2014
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International EASCM-Conference, Heidelberg 2014

Location and date: Internationales Wissenschaftsforum Heidelberg, July 11-13, 2014. Title of the workshop: "Orthopraxy, Orthography, Orthodoxy. Emic and Etic Standards and Classifications of Chinese Manuscripts".

On a scale unprecedented and unmatched anywhere else in the world, China over the course of the last century has enjoyed a tremendous increase of historical source texts through excavation. Manuscript texts retrieved particularly from early but also from medieval sites have multiplied the volume of text that is available to us from those periods and have brought to light whole new genres of literature, breathtaking historical information, and hitherto unknown script styles. Most of these manuscripts have been recovered during well-documented archaeological excavations, but an increasing number are also being discovered by illegal digging and subsequently sold without any information on their archaeological origins.

The pluralistic origins of these sources, as well as the richness of their contents and broad range of their forms, have created new practical, theoretical, and methodological challenges, among them questions of standards and classification. A reappraisal is called for, not only of the explanatory models that historical sources themselves supply us with, such as the narrative of the sudden unification of the script under the First Emperor, but also of long-cherished criteria, beliefs, and practices that we use to apply to our subject, such as criteria to distinguish between different hands, the belief that traditional sources have already provided us with a good grasp of what was considered orthodox and what not, and the practice of studying manuscripts only on the basis of transcriptions of their text.

Twenty of the foremost specialists on ancient and medieval Chinese manuscripts from Europe, the United States, China, and Japan will share the results of their research on theoretical, palaeographical, phonological, historical, hemerological, medical, and institutional aspects of manuscripts and discuss them with an audience of colleagues from various disciplines as well as doctoral and graduate students.

Schedule & Abstracts

(Please note: The abstracts are password protected. Please apply to Enno Giele for the login information)

Conference schedule | Complete list of abstracts

Papers

(Please note: The following papers are password protected. Please apply to Enno Giele for the login information)

Caboara, Marco | Bu shu 卜書 - A recently published Shanghai Museum bamboo manuscript on divination |   Paper

Chin, Shih-ch'i | 古代醫療抄本的斷裂特性與在地挪用 |   Paper

Giele, Enno | What is Orthography? Scribal Practices in the Han Documents from Juyan and Dunhuang |   Paper

Guo, Jue | From Funerary Texts to Talismanic Objects: Changing Perspective in Classifying Writings Found in Tombs |   Paper

Korolkov, Maxim | Criteria for discerning individual writing habits of the Liye scribes |   Paper | Handout

Krijgsman, Rens | Krijgsman, Rens: Forming Content? Using and Producing the *Yong Yue and Yinshu Manuscripts |   Paper

Miyake, Kiyoshi | The Various Strata of the Ernian lüling Manuscript and the Distribution of Legal Code to Local Offices in Han Times |   Paper

Richter, Matthias L. | Criteria for the distinction of different script styles and scribal hands |   Paper

Vogt, Paul Nicholas | Spinning the Thread of Lord Yao: Orthopraxy and Royal Succession Strategies in Warring States Chu Manuscripts |   Paper

Williams, Crispin | Analysis of scribal practices in the fifth-century BC Wenxian Covenant Texts: benefits and methodological considerations |   Paper

Forth Chinese Manuscripts Workshop, Paris 2012

Excavated and Purchased Chinese Manuscripts

European Association for the Study of Chinese Manuscripts (EASCM)
in collaboration with the CRCAO, EPHE and Collège de France

Workshop speakers:

• Sarah ALLAN (Dartmouth College - Hanover - USA): “Could the Shanghai Museum Bamboo Slip Manuscripts be from the Tomb of a Woman?”
• Vera DOROFEEVA-LICHTMANN (CNRS - Paris): "Chu or/and Ju: Inconsistencies in Identifications with these Characters in the Rong Cheng Shi and Parallels with Transmitted Texts."
• Edward SHAUGHNESSY (University of Chicago): "Three Unearthed Manuscripts Relating to the Changes: The Longs and Shorts of Provenance"
• Maria KHAYUTINA (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich): “Bin (Sui)-Gong Xu: a Unique Western Zhou Document, a Modern Forgery, or an Early Chinese Antiquarian Imitation.”
• Imre GALAMBOS (University of Cambridge – United-Kingdom) “Dunhuang Manuscript Forgeries Reconsidered.”
• Enno GIELE (Universität Heidelberg): “Fake Manuscript Sources.”
• Hans VAN ESS (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich): “A Dubious Discovery at the Chinese Antique Market.”
• Ulrich LAU (Universität Hamburg): “First Results of the Comparison Between the Zouyanshu from Zhangjiashan and the Yuelu Academy Collection of Criminal Cases from Preimperial Qin.”
• Thies STAACK (Universität Hamburg): “The 'Neglected Backyard' of Early Chinese Manuscripts - Utilizing the verso of bamboo slip manuscripts to reconstruct the structure of a manuscript role from the Yuelu Academy collection.”
• Haeree PARK (University of Hawai'i at Manoa): “The Script and Text of Some Purchased Manuscripts.”
• XING Wen (Dartmouth College - Hanover - USA): “Calligraphic Styles Between Authentic and Forgery Bamboo-slip Manuscripts.”
• LI Shoukui (Qinghua University - Beijing): [Chinese Title to be announced] (Textual and Paleographic Characteristics in the Tsinghua Bamboo-slip Texts).
• Andrei GOMOULINE (Hebrew University - Jerusalem): “Building the Argument: When the Authenticity is Uncertain.”
• Olivier VENTURE (EPHE - Paris): “Text Without Context: What is Lost?”

