Breaking out of Symbology

A monk asked Ts'ui-wei, "For what reason did the First Patriarch come from the West?"

Ts'ui-wei answered, "Pass me that chin-rest."

As soon as the monk passed it, Ts'ui-wei hit him with it.

Another master was having tea with two of his students when he suddenly tossed his fan to one of them, saying, "What's this?"

The student opened it and fanned himself. "Not bad," was his comment. "Now you," he went on, passing it to the other student, who at once closed the fan and scratched his neck with it. This done, he opened it again, placed a piece of cake on it, and offered it to the master. This was considered even better, for when there are no names the world is no longer "classified in limits and bounds."

There is, no doubt, some parallel between these demonstrations and the viewpoint of Korzybskian semantics. There is the same stress on the importance of avoiding confusion between words and signs, on the one hand, and the infinitely variable "unspeakable" world, on the other. Class demonstrations of semantic principles often resemble types of mondo. Professor Irving Lee, of Northwestern University, used to hold up a matchbox before his class, asking "What's this?" The students would usually drop squarely into the trap and say, "A matchbox!" At this Professor Lee would say, "No, no! It's this-" throwing the matchbox at the class, and adding, "Matchbox is a noise. Is this a noise?"