science

Gongsun Long

Gongsun Long is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Gongsun Long rather than just read about it. In short: Gongsun Long (c. 320 – 250 BC), courtesy name Zibing, was a Chinese philosopher, writer, and member of the School of Names, also known as the Logicians, of ancient Chinese philosophy. Gongsun ran a school and received patronage from rulers, advocating peaceful means of resolving disputes amid the martial culture of the Warring States period.

Key takeaways

Gongsun Long belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Gongsun Long to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Gongsun Long from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Gongsun Long (c. 320 – 250 BC), courtesy name Zibing, was a Chinese philosopher, writer, and member of the School of Names, also known as the Logicians, of ancient Chinese philosophy. Gongsun ran a school and received patronage from rulers, advocating peaceful means of resolving disputes amid the martial culture of the Warring States period. His collected works comprise the Gongsun Longzi (公孫龍子) anthology. Comparatively few details are known about his life, and much of his work has been lost—only six of the fourteen essays he originally authored are still extant. In book 17 of the Zhuangzi, Gongsun 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 paradoxes in the tradition of Yin Wen and Hui Shi, 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.

Rectification of names

Although not done justice by English translation, professor Zhenbin Sun considers Gongsun Long’s work on ming-shi, or name and reality, the most "profound and systematic" of the School of Names. As Gongsun Long enjoys the favor or rulers, his work also concerns social order. The Gongsun Long Zi reads:

Heaven, earth, and their products are all things [物 wu]. When things possess the characteristics of things without exceeding them, there is actuality [shi]. When actuality actually fulfills its function as actuality, without wanting, there is order [位 wei]. To be out of order is to fall into disorder. To remain in order is to be correct. What is correct is used to rectify what is incorrect. [What is incorrect is not used to] doubt what is correct. To rectify is to rectify actuality, and to rectify the name [ming] corresponding to it.

White Horse dialogue

In the White Horse Dialogue (白馬論; Báimǎ lùn), 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 of the negative copula "is not" (非). 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." 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, and finally by some as a combination of the two.

Other works He was also responsible for several other essays (論; lùn; 'discourses', 'dialogues'), as short as 300 characters.

"On Pointing at Things" (指物論; Zhǐwù Lùn): An enigmatic discussion on reference and the referent, or designation and the designated. "On Understanding Change" (通變論; Tōngbiàn Lùn) "On Hardness and Whiteness" (堅白論; Jiānbái Lùn): based on the example of a stone that is both hard and white. "On Name and Substance" (名實論; Míngshí Lùn) "Storehouse of Traces" (跡府; Jifǔ)

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. ISBN 7-224-05725-8. Zhou, Yunzhi, "Gongsun Long". Encyclopedia of China (Philosophy Edition), 1st ed.

Further reading Rafael Suter; Lisa Indraccolo; Wolfgang Behr, eds. (2020). The Gongsun Longzi and Other Neglected Texts: Aligning philosophical and philological perspectives (PDF). Worlds of East Asia, vol. 28. De Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9783110587814. hdl:2078.1/244808. ISBN 9783110585438.

External links Works by Long Gongsun at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Gongsun Long at the Internet Archive Full text of the Gongsun Longzi at the Chinese Text Project (text in Chinese mostly; except the White Horse Discourse, which has English glosses). Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). "Section on Gongsun Long in article on the School of Names". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. ISSN 1095-5054. OCLC 429049174.. Translation of the Gong Sun Long Zi Archived 2017-11-10 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish) by Nuño Valenzuela

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Gongsun Long

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Gongsun Long claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Gongsun Long before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Gongsun Long ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Gongsun Long

In research: Gongsun Long appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Gongsun Long in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Gongsun Long is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 250 BC deaths, 320s BC births, 3rd-century BC Chinese philosophers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Gongsun Long outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Gongsun Long in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Gongsun Long means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Gongsun Long out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Gongsun Long in simple terms?

Why does Gongsun Long matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Gongsun Long?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Gongsun Long.