Studying the Chinese Rhetorical Tradition in the Present: Re-presenting the Native's Point of View

Broadly defined, comparative rhetoric aims to study different rhetorical tradi tions and their practices across time and space through a dialogic lens. For example, George Kennedy defines comparative rhetoric as "the cross-cul tural study of rhetorical traditions as they exist or have existed in different societies around the world" (Comparative 1). The study of the Chinese rhetorical tradition on this side of the Pacific has regularly been conducted in the general context of comparative rhetoric and with a particular interest in, if not a nagging anxiety about, comparing it with the European American rhetorical tradition. Such study is never disinterested?the areas or subjects chosen and the findings that emerge reflect as much the underlying methodologies of the undertaker as the actual pro cess of the undertaking. Differently stated, the methods one deploys will inevitably influence the outcomes of such an undertaking, and these outcomes in turn are of ten perceived, if not directly cited, as evidence justifying or validating the methods chosen. In view of this reciprocal relationship between the "how" and the "what," we rhetoricians and writing professionals engaged in this kind of study must reflect regularly on our methodologies, including their intrinsic connections to our objects of study, to our understanding of the Other, and to our understanding of ourselves. Operating within this general framework, this essay aims to address the rela tionship between the "how" and the "what" directly. First, I review and discuss three major methodological approaches that have influenced the study of the Chinese rhetorical tradition on this side of the Pacific. Then, I address the recent turn to