the relationship between names and reality. Confucius (6th century BCE) famously emphasized the moral commitment implicit in a name, ("zhengming") stating that the moral collapse of the pre-Qin was a result of the failure to rectify behaviour to meet the moral commitment inherent in names: "Good government consists in the ruler being a ruler, the minister being a minister, the father being a father, and the son being a son... If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things." ("Analects" 12.11,13.3).