The conference ‘State and Ritual in East Asia’ was held 28 June -1 July 1995 in Paris. The organization with strong panels directed by wellknown scholars acting as discussants made it possible to accommodate a great diversity of approaches while at the same time avoiding dispersion. Among the panels, which have generally been felt to be particularly successful, those on ‘definitions’, the ‘Han’ panel, the ‘- Buddhist panels, and the panel on ‘local administration’ should be mentioned. But a number o f outstanding papers have been delivered in other panels as well.