The Record of Linji stands out within the Chan/Zen corpus through its strikingly oral and performative character. Rather than presenting a systematic doctrinal treatise, it preserves the living voice of Linji Yixuan in sermons, encounters, and question‑and‑answer exchanges. The language is colloquial, vivid, and often coarse, conveying a sense of immediacy that differs from more polished or literary compositions. This dialogical structure gives the text a dynamic quality, as if the reader were eavesdropping on the training hall rather than studying a carefully arranged philosophical work.

What most readers notice first is the aggressive, confrontational style of teaching. Linji’s use of shouts, blows, insults, and sudden reversals functions as a kind of shock therapy aimed at cutting through conceptual thinking. The rhetoric can be harsh and even violent, yet it is consistently directed toward freeing students from dependence on ideas, authorities, and fixed positions. This intensity goes hand in hand with a radical critique of attachment to Buddha, Dharma, and practice themselves, epitomized in sayings that urge the practitioner to “kill the Buddha” if clung to as something external.

Doctrinally, the Record of Linji is marked by its emphasis on the “true person of no rank,” a phrase that encapsulates the innate, unconditioned reality present in each individual. Rather than encouraging reliance on ritual, gradual cultivation, or institutional structures, the text calls for direct recognition of this inherent capacity and fearless functioning in ordinary life. Linji’s teaching systematically deconstructs dualities such as Buddha and ordinary being, enlightenment and delusion, and undermines any attempt to turn even subtle notions of essence into something to grasp. The focus falls not on abstract metaphysics but on the actual functioning of this “person of no rank” in concrete situations.

In comparison with other Chan and Buddhist writings that lean heavily on scriptural citation, scholastic argument, or monastic regulations, the Record of Linji minimizes appeal to Indian sutras and formal doctrine. Its voice is self‑confident and iconoclastic, treating scriptural learning as secondary when it becomes an obstacle to direct realization. This combination of raw orality, rhetorical ferocity, and uncompromising insistence on immediate awakening helped shape a distinctive style of practice that later became emblematic of the Rinzai tradition, with its stress on breakthrough over gradual refinement and on direct encounter over textual study.