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心は放たん事を要す kokoro wa hanatan koto o yōsu The Mind Must Be Set Free

心は放たん事を要す (kokoro wa hanatan koto o yōsu), the mind needs letting loose, is the sixth of Funakoshi Gichin's twenty precepts of karate. Its words are the Japanese reading of a Chinese line the Zen priest Takuan quoted, in the 1630s, for the swordsman Yagyū Munenori. There the line is the second half of a lesson, and the precept keeps only that half.

Japanese Scroll of The Mind Must Be Set Free (kokoro wa hanatan koto o yōsu) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
The Mind Must Be Set Free心は放たん事を要すkokoro wa hanatan koto o yōsu

Original art by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

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Abstract

心は放たん事を要す, the mind needs letting loose, is the sixth of Funakoshi Gichin 船越義珍's twenty precepts of karate, a list in print by December 1934 and printed in 1938 with a commentary by Nakasone Genwa 仲宗根源和 that Funakoshi approved. Its words are the Japanese reading of a three-character Chinese line, 心要放. A Song miscellany of about 1250, Luo Dajing 羅大經's 鶴林玉露, gives the line, as 心要能放, to the philosopher Shao Yong 邵雍 and sets it against Mencius's seek the strayed mind. The Zen priest Takuan Sōhō 沢庵宗彭 used the same pair in 不動智神妙録, written for the swordsman Yagyū Munenori 柳生宗矩 in the 1630s and first printed in 1779: Mencius for the beginner, Shao Yong for the master. The 1779 print glosses the line as an order, 要せよ; a tea book of 1905, which recast Takuan's letter for tea, prints the reading 要す, the precept's own ending, beside it. The 1938 commentary, in its English of 2003, explains the precept from Takuan's text.

Overview

The text. 心は放たん事を要す, kokoro wa hanatan koto o yōsu, the mind needs letting loose. The twenty precepts are given by the Japanese Wikipedia article on Funakoshi, citing a photograph in a 1938 book, as a numbered list [1]; this is item 6.

The sense. No dictionary at kotobank has the precept; read from its words, it says the mind needs to be set free. The デジタル大辞泉 gives 放つ first as 閉じ込められたり束縛されたりしていたものを自由に動けるようにしてやる, to let move freely what was shut in or bound, and 要する first as 必要とする, to need [2][3]. In the text the words come from, the freedom is a stage of training. Takuan tells the swordsman to seek the strayed mind back while he is learning, and at the last to let it run where it will, once it no longer stops on things [4]. The 1938 commentary on the precept, as translated in 2003, says the same: when we are in training, it is best to follow Meng Tzu's prescription in the early stages, but later to allow the mind freedom by following the path set out by Shao Yung [5].

The words. The twenty precepts are written in the formal Japanese of their day: 先づ with づ, 而して, 放たん, 要す. 放たん is 放つ, to set free what was bound, in the old volitional form; 事を要す is the classical form of 要する, requires [2][3]. As words: the mind needs letting loose. The precept states what the mind needs; the 1779 print of Takuan's letter glosses the same Chinese 要放 with an imperative, ようせよ, let it loose [6].

The text in English. Takuan's line was in English before the precept was: You must release your mind (Sato, 1985) and It is essential to lose the mind (Wilson, 1986) [7][4]. The precept comes into English in the karate books; the earliest dated rendering in the Internet Archive's full text is of 1995 [8][9]. What a rendering must keep is that the freedom is the end of a training, not its start.

The historical record

Mencius. The first half of the pair is the Mencius, 告子上: 人有雞犬放，則知求之；有放心，而不知求。學問之道無他，求其放心而已矣。 When people's chickens and dogs stray, they know to go after them; when their mind strays, they do not know to go after it. The way of learning is nothing other than this: to seek the strayed mind [10].

About 1250. Luo Dajing 羅大經, 『鶴林玉露』 (Jade Dew from the Crane Forest), 丙編 卷一. A Song miscellany, dated 1248–52 by the デジタル大辞泉 [11]. It sets Mencius against Shao Yong (1011–1077, by Sato's note) [7]: 孟子言求放心，而康節邵子曰：「心要能放。」二者天淵懸絕。蓋放心者，心自放也。心放者，吾能放也。放心者，如雞豚出於塒柵，不求則不得。心放者，如鷹隼翔於雲霄，而絳鏇固在吾手也。 Mencius speaks of seeking the strayed mind, and Shao Yong says, "The mind must be able to let go." The two are as far apart as heaven and the abyss. A strayed mind is a mind that strays of itself; a mind let go is one I am able to let go. The strayed mind is like chickens and pigs out of the roost and the pen: unless you go after them you do not get them back. The mind let go is like a hawk soaring into the clouds, while the falconer's cord stays fast in my hand [12]. The pairing is in this book nearly four centuries before Takuan. The line here has 能, able to; Takuan's has not. In Shao Yong's own works as Wikisource gives them (伊川擊壤集, 漁樵問對, and 皇極經世書 in the 四庫全書 copy) the line is not found; the nearest is a poem in 伊川擊壤集 卷18, 行身敢放心。放心然後樂, in how I carry myself I dare to let the mind go; with the mind let go, then there is joy [13].

