Abstract: In antique Chinese writing, elenchus as a form of debate prose takes the form of spoken and written styles, and this paper takes this approach to examine the primitive state of the genre. The paper demonstrates three main aspects of the genre of elenchus in the ancient China. The first concerns with the context, setting and scene of elenchus and there are some principles in the oral elenchus. The second concerns with the functions of elenchus. The third concerns with the connotation of elenchus exhibited in the different styles of the genre. The genre of elenchus comes into being, the paper claims, when the connotation of the debate prose corresponds with the form of the debate prose. When the connotation and the form do not match, the stylistic features can open to more meaningful investigation.

Key words: elenchus, debate prose, primitive state