This article attempts to explain Ta-hui Tsung-Kao(大慧宗杲: 1089-1163)’s critical view on the learning with words and letters. Ta-hui criticizes the various attitudes regarding language in Scholar Officials' Learning as well as Ch'an in his time. Ta-hui's criticism targets not only the learner's clinging to but also the abandoning of words and letters. He especially criticizes the learner's dependence on language as characterized in the study of wentzu ch’an (文字禪), kungan ch’an (公案禪) and literary learning (文章學). However, the actual focus of his criticism is not on language itself but on the learner's attitude toward language. He believes that “seeing the perfect self-nature” (見性) is the root (本) of Ch’an practice, and that clinging to words and letters is the end (末) of it. He also believes that the learner's subjective use of words and letters leads to good (正) learning while clinging to them results in false (邪) learning. The gist of Ta-hui's views on language is as follows: first, language is a tool to be utilized; second, the function of language should be conceived positively, without overlooking the possibility of learner’s dependence on it. It may be called as the “the middle way of language” (言語 中道). Ta-hui’s “middle way of language” is the succession of the Buddhist common view on language and the realization of the original spirit of the phrase “not to build letters” (不立文字).

This article attempts to explain Ta-hui Tsung-Kao(大慧宗杲: 1089-1163)’s critical view on the learning with words and letters. Ta-hui criticizes the various attitudes regarding language in Scholar Officials' Learning as well as Ch'an in his time. Ta-hui's criticism targets not only the learner's clinging to but also the abandoning of words and letters. He especially criticizes the learner's dependence on language as characterized in the study of wentzu ch’an (文字禪), kungan ch’an (公案禪) and literary learning (文章學). However, the actual focus of his criticism is not on language itself but on the learner's attitude toward language. He believes that “seeing the perfect self-nature” (見性) is the root (本) of Ch’an practice, and that clinging to words and letters is the end (末) of it. He also believes that the learner's subjective use of words and letters leads to good (正) learning while clinging to them results in false (邪) learning. The gist of Ta-hui's views on language is as follows: first, language is a tool to be utilized; second, the function of language should be conceived positively, without overlooking the possibility of learner’s dependence on it. It may be called as the “the middle way of language” (言語 中道). Ta-hui’s “middle way of language” is the succession of the Buddhist common view on language and the realization of the original spirit of the phrase “not to build letters” (不立文字).