This is the frontispiece and opening text of the Diamond Sutra preserved as a complete printed scroll dated 11 May 868 CE — the world's earliest known dated printed book and one of the most important artifacts in the history of human textual transmission. The colophon at the end of the scroll specifies the date: 'Reverently made for universal distribution by Wang Jie on behalf of his two parents on the 13th of the 4th moon of the 9th year of Xiantong' (corresponding to 11 May 868 CE in the Western calendar).

The Diamond Sutra (Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra) is one of the most influential texts of Mahayana Buddhism — a brief Sanskrit dialogue between the Buddha and his disciple Subhuti on the nature of perception, illusion, and the bodhisattva path. It was translated into Chinese by Kumarajiva in 401 CE; the 868 printed edition reproduces a refined version of that translation with a frontispiece illustration of the Buddha preaching to Subhuti.

The scroll was discovered in 1900 in the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang, sealed in the so-called Library Cave (Cave 17) since approximately the 11th century. Aurel Stein purchased it from the Daoist caretaker Wang Yuanlu in 1907; it is now held at the British Library in London (Or.8210/P.2). It is the single most important artifact for the history of printing — antedating Gutenberg's press by approximately six centuries and demonstrating the mature woodblock printing technology of Tang-dynasty China.