Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra in Regular Script Image 5

An encyclopedic collection of Prajñāpāramitā (Perfection of Transcendent Wisdom) texts expounding the Buddhist tenet that all dharmas are empty, the Maha-prajñā-pāramitā-sūtra (The Large Sutra of Perfect Wisdom) totals 600 fascicles and comprises sixteen assemblies, the most fundamental being the second, the fourth and the ninth, namely Mahā-prajñāpāramitā-sūtra, Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā prajñāpāramitā and Vájra-cchedikā-prajñā-pāramitā-sūtra. It is believed that the collection first appeared in southern and then western and northern India before entering wide circulation at the time of the Kushan empire. Many of its Sanskrit versions have survived to this day and its Chinese version was translated by the Tang monk Xuanzang.

Strictly abiding by the rules laid down in the Tang dynasty for sutra scribing, the text is written in 17-character columns on ruled hemp paper. With the propagation of Buddhist teachings as the primary objective, uniformity prevails over personality and the small regular script is usually preferred for the solemnity it evokes with its neatness. Over time, however, there has been a gradual migration from leanness to fullness in the character strokes. In light of this, the slenderness effected with the side-tip of the writing brush attests to an early date. As stated by Jao Tsung-I in the colophon, the copy might have been written shortly after the sutra was translated into Chinese.