원효 전집 (Collected Works of Wonhyo — Foundational Korean Buddhist Philosophy)

...reminds me of the simile in the Lotus Sūtra concerning the poor man who does not know he has a jewel sewn into his shirt: this indigent man toils throughout his life, unaware of the precious gem he is carrying, until he finally discovers it was with him all along. This project to translate and publish modern vernacular renderings of these literary Chinese texts is like the process of mining, grinding, and polishing a rare gem to restore its innate brilliance. Only then will the true beauty of Korean Buddhism be revealed. A magnificent inheritance achieves flawless transmission only when the means justify the ends. Similarly, only when form and function correspond, and nature and appearance achieve harmony, can a being be true to its name. This is because the outer shape shines only as a consequence of its use, and use is realized only by borrowing shape.

As Buddhism was transmitted to new regions, it was crucial that the teachings preserved in the Buddhist canon—this jewel of the Dharma—be accurately translated and handed down to posterity. From the inception of the Buddhist tradition, the canon or "Three Baskets" (Tripiṭaka), was compiled via group recitation, where the oral rehearsal of the scriptures was corrected and confirmed by the collective wisdom of all senior monks in attendance. In East Asia, the work of translating Indian Buddhist materials into literary Chinese—the lingua franca for the Buddhist traditions of China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam—was carried out in translation bureaus as a collective affair.

Referred to as the "tradition of multi-party translation," this system of collaboration for translating the Indian Sanskrit Buddhist canon into Chinese typically involved a nine-person team. The team included a head translator, who sat in the center, reciting the Sanskrit scripture and explaining it; a philological advisor, or "certifier of the meaning," who sat to the left to verify the meaning of the Sanskrit; a textual appraiser, or "certifier of the text," who sat to the right to confirm the accuracy of the Chinese rendering; a Sanskrit specialist, who confirmed the accuracy of the source language...