景德傳燈錄 17.27

17.27

Chan Master Wensui of Qinshan in Lizhou was a man of Fuzhou. In his youth, he relied on Chan Master Huanzhong of Mount Daci in Hangzhou to receive his training. At that time, Yantou and Xuefeng were in the assembly; seeing the Master's discourses and knowing he was a Dharma vessel, they led one another on travels. The two worthy ones met conditions of affinity with Deshan and each received his seal of transmission; though the Master repeatedly stirred up encounters, in the end he remained stagnant. One day he asked Deshan, "Tianhuang spoke like that, and Longtan also spoke like that; I wonder how Deshan speaks?" Deshan said, "Try to cite what Tianhuang and Longtan said." Just as the Master was about to speak further, Deshan struck him with his staff, carrying him off to the Nirvāṇa Hall. The Master said, "Right though it is, he struck me too harshly." (Fayan said in an alternate phrase, "Right though it is, he struck me mistakenly." Further phrases appear in the chapters of Deshan and Yantou.) Later, the Master had an awakening under the words of Dongshan, and became Dongshan's successor. At the age of twenty-seven he settled on Mount Qin, where in front of the great assembly he examined his past actions. When he first visited Dongshan, Dongshan asked, "Where do you come from?" The Master said, "I come from Daci." Dongshan said, "Did you still see Daci?" The Master said, "I saw him." Dongshan said, "Did you see him before form or after form?" The Master said, "It was not seeing before or after." Dongshan fell silent. The Master then said, "I left my master too early and did not fully grasp my master's intent." A monk asked, "What is the meaning of the ancestral master coming from the west?" The Master said, "Master Liang's carpenter's square, Master Zhi's scissors." A monk asked, "All the dharmas of all buddhas emerge from this sūtra. What is this sūtra?" The Master said, "Constantly turning." The monk asked, "I wonder what is expounded in the sūtra?" The Master said, "If you have doubts, please ask." A monk asked, "What is the Master's house style?" The Master said, "Brocade curtains and silver incense sachets; the wind blows the fragrance across the whole road." A monk drew the Master's portrait and presented it. The Master asked, "Does it resemble me or not?" The monk had no reply. The Master spoke on his behalf, saying, "Let the assembly of monks look at it." One day the Master entered the bathhouse and saw a monk treading a waterwheel. Seeing the Master, the monk stepped down and greeted him. The Master said, "It is fortunate that it was turning continuously; what need was there to act like that?" The monk said, "If not like this, how else could it be?" The Master said, "If it is like this, what can Qinshan's eyes be used for?" The monk said, "What are the Master's eyes?" The Master then made a gesture of brushing his eyebrows with his hand. The monk said, "The Upādhyāya can also act like this?" The Master said, "Right, right; because I acted like this, it is not permissible to act like that." The monk had no reply. The Master said, "Demanding battle without victory—what a stifling affair!" After a long pause, he asked the monk, "Do you understand?" The monk said, "I do not understand." The Master said, "Qinshan will shoulder half of it for you." Once, while crossing Jiangxi, the Master, Xuefeng, and Yantou stopped in a teahouse to drink tea. The Master said, "He who does not know how to turn his body and breathe freely will not get tea to drink today." Yantou said, "If so, I certainly will not get tea to drink." Xuefeng said, "For me it is the same." The Master said, "Neither of these two old fellows understands words." Yantou said, "Where has it gone?" The Master said, "An old crow inside a cloth bag—though alive, it is like dead." Yantou said, "Step back, step back!" The Master said, "Set Brother Huo aside for a moment; what about Elder Cun?" Xuefeng drew a circular figure with his hand. The Master said, "I had to ask." Yantou laughed heartily and said, "Far too distant!" The Master said, "There are many people who have mouths yet do not drink tea." Yantou and Xuefeng both remained silent. Chan Guest Liang came to study; just after bowing, he asked, "What is it like when one arrow pierces three gates?" The Master said, "Release the master within the gates for me to see." Liang said, "If so, then knowing my error, I must correct it and leave." The Master said, "What other time are you waiting for?" Liang said, "A good arrow, but shot without hitting its place," and was about to leave. The Master said, "Setting aside shooting the three gates, try shooting an arrow for Qinshan." Liang stepped forward, waited a long time, and then retreated. The Master then struck Liang seven blows with his staff. Liang then went out. The Master said, "Just listen to this disorderly fellow—he will doubt in his heart for thirty years." Someone recounted this to Upādhyāya Tong'an. An said, "Though Elder Liang released the arrow, he did not hit the target." That monk then asked Tong'an, "I wonder how to hit the target?" An said, "What person is the master within the gates?" The monk returned and recounted this to the Master. The Master said, "If Elder Liang understood like this, he would have escaped Qinshan's mouth. Even so, Tong'an did not have good intentions; one still must examine it carefully." A monk came to study. The Master held up his fist and said, "If opened into a palm, the five fingers are uneven; now as a fist, there is surely no high or low. Tell me, does Qinshan permit negotiation or not?" The monk stepped forward and merely held up his fist. The Master said, "Acting like that all at once—you are just a fellow with no opening or closing." The monk said, "I wonder how the Upādhyāya receives people?" The Master said, "If I received people, I would be just like you." The monk said, "Having come especially to visit the Master, you must reveal the tradition of the school." The Master said, "If you come especially, I must reveal it." The monk said, "Please do so." The Master then struck him. The monk had no reply. The Master said, "Waiting by the tree stump for a hare—wasting mind and spirit in vain."