Etymology
The Japanese term kōan is the on'yomi Sino-Japanese reading of Chinese gong'an (Chinese: 公案; pinyin: gōng'àn; Wade–Giles: kung-an; literally "public case"), which means "(complicated) legal case; table to hold documents of a case; (Buddhist) koan (knotty problem in Zen); (traditional) detective stories; a much discussed issue; a sensational affair." This word compounds gong (公) "public affairs; official duties; common; collective; fair; impartial; make public" and an (案) "(archeology) rectangular stand for supporting wine vessels; table; desk; (law) case; record; file."
According to the Yuan Dynasty Zen master Zhongfeng Mingben (中峰明本 1263–1323), gōng'àn abbreviates gōngfǔ zhī àndú (公府之案牘, Japanese kōfu no antoku – literally the andu "official correspondence; documents; files" of a gongfu "government post"), which referred to a "public record" or the "case records of a public law court" in Tang-dynasty China. Kōan/gong'an thus serves as a metaphor for principles of reality beyond the private opinion of one person, and a teacher may test the student's ability to recognize and understand that principle.
Commentaries in kōan collections bear some similarity to judicial decisions that cite and sometimes modify precedents. An article by T. Griffith Foulk claims
...Its literal meaning is the 'table' or 'bench' an of a 'magistrate' or 'judge' kung.Gong'an was itself originally a metaphor — an article of furniture that came to denote legal precedents. For example, Di Gong'an (狄公案) is the original title of Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee, the famous Chinese detective novel based on a historical Tang dynasty judge. Similarly, Zen kōan collections are public records of the notable sayings and actions of Zen disciples and masters attempting to pass on their teachings.
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