Alterations of the Dialogue “Gone to a mountain of treasures, returned with empty hands” (親到宝山空手回)

Abstract

It is known that Dahui Zonggao (大慧宗杲, 1089–1163) established Kanhua chan (看話禅), a method of attaining spiritual enlightenment (dawu [大悟]) through training using gong’an (公案), and it is also known that his work Zhengfa yanzang (正法眼蔵) proceeded from a dialogue to a gong’an. Literary sources of the work were studied by Ishii Shūdō. In his study, he investigated all dialogues in the work, counting 667. However, neither he nor follow researchers investigated alterations of these dialogues.

In this paper, I take up alterations of some dialogues in the work and consider whether Dahui retold these dialogues, and how important the role was that he played in the history of gong’an.

Examined of these dialogues, we find that the dialogue “Gone to a mountain of treasures, returned with empty hands” underwent remarkable alterations. Here, I point out the alterations of the dialogue and show influences of the work on the history of gong’an.