Mozi and his Philosophy

13.07.2006

Outline I. Mohism and Confucianism II. Mozi III. The Teaching of Mozi IV. The Book of Mozi V. The Mohist School after the Death of Mozi VI. Mozi’s Way of Argumentation VII. Mozi’s Teaching VIII. An Imaginary Dialogue with Mozi IX. How did Mozi Influence the World?

I. Mohism & Confucianism Students of Chinese thought are likely to think that

Confucianism and Daoism have been the two understanding indigenous philosophical systems in China.

This is true so far as the last 2000 years are concerned.

In ancient China, up to the beginning of the Han Dynasty (206B.C.-220A.D.), the greatest schools were Confucianism and Mohism. They dominated the intellectual scene from the 5th –3rd century B.C.

These 2 schools vigorously attacked each other.

I. Mohism & Confucianism These 2 schools were bitter enemies b

ecause in their doctrines they were diametrically opposed.

Confucius: took the Western Zhou (1111*770B.C.) as his model

Mozi: Looked to the Hsia (2183-1752?B.C.)

I. Mohism & Confucianism Confucianism: ethical system is based on the

idea of ren Mozi: based on the idea of yi (“righteous”) Both ideas are human created values. Confucius: kept ren essentially a human valu

e Mozi: traced yi to the will of Tian (“Heaven

”/ “God”)

I. Mohism & Confucianism Confucianism: Tian does not directly exert i

ts will but leaves the moral law to operate by itself.

Mozi: the will of Tian determines all. Mozi: strongly condemns ritual ceremonies

(li), music, elaborate funerals, and the belief in fate (ming), which were promoted by Confucius and his followers.

I. Mohism & Confucianism Confucius: moral life/ being ren is desi

rable for its own sake. Mozi: moral life is desirable for the be

nefits it brings. Even his doctrine of the will of Tian is colored by this utilitarian principle.

I. Mohism & Confucianism The greatest divergence: on the issue

of human relations. Mozi: universal love, equal love for ev

ery human being. E.g. others’ parents, families, and countries should be treated as one’s own.

Confucius: love with distinctions; ren/love begins from one’s family.

I. Mohism & Confucianism If the Mohist doctrine were adopted, t

he whole Confucian system would be destroyed from its very foundation.

Thus, Mencius attacked Mohism mercilessly (Mencius 3A.5, 3B.9)

The Mohist challenged the Confucians not only in theory, but also in actual practices.

II. Mozi (479-438B.C.) Nothing is known about his Mo Ti, or Master

Mo, the founder of the Moist school. The text, Mozi, is complied by his disciples. It was believed that Mozi lived some time b

etween the death of Confucius (479B.C.) and the birth of Mencius (372 B.C.)

He probably studied under the Confucian School, for he quoted frequently from the Book of Poetry and the Book of Documents.

II. Mozi Like Confucius and Mencius, Mozi pro

bably traveled a great deal, attempting to gain a hearing for his teachings.

He served as a high minister in the state of Song for some time.

II. Mozi While Confucian followers came from all classes of

society and Confucianism is basically equalitarian, they represented and aimed at producing an elite.

We were nor sure who the Mohists were. The name Mo may have been a family name or ma

y have denoted a form of punishment. The fact that Mozi’s followers were ascetics and h

ad “elders” suggests that they might have been slaves or prisoners.

The fact remains that the Mohists may have been represented the working class.

III. The Teaching of Mozi Can be considered as the first opponent of

Confucius: ren can be taken as a kind of graduate love, relational love.

He was anxious to spread his doctrine of universal love and persuade the rulers to stop their incessant attacks upon each other.

For instance, when Mozi heard that the state of Chu was planning an attack on Song, he walked for 10 days and nights to reach the court of Chu, where he succeeded in persuading the ruler to call off the expedition.

III. The Teaching of Mozi The Mohists believed that such attacks could be stop

ped not only by preaching sermons on universal love, but by strengthening the defense of vulnerable states so as to diminish the chances of a profitable victory for aggressors.

They hastened to aid the weak states, and in time became experts on methods of warfare.

They formed close-knit, disciplined bands, headed by an “elder” whose word was law, and when death drew near, selected his successor from the group.

IV. The Book of Mozi It is a work of 15 chapters & 71 sections. So

me of them were lost, so it is an incomplete work.

Each section is divided into 3 subsections except the last. On the whole, such subsections resemble each other so closely that they appear to be a single lecture.

The important chapters on history of Chinese thought are those on political and ethical ideas of Mozi himself.

V. The Mohist School after the Death of Mozi The school was divided into 3 groups

and scholars have surmised that the three treatments of each topic may represent the doctrines of Mozi as they were handed down in each of the three groups.

