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Hanwen Xu

Alexander Izrailevsky, Ph.D.

PHIL 1000 (Individual Work)

23 July 2018

Confucius opponent: Mo Tzu (Micius)

Nowadays, China is not only famous for its economic growth rate, but also for its

thousands of years' continuing civilization. Every Chinese is very proud of this civilization

because of the abundant history. When people talk about Chinese philosophers, people always

mention Lao Tzu and his student Confucius who lived in the Warring States period. And they

always consider both of them are the Confucian philosophers, but the truth is Taoism is different

from the Confucianism. I think it is reasonable because even as Chinese, you cannot understand

their philosophy very well and distinguish them. From this case, you can see Chinese philosophy

is very complicated and diversity at the Warring States period. There is an idiom can describe

this phenomenon precisely, it can be translated into The Hundred Schools of Thought. And Mo

Tzu is one of the most famous philosophers of that time. Many academics believe although his

philosophy didn’t survive into the Qin dynasty (221-206 B.C.E.), Mohist ideas exerted a decisive

influence upon the thinkers of early China (Loy).

Mo Tzu was a Chinese philosopher active from the late 5th to the early 4th centuries

B.C.E(Loy). He is the only philosopher who born in the low class in Chinese history. He studied

Confucianism from a Confucian teacher when he was young. When he finished his study, he

highly disagreed with the Confucianism, and he had his own philosophy. He believed

Confucianism is too hypocritical. After his teaching and spread his philosophy, another great

philosopher Han Feizi collectively called both of the Mohism and Confucianism as "Xian Xue,"
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which means the most famous and best philosophy that can affect the society. Everyone who

lived at that time knows an idiom called "If you don't study Confucianism, you have to study

Mohism." From this historical fact, we can see the Mohism was as great as Confucianism in

Chinese history. After he died, his students wrote a book "Mo Tzu" to conclude his great

achievement on the philosophy and science.

Mo Tzu has many philosophies, and his philosophy is the most advanced I’ve never seen

at the Warring States period. In the book “Mo Tzu,” his student separated his philosophy into ten

core theses. The most famous philosophy is “Jian ai,” which means love for everyone. Mo Tzu

used this idea to argue against the Confucianism. In fact, Confucian describe the relationship

between people upon the benefit relationship. He said the love is different, which means people

are working for benefits, who give me the most benefit, he loves me the most. But Mo Tzu

disagreed with this idea, and he thought it is wrong that people rather benefit themselves by

sacrifice others. So, people need to care about others when they take care of themselves (Loy).

This idea of “Jian ai” is very kind and all of his other ideas are all based on it.

His second famous idea is “Fei gong,” it means not to attack. Usually Chinese like to put

“Jian ai” and “Fei gong” together because they are very related. During the Warring States

period, there were hundreds of little countries fight with each other every day. People are tired of

the war. So, Mo Tzu came out with this idea when he talked with the civilians. He believed any

kinds of aggression are immoral and wrong because the invading will hurt others to benefit

themselves. Additionally, he also said the only justified situation to start a war is when people

need to overthrow evil tyrants (Loy).

Another essential aspect is “Shang Xian,” and it means advocate the government to hire

the capable man to manage the country rather than hire the relatives. In the feudal society, this
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kind of ideas was very dangerous because it was challenging the royal authority. In another way,

Mo Tzu believed everyone has the right to learn the knowledge, and he encouraged the civilians

to study and improve themselves. With the two aspects of progress, the talented people can have

the opportunity to help the social development. This idea enlightens for the operating of the

examination system in the later dynasties as well.

When we say “Shang Xian” is a way to reduce the hierarchy concept, “Shang Tong” will

push the level of reduction of hierarchy to the extreme. Shang means advocate, and Tong means

the same. This idea first suggests the concept of the law in Chinese history, and Mo Tzu thought

every class needs to follow the same morality regular. This is the basic to maintain the social

stability. He also believes this act can bring the people together because everyone is the same

under the rules (Loy).

To strengthen the idea of the law, he also suggested another idea, "Tian Zhi," which

means the idea from the sky. In Chinese culture, the word "Tian" means sky and it actually very

special. Although we always say most of the Chinese doesn't believe in any religions, but they

believe in "Tian," which is the sky. It is similar to the idea of "Tao" from Lao Tzu, and it is a

spiritual symbol. There are many proverbs and idioms contain the word "Tian" to reflect the

justice system. In this case, the Confucianism believe the sky into a mystery power, and it will

not influence the human life directly just like the "Tao." But Mo Tzu said if people did

something wrong and immoral, no matter what his identity, he will be punished by the sky. It

feels like Mo Tzu tried to enforce people to accept his idea and ruled by their morality. Anyway,

according to my intuitive feelings about the "Tian," I can tell Mo Tzu succeed at this point. The

awe to "Tian" is Inherited for thousands of years.

