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春来草自生 haru kitatte kusa onozukara shōzu Spring Comes, and the Grass Grows of Itself

春来草自生, spring comes, and the grass grows of itself, is the line Zen and tea know as the end of a hermit's song. The song itself ends with the grass turning green, and Song masters forbade the green line as a thing everyone says. On New Year's Eve the master Xutang said it anyway, with grows, and that is the line on the scroll.

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Japanese Scroll of Spring Comes, and the Grass Grows of Itself (haru kitatte kusa onozukara shōzu) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
Spring Comes, and the Grass Grows of Itself春来草自生haru kitatte kusa onozukara shōzu

Original art by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

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Abstract

春来草自生, spring comes, and the grass grows of itself, is known in Zen and tea as the close of the couplet 兀然無事坐、春来草自生, sitting upright, nothing to do, spring comes and the grass grows of itself, which phrase books and Zen books tag to the song of the Tang hermit Lanzan; but in every Chinese copy of that song read here to its last line, and in the Ming records of Huang Tingjian's whole scrolls of it, the line ends otherwise: 春來草自青, the grass greens of itself [1][2][3][4][5]. 春來草自生, with 生, is a Chan answer from the eleventh century on and the grass line of a poem on fate by Feng Dao (882–954); Song masters named the green line as the stock answer one must not give, and Xutang Zhiyu (1185–1269) closed a New Year's Eve sermon by striking his whisk and saying the line with 生 [6][7][8][9][10]. The phrase book of 1645 carries the five characters with no source; the enlarged phrase book of 1688 tags them to Xutang's record and carries the couplet, Lanzan's first line with Xutang's ending, tagged to the song, which the 1645 book's ten-character section does not [11][12][13]. In Japan scrolls of it by Urasenke's fourth head, Sensō Sōshitsu, are reported hanging from 1939 on in the National Diet Library's snippets, and in English Blyth gave the couplet in 1949 and Alan Watts took its first line for a chapter title in 1957 [14][15][16][17].

Overview

The sense. No dictionary at kotobank heads the phrase: the word page for 春来草自生 answers 404. Its words are in the dictionaries. 春来 is headed in the 日本国語大辞典 as a noun, しゅんらい, the springtime, and the 字通 gives it as 春となる, spring comes, quoting Wang Wei's 春來(きた)つては [18]. 自, read おのずから, is そのもの自体の力、成り行きに基づくさま, by the thing's own power or course, ひとりでに, of itself [19]. 生ずる in its first sense is 植物などがはえる, of a plant, to grow [20]. The line says that when spring comes the grass grows, and nobody makes it grow.

The words. The phrase book of 1688 marks the reading beside the characters: a link between 春 and 來, ヲ beside 自, for onozukara, and ス after 生 [12]. Read aloud, 春来 is printed in several ways, among them these four. Haru kitatte is the tea world's: Urasenke's textbook of 1980 prints はるきたってくさおのずからしょうず [21], and Sōiku Shigematsu gives Haru kitatte kusa onozukara shōzu for the five characters alone [22]. Shunrai is the reading of the 1932 Japanese translation of Xutang's record, whose ruby gives しゆんらい くさ おのづから しやうず [23], of Shigematsu for the couplet, and of Victor Sōgen Hori for both entries [22][24]. Haru kitari is printed in a tea book of 1999, はるきたりくさおのずからしょうず [25], and 春来りて草自ら生ず, haru kitarite, is given with a calligraphy exercise set in 1971 by 自警, the magazine of the Tokyo police's 自警会 [26]. 兀然, in the couplet's first line, is upright and unmoving, read こつぜん or ごつぜん, and the 日本国語大辞典's first example of it, from 1283, is 兀然として坐, sitting upright [27].

The text in English. R. H. Blyth gives the couplet in 1949 as Sitting quietly doing nothing, / Spring comes, grass grows of itself [16]; Alan Watts in 1957 as Sitting quietly, doing nothing, / Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself [17]; Shigematsu in 1981 gives the five characters alone as Spring comes: / grass grows. [22]

The historical record

The song, which ends green. The hermit Lanzan 懶瓚, lazy Zan, was a monk of the Tang whom the 宋高僧傳 names 明瓚: he followed Puji 普寂 on Mount Song, then lived at leisure in the crags of Mount Heng while the monks worked, and 時目之懶瓚也, people of the time called him lazy Zan [1]. He has a song of the Way in the 祖堂集, the history of the Chan masters dated to 952 by the encyclopedia [28]. It ends 水月無形，我常只寧。萬法皆爾，本自無生。兀然無事坐，春來草自青, the moon in the water has no form; I am always just at peace. All things are so; from the first they are unborn. Sitting upright, nothing to do, spring comes and the grass greens of itself [2]. The 景德傳燈錄, the lamp record the dictionaries date to 1004, prints the song in its thirtieth juan with the same last line, 春來草自青 [29][3]. So do the later Chinese anthologies read at CBETA. One, the 南嶽總勝集, a Song book on Mount Heng, tells his story under the name 懶殘 and gives the song with three lines different, 我常自寧, 不死不生 and 兀然無箇事, and the same last line, 春來草自青 [30]. The Korean master So Sahn Hyu Jeong 西山休靜 (1520–1604) [31] quotes it after the couplet before it in the song, 吾有一言，絕慮忘緣, also ending 青 [32]. The scholars who edited the song in 2001 from the witnesses they list print 兀然無事坐 / 春來草自青, read 春來れば草自ら青し, and render it ぼさっと何事もなく坐しおれば / 春が來て草は自ずと青くなる; their note on the stanza's rhyme sets 生 in 本自無生 beside 青, and note no variant 生 for the last line [4]. Randolph Whitfield's English of the song keeps the color: Spring comes, the grasses of themselves grow green [33].

