The Renqing Principle in Managing Interpersonal Relationship from the Perspective of Interpersonal Pragmatics

Interpersonal pragmatics within the paradigm of western cultures has taken face, social distance and power as the essential factors for constructing and managing interpersonal relationship.However, the affection and its functions and some emotive features have long been underestimated in pragmatics, renqing (lit., favor) and qingmian (affection-based face) in the Chinese culture have been ignored too.From the perspective of interpersonal pragmatics, this study explores how Chinese renqing functions in managing interpersonal relationship and its reciprocity.The Renqing Principle is then proposed as a pragmatic principle in practice, which helps to explain the emic features of interpersonal pragmatics in Chinese culture.