萬松老人評唱天童覺和尚頌古從容庵錄 4.27

4.27

師云。王介甫老。持棊隱語云。彼亦不敢先。此亦不敢先。唯其不敢先。是以無所爭。唯其無所爭。是故入於不死不生。棊乃爭先法。贏則贏箇先手。輸則輸箇頭撞。趙州於爾未下子以前。早先見數著。嚴陽只管橫飛直逴。剩占幾路。不知斧柯已爛也。王氏神仙傳。晉隆安時。信安縣王質。採薪至眩室坂。見石室四童子弈棊。與質物。如棗子。含之不飢。棊終斧柯爛於腰間。衣袂隨風。抵暮還家。已數十年矣。趙州放下著。擔取去兩轉語。抽筋拔髓。換骨洗膓。便與趙州。把手共行。步虛輕舉也。有底道。清閒真道本。無事小神仙。雖然莫將無事為無事。往往事從無事生。

The Master said: Wang Jiefu's riddle on playing chess says: 'Neither dares take the lead, nor does this side dare go first. Precisely because neither dares take the lead, there is nothing to contend over. Precisely because there is nothing to contend over, one enters into non-dying and non-arising.' Chess is an art of contending for the initiative: if you win, you win an opening move; if you lose, you lose by a clash of heads. Long before you place a stone, Zhaozhou has already seen several moves ahead. Yanyang was only concerned with flying horizontally and leaping straight ahead, capturing a few extra territories, not knowing that the axe handle was already rotten. The Wang Family's Biographies of Immortals states: During the Long'an era of the Jin dynasty, Wang Zhi of Xin'an County was gathering firewood when he reached Xuan Shi slope. He saw four boys in a stone cave playing chess. They gave Zhi an object like a date; holding it in his mouth, he felt no hunger. By the time the game ended, the axe handle at his waist had rotted, and his clothes fluttered in the wind. Reaching home at dusk, decades had already passed. Zhaozhou's two turning words—'Put it down' and 'Carry it away'—extract the sinews and marrow, change the bones and wash the entrails; then one walks hand in hand with Zhaozhou, pacing the void and soaring lightly. There are those who say: 'Pure leisure is the true root of the Way; having no business makes one a minor immortal.' Even so, do not take having no business to be having no business; often business arises precisely from having no business.