Linji Yixuan, d. 866 CE · Recorded by Huiran · 鎮州臨濟慧照禪師語錄

The Record of Linji.

The recorded sayings (語錄) of Linji Yixuan, founder of the Linji — Japanese Rinzai — school of Chan: sharp, often wordless exchanges with students, sermons on "the true person of no rank" who goes in and out through everyone's face, the instruction to "kill the Buddha" you meet, the four shouts and the fourfold scheme of guest and host, and the biographical record of Linji's own training under Huangbo — three questions, three beatings, and an awakening that turned those beatings inside out. The first text of the "recorded sayings" genre on this site, translated in full across seven parts.

Browse the 7 parts → Translation notes →

How to read this collection

This text is a small, dense collection by the standards of this site — roughly 16,500 Chinese characters — but it is the first genre of "recorded sayings" (語錄) on this site, distinct from every sūtra and treatise translated so far: dialogue and blunt pedagogical shock rather than sustained doctrinal exposition. This collection follows the text's own traditional four-part division — sermons in the dharma hall (上堂), an extended evening instruction to the assembly (示眾), short testing encounters (勘辨), and the biographical record of Linji's own life (行錄) — splitting the long 示眾 section into three parts and the 行錄 into two, for seven parts in total.

Linji's own rhetoric is blunt, colloquial Tang-dynasty vernacular Chinese mixed with sharp Chan idiom. This translation resists the temptation to smooth it into philosophical prose: where he shouts, the translation says he shouted, not that he "expressed the futility of conceptualization"; where a monk hesitates and is struck with no further explanation given in the source, the translation leaves it exactly that abrupt. Reading notes are where explanation belongs — never smuggled into the translation itself.

What each page includes

The Chinese source text beside our English translation, verified against the base text for full coverage, including every short exchange.
Reading notes drawn from Zhizhao's Song-dynasty Rentian Yanmu (人天眼目, T2006) wherever it directly annotates a passage — the four shouts, the fourfold guest and host, the three statements, and the fourfold scheme of taking away; Ru-Yi Meditation Center's own notes elsewhere.
Cross-references to this site's other Chan texts — the Platform Sūtra, Xinxin Ming, and Song of Enlightenment — wherever a genuine doctrinal echo appears.

7 of 7 parts published — the series is complete

14,500 of the record’s 16,500 characters quoted, each quoted passage translated in full

T1985 the base text, recorded by Linji's disciple Huiran

The Text's Own Structure

This text follows the traditional four-part division long used for Linji's record: formal sermons ascending the teaching hall, a long evening instruction to the assembly, short testing encounters with fellow masters and students, and a biographical record of Linji's own life and training, appended at the end and closing with an epitaph by his dharma-heir Yanzhao.

Part 1

上堂 — Ascending the Hall

Eight formal sermons: Linji's first shout, "the true person of no rank," a monk called a dry shit-stick, and the opening of the three statements and three mysteries.

Part 1 · complete

Parts 2–4

示眾 — Instructions to the Assembly

The great evening instruction, split across three parts: the fourfold scheme of taking away, "if you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha," the fourfold guest and host, and the five deeds of unbroken retribution turned entirely inward.

Parts 2–4 · complete

Part 5

勘辨 — Testing and Discernment

Roughly twenty short, often wordless contests with fellow masters, students, and the eccentric monk Puhua — the four kinds of shout, and Puhua's extraordinary death inside his own coffin.

Part 5 · complete

Parts 6–7

行錄 — The Record of His Life

Linji's own training: three questions and three beatings under Huangbo, awakening at Dayu's side, journeys across the Tang-dynasty Chan world, and his death beside his student Sansheng.

Parts 6–7 · complete

Read by Part

All seven parts are translated. Each links to the full bilingual text with reading notes.

Part 1 · 上堂 Ascending the Hall Part 2 · 示眾（一） The Fourfold Scheme, and Seeking Nothing Outside Part 3 · 示眾（二） If You Meet the Buddha, Kill the Buddha Part 4 · 示眾（三） The Robe Is Not the Wearer Part 5 · 勘辨 Testing and Discernment Part 6 · 行錄（一） Three Questions, Three Beatings Part 7 · 行錄（二） Journeys and Death

Translation Notes

Recurring terms, kept consistent across all seven parts. See the full translation notes for the complete glossary and structural breakdown, and also this site's note on translation method.

喝 — shoutRendered as a plain narrated shout ("the master shouted"), never described or softened — the abruptness is the teaching device, not something for the translation to explain away.

無位真人 — the true person of no rankOutside the entire scheme of ranked bodhisattva stages, already fully present in "this lump of red flesh." First taught in Part 1.

道流 — followers of the WayLinji's constant term of address to his listeners, kept literal throughout rather than softened to a generic "friends" or "monks."

山僧 — this mountain monkLinji's own self-reference, kept as a fixed third-person phrase to preserve the same register of humility-with-edge that runs through the Chinese.

三玄三要 — three mysteries and three essentialsAlong with the three statements, four shouts, fourfold guest and host, and fourfold scheme of taking away, one of five formulas later tradition systematized as core Linji-house doctrine — annotated here from Zhizhao's Rentian Yanmu (T2006).

行錄 — the record of his lifeThe biographical/travel record appended at the end, translated across Parts 6–7, closing with the epitaph of Linji's dharma-heir Yanzhao.