Introduction to the Five Schools of Zen by Xuánjiàn

Pointing directly, single transmission, from the start without complication. Who dares to proclaim the unspoken marvel of the Five Schools? Over time, as the Dharma aged, flaws emerged, giving rise to deviant paths. Thus, those of the Five Houses who clung to doorways and leaned on walls devised systems like the Five Positions of Ruler and Minister, the Four Categories of Selection, the Three Barriers and Nine Threads, and the Ten Wisdoms Sharing the True. Each established their own gate, each echoing the other. Though these frameworks served their time, who knew that later generations of descendants would fall, one by one, into a forest of towering thorns—branch entangling branch, vine leading to vine.

I, a humble mountain dweller, am ashamed that I cannot, with a single earth-shattering shout, act as a loyal servant to the Buddhas and Patriarchs, burning all these old nests to ashes. Instead, I now take these seven hundred worn-out vines and turn them over once more, adding legs to a painted snake. In the eyes of the clear-sighted, this is like seeing ghosts in broad daylight—a folly impossible to hide.