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掬水月在手 mizu o kiku sureba tsuki te ni ari The Moon in Your Hands

掬水月在手, scoop up water and the moon is in your hands: a Tang line followed through Chan and Japanese Zen to the tea alcove.

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Japanese Scroll of The Moon in Your Hands (mizu o kiku sureba tsuki te ni ari) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
The Moon in Your Hands掬水月在手mizu o kiku sureba tsuki te ni ari

Original art by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

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Abstract

掬水月在手 mizu o kiku sureba tsuki te ni ari, scoop up water and the moon is in your hands, is the third line of 「春山夜月」, A moonlit night in the spring hills, a poem by the Tang poet Yu Liangshi 于良史 of the eighth century, kept in the Wenyuan yinghua 文苑英華 of 987; its next line is 弄花香滿衣, play with flowers and their scent fills your robe [1][2][3]. Chan masters took the two lines as a couplet to answer with: Goso Hōen 五祖法演 (Wuzu Fayan), who died in 1104, gives it against an answer he calls half said, and his heirs and the books after them use it in the same way [4][5][6][7]. In Japan it is in a sermon of Tettō Gikō 徹翁義亨 (1295–1369) of the temple 大徳寺 Daitokuji, in a print of 1425, and from the fourteenth century to the sixteenth masters of the Rinzai lines use it, mostly as an answer and in either order, while later Sōtō biographies have Sōtō masters of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries answer with it [8][9][10][11]. The first line alone is a subject for the brush in a handbook of 1913 and, from 1929 in the passages of a tea journal read here, a scroll hung in the tea alcove at September gatherings, and in 1939 the heading of an account of the harvest moon; the earliest English known among the books read here is a dictionary's example in romaji of 1872, and the earliest English rendering known among them, of the whole poem, is of 1919 [12][13][14][15].

Overview

The sense. No general dictionary at kotobank enters the line as a headword. 普及版 字通, under 【掬水】, to scoop up water, quotes the couplet as 于良史's: 唐・于良史〔春山夜月〕詩　水を掬(すく)へば月、手に在り　花を弄すれば香、衣に滿つ [16]. A Japanese dictionary of set phrases of 1907 enters it with one gloss, 自然妙得の義, the sense of a fine thing gained of itself: Kanno Dōmei 簡野道明 (1865–1938) gives 【水ヲ掬スレバ、月手ニ在リ】自然妙得の義をいふ, "scoop up water and the moon is in your hands": said of a fine thing gained of itself [17][18]. In the tea world it is a scroll: two articles in tea magazines of 2014 and 2016 carry it in their titles, as a tea scroll's words and as Chinese verse met in the tea room; they are known here from their records only [19][20].

The words. 掬 is to scoop up in both hands: デジタル大辞泉 enters きく・する【掬する】 as 両手で水などをすくいとる, to scoop up water or the like with both hands [21], and JMdict, the free Japanese–English dictionary, glosses 掬する to scoop up (with both hands) [22]. Kanno quotes the old Chinese dictionaries for it: 掬は、説文に「撮也」とあり、正字通に「今俗謂兩手所奉爲一掬」とあり, of 掬 the 説文 says "to take up a pinch", and the 正字通 says "today it is commonly said that what the two hands hold up is one 掬" [17]. 水 water, 月 the moon, 在 to be in, 手 the hand: the moon in the hands is the moon in the water held in them. As I read it, the line turns on that: nothing is done to the moon, and the moon is there.

The reading. Mizu o kiku sureba tsuki te ni ari, 水を掬すれば月手に在り, is the reading of the Japanese 漢文 tradition: the 禅林句集 Zenrin kushū, the Zen phrase book, marks the couplet 掬スレバ水ヲ月在リ手ニ in its print of 1889 [23]; the handbook of 1913 marks 掬 with キクスレバ [12]; Kanno reads it so [17]; and a tea magazine of 2016 prints it in its title, みずをきくすればつきてにあり [20]. The Japanese word むすぶ, to cup the hands and scoop, is a reading of the character 掬 that the Wakun no shiori 倭訓栞 sets beside this line, not a reading of the line found in any print read (see The poem of Tsurayuki below) [24].

