Mumonkan / Wumenguan · CASE 43
Shuzan's Bamboo Slat
The Gateless Gate
Case
Shuzan held up a bamboo slat before the assembly and said, “If you call this a bamboo slat, you collide with it. If you do not call it a bamboo slat, you turn away from it. Tell me, everyone: what do you call it?”1
Verse
Holding up the bamboo slat, he enforces the order to kill or give life. Turning away and colliding race together; buddhas and ancestors beg for their lives.
Footnotes 1
- 竹篦 denotes a flat bamboo implement; proposed historical identifications include a slat, spatula, or staff-like disciplinary implement. “Bamboo slat” preserves shape without asserting a single use. ↩
About this version and its sources
- Full source citation
- 首山竹篦 — CBETA T2005: T48n2005_p0298b14–p0298b22.
- 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
- 08f840710029
Wumen's commentary
Call it a bamboo slat and you collide with it; do not call it a bamboo slat and you turn away. You are not allowed to speak, and you are not allowed to remain silent. Speak quickly! Speak quickly!