虛堂和尚語錄 9.61

9.61

Ascending the hall on New Year's Day: "Three snowfalls in the twelfth month, and the primal New Year qi is harmonious. Heaven and earth open in peace, and the myriad things attain their proper order. Why does a single year have two beginnings? If you say that intercalary remnants make up a year, who does not know that? The mountain monk normally says: only when the people under heaven are at peace am I at peace. I straightway ordered the reception clerk to listen and investigate carefully: what sort of climate and fortune is it? Thereupon the reception clerk, without moving half a step, made a complete circuit around the four continents; there was nothing he did not know, nowhere he did not go. He returned leaping with joy: indeed there are signs of an abundant year! The mountain monk said, 'What is the evidence?' The reception clerk said, 'In the alleys and avenues of the capital, the marketplaces and inns, the hamlets and village quarters, firewood, rice, and vegetables—all hundred goods are cheap and steady. After the snow, the two kinds of wheat are lush and magnificent to behold. This is the omen of an abundant year.' The mountain monk asked again, 'Apart from this, is there any other news?' He said, 'At the tips of the mulberry and wild mulberry trees, one hears the cuckoo; amid the shadows of the spring wind, they herd the plow oxen.' The mountain monk said, 'Reception clerk, truly your name and virtue correspond. Toward spring, when the old monk has money, I will buy an oily fried cake to offer you.' He spun his body around, clapped his hands, laughed heartily, and left. The mountain monk only harbors deep doubts about it. Even so, tell me: what was he laughing at?"