The historical record

The poem

Before 800, 「春山夜月」, Yu Liangshi. The Quan Tangshi 全唐詩 says of the poet only 于良史，徐州張建封從事, Yu Liangshi: an officer on the staff of Zhang Jianfeng 張建封 at Xuzhou [3]; Zhang Jianfeng died in 800, at sixty-six, by the Xin Tangshu 新唐書 [25], so the poet was at work before 800. The Wenyuan yinghua, compiled by order of the Song emperor and finished in 987, printed in 1204, and known today chiefly from a reprint of 1567 [2], keeps the poem under its heading for mountains; a hand copy of the 1567 reprint reads:

春山多勝事賞翫夜忘歸掬水月在手弄花香滿衣興來無遠近欲去惜芳菲南望鳴鍾處樓臺深翠微

The spring hills hold many delights; enjoying them, at night I forget to go home. Scoop up water and the moon is in your hands; play with flowers and their scent fills your robe. When the mood comes, near and far are all one; about to leave, I grieve for the fragrant grass. Southward, where the bell is sounding, towers stand deep in the green of the hills [1]. The copy notes variant readings elsewhere on its page and none on this line [1]. The Quan Tangshi prints the same eight lines [3]. The poem is a spring poem: a man in the hills at night, so pleased with what is in reach that he cannot leave. Nothing in it is doctrine.

The Chan couplet

Before 1104, Goso Hōen. Hōen, the teacher of Engo Kokugon 圜悟克勤 (Yuanwu Keqin, 1063–1135) [26], takes the couplet up in a sermon in his recorded sayings. He tells of a monk who asked the master Baling 巴陵 whether the meaning of the patriarchs and the meaning of the teaching are the same or different, and Baling's answer, 鷄寒上樹，鴨寒下水, when chickens are cold they go up into the trees; when ducks are cold they go down into the water. Then Hōen, who speaks of himself as 白雲: 大小大巴陵，只道得一半。白雲即不然，掬水月在手，弄花香滿衣, great as Baling is, he said only half. I, 白雲, say otherwise: scoop up water and the moon is in your hands; play with flowers and their scent fills your robe [4]. Baling's two creatures go two ways; Hōen's couplet answers same or different with a hand and a moon that are neither separated nor made one.

Engo, and the books after him. Engo closes a sermon with the couplet, 還委悉麼？掬水月在手，弄華香滿衣, do you understand it fully? Scoop up water and the moon is in your hands; play with flowers and their scent fills your robe, writing 華 for 花 [5], and in another a monk offers it as his own understanding of 聞聲悟道見色明心, hearing a sound, waking to the Way; seeing a form, the mind made clear [27]. The Rentian yanmu 人天眼目, compiled by the monk Zhizhao 智昭 with a preface of 1188 [28], cites it in a note as an old master's capping words, 古德著語云。掬水月在手。弄花香滿衣 [6]. Kidō Chigu 虚堂智愚 (Xutang Zhiyu, 1185–1269) [29], asked at the Lantern Festival about a saying on words that are and words that are not, 有句無句，如藤倚樹, answers with the couplet [7]. In every Chan use read here the two lines go together.

Into Japanese Zen

Before 1369, printed 1425, Tettō Gikō. Tettō, heir of Daitokuji's founder Shūhō Myōchō 宗峰妙超 and abbot after him [30][31], in a sermon from the high seat at the third-year memorial of the priest 満菴, 祐徳滿菴和尚大祥忌門人請陞座, strikes his staff and says the couplet with the flower line first, as the print of 1425 reads at the turn of the leaf: 弄花香滿衣掬水月在手 [8][9]. The print is the Gozan edition of his recorded sayings. Its catalogue record dates it 応永32 (1425) in a note, after Kawase Kazuma 川瀬一馬, from the date 応永乙巳 at the end of the book's account of his life; the record's date field prints the Western year as 1435, which 応永32 is not [8]. Elsewhere in the same book a monk stands up at the sermon on the Buddha's Nirvana and says the couplet in its own order, and Tettō answers 知心能幾人, how many know the heart? [32]. In the sources read here, no Japanese use is known whose master died earlier.

The fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, the Rinzai masters. The couplet is in the recorded sayings of Shun'oku Myōha 春屋妙葩 (1312–1388), as an answer [33][34]; of Guchū Shūkyū 愚中周及 (1323–1409) [35], in a verse headed 示珍大師, shown to the master Chin, flower line first, 弄花香滿衣。掬水月在手。勿於此生疑, play with flowers and their scent fills your robe; scoop up water and the moon is in your hands: have no doubt of this [36]; of Tokuhō Zenketsu 特芳禅傑 (1419–1506) [37], split across a funeral address for a laywoman, headed 華屋宗榮大姉下火, 弄花香滿衣。現成公案。掬水月在手。萬古徽猷, play with flowers and their scent fills your robe: the kōan made plain; scoop up water and the moon is in your hands: a counsel for ten thousand ages [38]; and of Daikyū Sōkyū 大休宗休 (1468–1549), asked what it meant that 趙州 told a monk go and wash your bowl and the monk woke at once, 師云。掬水月在手。弄花香滿衣 [39][10]. Shun'oku and Guchū were students of Musō Soseki 夢窓疎石 [33][35][40], Tokuhō and Daikyū are of the line of the temple 妙心寺 Myōshinji [37][39][41], and Tettō of Daitokuji's, so from the fourteenth century to the sixteenth the couplet is in use across the Rinzai lines, most often as an answer. Tōyō Eichō 東陽英朝 (1428–1504) quotes Hōen's sermon in his own recorded sayings [42], and Engo's in the compilation of his line's records that he wrote and that was printed in 1630, where the leaf reads 委悉麼掬水月在手弄花 [43][44].

