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Abstract Abstract: Based on Kádár(2017)’s ritual theory, the study explores the ritual expression, pragmatic strategies and the connotation of the relationship between rights and obligations of compliments in the late Qing Dynasty’s memorials from the perspective of Historical Pragmatics. The data are adopted from Chushi Zoushu. The major findings are as follows: first, by using regular style and expressions, ministers express ritual compliment in a conventional way, which reveals the feature of hierarchy; second, based on the strategies of guidance and encouragement, ministers flatter the emperor implicitly to express unconventional compliment by using ways of affirming the past, praising in advance and abrupt transition, which is both functional and interactive. The conventional expression erects a ritualized language flag to emphasize the rights and obligations of ministers, while the unconventional expression presents the ritualized language tool to maintain and promote the rights and obligations of ministers. Both of them act on the perception and repair of the moral order lies in ritual group and build the moral order between the emperor and ministers ritually. Through the “form-function” approach, the study explores the speech act of compliment in memorials in the late Qing Dynasty, aiming to provide a paradigm for the study of Chinese historical (im) politeness. Key words: historical pragmatics; historical ritual politeness; the late Qing Dynasty; Zoushu; speech act of compliment
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