Mumonkan / Wumenguan · CASE 12
Zuigan Calls “Master!”
The Gateless Gate
Case
Every day Master Zuigan Yan would call to himself, “Master!” He would answer himself, “Yes?” Then he would say, “Stay wide awake!” “Yes.” “Later on, don't let anyone deceive you.” “No, no.”1
Verse
People who study the Way do not recognize what is true because all along they have taken the discriminating spirit for it. The root of birth and death through measureless kalpas— fools call it the original person.3
Footnotes 3
- 主人公 literally means “master” or “host.” Although later readers often treat it as a technical name for a true self, the dialogue itself uses it as a form of direct address. ↩
- The unusual graph 𦗚 functions here like 聻, an emphatic interrogative particle. “Wild-fox understanding” means a distorted or merely imitative Zen interpretation; Case 2 supplies the collection's governing fox association. ↩
- 識神 is discriminating or conceptual consciousness imagined as an enduring agent. Mumon's verse says that mistaking this process for one's 本來人, “original person,” perpetuates birth and death; it does not identify an inner essence. ↩
About this version and its sources
- Full source citation
- CBETA T2005: T48n2005_p0294b18–p0294b27.
- 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.
- Rights
- Project translation © Tulsa Zen Center Critical Edition contributors. Source text is cited by edition; redistribution policy requires final organizational approval.
- Revision identifier
- dda825749e85
Mumon's commentary
Mumon said: Old Zuigan buys from himself and sells to himself, playing out any number of spirit-heads and demon-faces. Why? There is one who calls, one who answers, one who stays awake, and one who does not let others deceive him. Recognize any one of them, and it is still not it. If you imitate him, it is all a wild-fox understanding.2