 Deng Xi (d. 501 B.C.E.) was China’s earliest renowned lawyer and rhetorician. He has been called the “founding father of the Chinese logical tradition” (Harbsmeier 1998: 286), though this is probably an overstatement, since we lack evidence that he undertook any explicit study of argumentation or that he influenced the theories of the Mohists or Xunzi. As Harbsmeier (287) rightly points out, however, Deng Xi epitomizes the roots of Chinese disputation in legal rhetoric. He establishes a link between disputation and litigation that continues throughout the classical period. Indeed, his reputation as a legal and political gadfly may have contributed to later authoritarian thinkers’ attitude that litigators disrupt social order and should be banned. 