The 1630s. Takuan Sōhō 沢庵宗彭, 『不動智神妙録』, written for Yagyū Munenori 柳生宗矩. Takuan wrote it for the shogun's fencing instructor, and its date is not settled. Wilson gives about 1632; de Bary calls it a letter to Munenori and says it first appeared in print in 1779 [14][15]. The 精選版日本国語大辞典 gives about 1638 (寛永一五年頃成立), and the 日本大百科全書 gives 1636, saying the text began as Takuan's answer on swordsmanship to the shogun Iemitsu, with Munenori present, and that the copy given to Munenori was abridged as 『不動智』 for his pupils [16]. Peter Haskel, reading the Japanese research in 2013, calls the text undated and writes that it is impossible to assign a firm date: its earliest form may have been prepared for Iemitsu after a discussion of swordsmanship he convened in autumn 1636, the version with an addendum to Munenori came later, and the passages Munenori's own book of 1632 takes from it suggest that some early form of it, may have been in existence by late 1632 [17]. The 1779 print, from a Kyoto bookseller, closes on the colophon 安永八己亥載二月吉辰 and on Takuan's own line, 右依御所望貴殿之兵法與禪宗佛法引合書附進之候　澤庵, At your request I have written this, setting your art of the sword beside the Buddhist teaching of Zen, and send it to you. Takuan [6]. On the strayed mind, Takuan takes the pair as the Song book did. Mencius says to seek the mind as one seeks a dog, a cat or a chicken that has strayed; but 邵康節といふ者ハ心は要ㇾ放とや申, one Shao Kangjie says the mind must be let loose, with the reading …ようせよ beside 要放 [6]. Takuan explains the difference: a mind tied down is like a tethered cat and cannot work; the lotus is not stained by its mud, nor a polished crystal ball by the mud it lies in [4]. When one is in training, it is good to keep Mencius' saying, "Seek the lost mind," in mind. The ultimate, however, is within Shao K'ang-chieh's, "It is essential to lose the mind," in Wilson's English, and the Chan master Zhongfeng 中峰's 具放心, be in possession of a mind that has been let go of, means the same [4]. An Osaka re-cut of 1791, which names the 1779 date in its own colophon, keeps the line, with a reading beside 要放 that again ends in …せよ [18].

Yagyū Munenori's own book. The swordsman the text was written for took up Zhongfeng's line in his own 兵法家伝書, written in 1632 or soon thereafter in Wilson's dating (Haskel: inscribed for the ninth month of Kan'ei 9, roughly, October 1632 [17]), in two levels: first if you "release" the mind, do not allow it to become fixated when it reaches its destination, but unfailingly make it return; at the deeper level, in releasing the mind, you let it go where it wishes; and even dogs and cats are better raised unleashed [14]. Wilson's notes gloss both levels from Takuan's letter [14].

1883 onward. The text in type. The National Diet Library's full text holds Takuan's text in type from 1883, as 『剣法不動智神妙録』, and in collections of Zen sermons and of Takuan's writings into the 1930s [19][20]. They print the Chinese 心要放 and gloss it in Japanese.

1905. Tanaka Senshō 田中仙樵, 『茶禅一味』 (Tea and Zen Are One Taste), 光融館. In a section of tea sermons, 喫茶法語集, the book prints 一　澤庵和尚示茶人某書（仙樵戲作）, Priest Takuan's letter to a certain tea man (a playful piece by Senshō). The editor says what he did: 茲に澤庵禪師に代りて、世の凡夫茶人に垂示を試みんと欲す, here, in Takuan's place, I try to instruct the ordinary tea men of the world; he took 澤庵が柳生へ授けたる示諭書, the letter of instruction Takuan gave Yagyū, kept its sense, changed the examples to tea, and kept the original's words as far as he could [21]. The passage on the strayed mind follows Takuan closely: 又邵康節と云者は、心は要ㇾ放と申候, with the reading はなたんことをようす printed beside 要放, and later 至極の心持は、邵康節が心は放たん事を要せよといふにて候, the highest state of mind is what Shao Kangjie meant by "the mind must be let loose" [21]. The reading beside the line ends in 要す, the precept's own ending; the running text, like the 1779 print, ends in 要せよ. The piece closes on a copyist's line, 正德五未十月十一日 幡龍庵にてうつし申候, copied at Banryūan, the eleventh day of the tenth month, Shōtoku 5 (1715); the book does not say whose copy it was [21].

