Abstract
This article analyses the two main rhetorical techniques of “argumentation” (biàn) and “persuasion” (shuì) employed in politico-philosophical debates recorded in early Chinese argumentative texts of the Warring States period (ca. 5th–3rd cent. B.C.). Through the analysis of pertinent case studies drawn from the received literature, the contribution explores the formal, structural, and grammatical features of these techniques, with attention paid to the wide selection of rhetorical and literary devices they make use of. It also further provides an overview of the historical and socio-cultural background against which such techniques developed among so called “wandering persuaders” (yóushuì), who were travelling from court to court to offer their services as political advisors and diplomats to the local rulers of the time.
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Notes
- 1.
*I would like to thank Wolfgang Behr and James Weaver for their insightful comments on previous drafts of this article. This article is based on the paper I presented at the conference “Argumentation in Classical Antiquity: dialectic, rhetoric & other domains,” Humboldt University of Berlin, 23–25 June 2016.
For an introduction to early Chinese rhetoric and the techniques of “argumentation” and “persuasion” in early Chinese politico-philosophical discourse, see [75]; [20] and [21]; [81]; [119]; [37]; [41] and [42]; [89]; [90]; [48] and [49]; [31]; [52]; [60].
- 2.
While the study of transition terms is a rather well attested practice in Classical and Biblical studies, a systematic and exhaustive analysis and classification of this kind of markers in early Chinese literature still remains a desideratum. A few promising articles have been published especially on this specific use of the particle fú 夫, which is otherwise commonly employed as a topic marker at the very beginning of a sentence, see [32]; [141]. On this topic, see also [39, esp. pp. 33, 39, 44], [2, p. 237], and [106].
- 3.
The use of the term “feudal” applied to the ancient Chinese Warring States period should be understood in a fairly loose manner. It has known a progressive decline—and for very well-founded reasons—in most recent sinological studies, as it is considered somewhat improper and culturally patronizing in the light of the substantial differences existing between the early Chinese and the Western Medieval historical contexts. For a more transparent and updated historical overview of the period, see for instance [87]; [146].
- 4.
- 5.
- 6.
- 7.
- 8.
As Bruce E. Brooks and A. Taeko Brooks point out, it is highly unlikely that such strong claims as, for instance, Mencius makes in certain passages of the eponymous text, could have been possible at all in real life in front of a ruler [13, p. 277, footnote 2], at least not without risking one’s own head to be cut off.
- 9.
[75, p. 12].
- 10.
Kai Vogelsang [139] has recently provided an interpretation of the role of the minister/advisor in this kind of dialogues in terms of “Politikberatung” (political consultation).
- 11.
Early Chinese manuscript texts were characterized by a rather fluid nature. Before the spread of silk and the invention of paper as material carriers in the early imperial period, manuscript texts were composed of more or less bulky bundles of bamboo or wooden slips held together by strings of different materials. Such bundles could comprise one individual text, sections or chapters of a longer text, or, at times, more than one text that had been copied together on the same bundle. Slips could vary greatly in size and number, and so did the number of graphs per slip. Fairly consistent conventions regulating the length of strips according to the content and genre of the written text were established only later in the imperial period, see [136] and [35]. Due to the malleability of the material carrier and these “modular” structural characteristics, it was relatively easy to modify or replace individual slips, or to replace, add and insert new “chapters” within a larger textual unit. As a result, texts underwent a gradual process of growth and “accretion” that lasted several centuries and included also later editorial additions and integrations during the major enterprise of the reorganization of the holdings of the imperial library during the Hàn 漢 Dynasty (206 B.C.–220 A.D.). For these reasons, scholars talk about the “composite nature” of early Chinese texts. See [11] and [12]. See also [95]; [120]; [77]; [98].
- 12.
The conventional translation “Master” is problematic to a certain extent. For an alternative interpretation of the term as a designation for social rank (“squire,” in the original German text “Juncker”), especially with reference to the Mèngzǐ, see Gassmann’s recent publication [38, pp. 153–155].
- 13.
- 14.
- 15.
- 16.
- 17.
- 18.
See [61, esp. pp. 906–908]; a list of occurrences in early Chinese received literature can be found at p. 906, footnote 56; see also [75, p. 122]: “The Warring States topos of the itinerant philosopher intent on persuading a prince to accept his teaching was related not just to persuasion but to disputation as well.”
- 19.
- 20.
As Kroll points out, “the arts of “disputation” (pien) [biàn 辯] and “persuasion” (shui) [shuì 說], were ascribed to the same person as mutually connected skills” [75, p. 126].
- 21.
