There are many definitions of rhetoric. In her book, Rhetoric in Ancient China, Xing Lu defines it as “the art of persuasion, the artistic use of oral and written expressions, for the purpose of changing thought and action at social, political and individual levels” (1998:2). This definition will act as our guide in this entry.

In Chinese, persuasion was known as shuì 說, explanation as míng 明, and argumentation as biàn 辯. Although there is overlap between these terms (and others), Lu argues that each word has a particular function in conceptualizing and contextual…