diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 7e60a43542..26bbd33443 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1052,6 +1052,7 @@ sphinxdocs: $(MANUAL_BUILDDIR)/devel/index.html \
 build-manual = $(call quiet-command,CONFDIR="$(qemu_confdir)" $(SPHINX_BUILD) $(if $(V),,-q) -W -b $2 -D version=$(VERSION) -D release="$(FULL_VERSION)" -d .doctrees/$1-$2 $(SRC_PATH)/docs/$1 $(MANUAL_BUILDDIR)/$1 ,"SPHINX","$(MANUAL_BUILDDIR)/$1")
 # We assume all RST files in the manual's directory are used in it
 manual-deps = $(wildcard $(SRC_PATH)/docs/$1/*.rst) \
+              $(SRC_PATH)/docs/defs.rst.inc \
               $(SRC_PATH)/docs/$1/conf.py $(SRC_PATH)/docs/conf.py
 # Macro to write out the rule and dependencies for building manpages
 # Usage: $(call define-manpage-rule,manualname,manpage1 manpage2...[,extradeps])
diff --git a/docs/conf.py b/docs/conf.py
index 7588bf192e..960043cb86 100644
--- a/docs/conf.py
+++ b/docs/conf.py
@@ -132,6 +132,12 @@ suppress_warnings = ["ref.option"]
 # style document building; our Makefile always sets the variable.
 confdir = os.getenv('CONFDIR', "/etc/qemu")
 rst_epilog = ".. |CONFDIR| replace:: ``" + confdir + "``\n"
+# We slurp in the defs.rst.inc and literally include it into rst_epilog,
+# because Sphinx's include:: directive doesn't work with absolute paths
+# and there isn't any one single relative path that will work for all
+# documents and for both via-make and direct sphinx-build invocation.
+with open(os.path.join(qemu_docdir, 'defs.rst.inc')) as f:
+    rst_epilog += f.read()
 
 # -- Options for HTML output ----------------------------------------------
 
diff --git a/docs/defs.rst.inc b/docs/defs.rst.inc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ae80d2f35d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/defs.rst.inc
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+..
+   Generally useful rST substitution definitions. This is included for
+   all rST files as part of the epilogue by docs/conf.py.  conf.py
+   also defines some dynamically generated substitutions like CONFDIR.
+
+   Note that |qemu_system| is intended to be used inside a parsed-literal
+   block: the definition must not include extra literal formatting with
+   ``..``: this works in the HTML output but the manpages will end up
+   misrendered with following normal text incorrectly in boldface.
+
+.. |qemu_system| replace:: qemu-system-x86_64
diff --git a/docs/system/qemu-block-drivers.rst b/docs/system/qemu-block-drivers.rst
index 7ca890ea23..bd99d4fa8e 100644
--- a/docs/system/qemu-block-drivers.rst
+++ b/docs/system/qemu-block-drivers.rst
@@ -3,8 +3,6 @@
 QEMU block drivers reference
 ============================
 
-.. |qemu_system| replace:: qemu-system-x86_64
-
 Synopsis
 --------