and only when illumined by the Buddha's light does he reveal a body. If you were like the spirit Sunyata, Xuedou would do well to snap his fingers and lament. He also said: 'Do not move! What if you move?' In broad daylight under a blue sky, one dozes with eyes open.

垂示雲。聲前一句。千聖不傳。未曾親覲。如隔大千。設使向聲前辨得。截斷天下人舌頭。亦未是性懆漢。所以道。天不能蓋。地不能載。虛空不能容。日月不能照。無佛處獨稱尊。始較些子。其或未然。於一毫頭上透得。放大光明七縱八橫。於法自在自由。信手拈來無有不是。且道得箇什麼。如此奇特。復雲。大眾會麼。從前汗馬無人識。只要重論蓋代功。即今事且致雪竇公案又作麼生。看取下文。

Introduction. The line before sound: a thousand sages do not transmit it. If one has not personally met it, it is as if separated by a great thousand worlds. Even if one discerns it before sound and cuts off the tongues of all under heaven, one is still not an impatient fellow. So it is said: Heaven cannot cover it, earth cannot bear it, space cannot hold it, sun and moon cannot illuminate it; alone honored where there is no Buddha, only then is one slightly comparable. If not yet, break through on the tip of a hair, let out great light, be free and unhindered in seven vertical and eight horizontal ways, be free and at ease in the Dharma, and whatever one picks up is right. Tell me, what has one gained that is so remarkable? He also said: Does the assembly understand? The warhorse's sweat in the past, no one recognizes it; one wants only to discuss once more the merit that covered the age. Leave the present matter aside; what of Xuedou's case? See the following text.

【七】舉僧問法眼(道什麼。簷枷過狀)慧超諮和尚。如何是佛(道什麼。眼睛突出)法眼雲。汝是慧超(依模脫出。鐵餕餡。就身打劫)。

[Case 7] Cited: A monk asked Fayan (what is he saying? Carrying a cangue to file a complaint): 'Huichao asks the Master: What is Buddha?' (What is he saying? Eyes bulging.) Fayan said: 'You are Huichao.' (Cast from the mold; an iron dumpling filling; robbing him on the spot.)

法眼禪師。有啐啄同時底機。具啐啄同時底用。方能如此答話。所謂超聲越色。得大自在。縱奪臨時。殺活在我。不妨奇特。然而此箇公案。諸方商量者多。作情解會者不少。不知古人。凡垂示一言半句。如擊石火似閃電光。直下撥開一條正路。後人只管去言句上。作解會道。慧超便是佛。所以法眼恁麼答。有者道。大似騎牛覓牛。有者道。問處便是。有什麼交涉。若恁麼會去。不惟辜負自己。亦乃深屈古人。若要見他全機。除非是一棒打不回頭底漢。牙如劍樹。口似血盆。向言外知歸。方有少分相應。若一一作情解。盡大地是滅胡種族底漢。只如超禪客於此悟去。也是他尋常管帶參究。所以一言之下。如桶底脫相似。只如則監院在法眼會中。也不曾參請入室。一日法眼問雲。則監院何不來入室。則雲。和尚豈不知。某甲於青林處。有箇入頭。法眼雲。汝試為我舉看。則雲。某甲問如何是佛。林雲。丙丁童子來求火。法眼雲。好語。恐爾錯會。可更說看則雲。丙丁屬火。以火求火。如某甲是佛。更去覓佛。法眼雲。監院果然錯會了也。則不憤便起單渡江去。法眼雲。此人若回可救。若不回救不得也。則到中路自忖雲。他是五百人善知識。豈可賺我耶。遂回再參法眼雲。爾但問我。我為爾答。則便問。如何是佛。法眼雲。丙丁童子來求火。則於言下大悟。如今有者。只管瞠眼作解會。所謂彼既無瘡。勿傷之也。這般公案。久參者。一舉便知落處。法眼下謂之箭鋒相拄。更不用五位君臣。四料簡。直論箭鋒相拄。是他家風如此。一句下便見。當陽便透。若向句下尋思。卒摸索不著。法眼出世。有五百眾。是時佛法大興。時韶國師久依疎山。自謂得旨。乃集疎山平生文字頂相。領眾行腳。至法眼會下。他亦不去入室。只令參徒隨眾入室。一日法眼陞座。有僧問。如何是曹源一滴水。法眼雲。是曹源一滴水。

