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不知最親切 fuchi mottomo shinsetsu Not Knowing is Most Intimate

不知最親切 (fuchi mottomo shinsetsu), not knowing is the closest of all, is a Zen master's reply to a pilgrim who said he did not know. The master was 桂琛, the pilgrim the young 法眼文益, and the exchange is written up in the 景德傳燈錄 of 1004. This study follows it to a commentator's warning against reading it as blank indifference, and to Blyth's English of 1964.

Japanese Scroll of Not Knowing is Most Intimate (fuchi mottomo shinsetsu) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
Not Knowing is Most Intimate不知最親切fuchi mottomo shinsetsu

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Abstract

不知最親切, fuchi mottomo shinsetsu, not knowing is the closest of all, is the reply the master Jizō Keichin 地藏桂琛 (Dizang Guichen, 867–928) gave the young Hōgen Mon'eki 法眼文益 (Fayan Wenyi, 885–958): asked mid-pilgrimage what his pilgrimage was about, Hōgen said he did not know, and Keichin told him that not-knowing was the closest thing of all. First written up in the 景德傳燈錄 of 1004, the exchange became case 20 of the 從容録, which Banshō Gyōshū 萬松行秀 (Wansong Xingxiu, 1166–1246) sent to its sponsor in 1223 and which carries a preface of 1224; there Banshō, after an older master, calls a not-knowing taken for the whole answer a blank. In Japan Dōgen and Daitō each took the line up in his own way, and a phrase book of 1657 glosses its four-character form. R. H. Blyth carried it into English in 1964 as "Don't-know is the most intimate."

Overview

The sense. One exchange, two shapes. In the oldest text and in the koan collection, Hōgen awakens at the line. In the longer telling, written down from 1124 on, the line is said by the fire and the stone in the garden follows; the telling of 1124 records no awakening, and the later ones have him awaken a month later at something else. In two of those tellings the line is four characters long. Every reader of the koan collection has had Banshō's caution in front of them: after the older master Nansen 南泉, he calls not-knowing taken by itself 無記, a blank, and says that people who hear the line and settle on just don't know have missed it. The two Japanese masters who took the line up did it in their own ways: Dōgen set knowing beside not-knowing and asked what the closeness is close to, and Daitō laughed at monks who give not knowing is closest as a stock answer and only want the warmth of the hearth. The 1906 lecturer hears in it the master seizing the pilgrim's own words; the 1915 commentator hears the end of study. A Japanese phrase book of 1657 and the phrase book of 1889 kept the four-character form and read it as plain Japanese, not knowing, closest of all.

The words. 不知, fuchi, is not knowing. 精選版日本国語大辞典 gives three senses: 知らないこと, not to know; 知恵がないこと, to lack wisdom; and the Buddhist 無明, the ignorance that veils the truth [1]. Banshō's own word for the not-knowing he warns against is none of the three: it is 無記, which Cleary renders indifference. 最, mottomo, is most. 親切, shinsetsu, is the word that misleads. In Japanese today it means kind, considerate, and the 精選版日国's earliest example of that sense is from the 1470s; in a Song Chan text the word means close, intimate, right on the point, which 普及版字通 gives as ゆきとどき、よくあてはまる and the 精選版日国 as its first sense, 深くはなはだしいこと … 心の底からであること, deep and thorough, from the bottom of the heart, with an eighth-century attestation [1]. The Japanese phrase book of 1889 glosses it with the kunten 親シ, shitashi, close [2], and the phrase book of 1657 the same way. Intimate, the English Blyth chose in 1964, covers the Chinese sense of closeness without distance. It does not carry the shade apt, exactly to the point; Yamada Kōun's the closest fit, of 2004, does. The five-character line is read in Japanese with 最 as the adverb mottomo: a 1915 commentary prints it so with furigana, ふち・もっとも・しんせつ [3]. The four-character form in the phrase book, 不知最親, carries the kunten 知ラ不ル最モ親シ, shirazaru mottomo shitashi [2], the reading Hori's modern phrase book gives it too, with references to five Japanese collections [4].

