Abstract
In the Warring States period philosophical and cosmological texts (such as, Heng Xian, Xunzi, Laozi, Shen Buhai, Hanfeizi, Zhuangzi), much attention is given to names and the process of naming. Names are seen as deeply involved in the world's becoming, and the process of naming as a major way of imposing order and harmony on it.
The common denominator of these texts is the newly found ability to rise above language and reflect its functions from an independent point of view. For the first time, the question how the names arise is being posed.
The presentation will illustrate the double role of names in the excavated texts Heng Xian and Tai yi sheng shui: on the one hand, they are arbitrary and get fixed by their shared use, on the other hand, they seem to arise from the world itself, through 'sound' yin音. In an ideally empty and silent mind, the sound comes before words and words are only adjusted to it.
It is also the criterion by which some words are found more fitting than other. Knowing without words is then described as the ultimate knowledge.