Mozi

Mozi

Mozi, named Zhai, was born in Song Dynasty in the late spring and Autumn period and the early Warring States period. He was a descendant of Muyi, a nobleman of the Song Dynasty, and once served as a doctor of the Song Dynasty. Ancient Chinese thinker, educator, scientist, militarist, founder and main representative of Mohist school.

Mozi is the founder of Mohist theory. He put forward such viewpoints as "universal love", "non attack", "advocating virtuous", "advocating common", "Tianzhi", "Minggui", "unnatural", "non music", "saving funeral" and "saving use". With universal love as the core, saving use and respecting virtuous as the fulcrum, he established a set of scientific theories with geometry, physics and optics as the outstanding achievements. Mohism had a great influence in the pre Qin period, and was called "outstanding learning" together with Confucianism. The contention of a hundred schools of thought during the Warring States period is known as "neither Confucianism nor Mohism".

After Mozi's death, Mohism was divided into three schools: Xiangli's Mohism, Xiangfu's Mohism and dengling's Mohism. According to the historical materials of Mozi's life and deeds, Mozi's disciples collected his quotations and compiled Mozi.

(the general picture is taken from the central broadcasting network)

Life of the characters

Early experience

Mozi's ancestor is the royal family of yin and Shang Dynasties, and is the descendant of Mu Yi, the elder brother of song Xianggong, the monarch of Song Dynasty. Mu Yi was the great Sima of song Xianggong before he died, and later his descendant was demoted from aristocrat to civilian for some reason. After the brief Mo surname.

Mozi was born at the end of the spring and Autumn Period in the 40th year of King Zhou Jing (about 480 B.C.), and in the 44th year of King Zhou Jing (476 B.C.). Although his ancestors were aristocrats, Mozi was the only philosopher of peasant origin in Chinese history.

As a civilian, Mozi worked as a shepherd boy and studied carpentry in his youth. It is said that his skill of making city guarding equipment is better than that of the public transport class. He claimed to be "my son" and was called "the man of cloth". As a descendant of the declining aristocracy, Mozi naturally received essential cultural education. According to records of the historian, Mozi was a doctor of the Song Dynasty.

Mozi is a scholar who has considerable cultural knowledge and is close to the small producers of workers and peasants. He claims that "there is no king in the world, and there is no farming difficulty in the world". He is a scholar who sympathizes with "the people of agriculture and industry". In his hometown, the surging Yellow River flows eastward. Mozi is determined to go out to visit famous teachers in the world, learn the way of governing the country, and restore the glory of his ancestors.

Learning from Confucianism

Mozi, wearing straw sandals, walked around the world and began to study abroad. According to Huainanzi yaolue, Mozi was a disciple of Confucianism. Mozi studied Confucianism, praised Yao, Shun and Yu, and studied poetry, books, spring and autumn and other Confucian classics. However, because of dissatisfaction with Confucianism, he created a different school of thought.

Establishing Mohism

Mozi finally gave up Confucianism and set up a new theory. He gathered people all over the country to give lectures and attacked the tyranny of Confucianism and the vassal states with fierce words. A large number of craftsmen and lower class scholars began to follow Mozi, gradually formed their own Mohist school, and became the main opposition of Confucianism.

Mohism is a school advocating benevolent government. Before the rise of Legalists, which represented the interests of the new landlord class, Mohism was the largest school of thought opposite to Confucianism in the pre Qin period, and was regarded as "prominent school". Among all the schools of thought at that time, it was called "neither Confucianism nor Mohism".

Mozi actively publicized his theory. In order to publicize his ideas, Mozi recruited many disciples, and there were hundreds of followers, forming a powerful Mohist school.

travel through all the kingdoms

Mozi was a senior official of the state of song when he was Emperor Zhaogong of Song Dynasty. But after that, their status declined and they were close to workers. Mozi traveled widely, from Qi in the east to Zheng and Wei in the north, and planned to go to Yue, but he did not make it.

Mozi once prevented Luyang Wenjun from attacking the state of Zheng, and persuaded Luban to stop Chu from attacking the Song Dynasty. Mozi visited Chu many times and presented his book to King Hui of Chu. King Hui of Chu intended to seal Mozi with a publishing house, but Mozi didn't accept it. Later, he refused the land granted to him by the king of Chu and left the state of Chu. The king of Yue invited Mozi to be an official and promised him a fief of 500 Li. Mozi took "listen to my advice, act according to my reasoning" as the condition of his departure, regardless of the fiefdoms and titles. His purpose was to realize his political ambition and ideas, which was rejected by the king of Yue. Mozi came to the state of Qi in his later years and tried to dissuade Xiang Ziniu from attacking the state of Lu.

Three points of Mohism

In Mozi's later years, Confucianism and Mohism were equally famous. After Mozi's death, Mozi's disciples were still "full of the world" and "innumerable", so although there were hundreds of schools of thought in the Warring States period, "Confucianism and Mohism" was the first of them. After Mozi's death, the Mohist School split into three schools: Xiangli's Mohist school, Xiangfu's Mohist School and dengling's Mohist school.

Main works

After Mozi's death, Mozi's disciples collected his quotations according to the historical materials of Mozi's life and deeds, and compiled the book Mozi to record Mozi's words and deeds for Mozi's disciples and their successors.