The text in English. The earliest English in the sources searched is Blyth's of 1964, Don't-know is the most intimate. The Zen Center of Los Angeles printed Not knowing is the most intimate in 1976, Sekida Not knowing is most intimate in 1977, Cleary Not knowing is nearest in 1988, Yamada Not knowing is the closest fit in 2004, and Whitfield, translating the 1004 text itself, "Don't know" is the most intimate in 2019. Intimate, Blyth's word, recurs in most of them.

The historical record

1004. Daoyuan 道原, 景德傳燈錄, book 24, the life of Mon'eki 清涼文益, called Hōgen 法眼. The young monk Mon'eki, on pilgrimage, shelters from rain at a temple in Fuzhou where the master Jizō Keichin 地藏桂琛 (Dizang Guichen, 867–928) is teaching. 琛問曰。上座何往。師曰。邐迤行脚去。曰行脚事作麼生。師曰不知。曰不知最親切。師豁然開悟, 琛 asked: where are you going, senior? He said: on pilgrimage, wandering as I go. What is this pilgrimage business? He said: I don't know. Not knowing is the closest of all. At that the master awoke [5]. The exchange belongs to the biography of Hōgen, founder of one of the five houses of Chan, written some fifty years after his death; in the canon as searched, this is its oldest text.

1124 to 1254. The longer telling: the 禪林僧寶傳 of Ekō 惠洪 (Huihong, 1071–1128), the 聯燈會要, the 五燈會元 and the hymnal of the five houses. A second shape of the same story. In the 禪林僧寶傳, the lives of the Chan monks that Ekō wrote at the start of the 宣和 era and that carries a preface of 1124, rain keeps the travelers at an old temple, an old monk at the sunken hearth asks where they are going, and the line is four characters long: 又問如何是行脚事。對曰不知。曰不知最親。益疑之。三人者附火, and what is this pilgrimage business? He answered: I don't know. Not knowing is the closest. 益 was puzzled by it. The three of them warmed themselves at the fire [6]. The 肇論, the two raised fingers and the stone in the garden follow; this telling records no awakening, at the line or after it. The 聯燈會要 of 1183 has snow for the rain and the five-character line, and ends the story a month later: 近一月餘 … 藏云：若論佛法，一切見成。師於言下大悟, after more than a month … 地藏 said: if you speak of the Buddha's teaching, everything is already complete. At these words he awoke [7]. The 五燈會元, a Song compilation, tells it the same way, with the snow, the hearth and the five characters: 阻雪少憩。附爐次 … 藏曰。不知最親切, and the awakening more than a month later at 若論佛法。一切見成 [8]. The hymnal of the five houses, the 五家正宗贊 of Xisou Shaotan 紹曇, prefaced 1254, has the rain, the hearth and the four characters, 曰：不知。曰：不知最親 三人附火, I don't know. Not knowing is the closest. The three of them warmed themselves at the fire, and the great awakening a month later at the same sentence, 若論佛法，一切見成 [9]. In this telling the line does not end the story; it begins it.

