Chinese Rhetoric and Writing: an Introduction for Language Teachers

and XU Kirkpatrick CHINESE RHETORIC AND WRITING In Chinese Rhetoric and Writing: An Introduction for Language Teach- ers, Andy Kirkpatrick and and Zhichang Xu offer a response to the argument that Chinese students’ academic writing in English is influenced by “culturally nuanced rhetorical baggage that is uniquely Chinese and hard to eradicate.” Noting that this argument draws from “an essentially monolingual and Anglo-centric view of writ- WRITING AND RHETORIC CHINESE ing,” they point out that the rapid growth in the use of English worldwide calls for CHINESE RHETORIC “a radical reassessment of what English is in today’s world.” The result is a book that provides teachers of writing, and in particular those involved in the teaching of Eng- lish academic writing to Chinese students, an introduction to key stages in the devel- AND WRITING opment of Chinese rhetoric, a wide-ranging field with a history of several thousand years. Understanding this important rhetorical tradition provides a strong foundation for assessing and responding to the writing of this growing group of students. AN INTRODUCTION FOR Andy Kirkpatrick is Professor and Head, School of Languages and Linguistics, at Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. Directly prior to that he was Director of the Research Centre LANGUAGE TEACHERS into Language Education and Acquistion in Multilingual Societies at the Hong Kong Insti- tute of Education. He is the author of English as a Lingua Franca in ASEAN: A Multilingual Model (Hong Kong University Press, 2010) and the editor of the Routledge Handbook of World Englishes (2010). He is editor of the journal Multilingual Education and of the book series of the same name (both with Springer). Zhichang Xu is a lecturer in English as an International Language (EIL) at Monash Univer- sity, Australia. His research areas include Chinese English (as an emerging Expanding Circle variety of English), English language teaching (ELT), intercultural education, blended teaching and learning, academic writing, and Chinese studies. He is the author of Chinese English: Features and Implications (Hong Kong Open University Press, 2010), and the lead author of Academic Writing in Language and Education Programmes (Pearson, 2011). Perspectives on Writing Series Editor, Susan H. McLeod The WAC Clearinghouse Fort Collins, CO 80523-1052 http://wac.colostate.edu Andy Kirkpatrick WAC Clearing- house 3015 Brackenberry Drive and Zhichang Xu Anderson, SC 29621 www.parlorpress.com PARLOR S A N: 2 5 4 – 8 8 7 9 PRESS ISBN: 978-1-60235-302-2 PERSPECTIVES ON WRITING Series Editor, Susan H. McLeod PERSPECTIVES ON WRITING Series Editor, Susan H. McLeod The Perspectives on Writing series addresses writing studies in a broad sense. Consistent with the wide ranging approaches characteristic of teaching and scholarship in writing across the curriculum, the series presents works that take divergent perspectives on working as a writer, teaching writing, administering writing programs, and studying writing in its various forms. The WAC Clearinghouse and Parlor Press are collaborating so that these books will be widely available through free digital distribution and low-cost print editions. The publishers and the Series editor are teachers and researchers of writing, committed to the principle that knowledge should freely circulate. We see the opportunities that new technologies have for further democratizing knowledge. And we see that to share the power of writing is to share the means for all to articulate their needs, interest, and learning into the great experiment of literacy. Other Books in the Series Charles Bazerman and David R. Russell (Eds.), Writing Selves/Writing Societies (2003) Gerald P. Delahunty and James Garvey, The English Language: From Sound to Sense (2009) Charles Bazerman, Adair Bonini, and Débora Figueiredo (Eds.), Genre in a Changing World (2009) David Franke, Alex Reid, and Anthony Di Renzo (Eds.), Design Discourse: Composing and Revising Programs in Professional and Technical Writing (2010) Martine Courant Rife, Shaun Slattery, and Dànielle Nicole DeVoss (Eds.), Copy(write) : Intellectual Property in the Writing Classroom (2011) Doreen Starke-Meyerring, Anthony Paré, Natasha Artemeva, Miriam Horne, and Larissa Yousoubova, Writing in Knowledge Societies (2011) CHINESE RHETORIC AND WRITING: AN INTRODUCTION FOR LANGUAGE TEACHERS Andy Kirkpatrick and Zhichang Xu The WAC Clearinghouse wac.colostate.edu Fort Collins, Colorado Parlor Press www.parlorpress.com Anderson, South Carolina The WAC Clearinghouse, Fort Collins, Colorado 80523-1052 Parlor Press, 3015 Brackenberry Drive, Anderson, South Carolina 29621 © 2012 by Andy Kirkpatrick and Zhichang Xu. