18The Seamless Tomb

肅宗皇帝問忠國師：「百年後所須何物？」國師云：「與老僧作箇無縫塔。」帝曰：「請師塔樣。」國師良久，云：「會麼？」帝云：「不會。」國師云：「吾有付法弟子耽源，却諳此事，請詔問之。」國師遷化後，帝詔耽源，問此意如何。源云：「湘之南潭之北。」雪竇著語云：「獨掌不浪鳴。」「中有黃金充一國。」雪竇著語云：「山形拄杖子。」「無影樹下合同船。」雪竇著語云：「海晏河清。」「瑠璃殿上無知識。」雪竇著語云：「拈了也。」

Emperor Suzong asked National Teacher Zhong, "When you are gone, what will you need?"
"Build me a seamless tomb," the teacher said.
"Then give me the design, Master."
The teacher sat a long while in silence. Then: "Understand?"
"No," said the emperor.
"I have an heir, Danyuan, who knows this matter. Send for him and ask."

After the teacher died, the emperor summoned Danyuan and asked what it all meant.
Danyuan said:
"South of the Xiang, north of the Tan."
(Xuedou: "One hand alone makes no sound.")
"In between, gold enough to fund a whole country."
(Xuedou: "A staff shaped like a mountain.")
"Under the shadowless tree, the ferry that carries everyone across together."
(Xuedou: "Calm seas, clear rivers.")
"In the crystal palace, no one home who knows a thing."
(Xuedou: "There. I have laid it out for you.")

Verse 頌

無縫塔，
見還難，
澄潭不許蒼龍蟠。
層落落，
影團團，
千古萬古與人看。

A seamless tomb,
and hard to lay eyes on.
The clear pool will not let the blue dragon coil.
Tier on tier,
the shadow rounding whole.
A thousand ages, ten thousand ages, here for all to see.

Pointer

National Teacher Zhong is Nanyang Huizhong, an elder master the Tang emperor kept near him as a kind of spiritual advisor. The "tomb" in question is a stupa, the memorial monument raised for a revered monk after death, so the emperor's question is practical and fond: what funeral do you want? The teacher answers from somewhere else. A "seamless tomb" has no joints, no parts, no blueprint, a way of pointing at something whole and unmade rather than a building you could draft, which is why "give me the design" gets only a long silence in return. When the emperor still cannot follow, the puzzle passes to the heir Danyuan, whose reply is a deliberate riddle: directions to a place on no map, a palace with nobody home who knows a thing. Xuedou drops a one-line jab after each phrase, half mockery, half applause. Rather than crack the riddle like a lock, feel how every attempt to pin the thing down slides off its seamless surface.