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好雪片片不落別処 kōsetsu henpen bessho ni ochizu Fine Snow, Flake by Flake, Falls Nowhere Else

好雪片片不落別処, fine snow, flake by flake, falls nowhere else: a layman's word in the snow, from the Song kōan books to the tea room.

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Japanese Scroll of Fine Snow, Flake by Flake, Falls Nowhere Else (kōsetsu henpen bessho ni ochizu) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
Fine Snow, Flake by Flake, Falls Nowhere Else好雪片片不落別処kōsetsu henpen bessho ni ochizu

Original art by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

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Abstract

好雪片片不落別処 kōsetsu henpen bessho ni ochizu, fine snow, flake by flake, falls nowhere else, is what the Tang layman Pang Yun 龐蘊, Layman Pang 龐居士, said, by the Chan books, as he left the master Yaoshan 藥山 and pointed at the falling snow; a monk asked where it falls, and Pang slapped him [1][2]. The two oldest books with an entry on Pang, of 952 and 1004, read whole, do not have the story; the words are first found in Song China in the eleventh century, a phrase in a monk's mouth before 1072 and the whole story in the Blue Cliff Record 碧巌録 of 1125, where the commentator Yuanwu 圜悟 reads the snow as "the one color" and says, in the words of the master Yunmen, that this is not yet the whole [3][4][5][2][6]. In Japan it is spoken in Zen from the fourteenth century, it stands as no. 846 in the 1996 edition of the Zen phrase book, whose base manuscript its editors date to the end of the Muromachi period, a piece of it under the seal of a Daitokuji abbot was brought to be judged in 1619, and today it is a tea scroll for winter [7][8][9][10]. Two readings divide the line, each flake falling into its own place and none falling outside the one ground; this history signs the second, as Yuanwu bounds it.

Overview

The sense. kotobank has no page for 好雪 or for 好雪片片, and the local copy of JMdict queried has no entry for either [11][12]. In Japan it is a scroll for the winter tea room: a tea handbook of 1998 lists 好雪片片 among one month's tea things, beside other lines of snow and with the plum and the setsubun flower, the month itself illegible in the search window, and an issue of the journal 『禅文化』 of the same year sets 好雪片々不落別處, with a picture of a white hare, under the second half of January in a table of the heads of Zen lines and their scrolls; the window does not settle whose it is [10][13]. The handbook of tea scrolls by Haga Kōshirō 芳賀幸四郎 (1908–1996), of 1973, gives the plain sense first, 降るワイ降るワイ、見事な雪じゃ。しかし、どの雪片もみな余処へは落ちず、落ちるべき処に落ちてるワイ, how it snows, how it snows: fine snow! and not a flake falls anywhere else; each falls where it should fall, and then a deeper one: high mountains and low fields, a rich man's hall and a poor man's hut, all covered in one white, as if the bodhisattva Fugen 普賢 had appeared there [14][15]. A guide to Zen calligraphy of 2000 gives it as みごとな雪だ、ひとひらひとひらが別のところに落ちない, a fine snow: flake by flake, it does not fall in another place [16].

The words. 好 is fine, lovely, said in delight: Iriya Yoshitaka 入矢義高 (1910–1998), the scholar of the spoken Chinese of the Chan records, reads 好雪 as an exclamation, fine snow! [17][18]. 片片 is flake after flake: デジタル大辞泉 enters へんぺん【片片】 as きれぎれになっているさま。また、その一片が軽くひるがえるさま, in pieces; also, of each piece, fluttering lightly, and JMdict, the free Japanese–English dictionary, glosses 片々 in pieces; in flakes; fluttering [19][12]. 不落 is does not fall, and 別處 another place: 精選版 日本国語大辞典 enters べっしょ【別所・別処】 as 別のところ。他の場所, a different place, another place, and JMdict glosses 別所・別処 separate place; another place [20][12]. The line says only that the snow falls in no other place. Where it does fall is the monk's question.

The reading. Kōsetsu henpen bessho ni ochizu, 好雪片片別処に落ちず, is the reading of the Japanese 漢文 tradition. It is printed 好雪片々、別處に落ちず from 1898 [21][22], and the phrase book's print of 1688 marks 別處ニ beside the characters and sets its break after 片片 [23]. Iriya sets the break after 好雪 instead, 好雪、片片別処に落ちず, and the 1996 edition of the phrase book prints it his way [17][8]. Read aloud, the two are the same.

The historical record

The layman and the snow

Layman Pang. Pang Yun was a layman of Hengzhou who studied under the masters Shitou 石頭 and Mazu 馬祖 and never became a monk; the encyclopedia at kotobank has him die in 815, Sasaki puts his death on August 3, 808, and Ōhashi gives ?–808 [1][24][25]. The two oldest books with an entry on him, the Zutang ji 祖堂集 of 952 and the Jingde chuandeng lu 景德傳燈錄 of 1004, tell of his questions to the masters and of his death, and neither has Yaoshan or the snow [3][26][4][27].