VI. Mozi’s Way of Argumentation In the section entitled “Against Fatali

sm,” Mozi lists 3 “tests” or criteria which are to be used to determine the validity of any theory:

1. its origin 2. its validity 3. its applicability

VI. Mozi’s Way of Argumentation 1. its origin, by which he means whether or not it c

onforms with what we know of the practices of the sage kings of antiquity.

2. its validity, i.e., whether or not it conforms with what we know from the evidence of the senses.

3. its applicability, i.e., whether, when put into practice, it will bring benefit to the state and the people.

Though Mozi does not apply all three in every case, there are the principal criteria upon which he bases his arguments.

An Analysis of Mozi’s First Criteria, “Origin” Difficulty in accepting the first criteria. We are skeptical “of what history pro

ves.” What Mozi cites to prove his arguments is often legend and myth.

For we have seen history cited to prove so many disparate and even contradictory assertions

An Analysis of Mozi’s First Criteria , “Origin”

In Mozi’s days, the majority of educated Chinese accepted without question the following:

1. At certain periods in the past, enlightened rulers had appear in China to order the nation and raise Chinese society to a level of peace, prosperity.

2. Through the records in the Book of Poetry and Book of Documents, how these rulers had acted and why.

An Analysis of Mozi’s First Criteria , “Origin” The appeal to the example of antiquit

y, which Mozi often used to clinch his argument, carried enormous weight in his day and continued to do so in Chinese philosophy down to the present century.

An Analysis of Mozi’s Second Criteria, “Validity” The appeal to the evidence of the sen

ses, Mozi uses much less frequently, and then often with disastrous results, as he argues for the existence of ghosts and spirits on the basis of the fact that so many people have reportedly seen and heard them.

An Analysis of Mozi’s Third Criteria, “applicability” Practicability, needs no comment, sin

ce it is as vital as a part of argumentative writing today as it was in Mozi’s time.

The Mohists’ Comments on Other Schools They took a far sterner and less

compromising attitude toward the ruling class than any other philosophical school.

They condemned the luxuriously living of the aristocracy because such pastimes taxed the wealth and energy of the common people and added nothing to the material welfare of the nation.

The Mohists’ Comments on Other Schools Here, they failed to notice the benefit with s

uch pastimes provided for merchants, artisans and servants, since for the Mohists, the only common people who deserved consideration were the farmers.

They denounced offensive warfare for the same reasons, because it was a burden and an expense to the people, and provide little in the way of material benefit.

The Mohists’ Comments on Confucianism They likewise condemned elaborate

funerals and all other “unnecessary” expenditures.

They attacked fatalistic thinking because they wanted men to believe that wealth and good fortune came only in response to virtuous deeds.

They opposed the Confucian scholars because Confucianism taught such fatalistic doctrines and encouraged music and elaborate funeral rites.

VII. Mozi’s Teachings 1.“Honoring the worthy” 2. “Identifying with one’s Superior

” 3. “Mozi’s Religious View” 4. “Universal Love”

VII. Mozi’s Teachings 1.“Honoring the worthy”

The duty of rulers to seek out men of wisdom and virtue and employ them in their governments.

By Mozi’s time, the right of certain aristocractic families to maintain hereditary possession of ministerial posts had already been challenged, and many rulers were doing just what Mozi recommended. They chose wise men from the common people.

VII. Mozi’s Teachings 1. “Honoring the worthy” No other philosophical school could be expected t

o take exception to this principle, except perhaps the Daoists and farmer-recluses, who professed not to be interested in acquiring government posts anyway.

Mozi is the first to give clear and unequivocal expression to this ideal, which became common in later Chinese political thought.

But the growing conviction that character and ability rather than birth alone make the man was very much stated by Confucius.

VII. Mozi’s Teachings 2. “Identifying with one’s Superior” A strong strain of authoritarianism in early

Chinese philosophy. Independence of thought and action, for

the lower classes at least, is a rarely expressed concept in the works of the period– the only example: The Master said, “The Three Army can be deprived of their commander, but there is no way a common man can be deprived of his purpose.” (Analects 9.26)

VII. Mozi’s Teachings 2. “Identifying with one’s Superior” The Daoists talk much of freedom of though

t and action, but it is a freedom which ignores the social order, not one functions effectively within it.

The concept of the hierarchical social order itself, the neat pyramid of classes and functionaries topped by the “Son of Heaven/ Son of Tian,” (which was a personal God) was an ideal that apparently no thinker dreamed of challenging.

VII. Mozi’s Teachings 2. “Identifying with one’s Superior” When Mozi urges that each group in society

must accept its standards of judgment and take orders from the group above it, he is expressing an assumption common to Mohists, Confucians, and later Legalists alike.

Advice could, and should flow freely upward the hierarchy.

But decisions, in normal times at least, come only from above.

VII. Mozi’s Teachings 2. “Identifying with one’s Superior” Each individual and group in society, if he g

oes morally awry, may thus be checked and corrected by the group above.