1482 and 1516, the Sōtō masters. The couplet is a Sōtō answer too. The Nihon tōjō rentōroku 日本洞上聯灯録, a collection of Sōtō biographies written by 1727 and printed in 1742 [45], as a collection of sources of 1929 quotes it, has Kasō Shōgaku 華叟正蕚 of 龍泰寺 in Mino, born in 1412, answer the question 在途中不離家舍時如何, what of the one who is on the road and has not left home?, with 掬水月在手、弄花香滿衣, and die in the spring of 1482 [11][46]. A later continuation of a collection of Sōtō biographies first printed in 1693 [45] has Senrin Shōkiku 仙林性菊 (d. 1516) answer 竺土大仙心。東西密相付。如何是密付底, the mind of the great sage of India was handed secretly from west to east: what is it that was secretly handed on?, with the same couplet [47][48].

Ikkyū's poem. Ikkyū Sōjun 一休宗純 (1394–1481) [49] has a poem on the same case of Baling and Hōen, which Sonja Arntzen translates with its prose introduction: Our ancestor Po-yün said: Pa-ling said only half of it. I would say it differently: "Scoop up water, and the moon is in your hands. Play with flowers, and their fragrance fills your clothes." Our Master Sung-yüan, taking this further said: "Po-yün, even though he put all he had into what he said, gets only eight points…"; she counts four different generations of comment on this question, Ikkyū's poem the fourth [50].

The phrase book. The Zenrin kushū, the Zen phrase book, which its catalogue record gives to Tōyō Eichō, enters the couplet as one ten-character pair with the reading 水を掬すれば月手に在り、花を弄すれば香衣に満つ, a side note sending to the 事文類聚, and a note beneath it naming its source, 于良史春山題, with the poetry handbooks that carry it [23]. The annotated print of 1688 sets the entry as the 1889 print does: its leaf has the same entry in the same place, with the same reading and the same notes, so the couplet was in the phrase book by 1688 [51]. Whether its earlier prints carry it is not known here.

The line alone

1913, a subject for the brush. A handbook of subjects for calligraphers and painters, 書家画家題字便覧, lists five-character subjects, and 掬水月在手 and 弄花香滿衣 are two separate entries, one above the other, the first marked 掬(キクスレ)バ水ヲ月在リ手ニ [12]. So in 1913 the first line stands as a subject on its own. In 1931 the poet Sōma Gyofū 相馬御風 (1883–1950), writing of his own feeling for verse, likes to write it: 私は好んで「掬水月在手」といふ古語を書ぐ。わが手に掬んだ水にうつる月影!, I like to write the old saying 掬水月在手: the moonlight on the water I have scooped in my hands! (the print's 書ぐ for 書く) [52][53].

1929 to 1939, the tea scroll for the moon. The monthly tea journal 茶道月報, known here only from the short passages the National Diet Library displays from it, reports the line in the alcove again and again: at a tea gathering of 25 September, reported in its issue of December 1929, 席掛物宗中侯一行掬水月在手, the scroll in the room: a single line by the lord 宗中, 掬水月在手 [13]; at a gathering of September reported in November 1936, 大德寺松月和尙筆掬水月在手, by a priest of Daitokuji [54]; and in November 1939 an account headed 掬水月在手 opens on 仲秋名月の今宵, tonight, the harvest moon of mid-autumn, and a window from the same issue has in an alcove 江雪和尙筆掬水月在手の一行墨蹟, the one-line brushwork 掬水月在手 by the priest 江雪; the windows do not show that the two are one gathering [55]. The dictionary gives 一行物 as 文字を一行に書いた墨蹟, brushwork written in one line [56]. So in these passages the line from a spring poem hangs at September gatherings, and in 1939 heads an account of the harvest moon. 1929 is the earliest known in the library's search of the journal, not a first.

The Kikugetsutei. In Ritsurin Garden 栗林公園 at Takamatsu, the great tea house on the South Lake is the Kikugetsutei 掬月亭, the pavilion of the scooped moon. The city history of 1933, setting it last among twelve newly chosen views of the garden, says of it 唐の于良史の掬水月在手の詩情にとる, taken from the poetic feeling of the Tang poet 于良史's 掬水月在手 [57]. The tea house was built about the time the lord Matsudaira Yorishige 松平頼重 retired to the garden, in 1664 by one encyclopedia, which dates the tea house to then; the other dates the retirement 1673, and the present building is of the work of 1745, when some sixty scenes of the garden were given Chinese names [58]. When the name was given, the sources read do not say.

