The misinterpretation in the first case of the Hekigan Rokul concerns the term "新羅" which was used by Engo in his remarks (T.E.T. 48, p.140a); in Chinese it bears a double meaning: "Korea" and a "new sieve".
Owing to ignorance concerning the second meaning, modern Zen scholars have been explaining it incorrectly and have obscured the gist of the Satori expressed in the whole case.
The phrase "箭過新羅" has already been established as a well-known proverb, even in the Buddhist Dictionary, which also gives the same incorrect explanation: "smc is located far to the east of China; if the arrow is shot to pass through faraway sma, who can know where it falls? This is a metaphor for something ,dth an unknown destination." Such an interpretation is a rather unfortunate mistake!
The German translation (Wilhelm Gundert, Bi Yön Lu, Carl Hanser Verlog, München 1960, p.38, n.l) explains that this is a proverb. Sma is located far to the east and to go towards Silla is to disappear in the ocean at the end :of the world.
The English translation of Case One of the Hekigan Roku (by Daisetsu T. Suzuki, in The Eastern Buddhist new series vol. 1, No.1, September 1965) the phrase is translated as "The arrow passed to Korea".
And the recent French translation (Michel Belloni, Pi Yen Lou, Tradudion de trois "Ccs" en Tch'an (Zen), Hermes, vol. vii, Paris 1970) also uses a similar expression to that of the German version.
All of these three translators, and others, probably didn't pay much attention to the context of Engo's comments, or, perhaps somebody made this error onlybecause Korea was dose to his country; therefore now, Zen scholars feel confident that the term "新羅" can be nothing else but "Korea". Or, they may think that the words of the Zen masters are always illogical and contradictory, and therefore it is needless to analyse the reason why they used such an expression. Unfortunately, their presupposition is not absolutely correct. As a matter of fact, Zen expressions also follow ineradicable principles; for example, in Case 14, we find that there are three principles: "Usually in the expressions of the Yun-men master, each sentence has three aspects (or principles), i.e. 'universal embracing', 'chasing after the strealI}s of convention' and 'cutting asunder all streams'." (T.E.T. 48, p.154b)