The record of his sayings. The Pang jushi yulu 龐居士語錄, the record of his sayings, carries the byline of the military governor Yu Di 于頔, who by tradition compiled it [28][1]. Its oldest surviving print is a Ming edition of 1637, held in Tokyo; the Song editions are lost [24][25]. A Japanese hand copy made in 1486 at the Sōtō temple Daitōin 大洞院 copies a postscript dated 1221 from a Chinese temple, and Ōhashi Takahiro 大橋崇弘 sets out to consider whether it keeps the form of the lost Song editions, finding no proof that it does (確証は得られていない); whether it has the snow story is not shown in his paper, which studies the verses [25]. So the story's place in the record is known from its oldest surviving print, of 1637, and the book's Tang byline is not evidence of its date.

The story. In the record it runs:

居士因辭藥山，山命十禪客相送至門首，士乃指空中雪曰：「好雪片片，不落別處。」有全禪客曰：「落在甚處？」士遂與一掌，全曰：「也不得草草。」士曰：「恁麼稱禪客，閻羅老子未放你在。」全曰：「居士作麼生？」士又掌曰：「眼見如盲，口說如瘂。」

The layman took leave of Yaoshan, and Yaoshan had ten Chan monks see him to the gate. Pointing at the snow in the air, the layman said, "Fine snow, flake by flake: it falls nowhere else." A monk named Quan said, "Where does it fall?" The layman slapped him. Quan said, "Don't be so rough." The layman said, "You call yourself a Chan monk, like that? Old King Yama will not let you go yet." Quan said, "And what about you, layman?" The layman slapped him again and said, "Your eyes see as if blind; your mouth speaks as if dumb" [28]. The punctuation in this and the other Chinese texts quoted from the online canon is its modern editors', not the old prints'.

The Song books

Before 1052, Xuedou. Xuedou Chongxian 雪竇重顯 (980–1052) chose the story for his hundred cases with verses, and added a word of his own, a different answer from the monk Quan's: 初問處但握雪團便打, at the first question, just grab a snowball and hit him. Yuanwu makes plain whom it hits: 雪竇要在居士頭上行 … 當時若握雪團打時。居士縱有如何機關。亦難搆得, Xuedou means to get above the layman … had one hit him with a snowball then, whatever the layman's workings, he would have been hard put to meet it; and he gives a monk Qing's objection that Pang was too quick for it, 等爾握雪團。到幾時, wait for you to grab a snowball, and how long would that be? His verse begins 雪團打，雪團打，龐老機關沒可把, snowball, hit! snowball, hit! Old Pang's workings give you nothing to take hold of [29][2][6]. His own recorded sayings, searched in all six books, do not carry the case; the verse and the word are known from the books that took them in [30][31][2].

Before 1072, a phrase at Haihui. In the recorded sayings of Baiyun Shouduan 白雲守端 (1025–1072), in a sermon in the book of his sayings at the temple Haihui on White Cloud Mountain, 舒州白雲山海會禪院語錄, where he died, a monk asks: 大地雪漫漫，相逢盡道寒，為什麼過這裏不得？, the whole earth is deep in snow, everyone you meet says it is cold: why can't one get past here? To the master's answer the monk says 恁麼則片片不落別處, then flake by flake it falls nowhere else [5][32][33]. Pang and Yaoshan are not named. The second half of the line was already a phrase a monk could use in the snow, and this is the oldest dated use of the words known among the sources read here.

About 1100 and 1125, the case in the books. The Zongmen tongyao 宗門統要, compiled about 1100 by a later preface's mention of 元符之筆, the Yuanfu years 1098–1100, re-cut in 1133 after its first blocks were lost and read here in the edition of 1320, tells the case whole and gives Xuedou's word after it [31][34]. The Blue Cliff Record, the commentary of Yuanwu Keqin 圜悟克勤 (1063–1135) on Xuedou's hundred cases and verses, completed in 1125, makes it case 42, 龐居士好雪片片; its oldest surviving print is of 1300 [2][35][36]. The Liandeng huiyao 聯燈會要, whose compiler's note is dated 1183, tells it as the record of Pang's sayings does [37].

Yuanwu's reading. On Pang's words Yuanwu's note is short: 無風起浪。指頭有眼。這老漢言中有響, raising waves without a wind; his finger has eyes; the old man's words have an echo [2]. On Xuedou's verse he says what the snow is there to show:

古人以雪明一色邊事 …… 眼裏也是雪。耳裏也是雪。正住在一色邊。亦謂之普賢境界一色邊事。亦謂之打成一片。雲門道。直得盡乾坤大地無纖毫過患。猶為轉句。不見一色。始是半提。若要全提。須知有向上一路始得。

The ancients used snow to make plain the matter of the one color … In the eyes it is snow; in the ears it is snow: this is dwelling right in the one color. It is also called the realm of Samantabhadra, the matter of the one color; it is also called being beaten into one piece. Yunmen said, "Even the whole universe without a hair's fault is still a turning phrase. Not to see the one color is only half of it held up." To hold up the whole, you must know there is a road that goes beyond [6]. The half is Yunmen's, quoted: his recorded sayings have 直得乾坤大地無纖毫過患，猶是轉句，不見一色始是半提；直得如此，更須知有全提時節 [6]. Thomas and J. C. Cleary render the one color Uniformity and the last sentences When you don't see a single form, this finally is half the issue. If you want the whole issue, first you must know that there is a single road going beyond [38]. This is the oldest reading of the case's snow known among the sources read here: the snow is the one color, nothing outside it; and Yuanwu, in Yunmen's words, says in the same breath that this is not the end.

