Concepts of "Authenticity" and the Chinese Textual Heritage in Light of Excavated Texts

The question of the authenticity of transmitted texts has been discussed among Chinese scholars at least since the Han period, with particularly strong doubts arising in the late 19th century. From the middle of the 20th century, however, the movement of doubting antiquity has been seriously challenged by manuscripts discovered in early tombs as they corroborate many passages that up to that point had been considered corrupt or even forged. Texts like the Guicang 歸藏, a book of divination long despised as a Han dynasty forgery but authenticated by the Wangjiatai 王discovery of 1993, have led to a re-evaluation of the Chinese literary heritage not only desirable, but absolutely necessary. Nevertheless, manuscript finds thus as these do not allow for a general re-establishing of transmitted texts as authentic. Though clearly versions of the same text, excavated manuscripts and their transmitted counterparts show differences that should make us question not so much the text per se but our own ideas of textual transmission and authenticity. Using the Guicang as a starting point, the present paper discusses concepts of authenticity in forgery in both Chinese and European traditions, ending with a few suggestions as to the nature of early Chinese texts and modes of their (re-)production.