Abstract: The Forty-two Chapter Sutra is now the earliest extant Chinese translation of the Buddhist sutras. All the previous studies about it were mainly sortout of the documents, and comparative analysis and judgment of the materials. They did not take into consideration the factors of translation, translation cooperation and the special historical context of the primary contact between Chinese and Indian languages and cultures, and thereby produced some speculations. Because of random additions of new understanding of Buddhism in different historical periods, the sutra was even denied of its validity of existence. This thesis examines the translators, translation purpose and translation approach of the sutra, analyzes its form, content and two different editions, and reveals clearly its features of translation-editing policy on the basis of the previous studies. Therefore it outlines briefly the earliest period of the historical development in the translation of the Buddhist sutras mainly with the translation-editing policy from The Forty-two Chapter Sutra to The Preface to Dharmapada by Zhi Qian. It points out that the fact of classicality and continuously being classicized of the sutra in the history. This study provides certain academic reference for re-understanding of the sutra in the history of Chinese Buddhism, the intellectual history of Chinese Buddhism, the history of the Chinese translation of the Buddhist sutras, and the development of the theoretic system of the Chinese translation of the Buddhist sutras as well.