AN AGREEMENT FOR
PARTICIPATING TOGETHER
參同契
– CAN TONG QI (TS’AN-T’UNG-CH’I; J.
SANDOKAI)
By Shitou Xiqian (Shih-t’ou
Hsi-ch’ien, J. Sekito Kisen)
(b.700 - d.790)
The mind of the great sage of the land of India
has been intimately and mutually handed down from West to
East.
A person's roots are sharp or
dull;
the Way has no Northern or Southern ancestors.
The mysterious source is
shining and clean in the light;
the branching streams are flowing and pouring in the
dark.
Grasping at primary phenomena
is bewilderment;
agreeing with Principle is still not enlightenment.
Each and every gate
corresponds to circumstances,
revolving with each other and not revolving with each
other.
Revolving and alternating are mutually entangled,
they
do not rely on remaining in place.
The root of form is
distinguished by substance and appearance;
the primal sound is differentiated as joyful or painful.
High and middle words unite
in the dark,
clean and dirty sentences, in the brightness.
The four great elements
return to their natures
like a child to its mother.
The heat of the fire; the
waving of the wind;
the wet of the water; the solidity of the earth.
The colors of the eye; the
sounds of the ear;
the fragrances of the nose; the salt and sour of the
tongue.
This is the way with each and
every thing;
according to the roots the leaves separate and spread
out.
Roots and branches
necessarily return to the ancestral origin;
venerated and vulgar, these are used in speech.
Right in the middle of the
light there is dark;
don’t use the mutuality of darkness to meet it.
Right in the middle of the
dark there is light;
don’t use the mutuality of the light to see it.
Light and dark are mutual
polarities,
for example, like front and back steps.
The
ten thousand things naturally have their function,
and are regarded in the use and placement of words.
Phenomena exist like the
joining of a box and lid.
Principle responds like the support of the sharp point of
an arrow.
In
receiving words you should meet the ancestors,
and not establish rules by yourself.
If your contacting eye does
not meet the Way,
how do you know the path by using your feet?
Progress is not near or far;
bewilderment causes the distance from mountains and
rivers.
Sincerely, I say to people
who participate in the profound depths,
from brightness and shadow, there are none who have ferried across in vain.
石頭參同契
SHITOU'S AN AGREEMENT FOR PARTICIPATING TOGETHER
竺土大仙心 東西密相付
The mind of the great sage of the land of India
has been intimately and mutually handed down from West to
East.
人根有利鈍 道無南北祖
A person's roots are sharp or dull;
the
Way/Tao is without Northern or Southern ancestors.
靈源明皎潔 枝派暗流注
The mysterious source is shining
and clean in the light;
the branching streams are flowing and pouring in the
dark.
執事元是迷 契理亦非悟
Grasping at primary phenomena
is bewilderment;
agreeing with Principle is still not enlightenment.
門門一切境 迴互不迴互
Each and every gate corresponds
to circumstances,
revolving with each other and not revolving with each
other.
迴而更相涉 不爾依位住
Revolving and alternating are mutually entangled,
they
do not rely on remaining in place.
色本殊質像 聲元異樂苦
The root of form is
distinguished by substance and appearance;
the primal sound is differentiated as joyful or painful.
闇合上中言 明明清濁句
High and middle words unite
in the dark,
clean and dirty sentences, in the brightness.
四大性自復 如子得其母
The four great elements
return to their natures
like a child to its mother.
火熱風動搖 水濕地堅固
The heat of the fire; the
waving of the wind;
the wet of the water; the solidity of the earth.
眼色耳音聲 鼻香舌鹹醋
The colors of the eye; the
sounds of the ear;
the fragrances of the nose; the salt and sour of the tongue.
.然於一一法 依根葉分布
This is the way with each and
every thing,
according to the roots the leaves separate and spread
out.
本未須歸宗 尊卑用其語
Roots and branches
necessarily return to the ancestral origin;
venerated and vulgar, these are used in speech.
當明中有暗 勿以暗相遇
Right in the middle of light
there is dark,
don’t use the mutuality of darkness to meet it.
