In the year 1836, Csomo Körösi published an account of the Tibetan translation, which interesting document may be consulted in Vol. XX. of the _Asiatic Researches_. _The Diamond Sutra_ is therein designated “The Sutra of Wonderful Effects,” a treatise by means of which Sakyamuni Buddha instructs Subhuti, one of his conspicuous disciples, in _The Prajna-Paramita_ of transcendent wisdom.[4]
To Kumarajiva,[5] a native of Kashmir, who gained distinction as a monk of the later Chin dynasty[6] (A.D. 384–417), is conceded the honour of having first translated _The Diamond Sutra_ into the Chinese language. Of subsequent Chinese translations, perhaps the most noteworthy is the text ascribed to the scholarly _Hiuen-Tsang_, and completed about the middle of the seventh century.[7]
A rendering into English of Kumarajiva’s Chinese translation was accomplished by the Rev. S. Beal, and published in The _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, 1864–65. The text and German translation of the Tibetan version were published in 1873 by M. Schmidt, in _The Mémoires de l’Académie St Pétersbourg_. The Mongolian translation was presented by the Baron de Constadt to the library of the Institut de France. The Manchu translation is in the possession of M. de Harlez, who, with the aid of the Tibetan, Manchu, and Chinese versions, published a French translation of the Sanscrit text of _The Diamond Sutra_ in the _Journal Asiatique_, 1892.[8] It has been observed[9] that “at first sight it may seem as if this metaphysical treatise hardly deserved the world-wide reputation which it has attained.” Regarding this descriptive “world-wide reputation,” devout Buddhists might suggest in extenuation, that throughout many centuries, the “spiritual wisdom” of _The Diamond Sutra_ produced in countless minds a “conscious blessedness of perfect peace.” This “spiritual wisdom” also appeared to be a “strong incentive to holiness,” and a grateful inspiration to those who had entered “the path which leads to Nirvana.” In a few renowned monasteries of Central China, our Buddhist friends frequently affirmed that, by contemplating the “spiritual wisdom” of _The Diamond Sutra_, the mind would inevitably become “transfused with the mellow light of imperishable truth.”