---
title: "Kumārajīva | Buddhist translation | Thought Archive"
number: "072"
slug: "072-kumarajiva"
author: "Wenzi / 文子"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://tongzai.space/en/thought-archive/072-kumarajiva/"
is_primary_text: true
---

# Kumārajīva（Buddhist translation）



## Common research question

**How did Kumārajīva's translations shape Chinese Buddhist language?**

Kumārajīva’s translation activity helped circulate influential Chinese formulations of dependent arising, emptiness, and the middle way, including the Chinese Mūlamadhyamakakārikā. The source argument must not be treated as the translator’s original doctrine. Translation-team history and textual attribution matter, and the present archive has not checked every verse word-for-word.

## Interpretive boundary

Do not attribute every proposition in a translation to the translator; verify textual provenance.

## Archive evidence

- [E-13 ｜ Chinese translation of the Zhonglun: transmitting dependent arising and emptiness](#E-13)
- [E-01 ｜ Dayi zhang, fascicle 1: Huiyuan asks whether the dharma-body can be seen and spoken of](#E-01)