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Guānyīn is a translation from the Sanskrit Avalokitasvara, referring to the Mahāyāna bodhisattva of the same name.
Another later name for this bodhisattva is Guānzìzài ().
It was initially thought that the Chinese mis-transliterated the word Avalokiteśvara as Avalokitasvara which explained why Xuanzang translated it as Guānzìzài instead of Guānyīn.
However, according to recent research, the original form was indeed Avalokitasvara with the ending a-svara (" sound, noise "), which means " sound perceiver ", literally " he who looks down upon sound " ( i. e., the cries of sentient beings who need his help ; a-svara can be glossed as ahr-svara, " sound of lamentation ").
This is the exact equivalent of the Chinese translation Guānyīn.
This etymology was furthered in the Chinese by the tendency of some Chinese translators, notably Kumarajiva, to use the variant Guānshìyīn, literally " he who perceives the world's lamentations " -- wherein lok was read as simultaneously meaning both " to look " and " world " ( Skt.
loka ; Ch.
世, shì ).

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