RHETORIC, the art of using language effectively, whether in speaking or in writing. The systematic and theoretical study of rhetoric (rhetorike techne, or “oratorical technique”) began in the Greek cities of Sicily during the 5^th century B. C. But rhetoric is doubtless as old as language itself, and many non-Western and even illiterate societies, having a high regard for speech-making and storytelling, have produced excellent practitioners of the art.

修辞学，无论在言谈和写作中有效使用语言的艺术。对修辞（rhetorike techne或称“演说技巧”）系统和理论的研究始于公元前五世纪期间西西岛的希腊城邦。但可以肯定的是，修辞学像语言本身一样古老，而许多非西方的，甚至是文盲的社会，都非常重视演讲和讲故事，产生了许多出色的艺术实践者。

Classical Rhetoric.  Gorgias, a Greek Sophist from Sicily, although not the first rhetorician, was considered the founder of rhetoric, and his fellow Sophists made the teaching of oratory their stock-in-trade. In ancient times attempts were made to specify that rhetoric is properly “the lending of effectiveness to truth” and that an orator is “a good man skilled in speaking,” but truth and goodness often seem to have been ignored by the Sophists. Hence Plato’s dialogue Gorgias views the art of rhetoric with deep suspicion, and ever since Plato the term “rhetoric” has tended to suggest “artful bombast and verbal chicanery.”

古典修辞学。高尔吉亚，一位来自西西里岛的希腊诡辩家，尽管不是第一位修辞学家，但被认为是修辞学的奠基人，而他的诡辩家伙伴们却将讲演术的教学当作了他们的惯用手段。在古代，有人试图指出，修辞学实际上是“将有效性借给真理”，而演说家则是“善于言说的好人”，但真理和善良似乎常常被诡辩家所忽略。因此，柏拉图的对话《高尔吉亚》对修辞学艺术深表怀疑，从柏拉图开始，“修辞学”一词一直倾向于暗示“巧妙的夸夸其谈和文字上的狡辩”。

The central work in classical theory was Aristotle’s Rhetoric (about 330 B. C.). Here rhetoric is distinguished from logic or dialectic, which deals with the validity of propositions. Later it was distinguished from grammar, dealing with accepted usage in language, and from literary criticism, dealing with the principles of the art that uses language imaginatively as its medium. Rhetoric, comprising all the means of successful discourse, depends on the personal IMPRESSION made by the discourser and the adaptation of the discourse itself to the audience as much as on the techniques of argumentation and persuasion.

古典理论的核心著作就是亚里士多德的《修辞学》（大约公元前330年）。这里的修辞学不同于处理命题有效性的逻辑或辩证法。后来它不同于处理语言中公认用法的语法，而且不同于创造性地使用语言作为其媒介，处理艺术原则的文学评论。修辞学，包含了成功话语的所有手段，既取决于讲话者制造的个人印象以及讲话本身对听众的适应，也依赖于论证和说服的技巧。

Aristotle touched on most of the five divisions of classical rhetoric: (1) invention-accumulation of relevant material through research or reflection; (2) arrangement of this material; (3) style, or choice of diction--either high-flown, poetic, and complex, or middle and neutral, or plain and sometimes even ungrammatical; (4) memory; and (5) delivery. The first THREE, because they are common to both speaking and writing, have always been subjects of more discussion than the last two. Aristotle also treated topics or commonplaces—basic arguments immediately comprehended by any audience—though the term later came to refer to memorized stock passages to be brought out on appropriate occasions.

亚里士多德涉及过古典修辞学五部分中的大部分：（1）发明---通过研究或反思积累相关的材料；（2）整理该材料；（3）风格，或选择措词---要么夸张的、诗意的和复杂的，要么折中的、中性的或朴素的，有时甚至是不合语法的；（4）记忆；以及（5）交付使用。前三个，因为它们在言谈和写作中常见，一直是比后两个讨论得更多的主题。亚里士多德还论述过《论题篇》或《老生常谈》---任何听众都会立刻理解的基本论点---尽管该术语后来是指在适当的场合说出贮备的记忆段落。

The citizen of a Greek city-state or of ancient Rome could scarcely have a greater asset than oratorical ability. Consequently ancient education, from the elementary to the most advance stages, concentrated on rhetoric. All genres of Greek and Roma literature show the influence of this, since not only drama and oratory but also poetry and even history were composed with oral presentation in mind.

希腊城邦的或古罗马的公民几乎没有比演讲能力更大的资产了。因此，从初级到最先行阶段的古代教育都集中在修辞上。希腊和罗马文学的所有流派都显示了这一影响，因为，不仅是戏剧和演讲，而且是诗歌，甚至是历史都是由心中的口述组成的。

Aristotle had divided speeches into THREE kinds: forensic, adapted to the law-courts; deliberative, adapted to legislatures and other policymaking bodies; and epideictic, delivered on ceremonial occasions for show and enjoyment. With the growth of despotic government in Greece and Rome, the first two types declined but the THIRD flourished until the end of the ancient world.

亚里士多德将演讲分为三类：法庭的，适合于法庭的；审议的，适合于立法机关和其它决策机构；以及富于词藻的，在展示和享有的仪式场合发表的言辞。随着希腊和罗马专横政府的发展，前两种类型衰退了，而第三种类型繁荣起来，直到古代世界的完结。

After Aristotle, Cicero was the chief classical writer on rhetoric. He tried to steer a middle course between two contending schools of style: Asianism, tending toward florid verbiage and complicated syntax, and Atticism, which preferred plainness and brevity. In the opinion of many, however, Cicero’s own style was more Asianic than Attic.