A legend of Jōō. The same tea journal tells in August 1943 that the tea master Takeno Jōō 武野紹鷗 (1502–1555) [59], studied under the founder of 南宗寺, whom the journal calls 普明國師, was held by the kōan 喫茶去 for more than three years, and 「掬水月在手弄花香滿衣」の一句を呈して印可を授けた, offered the couplet 掬水月在手弄花香滿衣 and was given the seal of his awakening [60]. No telling earlier than 1943 has been found, and the story is a legend until one is. The same journal had reported in February 1931 a bamboo flower vase made by Jōō with the poem as its inscription [61].

Given to Du Fu, and joined to Tsurayuki

Before 1823, Ōta Nanpo. The comic writer Ōta Nanpo 大田南畝 (1749–1823), in a piece on a garden stone shaped like Lake Biwa, writes 掬すれば杜甫が月を手玉にとり, scoop it up, and you juggle 杜甫's moon, giving the line to the great Tang poet Du Fu 杜甫, and the editor of its print of 1913 glosses the words 掬水月在手(杜甫) [62]. The piece is printed in his collection Yomo no aka 四方のあか, which is dated 1787 [63]; whether it stood in that first edition is not read here. A commentary on the writings of Nichiren by a scholar who died in 1853, printed in 1886, gives the poem as 杜子美詩云。春山多勝事, Du Zimei's poem says: the spring hills hold many delights [64], and a Zen magazine of 1899 sets Du Fu's titles, 少陵杜工部, between the two lines, as it sets 一切法勝音 before the first; the window is too short to show what it means by them [65]. The poem is Yu Liangshi's [1].

The poem of Tsurayuki. The Japanese word for scooping water in cupped hands is むすぶ, and in the collection of Ki no Tsurayuki 紀貫之 [66] is a poem its headnote says he sent to 源公忠朝臣 when the world seemed frail to him, and that his illness grew grave in the meantime: 手に結ぶ水に宿れる月影の有か無かの世に社有けれ, like the moonlight lodged in the water I cup in my hands, there and not there: such is the world I have lived in [67]. The Wakun no shiori of Tanikawa Kotosuga 谷川士清 (1709–1776) [68][69], in its enlarged print of 1898, under むすぶ, sets the Chinese line beside the reading of 掬: 水にむすぶといふハ日本紀に掬字をよめり … 唐詩に掬水月在手といへり, for むすぶ of water, the 日本紀 reads the character 掬 so … a Tang poem says 掬水月在手 [24]. It names no poem of Tsurayuki's. A Japanese dictionary of 1910 sets the opening of that poem, spelled 手に掬ぶ, beside the line, without naming its poet in the passage read: under ムスブ 「掬ぶ」, 如曰手に掬ぶ水に宿れる月影の（掬水月在手之意）, as in "the moonlight lodged in the water I cup in my hands", which is the sense of 掬水月在手 [70]. The two are joined by lexicographers, for the word and the image; neither poem is the other's source.

The line in English

1872, Hepburn. J. C. Hepburn's Japanese–English dictionary, in its second edition, gives the line as the example of the verb, in romaji and untranslated: KIKU, キク, 掬, — suru, to hold up in the hollow of the hands, as: Midzu wo — suru, to take up a double hand full of water. Midzu wo kiku sureba tsuki te ni ari [14]. The first edition, of 1867, has no entry for 掬 [71][72]. This is the earliest English-language book known among those read here to carry the line, and it prints the reading kiku sureba.

1919, Fletcher. W. J. B. Fletcher translates the whole poem as The Hills of Spring, By Yü Liang-shih: Within the water that my hands scoop up the Moon embowers ; / And all my clothes are fragrant with the heavy scent of flowers [15]. The earliest English rendering of the whole poem known among the books read here (Giles's dictionary of 1912 renders the line alone); rhymed, it has the moon embowered in the water.

1927, Suzuki. D. T. Suzuki gives Hōen's sermon: Mine is: When water is scooped in hands, the moon is reflected in them; when the flowers are handled, the scent soaks into the robe [73]. The first English of the couplet as Zen. Reflected says what the Chinese leaves unsaid.

1942, Blyth. R. H. Blyth, in a chapter on non-attachment, names no source: The world is like a spider's web; touch one part and the whole quivers. So we have. / Scoop up the water and the moon is in your hands / Hold the flowers and your clothes are scented with them [74]. Miura and Sasaki's line of 1965 differs from his first line by one word and a comma.

