Mumonkan / Wumenguan · CASE 24
Apart from Words and Silence
The Gateless Gate
Case
A monk asked Fuketsu, “Speech and silence both implicate separation and subtlety. How can one pass through without transgressing either?” Fuketsu said: “I always remember Jiangnan in March— where the partridges call, a hundred flowers are fragrant.”1
Verse
A line that does not expose its style and bones is entrusted before a word is spoken. Step forward with your mouth mumbling, and I know you are utterly at a loss.
Footnotes 1
- The answer is a poetic reminiscence rather than a grammatical reply. The translation keeps its birdcall and scent without converting them into symbols with fixed doctrinal equivalents. ↩
About this version and its sources
- Full source citation
- 離却語言 — CBETA T2005: T48n2005_p0296a12–p0296a20.
- 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
- c7530c2ff8d9
Wumen's commentary
Fuketsu's responsiveness was like a flash of lightning: once he found a road, he immediately traveled it. Unfortunately, he still sat before another person's unsevered tongue. If you see intimately here, you naturally have a road by which to emerge. Now leave behind the samādhi of words and speech, and bring me one sentence.