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March 8, 2014
Table of Contents
1 Introduction
Mo Zi

Wikipedia

 
colspan=2 align=center style="border-top:2px solid"|
style="background:#ccf; border-bottom:2px solid" align=center colspan=2|Mozi
align=center style="border-top:1px solid" colspan=2|(Traditional names)
align=right style="border-top:1px solid"|Chinese name|Ancestral name (姓): style="border-top:1px solid"|Jiang (Chinese language|Ch: ; Pinyin|Py: Jiāng)
align=right style="border-top:1px solid"|Chinese name|Clan name (氏): style="border-top:1px solid"|Mo#Footnotes|¹ (Ch: ; Py: M?)
align=right style="border-top:1px solid"|Chinese given name|Given name (名): style="border-top:1px solid"|Di (Ch: ; Py: D?)
align=center style="border-top:2px solid" colspan=2|(Modern scholarship)
align=right style="border-top:1px solid"|Chinese name|Ancestral name (姓): style="border-top:1px solid"|Unknown#Footnotes|²
align=right style="border-top:1px solid"|Chinese name|Clan name (氏): style="border-top:1px solid"|Unknown#Footnotes|²
align=right style="border-top:1px solid"|Chinese given name|Given name (名): style="border-top:1px solid"|Di (Ch: ; Py: D?)
align=right style="border-top:2px solid"|Styled: style="border-top:2px solid"|Master Mo
(Ch: 墨子; Py: M?zǐ)

Mozi (c. 470 BCE–c. 390 BCE), whose name is sometimes Latin|latinised as Micius, lived in China during the Hundred Schools of Thought of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. He founded the school of Mohism and argued strongly against Confucianism and Daoism. The school did not survive the Qin Dynasty, and throughout both traditional and modern Chinese eras was viewed largely in historical terms rather than as a school of thought that was actively being developed.

Mozi idealised the Xia Dynasty, and advocated judging ideas and objects through the human senses, by their utility and their antiquity. Mozi denounced offensive warfare, extravagant funerals, and music, and tried to replace Chinese family and Chinese clan|clan structure with the concept of bo-ai which can be translated as "impartial caring" or "universal love". In this, he argued directly against Confucians who had argued that it was natural and correct for people to care about different people in different degrees. Mozi, by contrast, argued that one should care for all people equally, a notion that philosophers in other schools found absurd, as it would imply no special amount of care or duty towards one's parents and family.

He favoured frugality, denouncing music and ceremony as extravagant, and advocated increasing the power of the state through early marriage and a system of rewards and punishments.

Mozi also held a belief in the power of ghosts and spirits, although he is often thought to have only worshipped them pragmatically. That is, he thought that heaven, tian, should be respected because failing to do so would subject one to punishment. In this regard, Mozi favoured a style of government which imitated his conception of heaven.

The Mozi is the name of the philosophical text compiled by Mohists from Mozi's thought.



1 Traditionally, Mozi was supposed to be descended from the Lord of Guzhu (孤竹君), himself descended from Shennong the legendary emperor. The descendants of the Lord of Guzhu had the clan name Motai (墨胎), which later was shortened to Mo.

2 Modern scholarship suggests that "Mo" was not in fact the clan name of Mozi, as this clan name/family name is not encountered during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, but that "Mo" was rather the name of the mohist school itself, derived from the name of a criminal punishment (tattooing of the forehead of criminals; mo literally means "black Chinese ink"). The actual ancestral name and clan name of Mozi is not known. It may be that, because he was born into the lower classes (which seems to be established), he did not have ancestral or clan names. During Chinese antiquity, the vast majority of the Chinese people, who were not related to aristocratic families, did not possess ancestral and clan names.

Category:470 BC births
Category:390 BC deaths
Category:Chinese philosophers

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Mo Zi".


Last Modified:   2005-11-30


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