Like the author of the blog No-Sword I had only a vague notion of how the scriptures/sutras were translated into Chinese. Images of an ancient monk going steadily blind beavering away alone in a dimly lit cell. Far from it. There was for the Heart Sutra (Scripture of Great Wisdom) at least a whole team involved. At the very end of the process is the Text-Juicing Official! Here is the description of what that person did:
??? (“Text-Juicing Official”): Determined whether the translation was appropriate as Chinese text, and added rhetorical flourish as necessary. For example, the “character” (“he crossed beyond all suffering and difficulty”) of “character” (“he illuminated the five skandhas and saw that they were all empty, and he crossed beyond all suffering and difficulty”) was not in the original; it was added at this stage. The previous eight steps were performed by monks, but this step was performed by a lay official.
See Teamwork for the full description of the team.
Thanks to Walter for passing on the information and link. Keep those links coming please.