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I would like to understand [this Zen
calligraphy](http://www.pal.shogakukan.co.jp/english/line_up/takuan/takuan.html):

                                                   ![hogejaku](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Hjzub.jpg)

I gather that it says "hōgejaku" and that this means something like "let it
go", "throw it away", "throw it down". According to [this
page](http://www12.canvas.ne.jp/horai/nembutsu-zen.htm), the kanji are 放下著,
but I find it hard to see the similarity, especially for the last one. The
first two do have _on_ readings of "hō" and "ge", respectively, and the New
Nelson character dictionary has the compound 放下 with reading "hōka" and
meaning "throwing down; juggling". The last one, however, appears to have
neither a reading "jaku", nor a meaning indicating an imperative.

[The page](http://www.pal.shogakukan.co.jp/english/line_up/takuan/takuan.html)
offering the calligraphy for sale says:

> The three characters of this print express the Zen principle of releasing
> all negative, selfish thoughts and emotions [...].

[This
book](http://books.google.de/books?id=E7f46sy64ksC&pg=PA34&lpg=PA34&dq=japanese%20jaku%20imperative&source=bl&ots=VnLzF5BUWf&sig=iPuWksyW4rG34GTBSSeREkfqmAU&hl=de&sa=X&ei=su-5T-OzJsjNswad9YXxBw&ved=0CFMQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=japanese%20jaku%20imperative&f=false)
says:

> In Japan's traditional interpretation of Zen, either grammatical markers
> appearing in Baihua were accepted in the form of Chinese or individual
> characters as grammatical markers were read in Japanese as follows: [...]
> -zhuo2 (Imperative): -jaku-seyo. This is ascribed to the fact that
> bilingualism was practiced at the Zen temples in Kamakura Gozan when Zen was
> imported to Japan.

A translation of [Shobogenzo Zuimonki](http://global.sotozen-
net.or.jp/common_html/zuimonki/03-01.html) relates the Zen connection as
follows:

> _Hoge_ in Japanese means to let go, throw away, give up, abandon, lay down,
> etc. Someone asked Joshu, “I have nothing. How is that?” Joshu replied,
> “Throw it away ( _hoge-jaku_ ).”

However, [this
book](http://books.google.de/books?id=hG4VLGd3yOkC&pg=PA83&lpg=PA83&dq=zen%20hogejaku&source=bl&ots=ATU9P6N9eE&sig=hpz1yjeqQJT-
ktp-VehiGE9-JW4&hl=de&sa=X&ei=Gha6T4_-G5DGtAbm-
bS3CA&ved=0CFgQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=zen%20hogejaku&f=false) gives a different
meaning:

> There is a Japanese Zen expression "Hogejaku". This expression is often
> interpreted as "to throw away or give up everything," implying from now on.
> But this isn't what it means. Rather, the meaning is that "everything has
> already fallen away or been thrown away," and it points to your condition
> right now.

I'd appreciate any information related to the expression, the calligraphy
and/or the Zen background; in particular:

  * How would you translate this phrase into English?
  * Which kanji are being used?
  * Is it an imperative, and if so, how is it being formed?
  * Is this something a present-day native Japanese speaker would readily understand?
  * Is there a "canonical" version of the associated Zen story?
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question
grammar translation kanji archaic-language imperatives
understanding hōgejaku -- an archaic imperative?
> How would you translate this phrase into English?

It would depend on context and what I was trying to say, but something like
"Throw it away!" I guess. (I am sure that Sekkei Harada had good reasons for
writing what he did, but this is the standard interpretation of the _surface_
meaning of what Joshu said -- telling a questioner who believed himself to be
free of attachments to discard his attachment to that belief.)

> Which kanji are being used?

I think in that particular piece it is written 放下着 (right to left). Why the
difference? 着 was actually originally a variant ("vulgar character", 俗字) of 著.
I understand that in mainland Chinese only 着 is used now. Separating them into
two separate characters with distinct meanings (and readings) was apparently a
Japanese innovation. [Some more info
here](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%9D%80#Usage_notes); my main source for
all this is my desktop kanji dictionary Kanji gen 漢字源 (ed. Todo 藤堂 et al,
Gakken 2002).

So, originally, 放下着 and 放下著 were just variant "spellings" of the same thing,
and that last character would have been pronounced /chaku/ (or "zháo/zhuó"
[depending on era, I think]) no matter how it was written. In modern Japanese
there is a stricter separation between 着 and 著, but since this isn't a modern
Japanese phrase -- in fact, it's arguably a three-character "word" that should
be left as it is -- you can see both spellings if you Google them. (Some are
from Chinese pages, of course.)

> Is it an imperative, and if so, how is it being formed?

It is an imperative made of 放下 ("discard") + 著 (roughly equivalent to Japanese
しまう if I understand it correctly). Because it's Chinese, not Japanese, there
isn't much in the way of morphology -- the bare verb is used as the imperative
form.

(Sidebar: I'm not sure if 放下 wouldn't be better analyzed as "discard" + "down"
-- that's clearly the etymology, but I don't know if by the time this sentence
was uttered these two characters had become one word.)

Soundwise, /ho:ge/ is the standard reading of 放下 when used as Zen jargon, and
/jaku/ is a voiced version of /chaku/, which is a standard reading of 著 (and
着).

> Is this something a present-day native Japanese speaker would readily
> understand?

They would definitely not be able to understand it from "first principles" --
they would probably know the word 放下, but adding 著 after a verb is not
meaningful in Japanese, so that would be confusing. Only people who had
learned it _as_ a set phrase, probably in the context of Zen Buddhism, would
understand it.

(Although, if it was read to them as 放下せよ, as in your second reference, they
would certainly understand that.)

> Is there a "canonical" version of the associated Zen story?

There are a few slightly different versions floating around. I'm not sure if
any particular one can be identified as the _locus classicus_. (At any rate,
_I_ can't make such an identification...) It does appear in the
[趙州録](http://iriz.hanazono.ac.jp/data/zenseki_121.html), and in the English
translation by James Green, The Recorded Sayings of Zen Master Joshu, it can
be found at #182:

> A monk asked, "What about it when I don't have anything?"  
> Joshu replied, "Throw it away."

There's also a footnote:

> In the Compendium of the Five Lamps (Wu-teng Hui-yuan; Goto Egen) the
> questioner was Yen-yang Tsun-su (Ganyo Sonshoku), who was one of the heirs
> of Chao-chou (Joshu). In the Compendium it is recorded that he goes on to
> say, "I do not have anything, what is there to throw away?" Chao-chou
> (Joshu) then said, "In that case, take it away with you." At these words
> Yen-yang was enlightened.

[Here's the Chinese original of one
version](http://taipei.ddbc.edu.tw/sutra/JB241_003.php), punctuated by me:

> 僧問趙州、一物不將來時如何。州云、放下著。僧云、一物不將來放下箇甚麼。州云、放不下擔取去。
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answer
In the initial pages of his Ore Giapponesi (English title: Meeting with Japan,
1961), Fosco Maraini mentions 'hoge jaku' and says that it can be translated
as 'lìberati dall'attaccamento alle cose inutili', roughly 'free yourself from
(get rid of) attachment to useless things'. I read the book 30 years ago and
still remember that expression and his translation.
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answer