24Xuefeng's Snake雪峯看蛇

Introduction 示眾

東海鯉魚，南山鼈鼻，普化驢鳴，子湖犬吠。不墮常塗，不行異類。且道：是什麼人行履處？

A carp in the East Sea. The turtle-nosed snake on South Mountain. Puhua braying like a donkey, Zihu's dog barking. None of it falls into the usual rut, none of it slips off into the strange. So tell me: what kind of person walks this road?

雪峯示眾云：「南山有一條鼈鼻蛇，汝等諸人切須好看。」長慶云：「今日堂中大有人喪身失命。」僧舉似玄沙，沙云：「須是我稜兄始得。然雖如是，我即不恁麼。」僧云：「和尚作麼生？」沙云：「用南山作麼？」雲門以拄杖攛向峯面前，作怕勢。

Xuefeng told the assembly, "There's a turtle-nosed snake on South Mountain. All of you had better watch it well."

Changqing said, "Today there are plenty of people in this hall who'll lose their lives."

A monk repeated this to Xuansha. Xuansha said, "It takes my brother Changqing to say a thing like that. Even so, I wouldn't put it that way."

The monk asked, "How would you put it?"

Xuansha said, "What use is South Mountain?"

Yunmen took his staff, flung it down in front of Xuefeng, and jumped back as if scared.

Verse 頌

玄沙大剛，
長慶少勇。
南山鼈鼻死無用，
風雲際會頭角生。
果見韶陽下手弄，
下手弄，
激電光中看變動。
在我也能遣能呼，
於彼也有擒有縱。
底事如今付阿誰，
冷口傷人不知痛。

Xuansha, all edge.
Changqing, short on nerve.
The South Mountain snake, dead, is good for nothing,
but where wind and clouds meet, a head and horns sprout.
Sure enough, watch Yunmen reach in and toy with it.
Reach in and toy with it:
in the flash of lightning, watch the thing move.
With me, the power to send off and to summon;
with him, a seizing and a letting go.
And this whole business, now: handed to whom?
A cold mouth wounds a man who never feels the sting.

Pointer

Xuefeng, Changqing, Xuansha, and Yunmen span the late Tang into the Five Dynasties; Changqing and Xuansha trained under Xuefeng, so this is a teacher sparring with disciples. The "snake on South Mountain" is Xuefeng's setup, with no actual snake involved. He is pointing at the deadly thing hiding in plain sight, the trap in your own mind, and daring his students to handle it. Each grabs the live wire differently: Changqing names the danger, Xuansha refuses to even play along with the "South Mountain" framing, and Yunmen skips talk entirely, flinging down his staff as the snake and miming terror, acting the whole thing out instead of discussing it. The pleasure of the case is watching four people take hold of one charged moment four separate ways, which is also the book showing you that there is no single correct grip.