Whom did P'ang go to visit? He seems to have known personally every major Ch'an figure in China. The first master visited was the famous Shih-t'ou (700-790), sometime rival of Ma-tsu. (It will be recalled that the Sixth Patriarch, Hui-neng, had among his disciples a master called Huai-jang (677-744), teacher of Ma-tsu and head of the lineage of now Japanese Rinzai. Another of the Sixth Patriarch's legendary followers was Hsing-ssu [d. 740], whose pupil Shih-t'ou is connected to the line that became Japanese Soto. Ma-tsu and Shih-t'ou headed the two major movements of Southern Ch'an in the eighth century.)4 In 786 P'ang appeared at the retreat of Shih-t'ou on the mountain called Nan-yueh. He greeted Shih-t'ou by asking him one of the standard Ch'an questions, which Shih-t'ou answered by quietly placing a hand over P'ang's mouth-- causing the Layman's first enlightenment experience. P'ang studied under Shih-t'ou--although probably in a nonmonastic capacity--for some time, until one day Shih-t'ou decided to test him. "Tell me," began Shih-t'ou, "how have you practiced Ch'an after coming here to this mountain?" P'ang shot back in a characteristic manner, saying, "There is really nothing words can reveal about my daily life." Shih-t'ou continued, "It is just because I know words cannot that I ask you now." At this, P'ang was moved to offer a verse: _My daily activities are not unusual, I'm just naturally in harmony with them. Grasping nothing, discarding nothing, In every place there's no hindrance, no conflict. [My] supernatural power and marvelous activity: Drawing water and carrying firewood.(5) _ The declaration that drawing water and carrying firewood were miraculous acts demonstrated P'ang's understanding of "everyday- mindedness"--the teaching of no-teaching, the approach of no-approach.6 The story says that Shih-t'ou acknowledged the Layman's enlightenment, and went on to inquire whether P'ang wished to exchange his pauper's robe of white for a monk's raiment of black. P'ang reputedly answered him with an abrupt "I will do what I like." Apparently concluding that he had absorbed all of Shih-t'ou's teaching, P'ang arose and absented himself, heading for Kiangsi and the master Ma-tsu. P'ang's adventures with Ma-tsu are not particularly well recorded, given the two years he reportedly studied under the master. However, the account of their meeting has become a Ch'an standard. According to the story, P'ang asked Ma-tsu, "What kind of man is he who has no companion among all things?" Ma-tsu answered, "After you swallow all the water in the West River in one gulp, I will tell you." It is said that when P'ang heard this, he was suddenly aware of the essence of Ch'an.7 If this exchange seems puzzling, with its subtle wordplay that weaves in and out between realism and symbolism, what about another recorded exchange between the two: