Rectification of Names
Using proper terms to ensure social roles are properly fulfilled.
Confucius emphasized 'rectifying names' - ensuring that names correspond to reality. A father should act like a father; a ruler should act like a ruler. When names and realities match, order prevails.
Let the ruler be a ruler, the minister a minister, the father a father, the son a son.
Rectification of names ensures social accountability.
Analects
Written about in
- What Confucianism says about order in human life
Names are meant to match reality. If the word father does not describe how a man actually behaves, the disorder is already present before anything else has gone wrong.
- What Confucianism says about what to say and what to leave unsaid
Confucius held that disorder begins when words stop matching realities — let the ruler be a ruler, the father a father. The test for a word is not how sincerely you feel it but whether it would survive inspection against the facts.