Jiumoluoshi

Jin Gang Jing Jiumoluoshi

The Diamond Sutra is a Buddhist sutra from the "Perfection of Wisdom" genre, and emphasizes the practice of non-abiding and non-attachment. The Diamond Sutra is one of the most influential Mahayana sutras in East Asia, and is a key object of devotion and study in Zen Buddhism. A copy of the Chinese version of Diamond Sutra, found among the Dunhuang manuscripts in 1907 by Aurel Stein, was dated back to 11 May 868. It is, in the words of the British Library, "the earliest complete survival of a dated printed book." The Diamond Sutra was translated by Kumarajiva, Jiumoluoshi. Jiumoluoshi was a Buddhist monk, scholar, and translator from the Kingdom of Kucha. He first studied teachings of the Sarvastivadin schools, later studied under Buddhasvamin, and finally became an adherent of Mahayana Buddhism, studying the Madhyamaka doctrine of Nagarjuna. Kumarajiva settled in Chang'an during the Sixteen Kingdoms era. He is mostly remembered for the prolific translation of Buddhist texts written in Sanskrit to Chinese he carried out during his later life.