Besides the idea of "Tian Zhi," Mo Tzu argued for the existence of the ghost as well,

which is "Ming Gui." He tried to persuade people to believe the ghost can bring the happiness

and sadness. This idea is as same as the idea of "Tian Zhi," it was aiming to scare those ignorant

people who had some immoral ideas and force them to do the right thing. The idea of "Tian Zhi"

and "Ming Gui" shows the superior education talent Mo Tzu had.

As I said at the very beginning, Mo Tzu was born in a low-class family, he concluded

some strategy from his life experience and tried to use them on the country management. He

highly suggested the idea of "Jie Yong," which merely means frugal. He argued good

governance has to be frugal, and any useless luxury is immoral. This is not very hard to

understand because Mo Tzu is a proletariat, it is natural for him to disagree with the luxury of

consumption. And this is a very sensitive act that could anger the royal family.

Not only the idea of "Jie Yong” but Mo Tzu also argued about the grand traditional

ceremony. This idea called "Jie Zang" means frugality in funerals. Confucianism suggested to

strict fidelity to ritual codes, and they believe this is the best way to maintain the social stability.

Mo Tzu argued with this point directly, and he said the rituals are wasting of time and wealth,

they are meaningless at all. This argument absolutely caused a big sensation, because Chinese

are influenced by Confucianism a lot on the beliefs. Any kinds of religions are not popular in

China for thousands year, but Chinese people always believe in their ancestors. Even now, there

are still a lot of different kinds of the ceremonies to memory the ancestors. So, this idea wasn't

that popular, and lots of people thought this idea means disrespectful to the ancestors. To against

the funeral, Mo Tzu also came up with an idea of "Fei Yue," literally means no music. In ancient

China, the music is only for royal and the funeral. So, he described the music as a symbol of

immoral and wasting to persuade people not to hold a funeral.

The last core element of his idea is “Fei Ming,” literal means there’s no fate. He directly

targeted the idea of "Tao" and "Wu Wei" from Lao Tzu, he believes these ideas are too negative,

and they were the primary problem to cause the indolence and chaos. He thought there's only

hard working can help people to improve themselves, waiting for the fate is meaningless.

Through this point, we can make sure that Mo Tzu is definitely a materialist and atheist. The idea

such as "Tian Zhi" and "Ming Gui" just his tool to educate people to follow his idea of "Jian Ai,"

he wanted the society to become better and better.

Other than he formulated a sophisticated semantic theory, epistemology, utilitarian ethics,

theory of analogical reasoning, and mereological ontology, Mo Tzu also made some remarkable

science achievement on Chinese history, he undertook inquiries in such diverse fields as

geometry, mechanics, optics, and economics (Fraser). On 2016/16/August, China launched the

world’s first quantum satellite and this satellite named by Mo Tzu (Chinese Satellite Is One

Giant Step for the Quantum Internet.).

Even if the Qing dynasty didn't accept his idea, and even denied his achievement and

burned his books that make us lost a big part of Mo Tzu's ideas. But we still remember him and

respect him. As Chris Fraser said in his article: "Mo Tzu and his followers initiated philosophical

argumentation and debate in China. They were the first in the tradition to engage, like Socrates in

ancient Greece, in an explicit, reflective search for objective moral standards and to give step-by-

step, tightly reasoned arguments for their views, though their reasoning is sometimes simplistic

or rests on doubtful assumptions. They formulated China’s first explicit ethical and political

theories and advanced the world’s earliest form of consequentialism. (Fraser)" Maybe his idea

didn't fit the situation he was at, and maybe his idea still has some limitations, maybe the

Confucianism was too popular and powerful, his great work couldn't inherit completely. But we
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can see his idea is on the same level as the Confucianism by the history, and we can still learn

from his advanced idea of the fairness and social management nowadays, to make a better

society.
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Reference

Loy, Hui chieh. “Mozi.” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, National University of Singapore,

www.iep.utm.edu/mozi/.

“Chinese Satellite Is One Giant Step for the Quantum Internet.” Nature News, Nature Publishing

Group, www.nature.com/news/chinese-satellite-is-one-giant-step-for-the-quantum-internet-

1.20329.

Fraser, Chris. “Mohism.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 21 Oct. 2002,

plato.stanford.edu/entries/mohism/.