Hans Stumpfeldt and the Texts Behind the Texts

This volume marks a double anniversary. It is the 50th volume of Oriens Extremus, which has been published at the University of Hamburg since 1954. And its publication coincides with the 70th birthday of Hans Stumpfeldt, Emeritus Professor of Sinology at this university and long-time editor of Oriens Extremus. It is most fitting that this volume be dedicated to him, who has set the tone and temper of this journal and its home institute for a whole generation. Or has he? Some readers, especially outside Germany, may be surprised at this homage, indeed, some may not even know Hans Stumpfeldt’s name. That is entirely understandable. Yet, Hans Stumpfeldt never sought the limelight. He never was a jet-set scholar flying from one conference to another, and he never played the publish-or-perish game.1 He worked quietly and meticulously, writing thoughtful “notes from a nocturnal desk” rather than flashy articles, preferring questions to ready-made answers, hinting at possibilities instead of asserting facts. In this way, acting behind the scenes as it were, Hans Stumpfeldt has inspired hundreds of students, quite a few of which have become established scholars themselves. There is a certain inner logic to the fact that Hans Stumpfeldt has – among countless other things – devoted himself intensively to the study of “texts behind the texts,” a field that he himself has defined as follows: