Liu Xie And His Conception Of Rhetoric In Wenxin Diaolong

Liu Xie's Wenxin Diaolong has always been identified as a monumental work of literary theory and has therefore been studied primarily by scholars in the field of literary criticism. Even though it contains many insightful discussions on rhetoric as well, few scholars have taken its author for a great rhetorician and turned their attention to his theorization of rhetoric.This paper means to do something about this unjustified negligence by introducing a rhetorical perspective on Liu Xie and his Wenxin Diaolong. It looks into the current researches on this great work, taking them to task for restricting the scope of Liu Xie studies to the issues of styles and figures of speech only. On the basis of a comparison between the Chinese and the Western conception of rhetoric, the paper exposes the prejudices that inform the Western representation of the Chinese discourse, criticizing it in particular for underestimating the Chinese achievements on rhetoric. By making an effort to identify Wenxin Diaolong as a treatise on rhetoric, the paper means to counter those prejudices and to heighten the awareness of the Chinese tradition of rhetoric among English-speaking scholars.Through detailed analyses and reconstructions, the paper sheds light on Liu Xie's rhetorical thinking, calling attention in particular to his views on how a rhetor should respond to exigencies, identify with the audience and deploy rhetorical strategies. By reinterpreting Liu Xie and Wenxin Diaolong within a rhetorical framework and by showing how it addresses rhetorical issues and theorize on rhetorical practices in a systematic way, the paper hopes to reestablish Liu Xie as a great rhetorician, to add to our understanding of rhetoric in the Chinese tradition, to invite further studies on Chinese rhetoric, and to enhance and develop this important discipline in China.