Huang Tingjian's scrolls. The Song poet and calligrapher Huang Tingjian (1045–1105) brushed the song [34]. Three Ming catalogues transcribe the song in his hand with his colophon of 元符三年 (1100), those of Zhang Chou 張丑, Yu Fengqing 郁逢慶 and Wang Keyu 汪砢玉, and each ends it 兀然無事坐春來草自青 [5][35][36]. Gao Shiqi 高士奇 catalogues a scroll of it as 宋黄文節公書梵志詩卷, with the same ending [37]; the editors of 2001 note that Qing catalogues often took the scroll for verse of 王梵志 [4]. The scrolls described are not one: a note of 1767 printed in Zhang's catalogue sets his scroll of five 丈 on one sheet beside Wang's of two 丈 and Gao's of 一丈二尺五寸, its paper in seven joins (紙計七接), and concludes 三家所見各各不同, what the three saw differed in each case [5]. A study of Huang of 1994 transcribes the song ending 春來草自青, with the colophon [38]. The editors of 2001 collate Huang's text from the rubbing in the 經訓堂法書 and say that his own brush is lost; of the scroll only the latter part, under its original title 梵志詩後題名記, is held at the 中國歷史博物館 [4]. One Ming note differs. 『趙氏鐵網珊瑚』 records, under 山谷大書, a fragment in Huang's large characters carrying the same colophon of 元符三年七月 and then 兀然無事坐春來草自生: 此卷在郡中王孟德家大書長卷惟此數字, this scroll is at the house of 王孟德 in the prefecture; of a long scroll in large characters only these few characters remain; the text is broken off, and there is no postscript [39]. In the records searched (CBETA's search for 兀然無事坐 and the Ming catalogues), it is the only Chinese witness that pairs Lanzan's first line with 生, and it claims the same occasion as the whole scrolls, which read 青.

The answer with grows, and the answer with green. In the Chan records 春來草自生 stands on its own, as an answer. The earliest read, by its preface's date, is in the 天聖廣燈錄, presented to the emperor with his preface of 景祐三年 (1036) [40] (the searches are named in the Notes). A monk tells the master 林鷄徹 of Yingzhou that Niutou spoke every way and did not know the matter beyond, and asks: is there still a matter beyond? There is. What is the matter beyond? 秋到黃葉落，春來草自生, autumn comes and the yellow leaves fall; spring comes and the grass grows of itself [6]. The green line was the commoner answer. Asked what is the great meaning of the Buddha's teaching?, Yunmen Wenyan (869–949) answers 春來草自青 [41][42], and so do two other masters in the 傳燈錄 to other questions [43][44]. Yunmen's heir Deshan Yuanmi 德山緣密 has the autumn and spring pair with green: asked about Niutou before and after he met the Fourth Patriarch, he answers 秋來黃葉落 and then 春來草自青 [45][46]. That is in the 聯燈會要, prefaced in 1183, and in the 五燈會元 [47][48]. So the pair exists in both forms, and in the records searched the autumn-and-spring pair with 生 (1036) is read earlier than the one with 青 (1183).

The line one must not say. By 1101 the green line was a cliché, and the masters said so. A sermon given in the 建中靖國續燈錄, prefaced in 1101, to Qixian Zhiqian 棲賢智遷 lists the answers a monk is not to bring: 莫是三年逢一閏，九月重陽麼？莫是大盡三十日，小盡二十九麼？莫是春來草自青麼？, is it that every three years there is a leap month, and the ninth month has the Double Ninth? Is it that a long month has thirty days and a short one twenty-nine? Is it that spring comes and the grass greens of itself? Whoever answers so, it says, is 驢前馬後漢, a fellow who runs before the donkey and behind the horse [8][49]. The 聯燈會要 gives the same sermon, with a word or two different (九月是重陽, 若作如斯), to Yunju Xiaoshun 雲居曉舜, who names himself in it 大愚 [50]. Jianfu Chenggu 薦福承古 (brought back to his temple at Jianfu in 1037; his verse on leaving the world is dated 乙酉, which, coming after 1037, I take as 1045) [51] forbids the line with 生: 莫道是久雨蔞蒿長，莫道春來草自生, do not say that after long rain the mugwort grows tall; do not say that spring comes and the grass grows of itself [52]. And Baiyun Shouduan 白雲守端, heir of Yangqi Fanghui (992–1049), who died in 熙寧五年 (1072) at forty-eight [53][54], at the turn of the year at Chengtian 承天, when a monk asked about the old year going and the new year coming, told his monks that if they could not yet weigh the water buffalo's nose, 臈月三十日，莫道春來草自青, on the thirtieth of the twelfth month, do not say that spring comes and the grass greens of itself [9]. The thirtieth of the twelfth month is the year's last night.

New Year's Eve at Xianxiao. Xutang Zhiyu 虛堂智愚 (1185–1269), a Rinzai master of the Southern Song [55], gave a 除夜小參, an informal evening talk on New Year's Eve (a 小参 is a talk the abbot gives at any time and place [56]), at 顯孝寺, the Xianxiao temple of 慶元府. His record gives it whole: 年去年來，迎新送舊，山僧謾諸人一點不得；大盡三十日，小盡二十九，諸人謾山僧一點不得。既知賓主不相謾，彼此喫飯須論噎。衲僧家各有一片田地，年頭至年尾，在裡許作活計，只是蹈不著，縱饒蹈得著，埋沒己靈、孤負先聖。且道是甚麼田地？擊拂子，春來草自生, the year goes and the year comes; we welcome the new and see off the old. This mountain monk cannot deceive any of you by a hair; a long month has thirty days, a short one twenty-nine, and none of you can deceive this mountain monk by a hair. Since host and guest do not deceive each other, each of us, eating, must mind not to choke. Every monk has a field of his own; from the year's head to its tail he makes his living in it, only he cannot set foot on it, and even if he could, he would bury his own spirit and betray the sages before him. Now say: what field is this? He struck with his whisk: "Spring comes, and the grass grows of itself" [10]. (The whisk, 払子, is the abbot's fly-whisk, held when he teaches [57].)

The sermon's opening phrases are each in Shouduan's record, at three of his temples, though not in Xutang's frame of 山僧 and 諸人, and so is the green line its last words turn. At Chengtian, on his return from 山南, he says 承天數日遶廬山行禮，每日折旋俯仰，謾諸人一點不得；諸人在院中折旋俯仰，也謾承天一點不得, for days Chengtian has gone round Mount Lu paying respects, bowing and turning every day, and cannot deceive any of you by a hair; you in the temple, bowing and turning, cannot deceive Chengtian by a hair either [58]. At Yuantong 圓通, in a hall sermon, he asks what it is that does not flow, waits, and says 大盡三十日，小盡二十九 [59], a common saying (CBETA's search finds it in 117 juans of 79 works). In the hall sermon just before that one, he lifts his whisk, asks do you hear?, and strikes the meditation seat with it, 以拂子打禪床一下 [60]. At Xinghua 興化, on New Year's Day, a verse of his begins 年去年來來去間，迎新送舊幾多般, the year goes and the year comes, coming and going; how many times we welcome the new and see off the old [61]; these are common New Year words, and CBETA's full-text search finds 迎新送舊 in thirteen juans of twelve works. And at Chengtian, at the turn of the year, he said 臈月三十日，莫道春來草自青 [9]. What the four juans of his record, read whole at CBETA, do not carry is the sentence 衲僧家各有一片田地 (the word 田地 is in them once, in another sentence, 田地穩密底, p. 315b20) and the choking, 噎; and his whisk is struck before other words than the grass line. The rare phrase is 謾諸人一點不得: in the canon as searched at CBETA it is in four works: Shouduan's record, Xutang's, a Qing anthology, in a passage that quotes a saying of the ancients (古人云), and a sermon in a Ming lamp record. Xutang stood in Shouduan's line. The lamp records' headings give it: Yangqi Fanghui, Baiyun Shouduan, Wuzu Fayan, Yuanwu Keqin, Huqiu Shaolong, Ying'an Tanhua, Mi'an Xianjie, Songyuan Chongyue, Yun'an Puyan, Xutang Zhiyu, so that Shouduan is eight generations above him [62][63].

