100Baling's Hair-Cutting Sword
Introduction 垂示
收因結果，盡始盡終，對面無私，元不曾說。忽有箇出來道：「一夏請益，為什麼不曾說？」待爾悟來，向爾道。且道：為復是當面諱却，為復別有長處？試舉看。
Gather up the causes, tie off the results. Beginning to end, all of it laid bare. Face to face, nothing held back, and yet not a word has ever been said. Suppose someone steps out and says, "We've spent a whole summer at this, so why do you say nothing's been said?" I'd tell him: wait till you wake up, then I'll tell you. So which is it: am I dodging the question right to your face, or is there more to it? Let's look.
僧問巴陵：「如何是吹毛劍？」陵云：「珊瑚枝枝撐著月。」
A monk asked Baling, "What is the hair-cutting sword?"
Baling said, "Each branch of coral holds up the moon."
Verse 頌
要平不平，
大巧若拙。
或指或掌，
倚天照雪。
大冶兮磨礱不下，
良工兮拂拭未歇。
萬斛盈舟信手拏，
却因一粒甕吞蛇。
拈提百轉舊公案，
撒却時人幾眼沙。
To level out the uneven.
Real skill looks like clumsiness.
Now a finger, now a palm,
it leans on the sky and lights up the snow.
The great smith: no grinding wheel can touch this edge.
The good craftsman: still polishing, never done.
A whole boatload of grain, hauled in by hand,
and one stray grain makes a snake in the jar.
Trot out the old case, flip it a hundred ways,
and watch the sand fly into how many eyes.