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It is the largest of about two thousand printing block fragments (1,000 with text) that were found during restoration of the pagoda in 1990. The pagoda dates back to the Western Xia (1038–1277), and I visited it in August 2016 babelstone.co.uk/BabelDiary/201

This particular printing block (here mirrored) is for vol. 5 of the Tangut translation the "Shi moheyan lun" 釋摩訶衍論 (attributed to Nāgārjuna, but only extant in Chinese). As far as I know the Tangut translation only survives in the printing block fragments from Hongfo Pagoda.

Lilla Russell-Smith

@LillaBRS

Is it possible to say what date it is? 11th century? 12th century?

The pagoda is claimed to date to late Western Xia (1190–1227), yet pillars and beams from the pagoda have been dated as 1140±100 BP (C14) / 1080±105 BP (dendrochronology) and 1050±90 BP (C14) / 995±95 BP (dendrochronology) which are pre-Western Xia cnr.cn/2008zt/cl/xxwh

Lilla Russell-Smith

@LillaBRS

Thank you! The script is clearly Tangut, so how can this result be interpreted? (Apart from the fact that C14 cd be unreliable?) I ask as we also have a printed page in the museum's collection in Tangut script. The "oldest surviving printing block" is an interesting comparison.