Fine Japanese Calligraphy

The Art of Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase

Visa, Mastercard, AmEx, PayPal accepted
Home › Library › Philology › Carrying Water, Hauling Firewood

運水搬柴 unsui hansai Carrying Water, Hauling Firewood

運水搬柴 (unsui hansai), carrying water and hauling firewood: the last line of a Tang layman's verse, followed here from 1004 to chop wood, carry water.

X Facebook
Japanese Scroll of Carrying Water, Hauling Firewood (unsui hansai) — Calligraphy by Eri Takase
Carrying Water, Hauling Firewood運水搬柴unsui hansai

Original art by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

All Fonts ›

Abstract

運水搬柴, unsui hansai, carrying water, hauling firewood, is the last line of a verse that the Tang layman Pang Yun 龐蘊, Layman Pang 龐居士, is said to have offered the master Shitou Xiqian 石頭希遷: 神通并妙用，運水及般柴, supernatural power and marvelous function: carrying water and hauling firewood. The oldest record of the verse read here is the lamp history of 1004 [1][2]; two older books, of 952 and 961, quote other verses of Pang's and not this one [3][4]. In Song China the four characters became a phrase of their own for the labor of a monastery, the Song laymen praised the verse, and Zhu Xi 朱熹 attacked it [5][6][7]. In Japan Dōgen 道元 glossed it in 1241 [8][9], the opening part of the founding book of the tea room has the same two chores [10], a 1915 Zen dictionary enters it as the monks' daily work [11], and in English it stands behind, though it is not the source of, the saying before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.

Overview

The sense. The phrase has two senses, and both are in the earliest records. As the line of Pang's verse it says that the marvel is the chore: supernatural power and marvelous function are carrying water and hauling firewood [1]. As a phrase of its own it names the daily work of the monks. The 1915 Zen dictionary gives it so: 水を運び、柴を搬ぶこと。雲水の日常の作務を云ふ。佛法の修行、辨道は必ずしも高尙なる理論にあらず, carrying water and hauling firewood: the daily work of the monks. The practice of the Buddha's teaching, the pursuit of the Way, is not necessarily lofty theory, and it gives Pang's verse after that [11]. A phrase book for calligraphers of 1966 glosses it 水をはこび薪をはこぶ, carrying water, carrying firewood, and goes on 道を修めるとは, to practice the Way is … [12]. Kotobank has no entry for 運水搬柴, 運水 or 搬柴, and JMdict has none.

The words. 運, to carry, to convey; 水, water; 搬, to carry and move a thing, 物を運んで移す [13]; 柴, brushwood, the small wood of the hills cut for fuel or fencing, 山野に生える小さい雑木の総称。また、それを折って薪や垣とするもの [14]. The lamp history of 1004 writes 般 for 搬; the character dictionary 字通, under 搬, quotes the 字彙 on it, 此の字、今俗に般、搬移・搬演の字と作す [13]. I read it as in common use this character now takes the place of 般, as the character of 搬移 and 搬演; the line can also be taken the other way, that 般 is now the common writing of 搬, and the dictionary's words do not settle which. The lamp history joins the two halves with 及, and [1]; Dōgen glosses 運水 as 水ヲ運載シキタルナリ, it is carrying water and bringing it, and 搬柴 as タキキヲハコフナリ, it is carrying firewood [8]. The first half of the line, 神通并妙用, sets 神通 beside 妙用. 神通 is a Buddhist word for the free and superhuman powers won by meditation, among them the divine eye and the divine ear, 天眼通・天耳通 [15]; 妙用 is marvelous function, 霊妙な作用 [16]; and the second half of the line answers them with two chores. The reading うんすゐはんさい, unsui hansai, stands as ruby beside the phrase in Zen books from 1906, and the modern spelling うんすいはんさい in books from the 1950s on [17][18].

The text in English. D. T. Suzuki gave the last two lines as How wondrously supernatural, / And how miraculous this! / I draw water, and I carry fuel! in 1922 and 1927 [19][20]. Fung Yu-lan 馮友蘭 rendered the line in 1947 and 1948 as carrying water and chopping firewood and set it beside a sentence on before enlightenment and after [21][22]. Ruth Fuller Sasaki and her colleagues give supernatural power and marvelous activity— / Drawing water and carrying firewood, with a my in their brackets before the first half (1971) [23]. The saying Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water; after enlightenment, chop wood and carry water is in print from 1972, the oldest dated print of it in the archive.org full-text search [24].

The historical record

952 and 961, the oldest books read that quote Pang. The Zutang ji 祖堂集, a record of the Chan masters compiled in 952 by its own count of years [25], has an entry on Layman Pang under the heirs of Mazu Daoyi 馬祖道一, with his question to Mazu, his verse on the hall for choosing buddhas, a note that he left some three hundred verses, 平生樂道偈頌，可近三百餘首，廣行於世, and seven verses quoted; it has no exchange with Shitou and no verse on carrying water [3]. The Zongjing lu 宗鏡録 of 961 [26] also quotes many verses of Pang's and not this one, which 石川力山 finds strange in a book that quotes Pang on supernatural power: 禅宗における神通観を端的に提示するこの偈こそ『宗鏡録』には引用されてしかるべきであったのに, this verse, which sets out the Zen view of supernatural power most directly, is the one that ought to have been quoted in the Zongjing lu; he suggests that it was avoided because it stressed the daily round, 作用即性 in Mazu's terms, too much [4]. The Zutang ji already has monks hauling firewood: Xuefeng 雪峰 is carrying it, 雪峰般柴次, when Dongshan 洞山 asks him how heavy it is [27].

