Only One Shoe in an Empty Coffin:

　　Where Is the Patriarch

　　空棺只鞋　祖師何在

　　Those who heard his tale retorted, "Patriarch Bodhidharma

　　 You must have seen a ghost! Patriarch Bodhidharma is already dead. He was buried in such and such a place. How could you have met him

　　" No one believed Song Yun”s story. "He is already dead, how could you have met him

　　 Let”s go together and dig up his grave." When they arrived at the grave, they said, "He had already been dead a long time when you say you saw him. Is it possible that he did not die after all

　　"

　　So they dug up Patriarch Bodhidharma”s grave and opened the coffin. It was empty. There was nothing inside but one shoe. Since Patriarch Bodhidharma had taken one shoe with him, only one shoe remained in the coffin.

　　這些人說：“達摩祖師？喲！你真見鬼了，他早就死了嘛！墳就在某個地方呢！你怎麼會碰見他？”大家都不相信宋雲講的話。“他已經死了，你怎麼會遇著他？我們去把他的墳打開看看。”到了那兒，說：“他死了很久，你又看見他，莫非他沒有死？”于是就打開達摩祖師的墳，打開一看，棺材裏什麼也沒有，空空如也，只剩一只鞋。因爲達摩祖師拿走了一只，所以棺材裏只剩一只鞋。

　　Well, where did Patriarch Bodhidharma go

　　 No one knows. Perhaps he came to America. It”s not for sure. But no one would recognize him, because he can change his appearance at will. He goes through thousands of transformations and myriad changes according to his convenience. When he reached China he said he was one hundred and fifty years old, and when he left he said he was still one hundred and fifty years old. Where did he go

　　 No one knows. You may suggest that we look it up in the historical records, but no historical references can be found. This has been a general discussion of Patriarch Bodhidharma”s life in China.

　　那麼究竟達摩祖師到什麼地方去了？以後就沒有人知道，說不定現在到美國來，也不一定。不過沒人認識他，他可以改頭換面，隨便千變萬化的。他到中國時，就說是一百五十歲，走了還是一百五十歲；到什麼地方去？沒有人知道。說是去考察曆史，曆史上也沒有這些個問題，沒有地方可以考據。這是達摩祖師一生到中國的大概經過。