My interpretation is partially indebted to Lu Xing’s threefold classification [89, pp. 64–65] of what I define here as “polemical scenarios.” Lu claims that “the first (setting for rhetorical activity) was the political realm where you shui [游說, persuaders] or bian shi [辯士, debaters] served as advisers to the kings. […] [T]the second arena for rhetorical activities was the realm of education where intellectuals taught their students various subjects using a lecture and discursive format.” Lu postulates also a third possible scenario, the (Jìxià 稷下) “Academy.” However, increasing doubts have been raised in the past years about the possibility that a structured and organized institution recognizable as a proper “Academy” might have actually existed in the pre-imperial period. Therefore, I prefer to leave this latter potential setting aside. For a recent account of the alleged activities of the Jìxià Academy, see [145].
- 22.
- 23.
There are several publications available that focus on individual examples of these two kinds of metaphors. As an in-depth analysis of this topic goes beyond the scope of the present article, I am quoting here only a selection of recent studies for further reference. For a theoretical treatment of the use of metaphors in early Chinese philosophy, see [128] and [129]; on the use of metaphors specifically in the “Masters text” Zhuāngzǐ 莊子, see [143], [16], and [70]. On natural metaphors, and especially the predominant water metaphors, see for instance [1]; [91]; [17]. On the relatively still understudied animal metaphors, see [132]; [114]; [92]; and [58]. On tool metaphors, see [138]; [25]; [47]; [27], to quote just a few.
- 24.
[71, 14/5/52, p. 209].
- 25.
- 26.
[37, p. 112].
- 27.
“Motivated by the self-interested desire for profit, you shui employed utilitarian appeals in persuading their audiences. In speeches they made to the kings of the various states, for example, they would spell out the material gain, in terms of land, beautiful women, horses, food, and clothing. The ruler could expect benefits he would gain by adopting the proposed plan” [89, p. 119]. See also [41, p. 5] and [42]; [63, p. 230].
- 28.
- 29.
- 30.
The term jiā 家 (literally, “household,” “family,” but also “expert, person with an expertise in a certain field”) has long been used rather inappropriately to translate the names of six philosophical trends of thoughts or groups of experts of the Warring States period as “schools” of thought. These were first identified and described by the Grand Historian and Astronomer Sīmǎ Tán 司馬談 (c. 165–c. 110 B.C.) in his treatise “The Cardinal Principles of the Six Trends of Thought” (‘Liùjiā zhī yàozhǐ’ 六家之要旨), included in Chapter 130 of his son Sīmǎ Qiān’s 司馬遷 (c. 145–c. 86 B.C.) historiographical work Shǐjì 史記 (Records of the Grand Historian). These six trends of thought are the Cosmologists (yīn-yáng 陰陽), the Confucians (Rú 儒), the Mohists (Mò 墨), the Logicians or experts on names (míng 名), the Legalists or experts on laws and standards (fǎ 法), and the Daoists (dàodé 道德). However, this taxonomy should rather be considered as a bibliographical classification rather than any meaningful attempt at categorizing more or less loosely organized philosophical groups active during the Warring States period. Actually, these labels were created to classify “Masters text” into different subcategories during the process of systematization and reorganization of the holdings of the Imperial Library (see pp. 4–5 above). Recent archaeological manuscript findings over the past forty years have radically altered our views on early Chinese culture and society, urging the need to rethink traditional interpretive categories. According to these newly excavated manuscripts, ideas and philosophical concepts seems to have been circulating in a much more fluid fashion than it was once believed, allowing several cases of transversal “contamination,” see [95] and [96]; [28]; [73]; [69]. In consideration of this, the existence of clear-cut boundaries between allegedly antagonistic, organized entities that might be identified as “schools” has been largely disproved, with the exception of only two cases, the Confucians and the Mohists, who apparently managed to establish proper structured teaching institutions.
- 31.
- 32.
- 33.
- 34.
- 35.
[13].
- 36.
The so-called Sān Huáng Wǔ Dì 三皇五帝, the Three Sovereigns (usually Fúxī 伏羲, Nǚwā 女媧 and Shénnóng 神農, but there are other possible variants of this triad) and Five Thearchs (Huángdì 黃帝, Zhuān Xū 顓頊, Yáo 堯, Shùn 舜, and Yǔ 禹). According to the tradition, these are a set of eight legendary pre-dynastic kingly figures, endowed with superhuman powers. They are considered epitomes of moral rectitude and superior knowledge, and, in some cases, they also act as cultural heroes. In virtue of their superior moral qualities and discernment, they are capable of enacting and ideal government. See [93]; [62]; [9]; [15]; [79]; [8]; [83] and [84]; [80].
- 37.
- 38.
On transition terms, see footnote 2 at p. 1.
- 39.
The present analysis has been carried out on a cluster of dialogues in the Mencius (“court speeches”) that present the same stylistic and structural characteristics. It is therefore not necessarily indicative of the use of transition terms at large in the whole text.
- 40.
