Baling Haojian

Baling Haojian was a student of Yunmen Wenyan who inherited his teacher's gift for extraordinary verbal precision. He is known for three famous answers that became important koans: when asked "What is the Blade of the Dharmakaya?" he said, "The coral branches embrace the moon." When asked "What is the Way?" he said, "A bright-eyed person falls into a well." When asked "What is the School of Yunmen?" he said, "Turning the Dharma wheel on the tip of a brush."

These responses exemplify the Yunmen school's distinctive contribution to Chan—the capacity to express awakened understanding through language of such compressed beauty that the words themselves become gateways to realization. Each answer is a complete teaching, requiring no elaboration but inviting infinite contemplation.