Asia Studies
Subject: Polarizing rhetoric in Former Han (206/202 BCE - 9 CE)
Supervisor: Prof. Yuri Pines
Abstract: My study concerns polarizing political rhetoric in early China. By polarizing rhetoric I mean the rhetoric that depicts the political process as a persistent confrontation between two fundamentally antagonistic forces. I shall show that in early China polarization was used as a rhetorical technique, and that it developed gradually from the Warring States (453-221 BCE) to the Former Han periods (206/202 BCE-9 CE).
The basic elements of polarizing rhetoric had been formed prior to the imperial unification of 221 BCE. Yet, it was only in the second half of the Former Han period that a fully developed polarizing discourse had come into being. Proponents of this discourse reduced the variety of political views and approaches to a dichotomy of extreme opposites. One was represented by legendary sage rulers of the past and especially by the idealized model of the Western Zhou 西周 dynasty (1046-771 BCE). The opposite “bad side” was represented the by Han’s short-lived predecessor, the Qin 秦 dynasty (221-207 BCE). Yet the polarizing approach went far beyond the Zhou-Qin dichotomy; it encompassed multiple issues related to socio-economic and administrative policies, foreign affairs, ritual, and culture.
I shall trace the evolution of polarizing rhetoric in early China and try to demonstrate that its rise was closely related to the political ascendancy of the group named Ru 儒 (“Confucians” or “Classicists”). For them polarizing rhetoric became a potent tool for criticizing current policies and policymakers and a key element in the emerging moralizing approach to politics and administration. In the polarized world envisioned by the Ru amorality meant immorality, and any policy which was not based on purely moral considerations should have been discontinued. The moralizing discourse and the related polarizing rhetoric developed by the Ru enabled them to bolster their claim for moral authority and also to undermine the legitimacy of rival groups with which they vied for power at the Han court.
In my study I shall show how the Ru developed and integrated polarizing tropes, forging thereby an extraordinarily effective rhetorical device. I shall furthermore show how this new rhetoric contributed to the rise of the Ru. During the first decades of the Han dynasty the Ru were a relatively marginal group, whose skills were not much appreciated by the political elite. Toward the end of the Former Han period, in contrast, the Ru became a power to reckon with. By explicating the link between the polarizing rhetoric employed by the Ru and their ascendancy I hope to elucidate heretofore insufficiently studied aspects of this all-important process.
Bio: I am a PhD student at the Department of Asia studies. This is my second year with the PhD Honor Program. I received my MA degree from Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 2014. I study preimperial and early imperial China, particularly political culture, intellectual history and related topics.
Publications:
Polnarov A., "Looking Beyond Dichotomies: Hidden Diversity of Voices in the Yantielun 鹽鐵論", accepted for publication in T'oung Pao
Presidential Stipend 2016/17