7Case 7

居士一日見大同普濟禪師，拈起手中笊籬曰：「大同師！大同師！」濟不應。士曰：「石頭一宗，到師處冰消瓦解。」濟曰：「不得龐翁舉，灼然如此。」士拋下笊籬曰：「寧知不直一文錢。」濟曰：「雖不直一文錢，欠他又爭得？」士作舞而去。濟提起笊籬曰：「居士。」士回首。濟作舞而去。士撫掌曰：「歸去來！歸去來！」濟一日問居士：「是箇言語，今古少人避得唇舌，只如翁避得麼？」士應喏。濟再舉前話。士曰：「什麼處去來？」濟又舉前話。士曰：「什麼處去來？」濟曰：「非但如今，古人亦有此語句。」士作舞而去。濟曰：「這風顛漢，自過教誰點檢？」普濟一日訪居士。士曰：「憶在母胎時，有一則語，舉似阿師，切不得作道理主持。」濟曰：「猶是隔生也。」士曰：「向道不得作道理。」濟曰：「驚人之句，爭得不怕？」士曰：「如師見解，可謂驚人。」濟曰：「不作道理，却成作道理。」士曰：「不但隔一生兩生。」濟曰：「粥飯底僧，一任點檢。」士彈指三下。居士一日去看普濟。濟見居士來，便掩却門曰：「多知老翁，莫與相見。」士曰：「獨坐獨語，過在阿誰？」濟便開門，纔出，被士把住曰：「師多知，我多知。」濟曰：「多知且置，閉門開門，卷之與舒，相較幾許？」士曰：「祇此一問，氣急殺人。」濟嘿然。士曰：「弄巧成拙。」居士到長髭禪師，值上堂，大眾集定，士便出云：「各請自檢好。」髭便示眾，士却於禪床右立。時有僧問：「不觸主人公，請師答話。」髭云：「識龐公麼？」僧云：「不識。」士便搊住其僧云：「苦哉！苦哉！」僧無對。士托開。髭少間却問士云：「適來這僧還喫棒否？」士云：「待伊甘始得。」髭云：「居士只見錐頭利，不見鑿頭方。」士云：「恁麼說話，某甲即得，外人聞之，要且不好。」髭云：「不好箇甚麼？」士云：「阿師只見鑿頭方，不見錐頭利。」

One day Layman Pang went to see Chan master Datong Puji. He held up the bamboo strainer in his hand and said, "Master Datong! Master Datong!" Puji didn't answer. Pang said, "The whole lineage of Shitou melts to slush and crumbles to rubble when it reaches you." Puji said, "Without you, old Pang, to raise it, sure, that's how it looks." Pang threw down the strainer and said, "And to think it isn't worth a penny." Puji said, "Maybe not a penny. But try doing without it." Pang did a little dance and walked off. Puji picked up the strainer and called, "Layman!" Pang turned his head. Puji did a little dance and walked off. Pang clapped his hands and said, "I'm going home. I'm going home."

One day Puji asked the Layman, "There's a saying. From the old days down to now, hardly anyone has dodged getting tangled up in talk about it. So can you dodge it, old man?" Pang said, "Yep." Puji repeated the saying. Pang said, "Where'd you go?" Puji repeated it again. Pang said, "Where'd you go?" Puji said, "It isn't only now. The old masters had this line too." Pang did a little dance and walked off. Puji said, "That lunatic. He trips himself up, and who's he going to get to check his work?"

One day Puji dropped in on the Layman. Pang said, "I remember a line from when I was still in my mother's womb. Let me try it on you, teacher, but whatever you do, don't go propping it up with reasons." Puji said, "That's still a lifetime away." Pang said, "I told you not to make it about reasons." Puji said, "A line that floors people. How could anyone not be afraid of it?" Pang said, "An insight like yours, teacher, now that floors people." Puji said, "You say don't make it about reasons, and there you go making it about reasons." Pang said, "It's not just one or two lifetimes away." Puji said, "I'm a porridge-and-rice monk. Check my work all you like." Pang snapped his fingers three times.

One day the Layman went to see Puji. When Puji saw him coming, he shut the door and said, "You know-it-all old man. I won't see you." Pang said, "Sitting alone, talking to yourself, whose fault is that?" Puji opened the door. As he stepped out, Pang grabbed him and said, "You know it all, I know it all." Puji said, "Forget who knows it all. Shutting the door, opening the door, rolling it up, spreading it out, how far apart are they, really?" Pang said, "That one question alone is enough to choke a man to death." Puji said nothing. Pang said, "Trying to be clever, you only made a mess."

One day the Layman arrived at Chan master Changzi's place just as Changzi was about to give a talk. The assembly had settled in. Pang stepped out and said, "Each of you, check yourselves." Changzi began addressing the assembly. Pang went and stood to the right of the teaching seat. A monk asked, "Without touching the master, would the teacher please answer?" Changzi said, "Do you know old Pang?" The monk said, "No." Pang grabbed the monk and said, "Too bad! Too bad!" The monk had no reply. Pang shoved him away. A little later Changzi asked Pang, "Does that monk deserve a beating?" Pang said, "Only once he's willing to take it." Changzi said, "Layman, you only see how sharp the awl is. You don't see how square the chisel is." Pang said, "I can talk that way myself, fine. But if outsiders heard it, it wouldn't go over well." Changzi said, "What wouldn't go over?" Pang said, "Teacher, you only see how square the chisel is. You don't see how sharp the awl is."

Pointer

Two teachers get sparred with here, Datong Puji and Changzi. "The lineage of Shitou" is the teaching line Pang trained in, so saying it "melts to slush" at Puji's place reads as half jab, half compliment: nothing solid is left to grab, which is exactly the aim. The objects do the work, a kitchen strainer, a door opening and shutting, an awl against a chisel, and each sets up the same move where one man tries to fix the truth as a thing or a reason and the other yanks it back out of reach. "Don't prop it up with reasons" means don't explain it, because the explanation is already the loss. At Changzi's place Pang grabs a clueless monk and shoves him off, and the awl-and-chisel trading at the end is two pros arguing over who sees only the sharp point and who sees only the square edge. The dances and finger-snaps are Pang calling the win and leaving before anyone can rebut.