68Jiashan Swings the Sword夾山揮劍

Introduction 示眾

寰中天子勅，閫外將軍令。有時門頭得力，有時室內稱尊。且道：是甚麼人？

Inside the realm, the emperor issues the order. Beyond the border, the general gives the command. Sometimes the strength is at the front gate, sometimes the honor is in the inner room. So tell me: who is this?

僧問夾山：「撥塵見佛時如何？」山云：「直須揮劍。若不揮劍，漁父棲巢。」僧舉問石霜：「撥塵見佛時如何？」霜云：「渠無國土，何處逢渠？」僧迴，舉似夾山。山上堂云：「門庭施設，不如老僧；入理深談，猶較石霜百步。」

A monk asked Jiashan, "When you sweep away the dust and see the Buddha, what then?"

Jiashan said, "You have to swing the sword. Don't swing the sword, and the fisherman ends up nesting in the reeds."

The monk took this and put the same question to Shishuang: "When you sweep away the dust and see the Buddha, what then?"

Shishuang said, "He has no country. Where would you ever meet him?"

The monk went back and reported it to Jiashan. Jiashan went up to the hall and said, "At setting up shop by the front gate, no one beats me. But at the deep talk that goes all the way into the truth, I'm still a hundred paces behind Shishuang."

Verse 頌

拂牛劍氣洗兵威，
定亂歸功更是誰。
一旦氛埃清四海，
垂衣皇化自無為。

The sword's bright edge washes away the might of arms.
The chaos quelled, whose then is the credit?
One morning the haze and dust wash clean from the four seas,
and the emperor, robes hanging loose, transforms all by doing nothing.

Pointer

Jiashan and Shishuang are two ninth-century masters, and the monk is shopping one question to both. "Sweep away the dust and see the Buddha" is supposed to be the whole job: clear off your delusions and the truth stands revealed, so the monk thinks he is asking what comes after you arrive. The flaw is buried in the word "see," which smuggles in a Buddha sitting there to be found, a destination, a someone. Jiashan plays along but warns that you have to keep the blade moving; stop swinging the sword and you go soft, the fisherman nests in the reeds, you settle in and quit. Shishuang cuts harder: he has no country, so where would you ever meet him, meaning the instant you make awakening a thing-you-locate you have already walked past it. Jiashan, hearing that, openly tips his hat, unbeaten at running a room, a hundred paces back on the cut that goes all the way down.