1004, the lamp history. The Jingde chuandeng lu 景徳伝灯録, presented to the throne in 1004 [2], tells it in its entry on the layman [1]:

一日石頭問曰。子自見老僧已來日用事作麼生。對曰。若問日用事即無開口處。復呈一偈云。日用事無別　唯吾自偶諧　頭頭非取捨　處處勿張乖　朱紫誰為號　丘山絕點埃　神通并妙用　運水及般柴　石頭然之曰。子以緇耶素耶。居士曰。願從所慕遂不剃染

One day Shitou asked him: "Since you came to see this old monk, how are your daily affairs?" He answered: "If you ask about my daily affairs, there is nowhere to open my mouth." Then he offered a verse: "My daily affairs are nothing special; only I myself keep in tune with them. In each thing, nothing taken and nothing thrown away; in every place, nothing set against. Who calls the vermilion and the purple of office honors? The hills and the mountains have not a speck of dust. Supernatural power and marvelous function: carrying water and hauling firewood." Shitou approved it, and said: "Will you wear black, or white?" The layman said: "I wish to follow what I love," and he did not shave his head. The verse is his answer to a question about his daily life, and the line explains why he stayed a layman. Pang's dates are uncertain: Kotobank's encyclopedia has him die in 815 [28], and Sasaki puts his death on August 3, 808 [23].

The record of his sayings. The Pang jushi yulu 龐居士語錄 carries the byline of the military governor Yu Di 于頔 [29], whom tradition makes its editor, 于頔の編と伝える, in Yanagida Seizan 柳田聖山's words [28]; Sasaki holds that Yu Di probably made the compilation in 808 [23]. In the form that survives it ends with praise by Song masters [30], and its oldest surviving print, as Ōhashi puts it, is a Ming edition of 1637; a Japanese manuscript of 1486 copies a text with a colophon of 1221 [31]. It holds the verse twice. Its first book tells the story with 運水與搬柴, carrying water with hauling firewood [29]; its book of verses has 運水及搬柴 and 青山絕塵埃, the green mountains have no dust [32].

1125 to 1224, the Song and the north. Yuanwu Keqin 圜悟克勤 (1063–1135) tells the story in the Blue Cliff Record 碧巌録 of 1125, with 運水及搬柴 [33][34][35]. Koga Eigen 古賀英彦 writes that the Song laymen praised the verse with one voice, 宋代の居士はこぞってこの偈を称揚する, and reads its last line as set against the many marvels of the layman Vimalakīrti: 龐居士の所謂神通妙用たる"運水搬柴"は、維摩の示した数々の神通妙用に対置したものであるともいえる [6]. Dahui Zonggao 大慧宗杲 (1089–1163) [36] held the verse up to a layman as 這箇是俗士中參禪樣子, this is the model of Zen study among laymen [37], and warned another that to take it at its word without seeking awakening is to fall into the shell of doing nothing: 然便恁麼認著，不求妙悟，又落在無事甲裏 [38]. By then the four characters stood alone for a monastery's labor. Yuanwu, commenting on a case, contrasts the monks of his day with Xuefeng's: 雪峯為一千五百人善知識，當時日日普請，運水搬柴，豈似如今兄弟端坐飽食, Xuefeng was the teacher of fifteen hundred, and every day they all worked together, carrying water and hauling firewood; how unlike the brothers of today, who sit up straight and eat their fill [5]. A Song compilation of the lamp histories says of the attendant Zanyuan Juehai 贊元覺海 that for twenty years he carried water and hauled firewood without regard for cold or heat, 二十年中。運水搬柴。不憚寒暑 [39]. The Rentian yanmu 人天眼目 of 1188 prints, under the heading 古德頌附達觀頴, an old master's verses, with Daguan Tanying's appended, a verse that opens 運水搬柴不是塵。頭頭全現法王身, carrying water and hauling firewood are not dust; in each thing the body of the Dharma king appears whole [40]; the four verses printed with it are Daguan's in an earlier book, and this one is not among them [41][42]. In the north, Wansong Xingxiu 萬松行秀 (1166–1246) [43] opens case 42 of the Book of Equanimity 従容録, whose preface is dated 1224 [44], with the same pairing: 洗鉢添瓶。盡是法門佛事。般柴運水。無非妙用神通, washing the bowl and filling the pitcher are all the Buddha's work of the Dharma gate; hauling firewood and carrying water are nothing but marvelous function and supernatural power, and asks why, then, no light shines out and the earth does not shake [45].

