 On the surface, Xunzi’s theories of logic and language resemble those of the Mohists, and he makes great use of the doctrines of the Mohist Canons to develop his own arguments. But underneath we find Confucian presuppositions that diverge radically from the Mohist paradigm. Zhuangzi seized on indexicality to make the case that names cannot be used invariably across linguistic contexts. Reacting to the problematic task of identifying impeccable salience conditions in perception or thought to determine how a name is to be used, Xunzi put Zhuangzi’s arguments to use to make the case that the correctness conditions of language, if there are to be any at all, must be determined by convention. Since these conventions are ultimately arbitrary, they cannot be established by the Mohists’ methods of discourse or argumentation. They have to be determined by authority, the rule of sage-kings who institute the conventions of language as they deem fit through the promotion of proper social conduct and the suppression of deviant behavior.