Rectification of Names

The Rectification of Names (Chinese: ; pinyin: Zhèngmíng; Wade–Giles: Cheng-ming) largely known as a doctrine of feudal Confucian designations and relationships, behaving accordingly to ensure social harmony. Without such accordance society would essentially crumble and "undertakings would not be completed."Mencius extended the doctrine to include questions of political legitimacy.

Because the rectification of names in the Analects of Confucius appears to have been written later, it arguably originates in Mozi(470–391 BC). The earlier scholarship of Herrlee G. Creel argued for its origin in "Legalist" Shen Buhai(400-337 BC) for the same reasons.

The Mohist and "Legalistic" version of the rectification of names is Fa. Mozi advocated language standards appropriate for use by ordinary people. With minimal training, anyone can use Fa to perform a task or check results. Seemingly originating in Guan Zhong, for Guan Zhong and the Mohists, Fa recommended objective, reliable, easily used, publicly accessible standards, opposing what Sinologist Chad Hansen terms the "cultivated intuition of self-admiration societies", expert at chanting old texts. However, it could complement any traditional scheme, and Guan Zhong uses Fa alongside the Confucian Li. What Fa made possible was the accurate following of instructions. For the most part Confucianism does not elaborate on it, though the idea of norms themselves are older and Han Confucians embraced Fa as an essential element in administration.

Providing a clear standard, Fa compares something against itself, and then judges whether the two are similar, just as with the use of the compass or the L-square. This constituted the basic conception of Mohists practical reasoning and knowledge. What matches the standard is the particular object, and thus correct; what doesn't is not. Knowledge is a matter of "being able to do something correctly in practice" — and in particular, being able to distinguish various kinds of things from one another. Evaluating correctness is thus determining whether distinctions have been drawn properly. Its aim is not an intellectual grasp of a definition or principle, but the practical ability to perform a task (dao) successfully. They proposed its use for reward and punishment, promotion and censure, drawing from the general population.

...
Wikipedia