The Sounds of Zhèngmíng: Setting Names Straight in Early Chinese Texts

Abstract

In early Chinese texts, straightness often indicates correctness, hence many things are said to be zheng l.E. 1 But among them, only zhengmfng l.E::S emerged as a rhetorical slogan promising the production of order and elimination of human confusion and fakeness. 2 In scholarship on Chinese ethics, the slogan is usually understood as working toward these goals by making behavior accord with names or by making "names" (norms or social roles) accord with behavior. By contrast, on the assumption that uses of the term "m(ng" (name/title/fame) involved what something is called or what is heard about it, the chapter focuses on interpreting zhengm(ng in light of ideas about speech, music, tones, and sound in general-items that are distinct from, but related to, m(ng ;6. 3 The chapter considers zhengmfng as part of a textual tradition wherein recurring poetic "sound-effects" appear in a variety of genres. In light of this context, it argues that the power of the sovereign's zhengm(ng stems from participating in such effects.

Az „égi megbízatás” (tian ming天命) „átértelmezése” és a „nevek” (ming名) funkciója

“…95 Karlgren 1996Wieger 1916: 886;Schluessler 2007;387;Kroll 2014: 309;Legge 1970: 297. 96 Karlgren 1922Geaney 2010: 269-271;Geaney 2011: 134. 97 Karlgren 1996Karlgren 1962: 51;Maspero 1933: 274.…”

Beyond Celebrity Politics: Celebrity as Governmentality in China

“…In Chinese, "celebrity" is ming ren (ming, fame/ name/title and ren, person/people), a central disposition of Confucian thought and politics. Rhetorical slogans based on these connections have promised the production of order to reinforce the power of the sovereign (Geaney, 2011): "If the ming is straight, there is order"; "rectify the ming, thereby order the things"; "rectify the ming, improve the law, then there is no annoyance for the governors." In this sense, in the Confucian system, the celebrity is the person who possesses the political meaning of order (ming), through which the governors dominated the people (ren), the governed, by assigning them different ming (roles and positions in the political system according to its governing rationality).…”