Gongsun Longzi
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Gongsun Long (, BCLiu 2004, p. 336), courtesy name Zibing (子秉), was a Chinese philosopher and writer who was a member of the
School of Names The School of Names (), sometimes called the School of Forms and Names (), was a school of Chinese philosophy that grew out of Mohism during the Warring States period in 479–221 BCE. The followers of the School of Names were sometimes called the ...
(Logicians) of ancient
Chinese philosophy Chinese philosophy originates in the Spring and Autumn period () and Warring States period (), during a period known as the " Hundred Schools of Thought", which was characterized by significant intellectual and cultural develop ...
. He also ran a school and enjoyed the support of rulers, and advocated peaceful means of resolving disputes in contrast to the wars which were common in the
Warring States period The Warring States period () was an era in ancient Chinese history characterized by warfare, as well as bureaucratic and military reforms and consolidation. It followed the Spring and Autumn period and concluded with the Qin wars of conquest ...
. However, little is known about the particulars of his life, and furthermore many of his writings have been lost.McGreal 1995, p. 31 All of his essays—fourteen originally but only six extant—are included in the anthology ''the Gongsun Longzi'' (). In Book 17 of the ''
Zhuangzi Zhuangzi may refer to: * ''Zhuangzi'' (book) (莊子), an ancient Chinese collection of anecdotes and fables, one of the foundational texts of Daoism **Zhuang Zhou Zhuang Zhou (), commonly known as Zhuangzi (; ; literally "Master Zhuang"; als ...
'' anthology, Gongsun thus speaks of himself:
When young, I studied the way of the former kings. When I grew up, I understood the practice of kindness and duty. I united the same and different, separated hard from white, made so the not-so and admissible the inadmissible. I confounded the wits of the hundred schools and exhausted the eloquence of countless speakers. I took myself to have reached the ultimate.
He is best known for a series of
paradox A paradox is a logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to one's expectation. It is a statement that, despite apparently valid reasoning from true premises, leads to a seemingly self-contradictory or a logically u ...
es in the tradition of
Hui Shi Hui Shi (; 370–310 BCE), or Huizi (; "Master Hui"), was a Chinese philosopher during the Warring States period. He was a representative of the School of Names (Logicians), and is famous for ten paradoxes about the relativity of time and space, ...
, including "White horses are not horses," "When no thing is not the pointed-out, to point out is not to point out," and "There is no 1 in 2." These paradoxes seem to suggest a similarity to the discovery in Greek philosophy that pure logic may lead to apparently absurd conclusions.


White Horse Dialogue

In the ''White Horse Dialogue'' (), one interlocutor (sometimes called the "sophist") defends the truth of the statement "White horses are not horses," while the other interlocutor (sometimes called the "objector") disputes the truth of this statement. This has been interpreted in a number of ways. Possibly the simplest interpretation is to see it as based on a confusion of class and identity. The argument, by this interpretation, plays upon an ambiguity in Chinese that does not exist in English. The expression "X is not Y" (X非Y) can mean either * "X is not a member (or subset) of set Y" * "X is not identical to Y" The sentence "White horses are not horses" would normally be taken to assert the obviously false claim that white horses are not part of the group of horses. However, the "sophist" in the dialogue defends the statement under the interpretation, "Not all horses are white horses". The latter statement is actually true, since—as the "sophist" explains—"horses" includes horses that are white, yellow, brown, etc., while "white horses" includes only white horses, and excludes the others. A.C. Graham proposed this interpretation and illustrated it with an analogy. The "Objector" assumes that "a white horse is not a horse" is parallel to "a sword is not a weapon," but the "Sophist" is treating the statement as parallel to "a sword is not a blade."A.C. Graham, ''Disputers of the Tao: Philosophical Argument in Ancient China'' (Chicago: Open Court, 2003) 989/ref> Other interpretations have been put forward by Fung Yu-lan and Chad Hansen, among others. This work has been viewed by some as a serious logical discourse, by others as a facetious work of
sophistry A sophist ( el, σοφιστής, sophistes) was a teacher in ancient Greece in the fifth and fourth centuries BC. Sophists specialized in one or more subject areas, such as philosophy, rhetoric, music, athletics, and mathematics. They taught ' ...
, and finally by some as a combination of the two.


Other works

He was also responsible for several other essays (), as short as 300 characters.. * "On Pointing at Things" (): An enigmatic discussion on reference and the referent, or designation and the designated. * "On Understanding Change"Translated titles are from () * "On Hardness and Whiteness" (): based on the example of a stone that is both hard and white. * "On Name and Substance" () * "Storehouse of Traces" ()


Popular culture

He appears in the manga and anime ''
Kingdom Kingdom commonly refers to: * A monarchy ruled by a king or queen * Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy Kingdom may also refer to: Arts and media Television * ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...
'' as a Zhao general by the name "Kou Son Ryuu".


Notes


References

* Graham, Angus C. (1989). 'The Sharpening of Rational Debate: The Sophists.' Pp. 75–95 in Graham, ''Disputers of the Tao.'' Chicago: Open Court Press. * Liu, Jianguo (2004). ''Distinguishing and Correcting the pre-Qin Forged Classics''. Xi'an: Shaanxi People's Press. . * Zhou, Yunzhi
"Gongsun Long"
''
Encyclopedia of China The ''Encyclopedia of China'' () is the first large-entry modern encyclopedia in the Chinese language. The compilation began in 1978. Published by the Encyclopedia of China Publishing House, the encyclopedia was issued one volume at a time, begin ...
'' (Philosophy Edition), 1st ed.


External links

* *
Full text of the ''Gongsun Longzi''
at the
Chinese Text Project The Chinese Text Project (CTP; ) is a digital library project that assembles collections of early Chinese texts. The name of the project in Chinese literally means "The Chinese Philosophical Book Digitization Project", showing its focus on books ...
(text in Chinese mostly; except the ''White Horse Discourse'', which has English glosses). * .
Translation of the ''Gong Sun Long Zi''
by Nuño Valenzuela {{DEFAULTSORT:Gongsun, Long 320s BC births 250 BC deaths 3rd-century BC Chinese philosophers Ancient linguists Chinese logicians Mohism People from North China Philosophers of language School of Names Zhou dynasty essayists Zhou dynasty philosophers