1965, Miura and Sasaki. Miura Isshū and Ruth Fuller Sasaki, among the five-character pairs of the phrase book: Mizu o kiku sureba, tsuki te ni ari; / Hana o rō sureba, ka e ni mitsu. / Scoop up water, and the moon is in your hands; / Toy with flowers, and their fragrance scents your garments [75]. The reading is the 漢文 reading above.

1970, Shibayama. Shibayama Zenkei 柴山全慶 (1894–1974) [76]: If I scoop the water, the moon is in my hands; If I pluck a flower, fragrant is my robe. If I scoop the water, I myself am the water and reflect the moon [77]. In his reading the one who scoops becomes the water.

1981 and 2003, the phrase books in English. Shigematsu Soiku: Dip up water— the moon lies in your hands; / Touch a flower— the fragrance fills your robes [78]. Victor Sōgen Hori: I scoop up water and the 'moon' is in my hands, / I play with flowers and their fragrance clings to my clothes, with Mizu o kiku sureba, tsuki te ni ari; his quotation marks set the moon apart as a figure [79].

Today. JMdict has no entry for the line [22]. Takase Studios gives it as Scoop up water and the moon is in your hands, which is Miura and Sasaki's line of 1965 without its comma [75]. A rendering of the single line keeps the two verbs' order, the scooping first and the moon after, and keeps the moon in the hands, not caught or held: the line says it is there.

What is not a source

The line is not 杜甫's, though Edo and Meiji books say so [62][64]; it is not 虚堂's, who used it [7]; and Tsurayuki's poem of the moon in cupped water is a Japanese poem the dictionaries set beside it, not its source [67][70].

A reading

What is settled. The line is Yu Liangshi's, in a spring poem of the eighth century [1][3]; Chan took it with its pair as an answer by 1104 [4]; Japanese Zen had it in a sermon of a master who died in 1369 [8]; and by the twentieth century the first line alone was a calligrapher's subject and a tea scroll for autumn gatherings [12][13]. What is not settled here is when the single line first hung alone, which the sources read put by 1913 and which may be older.

The reading I sign: the moon comes without being reached for. The act is small, a double handful of water, and what comes into the hands is the whole moon; nobody fetched it. That is the plain sense of the poem, a man who does the ordinary thing on a good night and finds the moon in his hands [1], and it is the sense the Chan masters used it in. Hōen sets it against an answer that splits same or different [4], and the line does neither: the hand is not the moon, and the moon is in the hand. Kanno's 自然妙得, a fine thing gained of itself, is the nearest gloss in Japanese print [17], and it is my reading. Beside it I hold two that say more: Shibayama's, that the one who scoops is the water that reflects the moon [77], and Blyth's spider's web, touched in one place and trembling everywhere [74]. The tea alcove keeps the image and lets the doctrine go: a scroll for the night of the moon [55].

What the line is. A Tang line of a spring night, made by Chan into an answer and by the tea room into a scroll for autumn. Both are true of it.

Notes

The 1630 print of Tōyō's compilation is read at its leaf with 掬; its text layer reads 採 [44]. The kotobank entry for the Sōtō master writes his name 華叟正萼, with 萼 for the leaf's 蕚 [46]. He is not 華叟宗曇, Ikkyū's teacher [49].

Kanno writes the poem's title 春山月夜 and its second line with 賞玩; the Wenyuan yinghua has 春山夜月 and 賞翫 [17][1].

The Wakun no shiori is cited in its enlarged print of 1898; which of its layers, Tanikawa's or his editors', carries the sentence on this line is not determined here [24].

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Japanese Scrolls by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

Japanese Scroll of The Moon in Your Hands (mizu o kiku sureba tsuki te ni ari) in a block font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
掬水月在手VB5JBlock
Japanese Scroll of The Moon in Your Hands (mizu o kiku sureba tsuki te ni ari) in a cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
掬水月在手VC5JCursive
Japanese Scroll of The Moon in Your Hands (mizu o kiku sureba tsuki te ni ari) in Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase's own style (Eri's Choice)
掬水月在手VD5JEri's Choice
Japanese Scroll of The Moon in Your Hands (mizu o kiku sureba tsuki te ni ari) in a semi-cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
掬水月在手VS5JSemi-Cursive

Sources not seen

平野宗淨, 「大燈國師下語の研究（資料編）」, 『禅文化研究所紀要』 3, 1971-10, with a collated text of the capping words to the 碧巌録 at pp. 47–60, National Diet Library, https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/4414913 (readable only in Japan): the short passages the library displays from it show the couplet split across two answers of case 90, which may be the capping words of 宗峰妙超 (大燈), Tettō's teacher; if so, the oldest Japanese use known is his, not Tettō's.

