More than 1,400 years ago, a Buddhist monk climbed a quiet mountain valley in what is today Fangshan district in southwest Beijing. His name was Jingwan, and he carried a concern shared by many Buddhists of his time that sacred teachings might disappear.
Political upheaval, wars and the fragile nature of manuscripts had already led to the loss of many texts. Jingwan believed that if scriptures were carved into stone, they could survive even the most turbulent eras.
He began chiseling Buddhist texts onto stone slabs in the early seventh century during the Sui Dynasty (581-618). What started as a personal effort gradually grew into a monumental undertaking that continued for more than 1,000 years.
Generations of monks, artisans, officials, and ordinary followers carried on the work through successive dynasties, including the Tang (618-907), Liao (916-1125), Jin (1115-1234), Yuan (1271-1368), Ming (1368-1644), and Qing (1644-1911).
Together, they created what scholars today call the Fangshan Stone Sutras, one of the most extensive and long-lasting scripture-preserving projects in the world.
More than 14,000 stone tablets were eventually carved with around 35 million Chinese characters, preserving over 1,100 volumes of Buddhist scriptures.
"These stone sutras form one of the largest 'stone libraries' in the world," says Gao Fumei, head of the history institute of the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences.
