Míngbiàn 名辯

‘Names and disputation’. A modern term for discussions of naming, distinction-making, argument, and debate in early Chinese thought. Although the two words míng (‘name’) and biàn (‘disputation’) are ancient, míngbiàn as a scholarly category is largely a twentieth-century construction, emerging as Chinese scholars sought a broader framework within which to discuss early Chinese theories of naming, distinction, argument, and reasoning. Compared with míngxué, it usually has a narrower and more argument-focused meaning, while Mòbiàn is commonly treated as one of its principal branches.