Xutang's record came to Japan early. A Gozan print that the National Diet Library dates to 1313 (正和2) carries the sermon and its last line, 擊拂子春來草自生, with reading marks added in red [64]. The Japanese translation of 1932 renders the line 拂子を擊つて、「春來艸自ら生ず。」, and its note reads: 春來艸。向上の無功用の田地なり、されども春がくれば、げんげもよめなも蓬もあやめも、しぜんに生える。「虛堂がこゝへもつてきたは、東山下の暗號令がある」と珠長老はいふてゐる, the field beyond, where nothing is done by effort; and yet, when spring comes, the vetch, the aster, the mugwort and the iris all grow of themselves. "In bringing it in here, Xutang has a password of the house under Dongshan," says the elder 珠; and 「當體即是のところじや」と或抄にあり, "it is the place where the thing itself is it," says a commentary [23]. Dongshan 東山 is the mountain at Huangmei where Wuzu Fayan, Shouduan's heir, taught; the last part of his record is headed 黃梅東山演和尚語錄 [65]. I take the note's 東山 to be Fayan; the note does not say. Two Japanese commentaries on the record gloss the line by Lanzan's song and quote the song with its own ending. The edition of 1913, credited to 高木台岳, puts at the head of the page 【春來草自生】懶瓚歌云、兀然トシテ無事ニシテ坐スレバ、春來草自靑 [66], and 中島鉄心's commentary of 1964 quotes the song from the 傳燈錄 to its end, 兀然無事坐春來草自靑 [67]. The commentators knew the two lines were kin and kept their endings apart.

The phrase books. The phrase book 句雙紙 of 1645 carries 春來草自生 as one five-character entry, with no source named, beside 山寒花發遲 in the column before; it does not carry the couplet in its ten-character section, read column by column [11]. The enlarged 禪林句集 of 1688, the collection made from Tōyō Eichō's (1428–1504) [68], tags the five characters 虛堂録一 顯四丁, Xutang's record, juan 1, the Xianxiao section, leaf 4 [12]. It also carries the ten-character entry 兀然無事坐春来草自生, tagged 南嶽懶瓚歌, the song of Lanzan of Nanyue [13]. Its postface says what the enlarger did: he put sources on the entries and added about five hundred lines, six thousand in all, and left about five or six in a hundred untagged for later scholars; among the works he lists as used is the 傳燈録, the book that prints the song ending 青 [13]. Its typeset of 1889 repeats both entries [69]. Some modern Zen and tea books cite the couplet to the 傳燈錄's thirtieth juan while printing 自生 [70][71]; that juan reads 自青 [3].

Feng Dao's poem: the other life. The line has a second Chinese life outside Zen. Feng Dao 馮道 (882–954), who served, by the デジタル大辞泉's count, eleven rulers of five dynasties and was chief minister for twenty years [72], wrote a poem that the 全唐詩 titles 天道, the Way of Heaven [73]: 窮達皆由命，何勞發歎聲。但知行好事，莫要問前程。冬去冰須泮，春來草自生。請君觀此理，天道甚分明, failure and success both come of fate; why sigh over them? Only do good, and do not ask what lies ahead. When winter goes the ice must melt; when spring comes the grass grows of itself. Look at this, I beg you: the Way of Heaven is very plain. The earliest book read that prints it is Wu Chuhou's 青箱雜記, whose preface is dated 元祐二年 (1087), and it says that lines of his such as 但知行好事，莫要問前程 were widely passed on, though his whole poems were seldom seen, and so prints this one [74][7]. The whole poem was printed in Japan by 1621, in a movable-type edition of the 皇朝類苑 [75]. Not every reader liked it. The Qing historian Wang Mingsheng (1720–1797) quotes it and says 其知命如此而吾以爲不知命正在此, he claims to know fate like this, and I say it is exactly here that he does not [76][77]. Japanese readers met it in the commentaries on the 徒然草, the essays the dictionaries date to about 1330 [78]. Section 171 says that nothing should be sought outside, and quotes 清獻公: 「好事を行じて前程を問ふことなかれ」, do good, and do not ask what lies ahead [79]. A printing of 1894 of the commentary of Kitamura Kigin (1625–1705) prints Feng Dao's whole poem with the grass line, just before a note headed 季吟云, Kigin says [80][81]. A dictionary of sayings of 1925 prints the poem under 但知行好事莫要問前程 [82]. Hashimoto Sanai (1834–1859) copied the maxim into his notebook, 但知行好事。莫要問前程。馮道詩, and not the grass [83][84], and a Satsuma encyclopedia of farming sets the whole poem, headed 皇朝類苑 馮瀛王, over a picture of paddy dikes (one marked 畦), channels and well-sweeps, with travelers [85]. A Daoist master of the Song, Bai Yuchan 白玉蟾, sets the couplet, written 冬去冰須浮 with 浮 for 泮, among things that happen of themselves, and ends 此自然而然爾, this is just so of itself [86].

Older than both. The thought under both lines is in the 莊子, in the chapter 庚桑楚: 夫春氣發而百草生，正得秋而萬實成。夫春與秋，豈无得而然哉？天道已行矣 (Wikisource notes 寶 as a variant of 實), when the breath of spring comes forth the hundred grasses grow, and when autumn comes the ten thousand fruits ripen. Spring and autumn: how could they be so without something that makes them so? The Way of Heaven is already at work [87][88]. Feng Dao's poem is titled the Way of Heaven and ends on it. No witness read draws the line between the 莊子 and either couplet.

