Xuedou's "Ox Passes Through"
A monk asked Master Xuedou, "
When the ten thousand things return to the One, where does the One return to?" Xuedou replied,
"When I was in Qingzhou I made a cloth shirt. It weighed seven *jin*."
Reflection
Xuedou's response to the metaphysical question 'Where does the one return to?' is a mundane fact about a cloth shirt weighing seven jin. The answer deliberately refuses to engage with the abstract framework, grounding the inquiry in the material world. Like Zhaozhou's cypress tree, the shirt points to ultimate truth found in simple, tangible objects of daily life.