30 March, 2022 Dates
the last page of the Diamond Sutra （868）from the idp website
The last page of the Diamond Sutra (868) contains a date when this book was printed. The Chinese characters "咸通九年四月十五日王玠为 二亲敬造普施" indicate that this sutra was printed in the late Tang Dynasty on the 15th of April(on lunar calendar, equalling to the 11th May, 868) for the patron's parents.
When copying the date, I recalled again the date paintings by On Kawara. His date paintings was related to the 'present' of him, showcase the 'today' and potential movement of his own. However, the other way to form and mark a date, indicates dissimilar understandings of time and space. In other words, to write about a date entails unique perceptions of one's own. The date of each day, as are uniform today, once has had the potential to tell another story. They are not merely numbers.
a copy of the date |
| The date when the sutra was made carved on a woodblock, in original Chinese and in English |
On the other hand, the meaning of dates, are activated by individual memories, or even collective memories, for instance, the Birthday, the date of Christmas. We unconsciously communicate with our consciousness to speak about dates. The temporal structure is deeply built in our perception and derives the feelings and further understandings of time. Also, the consciousness deems the day, delight or sad, assigning to the dates meanings of individuals
Questions then comes: How do we fill the meanings of dates? What does date on the Diamond Sutra（868） mean?
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