In Japanese Zen. The green line was spoken in Japan by a Chinese master. Daikyū Shōnen 大休正念 (1215–1289), who came to Japan in 1269 [89], closes a sermon on the winter solstice, a 冬至小參, with 善財一去無消息。門外春來草自靑, Sudhana went and sends no word; outside the gate spring comes and the grass greens of itself [90]. The couplet with 生 was in Sōtō use by the eighteenth century: Mankai Sōsan 卍海宗珊 (1707–1767), abbot of 源光庵 in Kyoto [91], in a sermon, says 無事兀然坐。春來草自生, with the first line's two words turned round [92]; in the snippet the heading 結制上堂 follows the passage, so the sermon it belongs to is not identified.

Tea and the brush. Sensō Sōshitsu, the fourth head of the Urasenke tea house [93], brushed the five characters, and scrolls of them by him are reported hanging again and again. The tea monthly of March 1939 describes one in the alcove of a new tea room, 仙叟の墨蹟は出來頗る佳く, Sensō's brushwork is very fine [14]; the tea magazine 淡交 describes one in 1959 as 息のいいやや細目の一行, a rather slender line, full of breath, come down in the house, 今日庵傳來, and one in 1965, 気の利いた細一行, a deft, slender line, as hung 時候がら, for the season, and in 1967 reports Sensō's horizontal scroll of the words hanging in the alcove [15][94][95]. Sen Sōshu 千宗守, who became the eleventh head of the Mushanokōji Senke tea house in 1989 [96], writing on 16 February 1990 in a book of 1991, says that the alcove of his practice room will hold it next month, as it does every year [97]. Kitaōji Rosanjin (1883–1959) wrote and carved it often; a catalogue of his work says that his piece of 1929 takes 仙叟宗室の同文の横物を本歌とし, Sensō Sōshitsu's horizontal scroll of the same words as its model [98][99]. The philosopher Nishida Kitarō (1870–1945) brushed it too [100][101]; the aesthetician Ijima Tsutomu 井島勉 (1908–1978) [102], who kept a horizontal piece of his in his room (the leaf prints 横顔, profile; the piece is a writing, so I read 横額, a horizontal framed piece), wrote in 1969, 「春来草自生」と書いてあるのだが、草の字がやや読みにくいのである, it says 春来草自生, but the character for grass is a little hard to read [103]. Okamoto Kanoko (1889–1939) set the couplet in a book of 1929 [104][105].

The line in English

In the English books read, the couplet came into English as a Zen phrase-book couplet, with 生. R. H. Blyth gives it in 1949 in the first volume of Haiku, in a run of Chinese couplets that names no source on its page, as Sitting quietly doing nothing, / Spring comes, grass grows of itself [16], and reprints it in 1951 among passages he introduces as from the Zenrinkushū [106]. Alan Watts in 1957 calls a chapter of The Way of Zen "Sitting Quietly, Doing Nothing" and gives the couplet as expressed in another Zenrin poem: Sitting quietly, doing nothing, / Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself, and his next sentence takes up by itself [17]. Nancy Wilson Ross's anthology of 1960, The World of Zen, prints Watts's wording, credited —Zenrin Kushu [107], and later printings carry it, in the Internet Archive's full text. Shigematsu in 1981 gives both entries and leaves out of itself: the couplet as Sitting motionless, / nothing happening— / Spring coming, / grass growing—, and the five characters as Spring comes: / grass grows. [22]. Hori in 2003 gives Spring comes, grass grows by itself [24], and John Stevens in 2001 Blyth's line in the first person, I sit quietly doing nothing [108]. The other translators of a 青 line read here write green, as Whitfield does for the song. Yunmen's answer is When spring comes, the grass turns green of itself for Chang Chung-yuan and When Spring comes, the grasses spontaneously grow green for John Wu's Deshan [109][110]. One English book renders a 青 text with the phrase-book English: the 2006 Mirror of Zen, whose source, the Korean 禪家龜鑑, ends 春來草自青, has Yet spring comes, and grass grows all by itself [111][32].

A reading

The line has two endings and two lives, and I do not think either is a mistake to be corrected. 青 is the song's, and every copy of the song read here to its last line keeps it. 生 is the Chan answer, the line the masters forbade, and Feng Dao's.

What I read in Xutang's sermon is this. The masters before him said what not to bring: a long month has thirty days and a short one twenty-nine, and spring comes and the grass greens of itself. Shouduan had himself answered with the first, and he named the night for the second: on the thirtieth of the twelfth month, do not say it. Xutang, on that night, spoke in Shouduan's phrases, said the first forbidden thing flatly, and then, asked what field this is, struck his whisk and said the second, with 生. The cliché comes back as the answer, said by someone who has earned it. No witness read says this in these words; the 1932 note's elder 珠, who calls the line a password of the house under Dongshan (Fayan's, as I read it), points the same way. That reading is mine.

The phrase book of 1688 did the rest. Its enlarger set Lanzan's first line beside the ending already in his book as Xutang's, and tagged the pair to the song. The pair had been written once before, in the Ming record of a fragment under Huang's name [39]; nothing read connects the enlarger to it. I read the couplet on the scroll as his, made between two texts he had in hand; the 傳燈錄 was on his list. It is a good couplet, and it has been read and brushed in Japan for three hundred years. It should be called what it is.

The tea scroll of the five characters alone is Xutang's line, and in the tea room it is reported hanging in spring. Hung there, it keeps both its senses: no one makes the grass grow, and the grass grows.

On the reading, I sign haru kitatte kusa onozukara shōzu, the reading of Urasenke's textbook and of the tea books, and of Shigematsu for the five characters alone; shunrai is the reading of the 1932 translation of Xutang's record, and haru kitari and haru kitarite are printed less often.

Notes

『趙氏鐵網珊瑚』's 生 stands on a fragment of a few large characters that carries the colophon of 元符三年七月 the whole scrolls carry, and no postscript [39]. Wang Keyu's scroll ended in large characters: a colophon in his catalogue by Li Rihua 李日華 says 後擘窠大書一段, after it, a passage in great characters, and Wang's own says that from the date to the end each column holds one character, 後年月字至末每行一字 [36]; the note of 1767 names both colophons [5]. So the fragment looks like the large-character close of such a scroll. Whether its 生 was Huang's or the transcriber's is not settled; the records of the whole scrolls read 青 [5][35][36][37].

