| School of Names | |||||||||||||||
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| Chinese | 名家 | ||||||||||||||
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| Alternative Chinese name | |||||||||||||||
| Chinese | 形名家 | ||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | School of forms and names | ||||||||||||||
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TheSchool of Names, orSchool of Forms and Names,[1] represents aschool of thought inChinese philosophy that grew out ofMohist logic. Sometimes termedLogicians, "dialecticians" or sophists modernly,Han scholars used it in reference to figures earlier termedDisputers orDebaters (bian ze) in theZhuangzi,[2] as a view dating back to theWarring States period (c. 479 – 221 BC). Sometimes treated together with the Later Mohists, rather than a unified movement like the Mohists it represents asocial category of earlylinguistic debaters. Critical arguments in late Mohist texts, with their own logicians, would appear directed at their kind of debates, but likely respected them.[3] Figures associated with it includeDeng Xi,Yin Wen,Hui Shi, andGongsun Long.[4] AThree Kingdoms era figure,Xu Gan, is relevant for discussions of names and realities, but was more Confucian and less philosophicallyrelativist.
Including figures referenced by the Zhuangzi,[3] some likely served as a bridge between Mohism and the relativism of Zhuangzi Daoism, which, in contrast to theDaodejing, "clearly reveals exposure" to school of names thinkers.[5] Contrary Mohism as seeking objective standards,Hui Shi is noted for relativism, but also "embracing the ten thousand things" (his tenth thesis).[3] In theMawangdui Silk Texts, the idea of universal love follows fromMozi andLaozi type ideas, transitioning towards Laozi.[6]
But Hui Shi may not have had much connection withGongsun Long. Their backgrounds would have ranged from Mohist and Confucian to Daoistic. Gongsun Long is familiar with both Mohism and Confucianism. Though (other) Confucians may have been critical, arguably he is not a relativist, attempting to support Confucianism when he uses it to defend theWhite Horse Dialogue.[7][3] More in line with Confucianism and Mohism, he believed in kindness and duty, and has arectification of names doctrine aimed at actualities and social order rather than relativism. Willing to argue either side of an issue, they were taken assophist by their critics, but some arguments were not necessarily intended to be paradoxical.
A contemporary of Confucius and the youngerMozi, Deng Xi, associated with litigation, is taken byLiu Xiang as the originator of the principle ofxíngmíng, or ensuring that ministers' deeds (xing) harmonized with their words (ming).[8] A primary concern of the bureaucratically orientedShen Buhai andHan Fei, some of their administrators would have had a concern for relations in the bureaucracy.[9] Another relativist figure in the Zhuangzi,Xun Kuang consideredShen Dao something of a disputer himself, but one "obsessed" withfa (concept) rather than names and realities. With Gongsun Long as example, most were still likely more socially and philosophically oriented than the late, stringentHan Feizi; it cannot be assumed that many were familiar withShang Yang.
The earliest literary occurrence for xingming is in theZhan Guo Ce, in reference to what would become known as the School of Names amongst other more modern terms; Chris Fraser (Stanford Encyclopedia) modernly argues "Disputers" a more "appropriate" English label.
The philosophy of the Logicians is often considered to be akin to those of thesophists or of thedialecticians. 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", resemblesZeno's paradoxes. However, some of their other aphorisms seem contradictory or unclear when taken out of context, for example, "dogs are not hounds".Joseph Needham notes that their works have been lost, except for the partially preserved oeuvre ofGongsun Long, and the paradoxes of Chapter 33 of theZhuangzi, considering 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.[10]
As with theLegalists, Sinologist Kidder Smith highlights the mixed posthumous reception received by the school of names. Already opposed by the LaterMohists (who have also sometimes been termed "logicians") in their own era for their paradoxes, many of them, despite being remembered as sophists, would also have been administrators.Hui Shi was a prime minister, whileGongsun Long was a diplomat and peace activist, as typical of the Mohists. Although not classed under it, whileShen Buhai may not have been familiar with his contemporaryShang Yang in the remoteQin state, he likely was familiar with central Chinese "school of names" type debates on language and the correlation between the names and realities of things, with language useful in administration.[11][12]
In the Han dynasty secretaries of government who had charge of the records of decisions in criminal matters would come to be called calledxingming. The Han-era scholarsSima Qian (c. 145 – c. 86 BC) andLiu Xiang (77–6 BC) attribute the doctrine of Xing-Ming back toShen Buhai (400 – c. 337 BC).[13] According to theHan Feizi, Shen Buhai actually used the older, more philosophically common equivalent, ming-shi, or name and reality, linking the origination of their administrative method, or "doctrine of names", with the debates of the neo-Mohists and school of names.[14][15] Such discussions are prominent in theHan Feizi.[16]
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' orshi 'reality').[17] Two anecdotes in theHan Feizi provide examples—member of the School of NamesNi 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.[18]
Shen Buhai's personnel control, orrectification of names, with "names" representing ministerial claims, thereby worked for "strict performance control", correlating claims, performances and posts.[19] It would become a central tenet of both the Han Feizi's statecraft and other so-called 'Huang–Lao' derivatives. Rather than having to look for "good" men,mingshi orxingming 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. Favoring exactness, the correct articulation ofming or terms is considered crucial to the realization of projects, combatting the tendency to promise too much.[20][21]
Smith, Kidder (2003). "Sima Tan and the Invention of Daoism, "Legalism,"et cetera".The Journal of Asian Studies.62 (1):129–156.doi:10.2307/3096138.JSTOR 3096138.
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