93Daguang Does a Dance

僧問大光：「長慶道『因齋慶讚』，意旨如何？」大光作舞。僧禮拜。光云：「見箇什麼便禮拜？」僧作舞。光云：「這野狐精。」

A monk asked Daguang, "Changqing said, 'We give thanks because of the meal.' What did he mean by that?"

Daguang got up and danced.

The monk bowed.

Daguang said, "What did you just see?"

The monk got up and danced.

Daguang said, "You wild fox spirit."

Verse 頌

前箭猶輕後箭深，
誰云黃葉是黃金。
曹溪波浪如相似，
無限平人被陸沈。

The first arrow grazed; the second drove deep.
Who called yellow leaves real gold?
Take the waves of Caoxi for the thing itself
and countless ordinary people drown on dry land.

Pointer

Daguang and Changqing are both Tang teachers, and the monk drags up a line from Changqing, "we give thanks because of the meal," monks blessing the food before eating, and asks what it really means. Daguang skips the explanation and just gets up and dances, live action, no words. The monk bows like he gets it, so Daguang tests him, what did you see, and the monk copies the move, dancing too. Daguang nails him: "wild fox spirit," Chan slang for a faker who has the gestures and not the understanding under them. The case turns on a fine line, since the monk did exactly what the master did, and it was wrong, because he was reproducing a form instead of moving from anything live. The verse's "yellow leaves for gold" is the stock image of telling a crying child that leaves are coins to quiet him, a useful lie mistaken for the real thing, and "Caoxi" is the seat of Huineng, the great sixth ancestor: even at the source you can drown on dry land by aping the dance.