當暗中有明 勿以明相睹
Right in the middle of dark
there is light,
don’t use the mutuality of the light to see it.
明暗各相對 比如前後歩
The light and dark are mutual
polarities,
For example, like front and back steps.
萬物自有功 當言用及處
The
ten thousand things naturally have their function,
And are regarded in the use and placement of words.
事存函蓋合 理應箭鋒拄
Phenomena exist like the
joining of a box and lid.
Principle responds like the support of the sharp point of
an arrow.
承言須會宗 勿自立規矩
In
receiving words you should meet the ancestors,
and not establish rules by yourself.
觸目不會道 運足焉知路
If your contacting eye does
not meet the Way/Tao,
how
do you know the path by using your feet?
進歩非近遠 迷隔山河故
Progress is not near or far;
bewilderment causes the distance fromd mountains and
rivers.
x謹白參玄人 光陰莫虚度
Sincerely, I say to people who
participate in the profound depths,
From brightness and shadow, there are none who have ferried across in vain.
Translation Notes (tentative draft)
While I am deeply indebted to many for their previous translations of these
words, I am responsible for the translations as they appear here. May any
benefits or merit following there from be given to and shared among all beings,
may any weird karma that may be derived there from be added to my already
ancient twisted karmic debts.
AN AGREEMENT FOR PARTICIPATING TOGETHER
Alternate English titles for the CAN TONG QI (TS’AN-T’UNG-CH’I) (J. SANDOKAI) are: Ode on Identity; Harmony of Difference and Sameness; Harmony of Difference and Equality; Merging of Difference and Sameness; Identity of Relative and Absolute, Realizing Unity. Inquiry into Matching Halves; The Promise of Meeting Unity
Here I translate can (ts’an) as “participating in.” It is the same as the Japanese “san,” as in “sanzen” or “dokusan,” so sanzen means participating in zen or meeting or visiting with the zen teacher. Participating has more of the action flavor then meeting or visit, and can be more liberally with an emphasis on its functionality as in “integrating,” “harmony,” “identity,” “merging,” etc., all of which occur in any participation or meeting either consciously or unconsciously. However I prefer the more prosaic image of “participating in” with all the connotations of merging, harmony, integration, etc., implied. The Ts’an-T’ung-Chi is about the meeting of all opposites such as light and dark, emptiness and form, absolute and relative, etc., but even before they meet they are already unified otherwise they could not meet, therefore that which is meeting is unity itself. That is my sense of the title and how I view the meeting of the minds of Buddha and Maha-Kashyapa which is the promise of Ch’an/Zen. I don’t know why previous translators have put the word “difference” or “relative” into the title, because I don’t read it there at all.
I translate tong (t’ung, J. do) as together. The etymology of the character is things under a blanket or cover, thus together and when under a blanket they are similarly disposed. It could as well be translated as equality, equalness, same, or sameness. More liberal translations could include identity (as in mutually identified), undifferentiated, interpenetrating, etc. Again, I prefer the straightforward when it will do well, and together seems the plainest and most simple meaning of the word.
Qi (ch’i, J. kai) means a “vow,” “promise,”
or “agreement,” as in a “meeting of the minds” in the language of contracts.
Thus the title has the double entendre of the meaning of “meeting” in both ts’an
and ch’i. I translate it as
agreement because the word agreement includes both the implications of intent
(as found in a "promise" of “vow” to do something) on both sides and
of an expression of the incorporated or embodied intent (as in an “agreement”
that has been made). The vowed and agreed upon promise of the meeting of light
and dark in the Ts’an-T’ung-Ch’I is simultaneously made in the immediate
present of awareness and in the timeless unity of the one mind. The Ts’an-T’ung-Ch’I is promising to the
reader that unity is met in this world, that light and dark are meeting, that
light and dark are unified, is telling the reader that the promise of unity was
made from beginningless time and is embodied in the fabric of time and space,
and is telling the reader that this life is the promise of meeting unity.