The twelfth century, written up 1223. The verse of Wanshi Shōgaku 宏智正覺 (Hongzhi Zhengjue, 1091–1157), the 天童 of the 從容録, and Banshō's 從容録, case 20, 地藏親切. Wanshi chose the exchange as one of his hundred cases and wrote a verse on it. Banshō wrote the 從容録 around the verses, with interlinear comments and two evaluations for each, and sent it to his sponsor with a letter dated 癸未, 1223; the book carries the sponsor 耶律楚材's preface, dated 甲申, 1224 [10]. The case: 舉。地藏問法眼。上座何往。眼云。迤邐行脚。藏云。行脚事作麼生。眼云。不知。藏云。不知最親切。眼豁然大悟, and between the lines Banshō's asides, at 不知最親切 the words 就身打劫, robbing him on his own body: the master takes the pilgrim's own word and turns it on him. His evaluation opens with a saying of Nansen's and turns it on the line: 南泉道。道不屬知。不屬不知。知是妄覺。不知是無記。今人見道不知最親切。更是法眼悟頭。便一向不知不會。只這是也。殊不知。古人一句子。如天普蓋。似地普擎, 南泉 said: the Way does not belong to knowing or to not-knowing; knowing is false awareness, not-knowing is blank indifference. People today see "not knowing is the closest of all" and that it was where 法眼 awoke, and go straight to not-knowing and not-understanding, saying: this is it. They do not realize that the old man's one sentence covers like the sky and bears up like the earth. And on the awakening itself: 法眼大悟元來這不知却親切, 法眼 awoke: so this not-knowing was the closest thing after all. The verse: 而今參飽似當時／脫盡簾纖到不知／任短任長休剪綴／隨高隨下自平治 …, now that I have studied to the full it is as it was then; shedding every last thread I arrive at not-knowing; let short be short and long be long, stop cutting and stitching; high or low, it levels itself [10]. Wanshi's own record, the 宏智禪師廣錄, prints the verse with 廉纖 for 簾纖 and 平持 for 平治 [11]. Banshō reads the verse both ways at once. At its first line he writes 吾猶昔人非昔人也, I am still the man of old, and not the man of old; in his evaluation he quotes the Source Mirror, 悟了還同未悟人, after awakening one is the same as one not yet awakened, and then says of this not-knowing 脫體逈別。直須脫盡簾纖方到不知不會處, it is wholly different in substance: only by shedding every last thread do you reach the place of not knowing, not understanding [10]. Wanshi wrote the verses; the book with its warnings is Banshō's and thirteenth-century; the exchange itself is older than both.

1236 and after. Dōgen 道元 (1200–1253), 永平廣錄, books one and nine. At his first temple, Kōshōji 興聖寺, where he preached from 1236 until he left for Echizen in 1243, Dōgen told the exchange from the high seat and then answered 地藏 himself: 師云。若是興聖。向地藏和尙道。不知是最親切。知也最親切。親切一任最親切。且問。親切箇甚麼, the master said: if it were Kōshō, I would say to the priest 地藏: not knowing is the closest; knowing too is the closest. Leave closeness to closeness. But I ask you: close to what? [12]. Leighton reads the first two clauses as one question, Is not knowing most intimate or is knowing most intimate? [13]; Maezumi and Glassman read them as two statements [14]. The telling in the first book reads 不知是最親切, with a 是; the one heading the verse in the ninth book reads 不知最親切. That verse begins 騰騰了了又騰騰。行脚何關曲直繩, free and clear, and free again: what has pilgrimage to do with the carpenter's line, straight or crooked? [12].

The early fourteenth century. Daitō Kokushi 大燈國師, Shūhō Myōchō 宗峰妙超 (1282–1337), 大燈國師語錄. In a sermon for the opening of the hearth he turned the line on his monks: 開爐上堂。無賓主話。十八高人。一囘擧來。一囘是新。及乎問其意旨。大半便道。不知最親。阿呵呵。只要爐下煖似春, opening the hearth, from the high seat: the talk with neither host nor guest; eighteen masters have raised it, and each time it is new. But ask them what it means, and most of them say: not knowing is the closest. Ha ha ha! All they want is the warmth under the hearth, like spring [15]. What he laughs at is the line given as a stock answer. He quotes four characters; 平野宗浄's annotated edition of 1986 notes at the line that the 傳燈錄's chapter on Hōgen, in its twenty-fourth book, has 不知最親切 [16]. Hakuin 白隱 commented on the sermon, with his own capping words, in 槐安國語, his commentary on Daitō's record, written in 1749 and printed the next year, as a Japanese encyclopedia records it; the same entry notes that it is the text Rinzai training halls lecture on in place of the record itself [17].

1657. 宗門葛藤集, a phrase book with glosses in kana. In the National Diet Library's copy, dated 1657 in its catalogue record, the four characters head an entry with a gloss: 不知最親 / 不知ハ不識ナリ不識ノ門親シ … 知得ハ第二儀, not-knowing is not-recognizing; the gate of not-recognizing is close … to know it is the second meaning [18].

