The Evolution of Bianzheng in Modern Chinese Argumentation: From Reasoning to Correlation

Abstract

This study traces the evolutional manifestations of bianzheng in modern Chinese argumentative practices from the twentieth century onwards, focusing on three principal forms. The first form of bianzheng operates as a translational counterpart to Western dialectic, specifically engaging with Aristotelian dialectical mechanisms that prioritize inductive reasoning (epagōgē) and deductive syllogism (sullogismos). The second form of bianzheng deviates from this logical sense and is reconstructed philosophically mainly based on Hegelian dialectic with an integration of the worldviews of change and relation in traditional Chinese thinking. The third form of bianzheng is further retrofitted with traditional Chinese thinking, shifting from philosophical reconstruction to rhetorical reconstruction in Chinese argumentation with a focus on the rejection of essential readings of things and events. And this form of bianzheng is systematically illustrated in Chinese argumentation in the twenty-first century, embracing holism, dynamic contexts and mutual becoming of the two opposites. This paper goes further to compare cultural connotations of Aristotelian dialectic, Hegelian dialectic and the third form of bianzheng based on the method of “comparative cultural hermeneutics”(Ames 2023a: 119). It argues that Aristotelian dialectic and Hegelian dialectic presuppose the One negating the many and the One dominating the many respectively. Yet the third form of bianzheng embraces the notion of “the inseparability of the one and the many” (Ames 2021a: 218), entailing “correlative thinking”. It deals with the production of new meaning, which is realized by aspectual language.