consider that "ming" (名 "name") may refer to three kinds of "shi" (實 "actuality"): type universals (horse), individual (John), and unrestricted (thing). They adopt a realist position on the name-reality connection - universals arise because "the world itself fixes the patterns of similarity and difference by which things should be divided into kinds". The philosophical tradition is well known for conundra resembling the sophists, e.g. when Gongsun Longzi (4th century BCE) questions if in copula statements ("X is Y"), are "X" and "Y" identical or is "X" a subclass of "Y". This is the famous paradox "a white horse is not a horse".