 Critics of Xuanxue condemned it as “dark,” because they judged it to be obfuscating and detrimental to the flourishing of the Way. They would use phrases like “dark words” (xuanyan) or “dark talk” (xuantan) in a pejorative sense, indicating that to them Xuanxue was nothing but empty talk, convoluted, mystifying and misguided. In these contexts, “xuan” may be translated as “abstruse,” “obscure,” or words to that effect. What this suggests is that uniform translation without regard to context might be ill advised. Grammatically the word xuan functions as a noun in “Xuanxue.” Perhaps “Learning in the Profound,” “Learning of the Mysterious Dao,” “Inquiry into the Profound” or similar renderings may be considered, though they seem rather bulky.