Instead, small, flat stones were used as popular media for carrying scriptures, and multiple stones with one letter from scriptures written on them, which were called "Ichiji isseki kyo" (literally, "one-letter stone scriptures"), or one stone with multiple letters from scriptures written on it, which was called a "Taji isseki kyo" (literally, "multiple-letter stone scriptures"), were buried.
代わって扁平な小石に経典の字句のうち一文字を書写し、それを多数埋納する一字一石経や、複数文字を書写した多字一石経を納める経塚が流行する。