Buddhism · Texts & transmission
A dated Diamond Sutra demonstrates Buddhist printing
868 CE
A woodblock-printed Chinese Diamond Sutra carries a date of 868. Preserved among the Dunhuang finds and now held by the British Library, it provides unusually precise evidence for Buddhist print culture. The artifact belongs to a much longer history of the scripture’s transmission.
Why it matters
A dated physical witness lets readers distinguish a work’s composition, its translation, and the production of one surviving copy within that larger history.
About the date
Date belongs to this printed copy, not to the sutra’s composition.