Authenticity and the Authenticating of Ancient Chinese Texts

The authentication of texts is among the tools of the philologist's trade, the first step in any serious historical inquiry.  But what are the assumptions about authenticity underlying such a procedure?  What are the historical processes that have led to these assumptions being postulated the way they are?  And how does the concept of authenticity emerging from them contrast with corruption, loss, forgery, and other opposing terms?  Taking cues from newly discovered manuscripts of the Warring States, Qin, and Han periods, this paper surveys the common scholarly approaches to authenticate Ancient Chinese texts, reflects critically on the losses and gains from putting such approaches to work, and raises a question perhaps not irrelevant to the study of the ancient world in general: why all the fuss, right here, right now?

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