The twelfth to the fourteenth century, the Confucian answer. The Confucian Yang Shi 楊時 (1053–1135) [46] cited the verse to explain a saying of Mencius, and Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130–1200) [47], a generation later, answered a pupil who raised Yang's reading, in the records of his talk compiled in 1270 [47], that the water has to be carried rightly before it is a marvel [7]:

『神通妙用，運水搬柴』，須是運得水，搬得柴是，方是神通妙用。若運得不是，搬得不是，如何是神通妙用！佛家所謂『作用是性』，便是如此

"Supernatural power and marvelous function, carrying water and hauling firewood": only when the water is carried and the firewood hauled rightly is it supernatural power and marvelous function. If they are carried wrongly and hauled wrongly, how is that supernatural power and marvelous function? This is what the Buddhists call "function is the nature." He named the error again, 龜山舉龐居士云「神通妙用，運水搬柴」，以比「徐行後長」，亦坐此病, when Yang Shi cited Layman Pang's "supernatural power and marvelous function, carrying water and hauling firewood" to explain "walking slowly behind one's elders", he fell into the same fault [48], and his pupil Chen Chun 陳淳 (1159–1223) [49] repeated it: 佛氏把作用認是性 … 運水搬柴無非妙用, the Buddhists take function for the nature … carrying water and hauling firewood is nothing but marvelous function [50]. The same gatha on function and the nature, 在手執捉，在足運奔, in the hand it grasps, in the foot it runs, heads a case in a Yuan continuation of a Chan anthology, whose preface is dated 1318 [51][52]; there the lay poet Liu Xingchao 劉興朝, in the seventh of his eight verses on it, laughs at Pang's line: 笑他龐老當年道，運水搬柴未是奇, I laugh at what old Pang said in his day: carrying water and hauling firewood is nothing remarkable [51]. Zhongfeng Mingben 中峰明本's rule for his hermitage, of the Yuan, uses the phrase plainly of the hermit's chores: 剗草夾籬，搬柴運水，既不妨於道用, cutting grass, fencing, hauling firewood and carrying water do not hinder the use of the Way [53].

1241 to 1246, Dōgen. Dōgen 道元 (1200–1253) [54] quotes the line in the Jinzū 神通 chapter of his Shōbōgenzō, a talk he gave at Kōshōji in 1241 by its colophon [9], and glosses each half: イハユル運水トハ。水ヲ運載シキタルナリ … 搬柴トハ。タキキヲハコフナリ, what is called carrying water is carrying water and bringing it … hauling firewood is carrying firewood; and he calls them the great 神通 that has never lapsed: 運水般柴ハ。イマタスタレサルトコロ, carrying water and hauling firewood have never fallen out of use [8]. In the Juki 授記 chapter, written in 1242 by its colophon [55], they are how the buddhas and ancestors come one after another: イハンヤ運水般柴ハ。轉次シキタルナリ, how much more have carrying water and hauling firewood come down, one turn after another [56]. In his rule for the officers of a monastery, of 1246 [57], the four characters are the labor of a cook: of Guishan 潙山, cook under Baizhang 百丈, 運水搬柴。不難衆苦, he carried water and hauled firewood and did not shrink from the hardships of the assembly [58].

1279 to 1504, the Zen halls of Japan. Wuxue Zuyuan 無學祖元, who came from Song China in 1279 (1280 in the 日本国語大辞典) [59], took up the verse in a general talk of a summer retreat at Kenchōji, quoted it with 運水及般柴, and judged it: 此頌好則好只是缺, this verse is good as far as it goes, but it falls short; he says he recited it constantly before he was thirty, and that once his eyes were opened he no longer loved it and loved Pang's later verse instead, 後來眼目既開。却不愛他前頌。却喜他後頌 [60]. Musō Soseki 夢窓疎石 (1275–1351) [61], answering the questions of Ashikaga Tadayoshi 足利直義 in plain Japanese in the Muchū mondō 夢中問答, printed in 1344 [62], puts the line into his own language: 龐居士の神通并に妙用、水をはこび柴をはこぶとしめされたるも、擧足下足の處に那一通あるよしなり, when Layman Pang showed that supernatural power and marvelous function are carrying water and carrying firewood, he meant that the one further power is there wherever a foot is lifted and set down [63]. Shun'oku Myōha 春屋妙葩 (1311 or 1312 to 1388, as the dictionaries differ) [64], in a praise inscribed for a portrait of Pang, writes 搬柴運水是神通, hauling firewood and carrying water are supernatural power [65]. The Sōtō master Fusai Zenkyū 普済善救 (1347–1408) [66]: 運水搬柴。無不神通妙用。摘蔬擇菜。盡是轉妙法輪, carrying water and hauling firewood are all supernatural power and marvelous function; picking and sorting greens is all turning the wheel of the wonderful Dharma [67]. Tōyō Eichō 東陽英朝 (1428–1504) [68], at the cremation of a monk who had served the kitchen stores, says 運水搬柴。無非神通妙用, carrying water and hauling firewood are nothing but supernatural power and marvelous function [69].

1563, the lecture. Ikō Myōan 惟高妙安 (1480 to 1567 or 1568, as the dictionaries differ) [70] lectured on the Yuan rhyme dictionary 韻府群玉 in the Gyokujinshō 玉塵抄, completed in 1563 [71]. In a manuscript copy of 1597, read at the page image, the four characters are one of the entries he treats; he names the lamp history as its source, and a second book whose first character is 碧, the Blue Cliff Record 碧巌録 if the second character, which is not certain at the image, is 巖, and tells his hearers how to read the line aloud: 并ト及トハドレモトヽヨムソ, both 并 and 及 are read to, "and" [72]. The Qing rhyme dictionary of 1711, the 佩文韻府, also enters 運水搬柴, citing the lamp history on Pang [73][74].

1665 and 1669, Yamaga Sokō. In Japan the Confucian critique was taken up by Yamaga Sokō 山鹿素行 (1622–1685) [75]. His lectures, which his pupils collected (1663–65), call it a great error to take function for the nature, 且彼悟了、乃運水搬柴皆爲性之作用中節, and they say that once awakened, carrying water and hauling firewood are all the nature's function, rightly measured [76][77]; and the appendix of questions to his history of 1669, the Chūchō jijitsu 中朝事実, mocks the monks who shave their heads, eat greens, and 運水搬柴。以爲道, take carrying water and hauling firewood for the Way [78][79].

