金刚经

Its full name is 金刚般若波罗蜜经, the Vajracchedika Prajnaparamita Sutra. The Chinese version most people read was translated by 鸠摩罗什 around 402. A printed copy dated 868, found in a cave at 敦煌 and now in the British Library, is the oldest dated printed book in the world.

culture

Its closing verse compares everything in the world to a dream, an illusion, a bubble and a shadow, the source of 梦幻泡影. Chan tradition says the sixth patriarch 慧能 was awakened on hearing a single line of it.