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kirkpatrick, Andy. Chinese rhetoric and writing : an introduction for language teachers / Andy Kirkpatrick and Zhichang Xu. p. cm. -- (Perspectives on writing) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-1-60235-300-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-60235-301-5 (alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-60235-302-2 (adobe ebook) -- ISBN 978-1-60235-303-9 (epub) 1. Chinese language--Rhetoric--Study and teaching. 2. Report writing--Study and teaching--China. I. Xu, Zhichang. II. Title. PL1129.E5K57 2012 495.1’82421--dc23 2012005609 Copyeditor: Don Donahue Designer: Mike Palmquist Series Editor: Susan H. McLeod This book is printed on acid-free paper. The WAC Clearinghouse supports teachers of writing across the disciplines. Hosted by Colorado State University, it brings together scholarly journals and book series as well as resources for teachers who use writing in their courses. This book is available in digital format for free download at http://wac.colostate.edu. Parlor Press, LLC is an independent publisher of scholarly and trade titles in print and multimedia formats. This book is available in paperback, cloth, and eBook formats from Parlor Press at http://www.parlorpress.com. For submission information or to find out about Parlor Press publications, write to Parlor Press, 3015 Brackenberry Drive, Anderson, South Carolina 29621, or e-mail [email protected]. CONTENTS Introduction ��3 1 Rhetoric in Ancient China . .13 2 The Literary Background And Rhetorical Styles . .31 3 The Rules of Writing in Medieval China and Europe . .51 4 The Ba Gu Wen（八股文） � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 75 5 Shuyuan and Chinese Writing Training and Practice . .93 6 Principles of Sequencing and Rhetorical Organisation: Words, Sentences and Complex Clauses . .107 7 Principles of Sequencing and Rhetorical Organisation: Discourse and Text . .125 8 The End of Empire and External Influences . .143 9 Party Politics, the Cultural Revolution and Charter 08 ��163 10 A Review of Contemporary Chinese University Writing (Course) Books . .189 Conclusion ��203 Works Cited ��207 Notes ��221 v CHINESE RHETORIC AND WRITING 1 INTRODUCTION The primary aim of this book is to give teachers of writing, especially those involved in the teaching of English academic writing to Chinese students, an introduction to key stages in the development of Chinese rhetoric. The book will make Western readers familiar with Chinese rhetorical styles and Chinese scholarship on Chinese rhetoric. Chinese rhetoric is a wide-ranging field with a history of several thousand years. This book is concerned with what might be loosely termed non-fiction or “academic” writing and the writing of essays. It therefore does not deal in any depth with the Chinese poetic tradition. While the focus is on writing, principles of persuasion in Chinese oral texts will also be considered. Why is such a book necessary? For some forty years, it has been customary to argue that Chinese students’ academic writing in English has been influenced by traditional Chinese writing styles. Many scholars, both Chinese and Western, have long argued that Chinese rhetorical norms and traditions are somehow unique to Chinese and that these, when transferred into academic writing in English are a source of negative interference (cf. Kaplan; Jia and Cheng; J. Chen). The underlying assumption is that the English writing of these students is, in some way, inappropriate to academic writing in English. The view is that Chinese students bring with them culturally nuanced rhetorical baggage that is uniquely Chinese and hard to eradicate. In this book we shall argue that these views stem from an essentially monolingual and Anglo-centric view of writing and that, given the exponential increase in the international learning and use of English, there needs to be a radical reassessment of what English is in today’s world. It is no more than a truism to point out that there are many more speakers of English who have learned it as an additional language and use it, either as a new variety of English, such as Indian English, or as a lingua franca, than there are native speakers of it. Kingsley Bolton has estimated that there are some 800 million users of English in Asia alone. In China, it has been estimated

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