URBANITAS  滑稽修飾法

RHETORICAL STYLE which consists in highly communicative wit or jeu d'esprit.

滑稽修飾法 Facetious, ironic, or otherwise sophisticated and urbane colloquial style typically involving self-irony.

Hypernym
  • RHETORICAL STYLE體裁詞格　RHETORICAL DEVICE which is mainly concerned with matters of style of presentation rather than distribution of expressions or semantic structure.
Hyponym
  • ACUTEZZAURBANITAS in the form of a pregnant, short and witty often humourous remark.
    Susenbrotus 15: est longe petitus iocus, adeoque inexpectatus de re aliqua absurda.

    REF: Ernesti 44: facetiae, feine Scherze; Lausberg 583

    Greek/Latin: Quintilian 6.3.104

    Ancient Chinese: Rare, but by no means absent in ancient Chinese literature. I have argued that the Analects are full of this urbanitas. Ha4nshu1 and Shiji provide many good examples. These are definitely worth collecting.

    Rhetorical device locations: 47
    • 論語 「不曰： 如之何 如之何者 吾末如之何也已矣
    • 論語 吾與女弗如也。」
    • 論語 「朽木不可雕也， 糞土之牆不可杇也 於予與何誅
    • 論語 「可也簡。」
    • 論語 山川其舍諸？」
    • 論語 求善賈而沽諸？」
    • 論語 9.14　子欲居九夷。
    • 論語 「彼哉！彼哉！」
    • 論語 「勿欺也 而犯之
    • 論語 「賜也 賢乎哉 夫我則不暇
    • 論語 「道之將行也與， 命也 道之將廢也與 命也
    • 論語 「女為《周南》、 《召南》矣乎？

      Colloquialism!

    • 論語 「割雞焉用牛刀？」
    • 論語 吾豈匏瓜也哉？
    • 論語 吾豈匏瓜也哉？ 焉能繫而不食
    • 論語 其猶正牆面而立也與？」
    • 論語 「飽食終日， 無所用心 難矣哉 不有博弈者乎 為之猶賢乎已
    • 論語 「直道而事人， 焉往而不三黜 枉道而事人 何必去父母之邦
    • 論語 焉往而不三黜？
    • 論語 「使乎！
    • 論語 老而不死， 是為賊
    • 論語 小人窮斯濫矣。」

      濫 looks like a very informal colloquialism

    • 論語 「再，
    • 論語 子曰： 有父兄在
    • 論語 君子何患乎無兄弟也？」
    • 論語 13.14　冉子退朝。
    • 論語 我待賈者也。」
    • 論語 吾與女弗如也。」

      Confucius playfully agrees that he would not have been as quick to learn as Yan Hui. If we follow 錢穆 Confucius admires qualities in his disciple that he does not have himself. But one does not have to assume that Confucius is entirely serious in this...

    • 論語 「孰謂微生高直？ 或乞醯焉 乞諸其鄰而與之
    • 論語 山川其舍諸？」
    • 論語 其愚不可及也。」

      pretending to be stupid is the hard thing to do for others, because it involves self-humiliation.

    • 論語 「自行束脩以上， 吾未嘗無誨焉
    • 論語 子聞之， 謂門弟子曰 吾何執 執御乎 執射乎 吾執御矣
    • 論語 君子多乎哉？ 不多也
    • 論語 君子多乎哉？
    • 論語 「鳳鳥不至， 河不出圖 吾已矣夫
    • 論語 吾其為東周乎？」
    • 論語 人而不為《周南》、 《召南》 ， 其猶正牆面而立也與
    • 論語 「俎豆之事， 則嘗聞之矣

      Confucius refers to his ritual preoccupation in almost jocular light-hearted terms while using serious language about the military affairs he compares.

    • 論語 「朝聞道， 夕死可矣
    • 論語 其知可及也， 其愚不可及也
    • 論語 吾與女弗如也。」
    • 論語 山川其舍諸？」
    • 論語 則吾必在汶上矣。」

      Note that multiple rhetorical devices being operative in one and the same expression is normal and common. Rhetorical devices are not exclusiive, they do not necessarily exclude each other.

    • 論語 竊比於我老彭。」

      Confucius is not being serious here: he seems to be lightheartedly comparing himself to an unproductive sage of very high antiquity. The mode is that of urbane pleasantry.

    • 論語 「出則事公卿， 入則事父兄 喪事不敢不勉 不為酒困 何有於我哉

      Confucius is not literally denying that he has achieved any of these forms of proverbially basic proper conduct: he is recommending the asking of these basic questions in a self-deprecatory mode. He is putting the high-falutin abstract 仁義－moralist discourse in its place: 歸其本.

    • 論語 「甚矣吾衰也！ 久矣吾不復夢見周公

      Confucius is perhaps not quite being serious here. He is playfully poking fun at his own obsession with the Duke of Zhou. But there is seriousness in this self-ironical urbane banter. In any case: argumentative philosophy this is not!