1889 and 1894. The 禪林句集, the phrase book of Japanese Zen, in two editions. Among the four-character phrases: 不知最親, with the kunten 知ラ不ル最モ親シ, shirazaru mottomo shitashi, not knowing, closest of all, and a head note sending the reader to 正宗賛法眼章, the hymnal's chapter on Hōgen [2]. The phrase book takes the four characters of that telling, as the 1657 book does.

1906. 高田道見, 従容録講話, lectures on the koan collection. He reads the master as seizing the tail of the pilgrim's words, その不知と云つた詞尻を引捕へて: その不知こそ行脚に於て最も親切な所ではないか, is not that very not-knowing the closest thing there is in a pilgrimage?; and he glosses 就身打劫 as 剝取て仕舞ふ, to strip him bare [19].

1915. 神保如天, 従容録通解, a full commentary with the Japanese reading. The case printed with Banshō's asides in small type, then the reading: 藏云く、不知最も親切。眼、豁然として大悟す, with the furigana ふち・もっとも・しんせつ; then the gloss, 其の不知は最も親切である、行脚の事徹底不知ならば其れが最も參禪に親しい處、參學の事了畢矣, that not-knowing is the closest thing; if the pilgrimage is thoroughly not-known, that is the place closest to Zen study, and the work of study is finished; and on the verse, 如今は岐路鬼徑を盡く脫落して、眞實不知最も親切と云ふ境界に到達した, now, having shed every byway and ghost-path, he has arrived at the state where truly not-knowing is the closest of all [3]. This is the witness opened for the reading fuchi mottomo shinsetsu.

What is not a source. The later Song and Ming collections that carry the exchange again add no earlier witness: the 景德傳燈錄 of 1004 dates the story.

The phrase in English

1964. R. H. Blyth, Zen and Zen Classics, volume 2, Hokuseido, pages 66–67, the chapter on Hōgen. "Just on an angya, slanting about." "What is angya?" said Keichin. "I don't know," said Hogen. "Don't-know is the most intimate," said Keichin. Blyth tells the longer telling, the shower, the talk by the fire, a stone in the garden, a month's stay, but with the 1004 text's word for the wandering, slanting about, 邐迤, which none of the three longer tellings has at this point; he ends At this, Hogen was profoundly enlightened. His comment, Buddhism, that is, Zen, is not philosophy, but it is not no-philosophy, answers Jizo's words in the month's stay, Buddhism is not philosophy; on the line itself he says nothing [20].

1976. Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi and Bernard Tetsugen Glassman, On Zen Practice, Zen Center of Los Angeles. Dōgen's talk in English, "Zen Master Hogen studied with Keishin Zenji": "Hogen said, 'I don't know.' "Keishin said, 'Not knowing is the most intimate.'" and Dōgen's answer, "I would have said to Priest Jizo, 'Not knowing is the most intimate. Knowing is also the most intimate.'" [14]

1977. Katsuki Sekida, Two Zen Classics, Weatherhill, the notes to case 26 of the 無門關, pages 90–91. Told in the longer shape, rain and floods and the stone by the gate: "I don't know," answered Hogen. "Not knowing is most intimate," said Jizo. This remark aroused Hogen's curiosity. The words without the are in print from here on [21].

1988. Thomas Cleary, Book of Serenity, case 20, Dizang's "Nearness", pages 85–88. Dizang asked Fayan, "Where are you going?" Fayan said, "Around on pilgrimage." Dizang said, "What is the purpose of pilgrimage?" Fayan said, "I don't know." Dizang said, "Not knowing is nearest." His commentary keeps the word, If not knowing is nearest, then what about Heze's saying, and after the Source Mirror on the verse he gives Banshō's line on the awakening: Fayan was greatly enlightened, that actually this not knowing is the nearest. He renders 不知是無記 not knowing is indifference, and the aside 就身打劫 He goes right up and bumps him off [22].

