STUDY / OBJECTIVE
Move from a title lead to a locatable edition record, distinguishing work, witness and digital image.
01 / STUDY
Three levels of a textual object
A work's title names a textual tradition; a manuscript or printed edition is a particular witness; an online image is a digital representation of that witness. Record the work and the actual edition, page or collection item consulted. None of these levels substitutes for the others.
02 / STUDY
Keep four kinds of date separate
A record may involve the time described, the text's formation, the surviving copy's production and its digital publication or cataloguing. A webpage date usually dates the page. Preserve an institution's approximate or ranged dating rather than replacing it with a falsely precise year.
03 / STUDY
Pages, sides and variants
PDF positions may differ from printed pages; manuscripts may use recto/verso, fragment numbers or image sequences. Preserve a stable locator, using two when useful. In collation, keep each witness's wording and distinguish missing, illegible and editorially supplied characters instead of silently normalizing them.
WORKED EXAMPLE
Constructing a traceable edition card
This is a field template, not an invented collection record. Fill title, responsibility, institution and identifier from an actual item.
Identity: transcribe title, responsibility and edition or copying information, preserving institutional qualifications.
Locator: record shelfmark, volume/page, side or image number and the portion actually consulted.
Digital access: retain the item URL, access date and rights notice, keeping your reading in separate notes.
Institution, identifier and locator help a reader recover the material even if the page layout changes.
PRACTICE / REFLECTION
Exercises and answers
01Does a webpage date of 2024 date the composition of the historical text?
Read the explanation
No. Determine whether it dates publication, an update or cataloguing. Keep composition, copying/printing and digitization separate, marking unsupported dates as unknown.
02Does a portal homepage complete a primary-text citation?
Read the explanation
Not yet. It is a discovery lead. A specific argument needs the item, witness and page or image locator. If the original was unavailable, explicitly identify the source through which it was cited.
A distinction to retain
Identical titles do not guarantee identical texts or editions; holding or hosting institutions are not automatically authors.
Unit output
Two edition cards for actual materials, a page-number concordance and one locatable citation.
REFERENCES
Reading references
Collection search and individual item records
This is a discovery portal; exercises require an actual shelfmark and image-side locator.Tsinghua republication · originally China Culture Daily, 14 January 2014
An edited talk by the manuscript editor; detailed readings require the published edition.References reviewed: 2026-10-24. Examples, record templates and explanations are editorial teaching material. Fictional inputs are not historical events or efficacy evidence. Citations imply no affiliation.
Personal study record; not a grade, assessment or credential.
Connected study paths
Yijing: from figures to textsCosmic boards: objects and proceduresSpace: orientation, environment and selectionSources: bones, manuscripts and DunhuangEditorial study material · 2026-10-24