Contents

In order to administer
  the first thing to be done is to rectify names.

If names be not correct,
  language is not in accordance with the truth of things.
If language be not in accordance with the truth of things,
  affairs cannot be carried on to success.
 
When affairs cannot be carried on to success,
  proprieties and music do not flourish.
When proprieties and music do not flourish,
  punishments will not be properly awarded.
When punishments are not properly awarded,
  the people do not know how to move hand or foot.
 
Therefore a superior man considers it necessary that
  the names he uses may be spoken appropriately, and also that
  what he speaks may be carried out appropriately.
What the superior man requires is just that
  in his words there may be nothing incorrect.

If language is not correct,
  then what is said is not what is meant;
if what is said is not what is meant,
  then what must be done remains undone;
if this remains undone, morals and art will deteriorate;
  if justice goes astray, the people will stand about in helpless confusion.

Hence there must be no arbitrariness in what is said.

This matters above everything.

-- Analects of Confucius Book 13 Verse 3 (based on 1980 James R. Ware translation)

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Version	Path
wukong-3.0.0.pre	data/text/rectification_of_names.txt