This essay is an attempt at a constructivist analysis of the "conceptual transfer" in the philosophical and religious traditions of China and Japan. The term "transfer" here implies the borrowing of are isolated potion and its insertion into a new cultural system as well as the translation of a whole complex of categories. We accord special interest to the different types of semantic distorsions which occur during the transfer (and especially to deliberate transformations) in order to substantiate our working hypothesis, namely, the import of a concept is more akin to ara act of creation than to a mere reproduction. We underline the importance of the intentional structures which characterize the transfer: prospection, pre﷓interpretation, strategies of application, etc. This hypothesis enables us to analyze the phenomenon of philosophical (or religious) translation without relying en the concept of authenticity, and permits us to reevaluate the creative impulse of the cultures of China and Japan, that have too often been described as "copy cultures."