28Puhua's Bell勘辨

因普化常於街市搖鈴云：「明頭來明頭打，暗頭來暗頭打，四方八面來旋風打，虛空來連架打。」師令侍者去，纔見如是道，便把住云：「總不與麼來時如何？」普化托開，云：「來日大悲院裏有齋。」侍者回舉似師，師云：「我從來疑著這漢。」

Puhua used to roam the streets ringing a little bell and chanting: "Comes at me bright, I hit it bright. Comes at me dark, I hit it dark. Comes from every side, I hit it like a whirlwind. Comes out of the empty sky, I hit it like a flail."

Linji sent his attendant to find him. The moment Puhua started up, the attendant grabbed hold of him and said, "And when it comes none of those ways, then what?"

Puhua shoved him off and said, "Tomorrow there's a feast at the Temple of Great Compassion."

The attendant went back and reported this to Linji. Linji said, "I always had my doubts about that fellow."

Pointer

The last of the four Puhua scenes, and the one where Linji stops laughing. Puhua roams the streets ringing a bell and chanting a boast: whatever way reality comes at him, bright, dark, from all sides, out of thin air, he has a hit ready for it. Linji sends his attendant to slam the door shut on that: fine, what about when nothing comes at all, no situation to react to? Puhua does not argue, he changes the subject to tomorrow's free lunch and shoves off. What the attendant tried to do is corner Puhua into answering on the attendant's own terms, which would make Puhua's whole act into a system with a hole in it; ducking the frame may be the sharpest move on the board. Linji's closing line, "I always had my doubts about that fellow," is deliberately ambiguous, doubt that Puhua is the real thing or quiet respect that he is, and Linji is not telling.