Principles of Philological Method

Chris Fraser

I. General Principles

1. General Aims and Criteria of Adequacy. Textual emendation and interpretation should be regarded as interrelated parts of a joint philological and interpretive theory that aims to explain all aspects of a text, including its meaning and structure and the condition of the received text.

2. Textual Emendation. Textual emendation of any type is justified only to the extent that it contributes to the best explanation of how the text reached its present state. Such an explanation will include an account of the meaning of the text, the graphs originally used to express that meaning, and the processes by which the text became corrupt.

II. Guidelines Concerning the Canons and Explanations

3. Textual divisions. The divisions between individual jīng 經 (“canons”) and shūo 說 (“explanations”) in the later Mohist texts are not marked in the received text. Some of the boundaries between sections are unclear because of syntactic ambiguity, textual corruption, or lacunae. Hence it is necessary to evaluate various hypotheses concerning how to divide the text into individual sections.

4. Graphic emendation. Graphic emendation refers to replacement of a graph in the received text by a different graph. In the Canons and Explanations, there are several common types of cases in which graphic emendation is likely to yield the best explanation of the text.

5. Transposition. Transposition of graphs, phrases, or sections of text may yield the best interpretation in cases such as the following.

6. Deletion. Deletion, or excision of one or more graphs from the received text, may be justified in cases such as the following.

7. Interpolation. Interpolation, or inserting one or more graphs into the text to correct for haplography (accidental omission of graphs) or to restore lacunae, may be justified in cases such as the following.

Appendix: Definitions

Conjectural emendation: Emendation based solely on a conjecture about what the original reading was, without support from variant readings, counterpart passages, textual parallels or contrasts, or familiar or systematic instances of graphic error, graphic variation, or other patterns of textual corruption. Because conjectural emendation lacks these sorts of support, it can legitimately be attempted only when there is no reasonable doubt that the text is faulty, such as when the received text and its variants are ungrammatical or unintelligible.

Contextual parallel or contrast: A parallel or contrasting phrase within the same section of a text. The structure of two purportedly parallel phrases may provide reasons for suspecting corruption in one of the two and emending accordingly.

Counterpart passage: A parallel or a counterpart passage in a different section of a text. The structure and content of two such passages may provide reasons for suspecting corruption in one of the two and emending accordingly, as when the content of a jīng is emended on the basis of the content of the corresponding jīng shūo.

Criteria of adequacy: See Section 1.

Degrees of justification: See Section 1.

Deletion: Excision of one or more graphs from the received text to correct for dittography or accidental interpolation of extraneous graphs.

Explanation, “best” or “better”: See Section 1.

External evidence: Evidence for emendation from outside the main edition of the received text, such as from other, independent manuscript lineages.

Graphic emendation: Replacement of a graph in the received text by a different graph, for which the graph in the received text is taken to be an error or variant.

Graphic error: A graph used erroneously in place of another, usually similar graph, as when 傳 might be used erroneously for 摶 or 攸 or 彼.

Graphic variant: A different graph used to write the same word as a familiar graph, as when 无 is used to write the same word as 無 (lacking) or 辯 is used to write 辨 biàn (distinction). Graphic variants may be common and familiar, as in these two examples, or nonstandard, as when 卞 is used for 辯 or 五 for 伍.

Haplography: Accidental omission of graphs from a text, typically due to homoioteleuton (“same ending”) or to homoioarcton (“same beginning”), when a scribe’s eye skips from the ending or beginning of one phrase to that of a similar phrase following it.

Interpolation: Inserting one or more graphs into the received text to correct for haplography (accidental omission of graphs) or lacunae (lost portions of the text).

Internal evidence: Evidence for emendation from within the received text.

Null hypothesis: The hypothesis that the received text is correct and no emendation is needed.

Permutation: Graphic error due to a scribe’s confusion of similar graphs.

Reasonable doubt: A hypothesis is subject to reasonable doubt when there are reasons to believe that a contrary hypothesis provides an equally good or better explanation.

Textual division: Division of the received text into distinct paragraphs or sections.

Textual emendation: Replacement, transposition, deletion, or insertion of graphs in the received text.

Transposition: Movement of one or more graphs to a position different from their position in the received text.

Variant reading: A difference in the content of what is purportedly the same passage in different exemplars of the received text.