Mohism
Judging every custom by what it yields for all, and daring to say that ritual, music and war cost too much.
c. 430 BCE – c. 221 BCE
Mohism is the school founded by in the fifth century BCE, in Warring States China. One of the first great critiques of , it judges doctrines and institutions by their usefulness to the people and preaches a concern extended to all without distinction. Organized as a disciplined brotherhood, renowned for its expertise in defending besieged cities, the school also developed, with the , one of the most elaborate logics and theories of knowledge of ancient China. It declined after the imperial unification of 221 BCE and died out as a school under the Han; the Mozi, handed down in an incomplete and corrupt form, was only properly brought back to light by Qing philologists at the end of the nineteenth century. Mozi is now compared to the , but his doctrine also rests on the authority of Heaven and the model of the ancient sage kings, which rules out a straightforward assimilation.
A custom is worth what it yields for all: the benefit of the people is the measure of what is right.
Loving one's own more than others is the source of disorder: one must care for everyone as for one's own.
Aggression is a crime, defence a duty.
Justification
A doctrine is judged by three criteria (the three standards): its origin with the sage kings, its agreement with the people's experience, and above all its usefulness, that is, the benefit (li) it brings the world. The good is measured by what enriches the people, increases the population and establishes order. The will of Heaven, which invokes as a standard, prescribes precisely this universal benefit, hence the deontological share.
Mozi, ch. 35-37 ("Against Fatalism") · Mozi, ch. 26-28 ("Heaven's Will")
Justification
The world's disorders come from each person loving their own at the expense of others. The remedy is (): treating, in one's conduct, other people's families, cities and states as one's own, which does not require feeling the same affection for everyone. Against the of , argues that impartiality even serves each person's interest, since whoever loves other people's parents will see their own loved in return.
Mozi, ch. 14-16 ("Impartial Concern")
Justification
Wars of aggression are the greatest of crimes: the man punished for stealing a pig is praised for plundering a kingdom. But the Mohists were not pacifists in the strict sense: they put themselves at the service of cities under attack and became specialists in fortification.
Mozi, ch. 17-19 ("Against Aggression") · Mozi, ch. 50 ("Gongshu") and the chapters on city defence
Justification
The worthy must be promoted (shang xian) to office whatever their birth, and everyone must conform to the judgment of their superior, up to the Son of Heaven (shang tong). It is an authoritarian meritocracy, not a democracy.
Mozi, ch. 8-10 ("Elevating the Worthy") · Mozi, ch. 11-13 ("Identifying with the Superior")
Justification
Court music, sumptuous funerals and long Confucian mourning periods squander the people's resources without feeding anyone. condemns them in the name of economy and the common good: what does not benefit everyone must be given up, whatever its charm.
Mozi, ch. 32 ("Against Music") · Mozi, ch. 25 ("Moderation in Funerals")
Justification
Heaven has a will, loves all people and sanctions rulers; spirits exist and punish wrongdoing. It is an affirmed theism, but without a creator God or revelation, hence a clearly theistic value short of the extreme: sees in it a guarantee of morality more than an object of speculation.
Mozi, ch. 26-28 ("Heaven's Will") · Mozi, ch. 31 ("Explaining Ghosts")
Lineages
See on the friezeAll lineages↑ Influences received
- Reacts againstConfucianismMohism arose against Confucianism: against its costly rites, court music, long mourning periods and above all its graded love, it set the criterion of common benefit and impartial concern for all.Read
↓ Influence exerted
- challenged byMenciusMencius accuses the impartial concern of Mohism of denying one's father, since it puts other people's parents on a par with one's own, and defends against it a love that extends by degrees outward from the family.Read