Rhetoric in Ancient China, Fifth to Third Century B.C.E

by Xing Lu

• ISBN13: 9781570032165
• ISBN10: 1570032165
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2022-03-10
• Publisher: University of South Carolina Press

Summary

In Rhetoric in Ancient China, Fifth to Third Century B.C.E., Xing Lu examines language, art, persuasion, and argumentation in ancient China and offers a detailed and authentic account of ancient Chinese rhetorical theories and practices in the society's philosophical, political, cultural, and linguistic contexts. She focuses on the works of ten well-known Chinese thinkers from Confucius to Han Feizi as well as on the Later Mohists, a group that represents five schools of thought -- Mingjia, Confucianism, Daoism, Mohism, and Legalism. Lu identifies seven key Chinese terms pertaining to speech, language, persuasion, and argumentation as they appeared in these original texts, selecting ming bian as the linchpin for the Chinese conceptual term of rhetorical studies. The author shows that ancient Chinese rhetorical practices shifted in emphasis from ritualistic ceremony to political persuasion, from poetic composition to philosophical debate. The rhetorical perspectives were diverse, evolutionary, and contextual and were typically characterized by one of four main elements: the moral, epistemological, dialectical, or psychological. Lu compares Chinese rhetorical perspectives with those of the ancient Greeks. The author contends that the Greeks and the Chinese shared a view of rhetoric as an ethical enterprise and of speech as a rational and psychological activity. The two traditions differed, however, in their rhetorical education, sense of rationality, perceptions of the role of language, approach to the treatment and study of rhetoric, and expression of emotions. The author also links ancient Chinese rhetorical perspectives with contemporary Chinese interpersonal and politicalcommunication behavior and offers suggestions for multicultural rhetoric that recognizes both culturally specific and transcultural elements of human communication.

Table of Contents

Editor's Preface	ix	(2)
Preface	xi	(4)
Acknowledgments	xv	(2)
A Chronology of Chinese Dynasties from Xia to the Warring States Period	xvii	(1)
Chinese Schools of Thought and Major Thinkers	xviii	(1)
Abbreviations	xix
Introduction	1	(13)
CHAPTER ONE Perceptions and Methodology in the Study of Classical Chinese Rhetoric	14	(30)
CHAPTER TWO Cultural Contexts and Rhetorical Practices of the Pre-Qin Period	44	(24)
CHAPTER THREE Chinese Terminology of Rhetoric	68	(26)
CHAPTER FOUR Rhetorical Features in Literary and Historical Texts	94	(33)
CHAPTER FIVE Conceptualization of Ming Bian: The School of Ming	127	(27)
CHAPTER SIX Conceptualization of Yan and Ming Bian: The School of Confucianism	154	(41)
CHAPTER SEVEN Conceptualization of Ming Bian: The School of Mohism	195	(30)
CHAPTER EIGHT Conceptualization of Yan and Ming Bian: The School of Daoism	225	(33)
CHAPTER NINE Conceptualization of Shui and Ming Bian by Han Feizi	258	(30)
CHAPTER TEN Conclusions and Implications	288	(23)
Notes	311	(16)
Bibliography	327	(14)
Index	341