An interesting term of comparison is the use of similar transition terms is the later highly formalized and stylized rhetoric of the eight-legged essay during the Míng 明 (1368–1644) and Qīng 清 (1644–1911) dynasties. This suggests a fairly high degree of consistency and continuity in the use of certain rhetorical structures across the ages, hinting at a much more solid foundation of such structures in the literary tradition also for the earlier periods than it is usually acknowledged. See [29, in particular p. 398].
- 41.
For an updated analysis of fú as a transition term, see [141].
- 42.
I am talking here of canonical texts because the quotations employed in this cluster of dialogues are all known and can be easily tracked in the Five Classics (Wǔjīng 五經), and specifically in the Classic of Odes (Shījīng 詩經) and the Classic of Documents (Shūjīng 書經). These quotations are evidently part of an already codified and well-established corpus of literature, contrary to what happens with similar intertextual references that were still circulating rather fluidly in the Warring States period [124], as recent archaeological manuscript findings prove. See [95] and [97]; [120]; [66], [67], and [68]; [73]. This seems to support a later composition or at least editing of the Mencius during the late Western Hàn or Eastern Hàn period, when the gradual process of canonization of the Confucian Classics started to take place. See [101]; [102]; [104]; [105] and [107]; [86].
- 43.
In the received literature, the use of quotations taken from the Confucian Canon as a framing or internal structuring device is a distinctive feature that is often used especially to stress the words of those characters that are more closely associated with the Confucian tradition, though the texts in which they appear are not necessarily nor exclusively included in Confucian texts.
- 44.
Ode n. 272 我將 Wǒ jiāng.
- 45.
Ode n. 241 皇矣 Huáng yǐ.
- 46.
The quotation is drawn from Tàishì shàng 泰誓上, with slightly different wording.
- 47.
Translations in this article are mine.
- 48.
In Old Chinese [i.e. the varieties of Chinese spoken in China approximately until the foundation of the Qín 秦 Dynasty (221–207 B.C.), see [3, pp. 1–8], 辯 *brenʔ (“to debate,” “to dispute,” “to argue”) is phonologically identical with 辨 *brenʔ (“to distinguish,” “to discriminate”), hence the interchangeability of the two graphs and the broader semantic spectrum of the term. For the phonological reconstruction, see [3, p. 229]. See also [4]. For a definition of biàn that keeps into consideration both aspects and nuances, see [89, p. 88]. See also [37].
- 49.
[37, p. 107].
- 50.
[33]. To my knowledge, Alfred Forke is the first to have employed the label of “Chinese Sophists” to described the Logicians.
- 51.
[75, p. 126].
- 52.
Paolo Valesio has defined this strategy as “a sophisticated rhetorical mechanism […] employed to convey a message that attacks ‘rhetoric.’ […] This rhetorical structure manifests itself both at the semantic level (in the ideological contrast that is set up) and at the level of the syntactico-semantic (or synctatico-lexical) form of the message: that is respectively both at the level of the topic and at the figurative level […],” in which “praise of plain speech is couched in a rhetorically sophisticated language” [137, pp. 41–42].
- 53.
See [56].
- 54.
- 55.
- 56.
See [61].
- 57.
The Dàozàng 道藏 (Daoist Canon) version is largely considered the most reliable existing edition of the Gōngsūn Lóngzǐ, excerpts from the text included in this contribution are taken from this version. On different editions of this text and the alleged superiority of the Dàozàng edition, see [53] and [54]. For an updated analysis and a partial translation of the “white horse argument,” see [59]. For a complete analysis, see [53].
- 58.
- 59.
On the theory of the “rectification of names,” see for instance [88].
- 60.
See [59, esp. pp. 7–8].
- 61.
- 62.
This is the only line in which the verb yuē is missing. Since all the other lines are consistently introduced by yuē, we can add it here with confidence.
- 63.
See [134, p. 26].
- 64.
- 65.
Following Qián Mù [115, p. 49] and [18, p. 65], I add the negative copula fēi 非 [“not to be (the same as)”] that is used as negation for nominal sentences before “horse” mǎ 馬. It is highly likely that the sentence is corrupted and that a few characters are missing here. See [44, p. 188], [72, p. 33, footnote 3].
- 66.
[48, p. 307].
- 67.
[44, p. 188].
- 68.
“To compound the name ‘white horse’ for horse and white joined together is to give them when combined their names when uncombined” [43, p. 146].
- 69.
Christoph Harbsmeier remarks the importance of this only apparently frivolous “triumphantly flowery rhetorical picture,” suggesting that “the stylistic flourish is rather important, because it shows that the dialogue as we have it is not entirely thought of as an algebraic disputation but as related to a real situation at court” [48, p. 309].
- 70.
[61].
- 71.
[99].
- 72.
[75].
- 73.
[120].
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Indraccolo, L. (2021). Argumentation and Persuasion in Classical Chinese Literature. In: Bjelde, J.A., Merry, D., Roser, C. (eds) Essays on Argumentation in Antiquity. Argumentation Library, vol 39. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70817-7_2
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