Humanity Should Remain Key Values In Contemporary Rhetorical Education

By Author: Jessee
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The debate was later reconstructed under the tide Yan tie lun MStlm Discourses on Salt and Iron by a Confucian bureaucrat-scholar, Huan Kuan (year of birth and death unknown), who consulted both living debaters and historical record. The text delineates the debate in sixty episodes, spanning over several days. In each episode, the debaters focus on a specific issue that emerges during the debate. Like the U.S. presidential debates broadcast live on television and radio, each debater has about two minutes to elaborate his position on an issue before surrendering the floor to his opponent. After his opponent responds to and rebuts his arguments, he regains his turn to elaborate his position or to make new arguments. After a few turns, the debaters move on to another issue. Because Huan consulted the living debaters and Juicy Couture Watch probably experienced political debates of a similar kind himself, the debate format that he describes in Yan tie lun is historically accurate.

To gain insights into rhetorical practices in the Western Han, I will conduct ...
... both content and rhetorical analyses. I will examine the primary text, Yan tie lun, as well as secondary sources on rhetorical practices before and during the Western Han. In particular, I will study the concepts used rhetorically by the debaters, their knowledge base, and practical challenges related to political debates in the empire. In terms of the concepts used rhetorically, I will focus on those identified by previous scholarship as typically Chinese, such as rectifying names; ritual; yin-yang; and non-action, which assumed a discursive prominence in the debate. My interest is to understand how these concepts were used in the context of the empire to advance the debaters' arguments.

Through analyzing the debate, I suggest that political debates in the Western Han centered on the Confucian tradition but were also open to thoughts and Juicy Couture Necklaces concepts of other schools. The debate provides us with an opportunity to understand how official-orators discursively engaged each other while representing diverse philosophical orientations, such as Daoism, Legalism, and Orthodox Confucianism. Despite Confucius's favorites, some concepts took on complex kairotical meanings as the debaters addressed the critical issues of building an empire. I argue that the inclusive attitude toward the thoughts and concepts of the other was a proactive response to the multiethnic society that China had increasingly become. Further, my analysis of this ancient debate suggests that humanity, empathy, and responsibility should remain the key values in contemporary rhetorical education.