School of Names

The School of Names (Míngjiā), or School of Forms and Names (Xíngmíngjiā), represents a school of thought in Chinese philosophy that grew out of Mohist logic. Sometimes termed Logicians, "dialecticians" or sophists modernly, Han scholars used it in reference to figures earlier termed Debaters (bian ze) or Disputers in the Zhuangzi, as a view seemingly dating back to the Warring States period (c. 479 – 221 BC). Jin Zhuo shortened the name to Mingjia when he mistranslated Xing (forms) as punishment, probably via the Xunzi and Han Feizi's Xingming, assuming Xing to refer to the Legalists.

Their school is sometimes treated together with the Later Mohists. Rather than a unified movement like the Mohists, they represent a social category of early linguistic debaters. Critical arguments in late Mohist texts, with their own logicians, would appear directed at their kind of debates, but likely respected them. Figures associated with it include Deng Xi, Yin Wen, Hui Shi, and Gongsun Long. A Three Kingdoms era figure, Xu Gan, is relevant for discussions of names and realities, but was more Confucian and less philosophically relativist.

Including figures referenced by the Zhuangzi, some likely served as a bridge between Mohism and the relativism of Zhuangzi Daoism, which, in contrast to the Daodejing, "clearly reveals exposure" to school of names thinkers. Contrary Mohism as including linguistics seeking objective standards, Hui Shi is noted for relativism, but also "embracing the ten thousand things" (his tenth thesis). In the Mawangdui Silk Texts, the idea of universal love follows from Mozi and Laozi type ideas, transitioning towards Laozi.

But Hui Shi may not have had much connection with Gongsun Long. Their backgrounds would have ranged from Mohist and Confucian to Daoistic. Gongsun Long is familiar with both Confucianism and Mohism. Though (other) Confucians may have been critical, arguably he attempts to support Confucian conservatism against relativism when he cites Confucianism to defend the White Horse Dialogue as an "objective" (and conservative) use of linguistics. More in line with Confucianism and Mohism, he 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.

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. Another relativist figure in the Zhuangzi, Xun Kuang considered Shen Dao something of a disputer himself, but one "obsessed" with fa (concept) rather than names and realities. 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.