1688 and 1744, 荷水也搬柴. The phrase book 禅林句集, in its print of 1688, the oldest opened for this study and read at the page image, has the line in another form, as a couplet among the five-character pairs: 神通并妙用　荷水也搬柴, supernatural power and marvelous function: shouldering water, and hauling firewood too; its note names the lamp history and Pang's verse, and says that the record writes 運 for 荷: 本録上卷頭 荷作運 [80]. The print of 1889 repeats the entry and the note, with 幷 for 并 [81]. Hakuin Ekaku 白隠慧鶴, in his commentary on the Heart Sūtra printed in movable type in 1744, writes the same form: 神通竝妙用。荷水也搬柴 [82].

1690, the tea room. The Nanbōroku 南方録, presented as the record of Sen no Rikyū 千利休's teaching and named in 1690 by Tachibana Jitsuzan 立花実山, who is thought to have written it [83][84], has in its opening part Rikyū's account of tea in a small room: 水を運び、薪をとり、湯をわかし、茶をたてゝ、仏にそなへ、人にもほどこし、吾ものむ。花をたて香をたく, we carry water, gather firewood, boil the water and make tea; we offer it to the Buddha, give it to others, and drink it ourselves; we arrange flowers and burn incense, all of it the learning of the acts of the buddhas and ancestors [10]. 櫻本香織 reads the passage as Dōgen's 運水般柴 of the Juki chapter set down again as the way of the thatched-hut tea: 『正法眼蔵』の「運水般柴」の解釈を草庵茶の湯のあり方として置き換えているのである [85]. The 日本国語大辞典 takes its first example of 薪水 in the sense gathering firewood and drawing water; cooking; the daily round, たきぎを拾い水をくむこと, from the same book: 一宇の草庵二畳敷にわびすまして、薪水のために修行し [86]. Dennis Hirota's English translation of 1995 notes Pang's line beside the passage [87].

1906 to 1930, the Japanese reading. The ruby うんすゐはんさい, unsui hansai, stands beside the phrase in a book of lectures on the Book of Equanimity 従容録 of 1906 by 高田道見 [18], and in 42 items of the National Diet Library's full-text search from then on [17]. The 1915 dictionary of 山田孝道 enters it under that reading, with the monks' work first and Pang second [11]. The collected works of the Sōtō abbot Arai Sekizen 新井石禅, of 1930, read the Ten Imperial Questions 十種勅問 as Keizan 瑩山's own answer to the emperor: 禪門の神通は、運水搬柴これなり, in the Zen gate, supernatural power is carrying water and hauling firewood [88] (see Notes).

1966 and 1993, the brush and the tea room. The calligraphers' phrase book of 1966 enters 運水搬柴 with the reading うんすいはんさい among phrases for the brush [12], and the tea monthly 淡交 of September 1993 lists it beside 著衣喫飯, putting on clothes and eating rice, and 灰頭土面, ash on the head and dirt on the face [89].

What is not a source. The exchange of Zhaozhou 趙州 that has the before-and-after shape is not Pang's. Asked how Niutou 牛頭 was before he met the fourth patriarch, Zhaozhou answers 飽柴飽水, and asked how he was after, answers the same: 飽柴飽水 [90], in a record that the verse of Fenyang Shanzhao 汾陽善昭 carries in 1101 by CBETA's date [91]. 飽 is to have one's fill, to be sated [92]; the words are not 運水搬柴, and no witness read here connects the exchange with the English saying. The twelfth-century poet Zheng Qiao 鄭樵 [93]'s 處世運甕搬柴, living in the world is hauling water jars and carrying firewood, is a secular line of the same images [94]. The verse 運水搬柴不是塵 in the Rentian yanmu is an unnamed old master's [40][41].

The line in English

1922 and 1927, D. T. Suzuki. Suzuki's rendering of the last two lines, How wondrously supernatural, / And how miraculous this! / I draw water, and I carry fuel!, is in The Eastern Buddhist of 1922 [19] and in the Essays in Zen Buddhism of 1927, p. 319, where a Zen poet known as Hokoji is set among the mystics who were practical men [20]; Alan Watts quoted it in 1936 [95].

1947 and 1948, Fung Yu-lan. The philosopher Fung Yu-lan gives the line inside an argument about enlightenment. In The Spirit of Chinese Philosophy (1947) he quotes Baizhang on the man before enlightenment and after, and then As the lay monk P'an Yün's hymn said: "The power to work miracles and to function divinely is in carrying water and chopping firewood." If ordinary people carry water and chop wood, that is nothing more than carrying water and chopping wood. If the sage does it, then it is in the nature of a miraculous deed and something divinely useful [21]. In A Short History of Chinese Philosophy (1948) he quotes Baizhang, The man is no different from what he was before; it is only that what he does is different, judges that there must be some textual error in this last sentence, and reads it as What the man does is no different from what he did before; it is only that the man himself is not the same as he was; and then There is yet another common saying: "In carrying water and chopping firewood: therein lies the wonderful Tao," citing the lamp history, chüan 8 [22]. His wording went on: an anthology of 1961 reprints his chapter on the Ch'an school [96]; Chang Chung-yuan writes in 1963 that there is among the Ch'anists the saying, "In carrying water and chopping wood—therein lies the wonderful Tao" [97]; and in 1969 Lit-sen Chang calls it a popular saying among the Zen followers [98].

