Day of the High Road, 42nd of Spring, 525 M.E. (Atlas): In Volume 7, Chapter 490 of his expansive Eihei Koroku, Zen Master Eihei Dogen discusses the koan of Nanyue's first meeting with Huineng and provides his own rhetorical answers to Huineng's questions if he (Dogen) were Nanyue.  Dogen's statements provide an insight to his understanding of the meaning of the conversation. 

At the very beginning, when Huineng asks "Where are you from?," instead of saying "From Mt. Song," Dogen claims he would have said, "For a long time I have yearned for the atmosphere of the master's virtue. Arriving here to humbly make prostrations, I cannot bear how how deeply moved I feel."

When Huineng asks, "What is it that thus comes?," the question that stumped Nanyue for eight years, Dogen says he would simply have bowed and said, "This morning in late spring it is fairly warm, and I humbly wish the venerable master ten thousands joys in your activities."

Dogen's answers are not dodging the question as much as avoiding the trap of identifying with a specific ego-self separate from the rest of the universe. He does use the first-person singular in his answers, but only as needed to describe phenomena, e.g., yearning and humility. He is answering as an interconnected part of the universe, not a separate and specific ego-self with its own particular and unique history.

If asked to explain the meaning of Nanyue's eventual answer after eight years of contemplation, "To say it's a thing misses the mark," Dogen claims he would say, "Even though the reeds are young and green, these spring days the sunlight remains later, and I would like to build a grass hut."

As for Huineng's statement that "Just this that is undefiled is what is upheld and sustained by all the buddhas. You are thus. I also am thus," Dogen explains, "A blue lotus blossom opens toward the sun."