Chan Master Fayan had the mechanism of simultaneous pecking and tapping and the function of simultaneous pecking and tapping; only so could he answer like this. It is what is called going beyond sound and form and attaining great freedom, giving and taking as the occasion requires, with killing and giving life in my hands; quite remarkable. Yet on this case, many everywhere discuss it, and not a few make emotional interpretations. They do not know that when the ancients gave a word or half a phrase, it was like a spark from flint or a flash of lightning, directly opening a correct road, and later people only go to the words and phrases to interpret them, saying 'Huichao is Buddha, so Fayan answered like this.' Some say it is very much like riding an ox looking for the ox; some say the place of asking is it; what has that to do with it? If one understands like this, one not only lets oneself down but also deeply wrongs the ancients. If you wish to see his whole mechanism, unless you are a fellow who is not turned back by a single blow of the staff, with teeth like a sword tree and a mouth like a blood basin, who knows the destination beyond words, there will be only a small accord. If one makes an emotional interpretation of each thing, the whole great earth is a people who have wiped out the barbarian race. As for Chan Guest Chao, awakening here was due to his habit of constant investigation, so that at a single word it was as though the bottom fell out of a bucket. As for the supervisor Ze, in Fayan's assembly he never attended the interview room either. One day Fayan asked: 'Supervisor Ze, why do you not come to the interview room?' Ze said: 'Does the Master not know? At Qinglin's place I had an entrance.' Fayan said: 'Try raising it for me.' Ze said: 'I asked, What is Buddha? Lin said: The Fire Boy comes seeking fire.' Fayan said: 'Good words. I fear you misunderstood; say more.' Ze said: 'Bing and Ding belong to fire; to seek fire with fire is like me, a Buddha, going on to seek a Buddha.' Fayan said: 'Supervisor, you have indeed misunderstood.' Ze, not accepting it, got up, packed his bag, and crossed the river. Fayan said: 'If this man returns, he can be saved; if he does not return, he cannot be saved.' Halfway along, Ze reflected: 'He is a teacher of five hundred; how could he deceive me?' So he returned to study again. Fayan said: 'Just ask me, and I will answer for you.' Ze then asked: 'What is Buddha?' Fayan said: 'The Fire Boy comes seeking fire.' At these words Ze had a great awakening. Today there are those who only glare and make interpretations; it is what is called: since he has no sore, do not injure him. As for such cases, those who have long studied know the landing place the moment it is mentioned. Under Fayan this is called arrowpoints meeting; it does not need the Five Ranks of Lord and Minister or the Four Selections; it is simply arrowpoints meeting, because such is his family style; one sees it under a single line and breaks through straight on. If one ponders under the line, one will finally grope in vain. When Fayan emerged to teach, he had an assembly of five hundred. At that time the Buddha Dharma was greatly flourishing. National Teacher Shao had long relied on Shushan and considered himself to have gotten the essence, so he gathered Shushan's writings and portraits of a lifetime and led his followers on pilgrimage. Coming to Fayan's assembly, he did not go to the interview room either, but only had his students go with the crowd. One day Fayan ascended the seat. A monk asked: 'What is a drop of water of the Cao source?' Fayan said: 'It is a drop of water of the Cao source.'

其僧惘然而退。韶在眾聞之忽然大悟。後出世。承嗣法眼。有頌呈雲。通玄峰頂。不是人間。心外無法。滿目青山。法眼印雲。只這一頌。可繼吾宗。子後有王侯敬重。吾不如汝。看他古人。恁麼悟去。是什麼道理。不可只教山僧說。須是自己二六時中。打辦精神。似恁麼與他承當。他日向十字街頭。垂手為人。也不為難事。所以僧問法眼。如何是佛法。眼雲。汝是慧超。有甚相辜負處。不見雲門道。舉不顧。即差互。擬思量何劫悟。雪竇後面頌得。不妨顯赫。試舉看。

(Yuanwu continued:) That monk withdrew in bewilderment. Shao, hearing it in the assembly, suddenly had a great awakening. Later he came out to teach and inherited Fayan's Dharma. He presented a verse: 'On Tongxuan peak, it is not the human world; no dharma beyond the mind; the green mountains fill my eyes.' Fayan certified it, saying: 'This one verse can continue my school. In the future you will be honored by kings and lords; I do not equal you.' See how those ancients awakened like this; what principle is it? You must not have this mountain monk tell it; you must, in your own twelve periods of the day, rouse your spirit and take it on like this. Later, standing at a crossroads and extending your hands to help people will not be hard. So when a monk asked Fayan: 'What is the Buddha Dharma?' Yan said: 'You are Huichao.' What is there to be let down by? Have you not seen Yunmen say: 'If you raise it and do not look back, it is already wrong; if you hesitate and think, in what kalpa will you awaken?' Xuedou's verse afterward is quite splendid. Let me bring it up.