Master Yin Wen

Yin Wen was a philosopher of the Jixia Academy in Qi, remembered for preaching that one should endure insults without fighting. His short book joins the School of Names to Taoist and Legalist ideas: the ruler must make names fit realities, govern by law and fixed standards, and hold his ministers to their words. Along the way come delightful anecdotes about rulers who are fooled by names: the king who prized a jade that was a stone, the hunter's dog named Thief. This complete new English translation gives both parts of the surviving text, the Great Way and the Miscellany, a short and lively introduction to early Chinese thought about language and power. Names are given in modern pinyin and key terms are rendered plainly rather than buried in jargon, so the arguments, stories and debates can be read straight through by anyone curious about Chinese thought.