The rectification of names (Chinese: 正名; pinyin: Zhèngmíng; Wade–Giles: Cheng-ming) is originally a doctrine of feudal Confucian designations and relationships, behaving accordingly to ensure social harmony.
The Analects states that social disorder often stems from failure to call things by their proper names, that is, to perceive, understand, and deal with reality.
The rectification of names also calls for a standard language in which ancient rulers could impose laws that everyone could understand to avoid confusion.
[8] Noting that the term Chengming or rectification of names only appears once in the Analects, and not at all in Mencius, Sinologist Herrlee G. Creel argued for its further earlier development through "Legalist" Shen Buhai (400–337 BC) for the same reasons.
[11] The Mohist and "Legalistic" version of the rectification of names emphasizes the use of hermeneutics to find "objective models" ("fa", 法) for ethics and politics, as well as in practical fields of work, to order or govern society.
[14][15] For Guan Zhong (who seemingly originated the Fa concept) as for the Mohists, Fa provided a system of objective, reliable, publicly accessible standards or models that individuals could use for themselves to decide their own actions,[16] in contrast to what Sinologist Chad Hansen terms the "cultivated intuition of self-admiration societies" whereby scholars steeped in old texts maintained a monopoly on moral decision-making.
At the same time, Fa could also complement traditional schemes, and Guan Zhong himself uses it alongside the Confucian concept of ceremony (Li, 禮).
[20] By contrast, the Zhuangzi says that "great words are overflowing; small words haggling"(2.2), the true self lacks form (2.3), the mind can spontaneously select (2.4), asks whether language is different from the chirping of birds (2.5), and rejects assertion and denial (2.7), saying "to wear out one's spirit like powers contriving some view... without understanding that it is all the same is called 'three in the morning'".
"[22] Chapter 22, "on the Rectification of Names", claims the ancient sage kings chose names (Chinese: 名; pinyin: míng) that directly corresponded with actualities (Chinese: 實; pinyin: shí), but later generations confused terminology, coined new nomenclature, and thus could no longer distinguish right from wrong.
Backed by strong public demands, Taiwan during Democratic Progressive Party administrations puts effort into reviewing the names of state-owned enterprises and government entities to preserve their unique identity from Chinese influence.
[24] For those who still practice the traditional Confucian approach to ethics and social morality, the rectification of names has an impact in the way society is structured.
According to Xuezhi Guo, "Rectification of names also implies the promotion and development of an elaborately differentiated system of status based on social obligations".