Hui Shi

Hui Shi ( Chinese  惠施 , Pinyin Huì Shī ), also Huizi ( Chinese  惠子 , Pinyin Huìzǐ  - "Master Hui") * 370 BC Chr .; † 310 BC BC , was a Chinese philosopher from Song ( 宋 ) state at the time of the Warring States . During the reign of King Hui he worked partly as a minister and partly as a chancellor in Wei . His writings have been lost. About the contents of reports True Book of Nanhua of Zhuangzi ( 庄子 ) Hui Shi should therefore Taoist motivated considerations have published with which the doctrine Mozis of the benefits of the mutual love of humanity, should be justified. For this he used a dialectical system he had devised, which was built up from paradoxes . Hui's teachings can also be found in other works such as the Zhanguo ce , Lüshi chunqiu , writings of the master Han Feizi and Xunzi .

To person

The reports in the Zhuangzi describe Hui Shi as peace-loving and very eloquent. He is also portrayed as an intelligent, subtle thinker who impressed with unusual statements or themes, such as: B. "Heaven and earth are the same height" or "What enters the ears, goes out the mouth." Apart from the Mohists , other contemporaries are said to have considered his statements to be useless and the theories he developed from them to be false. Sinologists note that there are no classical sources that comprehensively present his philosophy. Interpretations of his philosophizing are discussed in research: they are sparked by contemporary statements of others such as B. by Zhuangzi . But they cannot be proven by Hui Shi's statements.

The biographical data are approximate. Based on the sources, it can safely be concluded that Hui Shi was a contemporary of Zhuangzi. He is mentioned as a friend and compatriot of the Zhuangzi and a leading exponent of the philosophical school of the school of names or logicians ( mingjia ). The friendship with Zhuangzi was probably nothing more than a narrative, writes Chris Fraser in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy . It is reported that King Hui of Wei considered transferring rule over Wei to him because he believed that Hui Shi was superior to him in knowledge and wisdom. On the other hand, his government attempts were criticized as “no government”.

It is also reported that Hui Shi developed the draft of a new criminal law. The king thought the draft was good and the people accepted it, but it could not be implemented. How is it possible that a law is good but not enforceable? The king wondered. A third person, whom the king asked for advice, explained that this was due to the fact that ruling required similar skills on the part of the king to carrying a large beam, for which at least two were needed. With regard to the socio-political changes of the time, the sinologist Ralf Moritz believes that he can assume that Hui Shi has proven himself to be a politician of the new social conditions with his design.

Dialectic of the Paradox

Hui Shi possessed - besides literary and legal - extensive knowledge of the natural sciences. He is said to have left extensive works. The Zhuangzi mentioned that they filled five cars. He is said to have built Mozi ’s doctrine of all-encompassing love with the Daoist doctrine "a general identity of all beings". He constructs this identity by assuming that space and time are unlimited and indefinite. If philosophical thinking follows this assumption, then there are no longer any temporal or spatial differences, said Hui Shi. He formulates this speculative fact paradoxically in the following examples:

"I know the middle of the world, it is in the north ... of Yän and at the same time in the south ... of Tschu."

"I'm going to Yü today and arrive yesterday."

Chinese philosophers say that this way of illustrating theories is typical of Chinese philosophers. Spatial and temporal elements - so it can be deduced from this - are exclusively human constructions or inventions for Hui Shi. Therefore, different spatial and temporal statements can be both identical and different. Hui Shi extends this notion when he claims that the whole world is actually 'one and identical'. If so, then he must agree with Muzi that one must love all people. Hui Shi developed this way of thinking into a dialectical system of paradoxical statements. Richard Wilhelm explains that he tried to present every claim as valid . Bauer emphasizes that Hui Shi wanted to "increase thinking ... and give it dignity and greatness" through his paradoxes. Hui Shi's system probably contributed to the development of “a school of dialectics ” that deals with logical-conceptual investigations. The Mohists also followed up here. However, they broke away from the basic Daoist ideas of Hui Shi according to their different approach.

literature

• Ralf Moritz: Hui Shi and the development of philosophical thinking in ancient China . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin, 1973.
• BS Solomon: The Assumptions of Hui Shih . In: Monumenta Serica. Journal of Oriental Studies 28 (1969), pp. 1-40.
• Thierry Lucas: Hui Shih and Kung Sun Lung: An Approach from Contemporary Logic . In: Journal of Chinese Philosophy 20 (1993), pp. 211-255.

Web links

• Chris Fraser:  Life of Hui Shi. In: Edward N. Zalta (Ed.): Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
• Ulrich Theobald on Hui Shi 惠施[2]

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cf. Richard Wilhelm : Chinese Philosophy . Wiesbaden 2007 (first edition Breslau 1929), pp. 65–67.
2. ↑ Hubert Schleichert / Heiner Roetz: ibid. P. 284f.
3. ^ Fraser, Chris, "School of Names," Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2017 edition). [1]
4. ↑ See Ralf Moritz: Hui Shi and the development of philosophical thinking in ancient China . Berlin 1973, p. 74.
5. ↑ See Ralf Moritz, ibid. P. 77.
6. ↑ See Ralf Moritz, ibid. P. 78.
7. ^ Wilhelm: Chinese Philosophy, p. 66.
8. ^ Feng Youlan : A short history of Chinese philosophy . New York 1966, p. 12
9. ↑ Wolfgang Bauer: History of Chinese Philosophy . Munich 2009, 2nd edition, p. 83.
10. ↑ The presentation follows Richard Wilhelm: Chinese philosophy . Wiesbaden 2007 (first edition Breslau 1929), pp. 65–67; the paradoxes cited also come from Wilhelm.