Nansen Draws a Circle on the Road

Engo's commentary on the case

At the time Baso's transforming influence flourished in Jiangxi, Sekitō's Way was practiced in the Hunan region, and Nan’yō Echū Zhong taught and transformed in Chang'an. According to the received account, Zhong had personally seen the Daikan Enō. Among the prominent people in the south then, none failed to desire to ascend Zhong's hall and enter his chamber. Not doing so was considered shameful. These three old fellows intended to bow to Nan’yō Echū Zhong. Halfway there, they made this whole display of failure. Nansen said, “If it is like this, then we will not go.” Since each of the other two had been able to speak, why did he instead say they would not go? Tell me: what was the ancients' intent? At the time, when he said, “If it is like this, then we will not go,” one should have slapped him across the ear and seen what device he would make. The essential mechanism that upholds the lineage for ten thousand ages is only this little bit. Therefore Ciming said, “If you want to pull it, stay at the rope's end.” Touched or pointed, it immediately turns, like pressing a gourd beneath water. Many call this “speech of not mutually approving.” They entirely fail to know that when this matter reaches the ultimate point, one must leave mud and water, pull wedges, and extract nails. If you understand it as mental activity, it has no connection. The ancients turned and transformed well. Arriving here, they could not avoid being this way. There must be killing and giving life. Observe: one person sat inside the circular figure; one made a woman's bow. Both were very good. Nansen said, “If it is like this, then we will not go.” Guizong said, “What mental activity is this?” This Meng Balang fellow goes this way again. His broad intent was to test Nansen. Nansen ordinarily said, “As soon as you call it suchness, it has already changed.” Nansen, Guizong, and Mayoku were people inside one house. One capture and one release, one killing and one giving life—undeniably extraordinary. Setchō's verse says: “Youji's arrow shoots the ape. Circling the tree—why is it so straight?” Youji was a man of Chu, surnamed Yang, personal name Shu, courtesy name Youji. When King Zhuang of Chu went hunting, he saw a white ape and ordered people to shoot it. The ape caught their arrows and played with them. The king ordered his ministers to shoot, but none could hit it. The king asked his ministers, and they reported, “Youji is skilled in archery.” He therefore ordered Youji to shoot. As Youji merely began drawing the bow, the ape embraced the tree and cried mournfully. When the arrow was released, the ape circled the tree to evade it; the arrow also circled the tree, struck, and killed it. This was called a divine arrow.¹ Why does Setchō instead call it “so straight”? If it were too straight, it would not hit. Since it circled the tree, why call it straight? Setchō borrows the story's meaning and undeniably uses it well. This affair comes from the Spring and Autumn tradition. Some say, “Circling the tree is the circular figure.” If it were truly so, they would not recognize the lineage purport of the words or know the place of “too straight.” The three old fellows took different roads but returned to one rule, all equally too straight. If you recognize where they go, seven releases and eight crossings do not leave a square inch. A hundred rivers flow differently but return together to the great sea. Therefore Nansen said, “If it is like this, then we will not go.” If the true eye of a patch-robed monk sees it, it is only playing with clever spirits. Yet if you call it playing with clever spirits, it is not playing with clever spirits. My late teacher Wuzu said, “Those three people are the Torch of Wisdom Samādhi and the Adornment King Samādhi.” Even so, when Mayoku made a woman's bow, one must not understand it merely as a woman's bow. Although Nansen drew a circular figure, one must not understand it merely as a circular figure.² Since it cannot be understood this way, how should it be understood? Setchō says, “A thousand and ten thousand—who has ever hit the target?” How many can hit the mark a hundred times in a hundred shots? “Calling to one another: come, let us go home.” This versifies Nansen's “If it is like this, then we will not go.” Nansen did not go on from there. Therefore Setchō says, “On the road to Sōkei, cease climbing”—eliminating the thorn forest. Setchō could not hold firm and again said, “The road to Sōkei is level. Why cease climbing?” The Sōkei road is cut off from dust and tracks, naked and exposed, clean and unbound, level and easy. Why then cease climbing? Each of you look beneath your own feet.³