International cooperationCSMC Sets Up a New Partnership in China

7 November 2025

Photo: RCCUT

Huang Dekuan and Michael Friedrich during the signing ceremony.

At the ‘Second International Academic Forum on Paleography and Chinese Civilization’, held at Tsinghua University in Beijing, the CSMC and the Research and Conservation Center for Unearthed Texts ratified a Memorandum of Understanding to further deepen academic exchange between the two institutions.

On 18 and 19 October 2025, more than 180 scholars from 14 countries presented their latest research in five parallel sessions dedicated to issues of palaeography and written artefacts in Early China (ca. 1250 BCE–220 CE), with particular focus on bone and bronze inscriptions and bamboo-slip manuscripts. By its scale and scope, the conference reflected both the wealth of palaeographic discoveries in China over the past two decades and their transformative impact on the study of Early Chinese societies. Michael Friedrich, Honorary Director of the CSMC, delivered a keynote lecture at the opening plenary session. CSMC researcher Ondřej Škrabal also participated in the event.

The event also marked an important milestone in international collaboration on Early Chinese manuscript studies: On the eve of the conference, Huang Dekuan, Director of the Research and Conservation Center for Unearthed Texts (RCCUT), and Michael Friedrich signed a Memorandum of Understanding, establishing a formal framework to strengthen collaboration and exchange between the two centres’ scholars and students in the study of manuscripts and other written artefacts.

RCCUT

One of the leading research hubs in East Asia for the study of ancient Chinese manuscripts, the RCCUT was founded in 2008 to preserve, curate, and study a large cache of late fourth- to early third-century BCE bamboo-slip manuscripts salvaged from the antique market. The nearly 2,400 bamboo slips in this collection not only provide vital insights into early Chinese history and thought, but also yield unprecedented information about ancient Chinese manuscript practices. The penultimate fifteenth volume of annotated editions of the Tsinghua manuscripts is forthcoming in Chinese at the end of this year. An international collaborative project, ‘Tsinghua University Warring States Bamboo Manuscripts: Studies and Translations’, is currently underway to produce new studies of the collection, annotated editions, and English translations. Among the participants is Ondřej Škrabal, whose individual research project at the CSMS draws on prayer and legal thought manuscripts from the Tsinghua collection.

In addition to its groundbreaking contributions to manuscript studies in China, RCCUT has played a key role in fostering a new generation of scholars dedicated to the study and preservation of bamboo-slip manuscripts unearthed across China at an unprecedented pace over the past decade. By providing a platform for further joint research, academic exchanges, and training opportunities, the new Memorandum of Understanding will contribute to these research and safeguarding efforts.