Translating the title is the trickiest part. The three
Chinese characters of the title, 參同契, can be translated in
numerous ways and have been. Literally the characters
mean:
Can . . . . . . . . . . Tong . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Qi
參 . . . . .. . . . . .. 同 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.契
participate in . . . . .same . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . contract
take part in . . . . . . similar . . . . . . . . . . . . . .agreement
meet . . . . . . . . . . . with . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .bond
visit . . . . . . . . . . . .together . . . . . . . . . . . . .be compatible
call on . . . . . . . . . .identical . . . . . . . . . . . . .harmonious
intention
pay respects to . . . common . . . . . . . . . . . .adopt
consult . . . . . . . . .share . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.covenant
interview . . . . . . . .to be in between . . . . . . . a tally
join. . . . . . .to be part of the same group. . . . devoted to
attend . . . . . . . . . . agree . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . engrave,
carve
measure . . . . . . . . alike . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . cut
notch
unequal . . . . . . . . . .equal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . to unite
uneven . . . . . .to gather together . . . . . . . . . be cut off from
So there are a plethora of double meanings to the words that can create many
puns, for example, "Unequal and Equal Are Compatible" or
"Joining in an Agreeing Agreement." But
"unequal" for "can" and "agree" for
"tong" are minor meanings and not the usual reading. "Can"
(Japanese "san") is the word used in "sanzen" to mean
"a zen interview" or "taking part in zen" and
"dokusan" to mean an "informal interview" or "informal
visit". So interview, visit, call on, participate in, take part in, are
the more common meanings of "can".
In Chinese a following word can be put in front of the preceding word or phrase
by the use of a preposition, such as when "visit together agreement"
can be stated as "an agreement to visit together." So I've translated
it as "An Agreement to Participate Together." That carries the shared
meaning element of the light and dark working together into and
through each of the three words:, i.e., light and dark are in agreement,
they participate equally, and they are together and fundamentally similar or
the same. I'll leave it to the reader to see the further nuances of meaning and
pun in the title "An Agreement to Participate Together."
Other titles by other translators are:
Ode on Identity;
Harmony of Difference and Sameness;
Harmony of Difference and Equality;
Merging of Difference and Sameness;
Identity of Relative and Absolute,
Realizing Unity.
Inquiry into Matching Halves;
So you can see that there are many variations of the title.
The poem is arranged in 22
couplets, each couplet is two lines of five characters each, making 220
characters total.
不爾依位住 can have two readings depending on pronoun. In context
it appears to be impersonal third person "accordingly,
this/that/these/those do not remain in place", but it could have a
personal reading of "accordingly, you do not remain in rank". This
connects to Linji's "person of no rank."
萬物自有功 can be read as "The 10,000 things naturally have their
function." or "The 10,000 things naturally have merit" or
"have worth" or "have virtue."
理應箭鋒拄
is a difficult phrase due to possible variations. "Principle responds sharp points of an
arrow post" Principle responds as the supporting sharp point of an
arrow." Principle complies like an arrow, knife edge, or post."
迷隔山河故 can also be
"bewilderment is the cause of the separation of mountains and rivers"
or "bewilderment causes the mountains and rivers of obstructions,"
謹白參玄人 has poetic double en tender with use of 白 (white/state/explain) and 玄 (black/profound/deep/mystic). So 白參玄 can be "to explain the taking part in the
depths" or "white visits with
black".
光陰莫虚度 seems to be the most
differently ranslated phrase in the whole poem. 度 (du4) is the Chinese word for the Sanskrit paramita
or "ferry to the opposite shore", "save" or
"perfection of the practice" etc., yet I haven't seen any translation
acknowledge this important Buddhist word. Instead it has most often been
translated as "pass," such as in "do not vainly pass the days
and nights." However 莫 "do not" can
also be "there is none" or "never a one" so it can be read
as "in light and shadow there are none who vainly ferry to the other
shore." So my translation of this line is the most different from other
translations because I read it not as a negative admonition to not waste time
vainly but as a positive promise that the paramita of practice is not in vain.
Link to a collection of
several variations of the
text
Some
Shitou and Can Tong Qi links to other websites:
http://home.att.net/~sotozen/html/recordshitou.html
http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/zen/sandokai.htm
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This page last edited November 30, 2007.