63Linji and Fenglin Trade Lines行錄

到鳳林，林問：「有事相借問，得麼？」師云：「何得剜肉作瘡？」林云：「海月澄無影，遊魚獨自迷。」師云：「海月既無影，遊魚何得迷？」鳳林云：「觀風知浪起，翫水野帆飄。」師云：「孤輪獨照江山靜，自笑一聲天地驚。」林云：「任將三寸輝天地，一句臨機試道看。」師云：「路逢劍客須呈劍，不是詩人莫獻詩。」鳳林便休。師乃有頌：
「大道絕同，
任向西東，
石火莫及，
電光罔通。」
溈山問仰山：「石火莫及、電光罔通，從上諸聖將什麼為人？」仰山云：「和尚意作麼生？」溈山云：「但有言說，都無寔義。」仰山云：「不然。」溈山云：「子又作麼生？」仰山云：「官不容針，私通車馬。」

Linji came to Fenglin's place. Fenglin said, "There's something I'd like to ask. May I?"

Linji said, "Why cut a wound in healthy flesh?"

Fenglin said, "The sea moon shines clear, casting no shadow, yet the swimming fish loses its way all on its own."

Linji said, "If the sea moon casts no shadow, how does the fish lose its way?"

Fenglin said, "Watch the wind and you know the waves are rising. Play on the water and the wild sail drifts."

Linji said, "One bright disc alone, and the rivers and mountains fall still. I laugh once, and heaven and earth start."

Fenglin said, "Go ahead, let that three-inch tongue light up heaven and earth. Now meet the moment with a single line. Let's hear it."

Linji said, "Meet a swordsman on the road, draw your sword. To a man who is no poet, offer no poem."

At that, Fenglin let it drop.

Then Linji gave a verse:
"The great Way admits no likeness.
Go east, go west, as you please.
A struck spark cannot catch it,
a lightning flash cannot reach it."

Later Guishan asked Yangshan, "If a struck spark can't catch it and a lightning flash can't reach it, then what have all the sages of old used to teach people?"

Yangshan said, "What do you think, master?"

Guishan said, "Whatever gets said, none of it holds the real meaning."

Yangshan said, "Not so."

Guishan said, "Then what would you say?"

Yangshan said, "Officially, not even a needle gets through. Privately, whole carriages and horses pass."

Pointer

Now Linji reaches Fenglin himself, the master whose road he was on in case 62, and the meeting is a duel in verse where every line is a probe meant to tip the other man off balance. Fenglin opens with poetry, the moon on the sea casting no shadow, a fish losing its way regardless, trying to draw Linji into a clever volley. Linji keeps slipping the bait, then names the trick outright: don't offer a poem to a man who is no poet, meaning quit spending pretty moves on me and bring the live thing. Fenglin lets it drop. Linji caps it with a verse saying the truth runs so fast that nothing, not a struck spark, not lightning, can pin it down. The closing exchange between Guishan and Yangshan argues over exactly that claim, and Yangshan's last line invokes a border checkpoint where officially not even a needle gets through, yet privately whole carriages pass: words can't capture it by the rules, and teaching gets smuggled across anyway.