School of Names

The School of Names, or School of Forms and Names,^[1] is a school of thought of Chinese philosophy that grew out of Mohist logic. 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). Rather than a unified movement like the Mohists, it represents a social category of early linguistic debaters. Some arguments in later Mohist texts would appear directed at their kind of debates. Figures associated with it include Deng Xi, Yin Wen, Hui Shi, and Gongsun Long.^[2] A Three Kingdoms era figure, Xu Gan, is relevant for discussions of names and realities, but was more Confucian and less relativist.

Including figures referenced by the Zhuangzi, some likely served as a bridge between Mohism and the relativism of Zhuangzi Daoism. Hui Shi is noted for relativism, but also "embracing the ten thousand things". But he may not have had much connection with Gongsun Long. They would have had backgrounds ranging from Mohist and Confucian to Daoistic. Gongsun Long is familiar with both Mohism and Confucianism, and is not always a relativist. He uses Confucianism to defend the White Horse Dialogue, believed in kindness and duty, and has a rectification of names doctrine aimed at actualities and social order rather than relativism. Willing to argue either side of an issue, they were taken as sophist by their critics, but some arguments were not necessarily intended to be paradoxical, even if their logic is heterodox by mainstream Mohist standards.

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).^[3] 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,^[4] but with Gongsun Long as example, most were still likely more socially or philosophically oriented than the late, stringent Han Feizi; it cannot be assumed that many were familiar with Shang Yang, if even Shen Buhai was.