“That is the whole of the story,” my friend observed. “Now there is a
note about it in the _Mu-Mon-Kwan_ that may interest you. This note
says:--‘The fifth patriarch of the Zen sect once asked a priest,--”_In
the case of the separation of the spirit of the girl Ts’ing, which was
the true Ts’ing?_”’ It was only because of this question that the story
was cited in the book. But the question is not answered. The author only
remarks:--‘If you can decide which was the real Ts’ing, then you will
have learned that to go out of one envelope and into another is merely
like putting up at an inn. But if you have not yet reached this degree
of enlightenment, take heed that you do not wander aimlessly about the
world. Otherwise, when Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind shall suddenly be
dissipated, you will be like a crab with seven hands and eight legs,
thrown into boiling water. And in that time do not say that you were
never told about the _Thing_.’... Now the _Thing_--”
“I do not want to hear about the Thing,” I interrupted,--“nor about the
crab with seven hands and eight legs. I want to hear about the clothes.”
“What clothes?”
“At the time of their meeting, the two Ts’ings would have been
differently dressed,--very differently, perhaps; for one was a maid,
and the other a wife. Did the clothes of the two also blend together?
Suppose that one had a silk robe and the other a robe of cotton, would
these have mixed into a texture of silk and cotton? Suppose that one
was wearing a blue girdle, and the other a yellow girdle, would the
result have been a green girdle?... Or did one Ts’ing simply slip out
of her costume, and leave it on the ground, like the cast-off shell of a
cicada?”
“None of the texts say anything about the clothes,” my friend replied:
“so I cannot tell you. But the subject is quite irrelevant, from the
Buddhist point of view. The doctrinal question is the question of what I
suppose you would call the personality of Ts’ing.”
“And yet it is not answered,” I said.
“It is best answered,” my friend replied, “by not being answered.”
“How so?”
“Because there is no such thing as personality.”