"

Wen

" (文) was one the most important theoretical concepts within the literary and even political traditions of the East Asian Sinitic sphere before the modern era. Another term

"

xiuci

" (修辞)

now translated as "rhetoric

" was also a key concept under "

wen

". However

one of the outcomes of East Asian modernity is that these historical facts have fallen into oblivion. The author carefully tracks changes in linguistic thought in modern China and attempts to shed light on their linkage with the emergence of rhetoric as a modern discipline in China under the strong influence of the Western rhetoric via Meiji Japan. The author argues that the emergence of rhetoric as an imported discipline rests on both the May-Fourth generation’s belief in an ideology of scientism and their loyal acceptance of metaphysical views on language.