One who regards the 南泉 (Nánquán) gōng’àn as antinomianism is doctrinally confused, yet one who assigns feasibility to it is practically mistaken.

The study first unveils the pivotal role of the tathāgatagarbha and the central objective of “enlightening the mind and seeing the nature” (míngxīn-jiànxìng 明心見性). It then elaborates on the “two-tier scheme”—a metaethical structure suitable for explicating Chan philosophy. Following this, the study carefully analyzes three critical aspects of Chan morality: (1) The Chan attitude towards rules and precepts, which forms the practical basis for Chan ethics; (2) The characteristics and rationale of the spontaneous morality of enlightened beings; (3) Violence in Chan public cases (gōng’àn 公案), which transcends mundane ethics and epitomizes the great compassion of the Chan masters in transmitting the highest truth.