10Muzhou's Empty-Headed Phony
Introduction 垂示
恁麼恁麼，不恁麼不恁麼。若論戰也，箇箇立在轉處。所以道：若向上轉去，直得釋迦彌勒、文殊普賢、千聖萬聖、天下宗師，普皆飲氣吞聲；若向下轉去，醯雞蠛蠓、蠢動含靈，一一放大光明，一一壁立萬仞。儻或不上不下，又作麼生商量？有條攀條，無條攀例。試舉看。
Say it's this way: fine. Say it's not this way: fine. But once the real fight starts, everyone has to plant his feet at the turning point. So consider: turn upward, and Shakyamuni, Maitreya, Manjushri, Samantabhadra, the thousand sages, the ten thousand sages, every great master under heaven, all swallow hard and hold their breath. Turn downward, and gnats, mosquitoes, every crawling, wriggling, breathing thing, each one blazes with light, each one stands like a sheer wall a mile high. But suppose you turn neither up nor down. How do you weigh it then? Where there's a rule, follow the rule. Where there's none, follow the precedent. Here is a case to test you.
睦州問僧：「近離甚處？」僧便喝。州云：「老僧被汝一喝。」僧又喝。州云：「三喝四喝後作麼生？」僧無語。州便打云：「這掠虛頭漢。」
Muzhou asked a monk, "Where have you just come from?"
The monk gave a shout.
Muzhou said, "So I've taken a shout from you."
The monk shouted again.
Muzhou said, "Three shouts, four shouts, then what?"
The monk had nothing to say.
Muzhou hit him and said, "You empty-headed phony."