The Record of Linji (Linji lu, Japanese: Rinzai roku) arises from the late Tang dynasty, when Chan Buddhism had reached a mature and influential stage within Chinese religious life. Linji Yixuan, who died around 866, taught in a world where Chan was already a major movement, supported by the state and organized into substantial monastic networks. Several Chan “houses” or lineages were taking shape, and what would later be known as the Linji lineage was emerging among them. In this environment, Chan teachers emphasized direct pointing to the mind, sudden awakening, and a wariness of reliance on scriptures, themes that echo throughout the Record. Linji’s sharp shouts, blows, and paradoxical exchanges can be read as the distilled expression of this late Tang Chan ethos, in which conventional piety and attachment to forms were constantly being challenged.

The broader historical setting also includes the aftermath of the An Lushan Rebellion, which had weakened central authority and left a legacy of social and political instability. Within this unsettled world, the Chan insistence on immediate, unmediated awakening and on the sufficiency of one’s present mind took on a particular urgency. The Record reflects a Chan community negotiating its identity amid a sophisticated Buddhist culture that included scriptural schools and ritual traditions, even as it critiques overreliance on texts, images, and external authorities. Linji’s rhetoric of “killing the Buddha” and his dismissal of clinging to Buddha, Dharma, or practice can thus be seen as a polemical stance within this dense religious landscape, rather than a rejection of Buddhism as such.

The text itself was compiled after Linji’s death, likely in the period spanning the late Tang into the early Song, from remembered sermons, encounter dialogues, and biographical material. It belongs to the genre of “recorded sayings” (yulu), in which disciples and later editors gathered and shaped a master’s spoken teachings for transmission to future generations. This editorial process served the needs of Chan monasteries: preserving lineage identity, providing model dialogues, and codifying a distinctive style of teaching. The Record of Linji thus bears the marks of institutional Chan, with its lecture halls, abbots, and formal Dharma talks, even as it relentlessly mocks complacency and attachment within those very institutions.

As Chan historiography developed, the Linji lineage came to be recognized as one of the “Five Houses” of Chan, and the Record functioned as a kind of charter text for this house. It presents characteristic themes such as the “true person of no rank” and the “host/guest” dynamics, along with the uncompromising methods that later became emblematic of the Rinzai tradition. When the Linji lineage was transmitted to Japan, this text assumed a foundational role in what came to be called Rinzai Zen, shaping its rhetoric and practice. Read in this light, the Record of Linji stands at the confluence of a mature Chinese Chan culture and the emerging self-conscious identity of a lineage that would continue to influence East Asian Zen for centuries.