『茶道月報』, 茶道月報社, the issues of 1929-12, 1936-11, 1939-11, 1931-02 and 1943-08, National Diet Library (readable only in Japan) [13][54][55][61][60]: known here from short passages; the pages would settle each gathering's date, scroll and writer, and the telling of Jōō, as this history states them.

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

References

  1. 李昉 等 編, 『文苑英華』, 卷161, 地部三 山, 「春山夜月」 于良史, a hand copy of the 隆慶元 (1567) reprint, scan 15, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2573354/1/15
  2. 「文苑英華」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典 (筧文生) and ブリタニカ国際大百科事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%96%87%E8%8B%91%E8%8B%B1%E8%8F%AF-128299
  3. 『全唐詩』, 卷275, 于良史 (the headnote and 「春山夜月」), at Chinese Wikisource (a transcription). https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E5%85%A8%E5%94%90%E8%A9%A9/%E5%8D%B7275
  4. 『法演禪師語錄』, 卷2, Taishō vol. 47 no. 1995, p. 656b19–22, at CBETA. https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/T47n1995_p0656b19
  5. 『圓悟佛果禪師語錄』, 卷2, Taishō vol. 47 no. 1997, p. 722b08, at CBETA. https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/T47n1997_p0722b08
  6. 智昭 集, 『人天眼目』, 卷2, Taishō vol. 48 no. 2006, p. 308c16, at CBETA. https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/T48n2006_p0308c16
  7. 『虛堂和尚語錄』, 卷3, Taishō vol. 47 no. 2000, p. 1005b12, at CBETA. https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/T47n2000_p1005b12
  8. 『徹翁和尚語録』, 五山版, 応永32 (1425) by the item record's note after 川瀬一馬 『五山版の研究』 (its date field prints 1435), scans 88–89, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2540639/1/88
  9. 『徹翁和尚語録』, Taishō vol. 81 no. 2567, pp. 265b29–266a09 (the heading 祐徳滿菴和尚大祥忌門人請陞座 to the couplet), at the SAT Daizōkyō Text Database. https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/T2567_.81.0265b29:0266a09.cit
  10. 大休宗休, 『見桃録』, Taishō vol. 81 no. 2572, p. 419c26–29, at the SAT Daizōkyō Text Database. https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/T2572_.81.0419c26:0419c29.cit
  11. 東京大学史料編纂所 編, 『大日本史料』, 1929, 文明十四年 雑載, quoting 『日本洞上聯燈録』, scan 558, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/3450596/1/558
  12. 松雲堂編輯所 編, 『書家画家題字便覧』, 1913, scan 36, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/947851/1/36
  13. 『茶道月報』, 1929-12, 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/11208124
  14. J. C. Hepburn, A Japanese and English Dictionary; with an English and Japanese Index, second edition, American Presbyterian Mission Press, Shanghai, 1872, p. 240, KIKU 掬; read in the library's copy of the book.
  15. W. J. B. Fletcher, Gems of Chinese Verse, Commercial Press, Shanghai, 1919, p. 234, "The Hills of Spring", at the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/gemsofchinesever00fletiala/page/234
  16. 「掬水」, 普及版 字通, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%8E%AC%E6%B0%B4-1446008
  17. 簡野道明, 『故事成語大辞典』, 1907, 水ヲ掬スレバ、月手ニ在リ, scan 640, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1087753/1/640
  18. 「簡野道明」, デジタル大辞泉 and 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%B0%A1%E9%87%8E%E9%81%93%E6%98%8E-15978
  19. 霜村叡真, 「茶掛けにみる仏のことば(21) 掬水月在手」, 『茶道の研究』 59(12), 2014-12, p. 52, its record at CiNii Research. https://cir.nii.ac.jp/crid/1524232505746702976
  20. 諸田龍美, 「茶席で出合う漢詩 掬水月在手 弄花香満衣(みずをきくすればつきてにあり はなをろうすればかおりころもにみつ)」, 『淡交』 70(3), 2016-03, p. 60, its record at CiNii Research. https://cir.nii.ac.jp/crid/1522262180326092928
  21. 「掬する」, デジタル大辞泉 (きく・する, sense 1) and 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%8E%AC%E3%81%99%E3%82%8B-472992
  22. JMdict, entry 2463160 (掬する), in the local copy of the dictionary used by gokanji.com: to scoop up (with both hands); no entry for 掬水月在手.
  23. 英朝 (by the item record), 『禅林句集』, 梶田勘助, 1889, scan 54, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/899715/1/54
  24. 谷川士清 著, 伴信友 加筆, 井上頼圀・小杉榲邨 増補, 『倭訓栞 : 増補語林』, 1898, むすぶ, scan 202, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/991739/1/202
  25. 『新唐書』, 卷158, 張建封傳, at Chinese Wikisource (a transcription). https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E6%96%B0%E5%94%90%E6%9B%B8/%E5%8D%B7158
  26. 「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 (五祖法演 (1024？―1104)), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%9C%9C%E6%82%9F%E5%85%8B%E5%8B%A4-38117
