Hui Shi

Hui Shi was a Warring States thinker associated with the School of Names (mingjia) and served as a minister in the state of Wei. None of his writings survive; he is known mainly through the Zhuangzi, where he appears as Zhuangzi's friend and sparring partner and where chapter 33 preserves Ten Theses attributed to him. These paradoxes about the infinitely large and small and the relativity of spatial and temporal distinctions make him an early Chinese explorer of problems of space, division and comparison.

Key ideas

• The greatest has nothing outside it and the smallest has nothing inside it, setting limits on the large and the small.
• Distinctions of high and low, near and far, today and yesterday depend on the standpoint from which they are drawn.
• Because all distinctions are relative, one should love all things equally, for heaven and earth are one body.
• The infinite-halving stick paradox preserved alongside his theses is attributed to the disputers of his circle, not to him directly.

Major works

• The Ten Theses, recorded in the Zhuangzi, chapter 33 ("Tianxia") (text that records him)
• Dialogues with Zhuangzi, including the "happy fish" exchange in Zhuangzi chapter 17 (text that records him)

In the conversation

• Discussion Zhuangzi and Huizi on the bridge: doubt about other minds, or a joke? Liu Jianguo · 0 replies
• Discussion Zhuangzi and Hui Shi on the bridge: an ancient argument about knowing what someone else knows Liu Jianguo · 5 replies
• Question Hui Shi’s Ten Theses: paradoxes for their own sake, or a theory of space? Chen Yuting · 4 replies