無根鐵樹 Iron Trees Without Roots Flower
此般君子，怎生接引？這等規模，如何印授？必須要檢點見前面目，靜中自有生涯。沒底竹籃汲水，無根鐵樹生花。靈寶峰頭牢著腳，歸來雅會上龍華。」此般君子，怎生接引？这等规模，如何印授？必须要检点见前面目，静中自有生涯。没底竹篮汲水，无根铁树生花。灵宝峰头牢着脚，归来雅会上龙华。」
逐句解 Line by line
"How is a gentleman of that sort to be led on?
君子 takes zǐ, the bookish compound, against the everyday zi of 獅子 two segments before. The two sit thirty-seven characters apart, and the difference between them is the whole of the corpus rule for this character.
"By what pattern is such a one to be given the seal?
規模 takes mó. Kāngxī, under the wood radical at eleven strokes, records only 莫胡切, sounding like 謨, and 蒙晡切, sounding like 摹, and quotes 徐曰 at 以木爲規模也 — this very compound — so the value is the dictionary's own. The mú of 模樣 exists by registration alone. 印授 is the handing of the seal from master to disciple, the formal transmission of a lineage.
"You must look to the face that stands before you; within stillness there is a livelihood of its own.
見前面目 is the Chan formula for one's original face — what you had before you were born — turned here into an instruction. He is answering Chan with Chan.
"A bottomless bamboo basket drawing water; a rootless iron tree putting out flowers.
沒 is méi, the negative of having, not the mò of sinking. Both halves name a standing impossibility, and both are made of the speaker's own materials: a bamboo basket and a tree.
"Plant your feet firmly on the peak of Numinous Treasure, and come back to take your seat at the Dragon-Flower assembly."
著 is zhuó at 牢著腳, the value for placing and fixing rather than the ongoing-action zhe. 華 is huá in 龍華, the Dragon-Flower assembly at which Maitreya will preach, against the huà it took at 華岳 earlier in the chapter.
Having demolished the pilgrimage, the Cloud-Brusher offers a replacement, and the replacement is Chan. Look to the face that stands before you; find your living within stillness. These are not Daoist formulas at all. He has spent the whole speech attacking a foreign teaching and he ends by prescribing it.
The two impossibilities in the fourth segment are the pivot. A bottomless basket that draws water and a rootless iron tree that flowers are the standard Chan figures for what cannot be done and is done anyway — and it is worth noticing that a bamboo basket and a tree are both made of the speaker. He is using himself as the material of the metaphor.
The last line goes further still. The Dragon-Flower assembly is where Maitreya will preach when he comes, and a tree spirit has just told a Buddhist monk to come back and take his seat there. Whether this is generosity, mockery, or a confusion the speaker does not notice in himself, the chapter does not say — and the next passage suggests that at least one of his colleagues thinks he has said too much.