A Song teasing. Huanxi Weiyi 環溪惟一, whose recorded sayings carry a preface dated 癸未, which the book's dated entries put at 1283, sets the case and answers it with a verse: 龐公幸是一家人，藥嶠何須禮過勤。只為禮繁偏致亂，那堪雪也落紛紛, Pang was family, after all; why did Yaoshan overdo the courtesy? Too much courtesy breeds confusion, and the snow, on top of it, falling every which way [39][40]. The verse turns falls nowhere else on its head.

At the court's prayer for snow, Xutang. Xutang Zhiyu 虛堂智愚 (1185–1269), whose line passed to Japan through his heir Nanpo Shōmyō 南浦紹明 [41], speaks the line at a rite, without naming Pang: 朝廷祈雪上堂。師云。好雪片片不落別處。有僧出厲聲云。落在甚麼處。師云。莫作楊花柳絮飛, a sermon at the court's prayer for snow. The master said, "Fine snow, flake by flake, falls nowhere else." A monk came forward and asked in a loud voice, "Where does it fall?" The master said, "Don't take it for willow catkins flying" [42][43].

Into Japan

1248, Dōgen. Dōgen 道元 (1200–1253), in a sermon on the day of the Buddha's awakening in 1248, opens with Xuedou's verse on the case, in Leighton and Okumura's translation The snowball hits! The snowball hits! It hits the cold plum so that it blossoms in the snow [44][45]. The case was known in Japan by then.

1313, a Japanese print of Xutang. The recorded sayings of Xutang were cut at Ryūshō 龍翔 in 正和癸丑, 1313, by the colophon at the leaf, which says the book had not yet been printed 本朝, in this country, and names the donors who paid for the blocks, and the sermon at the prayer for snow is in it [42]. In the copy read, a reader has marked the text in red, and the marks set no break between 片片 and 不: he read 好雪片片不落別處 as one clause.

Before 1337, Daitō. Shūhō Myōchō 宗峰妙超, the National Master Daitō 大燈 (1282–1337 in two of the dictionaries; 1283–1338 in two that convert his twelfth-month dates), founder of the temple Daitokuji [46], is asked about the case at the ceremony of his first sermon as its abbot, on the eighth day of the twelfth month of 嘉暦 1, the day of the Buddha's awakening: a monk takes him through it line by line, 龐居士辭藥山。居士指空中雪云。好雪片片不落別處。意旨如何, Layman Pang took leave of Yaoshan; the layman pointed at the snow in the air and said, "Fine snow, flake by flake, falls nowhere else." What does it mean?, and then through the slap, Quan's protest and Xutang's comment on it, and Daitō answers each in a phrase of his own [7][47].

Before 1407, Kūkoku. Kūkoku Myōō 空谷明應 (1328–1407), in an undated sermon on the day after the winter solstice (至節小參, then 次日上堂), sets the line before his assembly as the question of the day: 好雪片片。不落別處。明白裏頭。試進一歩, "fine snow, flake by flake, falls nowhere else": in the clear, try one step further [48][49].

Ikkyū. Ikkyū Sōjun 一休宗純 (1394–1481) has a poem on the case, 雪団 Snowball, which Sonja Arntzen translates: Heaven and earth buried, the gates and barriers gone. / Pile the snow up and now it is the Himalayas. / When the crazy vagabond comes; it turns to powder. / The Great Chiliocosm arises and disappears in the space of a moment; her note renders Pang's line Lovely snow, flake by flake, it falls yet does not land in separate places [50][51].

The phrase book. The Kuzōshi 句双紙, the Zen phrase book, has the line as no. 846 in its edition of 1996, whose base text is a manuscript in the Hōsa Library 蓬左文庫 that its editors date to the end of the Muromachi period, once in the library of Tokugawa Ieyasu [8]. The enlarged print of 1688, the Zenrin kushū 禅林句集, enters it among the lines of eight characters as 好雪片〻、不落別處, with its sources in small characters, 龐居士語彔上二丁 碧四十二, the record of Pang's sayings and case 42 of the Blue Cliff Record; the leaf read is a later pull from the blocks of 1688 [23].

1619, a scroll of the line. On the tenth day of the first month of 元和 5, 1619, a piece of calligraphy reading 好雪片々、不落別處, sealed 宗朝, was shown, by way of a senior monk, from Fujiya Shōmu 富士屋紹無 of Nakadachiuri in Kyoto, with word that it might be Tōkai's: Tōkai Sōchō 東海宗朝, who entered Daitokuji as its abbot by imperial order in 1508 and died in 1518, at sixty-four. The answer, which the 大日本史料 of 1953 prints from the 墨蹟之寫 under a head note giving it as the appraisal of Kōgetsu Sōgan 江月宗玩 (1574–1643) of Daitokuji, 宗玩ノ鑑定: 宗朝ノ印アリ、東海ノ手跡ニハ惡候ヘ共、似テ書タルトハ不見候、慥ニ不存候, it has Sōchō's seal; for Tōkai's hand it is poor, but it does not look written in imitation; I do not know for certain [9][52][53]. By 1619, then, by the one dated record of it read here, the line was in circulation as calligraphy in Kyoto under the name of a Daitokuji abbot, and the appraisal left the name open.

