60Iron Grindstone Liu's Cow鐵磨牸牛

Introduction 示眾

鼻孔昂藏，各具丈夫相；脚跟牢實，肯學老婆禪？透得無巴鼻機關，始見正作家手段。且道：誰是其人？

Nostrils flaring, head held high: every one of them looks like a grown man, heels planted firm on the ground. Why bother learning grandma Zen? Only when you've broken clean through the gimmick that gives you nothing to grab do you see how a real master works. So tell me: who fits the bill?

劉鐵磨到溈山，山云：「老牸牛，汝來也。」磨云：「來日臺山大會齋，和尚還去麼？」山放身臥，磨便出去。

Liu Tiemo came to see Guishan. Guishan said, "Well, old cow, so you've come."
Liu said, "Tomorrow there's the big feast on Mount Tai. Are you going, master?"
Guishan flopped down and stretched out on the ground.
Liu turned and walked out.

Verse 頌

百戰功成老太平，
優柔誰肯苦爭衡？
玉鞭金馬閑終日，
明月清風富一生。

A hundred battles won, and now old, at peace.
Easygoing: who would grind it out for the edge?
Jade whip, golden horse, idle all day.
Bright moon, clear wind, rich for a lifetime.

Pointer

Liu Tiemo was a tough, sharp-tongued nun nicknamed "Iron Grindstone" because she ground down everyone who came at her; Guishan was a major Chan master and her equal. The "big feast on Mount Tai" is bait, since Wutai was a famous pilgrimage site far away, and a real teacher isn't supposed to be running off chasing holy events, so her "are you going?" is a hook. Watch the whole bout. He opens by calling her an old cow, an insult and a compliment at once; she counters with the trap question; he answers not in words but by sprawling flat on the floor, going nowhere, declining the hook; and she, satisfied, simply walks out. Two fighters who don't need to win, sparring at full speed and shaking hands on a draw. The verse paints exactly that ease, a veteran of a hundred battles too settled to grind for the edge.