"Where have you just come from?"
"I have just left Shui-hsiang [named for a famous state of Buddha]."
"Have you seen the standing image of Buddha?"
"What I see is not a standing image of Buddha but a supine Enlightened One!"
"Are you your own master or not?"
"Yes, I am. [i.e., I already have a master.]"
"Where is this master of yours?"
"In the middle of the winter the weather becomes bitterly cold. I wish all blessings on you, sir."
At this, Nan-ch'uan decided that this visitor was promising and permitted him to become his disciple.13
Chao-chou's strange answer seems to have been his own way of signifying he had chosen Nan-ch'uan as his future master. Nan-ch'uan, for his own part, seems to have recognized in this quizzical repartee all the makings of a great Ch'an worthy.