Shōyōroku / Congrong lu · CASE 42
Nan’yō's Water Pitcher
The Book of Serenity
Banshō's pointer
Washing bowls and filling pitchers are entirely Dharma gates and buddha-work. Carrying firewood and hauling water are nothing other than wondrous function and numinous power. Why, then, do you not know how to emit light and shake the earth?
Case
A monk asked Nan’yō Echū Zhong of Nan’yō, “What is Lusana in the original body?” The Nan’yō Echū said, “Bring me the water pitcher.” The monk brought the pitcher. The Nan’yō Echū said, “Put it back in its old place.” The monk asked once more, “What is Lusana in the original body?” The Nan’yō Echū said, “The ancient buddha passed away long ago.”
Hongzhi's verse
A bird moving through sky— a fish within water. In rivers and lakes they forget one another; amid cloud and sky they fulfill their intent. Form a hair's breadth of intention— and face to face, a thousand miles. Know the kindness and repay the kindness— among humans, how many?
Footnotes 3
- Banshō reports that Shishuang “had an insight.” As elsewhere, this is a lineage record's assessment, not direct access to the historical person's private state. ↩
- The Zhuangzi contrast does not condemn fish for keeping one another alive on dry land. It prefers the conditions in which such desperate mutual rescue is unnecessary. ↩
- Removing a spirit-couch figures ceasing to treat the teaching as a dead memorial object. “Child inherits father's work” is a patrilineal succession metaphor, not a claim that biological or male inheritance is spiritually privileged. ↩
About this version and its sources
- Full source citation
- Source title: 南陽淨瓶. Base: CBETA T2004, T48n2004_p0254b19–p0254c16. Angle brackets represent inline notes.
- 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
- 8f6d3ad9e968
Banshō's commentary on the case
Shishuang asked Dōgo, “What is awakening that meets the eye?” Dōgo called a novice. The novice responded, “Yes?” Dōgo said, “Add water to the water pitcher.” After a long while Dōgo turned and asked Shishuang, “What did you ask just now?” Shishuang began to raise it. Dōgo immediately returned to the abbot's quarters. Shishuang then had an insight.3 Dōgo first used a body-separating phrase and afterward a body-casting gesture. Without wounding the point or injuring the hand, Shishuang had insight. Because of compassion, the Nan’yō Echū used words that descend into the weeds. There are simply few who know the kindness. Therefore Tendō gathers flower-water from the well. A bird moves through sky; a fish is within water. The more secure what they rely upon, the more fitting their life. The Zhuangzi says that when a spring dries up and fish are together upon land, they breathe moisture upon one another and wet one another with foam. This does not equal forgetting one another in rivers and lakes.4 Zen Master Gui, Tonghui of Baizhao, said: It is like a bird flying through empty sky, not knowing sky is its homeland; a fish swimming on the bottom, forgetting that water is its life. Guifeng said, “Fish do not recognize water; people do not recognize wind. In delusion one does not recognize nature; in awakening one does not recognize emptiness.” The ordinary, original-body Lusana—the fully pure awakened one—manifests form among humans. The moment a question is raised, an image suddenly appears: one forgets kindness, loses conduct, turns one's back on kin, and faces the distant. Only when one can remove the spirit-couch does the child begin to understand how to inherit the father's work.5 Tell me: what is the father's work? Whatever you pick up is none other than it. At the place of use, do not give rise to doubt.