From the hierarchical ren to egalitarianism

A case of cross‐cultural rhetorical mediation

Bibliographic Data

ID9236232
AuthorsXiaosui Xiao (0000-0002-9346-3359, Hong Kong Baptist University, corresponding author)
Year1996
Volume82
Issue1
Pages38-54
Publication date1996-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueQuarterly Journal of Speech (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0033-5630 • E-ISSN: 1479-5779
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00335639609384139
OpenAlexW2015303103
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited14

A Study of Humanity (Ren), the first Chinese “manifesto of egalitarianism,” written by Tan Sitong in 1896–97, was one of the most important spiritual contributions to the republican movement toward the end of China's last imperial dynasty. This essay argues that the particular persuasiveness of its nontraditional egalitarian argument is explained by the writer's skills in exploiting the humanistic and organic ethos of Chinese tradition. This case reveals the interaction of rhetoric and culture. It shows how a dynamic process of rhetorical mediation led to change and also how the fundamental experience of Chinese culture remained intact as long as the Confucian organic world views remained operative in dictating the writer's choice of the appropriate channels, means, and modes of moderation

Aesthetics · Argument (complex analysis) · Art · China · Egalitarianism · Ethos · Humanism · Humanity · Linguistics · Literature · Manifesto · Mediation · Moderation · Political science · Prerogative · Rhetoric · Rhetorical question · Social science · Sociology · Chinese history and philosophy · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought · Social Psychology