70Guishan Hands It Back
Introduction 垂示
快人一言，快馬一鞭。萬年一念，一念萬年。要知直截，未舉已前。且道：未舉已前，作麼生摸索？請舉看。
A sharp person needs one word, a fast horse one flick of the whip. Ten thousand years are this one instant; this one instant, ten thousand years. If you want to cut straight through, do it before a single word is spoken. So tell me: before anything is said, where do you even start groping for it? Here's the case. Look.
溈山、五峯、雲巖同侍立百丈。百丈問溈山：「併却咽喉唇吻，作麼生道？」溈山云：「却請和尚道。」丈云：「我不辭向汝道，恐已後喪我兒孫。」
Guishan, Wufeng, and Yunyan were all standing in attendance on Baizhang. Baizhang turned to Guishan and asked, "Shut off your throat, your lips, your mouth. Now say it."
Guishan said, "I'd rather you said it, master."
Baizhang said, "I don't mind telling you. But if I do, down the road it'll cost me my heirs."
Verse 頌
却請和尚道，
虎頭生角出荒草。
十洲春盡花凋殘，
珊瑚樹林日杲杲。
"I'd rather you said it, master"—
a tiger sprouts horns and walks out of the weeds.
Across the ten islands spring runs out, the blossoms fall and rot,
yet the coral forest stands blazing in the sun.