64Linji and Jinniu行錄

到金牛，牛見師來，橫按拄杖，當門踞坐。師以手敲拄杖三下，却歸堂中第一位坐。牛下來見，乃問：「夫賓主相見各具威儀，上座從何而來？太無禮生。」師云：「老和尚道什麼？」牛擬開口，師便打。牛作倒勢，師又打。牛云：「今日不著便。」溈山問仰山：「此二尊宿還有勝負也無？」仰山云：「勝即總勝，負即總負。」

Linji came to see Jinniu. Spotting him on the way, Jinniu held his staff crosswise to bar the way and squatted planted square in the doorway. Linji rapped the staff three times with his hand, then walked into the hall and took the head seat. Jinniu came in, saw him, and said, "When host and guest meet, each keeps to the proper courtesies. Where did you blow in from, sitting up there? You've got no manners at all." Linji said, "What's that, old man?" Jinniu started to open his mouth, and Linji hit him. Jinniu played dead and toppled over. Linji hit him again. Jinniu said, "Today just isn't my day."

Later Guishan asked Yangshan, "These two old masters, was there a winner and a loser?" Yangshan said, "If it's winning you want, they both won. If it's losing, they both lost."

Pointer

Linji and Jinniu are both seasoned masters, and this is the pilgrimage's last sparring match before the record turns to Linji's death. In these meetings there's meant to be a "host," the one truly running the encounter, and a "guest," and the test is which man holds the role. Jinniu bars the doorway with his staff held crosswise and lectures Linji on the proper courtesies between host and guest; Linji ignores every word of it, taps the staff three times, walks past, and plants himself in the head seat, the host's chair. When Jinniu protests and starts to argue back, Linji hits him before the sentence forms, and Jinniu, rather than getting rattled, rolls with it and flops down playing dead, a wrestler taking the fall on purpose. Guishan's closing question, who won, gets the only straight answer: between equals there's no scoreboard, so both won and both lost, and the trap is believing the match was ever keeping score.