Chinese society did not always function in this way, which explains why Mozi spent so much time expounding this ideal.

VII. Mozi’s Teachings 2. “Identifying with one’s Superior” Qn: What happen if the top person goes awry? The Confucians believed that in that case, the

normal process may be reversed and a new leader may rise up from the lower rank and replace the wicked person, for the latter has disqualified himself for the position by his misrule.

The new leader is able to rule because of his virtue, which wins for him both the support of society and Tian.

VII. Mozi’s Teachings 2. “Identifying with one’s Superior”

Qn: What happen if the top person goes awry?

Mozi recognizes the same process, but pays less attention to the leader himself, who is only an agent of divine retribution, than to the power directing the process, the supernatural power of Tian and the spirits.

VII. Mozi’s Teachings 3. Mozi’s Religious Views

He asserts natural spirits and the ghosts of the dead exist.

Such gods take cognizance of all human activities, and they have the power to punish /reward any individual for his deeds.

Hearing the hierarchy of the supernatural world, Mozi envisions a deity called God, the Lord on High, who creates all beings, love all beings, and desires their welfare.

VII. Mozi’s Teachings 3. Mozi’s Religious Views Mozi’s religious views is not novel at all; th

ey are striking only as a reaffirmation of traditional religious beliefs.

If we return to the Book of Poetry & the Book of Documents, we will find such assumptions underlying almost every line, while the mass of early historical legends abounds in stories of spirits who returned from the land of the dead to take personal revenge upon their enemies.

VII. Mozi’s Teachings 3. Mozi’s Religious Views However, the very insistence with which Mozi procl

aims these religious beliefs indicates that such views had lost, at least for the ruling class.

For instance, the Confucians recognized and encouraged this trend toward skepticism and agnosticism, worked to revitalized the old religious rites by imbuing them with new interpretations (with the ideas like ren, yi)

Mozi attacked the Confucian trend and attempted to drag men back to the simple, pietistic, and fear-ridden faith of antiquity.

VII. Mozi’s Teachings 3. Mozi’s Religious Views Mozi attacked the Confucian trend and atte

mpted to drag men back to the simple, pietistic, and fear-ridden faith of antiquity.

For only such a faith, could men be frightened into abandoning their evil ways and persuaded to love and benefit one another as Tian desired them to.

VII. Mozi’s Teachings 4. “Universal Love” Mozi’s most famous and original contribut

ions to Chinese thought. Confucianism: relational love, starting with

the family. Mozi: men should actually love the member

s of other families and states in the same way that they love the members of their own family and state, for all are equally the creatures and people of God.

VII. Mozi’s Teachings 4. “Universal Love” A noble and original ideal, especially wh

en we consider the fierce strife and hatred that characterized the society of Mozi’s time (Warring Period).

4. “Universal Love” Mozi defends this doctrine in exactly the sa

me uninspired way in which he defends every other doctrine he preaches—by appeal to material , to authoritarianism, and to the dubious account of an ancient golden age.

Maybe he felt that only such practical arguments could mask the idealism of the doctrine.

The arguments delimit and qualify the ideals to such an extent that they end by dragging them down to cautious utilitarianism.

VIII. An Imaginary Dialogue with Mozi Qn: What good is the doctrine of universal love? An: It will bring the greatest benefit to the largest n

umber of people. Qn: Can it be put into practice? An: Yes, this is proved by the fact that it was actuall

y practiced by the sage king of antiquity. Qn: How is it to be put into practice? An: The rulers can be persuaded of its usefulness, a

nd they in turn will enforce it among the people by laws and coercion.

IX. How did Mozi Influence the World? According to Mencius 6.9, “The words o

f Yang Zhu and Mo Ti fill the world!” This passage reflects the fact that Mozi

must be very popular in Mencius’ time. Yang Zhu: “Every-man-for-himself doctr

ine.” “Even if I can benefit the whole world by picking out one of my hair, I will not do it.”

IX. How did Mozi Influence the World? Other works of the 3th century B.C. suggest

that Mohism at this period stood side by side with Confucianism as one of the most important philosophical schools of the time.

Yet, from the 2th century B.C. on, after the unification of the empire under the Chin and later the Han Dynasties, we hear not much of the Mohist school.

IX. How did Mozi Influence the World? The author of a later chapter of Zhuangzi co

mmenting upon the Mohist philosophy: “no singing in life, no mourning in death,” remarks, “It causes the people to be anxious, to be sorrowful, and its ways are hard to follow “(Zhuangzi, section 10)

This was how most men of later centuries felt about the superstitious and puritanical elements of Mozi’s teachings.

IX. How did Mozi Influence the World? What remained, his emphasis upon se

lecting and promoting worthy men to office, upon the welfare of the people, was compatible and almost identical with traditional Confucian, and could therefore be easily absorbed in the Confucian school.