The Wrecking Of Names

Confucius said the most important thing was ‘rectifying names’. What did he mean?

From the exhibit Q Confucius, by Zhang Huan

If he ever got power (which he never did) Confucius said his first priority would be the ‘rectification of names’. Like a boor, I never quite understood this. As The Analects said:

13.3 Zilu asked, “If the Duke of Wei were to employ you to serve in the government of…