1964, R. H. Blyth. Blyth gives Zhaozhou's answer to the question about Niutou, before and after, as "We get tired, bringing in firewood and carrying water" [99], reading 飽 as weariness.

1971, Sasaki, Iriya and Fraser. Their English translation of the whole record ends the verse supernatural power and marvelous activity— / Drawing water and carrying firewood, the first half opening on a my in the translators' brackets, and notes that its last two lines are often quoted and widely known [23].

1972 and 1973, the saying. The oldest dated print of the saying in its before-and-after form in the archive.org full-text search is an annual of biofeedback research printed in 1972, as the Zen maxim puts it: Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water; after enlightenment, chop wood and carry water [24], and the same year in José Argüelles's Mandala as a Zen proverb [100]. The Book of Highs (1973) prints it over the name Zen Dust [101], the book of 1966 by Isshū Miura and Ruth Fuller Sasaki [102] (see Notes).

A reading

The line does not say that after awakening one still carries water. It says that carrying water is the supernatural power. 神通 are the powers that meditation wins, the divine eye and the divine ear among them; the layman, asked about his day, answers that he has no marvels to report but these two chores, and the master approves and lets him keep his white robe. That is why the line drew the Song laymen, and why it drew the attacks: Dahui warned that to take it at its word without awakening was to do nothing, and Zhu Xi that the water has to be carried rightly. Wuxue's good as far as it goes belongs to the same argument from inside Zen. As I read the witnesses, the English saying is the line seen through Fung Yu-lan, who set it beside Baizhang's before enlightenment and after: the before-and-after frame is his argument, and the saying keeps the frame and drops the marvel. The four characters as a scroll belong to the other sense, older than any of this, the monks' daily work, which Dōgen and the 1915 dictionary both put first, and which the tea room took for its own.

On the reading, I sign unsui hansai, the reading the Zen books give in ruby from 1906 and the dictionary of 1915 enters, with 搬 read han.

Notes

The two texts of the record. The lamp history puts the question who is it that does not keep company with the ten thousand things to Mazu, and the Pang jushi yulu puts it first to Shitou, who covers Pang's mouth with his hand, 頭以手掩其口 [1][29]. The line's joining word is 及 in the lamp history, the Blue Cliff Record and the record's book of verses, and 與 only in the record's first book [1][33][29][32]; 般 and 搬 vary from one edition to the next, and Dōgen writes 搬 in his quotation and his gloss, 般 in the sentence 運水般柴ハ, as again in the Juki chapter [8][56].

The Ten Imperial Questions. The Jisshu chokumon 十種勅問 answers 龐居士曰。神通并妙用。運水及搬柴 [103]. It presents itself as Keizan's answers to ten questions from the emperor Go-Daigo, and Kotobank's article on Sōjiji says that the temple's relation to Go-Daigo is doubted [104], so the line is not dated by it here.

The 1973 credit. The Book of Highs names Zen Dust as its source [101]. The saying is not found in the text layers of either shelf copy of that book [102].

The 1972 floor. The archive.org full-text search also returns the saying in a book dated 1969, Seeing the Crab. It is Christina Middlebrook's memoir of 1996: the scan dated 1969 is a preprint of the same book, catalogued with her name and her publisher, its date of 31 December 1969 is a placeholder, and the two other scans of the book are dated 1996 and 1998 [105].

Japanese Scrolls by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase

Japanese Scroll of Carrying Water, Hauling Firewood (unsui hansai) in a block font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
運水搬柴VB5JBlock
Japanese Scroll of Carrying Water, Hauling Firewood (unsui hansai) in a cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
運水搬柴VC5JCursive
Japanese Scroll of Carrying Water, Hauling Firewood (unsui hansai) in Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase's own style (jiun)
運水搬柴VD5JJiun
Japanese Scroll of Carrying Water, Hauling Firewood (unsui hansai) in a semi-cursive font by Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase
運水搬柴VS5JSemi-Cursive

Sources not seen

The manuscript of the Pang jushi yulu held by Saimyōji 西明寺, a Sōtō temple in Toyokawa, Aichi, copied in 1486 from a text with a colophon of 1221, as described by 大橋崇弘 (Indogaku Bukkyōgaku kenkyū 63 (2), 2015) and by 佐藤悦成 (愛知学院大学人間文化研究所紀要 18, 2003). It would settle whether a text older than the Ming print joins the line with 與 or with 及.

Biofeedback and Self-Control 1971: An Aldine Annual (Aldine-Atherton, 1972), at the page: which contributor quotes the Zen maxim, and from what, which would date the saying's source in that book.

