Challenges And Possibilities Of Rhetoric

By Author: Shirley Green
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Political debates certainly did not come without stakes. An imperial state tends to seek a unified set of values to guard both its politico-cultural integrity and the ruling class's interests. For example, in the short-lived Qin dynasty, the emperor favored the Legalist school. He killed scholars of other schools and burned their books. In the ensuing Western Han dynasty, to recuperate the nation from years of wars, the state championed the Daoist notion of least government meddling until Emperor Wu resorted to Confucianism to consolidate state power. Bringing a critical voice to the hearing of the rulers and the ranking officials is potentially dangerous in any political debate. To win a debate, one must demonstrate both political sensitivity and rhetorical dexterity. Although the debate on ED Hardy Hoodies salt and iron focused on economic, military, legal, and agricultural issues, it also revealed the challenges and possibilities of political debates in the Western Han.

Confucian official-orators faced various challenges. For one thing, striving ...
... to become a competent official-orator meant risking one's own life. In the debate, the officials and the Confucians cited numerous examples of competent official-orators whose candid criticisms led to praiseworthy political outcomes. However, in Chinese imperial history, official-orators often lost their lives in their pursuit of honorary titles such as "loyal official" and "honest advisor." Second, rhetorical training did not simply mean training eloquent speakers; it meant training eloquent officials. One's successful training would lead to a government position, which required both communicative and administrative skills. On many occasions, Daifu criticized the Confucian debaters for being out of touch with real-life issues. He once questioned their competence to govern: "You cherish the past but criticize the present. You talked a lot about the past, which in fact didn't matter much to the present issues. Probably you don't understand what it truly means to be an official-advisor. Or did you exaggerate your ability with ED Hardy Boots flowery words Why is it so hard to meet virtuous gentlemen". Indeed, successful court examinees often proved to be incompetent administrators in Chinese imperial history (Elman).

Despite realistic obstacles to becoming ideal official-orators, the Confucian debaters finally proved themselves, according to Yan tie lun. The literati demonstrated their oratorical success in two major accounts. First, they achieved part of their political goal: the state abolished its monopoly over iron and liquor in certain areas of the country. Second, they were accredited and placed into various Daifu ranks by the emperor. The debate functioned as an excruciating exam. The literati passed it by performing the role of ideal official-orators, who would "risk their lives to point out their master's misbehaviors" and would "risk displeasing ranking officials by criticizing their wrongdoings". However, joining the officialdom did not mean the end of their rhetorical training. Down the road, as they had already done in the debate, in their administrative posts these new officials would have to learn how to negotiate between their Confucian values and values of other schools.