LITOTES  

IRONIA in which one understates the quality of a thing through negation of the opposite in order to stress its greatness or excellence.

間接肯定法 Periphrastic ironic use of a negative statement to express a strong positive statement, often combination of emphasis and irony. 不少

Hypernym
  • IRONIAHISTRIONIC way of expressing something by playfully creating an appearance of claiming its opposite, typically assuming one's playfulness to be understood by the intended audience. The use of words to express something diametrically different from their meaning, or in a histrionically mediated sense. test
    • HISTRIONICSRHETORICAL TROPE which crucially involves playful dissimulation of one's real meaning.
      • RHETORICAL TROPE體裁詞格　RHETORICAL DEVICE mainly concerned with the structural semantics of expressions.
Not bad!

Miriam 135 "Litotes is a figure whereby, instead of affirming apredicate of a subject, e denies its contrary or its contradictory."

REF: Lausberg 586-588

Greek/Latin: Quint. 10.1.12 scio: 'non ignoro' et 'non me fugit' et 'non me praeterit'. The Greek and Latin authors apply a wide range of terms to refer to the pheonomenon of litotes.

Ancient Chinese: 城非不高也。 is not a case of litotes. Double negation is very common, but that does not mean that litote1s is common. What we need to find is a case involving contraries like bu4 sha3o 不少 for "quite a few, many".

hf 14.6.33

“ 餘之得幸君之日久矣， "I have long enjoyed your favours, my lord,

甲非弗知也， and Jia3 knows this very well,

Rhetorical device locations: 9
  • 法言 范不范，
  • 法言 天下小事為不少矣。
  • 韓非子 “法度甚不易行也。”

    不易行

  • 論語 為臣不易。』

    不易

  • 孟子 『性無善無不善也。』

    不善 does not mean "not good". Compare 不仁 “cruel”，and not just "not benevolent".

  • 論語 回也不愚。」
  • 論語 己所不欲，
  • 論語 「紂之不善，
  • 論語 「不仁者

    不仁 is not the negation of "be 仁" but the opposite of it. Compare : "that was not nice of you"