亚里士多德之后，西塞罗是修辞学方面主要的古典作家。他试图在两种风格竞争的流派之间引导一种中间道路：亚洲流派，倾向绚丽的措词与复杂的句法，以及雅典流派，喜欢朴素与简洁。然而，在许多观点看来，西塞罗自己的风格更倾向于亚洲流派。

Medieval Rhetoric.  In the Middle Ages education continued to be language-centered. Rhetoric, grammar, and dialectic (logic) constituted the Trivium, THREE sevenths of the standard medieval curriculum, serving as prerequisite to the Quadrivium, the four mathematical studies—arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. Controversy over the relation of rhetoric to logic was perennial, some thinkers following the Aristotelian tradition of subordinating rhetoric to logic as a purely formal method, others assimilating it to ethics and politics, as Cicero had been inclined to do. The practical applications of rhetoric in medieval times were mainly in the fields of preaching and letter writing (dictamen). 

中世纪修辞学。在中世纪，教育一直以语言为中心。修辞学、语法和辩证法（逻辑）构成了中世纪标准课程七分之三的三学科，四项数学研究---算术、几何学、天文学和音乐作为四项学科的先决条件。对修辞学与逻辑的关系的争论一直未断，一些遵循亚里士多德传统的思想家将修辞学作为一种纯粹的形式方法从属于逻辑，而其他的人则将修辞学同化于伦理学和政治学，就像西塞罗倾向的做法那样。

Modern rhetoric.  In the Renaissance, language study remained the core of the educational curriculum, and indeed this situation lasted into the first decades of the 20^th century. During most of the modern period, rhetoric was a study that evoked intense interest and respect, and the precepts of rhetoricians had immense influence on literature and public life.

现代修辞学。在文艺复兴期，语言研究一直是教育课程的核心，而且实际上这种情形一直持续到20世纪的前几十年。在现代的大部分时期里，修辞学是一门唤起浓厚兴趣和敬重的研究，而且修辞学家的规则对文学和公共生活产生过巨大的影响。

But increasingly in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries the term “rhetoric” was confined to its age-old pejorative meanings, and rhetorical study was reduced to a minimum. This was the result of a long process of overemphasis on peripheral concerns. Renaissance rhetoricians stressed amplification, copiousness, and ornamentation through figures of speech. Renaissance stylist became slave to Cicero, limiting themselves to “Tully’s every word.” The follower of Petrus Ramus divorced rhetoric entirely from logic. The rising interest in science set a premium on discourse that was spare and unadorned. And the neoclassical “locution movement” devoted itself to delivery at the expense of everything else. All this brought rhetoric into complete disrepute. “Take Eloquence and wring its neck!” said the 19^th century French poet Paul Verlaine. The result, of course, was not absence of verbal art but simply another reaction in style from Asianism to Atticism.

    但在19世纪末和20世纪初“修辞学”一词越来越多地被限制在它古老贬义的含义上，修辞学的研究被减少到了最低限度。这是过度强调外围问题漫长过程的结果。文艺复兴时期的修辞学家通过修辞手段强调引申、丰富和装饰。文艺复兴时期的设计师变成了西塞罗的奴仆，将他们自身限制在“图利的每个词上”。彼得鲁斯·雷默斯的追随者将修辞学与逻辑完全分离。对科学日益增长的兴趣使人们更为看重简洁而朴实的话语。而新古典主义的“措辞运动”以牺牲其它一切为代价致力于自身的表达。所有这一切让修辞学彻底声名狼藉。19世纪的法国诗人保罗·魏尔伦曾说“逮住雄辩术，拧断它的脖子！”当然，结果并不是缺乏了语言艺术，不过是简单地从亚洲流派到雅典流派的另一种风格的反应。

But in the latter half of the 20^th century the prestige of rhetoric revived. Even during it period of eclipse, studies that are essentially complementary to rhetoric had made advances. Psychology had gained insights into how the human animal acquires, uses, and misuses language. Schools of literary criticism and of philosophical analysis had appeared, focusing greater attention than ever before on the multiple meanings of science of linguistics had grown up, with much exact observation about the workings of language and much speculation about its ultimate nature. The task of contemporary rhetorician is recognized as not so much that of revolutionizing classical rhetoric on the new bases as of incorporating relevant method and ideas into the classical framework.

但在20世纪后半叶，修辞学的声望得以复活。甚至在修辞学黯然失色的时期，本质上是对修辞学的补充研究也取得了进步。心理学对人类这种动物如何获得、使用并滥用语言已获得了深刻了解。文学批评学派与哲学分析学派出现了，随着对语言运行方式更准确的观察，以及对其最终本质的更多猜测，对语言学科发展的多重意义比以往任何时候都更为关注。当代修辞学家的任务与其被认为是在新的基础上完全改变古典修辞学，不如说是将相关的方法和观点纳入古典的框架之中。

                                    RICHMOND Y. HATHORN

                             Author of “Tragedy, Myth, and Mystery”

                                      里士满·Y. 哈索恩

                                “悲剧、神话与神秘”的作者

                                          2022年7月23日译

（译者注：该词条位列《大美百科全书》1985年版，第23卷，第466页）