| Chinese intellectual historians, both past and present, have largely concentrated on the select group of familiar and oft cited texts composed by the "masters," or zhuzi. Commonly passed over are the memorials on various topics quoted in the historical texts. These memorials comprise a significant portion of these historical texts and yet, save for a few recent studies, have never been analyzed as a group. My interest in them is their "factual" reliability in their roles as both historical and political documents. I analyze the memorials regarding military affairs from the Former Han to determine the composition of the evidentiary bases used during the Former Han, i.e., to assess what constituted evidence and how the presentation of evidence influenced the structure of the memorial. In chapter one, I outline the dissertation's scholarly precursors. Chapter two lays out certain theoretical concerns relating to how we can categorize the types of knowledge used in the memorials. Chapter three examines the basic rhetorical constituents of the memorials and the court dynamics surrounding their composition. Chapter four argues that many of the rhetorical constants found in the Former Han were diachronic and offers a methodology for the analysis of the structure of the memorials. Chapter five elaborates on the roles of concrete particulars and moral considerations in a Former Han debate. In the sixth and final chapter, referring to representative exemplars taken from translations preserved in the appendix, I examine various repeatedly employed "facts" and discuss their relative rhetorical importance and justificatory function. I additionally offer suggestions as to which claims were of greatest consequence for the memorials and what possible doubts they would have answered. At the very end of the dissertation, I offer suggestions as to how my method of analysis could have applications for the study of other realms of political address. In toto, through my analysis I strive to offer results that could help to reshape our current understanding of just exactly what were considered fundamental "truths" or essential matters for the deliberations on state affairs in the Former Han. |