Hakuin. Hakuin Ekaku 白隠慧鶴 (1686–1769), in his commentary on Daitō's recorded sayings, the 槐安國語, twice sets the line beside Daitō's text as his own capping word [54]. On Daitō's 瑞雪滿地, auspicious snow covers the ground, he writes 陰陽不到處。一片好風光。好雪片片不落別處, where yin and yang do not reach, one stretch of fine scenery: fine snow, flake by flake, falls nowhere else [55]. On Daitō's question whether the flowers a god rained down and the flowers the retired emperor sent him are the same or different, he writes 好雪片片不落別處。不風流處也風流, fine snow, flake by flake, falls nowhere else: where there is no elegance, there too is elegance [56]. Daitō's own record has neither line [57][58].

1882, Tesshū. Yamaoka Tesshū 山岡鉄舟 (1836–1888), the swordsman, ends his account of how he reached the state of no enemy with the line: 自己なけれは敵なし此理を眞に悟れは上手下手强弱大人小兒の別は唯の一點もなし是卽好雪片々不落別處と云妙處也, where there is no self, there is no enemy; truly awake to this, between skilled and clumsy, strong and weak, grown man and child there is not one point of difference: this is the marvelous place called 好雪片々不落別處 [59][60]. A collection of lectures of 1942 dates the account 8 January 1882, as Stevens does [61][62].

The reading divided

One ground. Yuanwu's reading, the snow as the one color, runs on in Japan. The Edo commentary on the Blue Cliff Record called the 種電鈔, in a Japanese translation of 1914, says of Xuedou's verse 好雪ノ落處ヲ頌ス、此乃一色邊打成一片ノ處, it sings of where the fine snow falls: this is the one color, all beaten into one piece [63]. A commentary by 東流 (1779–1853) on the verses of the Sōtō master Daichi 大智, printed in 1883, glosses the line 好雪片片別處ニ落ズ實ニ繊毫ノ過患ナイ大地一色, falls nowhere else: truly, not a hair's fault, the whole earth one color, in the words of Yunmen that Yuanwu quotes [64][6]. The 正法眼蔵聞解, a commentary on Dōgen's 正法眼蔵 by 瑞方 (1683–1769) by the library's record, printed in 1890–91, writes 好雪片々不落別處茶裡飯裏不向別處皆外レタコト無シ, in the tea and in the rice, nothing goes elsewhere; nothing is ever off the mark [65]. Tesshū's not one point of difference is this reading [59]. So are R. D. M. Shaw's English of 1961, Each is separate but they do not fall in separate places, Sekida Katsuki's comment of 1977, Heaven and earth became one, and a book of 1977 on archery and Zen: 雪は一つ一つ別々に降ってくるが、実は別々のところに落ちるのではない, the snow comes down flake by flake, separately, but in truth it does not fall in separate places [66][67][68].

Each in its own place. The other reading has each flake land exactly where it should. Suzuki Daisetsu 鈴木大拙, recalling in 1964 a lecture on the Blue Cliff Record from his early years, gives the line as Fine snow falling flake by flake. Each flake falls in its own proper place [69]. Iriya glossed it, in words a memorial volume of 2000 quotes from him: 「別処に落ちず」とは、片一片がピタリピタリと、落ちるべき位置に落ちることをいう。……居士はこの時、雪のすべての一片一片がまさに落着すべきところへ無心に落着してゆく、あたかも意あってそうしているかと見えるほどの見事さに心打たれたのであり, "falls nowhere else" means that each flake falls, just so, just so, into the place where it ought to fall. … What moved the layman was how beautifully every flake settled, without a thought, exactly where it was to settle, as if it meant to [70]. In the window the gloss runs on to 満地の白雪や白一色, the white snow over the whole ground, the one white, and stops there, so whether Iriya sets the one white beside his reading or against it cannot be read [70]. Haga's plain sense is this reading, and he gives the one white of Fugen after it, so his book holds both [14].

Iriya's parse. Iriya also reparsed the line. His note: 従来この句を「好雪片片、……」と読むのは誤り。『碧巌録』四十二則に「龐居士好雪片片」と標題していることに牽かれた誤りであろう。「好雪!」は感嘆の語。「好雪片片」では感嘆句にならない, the usual reading, 好雪片片 and then the rest, is wrong; it is probably led astray by the case's title in the Blue Cliff Record, 龐居士好雪片片. 好雪! is an exclamation; 好雪片片 cannot be one [17]. The English of Pang's record that he made with Ruth Fuller Sasaki and Dana Fraser already reads "Lovely snow! Flake after flake does not fall another place" in 1971 [24]. The 1996 edition of the phrase book and Victor Sōgen Hori's English phrase book of 2003 follow him, Hori, citing the 1996 edition, noting that kōsetsu is an exclamation [8][71]. The older Japanese witnesses read it otherwise: the reader of the 1313 print with no break, the phrase book of 1688 with its break after 片片 [42][23].

