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Title:: A Comparison of Views on Rhetoric between Pre-Qin ChineseThinkers and Ancient Greek Philosophers

Abstract:: Pre-Qin Chinese thinkers and ancient Greek philosophers both explored the topic of rhetoric.Due to the differences in historical context and purpose，their thoughts on rhetoric differed in the objectives，theoretical foundation and basic framework. The ancient Greek rhetoric studies with Aristotle as itsrepresentative were concerned with stylistics carried out in the framework of oration，whereas those of thePre-Qin thinkers were more of aesthetic rhetoric. Seen from the materials available，thinkers in the Pre-Qinperiod were earlier than the ancient Greek philosophers to discuss rhetoric. But different from the ancientGreek philosophers who wrote a series of monographs on rhetoric，the Pre-Qin scholars seldom producedany monographs or treatises on rhetoric：with Mozi’s Xiaoqu pian 小取篇（ literally Minor Illustrations）asan exception which can marginally be accepted as a treatise on rhetoric，their discussions of rhetoric weredispersed in different works. As for the exploration of figures of speech，the Pre-Qin thinkers and the ancientGreek philosophers had their own advantages：the former were stronger in theorization on figures of speech，while the latter were better at theorization on stylistic devices. Aristotle and Mozi both put rhetoric under thecontrol of logic；but Aristotle showed his own uniqueness in psychological analysis in comparison with HanFeizi and Gui Guzi.