What is a Colophon?

One of the great advantages of doing a Fulbright is having the opportunity to engage with scholars from different fields. This year, the Senior Fulbright scholars in Taiwan include a composer, philosopher, jazz musician, computer scientist, educator, potter, medical researcher, and psychologist (me). A few days ago, we had the opportunity to hear Professor Charles Hartman, who teaches at the University at Albany in New York state, give his brilliant Fulbright Thought Leader Lecture, “Searching for Secrets: Song Historical Sources in Early Ming Rare Books” Dr. Hartman disputes the controlling narrative of the Song Dynasty as one of "political stability and cultural florescence despite military weakness"  and presents alternative historical interpretations through, in this case, his textual analysis of colophons. 

So what is a colophon? No, it's not related to the iPhone and it isn't an intestinal disorder. Rather, a colophon is a brief comment, inscription, or note written at the end of another text. Why are these relevant? Well, during the Song Dynasty 宋朝, (ruling dynasty in China between 960 -1279), colophons, or 題跋 refer mostly to the comments written at the end of a Chinese scroll (see diagram from Hartman's lecture 11/13/2012). According to Dr. Hartman, these 題跋 in fact have the potential to reveal critical insights about what their writers thought about earlier events. He has been analyzing the text of these colophon's to better understand the life and death of a particular individual, Chen Dong 陳東 (1087-1127). The colophons provide details about his  execution and eventual elevation to martyr status. Moreover, it appears that the colophons themselves may have been used to raise Chen Dong's rank posthumously. Although the authors of such inscriptions are often unknown or historically unrecognized, their private comments tell a rare and rather important narrative about the Song Dynasty.