page_title: Heart Sutra
section_title: Dating and origins
hierarchical_section_title: Heart Sutra / Dating and origins
caption_attribution_description: Xuanzang's Heart Sutra (Taisho 251) part of a stone stele entitled 'Foreword to the Holy Teachings (with Heart Sutra attached) written with the calligraphy from Huairen's Collection of the Calligraphy of the Jin Dynasty General of the Right Army Wang Xizhi (303-361 CE)' [the Foreword to the Holy Teachings was written by Emperor Tang Taizong in 648 CE]. This stele was erected by Emperor Tang Gaozong in 672 CE at the Hongfu Monastery, Chang'an. It is now housed in the Beilin Museum in Xian, China. 中文（繁體）‎&#58; 《集王聖教序》，又稱《懷仁集王聖教序》，因碑額刻有7尊佛像，亦稱《七佛聖教序》，全稱《懷仁集晉右軍將軍王羲之書聖教序（附心經）》。为唐咸亨三年（672年）十二月立。碑現存陝西西安碑林博物館。
context_page_description: The Heart Sūtra is a popular sutra in Mahāyāna Buddhism. Its Sanskrit title, Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya, can be translated as "The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom".
  The Sutra famously states, "Form is empty, emptiness is form.". It is a condensed exposé on the Buddhist Mahayana teaching of the Two Truths doctrine, which says that ultimately all phenomena are sunyata, empty of an unchanging essence. This emptiness is a 'characteristic' of all phenomena, and not a transcendent reality, but also "empty" of an essence of its own. Specifically, it is a response to Sarvastivada teachings that "phenomena" or its constituents are real.
  It has been called "the most frequently used and recited text in the entire Mahayana Buddhist tradition." The text has been translated into English dozens of times from Chinese, Sanskrit and Tibetan as well as other source languages.
caption: The third oldest dated copy of the Heart Sutra, on part of the stele of Emperor Tang Taizong's Foreword to the Holy Teaching, written on behalf of Xuanzang in 648 CE, erected by his son, Emperor Tang Gaozong in 672 CE, known for its exquisite calligraphy in the style of Wang Xizhi (303–361 CE) – Xian's Beilin Museum
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