Gongsun Longzi (ch. 公孫龍子; pinyin Gōngsūn Lóngzǐ; Wade-Giles Kung-sun Lung Tzu) is a noted member of the Logicians school of Chinese philosophy, who lived during the Warring States Period. His most famous work is called 白馬非馬 (Bái mǎ fēi mǎ), literally "A white horse is not a horse", and is structured as conversation between two parties, with one party proclaiming truth in the statement and the other questioning. The argument plays upon the dual semantic meanings of informal language, in particular the dual interpretations of 'is', being either: Chinese (written) language (pinyin: zhōngw n) written in Chinese characters The Chinese language (汉语/漢語, 华语/華語, or 中文; Pinyin: H nyǔ, Hu yǔ, or Zhōngw n) is a member of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. ... Pinyin (拼音, pÄ«nyÄ«n) literally means join (together) sounds (a less literal translation being phoneticize, spell or transcription) in Chinese and usually refers to HànyÇ” PÄ«nyÄ«n (汉语拼音, literal meaning: Han language pinyin), which is a system of romanization (phonemic notation and transcription to Roman script) for Standard Mandarin. ... Wade-Giles, sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a Romanization (phonetic notation and transliteration) system for the Chinese language based on Mandarin. ... For logicians with a lower-case l, see list of logicians. ... Yin/Yang symbol and ba gua paved in a clearing outside of Nanning city, Guangxi province. ... Alternative meaning: Warring States Period (Japan) The Warring States Period (traditional Chinese: 戰國時代, simplified Chinese: 战国时代 pinyin Zhànguó Shídài) takes place from sometime in the 5th century BC to the unification of China by Qin in 221 BC. It is nominally considered to be the second part of the...

1. "Is a member of the class entitled (x)"
2. "Is identical to concept (x)"

Thus a white horse is not a horse, because the concept of a white horse is not the same as the concept of a horse.

His works include:

1. 白馬論 (Bái mǎ lùn - 白馬非馬)
2. 指物論 (Zhǐ wù lùn)
3. 通變論 (Tōng biàn lùn)
4. 堅白論 (Jiān bái lùn)
5. 名實論 (Míng shí lùn)

The White Horse Dialogue (T:白馬論 P:Baima Lun) is a philosophical concept first put forward by Logician Gongsun Longzi, playing on the semantics between the objects themselves and the ideas they represent. ...

See also

• Logicians
• Mohism
• Mozi
• Chinese philosophy
• Hundred Schools of Thought