鎮州臨濟慧照禪師語錄 1.13

1.13

Now, Chief Abbot Venerable Xuetang, lamenting that the rustic songs found few to harmonize and sighing that the snow melodies played found rare response, saw that this recorded sayings lacked text and was seldom seen in chan groves. Thereupon he sought widely among Buddhist disciples to revive these writings, wishing to engrave the blocks for broad circulation, so that those investigating the mysterious might derive benefit, propagating the ancestral way and extending abundance to later generations. Beneath the stick and within the shout, one must be clear as flint-sparks and lightning-flash; in raising the main case from the side, one must look out for eyebrows and nostrils. Other encounter occasions are fully recorded in previous records and need not be brought up again.