Editing Openai/6913bc28-779c-8001-ac46-e9542d91fa75 (section)

===== (2) 不貧 (bù pín) and 只是守貧 (zhǐ shì shǒu pín) =====

: “Not poor” … “only clinging to poverty.”
* 不貧 = “not poor,” plain but absolute — existentially complete.
* When pressed (“Then why does he seek the Master?”), Zhaozhou flips the key word into 守貧 (“guarding/keeping poverty”). - 守 implies holding, keeping, maintaining — i.e., attachment. - The supposed “poor man” guards his idea of poverty — he is attached even to his emptiness.

→ This introduces a second layer of wordplay:
being “not poor” ≠ having possessions, but freedom from the self-image of lack.
“Guarding poverty” = turning emptiness itself into another possession.