In addition to workshop speakers, the following scholars will also be present:

• William NIENHAUSER (University of Wisconsin-Madison),
• Dirk MEYER (University of Oxford),
• Paul VAN ELS (Universiteit Leiden),
• GUO Jue (Western Michigan University),
• Wolfgang BEHR (Universität Zürich),
• Rodo PFISTER (independent researcher),
• Marc KALINOWSKI (EPHE - Paris),
• Jean-Pierre DRÈGE (EPHE - Paris),
• Alain THOTE (EPHE - Paris),
• Albert GALVANY (Universitat Pompeu Fabra -Barcelona),
• Rens KRIJGSMAN (Universiteit Leiden)
• Jörg SCHUMACHER (Université de Genève).

Third Tomb Text Workshop, Zürich 2008

The third workshop was held at the Ostasiatisches Seminar der Universität Zürich, Switzerland, 27 to 29 June, 2008. This workshop was organized by professor Robert H. Gassmann and focused on the genius loci of Chinese manuscripts.

Participants included:

• Wolfgang Behr (University of Zürich) 
  Dialects, diachrony, diglossia or all three? Tomb text glimpses into the language(s) of Chu 
• William G. Boltz (University of Washington, Seattle)
  Is the Chuu silk manuscript a Chuu manuscript? 
• Vera Dorofeeva-Lichtmann (CNRS, Paris)
  The Rongcheng shi version of the “Nine Provinces” and transmitted texts: multiple parallels 
• Michael Friedrich (University of Hamburg)
  Participant without talk 
• Imre Galambos (The British Library, London)
  Handwritten copies of stele inscriptions among the Dunhuang manuscripts 
• Robert H. Gassmann (University of Zurich)
  Participant without talk 
• Enno Giele (University of Arizona) 
  The discoveries and source value of the Han time documents from Northwest China 
• Donald Harper (University of Chicago)
  The Dunhuang manuscript Baize jingguai tu (White Marsh’s diagrams of spectral prodigies) from the Pelliot Collection (P2682r?) 
• Martin Kern (Princeton University)
  The South as Text and Context in Warring States and Western Han Manuscripts 
• Maria Khayutina (University of Munich)
  Localizing the Recently Discovered Bells of Rongsheng in time and space 
• Dirk Meyer (Oxford University)
  The Genius Loci of Chinese Manuscripts: The oddity of the Warring-States Chu-tomb Guodian One 
• Haeree Park (University of Washington, Seattle)
  Discovered texts from 3rd to 2nd centuries B.C. as sources of data for Old Chinese reconstruction 
• Rudolf Pfister (independent scholar)
  The mài-Texts from Mawangdui and Zhangjiashan in comparison 
• Matthias Richter (University of Colorado)
  Local characteristics of manuscript production as reflected in the Shangbo and Guodian manuscripts 
• Edward Shaughnessy (University of Chicago)
  Translating the Shanghai Museum Manuscript of the Zhou Yi 
• Paul van Els (Leiden University)
  Dingzhou: An ill-fated tomb revisited 
• Hans van Ess (University of Munich) 
  Some general remarks regarding the Shanghai Manuscripts 
• Luca Vantaggiato (Ca’ Foscari University, Venice)
  Participant without talk 
• Olivier Venture (École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris)
  A reflection about Chu writers’ habits 
• Wang Xiaobing (Universität München)
  Participant without talk 
• Crispin Williams (University of Kansas)
  Ten thousand names: preliminary research into the role of the Houma and Wenxian covenants in the formation of the Zhao and Han states 

A selection of papers is published in Asiatische Studien/Études Asiatiques 63:3 (2009).

