Martin Kern at Oxford Workshop on Manuscript and Text Culture

We are pleased to announce the second meeting of the interdisciplinary Workshop on Manuscript and Text Culture (WMTC) at Queen’s, University of Oxford. The paper of the workshop will be given by Martin Kern (Princeton), Astor Visiting Fellow and Fellow Commoner of Queen’s, on Wednesday 30 January at 6 pm in The Queen’s College. The title of the talk is:

‘The “Jinteng” Chapter of the Shangshu and its Newly Discovered Manuscript Version from ca. 300 BCE: Comparison and Methodological Considerations’.

If you are interested in attending, please email: wmtc@queens.ox.ac.uk.

Further information about the workshop can be found here: <http://wmtc.queens.ox.ac.uk/> (The site is still under construction, so please don’t mind its current appearance..)

John Baines (Egyptology)
Charles Crowther (Ancient History/Epigraphy)
Dirk Meyer (Chinese)

Workshop on Manuscript and Text Culture at Queen’s (WMTC)

Paper: The “Jinteng” Chapter of the Shangshu and its Newly Discovered Manuscript Version from ca. 300 BCE: Comparison and Methodological Considerations” (Martin Kern, Princeton University; Astor Visiting Fellow)

Time: 30 January, 6pm

Location: The Queen’s College, University of Oxford (Memorial Room). High Street, Oxford, OX1 4LU

Abstract:

Among the exciting new bamboo and silk manuscript finds from early China are texts that have counterparts in the received literature and thus reveal new insights into the formation of the ancient textual tradition. One such text, recently published by Qinghua University, parallels the “Metal-bound Coffer” (Jinteng) chapter of the Hallowed Documents (Shangshu), the preeminent canon of ancient Chinese political thought. In comparing the newly found—albeit unprovenanced—manuscript from ca. 300 BCE with its received counterpart as well as with other parallels in the textual tradition, the lecture analyzes significant textual differences and their implications for both the original context of the manuscript and the editorial processes that have given us the received text. This analysis further leads to the methodological considerations that must be brought to the study of early Chinese manuscripts in general.

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