School of Names

School of Names
Chinese	名家
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Míngjiā Bopomofo ㄇㄧㄥˊ ㄐㄧㄚ Wade–Giles Ming2-chia1 Yue: Cantonese Jyutping Ming4 gaa1
Alternative Chinese name
Chinese	形名家
Literal meaning	School of forms and names
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Xíngmíngjiā Bopomofo ㄒㄧㄥˊ ㄇㄧㄥˊ ㄐㄧㄚ Wade–Giles Hsing2-ming2-chia1 Yue: Cantonese Jyutping Jing4 ming4 gaa1

The School of Names, or School of Forms and Names, is a school of Chinese philosophy that grew out of Mohism. Sometimes termed Logicians or Sophists modernly, Han scholars used it in reference to figures earlier termed Disputers in the Zhuangzi, as a view seemingly dating back to the Warring States period (c. 479 – 221 BC). Although not a unified movement like the Mohists, it more or less represents an actual social category of early linguistic debaters. Some arguments in Mohist texts would appear directed at their kind of debates. Figures associated with it include Deng Xi, Yin Wen, Hui Shi, and Gongsun Long.

With Hui Shi noted for relativism, as figures referenced by the Zhuangzi, some likely served as a bridge between Mohism and Zhuangzi Daoism. But many were likely not quite as philosophically relativist as some of the Zhuangzi's chapters, and would have had backgrounds ranging from Mohist and Confucian to Daoistic. Sinologist Hansen suggested Gongsun Long more Mohist-Confucian; he is not always philosophically relativist, even if he often is as a debater, diplomat or court entertainer. Gongsun Long "confounded the wits of the hundred schools", but still believed in kindness and duty.

A contemporary of Confucius and the younger Mozi, Deng Xi, associated with litigation, is taken by Liu Xiang as the originator of the principle of xíngmíng, or ensuring that ministers' deeds (xing) harmonized with their words (ming). A primary concern of the bureaucratically oriented Shen Buhai and Han Fei, some of their administrators would have had a concern for relations in the bureaucracy, but with Gongsun Long as example, most were still likely more socially and philosophically oriented than the late, stringent Han Feizi; it cannot be assumed that many were familiar with Shang Yang, if even Shen Buhai was.

Birthplaces of notable Zhou-era philosophers belonging to the School of Names are marked by circles in blue.

Overview

The earliest literary occurrence for xingming is in the Zhan Guo Ce, in reference to what would become known as the School of Names, amongst other more modern terms. The philosophy of the Logicians is often considered to be akin to those of the sophists or of the dialecticians. Joseph Needham notes that their works have been lost, except for the partially preserved oeuvre of Gongsun Long, and the paradoxes of Chapter 33 of the Zhuangzi. Needham considers the disappearance of the greater part of Gongsun Long's work one of the worst losses in the ancient Chinese books, as what remains is said to reach the highest point of ancient Chinese philosophical writing.

One of the few surviving lines from the school, "a one-foot stick, every day take away half of it, in a myriad ages it will not be exhausted", resembles Zeno's paradoxes. However, some of their other aphorisms seem contradictory or unclear when taken out of context, for example, "dogs are not hounds". They were opposed by the Later Mohists for their paradoxes. As with the Legalists, Sinologist Kidder Smith highlights the mixed posthumous reception received by the school of names, many of whome, despite the term sophists, were also administrators.

Shen Buhai

In the Han dynasty secretaries of government who had charge of the records of decisions in criminal matters would come to be called called xingming. The Han-era scholars Sima Qian (c. 145 – c. 86 BC) and Liu Xiang (77–6 BC) attribute it to the doctrine of Shen Buhai (400 – c. 337 BC). Shen actually used the older, more philosophically common equivalent, ming-shi, or name and reality, linking the "Legalist doctrine of names" with the debates of the school of names. Such discussions are also prominent in the Han Feizi.

Ming ('name') sometimes has the sense of "speech", so as to compare the statements of an aspiring officer with the reality of his actions—or of "reputation", again compared with real conduct (xing 'form' or shi 'reality'). Two anecdotes in the Han Feizi provide examples—member of the School of Names Ni Yue argued that a white horse is not a horse, and defeated all debaters, but was still tolled at the gate. In another, the chief minister of Yan pretended to see a white horse dash out the gate. All of his subordinates denied having seen anything, save one, who ran out after it and returned claiming to have seen it, and was thereby identified as a flatterer.

Shen Buhai's personnel control, or rectification of names such as titles thereby worked for "strict performance control" correlating claims, performances and posts. It would become a central tenet of both Legalist statecraft and its Huang–Lao derivatives. Rather than having to look for "good" men, mingshi or xingming can seek the right man for a particular post, though doing so implies a total organizational knowledge of the regime. More simply though, it can allow ministers to "name" themselves through accounts of specific cost and time frame, leaving their definition to competing ministers. Claims or utterances "bind the speaker to the realization a job". This was the doctrine favoured by Han Fei, with subtle differences. Favouring exactness, it combats the tendency to promise too much. The correct articulation of ming is considered crucial to the realization of projects.

See also

• History of logic

References

Sources

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• ——— (1974), Shen Pu-hai: a Chinese political philosopher of the fourth century B.C., University of Chicago Press, ISBN 978-0-226-12027-0
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• Hansen, Chad (2009) [2000], "The School of Names: Linguistic Analysis in China", A Daoist Theory of Chinese Thought: a Philosophical Interpretation, Oxford University Press, pp. 233–264, ISBN 978-0-195-13419-3
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• Solomon, Bernard S. (2013), On the School of Names in Ancient China, Sankt Augustin: Institut Monumenta Serica, ISBN 978-3-805-00610-1
• Reding, Jean-Paul (1985), Les fondements philosophiques de la rhétorique chez les sophistes grecs et chez les sophistes chinois (in French), P. Lang, ISBN 978-3-261-04073-2
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