Editing Openai/6913bc28-779c-8001-ac46-e9542d91fa75 (section)

=== Assistant: Beautiful find — yes, that’s another variant of the same motif, but with subtle wordplay. ===
Beautiful find — yes, that’s another variant of the same motif, but with subtle wordplay.
Here’s a careful translation and breakdown:

===== : =====

===== 1. 問：「貧子來，將什麼過與？」 >  - “過與” (guò yǔ) literally means to pass over and give, or to hand across — same sense as “give him something,” but more fluid or gracious in tone. =====
# 師云：「不貧。」 >  - Literally “not poor” (不貧). - Same idea as before (“not lacking”), but terser and more absolute.
# 云：「爭奈覓和尚何？」 >  - “爭奈…何” is a classical phrase meaning “how to explain” or “how can [this be handled]?” — here, “If he’s not poor, why does he seek you, Master?”
# 師云：「只是守貧。」 >  - “守貧” literally means “to guard poverty,” “to cling to being poor,” or “to abide in poverty.” - The nuance is paradoxical: although “not poor” in truth, he clings to a self-concept of poverty — a subtle diagnosis of attachment.

===== - “貧子來” — same opening as the other version, but now Zhaozhou turns the dialogue into a critique of seeking. =====
* When the monk presses (“then why does he seek you?”), Zhaozhou exposes that “poverty” isn’t material but mental: one “guards” their own lack by identifying with it.
* The whole exchange plays with 貧 (poverty) as a metaphor for emptiness — the enlightened one neither lacks nor clings to non-lack.

So together with the “不欠少” case, these form a subtle pair:
one emphasizes innate sufficiency, the other warns against clinging even to poverty itself.