Mozi has a wide range of contents, including politics, military affairs, philosophy, ethics, logic, science and technology. It is an important historical material for the study of Mozi and his posterity. This book is divided into two parts: one is to record Mozi's words and deeds and expound Mozi's thoughts, which mainly reflects the thoughts of the early Mohist School; the other is six chapters, such as Jing Shang, Jing Xia, Jing Shuo Shang, Jing Shuo Xia, Da Zhe, Xiao Zhe, which are generally called Mo Bian or Mo Jing. They mainly expound Mozi's epistemology and logical thoughts, and also contain many natural science contents, reflecting the later period Mohist Thought. In the Western Jin Dynasty, both Lu Sheng and Le Yi annotated Mozi, which has been lost. Today's popular version includes sun Yirang's "Mozi Xiangu" and "Zhuzi Jiji".

The comments of Mozi and his disciples are scattered in various classics, such as Xinxu, Shenzi, Yanzi Chunqiu, Hanfeizi, lvshi Chunqiu, Huainanzi, Liezi, ZhanGuoCe, zhugongjiushi, shenxianzhuan, etc. Liu Xiang's "Hanshu · Yiwenzhi" in the Western Han dynasty recorded 71 scattered articles into "Mozi". In Song Dynasty, there were only 60 articles, but now there are only 53 and 18. Among them, the second chapter of Jieyong, the first and second chapters of Jiemu, the first and second chapters of Minggui, the second and second chapters of Feile, and the first chapter of feiru have been lost. In addition to these eight chapters, the other ten even titles have been lost. In these ten chapters, only shizhengyi mentioned the title of Beiwei, and the rest are unknown. The works of Mohism were gradually lost after the Six Dynasties. In 1445, Zhang Yuchu engraved Mozi into daozang. The 53 chapters of Mozi were handed down because they were included in the Taoist work daozang. Wang Zhong divided Mozi book into two parts: internal and external, and wrote a volume of characterization of Mozi.

Mozi was not written by one person, nor was it written for a while. It is generally believed that Mozi was written by Mozi himself and his disciples who recorded Mozi's comments. According to Liang Qichao's classification, the content of Mozi can be divided into five categories.

The first category: mixed with the famous, mixed with the miscellaneous.

The second category: representing the main political thoughts of Mohism.

The third category is called Mohism, also known as Mojing, which is the essence of Mo-tse.

The fourth category: the records of Mozi's words and deeds by Mozi's disciples can also be regarded as the records of Mozi's life.

The fifth category: it can be said that it is the art of war of Mohism.

Anecdotes and allusions

Mozi weeps

When Mozi saw someone dyeing silk, he sighed: "if you dye silk with cyan, it becomes cyan, and if you dye silk with yellow, it becomes yellow. When the dyes change, the color of the silk also changes; when five dyes are put in, the silk presents five colors. So you have to be careful about dyeing silk! " It's not only like dyeing silk, but also like dyeing silk. Human nature, like silk, must be dyed.

stick in the mud

During the Warring States period, there was a time when the state of Chu wanted to attack the state of song. Luban specially designed and made a kind of cloud ladder for the state of Chu to attack the city. At that time, Mozi was in the state of Qi. When he got the news, he rushed to the state of Chu to dissuade him. After ten days and nights, he went to Yingdu of Chu and immediately found Lu Ban to see the king of Chu. Mozi tried to persuade the king of Chu and Luban not to attack the state of song. This is "Mozi saves Song Dynasty". This story also develops an idiom: stick to the rules.

Mozi dissuaded the king of Chu from attacking the Song Dynasty. The king of Chu finally agreed, but they were reluctant to give up the new siege equipment and wanted to try its power in actual combat. Mozi untied his clothes, surrounded the city wall, and used wood chips as weapons to let Luban and him perform on behalf of the two sides. Luban used different methods to attack the city many times, and was blocked by Mozi many times. Lu Ban's siege equipment has been exhausted, and Mozi's strategy is more than enough. Luban refused to admit defeat, saying that he had a way to deal with Mozi, but did not say. Mozi said he knew how Luban would deal with himself, but he did not say. The king of Chu didn't understand. He asked what it meant. Mozi said gongshuzi wanted to kill himself. He thought that if he killed himself, there would be no one to defend the city for the state of song. Where did Luban know that about 300 disciples of Mozi had been waiting for Chu to attack. Seeing that he was not sure of winning, the king of Chu decided not to attack the state of song.

Kuaima Yuren

Mozi was a brilliant student, but he didn't know how to work hard. Mozi always blamed him. Geng Zhu said, "Sir, I really have nothing better than others?" Mozi said, "I'm going to Mount Taihang and take a fast horse or a cow. Which one are you going to push?" Geng Zhu said confidently, "I will spur the fast horse." Mozi asked: "why do you spur the horse?" Gengzhu said, "the fast horse is worth whipping. Because it's sensitive, whipping it can make it run faster! "

Mozi's intention is to inspire gengzhu to study hard and make progress. Now it's a matter of course, he said to gengzhu, "I also think you are worthy of encouragement

Chinese PinYin : Mo Zi