Second Tomb Text Workshop, Hamburg 2004

The second workshop was held at the Asia Africa Institute, University of Hamburg, on 27-29 February, 2004. This workshop was organized by Professors Michael Friedrich and Matthias Richter, and focused on specific features of Chinese manuscripts. 

Participants included:

• Attilio Andreini (Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia, Italy) 
  Cases of diffrazione (‘diffraction’) and lectio difficilior in Early Chinese manuscripts 
• Wolfgang Behr (Ruhr University of Bochum, Germany)
  Orison in jade: reading the Zengsun Yin ??? tablet inscriptions 
• Hans van Ess (Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, Germany)
  The Tomb Library of Yinwan: Attempt at an interpretation 
• Michael Friedrich (University of Hamburg)
  discussant 
• Bernhard Führer (School of Oriental and African Studies, London, UK)
  discussant 
• Imre Galambos (The British Library, London, UK)
  Orthographic grammar: The case of the Houma covenant texts 
• Robert H. Gassmann (University of Zurich, Switzerland)
  What’s in a (Chinese) character? A lexicographer’s visit to the graves 
• Enno Giele (University of Münster, Germany)
  Signatures in Early Imperial China 
• Marc Kalinowski (École pratique des Hautes Études, Paris, France)
  Preliminary study of the similarities and differences appearing in parallel versions of a same text in the manuscripts of the Warring States and early Han period
• Martin Kern (Princeton University, USA)
  Quotation in Early Chinese Manuscripts
• Ulrich Lau (University of Heidelberg, Germany)
  discussant
• Achim Mittag (Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities, Essen, Germany)
  discussant 
• Matthias Richter (University of Hamburg, Germany)
  On the distribution of different kinds of graphic variants within a manuscript 
• Ken'ichi Takashima ???? (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada)
  Placement of Inscriptions on the Oracle-Bone Plastron as a Guide to Decipherment with Notes on a Few Paleographic and Linguistic Issues 
• Crispin Williams (Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA)
  A methodological procedure for the palaeographic analysis of the Wenxian covenant tablets 
• Xing Wen (Trinity University, San Antonio, TX, USA)
  Towards A Transparent Transcription (presented by Martin Kern) 

A selection of papers is published in Asiatische Studien/Études Asiatiques 59:1 (2005). Abstracts can be found in Guoji jianbo yanjiu tongxun (International Research on Bamboo and Silk Documents: Newsletter) 4:1 (2004)

First Tomb Text Workshop, Hamburg 2000

The first workshop was held at the Asia Africa Institute, University of Hamburg, on 17-19 June, 2000. This workshop was organized by Professors William G. Boltz, Michael Friedrich, and Hans Stumpfeldt, and focused on the significance of context for Chinese manuscripts.

Participants included:

• William G. Boltz (University of Washington, Seattle, USA) 
  The Structure of Manuscript Texts and the Structure of Transmitted Texts 
• Hans van Ess (Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, Germany)
  Some considerations concerning the relationship of received literature of the Han and newly excavated manuscripts 
• Lothar von Falkenhausen (University of California, Los Angeles, USA)
  The Mortuary Context of Warring States Manuscript Finds 
• Michael Friedrich (University of Hamburg, Germany)
  Problems in Dealing with an Early Imperial Tomb Library 
• Robert H. Gassmann (University of Zurich, Switzerland)
  Through the Han-glass darkly: Some critical remarks on the Han-dynasty knowledge of early China and on the rôle of received texts 
• Enno Giele (University of Münster, Germany)
  Some Remarks about Using Excavated Early Chinese Manuscripts as Historical Source Materials 
• Christoph Harbsmeier (University of Oslo, Norway)
  discussant 
• Ulrich Lau (University of Heidelberg, Germany)
  The concept of criminal offence and principles for determining punishment in early imperial China as reflected in the bamboo texts of Zhangjiashan and Shuihudi 
• Achim Mittag (Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities, Essen, Germany)
  The Qin Bamboo Annals of Shuihudi: A Random Note from the Perspective of Chinese Historiography 
• Hans Stumpfeldt (University of Hamburg, Germany)
  Mirror inscriptions as tomb texts? Some preliminary remarks 
• Xing Wen (Peking University, China)Schools of Dissemination of Early Chinese Divinatory Classics 

A selection of papers is published in Monumenta Serica 51 (2003). Abstracts can be found in Guoji jianbo yanjiu tongxun (International Research on Bamboo and Silk Documents: Newsletter) 6 (2000)