Text Typology
Conflated Texts

The Conflated text is made by breaking down the order of material in several source texts, and giving that material a new and integral shape and arrangement. The structure of the original texts is lost in the process (compare the Juxtaposed type, where it is not). Conflated texts are rare in the classical Chinese situation; our only example comes from Imperial rather than Warring States times. A Mediterranean example from what we call Latter Han times would be the NT text 2 Corinthians.

• Jan-Gwo Tsv. Conflated by Lyou Syang from six named pre-existing texts of presumably similar nature. The anecdotes comprising all six were evidently reassembled along geographical and (within each state) on chronological lines. All six source texts are now lost, but it can be seen from traces in the present JGT (and from the Mawangdwei examples, which do not coincide with any of the possible Lyou Syang source texts) that some were more historically responsible than others, had different agendas, and addressed different audiences. They did not at any previous time form a coherent series, though one of the Mawangdwei sequences is close to a pure Su Chin module.

Classical Chinese Texts is Copyright © 1993- by E Bruce and A Taeko Brooks

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