Filiations of Author-Figures: the Ordering of Pre-imperial Texts through Biography in Qing Evidential Studies

During the late 18th and early 19th century, evidential scholars not only studied pre-imperial texts, but also the biographies of their supposed authors. While the biographical information they presented was based on historical records, they were often influenced by the scholars’ attitude towards the text connected with these author-figures. Based on close readings of scholarly essays, I show that the biographies function as paratexts that prescribe a certain interpretation. At the same time, I analyse the strategies with which scholars attempted to carve out a space for non-canonical learning at a time when Confucius was the only source of accepted learning.