The Record of Linji

The Linjilu (Record of Linji or LJL) is one of the foundational texts of Chan/Zen Buddhist literature, and an accomplished work of baihua (vernacular) literature. This bracing new translation transmits the LJL's living expression of Zen's "personal realization of the meaning beyond words," as interpreted by ten commentaries produced by Japanese Zen monks, over a span of over four centuries, ranging from the late 1300s, when Five-Mountains Zen flourished in Kyoto and Kamakura, through the early 1700s, an age of thriving interest in the LJL.