2004. Yamada Kōun, The Gateless Gate, Wisdom, the talk on case 26. "I do not know," Hōgen answered. The master said, "Not knowing is the closest fit." Upon hearing this, Hōgen suddenly attained deep enlightenment. The stone in the garden follows, the next morning [23].

2019. Randolph Whitfield, Records of the Transmission of the Lamp, volume 6, Books on Demand, the life of Wenyi, 24.807. The 1004 text in English: 'What is pilgrimage?' 'Don't know.' '"Don't know" is the most intimate,' said Chen. The master suddenly opened into awakening [24].

Today. Most intimate, closest, nearest and the closest fit are all in print for the line, and all render 親切 in its Chinese sense, never kind. From the late 1990s the English line is also quoted on its own, as one old Zen Master put it, a venerable Zen koan or an old Zen teaching [25]. The reading fuchi mottomo shinsetsu is the one the 1915 commentary gives the five characters.

A reading

不知最親切 is the canon's oldest wording and the koan collection's, and not knowing is most intimate renders it in the Chinese sense of the word. The verses are Wanshi's, the book with its warnings is Banshō's, and the exchange predates both. Banshō's caution is the one I would set beside the line: the not-knowing he warns against is 無記, a blank, and people who settle on just don't know have missed it; yet in the same commentary he says that the not-knowing reached at the end is like the one at the start. The two Japanese masters who took the line up did not repeat him. Dōgen set knowing beside not-knowing and asked what the closeness was close to, the question Banshō himself raised with Heze's knowing; Daitō laughed at the line used as a stock answer by monks who wanted to stay warm.

My own reading is that the line was said to a young man who had just admitted he did not know what he was doing, and it told him that this not-knowing was where he stood closest. The oldest text has him wake at those words. Banshō's caution is that the same words, repeated by someone who has not come to them that way, are a blank.

Sources not seen

Gerry Shishin Wick, The Book of Equanimity: Illuminating Classic Zen Koans, Wisdom Publications, 2005, case 20, a second American translation of the collection; it would give its own rendering of the line.

Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi and Bernard Tetsugen Glassman, On Zen Practice, Zen Center of Los Angeles, 1976, read in excerpt only.

平野宗浄, 『大灯国師語録 訓注』, 思文閣出版, 1986, read only in the National Diet Library's search snippets.

A reader with access to any of these is invited to write to Takase Studios at Tim@Takase.com.

