40Kicking Over the Water Jug趯倒淨瓶

溈山和尚。始在百丈會中。充典座。百丈將選大溈主人。乃請同首座。對眾下語。出格者可往。百丈遂拈淨瓶。置地上。設問云。不得喚作淨瓶。汝喚作甚麼。首座乃云。不可喚作木[木+突]。也百丈卻問於山。山乃趯倒淨瓶而去。百丈笑云。第一座輸卻山子。也因命之為開山。

Before he was Master Guishan, he worked as head cook under Baizhang. Baizhang was looking for someone to found a new monastery on Mount Gui, so he gathered the whole community and announced a test: whoever answered best would get the post. He set a water jug on the floor and asked, "Don't call it a water jug. So what do you call it?"

The head monk said, "You couldn't call it a wooden clog."

Then Baizhang put the question to Guishan. Guishan walked up, kicked the jug over, and left.

Baizhang laughed. "The head monk just lost to our cook." And he sent Guishan off to open the mountain.

Wumen's Comment 無門曰

溈山一期之勇。爭奈跳百丈圈圚不出。檢點將來。便重不便輕。何故聾脫得盤頭。擔起鐵枷。

Guishan summoned one good burst of nerve, yet for all that he never leapt clear of Baizhang's trap. Look closely: he took up the heavy load and passed over the light one. How so? He shed the cook's headband only to drop an iron yoke onto his neck.

Verse 頌曰

颺下箍籬并木杓
當陽一突絕周遮
百丈重關攔不住
腳尖趯出佛如麻

Down go the bamboo hoop and the wooden ladle,
one clean thrust, and the clutter is gone.
Baizhang's barred gate cannot hold him:
his toe kicks buddhas out thick as hemp.

Pointer

Baizhang is the eighth-century teacher who organized Chan monastic life; Guishan is his student, here still a kitchen worker about to be made founding abbot of a new monastery. The test is a classic bind: name the water jug without using the word "jug," and without pretending it is something it plainly isn't. The head monk plays the word game, calling it not-a-wooden-clog, clever and safe and dead. Guishan refuses the game entirely, walks up, boots the jug over, and leaves, answering with an act where a label was demanded, and Baizhang gives him the post. The twist Wumen flags is sharp: winning means landing the abbacy, and the commentary says Guishan only swapped the cook's headband for an iron yoke, never really leaping clear of Baizhang's trap. So even the right answer hangs a fresh weight on the winner, which leaves the question of what it would mean to win without picking up the yoke.