The 2001 edition's note on the rhyme sets 生 (in 本自無生) and 青 in two rhyme groups that do not usually rhyme together but are one class in the verse of the Dunhuang bianwen, and reads the song as rhyming them as popular verse does [4]. A last line ending 生 would rhyme 生 with itself two lines after 本自無生. That is my inference from their note; they do not discuss a 生 reading.

That the ten-character entry is among the 1688 enlarger's five hundred additions is an inference from two prints: it is absent from the 1645 phrase book's ten-character section and present in the 1688 with a tag [11][13]. The postface lists no lines.

Who the elder 珠 of the 1932 note is, and which commentary its 或抄 is, were not identified [23]. The 1913 edition's preface, by 龍淵, does not name the author of its head-notes [66].

The Library dates the Gozan print of Xutang's record to 正和2 (1313); its colophon was not opened [64].

The Satsuma encyclopedia prints 冬去氷須洋, with 洋, a misprint for 泮, on the leaf itself [85].

The 1925 phrase-book commentary 禅林句集和訓略解, read only in its text layer, reads the couplet 兀然として無事に坐すれば, and the five characters 春来れば草自から生ず, haru kitareba [112].

Mankai's sermon and the 1964 commentary are read in the Library's snippet view only; their leaves are served only in Japan [92][67].

The National Diet Library's full-text sweep lists two Monumenta Nipponica items, dated 1938 and 1939 in its records, that carry Blyth's English for the couplet. Each item's own page reads Vol. VII … 1951 … January: it is Blyth's essay of 1951 [106], not an English witness of the 1930s.

Every first and earliest in this history is scoped to what was searched: CBETA canon-wide, the SAT Taishō database, the National Diet Library's full text across all access levels, the local mirror of its open books, and the shelf. CBETA finds 春來草自生 in five works: the 天聖廣燈錄; Chenggu's record, whose sermon with the line stands after his return to Jianfu in 1037; Xutang's record; and two later works, a book of verses matching Hanshan's and a Qing record. The 廣燈錄's 1036 is its preface's date, not the exchange's [40][51][52].

The null for 大燈, 一休 and 白隠 is scoped: no use of the line was found in CBETA, the SAT Taishō database, the National Diet Library's full text across all access levels, and the local mirror of its open books. It is not a statement that they never used it.

Japanese Scrolls by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

Japanese Scroll of Spring Comes, and the Grass Grows of Itself (haru kitatte kusa onozukara shōzu) in a block font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
春来草自生VB5JBlock
Japanese Scroll of Spring Comes, and the Grass Grows of Itself (haru kitatte kusa onozukara shōzu) in a cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
春来草自生VC5JCursive
Japanese Scroll of Spring Comes, and the Grass Grows of Itself (haru kitatte kusa onozukara shōzu) in Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase's own style (jiun)
春来草自生VD5JJiun
Japanese Scroll of Spring Comes, and the Grass Grows of Itself (haru kitatte kusa onozukara shōzu) in a semi-cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
春来草自生VS5JSemi-Cursive

Sources not seen

Huang Tingjian's scrolls themselves, the part held at the 中國歷史博物館, and the rubbing in the 經訓堂法書; the history reads the Ming and Qing catalogues' transcriptions and the 2001 edition's collation.

Watts's pages 134 to 140 whole, which would show whether he names Blyth; The Way of Zen is a lending copy, read only in the Internet Archive's full-text windows.

The first printing of Blyth's Haiku, vol. 1 (1949) at an image; the shelf copy is the twentieth printing of 1971, in the original pagination.

無著道忠's commentary 虚堂録犂耕, a manuscript of thirty volumes with no text layer, which may carry an older note behind the 1913 head-note.

The identity of the elder 珠 and of the 或抄 the 1932 note quotes.

The Korean text behind the 2006 Mirror of Zen, which would show whether its translators had 生 or 青 before them.

The page images of the 1920 and 1925 editions of the 禅林句集和訓略解: the 1920 edition is served in the Library's reading rooms only, and HathiTrust refuses page views to a script.

The tea books and magazines after 1945 past their snippet windows, and the plates of Rosanjin's and Sensō's scrolls; they are served in Japan only.

The 1645 phrase book's seven-character sections, which were not walked for the couplet, since both later prints set it among the ten-character entries.