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

References

  1. 『景徳伝灯録』 卷八, 襄州居士龐蘊, 1004, at CBETA (T51n2076, p. 263b03–b14). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/T51n2076_p0263b03
  2. 「景徳伝灯録」, デジタル大辞泉 and 世界大百科事典 (1004), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%99%AF%E5%BE%B3%E4%BC%9D%E7%81%AF%E9%8C%B2-489122
  3. 『祖堂集』 卷十五, 龐居士, at CBETA (B25n0144, p. 593b06 on). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/B25n0144_p0593b06
  4. 石川力山, 「『龐居士詩』と龐居士」, 『駒沢大学禅研究所年報』 2, March 1991, pp. 115–127, at pp. 122–123. https://komazawa-u.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/2020455
  5. 『佛果擊節錄』 卷一 (雪竇重顯 拈古, 圜悟克勤 擊節), at CBETA (X67n1301, p. 228a03). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/X67n1301_p0228a03
  6. 古賀英彦, 「維摩と龐居士」, 『印度學佛教學研究』 27 (1), 1978, pp. 122–123. https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/ibk1952/27/1/27_1_122/_article
  7. 黎靖德 編, 『朱子語類』 卷六十二, 中庸一, at Chinese Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/朱子語類/062
  8. 道元, 『正法眼藏』 神通, at the SAT Daizōkyō Text Database (T2582, vol. 82, p. 111c14–112a16). https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/T2582_.82.0111c14:0112a16.cit
  9. 道元, 『正法眼藏』 神通, the colophon, 仁治二年 (1241), at the SAT Daizōkyō Text Database. https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/T2582_.82.0113c22:0113c24.cit
  10. 櫻本香織, 「『南方録』「覚書」冒頭部の仏教思想 : 薪水の修行譚を中心に」, 『早稲田大学大学院文学研究科紀要』 66, 2021, pp. 1242–1226, at p. 1241 (the text of the 「覚書」, section F). https://waseda.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/60407
  11. 山田孝道, 『禅宗辞典』, 光融館, 1915, scan 165. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/936741/1/165
  12. 山本正一 編, 『新修墨場必携』 続, 1966, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2511408
  13. 「搬」, デジタル大辞泉 and 普及版 字通, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%90%AC-605982
  14. 「柴」, デジタル大辞泉 and 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%9F%B4-507108
  15. 「神通」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%A5%9E%E9%80%9A-82252
  16. 「妙用」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%A6%99%E7%94%A8-640308
  17. National Diet Library Digital Collections, full-text item search across all access levels, sorted oldest first, for the ruby strings うんすゐはんさい (42 items) and うんすいはんさい (27), 15 October 2026. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/
  18. 高田道見, 『従容録講話』 下巻の1, 1906, p. 33 (case 54), scan 29. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/823145/1/29
  19. D. T. Suzuki, in The Eastern Buddhist 2 (1–2), May–June and July–August 1922, issued October 1922 (archive.org full-text search highlight). https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.283163
  20. D. T. Suzuki, Essays in Zen Buddhism: First Series, Luzac, 1927, p. 319 (text layer of the shelf copy).
  21. Fung Yu-lan, The Spirit of Chinese Philosophy, tr. E. R. Hughes, Kegan Paul, 1947, pp. 160, 172, 174, 184. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.188492
  22. Fung Yu-lan, A Short History of Chinese Philosophy, ed. Derk Bodde, Macmillan, 1948, pp. 264–265. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.188703
  23. Ruth Fuller Sasaki, Yoshitaka Iriya and Dana R. Fraser, The Recorded Sayings of Layman P'ang: A Ninth-Century Zen Classic, Weatherhill, 1971, the introduction (p. 28) and the verse (p. 46, with note 4) (text layer of the shelf copy).
  24. Biofeedback and Self-Control 1971: An Aldine Annual on the Regulation of Bodily Processes and Consciousness, Aldine-Atherton, 1972, ed. Johann Stoyva and others (archive.org full-text search highlight). https://archive.org/details/biofeedbackselfc0000stoy
  25. 『祖堂集』 卷一, the count of years to 保大十年 (952), at CBETA. https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/B25n0144_p0311b13
  26. 「宗鏡録」, 精選版日本国語大辞典 and ブリタニカ国際大百科事典 (建隆二年, 961), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%AE%97%E9%8F%A1%E9%8C%B2-83577
  27. 『祖堂集』 卷六, 洞山和尚, at CBETA (p. 420b11). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/B25n0144_p0420b11
  28. 「龐居士」, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典 (柳田聖山), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%BE%90%E5%B1%85%E5%A3%AB-1205204
  29. 『龐居士語錄』 卷上, with the byline 節度使 于頔 編集, at CBETA (X69n1336, p. 131a08–a18). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/X69n1336_p0131a08
  30. 『龐居士語錄』 卷下, 歷代讚文并諸方拈古附, at CBETA (p. 144b01 on). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/X69n1336_p0144b01
  31. 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. 802–806. https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/ibk/63/2/63_KJ00009870708/_pdf
  32. 『龐居士語錄』 卷中, at CBETA (p. 139a14–a16). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/X69n1336_p0139a14
  33. 圜悟克勤, 『碧巖錄』 卷五, at CBETA (T48n2003, p. 179b15–c19). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/T48n2003_p0179b15
  34. 「碧巌録」, デジタル大辞泉 and ブリタニカ国際大百科事典 (1125), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%A2%A7%E5%B7%8C%E9%8C%B2-129179