The line in English

1961, Shaw. R. D. M. Shaw's The Blue Cliff Records, known here only from the Internet Archive's search of the book: Ho Koji's 'Beautiful Snowflakes' … Lovely are these snowflakes. Each is separate but they do not fall in separate places, and in his comment a world of beauty, not a number of little flakes of snow [66]. The earliest English of the case known among the books read here.

1964, Suzuki. Fine snow falling flake by flake. Each flake falls in its own proper place [69].

1965, Miura and Sasaki. Among the eight-character phrases: Kosetsu hempen, bessho ni ochizu. / Lovely snowflakes, they fall nowhere else! [72]. Their romaji is quoted as printed.

1971, Sasaki, Iriya and Fraser. "Lovely snow! Flake after flake does not fall another place" [24].

1977, the Clearys and Sekida. The Clearys: "Good snowflakes—they don't fall in any other place." [38]. Sekida: "Beautiful snowflakes, one by one; but they fall nowhere else," with the note Heaven and earth became one [67].

1981 to 2024. Shigematsu Sōiku: Good snowflakes . . . / . . . fall . . . / Nowhere / else [73]. Stevens, translating Tesshū in 1984 (revised 1989): "Lovely snowflakes falling one by one nowhere else"—a marvelous place [62]. Arntzen, 1986: Lovely snow, flake by flake, it falls yet does not land in separate places [50]. Hori, 2003: Beautiful snow! Flake after flake, they fall in no other place [71]. David Hinton, 2024, under the case title Shelter-Dragon Layman's Wondrous Snow: "This wondrous snow, flake after flurried flake: it isn't falling anywhere else!" [74].

Today. JMdict has no entry for the line [12]. Takase Studios gives it as Fine snow, flake by flake, falls nowhere else, which keeps the two halves, the delight and the statement, and leaves where the snow falls to the reader, as the line does.

What is not a source

The story is not in any Tang text found: the two oldest books on Pang do not have it, and the record of his sayings that does survives in print from 1637, its oldest surviving print [3][4][24]. The case puts the words in Pang's mouth: they are not Xuedou's, who set the case [2], nor Xutang's, who used them [42], and a monk used half of them before 1072 [5]. Stevens's note gives the line as from the forty-fourth case of the Blue Cliff Record; it is the forty-second [62][2].

A reading

What is settled. The story is told of Layman Pang in the Song books read here from about 1100, and Xuedou's verse on it is older, before 1052; a phrase of it was in use before 1072 [31][2][5]; it is case 42 of the Blue Cliff Record of 1125 [2]; it was spoken in Japanese Zen from the fourteenth century, it stands in the 1996 edition of the phrase book, whose base manuscript its editors date to the end of the Muromachi period, and a piece of it was in circulation as calligraphy by 1619 [7][47][48][8][9]. What is not settled is whether Pang said it, which nothing older than the Song books can show, and what nowhere else means, which divides the readers.

The reading I sign: the snow falls here, on everything alike, and nowhere else. The Chinese says only that the snow does not fall in another place [20]. It does not say its proper place; that gloss of order is first met, among the sources read here, in the twentieth century, among them Suzuki and Iriya [69][70]. The oldest reading known here, Yuanwu's on the case, is the one color, snow in the eyes and snow in the ears and nothing outside it [6]; Hakuin set the line against a question of same or different, and Tesshū found in it no difference between strong and weak [56][59]. I read with them. And I keep beside it the warning Yuanwu takes from Yunmen, because the case keeps it too: when the monk asks where does it fall?, the answer is not a doctrine but a slap that lands on his face, and Xuedou would have hit Pang with a snowball at the first question [28][2]. Here is said by an act, not by a definition. With Iriya I take 好雪 as a cry of delight, as the record of Pang's sayings sets it; the reading does not depend on it [17].

Beside it. Iriya's reading is the other one the discipline holds, and the one Haga's handbook of tea scrolls (1973) gives first: each flake, without a thought, settling exactly where it was to settle, as if it meant to [70][14]. It is a beautiful reading, and Haga holds it together with the one white [14].

What the line is. A layman's word at a gate in the snow, made into a kōan by Song China, into a capping phrase by Japanese Zen, and into a scroll for the winter tea room.

Notes

The Gozan print of Xutang's sayings is read at its leaf, where the text layer reads 属聲 and the leaf 厲聲, as the Taishō also prints it [42][43].

Ōhashi's paper gives the year of the 1486 hand copy as 一四八六 on its first page and 一四六八 on its second; 文明 18, the era date it quotes, is 1486 [25].

ニッポニカ dates Xuedou 980–1054 in its entry on the Blue Cliff Record and 980–1052 in its entry on him; this history follows his own entry [29][36].

The punctuation of the Chinese texts quoted from CBETA is that edition's own. One of the Song collections, the Wudeng huiyuan 五燈會元 of 1252, is punctuated there 好雪。片片不落別處, Iriya's parse; that is its modern editors' choice and is not evidence for the old text.

