Abstract
Up to now, most of the studies on the diplomatic rhetoric in ZuoZhuan are restricted to the usage of modest-honorific words, the stylistic classifications of the discourse, and the context-dependent features from the perspective of pragmatics. Although they bring about better understanding of the rhetoric, there are more to be explored, especially on the expressive modes, to appreciate the rhetoric per se. The present thesis displays the expressive modes in (i) modest-honorific phrases, (ii) rhetoric questions, and (iii) conditional sentences. Chapter 2 discloses the modes of modest-honorific phrases in combination with their contexts. Chapter 3 focuses on how the representative modest-honorific word of gan[敢] performs in three different patterns of sentences, especially in rhetoric questions. Chapter 4 analyzes the modes of the conditional sentences of ruo[若].