  27. 『圓悟佛果禪師語錄』, 卷5, Taishō vol. 47 no. 1997, p. 736b12, at CBETA. https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/T47n1997_p0736b12
  28. 智昭, the preface to 『人天眼目』 (宋淳熙戊申季冬, 1188), Taishō vol. 48 no. 2006, p. 300a19–20, at CBETA. https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/T48n2006_p0300a19
  29. 「虚堂智愚」, 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/%E8%99%9A%E5%A0%82%E6%99%BA%E6%84%9A-51174
  30. 「徹翁義亨」, 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/%E5%BE%B9%E7%BF%81%E7%BE%A9%E4%BA%A8-1092929
  31. 「大徳寺」, デジタル大辞泉 and others, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%A4%A7%E5%BE%B3%E5%AF%BA-91716
  32. 『徹翁和尚語録』, Taishō vol. 81 no. 2567, p. 256a21–22, at the SAT Daizōkyō Text Database. https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/T2567_.81.0256a21:0256a22.cit
  33. 「春屋妙葩」, デジタル大辞泉 and others, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%98%A5%E5%B1%8B%E5%A6%99%E8%91%A9-78525
  34. 『智覺普明國師語錄』, Taishō vol. 80 no. 2560, p. 645a06–07, at the SAT Daizōkyō Text Database. https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/T2560_.80.0645a06:0645a07.cit
  35. 「愚中周及」, デジタル大辞泉 and others, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%84%9A%E4%B8%AD%E5%91%A8%E5%8F%8A-484223
  36. 『佛徳大通禪師愚中和尚語録』, 卷4, Taishō vol. 81 no. 2563, p. 90b16–17, at the SAT Daizōkyō Text Database. https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/T2563_.81.0090b16:0090b17.cit
  37. 「特芳禅傑」, デジタル版 日本人名大辞典+Plus, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%89%B9%E8%8A%B3%E7%A6%85%E5%82%91-1094458
  38. 『西源特芳和尚語錄』, 卷2, Taishō vol. 81 no. 2573, pp. 494c28–495a04 (the heading 華屋宗榮大姉下火 to the couplet), at the SAT Daizōkyō Text Database. https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/T2573_.81.0494c28:0495a04.cit
  39. 「大休宗休」, デジタル版 日本人名大辞典+Plus, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%A4%A7%E4%BC%91%E5%AE%97%E4%BC%91-1086423
  40. 「夢窓疎石」, デジタル大辞泉 and others, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%A4%A2%E7%AA%93%E7%96%8E%E7%9F%B3-140578
  41. 「妙心寺」, デジタル大辞泉 and others, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%A6%99%E5%BF%83%E5%AF%BA-139779
  42. 東陽英朝, 『少林無孔笛』, Taishō vol. 81 no. 2571, p. 364b15, at the SAT Daizōkyō Text Database. https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/T2571_.81.0364b15:0364b15.cit
  43. 「東陽英朝」, デジタル版 日本人名大辞典+Plus, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%9D%B1%E9%99%BD%E8%8B%B1%E6%9C%9D-1093907
  44. 東陽英朝 著, 愚堂東寔 編, 『宗門正灯録』, 寛永7 (1630) by the item record, scan 16, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2559737/1/16
  45. 「日本洞上聯灯録」, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典 (竹貫元勝), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E6%B4%9E%E4%B8%8A%E8%81%AF%E7%81%AF%E9%8C%B2-1193089
  46. 「華叟正萼」, 367日誕生日大事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E8%8F%AF%E5%8F%9F%E6%AD%A3%E8%90%BC-1796693
  47. 仏書刊行会 編, 『大日本仏教全書』, the volume holding 『重續日域洞上諸祖傳』, 卷第三, scan 80, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/952814/1/80
  48. 「仙林性菊」, デジタル版 日本人名大辞典+Plus, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%BB%99%E6%9E%97%E6%80%A7%E8%8F%8A-1085648
  49. 「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
  50. Sonja Arntzen, Ikkyū and the Crazy Cloud Anthology: A Zen Poet of Medieval Japan, University of Tokyo Press, 1986, pp. 125–126; read in the library's copy of the book.
  51. 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, 五言對句, canvas 51, right page. 国書データベース. https://doi.org/10.20730/100272428
  52. 「相馬御風」, デジタル大辞泉 and others, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%9B%B8%E9%A6%AC%E5%BE%A1%E9%A2%A8-18485
  53. 相馬御風, 『郷土に語る』, 1931, scan 21, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1171147/1/21
  54. 『茶道月報』, 1936-11, 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/11208207
  55. 『茶道月報』, 1939-11, 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/11208243
  56. 「一行物」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%B8%80%E8%A1%8C%E7%89%A9-203938
  57. 『高松市史』, 1933, scan 324, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1175621/1/324
  58. 「栗林公園」, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典 (村岡正) and 日本大百科全書 (重森完途), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%A0%97%E6%9E%97%E5%85%AC%E5%9C%92-149081