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Japanese Scrolls by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

Japanese Scroll of Fine Snow, Flake by Flake, Falls Nowhere Else (kōsetsu henpen bessho ni ochizu) in a block font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
好雪片片不落別処VB5JBlock
Japanese Scroll of Fine Snow, Flake by Flake, Falls Nowhere Else (kōsetsu henpen bessho ni ochizu) in a cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
好雪片片不落別処VC5JCursive
Japanese Scroll of Fine Snow, Flake by Flake, Falls Nowhere Else (kōsetsu henpen bessho ni ochizu) in Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase's own style (Eri's Choice)
好雪片片不落別処VD5JEri's Choice
Japanese Scroll of Fine Snow, Flake by Flake, Falls Nowhere Else (kōsetsu henpen bessho ni ochizu) in a semi-cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
好雪片片不落別処VS5JSemi-Cursive

Sources not seen

衣川賢次, 「龐居士曰く、好雪! 片片別処に落ちず」, 『禅文化』 252, 2019, p. 86, its record at CiNii Research (https://cir.nii.ac.jp/crid/1520010379894124672): a study whose title takes Iriya's parse; no open copy.

西村惠信, 「『碧巌録』ア・ラ・カルト(12) 第四十二則 龐居士の好雪片々」, 『大法輪』 76 (5), 2009, p. 38, its record at CiNii Research (https://cir.nii.ac.jp/crid/1521136280488488832): no open copy.

竹内尚次, 『江月宗玩墨蹟之写(禅林墨蹟鑑定日録)の研究』, 国書刊行会, 1976, National Diet Library (readable only at the library): the study of Kōgetsu's register, which would give the 1619 entry from the manuscript itself [53].

The hand copy of the record of Pang's sayings at 西明寺 (1486), which Ōhashi describes: whether it carries the snow story [25].

石川力山, 「『龐居士詩』と龐居士」, 『駒澤大學禪研究所年報』 2, 1991, pp. 115–127, its record at CiNii Research (https://cir.nii.ac.jp/crid/1390584729936799488): by its title, on the collection of Pang's verses and the layman; an open copy is listed at the Komazawa University repository, which was closed for maintenance (since 28 October 2026) when this history was checked.

