The Scripture Code

In The Heart Sūtra: Revisiting Its Texts, History, and Meaning, Henry C. H. Shiu investigates the historical origins of the Heart Sūtra, a significant Buddhist scripture. He compares the Sanskrit texts with their Chinese and Tibetan translations to analyse whether the Heart Sūtra might be a Chinese apocryphon, through detailed linguistic examination. To achieve this goal, Shiu thoroughly examines the primary source from which the scripture was extracted. He emphasises the necessity of reading the Heart Sūtra in the larger context of the Perfection of Wisdom literature, which contains the essence of Mahāyāna Buddhist teaching. In this monograph, Shiu successfully transcends the boundaries between the Chinese, Indian and Tibetan Buddhist traditions and provides a revisionist interpretation of the Heart Sūtra.

The origins of modern Daoism can be traced to the Church of the Heavenly Master (Tianshidao), reputedly established by the formidable Zhang Daoling. In 142 CE, according to Daoist tradition, Zhang was visited by the Lord on High, who named him his vicar on Earth with the title Heavenly Master. The dispensation articulated an eschatological vision of saving initiates—the pure, those destined to become immortals— by enforcing a strict moral code. Under evolving forms, Tianshidao has remained central to Chinese society, and Daoist priests have upheld their spiritual allegiance to Zhang, their now divinized founder. This book tells the story of the longue durée evolution of the Heavenly Master leadership and institution. Later hagiography credits Zhang Daoling’s great-grandson, putatively the fourth Heavenly Master, with settling the family at Longhushan (Dragon and Tiger Mountain); in time his d

The video code is designed to facilitate the mechanization of the use of Chinese ideographs without destroying their etymological identities. It is formed of two four-digit codes--the structure code a