བཅམ་ལྡན་འདས་མ་ཤས་རབ་ཀྱ་ཕ་རལ་ཏ་ཕྱན་པའ་སྙང་པ intro.9

intro.9

In sum, we can conclude that the Chinese version of the short sūtra must have been compiled sometime between 404 (when Kumārajīva completed his translation of Taishō 223) and 661 ce (the date on the stone stele), and that the Sanskrit translation was produced soon thereafter.¹⁶ However, in addition to these mutually distant historical markers, we also have data that place the likely time of compilation much more precisely within just a two-year period from 654–56 ce. First, 654 ce marks the year when the Dhāraṇī­samuccaya (Taishō 901), which is the likely source of the mantra in The Heart Sūtra, was translated into Chinese.¹⁷ Second, in Xuanzang’s biography (Taishō 2053, written in the late seventh century) it is mentioned that in 656 Xuanzang offered a gold-lettered version of The Heart Sūtra to the imperial family as a gift. Although the biography is a later source than the stone stele, the date provided in the biography is the earliest placement of The Heart Sūtra in the historical record and this may possibly be the very occasion on which The Heart Sūtra was first compiled in Chinese.¹⁸