ATC — Arguments in Translated Chinese Classical Texts
A Collection
An infinitely rich and varied textual record attests
that argumentation, persuasion and contention were key elements
in a wide arrayof activities central to the concerns of state and society
in China throughout its history.
Hofmann, Kurtz & Levine, 2020
Chinese authors cited: Name – Dates – Period
METHOD
Same analogy, four translations
♦ « To make morality out of human nature is like making cups and bowls out of the willow tree » (MenciusLAU)
Variations of vocabulary
♦ Righteousness (MengziEno) VS Dutifulness (MenciusLau) = MengziLAU)
THEORETICAL ISSUES
The Issue of Universals
♦ Empirical universals
♦ A fortiori, a good candidate to universality
A New Root Metaphor for Argumentation?
♦ The arm of the balance (Graham 1989)
Argument practice without argument theory (id.)
♦ Syllogisms without predicate logic (id.)
♦ Recourse to paradigmatic cases – An alternative method of exposition
CRITICISM OF ARGUMENT and NECESSITY OF CONTROVERSY
Criticism of Argument
MENCIUS, 380 – 300 bce
♦ “What people dislike about intelligence… What one dislike in the clever…”
MenciusENO2016
TCHUANG TZI, 369 – 286 bce
♦ “If you prevail over me and I do not prevail over you,does that mean that what you say is so and what I say is not?”
ZhuangziENO2010
Necessity of Controversy
MENCIUS
♦ How could it be that I am fond of disputation? (MenciusENO 2016)
Professionals of Argument: DIALECTICIANS
The « School of Names and Designations”
Disputers, Dialecticians, Sophists
Fung Yu-Lan
THE RULES
A Winner-Winner View of Dialectical Exchange
TSOU YEN, 305 – 240BCE
♦ The winner does not fail to make his point and the loser finds what he is seeking.
Tsou YenGRAHAM1978, pp. 20-21
THE PARTICIPANTS
The dialectician as a human type
TENG HSI = DENG HSI
♦ Common people, true Sages, great Dialecticians, small Dialecticians and Ideal man.
Teng HsiFORKE 1901
Choice of a partner
XUNZI
♦ “Do not answer one who asks about something improper”
XunziHUTTON 2016, p. 6-7
The art of speech: adaptation to the audience
DENG XI = TENG XI c. 545 -501 bce
♦ “With the stupid, the speech must be based on demonstration”
Teng XiFORKE 1901
DISCUSSIONS
Mencius at pain
MENCIUS
♦ “Do you think Yan ought to be attacked ?”
MenciusENO 2016
— The dialectical trap
MENCIUS
♦ “Suppose a subject of Your Majesty entrusted his wife and children to a friend and traveled south to Chu.”
MenciusENO 2016
Professionals of Argument: SOPHISTS
AGAINST PARADOXES
XUNZI, c. 310 – c. 238BCE
“The gentleman does not esteem feats that are difficult but improper. »
XunziHUTTON 2016, p. 16
THE WHITE HORSE DIALOGUE
The White Horse Paradox : Two translations
GONGSUN LONG, c.320 – 250 bc
Can it be that a white horse is not a horse?
A quick explanation by Huan T’an, 43 bce – 28 ce
♦ Kung-sun Lung wrote a treatise on « Hard and White » and to illustrate his theory, said that a white horse is not a horse.
Huan T’anPokora “New Treatise”. Fragment 135A, p. 124.
The paradox put at test
« When riding a white horse, he wished to pass through the frontier pass without a warrant or a passport » (Id.)
DENG XI flouts the law through interpretation
Deng Xi interprets the laws
DENG XI, c. 545 – 501 bce
« Deng Xi added his own construction of the meaning of the laws »
The Annals of Lü BuweiKNOBLOCK&RIEGEL 2000, §18/4.2
Judge Deng Xi’s service charges
« Deng Xi strove to disrupt things. He made a pact with those involved in litigation. »
Id., 18/4.4
Double-speak and jokes around the Ruler
The counsellor supports both solutions between which the Ruler must choose
CHUNYU KUN, 4th C. BC
« The king of Wei should join the Vertical Alliance … The king of Wei should join the Horizontal Axis »
Id., 18/4.6
— The counsellor gives the same counsel to both parties
DENG XI
« Do not worry about it. He certainly can sell it to no one else / They certainly will be unable to buy the corpse from someone else.”
Id. 18/4.3
PROFESSIONALS OF ARGUMENT: Persuaders
Arguments are based on interpretation of facts, not on facts
“You love me so much indeed…”
Ruler and Counsellors
The ruler seeks a counsellor
SIMA QIAN = SE-MA TSIEN, c. 145 – c. 86 BC
♦ « Hoang-ti saw in a dream a great wind (fong) sweeping away all the dust (keou)“
Se-ma Ts’ienCHAVANNES
The counsellor at work
Facing the Prince…
♦ “Rhetoric to the single-person audience”
HUI WU, Preface to GUIGUZIHUI WU 2016
… and the other counsellors
SHANG YANG, c. 390 – 338 bce
♦ « Duke Hsiao discussed his policy”
Lord Shang YangDUYVENDAK1928
Virtues of Speech blamed as Rhetorical Vices
HAN FEI TZI, c. 280 – 233 bce
♦ « If his speeches are compliant and harmonious, magnificent and orderly,
he is then regarded as ostentatious and insincere. »
Han Fei TziLIU 1939
Counsellors Put their Life at Risk
♦ Torture and death for benevolent counsellors of crooked masters
Id.