  59. 「武野紹鴎」, デジタル大辞泉 and others, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%AD%A6%E9%87%8E%E7%B4%B9%E9%B4%8E-18677
  60. 『茶道月報』, 1943-08, 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/11208288
  61. 『茶道月報』, 1931-02, 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/11208138
  62. 大田南畝, 「庭湖石記」, in 『大田南畝集』 (有朋堂文庫), 1913, scan 24, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1704276/1/24
  63. 「大田南畝」, デジタル大辞泉 and ブリタニカ国際大百科事典 (『四方のあか』 (87)), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%A4%A7%E7%94%B0%E5%8D%97%E7%95%9D-39358
  64. 日耀 編, 小林是純 訂, 『祖書録外考文』, 1886, scan 55, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/823750/1/55
  65. 『禅宗』, 1899-08, 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/11006041
  66. 「紀貫之」, デジタル大辞泉 and others, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%B4%80%E8%B2%AB%E4%B9%8B-51361
  67. 松下大三郎 編, 『国歌大観』, 1926, 貫之集 第九, no. 18093, p. 487 (scan 250), National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/926035/1/250
  68. 「谷川士清」, デジタル大辞泉 and 日本大百科全書, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E8%B0%B7%E5%B7%9D%E5%A3%AB%E6%B8%85-18793
  69. 「和訓栞」, デジタル大辞泉 and others, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%92%8C%E8%A8%93%E6%A0%9E-153999
  70. 『新撰日本大辞典』, 新興社, 1910, ムスブ 「掬ぶ」, scan 742, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/863123/1/742
  71. J. C. Hepburn, A Japanese and English Dictionary; with an English and Japanese Index, first edition, 1867, p. 204, where KIKU 菊 and KI-KU 規矩 follow KIKU See Kiki with no 掬; read in the library's copy of the book.
  72. 「和英語林集成」, デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%92%8C%E8%8B%B1%E8%AA%9E%E6%9E%97%E9%9B%86%E6%88%90-664477
  73. Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, Essays in Zen Buddhism, First Series, Luzac, London, 1927; read in the Souvenir Press edition of 2010, p. 117, in the library's copy (the 1927 printing not seen).
  74. R. H. Blyth, Zen in English Literature and Oriental Classics, Hokuseido, Tokyo, 1942, p. 279; read in the library's copy of the book.
  75. Isshū Miura and Ruth Fuller Sasaki, The Zen Koan: Its History and Use in Rinzai Zen, Harcourt, Brace & World, New York, 1965, p. 92, no. 71; read in the library's copy of the book.
  76. 「柴山全慶」, 20世紀日本人名事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%9F%B4%E5%B1%B1%E5%85%A8%E6%85%B6-18434
  77. Zenkei Shibayama, A Flower Does Not Talk: Zen Essays, Tuttle, Rutland, Vermont, 1970, p. 122; read in the library's copy of the book.
  78. Sōiku Shigematsu, A Zen Forest: Sayings of the Masters, Weatherhill, New York, 1981, p. 50, no. 213; read in the library's copy of the book.
  79. Victor Sōgen Hori, Zen Sand: The Book of Capping Phrases for Kōan Practice, University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, 2003, p. 440, 10.478; read in the library's copy of the book.

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 and the quoted words looked for at each, with controls that must fail and did; 85 of 88 checks answered as run and the other three as the history states once each was read at its source (a Wikisource page that draws the poem in from another, and two dates kotobank prints in era form); the two Taishō canon addresses widened to their headings in the reading were opened again by hand · two fresh-context readers (Claude), 2026-10-30, every claim in the page's summary block traced to its source, claim by claim: round 1 failed from one reader on one wrong fact, conceded at the source (of the six Japanese masters cited as giving the couplet as an answer, one gives it in a verse and one in a funeral address); the second round passed from both readers with no wrong fact, with wordings corrected in the pass, among them the 1425 print dated by its catalogue's note where the date field prints 1435, the Sōtō uses as later biographies tell them, the tea scroll scoped to September gatherings in a journal's search windows, and one character of the hand copy, 鍾, read again at the page

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

Cite as: Tim Jackowski and Ten, "Philology of 掬水月在手 (mizu o kiku sureba tsuki te ni ari)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/mizu-o-kiku-sureba-tsuki-te-ni-ari.