This dissertation - The translation of Buddhist scriptures in China: the first wave - investigates the translation of Buddhist philosophy, which was the first great opening of China to a foreign culture. This opening started in the second century with the first translations of the Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit into Chinese and lasted until the eleventh century. Considered by the scholars the first great wave of translations in the country, it was a fundamental chapter in the construction of its culture; to this day, a great deal of Chinese life and culture - literature, philosophy, sculpture, music, to mention only a few areas - is permeated by Buddhism. This present study focuses more specifically on this first wave, but, by contextualizing it, presents the other translational waves through a brief description of Chinese history, before and after the arrival of Buddhism. Besides the extreme singularity in the way it happened, which makes it so enriching to our discipline, this translational wave was and still is a very fertile field for theoretical discussions of translation.