  35. 「圜悟克勤」, デジタル大辞泉 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. 「大慧宗杲」, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%A4%A7%E6%85%A7%E5%AE%97%E6%9D%B2-90822
  37. 『大慧普覺禪師語錄』 卷二十, at CBETA (T47n1998A, p. 896c24). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/T47n1998Ap0896c24
  38. 『大慧普覺禪師語錄』 卷二十三, at CBETA (T47n1998A, p. 911b04). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/T47n1998Ap0911b04
  39. 『五燈會元』 卷十二, 蔣山贊元覺海禪師, at CBETA (X80n1565, p. 248a08–a12). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/X80n1565_p0248a08
  40. 智昭 集, 『人天眼目』 卷六, 巖頭四藏鋒, 古德頌附達觀頴, 1188 (CBETA's work record), at CBETA (T48n2006, p. 329b06). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/T48n2006_p0329b06
  41. 睦庵善卿, 『祖庭事苑』 卷六, 出袖, at CBETA (X64n1261, p. 392b23). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/X64n1261_p0392b23
  42. 「祖庭事苑」, 精選版日本国語大辞典 and デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%A5%96%E5%BA%AD%E4%BA%8B%E8%8B%91-554737
  43. 「万松行秀」, 日本大百科全書 (1166–1246), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%B8%87%E6%9D%BE%E8%A1%8C%E7%A7%80-118128
  44. 「従容録」, 日本大百科全書 (耶律楚材's preface, 1224), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%BE%93%E5%AE%B9%E9%8C%B2-79949
  45. 萬松行秀, 『從容錄』 卷三, 第四十二則 南陽淨瓶, 示眾, at CBETA (T48n2004, p. 254b19–b21). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/T48n2004_p0254b19
  46. 「楊時」, デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%A5%8A%E6%99%82-145682
  47. 「朱熹」, デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%9C%B1%E7%86%B9-77570
  48. 黎靖德 編, 『朱子語類』 卷一百二十六, 釋氏 (1270), at Chinese Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/朱子語類/126
  49. 「陳淳」, 日本大百科全書 (山本仁), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%99%B3%E6%B7%B3-98680
  50. 陳淳, 『北溪字義』 卷上, at Chinese Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/北溪字義/卷上
  51. 『禪宗頌古聯珠通集』 卷八, the case of 波羅提尊者 marked 增收 (p. 515c06) and 劉興朝居士's eight verses (p. 515c19 to 516a10; the seventh at 516a07–a08), at CBETA (X65n1295). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/X65n1295_p0515c06
  52. 『禪宗頌古聯珠通集』, 普會's preface to the continuation, dated 延祐戊午 (1318), at CBETA. https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/X65n1295_p0475c10
  53. 中峰明本, 『幻住庵清規』, at CBETA (X63n1248, p. 580c22). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/X63n1248_p0580c22
  54. 「道元」, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典 and デジタル版 日本人名大辞典+Plus (1200–1253), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%81%93%E5%85%83-103480
  55. 道元, 『正法眼藏』 授記, the colophon, 仁治三年 (1242), at the SAT Daizōkyō Text Database. https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/T2582_.82.0150b15:0150b16.cit
  56. 道元, 『正法眼藏』 授記, at the SAT Daizōkyō Text Database (T2582, vol. 82, p. 148c19–c22). https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/T2582_.82.0148c19:0148c22.cit
  57. 道元, 『永平清規』, the colophon of the 知事清規, 寛元丙午 (1246), at the SAT Daizōkyō Text Database. https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/T2584_.82.0342b05:0342b06.cit
  58. 道元, 『永平清規』, 日本國越前永平寺知事清規, at the SAT Daizōkyō Text Database (T2584, vol. 82, p. 335a13). https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/T2584_.82.0335a13:0335a13.cit
  59. 「無学祖元」, デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%84%A1%E5%AD%A6%E7%A5%96%E5%85%83-16997
  60. 無學祖元, 『佛光國師語録』 卷五, 建長普説, 中夏普説, at the SAT Daizōkyō Text Database (T2549, vol. 80, p. 185c16–186a08). https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/T2549_.80.0185c16:0186a08.cit
  61. 「夢窓疎石」, デジタル大辞泉 (1275–1351), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%A4%A2%E7%AA%93%E7%96%8E%E7%9F%B3-140578
  62. 「夢中問答」, デジタル大辞泉 (1344), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%A4%A2%E4%B8%AD%E5%95%8F%E7%AD%94-641928
  63. 夢窓疎石, 『夢中問答』, in 『高僧名著全集』, 1931, p. 108, scan 67. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/3436027/1/67
  64. 「春屋妙葩」, デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%98%A5%E5%B1%8B%E5%A6%99%E8%91%A9-78525
  65. 春屋妙葩, 『知覺普明國師語録』, 讚 龐居士, at the SAT Daizōkyō Text Database (T2560, vol. 80, p. 686b04–b06). https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/T2560_.80.0686b04:0686b06.cit
  66. 「普済善救」, デジタル版 日本人名大辞典+Plus, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%99%AE%E6%B8%88%E5%96%84%E6%95%91-1105022
  67. 普濟善救, 『普濟禪師語録』 卷下, at the SAT Daizōkyō Text Database (T2594, vol. 82, p. 518c02–c03). https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/T2594_.82.0518c02:0518c03.cit
  68. 「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
  69. 東陽英朝, 『少林無孔笛』, a 下火, at the SAT Daizōkyō Text Database (T2571, vol. 81, p. 385a05–a07). https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/T2571_.81.0385a05:0385a07.cit
  70. 「惟高妙安」, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典 and デジタル版 日本人名大辞典+Plus, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%83%9F%E9%AB%98%E5%A6%99%E5%AE%89-1052771
  71. 「玉塵」, 精選版日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%8E%89%E5%A1%B5-246136
  72. 惟高妙安, 『玉塵抄』, the 慶長2 (1597) manuscript, volume 13, scan 13. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2545092/1/13
