Translation has a long history in China. Down the centuries translators, interpreters, Buddhist monks, Jesuit priests, Protestant missionaries, writers, historians, linguists, and even ministers and emperors have all written about translation, and from an array of perspectives. The diverse views, reflections and theoretical thinking about the art and business of translating is brought together in this two-volume anthology. This volume covers a time-frame from roughly the 5th century BCE to the twelfth century CE. It deals with translation in the civil and government context, and with the project of Buddhist sutra translation. The book comprises over 250 passages, most of which are translated into English for the first time here, the anthology is the first major source book to appear in English. It allows access into the minds of translators working in a time and space markedly different from ours, and in ways foreign or even inconceivable to us.