Come frecce senza bersaglio: retorica e ideologia in Han Feizi e nel discorso neoliberale / Arrows Without a Target: Comparative Rhetoric and Ideology in Han Feizi and in Neoliberal Discourse

Abstract

Han Feizi (3rd century B.C.) is the main representative of the Chinese Legalist school (făjiā). The tenets of this political theory have earned him the nickname “the Chinese Machiavelli”. His ideas were adopted by Qin Shihuang, the so-called First Emperor, who unified China and unleashed a despotic régime characterized by the crackdown of any political debate and the suppression of free speech. The connection between rhetorical development and the political sphere in the context of Classical China’s last stage may set the scene for a wider discussion about that link. Comparative rhetoric will provide further ground for connections between classical Chinese Legalist ideas and contemporary Neoliberal discourse.