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

References

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  2. 『佛果圜悟禪師碧巖錄』, 卷5, 第四十二則 (the case, Yuanwu's notes and his comment), Taishō vol. 48 no. 2003, p. 179b17–c24, at CBETA. https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/T48n2003_p0179b17
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  9. 東京大学史料編纂所 編, 『大日本史料』 第9編之8, 1953, 永正15年11月20日 条 (東海宗朝), pp. 272–274, quoting 〔墨蹟之寫〕 元和5年 entry 15, scans 151–152, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/3450618/1/152
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  11. kotobank, searched for 好雪 and 好雪片片: no entry. https://kotobank.jp/
  12. JMdict, entries 1680970 (片々・片片) and 2862440 (別所・別処), in the local copy of the dictionary used by gokanji.com; no entry for 好雪 or for the line.
  13. 『禅文化』, 1998-10, a table of the heads of Zen lines and their scrolls, 好雪片々不落別處 under 後半1月, as shown in the National Diet Library's full-text search (the item is readable only in Japan; its page was not seen). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/6082366
  14. 芳賀幸四郎, 『禅語の茶掛 一行物』, 淡交社, 1973, 好雪片々不落別処, as shown in the National Diet Library's full-text search (the item is readable only in Japan; its page was not seen). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/12439535
  15. 「芳賀幸四郎」, 20世紀日本人名事典 and デジタル版 日本人名大辞典+Plus, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E8%8A%B3%E8%B3%80%E5%B9%B8%E5%9B%9B%E9%83%8E-1100585
  16. 寺山旦中・角井博, 『墨跡の鑑賞基礎知識』, 2000, as shown in the National Diet Library's full-text search (the item is readable only at the library; its page was not seen). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/14170159
  17. 入矢義高, 『龐居士語録』 (禅の語録 7), 筑摩書房, 1973, 〔二〕 見事な雪 and its note, as shown in the National Diet Library's full-text search (the item is readable only at the library; its page was not seen). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/12271139
  18. 「入矢義高」, 20世紀日本人名事典 and デジタル版 日本人名大辞典+Plus, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%85%A5%E7%9F%A2%E7%BE%A9%E9%AB%98-1056572
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  20. 「別所」 (別所・別処), デジタル大辞泉 and 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%88%A5%E6%89%80-625068
  21. 佐藤宏, 『支那新論』, 八尾商店, 1898, p. 101, scan 66, left page, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/783155/1/66
  22. 『禅宗』, 15 January 1898, as shown in the National Diet Library's full-text search (the item is readable only in Japan; its page was not seen). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/11006024
  23. 東陽英朝 編 (by the item record), 『増補 禅林句集』 (内題 句双紙尋覓), 京都 貝葉書院, a later printing from the blocks of 貞享5 (1688) by the item record, vol. 2, scan 60, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/3441969/1/60
  24. Ruth Fuller Sasaki, Yoshitaka Iriya and Dana R. Fraser, The Recorded Sayings of Layman P'ang: A Ninth-Century Zen Classic, Weatherhill, New York, 1971, p. 28 (Pang's death; the editions) and p. 48 (the case); read in the library's copy of the book.
  25. 大橋崇弘, 「西明寺蔵『龐居士語録』の詩偈について」, 『印度學佛教學研究』 63 (2), 2015, pp. 802–803, at J-STAGE. https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/ibk/63/2/63_KJ00009870708/_pdf
  26. 「祖堂集」, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%A5%96%E5%A0%82%E9%9B%86-1181279
  27. 「景徳伝灯録」, デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%99%AF%E5%BE%B3%E4%BC%9D%E7%81%AF%E9%8C%B2-489122
  28. 『龐居士語錄』, 卷上, Xuzangjing vol. 69 no. 1336, p. 131b08–13 (the byline 節度使 于頔 編集 at p. 131a08), at CBETA. https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/X69n1336_p0131b08
  29. 「雪竇重顕」, 日本大百科全書, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%9B%AA%E7%AB%87%E9%87%8D%E9%A1%95-87371
  30. 『明覺禪師語錄』, 卷1–6, Taishō vol. 47 no. 1996, searched whole: Pang is named only at 卷3, p. 688a20, in another case; at CBETA. https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/T47n1996_p0688a20
  31. 宗永 集, 『宗門統要』 (正續集), 卷4, 永樂北藏 vol. 154 no. 1519, pp. 633b06–634a01, at CBETA. https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/P154n1519_p0633b06
  32. 王孜's preface to 『白雲守端禪師廣錄』 (余以師終海會), Xuzangjing vol. 69 no. 1352, p. 303c17, at CBETA. https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/X69n1352_p0303c17
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  34. the prefaces to 『宗門統要』: 希陵, 延祐庚申 (1320), p. 463b03; 耿延禧, 紹興三年 (1133), p. 465b02; 馮子振 (元符之筆), p. 466a07; 永樂北藏 vol. 154 no. 1519, at CBETA. https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/P154n1519_p0465b02
  35. 「圜悟克勤」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and 日本大百科全書, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%9C%9C%E6%82%9F%E5%85%8B%E5%8B%A4-38117
  36. 「碧巌録」, デジタル大辞泉, 日本大百科全書 (永井政之) and 改訂新版 世界大百科事典 (柳田聖山), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%A2%A7%E5%B7%8C%E9%8C%B2-129179
  37. 悟明 集, 『聯燈會要』, 卷6, Xuzangjing vol. 79 no. 1557, p. 56a14–17, and 悟明's note dated 淳熈十年 (1183), p. 11c23; at CBETA. https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/X79n1557_p0056a14
  38. Thomas Cleary and J. C. Cleary, The Blue Cliff Record, translation © 1977, read in the first paperback edition, Shambhala, Boston and London, 2005, case 42, pp. 253–257 (by its table of contents and running heads); read in the library's copy of the book.
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  40. 章鑑's preface to 『環溪惟一禪師語錄』 (歲在癸未浴佛日), Xuzangjing vol. 70 no. 1388, p. 365c16–17, at CBETA. https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/X70n1388_p0365c16
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  42. 『虚堂和尚語録』, 五山版, 正和2 (1313) by the item record and the colophon (scan 82), 朝廷祈雪上堂 at scan 49, right leaf, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2543546/1/49
  43. 『虛堂和尚語錄』, Taishō vol. 47 no. 2000, p. 1055a09, at CBETA. https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/T47n2000_p1055a09
  44. Taigen Dan Leighton and Shohaku Okumura, Dōgen's Extensive Record: A Translation of the Eihei Kōroku, Wisdom, Boston, 2010, p. 279, discourse 297 (1248) and note 81; read in the library's copy of the book.
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  47. 『大燈國師語録』, 卷上, the 開堂 of 嘉暦元年十二月八日 (p. 191a06), a monk's 吾佛成道 (p. 191b01), and the exchange on the case, Taishō vol. 81 no. 2566, p. 191b16–20, at the SAT Daizōkyō Text Database. https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/T2566_.81.0191b16:0191b20.cit
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  50. Sonja Arntzen, Ikkyū and the Crazy Cloud Anthology: A Zen Poet of Medieval Japan, University of Tokyo Press, 1986, p. 98, poem 79, 雪団, and its note; read in the library's copy of the book.
  51. 「一休宗純」, デジタル大辞泉 and 日本大百科全書, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%B8%80%E4%BC%91%E5%AE%97%E7%B4%94-15378
  52. 「江月宗玩」, デジタル大辞泉, 日本大百科全書 and 改訂新版 世界大百科事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%B1%9F%E6%9C%88%E5%AE%97%E7%8E%A9-494967
  53. 竹内尚次, 『江月宗玩墨蹟之写(禅林墨蹟鑑定日録)の研究』, 国書刊行会, 1976, its record at the National Diet Library (readable only at the library). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/14283426
  54. 「白隠慧鶴」, デジタル大辞泉 and デジタル版 日本人名大辞典+Plus, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%99%BD%E9%9A%A0%E6%85%A7%E9%B6%B4-14618
  55. 白隠, 『槐安國語』, Taishō vol. 81 no. 2574, p. 545a18–19, at the SAT Daizōkyō Text Database. https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/T2574_.81.0545a18:0545a19.cit
  56. 白隠, 『槐安國語』, Taishō vol. 81 no. 2574, p. 552c17–20, at the SAT Daizōkyō Text Database. https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/T2574_.81.0552c17:0552c20.cit
  57. 『大燈國師語録』, Taishō vol. 81 no. 2566, p. 212c11 (瑞雪滿地), at the SAT Daizōkyō Text Database. https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/T2566_.81.0212c11:0212c11.cit
  58. 『大燈國師語録』, Taishō vol. 81 no. 2566, p. 217c08–09 (帝釋雨花), at the SAT Daizōkyō Text Database. https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/T2566_.81.0217c08:0217c09.cit
  59. 山岡鉄舟, 「無敵の境」 (山岡鐵舟高歩述), in 『五典』, 菊水文庫, 1943, scan 23, left page, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1125949/1/23
  60. 「山岡鉄舟」, デジタル大辞泉, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and 日本大百科全書, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%B1%B1%E5%B2%A1%E9%89%84%E8%88%9F-22058
  61. 『日本諸学講演集』, 1942 (明治十五年一月八日), as shown in the National Diet Library's full-text search (the item is readable only in Japan; its page was not seen). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1123197
  62. John Stevens, The Sword of No-Sword: Life of the Master Warrior Tesshu, © 1984, revisions © 1989, Shambhala, Boston and London, 1994, p. 129, "The State of No Enemy", and its note 10; read in the library's copy of the book.
  63. 『碧巌録種電鈔 : 和訳』, 1914, on case 42, as shown in the National Diet Library's full-text search (the item is readable only in Japan; its page was not seen). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1183186
  64. 東流 述, 山腰天鏡 訂, 『大智禅師偈頌弁解』, 競錦堂, 1883, scan 85, the last column of the right page into the left, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/823350/1/85
  65. 瑞方 著, 折居光輪 校, 『正法眼蔵聞解』, 1890–91, 三界唯心, p. 62, scan 37, right page, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/823128/1/37
  66. R. D. M. Shaw, The Blue Cliff Records: The Hekigan Roku, Michael Joseph, London, 1961, Model Subject No. 42, as shown in the Internet Archive's full-text search (the book is lent, not open; its page was not seen). https://archive.org/details/bluecliffrecords0000yuan
  67. Katsuki Sekida, Two Zen Classics: Mumonkan and Hekiganroku, Weatherhill, New York, 1977, case 42, pp. 262 (the translation) and 264 (the comment); read in the library's copy of the book.
  68. 中西政次, 『弓と禅』, 1977, as shown in the National Diet Library's full-text search (the item is readable only in Japan; its page was not seen). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/13134277
  69. D. T. Suzuki, "Early Memories" (written 1964), in The Field of Zen, Perennial Library, 1970, as shown in the Internet Archive's full-text search (the book is lent, not open; its page was not seen). https://archive.org/details/fieldofzencontri0000dais
  70. 『入矢義高先生追悼文集』, 2000, as shown in the National Diet Library's full-text search (the item is readable only at the library; its page was not seen). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/14088848
  71. Victor Sōgen Hori, Zen Sand: The Book of Capping Phrases for Kōan Practice, University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, 2003, p. 329, 8.140; read in the library's copy of the book.
  72. Isshū Miura and Ruth Fuller Sasaki, The Zen Koan: Its History and Use in Rinzai Zen, Harcourt, Brace & World, New York, 1965, p. 113, no. 173; read in the library's copy of the book.
  73. Sōiku Shigematsu, A Zen Forest: Sayings of the Masters, Weatherhill, New York, 1981, p. 60, no. 354; read in the library's copy of the book.
  74. David Hinton, The Blue Cliff Record, Shambhala, 2024, case 42; read in the library's copy of the book (an EPUB, without page numbers).