The counsellor, a quick wit
Gongsung Long saves the day for Zhao
Lü Buwei, 291 – 235 BCE
“From this time forward, Zhao will support Qin in whatever Qin desires to do”
The Annals of Lü BuweiKNOBLOCK&RIEGEL 2000
The remonstrance as a jest
Indirectness Allows for Remonstrance
Chunyu Kun, 4th C. BCE
« I saw a man praying for a good harvest and offering one pig’s trotter and one cup of wine.”
Quoted from Wikipedia, Chunyu Kun (22-10-22-2022)
Professionals of Argument: SOPHISTS
The white horse dialogue
The White Horse Paradox : Two translations
GONGSUN LONG, c.320 – 250 bc
Can it be that a white horse is not a horse?
A quick explanation by Huan T’an, 43 bce – 28 ce
♦ Kung-sun Lung wrote a treatise on « Hard and White » and to illustrate his theory, said that a white horse is not a horse.
Huan T’anPokora “New Treatise”. Fragment 135A, p. 124.
The paradox put at test
« When riding a white horse, he wished to pass through the frontier pass without a warrant or a passport » (Id.)
Deng Xi flouts the law through interpretation
Deng Xi interprets the laws
DENG XI, c. 545 – 501 bce
« Deng Xi added his own construction of the meaning of the laws »
The Annals of Lü BuweiKNOBLOCK&RIEGEL 2000, §18/4.2
Judge Deng Xi’s service charges
« Deng Xi strove to disrupt things. He made a pact with those involved in litigation. »
Id., 18/4.4
Double-speak and jokes around the Ruler
The counsellor supports both solutions between which the Ruler must choose
CHUNYU KUN, 4th C. BC
« The king of Wei should join the Vertical Alliance … The king of Wei should join the Horizontal Axis »
Id., 18/4.6
— The counsellor gives the same counsel to both parties
DENG XI
« Do not worry about it. He certainly can sell it to no one else / They certainly will be unable to buy the corpse from someone else.”
Id. 18/4.3
II. ARGUMENT SCHEMES
& OTHER ARGUMENTATIVE OPERATIONS
From the Western Toolbox
♦ Argument Schemes — Means of Persuasion
SYLLOGISTIC ARGUMENTS
— From the Western Toolbox »The science of the concrete » (Lévi-Strauss)
Name / Category / Definition – Classification – Syllogisme
— Categorical Syllogism
WANG CHONG = Wang Ch’ung, 27 – c. 97
♦ “Man is a thing; No thing does not die”
WANG CH’UNG GRAHAM, 1989
— Syllogism with a Concrete Subject
LIU XIANG, 77 bce – 6 ce
♦ ”When the King issues an order to summon someone from the palace, it must be accompanied with a tally”
Liu XiangBENHKE-KINNEY, 2014
SORITE
— « Confucian Sorite »
CONFUCIUS = KONGZI, c. 551 – c. 479 BCE
♦ If names are not right then speech does not accord with things;
if speech is not in accord with things, then affairs cannot be successful
AnalectsENO 2015
ANALOGY
MENCIUS (380-300 bce)
« [Gaozi:] To make morality out of human nature is like making cups and bowls out of the willow tree. »
MOZI (476-390 BCE)
“The wise man who has charge of governing the empire … a physician who is attending a patient …”
LÜ BUWEI (291-235 BCE)
“A dog bears some resemblance to an ape, an ape to a monkey,…”
The Annals of Lü BuweiKNOBLOCK&RIEGEL 2000
NAMES AND ”RECTIFICATION OF NAMES”
CONFUCIUS (551 – 479 BCE)
”Let the ruler be ruler«
PRAGMATIC ARGUMENT
HUAN KUAN
« Profit, moreover, does not fall from Heaven »
A FORTIORI
CONFUCIUS
11.12 Ji Lu asked about serving the spirits.
OPPOSITES
Definition of Opposite Words
HAN FEI TZE, 281 – 233 bce
“Punishment of error does not avoid the great ministers”
LU HSIEH, 6th ce
“Crime: when in doubt, then deem it light”
WANG CHONG 27-97 ce
“To build an annex to a building on the west side is held to be inauspicious »
HUAN T’AN, c 43 bce – 28 ce
“If Heaven produces drugs that kill man…”
PARALLEL CASES
« If the mother is favored, the son will be embraced.
AD HOMINEM
MENCIUS
“ ‘A true worthy tills the soil beside his people, cooking his own meals as he orders the state.’”
MenciusENO 2016
CONTRADICTION
— Inner contradiction as mental confusion
CONFUCIUS
“Zizhang asked about […] discerning confusion”
AnalectsENO2015
— Face to face contradiction:
Lack of face to face contradiction as a dialectical deficiency
CONFUCIUS
“There is nothing in my words that fails to please him”
AnalectsENO2015
TCHUANG TZE (–369,-286)
« The Confucians condemned them, but in practice they bowed before them. »
ZhuangziENO 2010
COUNTER-EXAMPLE
THOUGHT EXPERIMENT
MENCIUS
“…a small child on the verge of falling down into a well…”
MenciusENO 2016
MORAL DILEMMA
MENCIUS
“What is more important, sex or ritual?
MenciusENO 2016
PRESENCE
MENCIUS
♦ « You had seen the ox, but you had not seen the sheep.«
FABLES
MENCIUS
There was a man of Qi …
MenciusENO 2016
TCHUANG TZI)
Three in the morning
ZhuangziENO 2010