Full Idea
If someone were suddenly to become the King of China, forgetting what he has been, as if born anew, is this not as if he were annihilated, and a King of China created in his place at the same moment?
Gist of Idea
If a person's memories became totally those of the King of China, he would be the King of China
Source
Gottfried Leibniz (Discourse on Metaphysics [1686], §34)
Book Reference
Leibniz,Gottfried: 'Philosophical Writings', ed/tr. Parkinson,G.H.R. [Dent 1973], p.44
A Reaction
Strikingly, this clearly endorse the view of the empiricist Locke. It is a view about the continuity of the self, not its essence, but Descartes must have turned in his grave when he read this. When this 'King of China' introspects his self, what is it?