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 · Takase Studios (an address check by script), 2026-10-30, citations — every reference with a web address opened where a script could open it and the quoted words looked for at each; the three rows it could not settle were opened at the source and judged by eye, and three corrections made: Arntzen's snowball poem is no. 79, Sekida's translation is on p. 262, and the 1688 phrase book's source note reads 語彔; the items readable only in Japan or at the National Diet Library could be read only in its search windows, and the history says so · two fresh-context readers (Claude), 2026-10-30, every claim in the page's summary block traced to its source, claim by claim, in three rounds: the first failed on two facts, both corrected (Xuedou's snowball is aimed at Pang, not Pang's own answer; a 1998 tea handbook's month is illegible, so the line is not said to be January's); the second failed on one, corrected (in Yuanwu's comment the words of Yunmen end at the half, and the road beyond is Yuanwu's own); the third failed on one that narrowed and was applied (the Zongmen tongyao carries Xuedou's added word, not his verse); in the body, the half was found to be Yunmen's quoted words, Ōhashi is said to ask, not hold, whether the 1486 copy keeps the Song form, and the 1619 appraisal is Kōgetsu's by the 1953 editors' head note

Research depth: step 3 of our 10-step ladder, foundation complete · October 2026

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 好雪片片不落別処 (kōsetsu henpen bessho ni ochizu)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/kosetsu-henpen-bessho-ni-ochizu.