This is sort of a holiday for me. I do like to mark it out. And, so, once again… The picture to the right of this text is from a Chinese edition of the Vajracchedika Prajnaparamita Sutra, the Diamond Sutra. According to the date on the title page it was published on this day in 868.
This makes it the oldest known printed book. Now if you’re concerned, this doesn’t take a lot away from Mr Gutenberg’s critical innovation of movable type. This Diamond Sutra is printed but from a carved block. However the honor of kicking Mr Gutenberg off the pedestal of oldest moveable type book goes to a Korean book, another Buddhist volume, the Anthology of the Zen Teachings of Eminent Buddhist Priests, published in 1377.
However this is a celebration of the Diamond Sutra. This particular copy of the Diamond Sutra was discovered as part of the treasure trove of documents found in the Mogao caves at at Dunhuang, China by Aurel Stein in the early part of the twentieth century.
As to the Diamond Sutra. It is important throughout Mahayana Buddhism. And it is a central document in the Zen way. In the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Ancestor, the putative autobiography of Huineng, it was on hearing a line from this text that the young illiterate peasant had his great enlightenment experience.
I couldn’t find a public domain version I really liked to print here. Red Pine has a very readable version with some interesting commentaries, and I recommend the somewhat dated but still readable translation by D. T. Suzuki. And, here is a link to the Plum Village version.
And if you just want to hear it, here you go. (Listening to it is well known to bestow some serious good karma on the hearer. Just saying…)
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