author
active 3rd century B.C. Long Gongsun
A sharp-minded thinker from China’s Warring States period, he is best remembered for paradoxes that still spark debate, especially the famous claim that “a white horse is not a horse.” The short work linked to his name opens a window onto some of the earliest surviving discussions of logic and language in Chinese philosophy.
0 Audiobooks
About the author
Associated with the School of Names, he lived in the 3rd century BCE and is traditionally described as a philosopher and writer of ancient China. Modern readers usually know him as Gongsun Long, the thinker behind the witty, puzzling arguments collected in the Gongsun Longzi.
His reputation rests on dialogues that test how words relate to things. The best known, the White Horse Dialogue, uses playful reasoning to ask what happens when we sort, define, and name the world too quickly. That mix of logic, language, and paradox has kept his work alive for more than two thousand years.
Very little about his life can be pinned down with certainty, which is common for authors from this period. Even so, the writings attributed to him have made him an enduring figure in the history of Chinese thought, especially for readers interested in argument, meaning, and the limits of language.