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

References

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  3. 道原, 『景德傳燈錄』 卷三十, 南嶽懶瓚和尚歌: 水月無形我常只寧。萬法皆爾本自無生。兀然無事坐春來草自青 (p. 461c06–c08), at CBETA (T51n2076). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/T51n2076_p0461c07
  4. 衣川賢次・土屋昌明・小川隆, 「懶瓚和尚「樂道歌」攷」, 『東洋文化研究所紀要』 141 (2001), pp. 125–195: 段 12 text, 訓讀 and rendering pp. 164–165, the rhyme note p. 165, note (78) pp. 166–167, witness 9 (黃庭堅) pp. 178–179 (the scan, its page images read). https://hdl.handle.net/2261/2011
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  6. 李遵勗 編, 『天聖廣燈錄』 卷二十五, 郢州林鷄徹禪師 (entry p. 551b01): 未審向上還有事也無？師云：有。進云：如何是向上事？師云：秋到黃葉落，春來草自生 (p. 552a07–a09), at CBETA (X78n1553). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/X78n1553_p0552a08
  7. 呉處厚, 『青箱雜記』 卷二, 馮瀛王 … 詩曰：「窮達皆由命，何勞發嘆聲？ … 冬去氷須泮，春來草自生 … 天道甚分明, at Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E9%9D%92%E7%AE%B1%E9%9B%9C%E8%A8%98/%E5%8D%B7%E4%BA%8C
  8. 惟白 集, 『建中靖國續燈錄』 卷九, 棲賢智遷: 莫是三年逢一閏，九月重陽麼？莫是大盡三十日，小盡二十九麼？莫是春來草自青麼？若如斯見解，棲賢門下喚作驢前馬後漢 (p. 696b16–b18), at CBETA (X78n1556). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/X78n1556_p0696b17
  9. 『白雲守端禪師廣錄』 卷一, 江州承天禪院語錄: 僧問：舊歲已去，新歲復來，如何是不遷義？… 今日普天之下盡添一歲 … 若也未然，臈月三十日，莫道春來草自青 (p. 305b06–b12), at CBETA (X69n1352). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/X69n1352_p0305b12
  10. 『虛堂和尚語錄』 卷一, 慶元府顯孝禪寺開山語錄 (heading p. 989c03): 除夜小參：年去年來，迎新送舊，山僧謾諸人一點不得；大盡三十日，小盡二十九，諸人謾山僧一點不得 … 且道是甚麼田地？擊拂子，春來草自生 (p. 990a26–b03), at CBETA (T47n2000). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/T47n2000_p0990a26
  11. 『句雙紙』, 正保2 (1645), canvas 28: 春來草自生, a five-character entry, no source named; the 五言對 (canvases 36–55) read column by column, without 兀然無事坐春來草自生. 国書データベース. https://doi.org/10.20730/100103433
  12. 東陽英朝 集『増補首書 禪林句集』, 京師 小川多左衞門, 貞享5 (1688), the copy of 神戸大学附属図書館, canvas 39: 春来草自生, 虛堂録一 顯四丁. 国書データベース. https://doi.org/10.20730/100272428
  13. 『増補首書 禪林句集』 (1688), canvas 79: 兀然無事坐春来草自生, 南嶽懶瓚歌; canvas 3, 集中訓解書 (傳燈録 among the works used); canvases 153–154, the postface: 標題這般之本據、而續句句後者凡五百句、都合六千句 … 本據未分明者闕於百中五六 … 貞享戊辰正月 … 洛橋巽隅山阜己十子謹識. 国書データベース. https://doi.org/10.20730/100272428
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  17. Alan W. Watts, The Way of Zen, 1957, Part Two, ch. 2, "Sitting Quietly, Doing Nothing", which begins on p. 134 by the contents (the Internet Archive's full-text windows, which do not fix the couplet's page; a lending copy). https://archive.org/details/wayofzen0000watt
  18. 「春来」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 (しゅん‐らい: ① 春の頃。春の時分) and 普及版 字通 (しゆんらい: 春となる; 王維 〔桃源行〕 春來(きた)つては), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%98%A5%E6%9D%A5-2049617
  19. 「自ずから」, デジタル大辞泉 and 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E8%87%AA%E3%81%9A%E3%81%8B%E3%82%89-453814
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  21. 『裏千家茶道教科 教養編 11』, 1980 (snippet view, National Diet Library). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/12439237
  22. Sōiku Shigematsu, A Zen Forest: Sayings of the Masters, Weatherhill, 1981, no. 380, p. 62 (the English) and p. 138 (the romaji), and no. 550, p. 74 and p. 144 (the shelf copy, page image).
  23. 『虚堂和尚語録 : 国訳註解』 上卷, 国訳禅宗叢書刊行会 編, 二松堂, 1932, scan 48, p. 七: 拂子を擊つて、「春來艸自ら生ず。」 (ruby しゆんらい くさ おのづから しやうず), and scan 49, p. 八, note チ (page image), National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1913716/1/48
  24. Victor Sōgen Hori, Zen Sand: The Book of Capping Phrases for Kōan Practice, University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2003, nos. 5.175 and 10.177 (the shelf copy).
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  26. 『自警』 53(1), 1971 (the Library's record: 警視庁警務部 / 自警会): 次の課題 … 「春来草自生」春来りて草自ら生ず (snippet view, National Diet Library). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2706794
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  28. 「祖堂集」, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典 (南唐保大10年（952）の成立), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%A5%96%E5%A0%82%E9%9B%86-1181279
  29. 「景徳伝灯録」, デジタル大辞泉 (1004年成立), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%99%AF%E5%BE%B3%E4%BC%9D%E7%81%AF%E9%8C%B2-489122
  30. 陳田夫, 『南嶽總勝集』 卷三 (宋 陳田夫撰, the CBETA byline), 高僧懶殘 (p. 1083b25): … 水月無形。我常自寧。萬法皆爾。不死不生。兀然無箇事。春來草自青 (p. 1083c22–c24), at CBETA (T51n2097). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/T51n2097_p1083c23
  31. 「西山大師」, 日本大百科全書 (せいざんだいし, 1520–1604; 僧名は休静), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E8%A5%BF%E5%B1%B1%E5%A4%A7%E5%B8%AB-1349341
  32. 西山休靜, 『禪家龜鑑』: 吾有一言，絕慮忘緣。兀然無事坐，春來草自青 (p. 738a12), at CBETA (X63n1255). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/X63n1255_p0738a12
  33. Randolph S. Whitfield, Records of the Transmission of the Lamp, vol. 8, Books on Demand, 2020, 30.12, The Venerable Nanyue Lanzan, Song of Joy in the Dao, and note 541 (the shelf copy).
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  35. 郁逢慶, 『書畫題跋記』 卷四 (四庫全書本), at Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E6%9B%B8%E7%95%AB%E9%A1%8C%E4%9F%A6%E8%A8%98_%28%E5%9B%9B%E5%BA%AB%E5%85%A8%E6%9B%B8%E6%9C%AC%29/%E5%8D%B704
