A corpus-based analysis of English economic news discourse (10,808 words) is conducted to explore how metaphor and hyperbole are related. The research measuring the isolation and combination of the two tropes across word class shows that the figure of metaphor occurs more frequently in news discourse than hyperbole does. The combination of metaphor and hyperbole is another prominent type of figurative language use differing from the respective usage of either trope. The reason lies in that the two tropes are related to different word classes and their combinations, which are mostly found in nouns and verbs, have distinct features compared to either trope used in isolation. Therefore, this study supports the hypothesis defining metaphor and hyperbole as two discrete categories.

One of the key issues during the Chinese Rites Controversy was Chinese ancestral rites. Deeming ancestral rites idolatrous, mendicant missionaries advocated banning them; the Jesuits accommodated ancestral rites under certain conditions. The defense provided by the Jesuits focused on the ancestral rites being civil and political, and therefore not idolatrous. This article examines the views of Yan Mo 嚴謨 a lower-level Confucian Catholic literatus. Yan’s defense of the ancestral rites differs from the Jesuits in that Yan focused on the intrinsic value of ancestral rites as cultural practices, which he called “ancient rites of China.” Yan consulted Confucian canons and pointed out that performing the ancestral rites is an act of filial piety that, in the context of Chinese culture, is so embedded in the Chinese culture that the rites cannot be substituted by Christian practices such as praying the rosary or giving alms.