Confucius's Virtue-Centered Rhetoric: A Case Study of Mixed Research Methods in Comparative Rhetoric

Abstract

This paper employs mixed methods, namely, corpus linguistic and rhetorical analysis methods, to examine Confucius's theory on language, persuasion, and virtue as reflected in the Analects. The triangulation of methods allows in-depth analysis of Confucius's use of key concepts surrounding the language—virtue relationship and the way these concepts operate in different levels of persuasion. The study shows Confucius's theory as a virtue-centered rhetoric. For him, virtuous conduct, rather than artful words, should be employed as the primary persuasive tool.

Notes

¹I thank Xiaoye You and Richard Johnson-Sheehan for their suggestions at the early stage of this project and the RR reviewers, LuMing Mao and George Kennedy, for their insightful comments.

²The Warring-States Period was one of the most intellectually active eras in China, during which rival theorists argued their views not only before rulers but also against one another to gain acceptance and popularity.

³I choose to focus on the Chinese version of the Analects instead of the translated version, which enables the examination of key concepts in the original text. In most translations a single keyword is translated into several English words and loses its impact and meaning in the original text. My reading of the Analects is primarily based on Zhuxi's Si Shu Ji Zhu (Four Books Annotated) and Lao and Xia's English translation. All the translations are mine if not otherwise stated.

⁴“Collocation” refers to words that are frequently used together with other words or the word under examination.

⁵ Ren has been translated by Dawson, Lao and Xia, and Legge respectively as “humaneness,” “benevolence,” or “perfect virtue.” However, my analysis shows that none of these translations accurately or comprehensively reflect the various layers of meaning of ren as used in the Analects. If one chooses to use several different English words to convey the meaning of ren, the concept of ren will get lost in the translation. Therefore, it may work better to stick to the original word ren instead of using English translations, as demonstrated in Brook and Brook's work.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Huiling Ding

Huiling Ding is a PhD candidate in Rhetoric and Composition at Purdue University. She has published or has articles and reviews forthcoming in English for Specific Purposes, Technical Communication Quarterly, and Journal of Business and Technical Communication.