乾屎橛 “a shit-wiping stick”
Case 3, p. 138As in the Mumonkan, Blyth prints the coarse koan-object at full strength where a gentler hand would reach for a euphemism.
What Blyth got right
This audit reads Blyth's eight Zen books against the dictionary. Of 171 passages weighed, 123 come out faithful; 41 carry a grounded divergence and 7 stay unresolved. The lead finding is not a mistranslation but a non-translation, and across the oeuvre it is the spine. The faithful renderings are the other half of the tally, and this page ships with the same prominence as the case pages. Several match the dictionary's own preferred reading word for word; within the divergent cases, the neighbouring renderings are routinely faithful, which is what makes the divergent word each time a choice rather than a habit of carelessness. Below are the documented faithful renderings, gathered straight from the coverage ledgers.
不落因果 “Not falling, not darkening”
Case 2, p. 53In the same case's verse Blyth renders the paired 不落不昧 squarely inside the band, which is what makes the koan-line choice a choice.
胡子 “the Western Barbarian”
Case 4, p. 64Attested band: “the western foreigner” · “the man from the West” · “the western barbarian”
Verbatim in the band, and his Bodhidharma identification is the entry's own. Settled 2026-07-21.
教外別傳 “a special transmission outside the scriptures”
Case 6, p. 78This exact wording is Blyth's commentary gloss on p.78; the koan line on p.76 reads 'beyond all teaching as a special transmission'. The neighbouring members of the very transmission formula are rendered faithfully; only 涅槃妙心 is recast.
孤貧 “I am a poor destitute monk”
Case 10, p. 98The case line itself is inside the band and is faithful; only Blyth's reading on the following pages leaves it.
惺惺著 “Awake! Awake!”
Case 12, p. 107In the same commentary Blyth renders the imperative plainly, and renders Rinzai's 無位真人 as 'Real Man of undefined status', a person, not a Self.
末後句 “the last word”
Case 13, p. 116Verbatim the attested alternate ('the last word of Zen', in his commentary).
趙州戴草鞋 “took off his shoe, put it on his head”
Case 14, p. 121With 草鞋 honoured in his own footnote.
七條 “seven-piece robe”
Case 16, p. 132Attested band: “the seven-strip robe” · “the seven-panel robe” · “the seven-strip kāṣāya”
Tracks the strip-count inside the band. Settled 2026-07-21.
麻三斤 “Three pounds of flax”
Case 18, pp. 143-144'Three pounds' is the attested alternate verbatim.
平常心是道 “Your ordinary mind,—that is the Way”
Case 19, p. 147Inside the band; the case's fame rests on his phrase.
妄覺 “Knowing is illusion”
Case 19, pp. 147-148Attested band: “delusive awareness” · “false awareness” · “mistaken knowing”
a faithful neighbour inside a divergent caseInside the band at the sentence level; a compression, not a departure. Settled 2026-07-21.
乾屎橛 “a shit-wiping stick”
Case 21, p. 158Rendered at full strength, on the attested referent, where a coarser hand would reach for a euphemism. The symmetric audit cuts both ways and Blyth wins this one outright.
倒却門前剎竿著 “Knock down the flagpole at the gate”
Case 22, p. 164His commentary independently supplies the attested 'signal' sense.
不思善不思惡 “Do not think, ‘This is good !’ ‘This is bad !’”
Case 23, p. 170The neighbouring injunction in the same koan is rendered squarely.
不是心不是佛不是物 “It is not mind; it is not Buddha; it is not things.”
Case 27, p. 193Near word-for-word with the attested alternate.
良馬見鞭影 “A high-class horse moves at even the shadow of the whip”
Case 32, p. 223Attested band: “a good horse moves at the sight of the whip's shadow” · “a fine horse runs on seeing the whip's shadow”
Settled 2026-07-21.
非心非佛 “Not mind, not Buddha”
Case 33, p. 228Exact match to the dictionary's preferred reading.
覓心了不可得 “I have searched for that mind, and have not found it”
Case 41, p. 269Bodhidharma's mind-pacification line, rendered plainly.
他是阿誰 “who is this "Another"?”
Case 45, p. 291Attested band: “who is he?” · “who is that?”
The interrogative sits inside the band; the capital A is recorded as a register note, not charged. Settled 2026-07-21.
百尺竿頭進步 “go on further from the top of a hundred-foot pole”
Case 46, p. 297Inside the band.
脫生死 “free from life, free from death”
Case 47, pp. 302-303Attested band: “be free of birth and death” · “escape birth and death” · “be free of life and death”
Inside the band's third member. Settled 2026-07-21.
無 “No!”
Case 4, p. 1Attested band: “the word 'no'” · “Zhaozhou's 'no'” · “the 'no' case”
The cross-oeuvre knew-better for the Mumonkan flagship. In 1942 Blyth rendered Zhaozhou's answer into plain English: "A monk said to Joshu, 'Has this dog the Buddha-nature or not?' Joshu replied 'No!'" By the 1966 Mumonkan he left the same word as the Japanese sound "Mu."
凡夫即佛 “An ordinary man is a Buddha”
Case 1, p. 116The paired clause in the very same line is rendered squarely inside its sense, which is what makes the recast of the second clause a choice.
水牯牛 “Water Buffalo”
Case 13, p. 31Attested band: “a water buffalo” · “the water buffalo”
Blyth's own faithful rendering of the very species he later prints as "cow" and "ox": in the same volume he writes that Nanquan "called himself Water Buffalo." The buffalo was in his hand.
Where a coarse koan invites a euphemism, Blyth prints 乾屎橛 as “a shit-wiping stick” at full strength (Case 21). The symmetric audit cuts both ways. The dictionary is held to the same standard it holds Blyth to; the method page states it plainly.