Hōgen's “By Boat or by Land?”

Banshō's commentary on the case

Huitang of Huanglong was questioning Huang Luzhi, who was just then hard pressed. A man arrived. Huitang asked, “Who sent you here?” The man said, “Scholar Ye of Dalin.” Huitang asked, “Is there a letter?” The man said, “There is.” Huitang asked again, “Where is the letter?” The man immediately reached a hand behind him, pulled it from his collar, raised it, and presented it to Huitang. Huitang said, “Only when study of the Way reaches this man's ground will it do.” Huang's face showed shame.³ Hōgen asked Senior Jiao, “Did you come by boat or by land?” Jiao said, “By boat.” Hōgen asked, “Where is the boat?” Here, out of a hundred people, ninety-nine would present a device and make a display. But this man was steady, solid, even, and level. Where would he meet you with weapons drawn? This is why he said, “The boat is in the river.” The old teacher of Cizhou said, “It is just like setting an eight-legged griddle on sand: there is not the slightest place where it is unstable.”⁴ After Jiao withdrew, Hōgen instead asked a monk beside him, “You tell me: did that monk just now possess the eye or not?” This one question creates a great entanglement. If you say he possessed the eye, what exceptional marvel was there? If you say he did not possess the eye, what flaw did you see? Let us have Tendō decide. Water does not wash water; gold is not bartered for gold. Buddha does not seek Buddha; Dharma does not expound Dharma. This speaks of the horse's numinous excellence while omitting whether it is dark or yellow. One who gains the delight of the qin forgets its strings and markers. The Huainanzi says that Duke Mu of Qin had Bole recommend Jiufang Yin to seek a horse. After three months, Jiufang Yin returned and said, “I found the horse at Sand Hill. It is a yellow stallion.” When the horse arrived, it was instead a black mare. The duke said to Bole, “The man you sent to seek a horse does not even know its coat color or whether it is male or female. He has failed!” Bole sighed deeply and said, “Has he reached even this? What Yin observes is the natural mechanism. He obtains the essential and forgets the coarse; he sees what is within and forgets what is outside.” It proved to be a thousand-li horse.⁵ Tao Qian of the Jin, whose style-name was Yuanming, did not understand the qin, but kept one plain qin lacking strings and markers. He said, “Provided I gain the delight within the qin, why labor over sound upon the strings?”⁵ The Book of Changes says, “In high antiquity they knotted cords and governed. Later sages replaced these with written tallies.” It also says, “Anciently, when Lord Baoxi ruled all under heaven, looking upward he contemplated the images in heaven; looking downward he contemplated the patterns on earth. He contemplated the markings of birds and beasts and what was fitting to the land. Near at hand he took them from his own body; far away he took them from other things. Thereupon he first drew the eight trigrams.” Banshō says: The moment Pangu first divided heaven and earth, opposition had already formed. Knotting cords and drawing trigrams increasingly destroyed true simplicity. Before Śākyamuni appeared in the world and before the Patriarch came from the West, were there ultimate truth and conventional truth, worldly dharmas and Buddha-Dharma?² After Zen Master Qiju of Haihui in Shuzhou received Dharma transmission, he once visited Jiao of Rōya. Jiao asked, “Senior, what place have you recently left?” Qiju said, “Zhejiang.” Jiao asked, “Did you come by boat or by land?” Qiju said, “By boat.” Jiao asked, “Where is the boat?” Qiju said, “In the river.” Jiao asked, “Without involving route or journey, how would you speak one phrase?” Qiju said, “Fabricated elders are as thick as hemp and millet,” and immediately went down and departed. Banshō says: He was doing fine speaking good words. The first Reverend Dongshan asked a monk, “Where have you come from?” The monk said, “Ruzhou.” Dongshan asked, “How far is it from here?” The monk said, “Seven hundred li.” Dongshan asked, “How many pairs of straw sandals did you wear through?” The monk said, “Three pairs.” Dongshan asked, “Where did you get the money to buy them?” The monk said, “By making bamboo hats.” Dongshan said, “Go join the hall.” The monk answered, “Yes.” Banshō says: Even if you had hands and eyes throughout your body, you could not see through this monk. Now say: where is this monk's eye? Beneath his eyebrows.