The Record of Linji stands at the heart of Rinzai Zen because it preserves the living voice of Linji Yixuan, the patriarch from whom the school takes its very name. In its pages, one encounters his uncompromising emphasis on sudden enlightenment and direct pointing to Buddha‑nature, without reliance on scriptures or elaborate doctrinal systems. This text does not merely report ideas; it displays a distinctive way of cutting through conceptual thought, shaping how later generations understood what Rinzai awakening entails. As such, it functions as a kind of charter document, grounding the school’s identity in the founder’s own words and actions.

Equally important is the methodological framework that the Record sets forth. It captures Linji’s dramatic use of shouts, blows, and sharp, paradoxical exchanges as deliberate tools to jolt students into immediate realization. These encounter dialogues became models for the confrontational, “shock” style that came to characterize Rinzai training, contrasting with more gradual or purely literary approaches. Many of these exchanges later served as classical koans, so the text operates both as doctrinal source and as a practical manual for training.

Doctrinally, the Record articulates themes that became central to Rinzai thought, such as the “true person of no rank,” which points to an original nature beyond all social or conceptual labels. Linji’s fierce critique of clinging to Buddha, Dharma, practice, or stages of attainment reinforces the school’s stress on non‑attachment and the immediacy of insight. By insisting on a direct experience of one’s inherent Buddha‑nature, the text underscores the importance of seeing into one’s own nature and the nature of reality, rather than resting in second‑hand understanding.

Over time, the Record of Linji also provided institutional legitimacy and a touchstone for later Rinzai masters. As the collected sayings of the school’s founding figure, it offered both authority and a concrete model for how a Rinzai teacher should embody and transmit the Dharma. Its combination of doctrinal clarity, radical method, and vivid encounters allowed subsequent generations to measure their own practice and teaching against Linji’s example. In this way, the Record became not only a historical document but the enduring standard by which the Rinzai tradition recognizes its own face.