  36. 汪砢玉, 『珊瑚網』 卷五, 黄涪翁正書法語眞蹟: … 後擘窠大書一段 … 日華; 右魯直所書法語 … 後年月字至末每行一字 … 長二丈絶無接縫 (四庫全書本), at Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E7%8F%8A%E7%91%9A%E7%B6%B2_%28%E5%9B%9B%E5%BA%AB%E5%85%A8%E6%9B%B8%E6%9C%AC%29/%E5%8D%B705
  37. 高士奇, 『江村銷夏録』 卷二, 宋黄文節公書梵志詩卷: … 兀然無事坐春来草自青 (四庫全書本), at Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E6%B1%9F%E6%9D%91%E9%8A%B7%E5%A4%8F%E9%8C%B2_%28%E5%9B%9B%E5%BA%AB%E5%85%A8%E6%9B%B8%E6%9C%AC%29/%E5%8D%B72
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  43. 『景德傳燈錄』 卷十二, 池州魯祖山教和尚: 問如何是學人著力處。師曰。春來草自青月上已天明 (p. 298b17–b18), at CBETA (T51n2076). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/T51n2076_p0298b17
  44. 『景德傳燈錄』 卷二十三, 西川靈龕和尚: 問。如何是諸佛出身處。師曰。出處非干佛春來草自青 (p. 396c28), at CBETA (T51n2076). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/T51n2076_p0396c28
  45. 悟明 集, 『聯燈會要』 卷二十六, 朗州德山圓明密禪師: 牛頭未見四祖時如何？師云：秋來黃葉落。云：見後如何？師云：春來草自青 (p. 227c21–c22), at CBETA (X79n1557). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/X79n1557_p0227c22
  46. 『五燈會元』 卷十五, 鼎州德山緣密圓明禪師: 問。牛頭未見四祖時如何。師曰。秋來黃葉落。曰。見後如何。師曰。春來草自青 (p. 308b21–b22), at CBETA (X80n1565). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/X80n1565_p0308b22
  47. 『聯燈會要』, 悔明's preface, dated 時淳熈十年解制後五日 (p. 11c23), at CBETA (X79n1557). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/X79n1557_p0011c23
  48. 『五燈會元』, 釋廷俊's preface to the reprint, signed 至正二十四年 (1364): 宋季靈隱大川禪師濟公 … 作五燈會元 (p. 1c10–c12), and the signature, 至正二十四年龍集甲辰 … 釋廷俊序 (p. 2a10–a11), at CBETA (X80n1564). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/X80n1564_p0001c10
  49. 『建中靖國續燈錄』, the emperor's preface: 建中靖國元年八月十五日賜序 (p. 641a19), at CBETA (X78n1556). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/X78n1556_p0641a19
  50. 『聯燈會要』 卷二十八, 南康軍雲居曉舜禪師 (entry p. 246b22): … 莫是三年逢一閏，九月是重陽麼？莫是大盡三十日，小盡二十九麼？莫是春來草自青麼？若作如斯見解，大愚門下喚作驢前馬後漢 (p. 247a16–a18), at CBETA (X79n1557). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/X79n1557_p0247a16
  51. 『薦福承古禪師語錄』: 皇宋景祐四年丁丑歲十月初三日，知郡待制范公躬率四眾就芝山迎師歸本院 (p. 43a20–a21); 辭世 … 乙酉冬至四，靈光一點赤 (p. 54b06–b08), at CBETA (X73n1447). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/X73n1447_p0043a20
  52. 『薦福承古禪師語錄』: 莫道是久雨蔞蒿長，莫道春來草自生。若據如此，正是鳥道羊腸，未夢見曹溪路上在 (p. 45c16–c18), at CBETA (X73n1447). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/X73n1447_p0045c17
  53. 『五燈會元』 卷十九, 舒州白雲守端禪師 (entry p. 388c19, under 楊歧會禪師法嗣): 熈寧五年遷化。壽四十八 (p. 390a21–a22), at CBETA (X80n1565). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/X80n1565_p0390a21
  54. 「楊岐方会」, 日本大百科全書 (992–1049), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%A5%8A%E5%B2%90%E6%96%B9%E4%BC%9A-145606
  55. 「虚堂智愚」, 日本大百科全書 (きどうちぐ, 1185–1269), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E8%99%9A%E5%A0%82%E6%99%BA%E6%84%9A-51174
  56. 「小参」, デジタル大辞泉 (禅宗で、住持が随時・随処で衆僧に対して説法すること), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%B0%8F%E5%8F%82-531621
  57. 「払子」, デジタル大辞泉 (ほっ‐す), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%89%95%E5%AD%90-133525
  58. 『白雲守端禪師廣錄』 卷一, 江州承天禪院語錄 (heading p. 304a09), 山南迴上堂: 承天數日遶廬山行禮，每日折旋俯仰，謾諸人一點不得；諸人在院中折旋俯仰，也謾承天一點不得 (p. 305a16–a18), at CBETA (X69n1352). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/X69n1352_p0305a17
  59. 『白雲守端禪師廣錄』 卷一, 江州圓通崇勝禪院語錄 (heading p. 306c08), 上堂: … 有不為物之流動者。作麼是不流動者？良久，云：大盡三十日，小盡二十九 (p. 307c19–c20), at CBETA (X69n1352). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/X69n1352_p0307c20
  60. 『白雲守端禪師廣錄』 卷一, 江州圓通崇勝禪院語錄 (heading p. 306c08), 上堂: … 拈起拂子，云：還聞麼？ … 以拂子打禪床一下，云：大千沙界海中漚，一切聖賢如電拂 (p. 307c13–c17), at CBETA (X69n1352). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/X69n1352_p0307c14
  61. 『白雲守端禪師廣錄』 卷二, 舒州興化禪院語錄 (heading p. 312c12), 新正上堂: … 師乃云：年去年來來去間，迎新送舊幾多般，街頭撞見張三伯，元正啟祚太無端 (p. 313a22–b01), at CBETA (X69n1352). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/X69n1352_p0313a24
  62. 『五燈會元』 卷十九 and 卷二十, the line of descent in the entries' headings: 白雲守端 p. 388c19, 五祖法演 p. 391b03, 圜悟克勤 p. 396a07, 虎丘紹隆 p. 405a16 (under 南嶽下十五世上昭覺勤禪師法嗣, p. 402c03–c04), 應庵曇華 p. 429c19, 密庵咸傑 p. 441a16, at CBETA (X80n1565). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/X80n1565_p0388c19
  63. 『增集續傳燈錄』, the entries' headings: 松源崇岳 p. 277c17 (天童密菴傑禪師法嗣), 運庵普巖 p. 286b15 (in the table of contents, 卷第三 … 靈隱松源嶽禪師法嗣 … 道場運庵普巖禪師, p. 260b07–b08), 虛堂智愚 p. 297a05 (道場運庵巖禪師法嗣), at CBETA (X83n1574). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/X83n1574_p0297a05
  64. 『虚堂和尚語録3卷續輯1卷後録1卷』, 宋釋智愚撰, 宗哲等刊, 正和2 (1313), 五山版 (the NDL item record), scan 25 (page image): 除夜小參 … 擊拂子春來草自生, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2543543/1/25
  65. 『法演禪師語錄』 卷下, the heading 黃梅東山演和尚語錄, 門人惟慶編 (p. 662b16–b17), at CBETA (T47n1995). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/T47n1995_p0662b16
  66. 高木台岳 編, 『虚堂和尚語録 : 増冠傍註』 vol. 1, 貝葉書院, 1913, scan 36, the head-note 【春來草自生】懶瓚歌云、兀(printed 元)然トシテ無事ニシテ坐スレバ、春來草自靑 (page image), and scan 4–5, the preface 再鐫虛堂錄序, signed 大正元年初秋 … 龍淵, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/923631/1/36
  67. 中島鉄心, 『虚堂録義解』 第1巻, 虚堂録義解刊行会, 1964 (snippet view, National Diet Library). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2965715
