This chapter examines the role of the rhetoric of “uncertainty” that was generated in the voluminous koan collections of Zen Buddhism composed and catalogued during the cultural heights of Song dynasty China, as seen in relation to some key aspects of the movement of literary modernism as representations of comparable trends in Western thought. It analyzes the role of the evaluative form of koan commentary presented in the Blue Cliff Record and related texts from the era. The notion of uncertainty as an innovative interpretative tool for deconstructing each and every standpoint put forth indicates that the Blue Cliff Record endorses indeterminacy on experiential and literary levels as the key to undergoing enlightenment. The Blue Cliff Record is especially buoyant and optimistic that each and every person has the potential to develop the skill or knack for attaining and conveying insight, and is thereby able to become an adept in his or her own way.
