Mozi and Mohism: Ancient China's Philosophy of Universal Love

Mozi, or Master Mo, was a Chinese philosopher of the 5th century BC who founded Mohism, one of the main schools of thought of the Warring States period. He taught that people should care for everyone impartially, that rulers should avoid waste and that aggressive war was a crime. His followers formed a disciplined organisation famous for defending besieged cities, and for two centuries Mohism rivalled Confucianism in influence.

Life

Very little is known for certain about Mozi’s life. His personal name was Mo Di, and he probably lived from around 470 to around 391 BC, though both dates are estimates. He is usually linked with the state of Lu, the home of Confucius, and also with Song. Some scholars think he came from a background of craftsmen, which would fit his practical style of argument and the school’s technical skill.

Early sources say Mozi studied the Confucian tradition before rejecting it. He then gathered disciples of his own, who were organised under a leader known as the juzi, or grand master, and were expected to follow strict discipline.

Key teachings

The book called the Mozi originally had 71 chapters, of which 53 survive. Its core chapters set out ten doctrines, each judged by one test: does it benefit the people and remove harm?

• Impartial care (jian ai): conflict arises because people favour their own family and state; if all cared for others as for themselves, theft, feuds and war would end.
• Against aggressive war (fei gong): attacking another state is theft and murder on a large scale, and wastes lives and wealth.
• Frugality: rulers should limit spending to what is useful and reject luxury.
• Simple funerals and against elaborate music: costly burials, years of mourning and grand court performances drain resources from the poor.
• Promoting the worthy: officials should be chosen for ability, not birth or connections.
• The will of Heaven and the existence of spirits: Heaven wants people to love one another and rewards or punishes accordingly.
• Against fatalism: outcomes depend on human effort, not destiny.

Defenders of cities

Because he condemned offensive war but accepted self-defence, Mozi and his followers became experts in fortification. Several chapters of the Mozi are technical manuals on defending walls and gates against ladders, tunnels, siege ramps and flooding.

The best-known story, from the chapter named after Gongshu Ban, tells how Mozi walked for ten days and nights to the state of Chu to stop a planned attack on Song. Gongshu Ban, a famous engineer, had built new siege ladders for Chu. Before the king, Mozi and Gongshu Ban acted out the siege with models; Mozi repelled every attack. When Gongshu Ban hinted that killing Mozi would solve the problem, Mozi replied that 300 of his disciples, led by Qin Guli, were already on the walls of Song with his methods. Chu called off the attack. The story may be idealised, but it shows how the Mohists saw themselves.

Logic and science

Later Mohists wrote a group of difficult chapters, known as the Mohist Canons, on logic, argument, ethics, geometry, mechanics and optics. They include observations on shadows, mirrors and the inverted image formed when light passes through a small hole, an early description of the principle of the pinhole camera. These chapters are among the most original scientific writing of ancient China.

Key people

• Mozi (Mo Di): founder of the school, active in the 5th century BC.
• Gongshu Ban: engineer of Lu, later honoured as Lu Ban, patron of carpenters, Mozi’s opponent in the siege story.
• Qin Guli: Mozi’s leading disciple.
• Mencius: Confucian philosopher who attacked Mozi’s impartial care as a denial of special duties to one’s own father.

Timeline

• c. 470 BC: approximate birth of Mozi, about a decade after the death of Confucius in 479 BC.
• c. 440s-430s BC: approximate period of the Gongshu Ban episode, if historical.
• c. 391 BC: approximate date of Mozi’s death.
• 4th-3rd century BC: the Mohist school flourishes and later Mohists compose the Canons.
• 221 BC: Qin unification; Mohism soon declines as an organised movement.
• 1894: Sun Yirang completes his influential critical edition of the Mozi.
• 2016: China launches the quantum science satellite Micius, named after Mozi.

Legacy

During the Warring States period Mohism was so influential that Mencius complained that the teachings of Mozi and his rival Yang Zhu filled the world. Yet the school almost vanished after the Qin and Han unified China, perhaps because its strict discipline and opposition to war no longer suited an imperial state, and because Confucianism became official orthodoxy.

From the late Qing dynasty, reformers and scholars such as Liang Qichao and Hu Shih rediscovered Mozi as a thinker of social equality, logic and science. Today he is widely studied as one of the first philosophers anywhere to argue systematically for impartial concern for all people.

Why it matters

Mozi offered a radical alternative to the family-centred ethics of Confucianism, grounded in the welfare of ordinary people. His ideas on impartial care, merit-based government and the wrongness of aggressive war, and his school’s work in logic and science, make Mohism one of the most distinctive traditions of early Chinese thought.