孔川 / Kong Chuan
孔川 / Kong Chuan appears in 《资治通鉴·周纪》64丨 古代“杠精”公孙龙养成记 as a 鲁国 visitor to 赵国. The episode identifies him by the courtesy name 子高 and as a seventh-generation descendant of 孔子.
His main wiki role is the “臧三耳” exchange with 公孙龙. Kong Chuan cannot answer Gongsun Long immediately, but he later tells 平原君 that the apparent victory is hollow: saying a person has three ears is hard to prove and false, while saying a person has two ears is easy and true.
That reframing makes Kong Chuan the episode’s first voice for 求明理的辩论规范. He does not beat Gongsun Long by inventing a more elaborate paradox. He changes the evaluation criterion from who can corner an opponent to whether the claim is true, useful, and worth the argumentative cost.
Key Claims
- Kong Chuan is described as a Lu man, courtesy name Zigao, and descendant of Confucius.
- He initially appears to lose to Gongsun Long’s “臧三耳” argument.
- His counter is evaluative: difficult falsehood should not outrank easy truth.
- Pingyuanjun accepts Kong Chuan’s standard and later tells Gongsun Long not to debate him again.
- The episode uses Kong Chuan to turn debate from performance into a truth and judgment problem.