修辞学在東方的盛衰変遷 - 兼中日修辞学比较 -

Abstract

Though once a fundamental part of education in the Humanities, Rhetoric declined in the Western world in the 19th century. Western Rhetoric was adopted by Japan in the late 19th century and soon reached its greatest level, but it rapidly vanished from society during the 1920s. During this time, the Chinese adopted Rhetoric from Japan and Britani-America, and by the 1930s it had evolved into a uniquely Chinese style. With the exception of two periods of great internal upheaval, Chinese Rhetoric appears to have succeeded in higher education, as well as in the modern Chinese language more generally. Rhetoric has helped the Chinese language to progress, modernize and become standardized. In this paper, I will re-examine and discuss this phenomenon and argue that, in general, ancient Greek Rhetoric had standardized European languages in the Middle Ages and after the Renaissance. However, how has this powerful tool disappeared in today’s Japanese language? Roughly 2,400 years after its inception in ancient Greece, and then transmitted through Japan, Rhetoric has become an important tool in many Chinese universities and in efforts at expanding the influence of modern Chinese. The entire process forces us to consider when and in what situations people need the skills offered by Rhetoric, suggesting that this phenomenon is a kind of Orientalism. Now, however, we must ask whether it is starting to go beyond Orientalism.