Within the Chinese reception of the Avatamsaka Sutra, two translators stand out as especially decisive for the Huayan tradition: Buddhabhadra and Śikṣānanda. Buddhabhadra, active in the early fifth century, produced the first complete Chinese rendering in sixty fascicles, often called the “old translation.” This version did more than simply transmit a text; it established the basic Chinese vocabulary and conceptual scaffolding through which the sutra’s vision of interdependence could be understood. On the basis of this translation, early Huayan thinkers were able to articulate a distinctively Chinese reading of the sutra’s vast cosmology and subtle doctrine of the interpenetration of all phenomena. The sixty-fascicle text thus became the initial scriptural ground on which Huayan thought could take root and begin to unfold.

Several centuries later, Śikṣānanda created the eighty-fascicle “new translation,” a more extensive and refined version that drew on additional Sanskrit material. Completed under imperial patronage, this translation came to be regarded as more comprehensive and accurate, and it gradually assumed the role of the standard text for the Huayan school. Its greater fullness allowed Chinese exegetes to elaborate the sutra’s intricate vision of the dharmadhātu with even greater nuance, especially in relation to the mutual containment and interpenetration of all realms and events. In this way, Śikṣānanda’s work did not replace Buddhabhadra’s so much as deepen and broaden the scriptural horizon within which Huayan philosophy could develop.

A third important figure, the translator Prajñā, focused on the concluding portion of the scripture, producing a forty-fascicle translation centered on the practices associated with Samantabhadra. Although not a complete new rendering of the entire sutra, this work isolated and highlighted the practical, devotional, and aspirational dimensions that had always been implicit in the larger text. By giving independent form to this final section, Prajñā’s translation helped ensure that the Avatamsaka’s vision of interdependence was not confined to abstract doctrine, but also informed concrete paths of cultivation and aspiration. Through the combined labors of these translators, the sutra’s vast tapestry of interrelated worlds became a living resource for Chinese Buddhists seeking to understand, contemplate, and embody the mutual interpenetration of all phenomena.