Ivan Ivanovich Semenenko

The article is devoted to proving that Yang Xiong (53 BC – 18 AD), an outstanding Chinese thinker, writer and scientist, is the creator of the first explicit rhetoric as a theory of literature in China. From this point of view his work in world sinology has not yet been considered. The article reveals the main factors and features of the formation of ancient Chinese doctrines on oratorical art using the results of research on archaeological excavations of the last three decades. Ancient Chinese rhetoric has gone a long way of development from latent to explicit form with the selection of poetics from it. The works of Yang Xiong are one of the final stages of this process. The main provisions of Yang Xiong’s rhetoric are revealed on the basis of the study of his treatise “Exemplary Speeches” Fayan, which is both the theory and practice of literature, because on the one hand, it formulates the theory of rhetorical poetry and prose, and on the other hand it is conceived by the author as a canonical example of its literary embodiment. This thinker understands literature very widely, it covers all the main genres and types of writing that were formed by that time. A special role in it is given to canonical literature, which combines the features of the canon and classics. Yang Xiong gives poetry and prose a rhetorical character, makes a functional distinction between oral and written speech, but it is with the text that he binds the creative act, making writing primary in relation to oral presentation. He pays special attention to the aesthetic side of ancient Chinese literature. Yang Xiong also gives a rationalistic interpretation of divine inspiration, examines the phenomenon of creativity and develops the category of individual authorship.