Zen in Ten: Give Me One Word

"Reality" Refuses to Remove Her Hat

The spirit of Shiji captured beautifully by Marcia Lieberman’s true artist’s eye! You can follow her on Instagram: @marcia1ieberman

1. Shiji (ca. 900) is a female ancestor whose name we chant during morning services at San Francisco Zen Center’s three temples. She is preceded in the list by Daoshen and followed by Zhi’an. There’s scant information about her life and teaching.

2. “Shiji, whose name means ‘reality,’ played a pivotal role in Juzhi’s (“One Finger Gutei”) training through her brief visit to his hermitage. Strong, silent, and thoroughly penetrating, she is a classic iron maiden: invulnerable, without need of relationship, and completely self-confident.”¹

3. We only know of her because she’s mentioned in the biographical information about Jinhua Juzhi/Gutei (9th century), a Chinese monk whom Shiji challenged to say “one word” about Zen otherwise she’d keep her hat on, which was a sign of disrespect.

4. Here is one version of the meeting between Shiji and Juzhi:

   The monk Jinhua Juzhi lived in a remote hermitage and begged for his food among the villagers. One rainy night a nun named Shiji came to his hut. She walked right in without knocking, and she did not take offer her sedge rain hat. She circled around his meditation seat three times, holding up her traveling staff.

   “Give me one word,” she said, “and I’ll take off my hat.”

   Juzhi said nothing.

   She circled around him three more times and asked the same question, but he had nothing to say. And again, she circled around him, asked her question, and he said nothing.

   As she went to the door, he said, “Wait! It’s late. Why don’t you stay here for the night?”

   Shiji said, “If you say the appropriate word, I’ll stay.”

   Again, Juzhi was speechless. The nun walked out.

   Juzhi sighed and said, “Although I inhabit the body of a man, I lack a man’s spirit.” He resolved to leave his hermitage in search of understanding. ²

5. Here is another version of the story: where Juzhi is referred to as a Chan master:

   A NUN named Shih Chi came (one day) to (Juzhi’s) temple, carrying
   a basket on her head and holding a staff in her hand. She circumambulated
   the master thrice, saying also thrice: “If you can say (something), I will
   take down the basket.” As the master could not say (anything), the nun
   left. The master said to her: “It is already late; why do you not stay (for
   a night)?” The nun replied: “If you can say (something), I will stay.”
   Again the master could not say (anything).

   After the nun had left, the master sighed and said to himself: “Although
   I am a man, I am lacking in manliness. It is better to leave this temple and
   go elsewhere in search of enlightened masters.”

   That night, the god of the mountain said to him: “You should not leave this place; a real flesh-and-blood Bodhisattva is coming.”

   Later, when T'ien Lung arrived at the temple, the master received
   him with reverence. To teach him, T'ien Lung raised a finger and the
   master was instantly awakened. Since then, when students came for
   instruction, the master only raised a finger and did not give any other
   instruction.³

6. “This nun tested her understanding by challenging Zen monks (and perhaps nuns) she encountered in remote hermitages. Juzhi, tongue-tied, could not bring forth a word of Zen. He was a man and his challenger was a woman, but he could not show the true Zen he-man spirit, which she could. . . . But Juzhi was honest with himself about his deficiencies, and he was fair-minded. He was willing to learn from this visiting nun whom he saw as his Dharma senior.”⁴

7. “This is a fairly standard trope in Zen stories: a woman challenges a sutra master, and as a result of this encounter, he realizes that the sutras got him nowhere and he resolves to find a true Zen teacher.”⁵

8. “We’ve all been stuck like Juzhi. Speechless. Unable to act. We’ve all been sitting in our metaphoric huts when suddenly—boom!—reality appears. What’s being asked of Juzhi? What kind of word? Shiji isn’t telling. This is terrifying! We want a hint; we always want a hint. We want to know what’s expected of us so we can deliver it. But Shiji gives no hint.”⁶

9. My verse: “Woman or man, stone or wooden, the speechless one’s shout permeates everywhere.”

10. Marcia’s verse: “Entering, spinning around Juzhi, speech and speechless, hat and hatless. What was made visible?”

1. Schireson, Grace. Zen Women: Beyond Tea Ladies, Iron Maidens, and Macho Masters. Somerville, MA, Wisdom Publications, 2009.

2. Caplow, Florence and Susan Moon. The Hidden Lamp. Boston, Wisdom Publications, 2013.

3. Luk, Charles. Ch'an and Zen Teaching, Series One. Rider & Co., London, 1960.

4. Schireson, Grace.

5. Caplow, Florence and Susan Moon.

6. Ibid.