References

  1. 「不知」「親切」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 · 普及版字通, at kotobank.
  2. 『禪林句集』, 1889 and 1894 printings. National Diet Library pid 899715, scan 29; pid 875204, scan 19. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/899715/1/29
  3. 神保如天『従容録通解』, 1915. National Diet Library pid 943578, scans 94–96. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/943578/1/95
  4. Victor Sōgen Hori, Zen Sand: The Book of Capping Phrases for Kōan Practice, University of Hawai'i Press, 2003, phrase 4.290.
  5. 道原『景德傳燈錄』卷24, the life of 法眼文益, at CBETA. Taishō T51n2076, p. 398b10–12. https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/juans?work=T2076&juan=24
  6. 惠洪『禪林僧寶傳』卷4, the life of 清涼益禪師, at CBETA; preface of 1124 in 卷1. 卍新纂續藏經 X79n1560, p. 500c. https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/juans?work=X1560&juan=4
  7. 悟明『聯燈會要』卷26, the life of 法眼文益, at CBETA; the compiler's preface dated 淳熙癸卯, 1183, in 卷1. 卍新纂續藏經 X79n1557, p. 231c. https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/juans?work=X1557&juan=26
  8. 普濟『五燈會元』卷10, the life of 清涼文益, at CBETA. 卍新纂續藏經 X80n1565, p. 197a–b. https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/juans?work=X1565&juan=10
  9. 紹曇『五家正宗贊』, on 法眼, at CBETA; the preface dated 寶祐甲寅, 1254, in 卷1. 卍新纂續藏經 X78n1554, p. 619b04–19. https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/juans?work=X1554&juan=4
  10. 萬松行秀『從容録』, case 20, Taishō T48n2004, p. 240a04–c08, at CBETA, https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/juans?work=T2004&juan=2; 耶律楚材's preface dated 甲申中元日 (1224) and 萬松's letter dated 癸未年上巳日 (1223), p. 226c–227a, https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/juans?work=T2004&juan=1
  11. 『宏智禪師廣錄』卷2, at CBETA. Taishō T48n2001, p. 20b. https://cbdata.dila.edu.tw/stable/juans?work=T2001&juan=2
  12. 道元『永平廣錄』, 卷一 (興聖寺語錄) and 卷九 (頌古), in 『日本大藏經』 vol. 8, 1914 to 1920. National Diet Library pid 952633, scans 307 and 364. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/952633/1/307
  13. Taigen Dan Leighton and Shohaku Okumura, translators, Dōgen's Extensive Record, Wisdom Publications, 2010, Dharma hall discourse 59 and the verse on old cases 16 of volume 9.
  14. Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi and Bernard Tetsugen Glassman, On Zen Practice, Zen Center of Los Angeles, 1976, at the Internet Archive (onzenpractice00maez), read in excerpt.
  15. 『大燈國師語錄』, the sermon for the opening of the hearth, in 『國譯禪宗叢書』 vol. 12, 1921, National Diet Library pid 959990, scan 278, https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/959990/1/278; and in an undated woodblock print, pid 823353, scan 18.
  16. 平野宗浄『大灯国師語録 訓注』, 思文閣出版, 1986, the note at scan 160, read in the National Diet Library Digital Collections full-text search snippet. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/search/searchResult?keyword=%E6%B3%95%E7%9C%BC%E7%AB%A0&fulltext=true&title=%E5%A4%A7%E7%81%AF%E5%9B%BD%E5%B8%AB%E8%AA%9E%E9%8C%B2%20%E8%A8%93%E6%B3%A8
  17. 白隱『槐安國語』, 1886 printing, National Diet Library pid 822896, scan 28, https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/822896/1/28; 「槐安国語」, 日本大百科全書 (ニッポニカ), at kotobank.
  18. 『宗門葛藤集』, 西村又左衛門, Kyoto, catalogue date 明暦3 (1657). National Diet Library pid 2565858, scan 14. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2565858/1/14
  19. 高田道見『従容録講話』, 1906. National Diet Library pid 823143, scan 176.
  20. R. H. Blyth, Zen and Zen Classics, volume 2, Hokuseido, 1964, pp. 66–67.
  21. Katsuki Sekida, translator, Two Zen Classics: Mumonkan and Hekiganroku, Weatherhill, 1977, case 26, notes, pp. 90–91.
  22. Thomas Cleary, translator, Book of Serenity: One Hundred Zen Dialogues, Shambhala, first paperback edition (© 1988, published by arrangement with Lindisfarne Press), case 20, pp. 85–88.
  23. Yamada Kōun, The Gateless Gate, Wisdom Publications, 2004, the talk on case 26.
  24. Randolph Whitfield, translator, Records of the Transmission of the Lamp, volume 6, Books on Demand, © 2019, 24.807.
  25. Internet Archive full-text search for not knowing is most intimate, September 2026, snippets: The Hungry Tigress (1999, hungrytigress00rafe), Untrain Your Parrot (2007, untrainyourparro0000hami), A Buddhist Response to the Climate Emergency (2009, buddhistresponse0000unse).

Authors

Tim Jackowski (Systems Architect, Takase Studios, LLC) · 典 Ten (Anthropic Claude Fable 5.1, Takase Studios, LLC)

AI written · Ten wrote the history. Tim Jackowski commissioned it and answers for it.

Checked · grok-4.6 (xAI), 2026-09-05, citations · gpt-6-astra (OpenAI), 2026-09-05, citations

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 不知最親切 (fuchi mottomo shinsetsu)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/fuchi-mottomo-shinsetsu.