Title

Gongsun Longzi: A New Translation with Expository Notes

Author

Kuang Mei

Genre

Article

Pages

7-60

DOI

10.6503/THJCS.202003_50(1).0001

Download

PDF

Language

Chinese

Key words

Gongsun Longzi 公孫龍子, On the White Horse, On Pointing, On Understanding Change, On Hard and White, On Names and Actualities

Abstract

The Gongsun Longzi 公孫龍子 is the only surviving systematic philosophical document from the pre-Qin School of Names (名家). It consists of an introductory chapter on the life of Gong-sun Long and five philosophical essays: On the White Horse, On Pointing, On Understanding Change, On Hard and White, and On Names and Actualities. This study presents the text from each of these five essays (in a somewhat different order from the traditional edition) with a line-for-line translation followed by expository notes, and some textual reconstructions. The biographical first chapter is placed at the end as an appendix, together with expository notes on the section that pertains to the “white horse” argument.