Correcting Names in Early Confucianism

Abstract

The paper presents an account of the zhengming 正名 (correcting names) doctrine as it is presented in the Lunyu, and secondarily, the “zhengming” chapter of the Xunzi. The contention is that an interesting set of meditations on the ethical and political implications of the use of language can be found in these texts, meditations which are properly identified under the traditional heading of “zhengming.” The analysis distinguishes between three aspects of the doctrine—a diagnosis that the incorrect use of language can somehow lead to social and political disorder, an idea about the preservation of the correct use of language against disorder, and notions about the remedy to disorder caused by language used incorrectly. All three aspects can be found in both the Lunyu and the Xunzi, though with different emphases. It will also be show how zhengming doctrine finds its natural context in a wider set of ideas regarding how the use of language might be related to ethics and politics in early Confucianism, including ideas that do not directly reference the notion of zhengming.