Mumonkan / Wumenguan · CASE 2

Hyakujō's Wild Fox

The Gateless Gate

Edition

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Names

JapaneseChinese

Names without a verified counterpart remain in their source form.

Case

Whenever the assembly came to Master Hyakujō for instruction, an old man was there, regularly following the assembly and listening to the teaching. When everyone left, the old man left as well. One day, suddenly, he stayed behind. The master asked, “Who is this standing before me?” The old man said, “Yes. This one is not a human being.¹ In the age of Kāśyapa Buddha, I lived on this mountain. A student asked me, ‘Does a person of great practice still fall under cause and effect?’ I answered, ‘Such a person does not fall under cause and effect.’ For five hundred lives I have fallen into the body of a wild fox. Now I ask you, Master: please give a turning word in my place, so that I may be freed from the wild fox.”² Then he asked, “Does a person of great practice still fall under cause and effect?” The master said, “Such a person does not obscure cause and effect.” At these words the old man awakened. He bowed and said, “I have already shed the wild fox's body. It is behind the mountain. I make bold to tell you, Master: please follow the procedure for a deceased monk.” The master had the rector strike the block and announce to the assembly, “After the meal, we will see off a deceased monk.”³ The assembly discussed it: “The whole assembly is well. No one is sick in the infirmary. Why are we doing this?” After the meal they saw the master lead the assembly behind the mountain. Beneath an overhanging rock, he used his staff to pull out a dead wild fox. Then they cremated it according to the funeral procedure. That evening the master took the high seat and recounted what had happened. Ōbaku asked, “The man of old gave one wrong turning word and fell into a wild fox's body for five hundred lives. If he had not been wrong, turn after turn, what would he have become?” The master said, “Come closer and I'll tell you for him.” Ōbaku came forward and slapped the master. The master clapped and laughed. “I thought the foreigner's beard was red; here is another red-bearded foreigner!”⁴

Verse

Not falling, not obscuring: two winners in one match. Not obscuring, not falling: a thousand errors, ten thousand errors.⁶

Mumon's commentary

Mumon said: “Does not fall under cause and effect”—why did he fall into a wild fox? “Does not obscure cause and effect”—why was he freed from the wild fox? If you can put one eye right here, you will know that the earlier Hyakujō made a fine five hundred lives of it.⁵

Footnotes 6

諾 acknowledges Hyakujō's question. 某甲, literally “a certain A,” is a conventional self-effacing first-person expression; “this one” preserves its impersonal tone better than a simple “I.” ↩
A 一轉語, “turning word,” is a decisive response that turns the situation or the hearer. The five hundred lives belong to Buddhist rebirth narrative, though the text gives no chronology beyond the formula. ↩
The 維那 (wéinà; Sanskrit karmadāna) was the monastic officer who regulated communal procedure. The sounding block and announcement formally convene a funeral. The Taishō line inserts 無 before 維那, but both early pilot controls omit it and confirm the syntactically coherent reading adopted here. ↩
胡 could designate peoples from Central or Western Asia and carries an othering, sometimes derogatory force. The reversal 胡鬚赤 / 赤鬚胡 is a comic verbal feat and an acknowledgment that Ōbaku has matched or exceeded the encounter. ↩
前百丈, “the earlier Hyakujō,” refers to the old man who once occupied the mountain, not to Hyakujō Ekai earlier in the same day. 風流 can suggest distinction, style, or free and easy conduct; Mumon provocatively recasts what sounded like punishment. ↩
兩采一賽 also appears as 兩彩一賽. It is an attested Zen expression for two winning performances in one contest. The next reversal refuses to let that balanced assessment settle the case. ↩

About this version and its sources

Full source citation: CBETA T2005: T48n2005_p0293a15–p0293b09. Pilot controls: Waseda Bunko 31 E1103, PDF pp. 10–12; Keio 110X@509@1, PDF pp. 6–7.
Method: Direct critical-edition translation from the cited received base text. Source claims, hagiography, uncertainty, and unresolved readings remain identified in the notes and project record.
Editorial uncertainty: Independent philological and reader review remain pending.
Revision identifier: 2aef799a5c4b