Authentication of the Book of Rites unfolds much like assembling a giant jigsaw puzzle, where each fragment demands scrutiny before finding its place. Steps include:

1. Textual Criticism and Philology
   • Comparison across Han, Tang and Song dynasty editions to spot later insertions.
   • Analysis of classical Chinese vocabulary and grammar; archaic character forms serve as linguistic fingerprints.
   • Stylometric methods—now enhanced by AI—chart patterns in word frequency and phraseology, separating genuine layers from medieval overlays.

2. Manuscript Discoveries
   • Mawangdui silk texts (1970s) and Tsinghua bamboo slips (2014) offered pre-Han versions. Radiocarbon dating anchors their age, while paleography confirms character shapes.
   • Bamboo-annals from Hunan and recently unearthed Ji’an fragments deepen chronological mapping, revealing regional script variants tied to the Warring States period.

3. Historical Cross-Referencing
   • Early bibliographies, like the Western Han “Yiwenzhi,” list titles matching certain chapters—any mismatch raises red flags.
   • Official commentaries by Ma Rong or Dai Sheng (the so-called “Xiaodai” edition) act as benchmarks. Passages absent from these commentaries often betray later additions.

4. Archaeological and Epigraphic Evidence
   • Ritual bronze inscriptions and tomb wall carvings sometimes quote rites passages, allowing side-by-side verification.
   • Inscriptions dated by archaeological context help confirm which sections circulated at specific times.

5. Modern Digital Humanities
   • Computational stylometry teases out authorship ‘signatures.’ Conferences in Beijing and Stanford have featured presentations on AI detecting anomalies in ritual texts.
   • Digital collations let researchers overlay dozens of versions in seconds, a far cry from 19th-century scribal collation.

Every authenticated passage contributes to a mosaic of early Chinese ritual thought, separating the wheat from the chaff. As fresh manuscripts emerge and technology advances, the Book of Rites continues to reveal its original contours, like echoes across millennia.