1934 to 1938. The list and its commentary. The list of twenty is in print in 『空手研究』 第1輯 (December 1934); the library's snippet of that page carries this precept as the sixth, after the fifth on technique and mind [22]. In 1938 Nakasone Genwa printed the list with a commentary on each article in 空手道大観; his preface, in the 2003 translation, says Master Funakoshi has read and approved their content [23][5]. The library's snippets show the commentary on this article naming 邵康節 and setting him against Mencius [23]. The English of 2003 heads it with Wilson's 1986 sentence, It is essential to lose the mind (in order to free it). —Shao Yung, the words in parentheses set in square brackets on the page as the translator's own, and then says: The Zen master Takuan gives his interpretation of this principle in his book Immovable Wisdom, in which he uses the secrets of Zen to explain the secrets of swordsmanship to swordmaster Yagyu Munenori. It retells Takuan: Mencius's dog, cat and chickens, the mind like a cat on a leash, the lotus and the crystal ball, and the order of the two stages [5]. Both Japanese books are in the National Diet Library behind its transmission service (pids 1027727 and 1104139), and the precepts are Funakoshi's by every tradition that has them [1].

What is not a source. One tradition holds the precept was coined by Gichin Funakoshi. The words are Takuan's quotation of a Song line, in print from 1779, and the commentary Funakoshi approved explains the precept from Takuan.

The line and the precept in English

1959. D. T. Suzuki, Zen and Japanese Culture. Suzuki translates other parts of Takuan's text, The mind is not to be treated like a cat tied to a string, and gives Mencius's strayed mind in a note, but not Shao Yong's line [24].

1985. Hiroaki Sato, The Sword and the Mind. Nevertheless, a man by the name of Shao K'ang Chieh said, "You must release your mind." This is just the reverse [7].

1986. William Scott Wilson, The Unfettered Mind. But there is also a saying of Shao K'ang-chieh's that goes, "It is essential to lose the mind." This is quite different; his note: Rather than "lose," the verb here might be translated, "let go of" [4].

1995. John Stevens, Three Budo Masters, p. 82. Stevens's own numbered paraphrase of the twenty: 6, Let your mind roam freely. This was the advice Zen Master Takuan (1573-1645) gave to the swordsman Yagyu Munenori (1571-1646) [8].

1995. Randall G. Hassell, Karate Ideals. His precept, Kokoro wa hanatan koto wo yosu, or, "Always be ready to release your mind", in the Internet Archive's full-text snippet [9]. The same English, Always be ready to release, stands in a list of the twenty printed at the back of John van Weenen's Advanced Shotokan Karate Kata, a book first published in 1987, in a printing after 1990 [25].

2003. The Twenty Guiding Principles of Karate, by Gichin Funakoshi and Genwa Nakasone, translated by John Teramoto. The first English of the 1938 commentary. It heads this precept The mind must be set free, with Wilson's English of Takuan's line as its epigraph [5].

2013. Peter Haskel, Sword of Zen, p. 45. In contrast, Shao Kangjie says, "Let the mind go!" This is completely different, and at the close of the passage, when you arrive at ultimate mastery, that is Shao Kangjie's "Let the mind go!" [17].

Today. The two web lists give The heart must be set free and Be ready to free your mind [26][27].

A reading

The precept keeps the second half of a lesson. In Takuan, as in the Song book before him, the line stands against Mencius: seek the strayed mind back while you learn, and let it go once it no longer stops on things. Funakoshi's list keeps only the master's half, and states it as what the mind needs, 要す, where the 1779 print gives an order, 要せよ. The commentary Funakoshi approved puts the two stages back in their order, Mencius first and Shao Yong after. I read the precept as the half a student would not hear from the dōjō on their own: every teacher says bring the mind back, and the list is there to say that this is not the end. That is my reading; the sources do not say why the list took one line of the two.

