Often times when we hear of translators of Buddhist texts from India to China, we think of Kumarajiva and other Indian and Central Asian monks. Actually, there must have been hundreds of monks and translators whose names we may never know, as they worked in the translation bureaus.
Another interesting point is the idea of Geyi or matching concepts.
We learn about it in Lecture 3 on Ven Dao An and his criticism of Geyi.
Ge Yi was initially used by the translators to translate terms from Sanskrit to Chinese. As there was often no equivalent terms, they sometimes had to borrow words from Daoism or Confucianism. This led to misinterpretations of Buddhism.
Geyi was only used for a short while, and due to Ven Dao An's criticism and his guidelines for translation, better methods were used that focused on meaning rather than just direct translations or borrowing of terms.
however, some scholars say that the idea of geyi was overblown, and it was never really used extensively.
Scholar Tan Jia from this website: https://tianzhubuddhistnetwork.org/guest-lecture-what-is-buddhist-ge-yi/
gives a good defintion of geyi.
" 1) a specific historical period of Chinese Buddhism in Dong-Jin Dynasty; 2) the first stage of Buddhism in China; 3) a short-lived Buddhist method of Chinese translation that was abandoned in the 4th century; 4) a translation technique whereby Buddhists borrowed Taoist terms to express Indian ideas in Chinese used in medieval China; 5) a method for explaining lists of Sanskrit terms from the Buddhist canon with comparable lists from Chinese classics; 6) an exegetical technique of circumscribed application for a limited duration developed into a key element of Chinese Buddhist historiography; 7) a method of comparative philosophy operative throughout Chinese history after the advent of Buddhism; 8) a universal method of intercultural philosophy"
