Textual Stability and Patterns of Variation in East Asian Manuscript Cultures

Co-organized by the École Pratique des Hautes Études - PSL, the École française d'Extrême-Orient, the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures, the National Taiwan University, and the CRCAO.

Textual and material variation, linked to redactional corrections, to scribal errors, or to the introduction of various heterogeneous textual or non-textual elements that modify a ‘standardized’ version of a given written artefact, are important tools to retrace the genesis of literary, religious, philosophical, and scientific texts, from a historical, philological and codicological perspective. Furthermore, in the field of manuscript studies the notion of ‘variation’ goes beyond phenomena observed through philological analysis only, this term being applied not only to the text but also to the artefact containing a text, including its specific materials, structure, format, layout, etc., and showing patterns of alteration produced in a different setting.

Through the analysis of diverse types of artefacts produced in East Asian manuscript cultures, the conference will address the general topic of ‘variation’ and/or analyze phenomena supporting evidence of textual stability, as attested in artefacts with different material features containing different literary genres, and written in different languages or scripts and historical periods.

EFEO - Maison de l’Asie, 22 avenue du Président Wilson, 75116 Paris
9-10 April 2026

Convenors: Olivier Venture (EPHE - PSL, CRCAO) et Costantino Moretti (EFEO, CRCAO)

Program