Chinese rhetoric
The Chinese rhetoric is called Xiucixue修辭 學 (修辞 学). The word "Xiucixue" is roughly pronounced "siu-ze-süe". It literally means “teaching (學xue ) of preparing (修xiu ) the words (辭ci )”.
history
The story of modern Xiucixue begins in Japan. At the end of the 19th century, the Japanese coined the term “Shujigaku” as a translation of the Greek word rhetoric . They used Chinese characters for writing , namely those found in the Commentary on the Book of Changes (Yijing) , a commentary that was long believed to have been written by Confucius , so that they are associated with a special historical significance and authority. Shujigaku is written 修辞学 in Japanese . It is the first two characters - 修辞 is the simplified spelling of 修辭 - that come from the comment. The Chinese took the word back from the Japanese at the time of the May Fourth Movement, around 1919. In Chinese it is pronounced "Xiucixue".
The founding father of the Chinese Xiucixue is Chen Wangdao (1890–1977), who had studied rhetoric in Japan, with his plan published in 1932 on the teaching of the arrangement of words .
In the floor plan , Chen Wangdao tries to sift through and grasp the multitude of poetological terms and theories that relate to the possibilities of formulation in Chinese, and which the Chinese literary theorists developed autochthonously over the centuries, and to integrate them into a scientific system bring. Most of the Xiucixue books, of which there is an immense number in China today, are based on this work.
Since Chen Wangdao's system is essentially based on the system of occidental rhetoric, three traditions are united: Greco-Roman-medieval rhetoric, Chinese poetics and Chinese Confucianism.
The Japanese scholars had dealt with the rhetoric shaped by Aristotle , Cicero and Quintilian and found a systematic teaching system for the phenomena of language, a system that had started with the sophists and served the unified purpose, with all means, reason and motivation to persuade. Since the rhetoric offered not only instructions for speaking, but at the same time one for writing - the speeches were often prepared in writing down to the smallest detail and learned by heart word for word - so the rhetoric was close to poetry from the start, to poetics.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Chinese were able to look back on a pronounced poetic "figure" theory, which could easily be equated with the rhetorical figure theory of Greek origin. In Liu Xie's literary ethos and the carving of dragons (Wenxin diaolong) , which was made around 500 AD, the "Duiou", "Piyu" and "Kuashi" are treated, for example. In rhetoric they correspond to the “isocolon”, the “similitudo” and the “hyperbole”. So they could orientate themselves on the systematization and the theoretical treatment of the rhetoric. However, they could not take over the purpose, the aim of the rhetoric, the persuasion.
Confucianism regards truthfulness as a value. In particular, the language of the individual should be truthful. The words should describe things as they present themselves to the individual. In conversations, Confucius calls for the "rectification of names" ( 正名zheng ming ), that is, he demands that the words be brought into harmony with the things. Rhetoric, on the other hand, demands the ability to disguise. Simulation and dissimulation are in the interests of the party. The rhetorician is encouraged to present things in such a way, not as they actually show themselves, but as he believes that they have to be presented in order to win the audience over to his point of view of interest. In the word “Xiucixue”, the connotation of truthfulness is concealed. The passage in the commentary on Yijing , from which the name comes, reads:
“The noble one promotes his virtue and works on his work: he is conscientious and credible, in this way he promotes virtue; he works on the words [ 修辭 xiu ci] and establishes his truthfulness; In this way he gives the work duration. ”(See commentary on the“ Book of Changes ”, 周易 Zhou yi“ Changes of the Zhou ”, 文言 Wen yan“ Commentary on the text words ”.)
Those who accept and practice the teachings of the Xiucixue are obliged to always be honest and sincere. This "prohibition of hypocrisy" or "sincerity commandment" is expressly formulated: "The most important principle in the use of language is sincerity", says Huang Qingxuan's Xiucixue . In the tradition of Confucianism, therefore, no rhetorical system could arise. Insofar as Chen Wangdao was caught up in this tradition, he too had to reject the persuasive purpose of rhetoric.
The heart of the Xiucixue, the doctrine of the word adjustment patterns, corresponds to the elocutio part of the rhetoric, in which the formulation possibilities with regard to rhetorical psychagogy are dealt with. The intrinsic goal of the Xiucixue, however, is to consider the formulation possibilities as such, regardless of the purpose for which they are used.
example
人 人為 我, 我 為 人人. Renren knows where, where we renren. "All for one, one for all." (Slogan)
The sentence in this example follows the pattern: aabc , cbaa . Even those who don't speak Chinese can recognize the following: A series of characters: abc (人為 我) is reversed to cba (我 為人) and makes sense in both directions. This is the pattern according to which the words (characters) are arranged. The pattern is called 回文 huiwen "reverse script ". The sentence is a slogan, it has a persuasive function - it serves to convince - [see persuasive communication ], and is therefore rhetorical.
The pattern could also appear in a poem and would then have an aesthetic function. Then one could not speak of a “rhetorical pattern” but of a “style figure”.
In the European tradition, the palindrome corresponds to the pattern .
literature
- 陳 望 道Chen Wangdao : 修辭 發 凡Xiucixue fafan "Outline of the Doctrine of Arranging Words" (Shanghai, Jiaoyu chubanshe 1979). [Taiwan edition: 陳 望 道Chen Wangdao: 修辭 學 釋 利Xiucixue shili " Sample Analysis of the Doctrine of Configuring Words" (Taibei, Xuesheng shuju 1963).]
- Klaus Horsten: Chinese rhetoric. Vienna, 2020 google books online . [Adopts the classification and examples from Huang Qingxuan and translates them.]
- 黃慶萱 Huang Qingxuan : 修辭 學Xiucixue "Teaching How To Put The Words In Order" (Taibei, Sanmin shuju 1988) [Adheres to Chen Wangdao in the classification of the figures, but expands the repertoire of the examples to include quotations from modern literature.]
- H. Richter: Terra incognita of the Chinese lesson: language style (xiucixue). in: Chun - Chinese Lessons, No. 3.
- 鄭子瑜Zheng Ziyu : 中國 修辭 學 史稿Zhongguo xiucixue shigao " Outline of the history of the Chinese doctrine of arranging words" (Shanghai, Jiaoyu chubanshe 1984). [Taiwan edition: Zheng Ziyu 鄭子瑜 : 中國 修辭 學 史Zhongguo xiucixue shi “History of the Chinese Teaching of Words' (Taibei, Wenshizhe chubanshe). See Zhang, Zhenhua.]
- Zhang, Zhenhua: Chinese and European Rhetoric. A comparison in main features (Frankfurt / Main, Lang, diss.). [In the first part, history of Xiucixue based on Zeng Ziyu.]
Individual evidence
- ↑ Klaus Horsten: Chinese rhetoric. Vienna, 2020 google books online .
- ↑ Harald Richter: Chen Wangdao. An outline of his life and work. In: Oriens Extremus, Vol. 27 (1980), pp. 61-72
- ↑ a b 黃慶萱 Huang Qingxuan: 修辭 學 Xiucixue “Teaching of Preparing Words”, Taibei, Sanmin shuju 1988, p. 2.
- ↑ 合作社 標語 Hezuoshe biaoyu "Company's slogan for cooperation". Quoted from 黃慶萱 Huang Qingxuan: 修辭 學 Xiucixue “Doctrine of Preparing Words”, Taibei, Sanmin shuju 1988, p. 524.