Xingming

Xing-Ming

The term Xing is an example of a model or standard (fa), prominently dating back to Zhou texts taking King Wen of Zhou as a model. It still referred to models when Zichan used the term in his penal reforms. However, the Han Feizi states than Shen Buhai actually uses the earlier, more common philosophical equivalent, the Mohist "ming-shi", or name and reality, so that it likely originates in the name and reality debates of the Later Mohists (or "Neo-Mohists") and school of names (Xingmingjia). Before this, it likely goes back to the Confucian rectification of names, or cheng ming, a term Shen Buhai's fragments still used even if the later Han Feizi contrasts with it.