By deciphering Sengrui's ”Preface to the Small Version of Prajñāparamitā,” this paper presents a departure point where the Buddhist development in China differed from its counterpart in India. In the beginning of the fifth century, Chinese Buddhism was dominated by two modes of interpretation of the Prajñāparamitā: native concept-matching (geyi) and Indian Sarvāstivadā. Kumārajīva diverted the interpretation to the Madhyāmika philosophical discourse by introducing four Madhyāmika śāstras and retranslating many Mahāyāna sūtras (including Saddharmapundarīka and two versions of Prajñāparamitā). To antagonize concept-matching and Sarvāsitvādin Buddhist thoughts, while avoiding the nihilist aftermath of Madhyāmika, Kumārajīva brought up the doctrine of ekayāna and argued that it underlay in both the Prajñāiparamitā and the Saddharmapundarīka. With the doctrine of ekayāna, Kumārajiva demonstrated the Buddha's wisdom and compassion as a unity represented in the Prajñāparamitā and the Saddharmapundarīka and asserted that the coalescence of these two scriptures was the full unfolding of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Such an argument, noted in Sengrui's Preface, was never seen in Indian Madhyāmika Buddhism, but it since became the foundation of the subsequent Buddhist development in China.