References

  1. 「船越義珍」, § 松濤二十訓, Japanese Wikipedia, citing 仲宗根源和『空手道大觀』 (1938) 口絵写真. https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/船越義珍
  2. 「放つ」, デジタル大辞泉・精選版日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/放つ-603580
  3. 「要する」, デジタル大辞泉・精選版日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/要する-653129
  4. Takuan Sōhō, The Unfettered Mind: Writings of the Zen Master to the Sword Master, translated by William Scott Wilson, Kodansha International, Tokyo, 1986, pp. 37–38 and note 12, read on the house's shelf; the record at Open Library. https://openlibrary.org/works/OL5279781W
  5. Gichin Funakoshi and Genwa Nakasone, The Twenty Guiding Principles of Karate, translated by John Teramoto, Kodansha International, Tokyo, 2003, the preface and the chapter on the sixth principle, read on the house's shelf; the record at Open Library. https://openlibrary.org/works/OL19923775W
  6. 沢庵宗彭, 『澤庵遺稿 不動智』, 京都 伊豫屋佐右衛門, 1779 (安永8), the Berkeley copy (Mitsui collection), images 26 and 28, at the National Institute of Japanese Literature's 国書データベース. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100174968
  7. The Sword and the Mind, translated by Hiroaki Sato, The Overlook Press, 1985 (the copy read is a Barnes & Noble printing of 2004), pp. 119–121 and the note on Shao K'ang Chieh, read on the house's shelf; the record at Open Library. https://openlibrary.org/works/OL8564260W
  8. John Stevens, Three Budo Masters, Kodansha International, Tokyo, 1995, p. 82, read on the house's shelf; the record at the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/threebudomasters0000stev
  9. Randall G. Hassell, Karate Ideals, Focus Publications, St. Louis, 1995, snippet view, Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/karateideals0000hass
  10. 『孟子』, 告子上, at Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/孟子/告子上
  11. 「鶴林玉露」, デジタル大辞泉・精選版日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/鶴林玉露-43874
  12. 羅大經, 『鶴林玉露』, 丙編 卷一, at Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/鶴林玉露/丙編/卷一
  13. 邵雍, 『伊川擊壤集』 卷18 (演繹吟), with 『漁樵問對』 and 『皇極經世書』 (四庫全書本), at Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/伊川擊壤集
  14. Yagyū Munenori, The Life-Giving Sword, translated by William Scott Wilson, Kodansha International, 2003 (the copy read is Shambhala, 2012), the introduction, the section on Zhongfeng's saying and notes 63–65, read on the house's shelf; the 2012 printing at Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN9781590309902
  15. Wm. Theodore de Bary, Carol Gluck and Arthur E. Tiedemann, compilers, Sources of Japanese Tradition, vol. 2, second edition, Columbia University Press, New York, 2005, the headnote to Marvelous Power of Immovable Wisdom, read on the house's shelf; the record at the Internet Archive (a 2006 printing). https://archive.org/details/sourcesofjapanes0002unse_v5b1
  16. 「不動智神妙録」, 精選版日本国語大辞典・日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/不動智神妙録-374616
  17. Peter Haskel, Sword of Zen: Master Takuan and His Writings on Immovable Wisdom and the Sword Taie, University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, 2013, pp. x, 14–17 and 45, read on the house's shelf; the record at the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/swordofzenmaster0000hask
  18. 沢庵宗彭, 『不動智』, 浪華 藤屋善七・藤屋吉兵衛, 1791 (寛政3, a re-cut of the 1779 blocks), images 23 to 25, at the National Institute of Japanese Literature's 国書データベース. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100338175
  19. National Diet Library Digital Collections, full-text search for 心要放, 9 and 10 October 2026. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/search/searchResult?keyword=心要放
  20. 沢庵禅師 述, 松島剛 編, 『剣法不動智神妙録』, 1883, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/859951
  21. 田中仙樵, 『茶禅一味』, 光融館, 1905, pp. 201–202 and 230–233, scans 110, 111, 125 and 126, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/823364/1/110
  22. 空手研究社 編, 『空手研究』 第1輯, 興武館, December 1934 (the month from the library's catalogue record), snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1027727
  23. 仲宗根源和 編著, 『空手道大観』, 東京図書, 1938, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1104139
  24. Daisetz T. Suzuki, Zen and Japanese Culture, Pantheon, New York, 1959, pp. 106–108, read on the house's shelf; the record at the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.16794
  25. John van Weenen, Advanced Shotokan Karate Kata, Vine House, first published 1987 (the copy in the archive is a later printing), snippet view, Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/advancedshotokan0000john
  26. "Nijū kun", Wikipedia (English). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nijū_kun
  27. "The 20 Precepts of Karate", Chiltern Karate. https://www.chilternkarate.co.uk/about-karate/philosophy/20-precepts/

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.

Checked · Claude Sonnet (Anthropic), 2026-09-15, citations (an earlier version)

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 心は放たん事を要す (kokoro wa hanatan koto o yōsu)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/kokoro-wa-hanatan-koto-o-yosu.