29Two Government Horses勘辨

有一老宿參師，未曾人事，便問：「禮拜即是？不禮拜即是？」師便喝，老宿便禮拜。師云：「好箇草賊！」老宿云：「賊賊！」便出去。師云：「莫道無事好。」首座侍立次，師云：「還有過也無？」首座云：「有。」師云：「賓家有過？主家有過？」首座云：「二俱有過。」師云：「過在什麼處？」首座便出去。師云：「莫道無事好。」後有僧舉似南泉，南泉云：「官馬相踏。」

An old monk came to see Linji. Without the usual greetings he went straight in: "Bow, and it's right? Don't bow, and it's right?"

Linji shouted.

The old monk bowed.

"Slick little thief," Linji said.

"Thief, thief," said the old monk, and walked out.

Linji said, "Don't go telling me nothing happened."

The head monk was standing at his side. Linji asked, "Was there a fault in that?"

"There was," said the head monk.

"The guest's fault, or the host's?"

"Both of them," said the head monk.

"Where's the fault?"

The head monk walked out.

Linji said, "Don't go telling me nothing happened."

Later a monk repeated all this to Nanquan. Nanquan said, "Two government horses kicking each other."

Pointer

A sparring match dressed up as a courtesy call. The old monk's opening is a trap baited with etiquette: you bow to the teacher in a monastery, so "bow, and it's right? don't bow, and it's right?" dares Linji to either accept the homage or look like he is dodging it. Linji answers with the shout, no words, raw presence, and the old monk bows anyway, needles him, and bolts before he can be pinned, the "thief, thief" routine Puhua ran in the last few scenes. "Guest" and "host" are the standard names for the two seats in any encounter, the one being tested and the one running the test, a distinction Linji teaches hard elsewhere. The head monk tries to referee, rules that both men blew it, then cannot say where the fault lies and flees too. Nanquan, an older master hearing it secondhand, shrugs the whole thing off: two well-fed government horses kicking at each other, evenly matched, lots of noise, no winner.