Book Burning and Censorship
THE DIAMOND SUTRAIn China, during the 9th century AD, a man named Wang Jie copied a book significant to his Buddhist religion. Translated from the Sanskrit, the title of Wang Jie's book is The Perfection of Wisdom which Cuts Like a Thunderbolt. It is the earliest dated book in the world today and is commonly called the Diamond Sutra. It is at the British Library in London.
The book's inscription is interesting: Reverently caused to be made for universal free distribution by Wang Jie on behalf of his two parents on the 13th of the 14th moon of the 9th year of Xiantong. In English, that's May 11, 868 AD.
The book was part of a library that was sealed in a walled-up cave in Dunhuang, China in about 1000 AD. It was rediscovered in 1907 by Sir Marc Aurel Stein. We don't know why it was sealed in the cave, but protecting religious works from invading enemies had been the role of monks for centuries.
|
Table of Contents
|
Biographies
History
- American Colonies
- American Revolution - Highlights
- Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
- Assassination of John F. Kennedy
- Auschwitz: Place of Horrors
- Book Burning and Censorship
Disasters
- America Attacked: 9/11
- Black Death
- Challenger Disaster
- Columbia Space Shuttle Explosion
- Fatal Voyage: The Titanic
- Galveston and the Great Storm of 1900