The Zhanguo Ce and Classical Rhetoric
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SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS Number 41 October, 1993 Miching Mallecho: The Zhanguo ce and Classical Rhetoric by Paul Rakita Goldin Victor H. Mair, Editor Sino-Platonic Papers Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305 USA [email protected] www.sino-platonic.org SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS is an occasional series edited by Victor H. Mair. The purpose of the series is to make available to specialists and the interested public the results of research that, because of its unconventional or controversial nature, might otherwise go unpublished. The editor actively encourages younger, not yet well established, scholars and independent authors to submit manuscripts for consideration. Contributions in any of the major scholarly languages of the world, including Romanized Modern Standard Mandarin (MSM) and Japanese, are acceptable. 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In such circumstances, those who wish to purchase various issues of SPP are requested to wait patiently until he returns. If issues are urgently needed while the editor is away, they may be requested through Interlibrary Loan. N.B.: Beginning with issue no. 171, Sino-Platonic Papers will be published electronically on the Web. Issues from no. 1 to no. 170, however, will continue to be sold as paper copies until our stock runs out, after which they too will be made available on the Web. _______________________________________________ Sina-Pla tonic Papers, No. 41 (October, 1993) niching Hallecho: The Z'ooeand Classical Rhetoric mhelia: What means this, my lord? Hamlet : Marry, this is miching mallecho, 1 it means mischief. A consensus regarding the proper classification of the Zhaoc& (Intrigues of the Warrm States), the singular collection of anecdotes compiled by the bibliophile Liu Xiang (77-6 B.C.), continues to elude scholars. Henri Maspero has demonstrated that much of the material in the Intrigues is fictional.3 and historians have since rejected them as a primary source of information, although we know from the work of Zheng Liangshu that they may be derived from many of the same sources which Sima Qian (146-86 B.C.) used for his Shw (Recorn's of the Historian)+ Some writers, such as Timoteus Pokora, have found that "much information given en passant in what may perhaps be called informatory parts of the Chan-kuo Ts 'e can be corroborated from other sources."~ Still, it is generally agreed that the Intrigues are very unreliable as a historical text, and probably were never intended as one. 1. "Miching" is the present participle of the obsolete verb "to miche," meaning "to hide," or "to pilferH--probably related to Modern German meuch-. as in Meuchelmord ("assassination") and areuchl- ("stealthily"). "Mallecho" is likely the Spanish word melhecho, or "misdeed." "niching mallecho" thus means "secretive malefactionu--or "intrigue." 2. Romanizations of all Chinese characters will be found in the appended glossary. 3. "Le Roman de Sou Ts 'in, " Etudes Asiatigues 2 (1925), 127-41; and "Le Roman historique dans la litt6rature chinoise de l'antiquitg," in Mdlanges Posthumes (Paris: Civilisations du Sud, 1950), 111, 52-62. 4. Zhwoce m-iu(Singapore : Xueshu chubanshe, 1972). 5. "Pre-Han literature," in Essays an the Sources for Chinese History, ed . Donald D . Leslie, Colin Mackerras, and Gungwu Wang (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1975), 28. 2 Paul Rakita Eoldin, 'Niching Hallecho: The Zhanguoce and Classical Rhetoric' Others see the Intr-es as a handbook on persuasive speaking, filled with numerous debates and speeches that serve as examples of superior rhet0ric.e Yet there does not seem to be a conscious attempt to divide the various items by style or theme. The anecdotes are ordered only by state of provenance, and at that quite loosely. After reading the book, the reader senses that he has been made privy to several gems of rhetorical strategy to be used when the appropriate situation should arise, but has learned nothing of a unified theory of rhetoric that would help him modify his speech to suit all occasions. By contrast, the more influential of the classical Western handbooks on rhetoric--such as De oratore, by Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.); the anonymous htorica ad Herenniuar, and Ch Ccbadpositim, by Dionysius of Halicarnassos (54-7 B.C.?)--share the advantage of clear organization: their discussions and examples are arranged by topic into different sections. A primer should be coherent and lead the student's mind directly to the points it wishes to convey. But the Intrigues, though they may be valuable as something else, are inadequate as a sort of textbook, since none of the rhetorical skills appearing in the speeches are ever discussed analytically, or even identified explicitly, in the text. The most prominent Western scholar in the study of the Intrmes is James I. Crump, Jr., whose critical works and translation of the entire text stand out as fundamental contributions.7 Crump's own interpretation of the 6. E .g. Burton Watson, EmJy Chinese Literature (New York and Landon: Columbia University Press, 1962), 75. 7. See esp. "The Ch-kuo Ts'e end its Fiction," T'oung Pao 47.4-5 (lS60), 305-75; Intrigues: Studies of the Chan-kuo Ts 'e (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1864); and his translation ( Chan-Kuo Ts'e, 2nd edition, Chinese Materials and Research Aids Service Center Occasional Series 41 [San Francisco: Chinese Materials Center, 19791). Sine-Platonic Papers, No 41 (October, 1993) 3 Intrmes is encapsulated in the following paragraph: Suppose a Chinese rhetorical tradition included some such device as the suasoria for training men in the art of persuasion; would that not explain much of what is most baffling about the IntriByeg If exercises by the masters or the disciples of such a "school" were part of the "school's" heritage it would not only explain many of the contradictions in the intrigues, but it would account for myother facets of this delightful work. Why, for example, do so many persuaders so often speak their entire piece with no interruption from the ruler, who simply says "so be it" when the persuader is finished? Why are the pieces in the Intrigues so beautifully polished? ... These become understandable if the training a man underwent to pursue the career he hoped for (political advisor, emissary, and the like) included model advice which wouldor shmld have been offered at certain historic occasions, and somehow found its way into what we now call the Intrigues of the Warring States? This is the first formulation of a theory that has since gained widespread popularity. David Hawkes, for example, agrees wholeheartedly in his review of Crump's book, adding: "It is even arguable that Chm-kuo Ts 'e meant not Intrigues of the Karrin8 States [but 1 Imaginary Sweches an Warrim? States Tkms."e More recently, Jean-Paul Reding has called the intraes "une vlaste collection de pieces rMtoriques, des exercises d06cole sans daute."lo Jaroslav PrUgek's is the most significant dissenting voice; he remarks that the "stress on the anecdotal aspect is not by any means subordinated to the stress m rhetoric."ll Yet neither Crump's supporters nor his critics have studied the tradition of the Roman suasoria and compared it with the rhetoric of the Intrigues. It is just such an examination that we need to undertake before we can gain our own understanding and appreciation of 8. Intrigues, 103f. 8. Journal of the American Oriental Society 86.1 ( 1966), 63. 10. Les fandements philosophigues de la rMtorique chez les sophistes Grecs et chez les sophistes Chinois (Berne: Peter Lang, 1985), 341. 11. "A New Exegesis of Chan-Kuo-Ts'e," Rrchiv Orientdlnf 34.4 (1966), 590. 4 + Paul Rakita Goldin, 'Niching Hallecho: The Zhanquoce and Classical Rhetoric' the book. This will involve a comparison of several aspects of Chinese and Roman rhetoric, such as the use of language and devices, as well as the theory of rhetoric and its ultimate goal.