Hui Shi


Hui Shi, or Huizi, was a Chinese philosopher during the Warring States period. He was a representative of the School of Names, and is famous for ten paradoxes about the relativity of time and space, for instance, "I set off for Yue today and came there yesterday."

Works mentioning Hui Shi

The philosophical writings of Hui Shi are no longer extant, but several Chinese classic texts refer to him, including the Zhan Guo Ce, Lüshi Chunqiu, Han Feizi, Xunzi, and most frequently, the Zhuangzi.
Nine Zhuangzi chapters mention Hui Shi, calling him "Huizi" 26 times and "Hui Shi" 9 times. "Under Heaven", which summarizes Warring States philosophies, contains all of the latter 9 references by name.

The Ten Theses

"Under Heaven" lists Hui Shi's ten theses :

Relation to Zhuangzi

Most of the other Zhuangzi passages portray Hui Shi as a friendly rival of Zhuangzi. Hui Shi acts as an intellectual foil who argues the alternative viewpoint, or criticizes the Daoist perspective, often with moments of humor. The best known of the Zhuang-Hui dialogues concerns the subjectivity of happiness.
According to these ancient Daoist stories, Zhuangzi and Hui Shi remained friendly rivals until death.
Chad Hansen interprets this lament as "the loss of a philosophical partnership, of two like-minded but disagreeing intellectual companions engaged in the joys of productive philosophical argument."