  68. 「東陽英朝」, デジタル版 日本人名大辞典+Plus (1428–1504), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%9D%B1%E9%99%BD%E8%8B%B1%E6%9C%9D-1093907
  69. 英朝 著『禅林句集』, 1889, scans 42 and 82 (page image), National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/899715/1/42
  70. 『禅語事典 : より良き人生への二百五十のことば』, 1988 (snippet view, National Diet Library). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/13256073
  71. 『床の間の禅語 続』, 1998 (snippet view, National Diet Library). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/12215498
  72. 「馮道」, デジタル大辞泉 (882–954) and 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%A6%AE%E9%81%93-123005
  73. 『全唐詩』 卷七百三十七, 馮道, 天道: 窮達皆由命 … 冬去冰須泮，春來草自生 … 天道甚分明, at Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E5%85%A8%E5%94%90%E8%A9%A9/%E5%8D%B7737
  74. 呉處厚, 『青箱雜記』, the author's preface: 朝散郎知漢陽軍呉處厚元祐二年春正月甲寅日謹序, at Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E9%9D%92%E7%AE%B1%E9%9B%9C%E8%A8%98
  75. 江少虞, 『新雕皇朝類苑』, 元和7 (1621) 活字印 (the NDL item record), scan 30, 卷三十六 詩歌賦詠, 馮瀛王 (page image), National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2543717/1/30
  76. 王鳴盛, 『十七史商榷』, 乾隆52 (1787), scan 51, under 馮道自敘: … 天道甚分明 其知命如此而吾以爲不知命正在此 (page image), National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2600016/1/51
  77. 「王鳴盛」, デジタル大辞泉 (1720–1797), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%8E%8B%E9%B3%B4%E7%9B%9B-38890
  78. 「徒然草」, デジタル大辞泉 (吉田兼好著。元徳2～元弘元年（1330～1331）ごろ成立か), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%BE%92%E7%84%B6%E8%8D%89-99660
  79. ja.wikisource, 『徒然草』 (校註日本文學大系), 第百七十一段: 萬のこと外に向きて求むべからず、たゞここもとを正しくすべし。清獻公がことばに、「好事を行じて前程を問ふことなかれ」といへり. https://ja.wikisource.org/wiki/%E5%BE%92%E7%84%B6%E8%8D%89_%28%E6%A0%A1%E8%A8%BB%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E6%96%87%E5%AD%B8%E5%A4%A7%E7%B3%BB%29
  80. 北村季吟, 『徒然草文段抄』 下巻, 1894, 鈴木弘恭 named beside him on the Library's record: … 春來草自生。請君觀此理。天道甚分明。季吟云。好事を行ずるは … (snippet view, National Diet Library). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/888797
  81. 「北村季吟」, デジタル大辞泉 (1625–1705; 著「徒然草文段抄」), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%8C%97%E6%9D%91%E5%AD%A3%E5%90%9F-16173
  82. 『故事熟語辞典』, 1925, scan 624, p. 一〇一二, 【但知行好事莫要問前程】 (page image), National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/969163/1/624
  83. 橋本左内, 雜記抄錄, in 『橋本景岳全集』, 1939, scan 303, p. 一四一〇 (page image), National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1914232/1/303
  84. 「橋本左内」, デジタル大辞泉 (1834–1859), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%A9%8B%E6%9C%AC%E5%B7%A6%E5%86%85-114237
  85. 曽槃・白尾国柱 編, 『成形図説』 巻之二, 刊年不明, scan 32 (page image), National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2569426/1/32
  86. 白玉蟾, 『海瓊白真人語錄』: 冬去冰須浮，春來草自生 … 此自然而然爾, at Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E6%B5%B7%E7%93%8A%E7%99%BD%E7%9C%9F%E4%BA%BA%E8%AA%9E%E9%8C%84
  87. 『莊子』, 庚桑楚第二十三: 夫春氣發而百草生，正得秋而萬實成 (一作寶)。夫春與秋，豈无得而然哉？天道已行矣, at Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E8%8E%8A%E5%AD%90/%E5%BA%9A%E6%A1%91%E6%A5%9A
  88. Burton Watson, The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu, Columbia University Press, 1968, ch. 23, "Keng-sang Ch'u" (the shelf copy).
  89. 「大休正念」, デジタル大辞泉 (1215–1289; 文永6年（1269）来日), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%A4%A7%E4%BC%91%E6%AD%A3%E5%BF%B5-90986
  90. 『大休和尙語錄』, in 『大日本仏教全書』, 1922, scan 53: 冬至小參 … 良久云。善財一去無消息。門外春來草自靑, the 冬至小參 following the 解制小參 on the same page (the Library's text layer), National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/952800
  91. 「卍海宗珊」, デジタル版 日本人名大辞典+Plus (まんかい-そうさん, 1707–1767; 延享3年京都源光庵の住持), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%8D%8D%E6%B5%B7%E5%AE%97%E7%8F%8A-1111824
  92. 『曹洞宗全書 続』 第3巻 (語録 1), 1973, 『卍海宗珊和尚語録』, a sermon: 無事兀然坐。春來草自生 (snippet view, National Diet Library). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/12272162
  93. 「裏千家」, 日本大百科全書 (4世仙叟宗室 … 仙叟宗室 (せんそうそうしつ)), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E8%A3%8F%E5%8D%83%E5%AE%B6-35315
  94. 『淡交』 19(5), 1965 (snippet view, National Diet Library). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/7890882
  95. 『淡交』 21(6), 1967 (snippet view, National Diet Library). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/7890907
  96. 「千宗守」, デジタル版 日本人名大辞典+Plus, 千宗守(11代) (せん-そうしゅ, 1945–; 武者小路(むしゃのこうじ)千家10代千宗守の長男 … 平成元年11代家元をつぎ), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%8D%83%E5%AE%97%E5%AE%88-847623
  97. 千宗守, 『雪間の草』, 1991 (the Library's record: 千, 宗守 11世, 1945-): 来月の私の稽古場の床も「春来草自生」を用いるのを例年の習わしとしている。(平成二年二月十六日 …) (snippet view, National Diet Library). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/13666474
  98. 『北大路魯山人作品図録』, 1972 (snippet view, National Diet Library). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/12866547
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Authors

Tim Jackowski (Systems Architect, Takase Studios, LLC) · 典 Ten (Anthropic Claude Opus 5.5, Takase Studios, LLC)

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

Not yet reviewed.

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 春来草自生 (haru kitatte kusa onozukara shōzu)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/haru-kitatte-kusa-onozukara-shozu.