  73. 『佩文韻府』, a Japanese print of 1882 to 1884 (明15-17 in the record of the National Diet Library), 巻9, 九佳, under 柴, scan 68. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/895796/1/68
  74. 「佩文韻府」, デジタル大辞泉 (1711), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%BD%A9%E6%96%87%E9%9F%BB%E5%BA%9C-113097
  75. 「山鹿素行」, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典 and デジタル版 日本人名大辞典+Plus (1622–1685), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%B1%B1%E9%B9%BF%E7%B4%A0%E8%A1%8C-144029
  76. 山鹿素行, 『山鹿語類』 第4, the 1911 print, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/991320
  77. 「山鹿語類」, ブリタニカ国際大百科事典 (寛文3–5年, 1663–65), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%B1%B1%E9%B9%BF%E8%AA%9E%E9%A1%9E-144026
  78. 山鹿素行, 『中朝事実』 附録, 或疑, in 『国文中朝事実』, 1913, p. 404, scan 253. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/985444/1/253
  79. 「中朝事実」, デジタル大辞泉 (寛文9年, 1669), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E4%B8%AD%E6%9C%9D%E4%BA%8B%E5%AE%9F-97395
  80. 東陽英朝 集『増補首書 禪林句集』 乾, 京師 小川多左衞門, 貞享5 (1688; the year from the afterword, by the catalogue), the copy of 神戸大学附属図書館, canvas 52. 国書データベース. https://doi.org/10.20730/100272428
  81. 『禅林句集』 乾 (the NDL record names 英朝 as author), Nagoya, 1889, scan 55. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/899715/1/55
  82. 白隱慧鶴, 『毒語心經』, at CBETA (B07n0021, p. 212a03), with the colophon of the movable-type printing of 延享甲子 (1744) at p. 224a02. https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/B07n0021_p0212a03
  83. 「南方録」, 百科事典マイペディア and 精選版 日本国語大辞典 (1690), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E5%8D%97%E6%96%B9%E9%8C%B2-108975
  84. 「立花実山」, 日本大百科全書 (1655–1708), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%AB%8B%E8%8A%B1%E5%AE%9F%E5%B1%B1-1089422
  85. 櫻本香織, the same article, at p. 1228 (the conclusion). https://waseda.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/60407
  86. 「薪水」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 ②, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E8%96%AA%E6%B0%B4-537977
  87. Dennis Hirota, Wind in the Pines: Classic Writings of the Way of Tea as a Buddhist Path, Asian Humanities Press, 1995, p. 217 and p. 363, note 80 (text layer of the shelf copy).
  88. 『新井石禅全集』 第5巻, 1930, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1173533
  89. 『淡交』 47 (9), September 1993, snippet view, National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/7891236
  90. 『趙州和尚語錄』 卷二, at CBETA (J24nB137, p. 365a20–a21). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/J24nB137_p0365a20
  91. 『汾陽無德禪師語錄』 卷二, 頌古, at CBETA (T47n1992, p. 611b27–b28; 1101 by CBETA's work record). https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/T47n1992_p0611b27
  92. 「飽」, 普及版 字通, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%A3%BD-626934
  93. 「鄭樵」, デジタル大辞泉 and 日本大百科全書 (1103–1162), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%84%AD%E6%A8%B5-574311
  94. 鄭樵, 「漫興」 十首, from the 夾漈遺稿 卷一, at Chinese Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/漫興_(鄭樵)
  95. Alan W. Watts, The Spirit of Zen, 1936 (archive.org full-text search highlight). https://archive.org/details/spiritofzenwayof0000unse
  96. William A. Briggs, ed., Anthology of Zen, Grove Press, 1961, Fung Yu-lan, "The Ch'an School" (archive.org in-book search windows). https://archive.org/details/anthologyofzen00brigrich
  97. Chang Chung-yuan, Creativity and Taoism, 1963 (archive.org in-book search windows). https://archive.org/details/creativityandtaoism
  98. Lit-sen Chang, Zen-Existentialism: The Spiritual Decline of the West, Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1969 (archive.org in-book search windows). https://archive.org/details/zenexistentialis0000lits
  99. R. H. Blyth, Zen and Zen Classics, vol. 2, Hokuseido, 1964, p. 10 (text layer of the shelf copy).
  100. José Argüelles, Mandala, Shambala, 1972 (archive.org full-text search highlight). https://archive.org/details/mandala0000argu_r6q8
  101. Edward Rosenfeld, The Book of Highs, 1973 (the text layer of the archive.org copy). https://archive.org/details/book_of_highs.ocr
  102. Isshū Miura and Ruth Fuller Sasaki, Zen Dust: The History of the Koan and Koan Study in Rinzai (Lin-chi) Zen, 1966 (text layers of two shelf copies).
  103. 『十種敕問奏對集』, at the SAT Daizōkyō Text Database (T2588, vol. 82, p. 422b26–c02). https://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/T2588_.82.0422b26:0422c02.cit
  104. 「総持寺」, 改訂新版 世界大百科事典 (石川力山), at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/%E7%B7%8F%E6%8C%81%E5%AF%BA-89397
  105. Christina Middlebrook, Seeing the Crab: A Memoir of Dying Before I Do, Basic Books, 1996; archive.org holds a preprint scan dated 31 December 1969 (https://archive.org/details/seeingcrabprepri0000midd) and two scans dated 1996 and 1998. https://archive.org/details/seeingcrabmemoir00midd

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 運水搬柴 (unsui hansai)," Takase Studios, 2026, https://takase.com/library/philology/unsui-hansai.