Sometimes the masters sit quiet “for some little while” 良久 (_liang chiu_) either in response to a question or when in the pulpit. This _liang-chiu_ does not always merely indicate the passage of time, as we can see in the following cases: A monk came to Shuzan (Shou-shan) and asked,[6.53] “Please play me a tune on a stringless harp.” The master was quiet for some little while, and said, “Do you hear it?” “No, I do not hear it.” “Why,” said the master, “did you not ask louder?” A monk asked Hofuku (Pao-fu),[6.54] “I am told that when one wants to know the path of the uncreate, one should know the source of it. What is the source, sir?” Hofuku was silent for a while, and then asked his attendant, “What did the monk ask me now?” When that monk repeated the question, the master ejected him out, exclaiming, “I am not deaf!” * * * * * Next, we may mention the method of counter-questioning, wherein questions are not answered by plain statements but by counter-questionings. In Zen, generally speaking, a question is not a question in its ordinary sense, that is, it is not simply asked for information, and therefore it is natural that what ordinarily corresponds to an answer is not an answer at all. Some Zen authority enumerates eighteen different kinds of questions, against which we may distinguish eighteen corresponding answers. Thus a counter-question itself is in its way an illuminating answer. A monk requested Jimyo (Tzŭ-ming) to “set forth the idea of Dharma’s coming from the west,” and the master said, “When did you come?”[6.55] When Rasan Dokan (Lo-shan Tao-hsien) was asked, “Who is the master of the triple world?” he said, “Do you understand how to eat rice?”[6.56] Tenryu (T‘ien-lung), the teacher of Gutei, was hailed by a monk who asked him,[6.57] “How are we released from the triple world?” He retorted, “Where are you this very moment?” A monk asked Jōshu, “What would you say when a man is without an inch of cloth on him?” “What did you say he has not on him?” “An inch of cloth on him, sir.” “Very fine this, not to have an inch of cloth!” responded the master.[6.58]