 Given this appeal to resemblance for valid inference, we can perhaps see why the Mohists’ semantical investigations took priority over the analysis of logical form. Determining whether x is G depends on whether it resembles the model m, but objects can resemble one another in different ways, and imperfectly. To use one of the Mohists’ own examples, a man may resemble the chosen standard of a “black man” because he has black hair, but we would not for that reason call him a black man. He would have to resemble the standard “in the appropriate way” (yi), as determined by a criterion (yin) (A95–7). Similarly, a square piece of wood resembles a carpenter’s T-square (taken as a model) in virtue of its squareness, not its being wood (B65). A horse is big not because its eyes are big, but because its body is, whereas it is blind because of its eyes, not its body (Xiao Qu [NO18]). The Mohists generally identify these criteria by appeal to discriminations directly evident in perception or based on ideas parasitic on acts of perception (such as the mental image of a square). But bian is more than just a term for the discriminatory acts of perception; it is about the business of naming objects in virtue of appropriate discriminations, and the application of a name cannot be regarded as correct without an appeal to its semantic content. This is less evident with simple terms like “horse” or “square”, whose practical applications are plain enough to preclude any conscious reflection on meanings. But it was surely at the forefront of the Mohists’ minds in their consideration of terms with abstract content and complex expressions, like “beneficence”, “utility”, and “universal love”.