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Gongsun Long

Warring States debater from Zhao, a retainer of Lord Pingyuan, known for arguing that a white horse is not a horse and that hardness and whiteness are separable

Also known as Gongsun Shi

Gongsun Long was a Warring States debater from Zhao who spent years as a retainer of Zhao Sheng, Lord Pingyuan. The surviving Gongsun Longzi has six chapters, against fourteen in the Han imperial catalogue. In its chapter on the white horse he argues that a white horse is not a horse, and in the chapter on hard and white he holds that the hardness and whiteness of a stone cannot be perceived together. The Annals of Lu Buwei (Lushi chunqiu) shows him urging King Huiwen of Zhao and King Zhao of Yan to lay down arms. The Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) says that after Zou Yan visited Zhao and spoke of the highest Way, Lord Pingyuan dismissed Gongsun Long. In the Zhuangzi, Prince Mou of Wei mocks his teaching as peering at the sky through a tube and measuring the earth with an awl.

Life and times

  1. c. 320 BCEBornZhou
  2. c. 250 BCEDied

Records

Gongsun Long's claim that a white horse is not a horse

Warring States period

The opening chapter of the Gongsun Longzi calls Gongsun Long a debater of the Warring States who, troubled by the disorder of names and realities, wrote the argument for keeping the white. He used borrowed objects as comparisons and held that a white horse is not a horse. The chapter on the white horse opens with the question whether it can be said that a white horse is not a horse, and the answer is that it can. The Records of the Grand Historian says Lord Pingyuan treated Gongsun Long generously and that he was skilled in arguing hardness and whiteness, until Zou Yan passed through Zhao and spoke of the ultimate way, after which the lord dismissed him.

References (3)