How did Buddhist sutras get translated into Chinese? I hadn't really given much thought to this question before, unconsciously attributing it to an array of faceless, more-or-less bilingual monks working alone or at best in parallel. It turns out that the process was much more involved. In Kanbun to Higashi Ajia 漢文と東アジア ("Kanbun and East Asia"), Kin Bunkyō 金文京 gives an account of the 982 C.E. translation of the Heart Sutra into Chinese by a team centered on an Indian monk named Devaṣanti 天息災:

A large number of monks and officials (官吏) gathered ... and performed the translation via the following division of labor: 訳主 ("Lead Translator"): Read the Sanskrit original aloud. Devasanti performed this task. 証義 ("Meaning Certifier"): Sat to the left of the Lead Translator and discussed the meaning of the Sanskrit original. 証文 ("Text Certifier"): Sat to the right of the Lead Translator and confirmed that the text had been read aloud without error. 書字の梵学僧 ("Scribe Learned in Sanskrit"): Recorded in Chinese characters the Sanskrit that was read aloud. [...] For example, the Sanskrit word hṛdaya was written 紇哩第野, and sūtra was written 素怛羅. [...] 筆受 ("Receiver via Brush"): Translated the Sanskrit written in Chinese characters into Chinese. For example, 紇哩第野 would become 心, and 素怛羅 would become 経, combining to form 心経, "Heart Sutra." 綴文 ("Text Composer"): Rearranged the individually translated words into the correct Chinese word order; which is to say, into kanbun . 参訳 ("Translation Barger-into"): Checked the translated text against the original Sanskrit, and corrected any errors. 刊定 ("Trimmer/Finalizer"): Edited cumbersome or long-winded expressions down to size. Sanskrit texts had a tendency to be detailed and lengthy, but in Chinese texts brevity was prized. 潤文官 ("Text-Juicing Official"): Determined whether the translation was appropriate as Chinese text, and added rhetorical flourish as necessary. For example, the "度一切苦厄" ("he crossed beyond all suffering and difficulty") of "照見五蘊皆空 度一切苦厄" ("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.

I'm not sure about the correct etymological interpretation of some of those Chinese terms, but man... that is a translation team. (Also kind of reminds me of the intro to "7th Chamber Part II" by the Wu-Tang Clan.)

Anyway, Kin notes that not every translation into Chinese of a Buddhist sutra was done in such an elaborate way, and indeed the above has no small element of ritual to it over and above what is necessary to get a translation done. Still, the basic division of labor seems to have been pretty common, in particular the dictate/transcribe/translate/trim/touch-up cycle.