A Comparison of the Diamond Sutra Versus Traditional Chinese Calligraphy

German-born Johannes Gutenburg usually receives the credit for producing the first printed book in 1439. Yet like many other popular notions, this one only proves to be partially true. More specifically, Gutenburg created the first book by means of his moveable-type press. The Chinese, in fact, printed the first book period: a Buddhist text known as the Diamon Sutra. Just as Gutenburg's Bible differed from the handwritten books of the monastic Middle Ages, the Diamond Sutra represented a departure from calligraphed Chinese texts. The distinction between the printed and handwritten texts extends further in the case of Chinese literature, however. Unlike traditional Chinese calligraphy, which is performance and more visually based, the Chinese consider the art and value of the Diamond Sutra to lie in the words of its fully printed form.

One of the most significant differences to consider between the two is the materiality of the Diamond Sutra versus the intangibility of the motions used to form Chinese calligraphy. The Diamond Sutra is the world's earliest printed book, dating back to 868 A.D. It appears on a scroll that measures about five meters long. Read continuously from left to right, the book was originally intended to be chanted by monks but now, over one-thousand years later, can simply be read and still comprehended (British Library). As a physical object, the Diamond Sutra boasts certain permanence. So long as the scroll is properly protected from the elements, it will continue to exist for future readers to peruse. The characters that appear on the page are the same during the first and one-hundredth readings, regardless of who reads them. Likewise, the wood-blocks used to produce the characters remain the same since their conception, again provided that they are correctly stored. Consequently, all 40,000 Diamond Sutra scrolls unearthed in 1900 are essentially the same (British Library).

Chinese calligraphy, on the other hand, hinges more so upon the motions associated with its making than the material end result. In fact, the Chinese commonly revere calligraphy as a performance art rather than writing in the Western sense. Swiss Sinologist Jean François Billeter compares calligraphy to instrumental music, rather than penmanship, in his book The Chinese Art of Writing (Rothenberg 295). Like all performance arts, that means calligraphy requires an audience. Watching professional calligraphers write or, to put it in a Western context, "illustrate" is an ancient tradition in China still practiced today. The Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts, for instance, hosts the annual All-American Chinese School Brush Printing and Calligraphy Competition (ChinesePerformingArts.net) where judges watch contestants write with brushes and paint. While a reader can always go back and refer to the Diamond Sutra because it is static, the exact motions used to create calligraphy are fleeting; they disappear into the air and can never be admired in the same way again. Even if paint and a surface like rice paper grant calligraphy a similar kind of permanence that privileges the Diamond Sutra, the Chinese, again, cherish the theatrical, not the material, aspect of the art form.

This concept of calligraphy as performance art likely surprises Westerners because they perceive the physical act of writing as a solitary and relatively non-dramatic activity. Such a viewpoint probably stemmed from the tradition of medieval monks writing all of their books in isolation and not presenting them to the public until completely finished. A Westerner would therefore likely place value in the final product of calligraphy, but not necessarily watch the performance behind its creation. This tendency, combined with the fact that many Westerners cannot read Chinese characters, results in their treatment calligraphy as primarily a visual art.

The Chinese view calligraphy as a visual art secondarily because, unlike the wood-block printing in the Diamond Sutra, it alludes to the calligrapher's spontaneity and individuality. Billeter explains: "...[the calligrapher] gives vent to his feelings by subtle changes of proportions or slight modifications of balance, by inflecting the lines, by nuances of the inking. Thus the brushwork can reveal a wealth of sensibility and invention..." (Rothenberg 294). Special touches added to help achieve aesthetic balance are strongly encouraged in the Chinese tradition of calligraphy. Some calligraphers interpret this mantra more abstractly than others.

In more stylized versions, even native Chinese readers cannot necessarily decipher calligraphic characters for their individual meanings, which essentially erases the characters' semiotic meanings. The way a calligrapher creates each character changes each time and the final product is never the same.

Because the nature of wood-block printing enforce uniformity, however, individual expression within the characters of the Diamond Sutra does not exist and the semiotics remain fixed. Extra lines, artistically slanted strokes---none of these elements show up in the Diamond Sutra. The characters lack flourishes and are therefore less tasking to read than hand-written ones. This feature points to what Westerners would naturally assume: the Diamond Sutra, as a printed text, is meant to be read. The Diamond Sutra functions as a book and, like all books, it contains information. In this specific case, the information relates to Buddhist doctrine. The book's power and beauty lies in the knowledge the words themselves possess and less so, in the way the text is formed and physically appears on the page.

Ultimately, its birth by wood-block printing automatically makes the Diamond Sutra static and only truly accessible for those who can read it because it must be read in order for the audience to appreciate its full texture. The book is permanent, whereas a calligrapher's movements quickly dissipate after they are performed. The Diamond Sutra lacks the fluidity and theatrical spirit of traditional Chinese calligraphy because its creators were more concerned about conveying its verbal meaning than aesthetic and performance-based ones. Reading the Diamond Sutra, then, is like closely following a film's script whereas watching a calligrapher at work is like attending live theatre for the sake of observing the actors' gestures.

Sources:

"The Diamond Sutra." Online Gallery: Turning the Pages, Virtual Books. The British Library Board. http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ttp/ttpbooks.html
Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts website. Lincoln, MA, 2008. http://www.chineseperformingarts.net/contents/index.htm
Rothenberg, Jerome and Clay, Steven. A Book of the Book. Billeter, Jean François. "The Chinese Art of Writing." New York: G