Following the 20th-century “linguistic turn,” language gradually became central to how scholars understand the world and construct knowledge. Yet much of language’s power derives from rhetoric. As a means of making expression more effective, rhetoric seeks fundamentally to inform, persuade, or entertain an audience. Its value therefore emerges through interpersonal interaction, giving it an inherently social character. Contemporary rhetoric has, moreover, moved well beyond linguistic technique and the traditional realm of persuasion to become a fundamental lens for understanding social life.

Social implications

The social implications of rhetoric are perhaps most evident in the shift from a logic of “persuasion” to “identification.” As rhetoric seeks identification, it inevitably extends into the shaping of social norms and public opinion. Through the repeated use of metaphorical frames and particular narratives, ideas about “how one should act” gradually take hold, giving rise to unwritten social rules.

Effective rhetoric can evoke particular emotions among audiences—such as fear, hope, and anger—while also framing issues, attributing causes, and assigning responsibility. In doing so, it may consolidate consensus or create divisions, shaping the direction of public opinion.

The pursuit of identification, however, does not mean that the public passively receives rhetoric. Instead, audiences interpret, discuss, and recirculate rhetorical messages, filtering, amplifying, or weakening their meaning. Rhetoric and public opinion therefore form a dynamic, mutually constitutive relationship. Once different forms of expression are recognized as capable of producing different social effects, particular rhetorical forms inevitably become subject to selection—and even regulation.

Rhetorical situation theory provides a systematic framework for understanding this social influence. The theory holds that, just as an answer arises in response to a question, rhetorical discourse emerges in response to the demands of a particular situation. When this situational perspective is extended into the realm of knowledge, the social significance of rhetoric becomes evident in the reflexive nature of knowledge production itself. From a rhetorical standpoint, “facts,” as accepted units of knowledge, come to be recognized through processes of argumentation. In this sense, knowledge production is fundamentally rooted in argumentation.

Contemporary features

Just as rhetoric reveals the situated nature of knowledge, rhetoric itself bears the distinct imprint of its time, reflecting the cultural character of a particular people. In China, this cultural character is particularly evident in its distinctive moral orientation. As stated in the Book of Changes (I Ching), “His attention to his words and establishing his sincerity are the way by which he occupies in his sphere.” The sentence underscores the role of rhetorical practice in self-cultivation and moral refinement. This strong ethical orientation stands in marked contrast to strands of the Western rhetorical tradition that at times degenerated into sophistry. Here, “sincerity” (cheng) occupies a supreme moral status within Confucian thought.

Nevertheless, the characteristics of rhetoric in any given era are not static. In the West, rhetoric gradually shed the stigma of sophistry following the 20th-century linguistic turn and came to be regarded as a fundamental perspective for understanding social life and knowledge production. In China, rhetorical studies has remained closely intertwined with social transformation and national renewal. For example, the Literary Revolution during the May Fourth Movement marked a major shift in rhetorical practice. The promotion of vernacular Chinese at the time was not merely a reform of linguistic form, but also a means of reshaping social identification and advancing intellectual emancipation through rhetoric.

In contemporary society, advances in media technologies and the diversification of communication have given rise to entirely new forms of rhetorical practice. Phenomena such as the “short-video style,” “meme-based language,” and “bullet-screen culture” in the digital–intelligent era retain rhetoric’s traditional emphasis on emotional appeal while displaying unprecedented immediacy, interactivity, and fragmentation. The complexity of these developments underscores the contemporary importance of rhetorical criticism and calls for closer reflection on the power relations and value orientations embedded in rhetorical practice, as well as vigilance against the potential erosion of the virtue of “sincerity” by rhetorical techniques.

In conclusion, whether in the Confucian ethical principle of grounding rhetoric in sincerity, the close connection between modern rhetoric and social movements and intellectual emancipation, or the interactive communication and identity construction of the digital–intelligent era, rhetoric has never been merely a linguistic technique. Rather, it is a form of social practice that evolves alongside the spirit of its time. To reflect on rhetoric, therefore, is fundamentally to reflect on society itself.

Wang Zhihao is from the School of Social Research at Renmin University of China.