Mo Zi and His Thought

Mo Zi（Mo-tse：468-376 B.C.）was China’s first true philosopher.Mo Zi pioneered the argumentative essay style and constructed the first normative and political theories.He formulated a pragmatic theory of language that gave classical Chinese philosophy its distinctive character.Speculations about Mo Zi’s origins highlight the social mobility of the era.The best explanation of the rise of Mohism links it to the growth in influence of crafts and guilds in China.Mohism became influential when technical intelligence began to challenge traditional priestcraft in ancient China.The“Warring States”demand for scholars perhaps drew him from the lower ranks of craftsmen.Some stories picture him as a military fortifications expert.His criticisms show that he was also familiar with the Confucian priesthood.

The Confucian defender，Mencius，complained that the“words of Mo Zi and Yang Zhu fill the social world”.Mo Zi advocated utilitarianism（using general welfare as a criterion of the correct Tao guiding discourse）and equal concern for everyone The Mohist movement eventually spawned a school of philosophy of language（called Later Mohists）which in turn influenced the mature form of both Taoism（Zhuang Zi）and Confucianism（Xun Zi）.

The core Mohist text has a deliberate argumentative style.It uses a balanced symmetry of expression and repetition that aids memorization and enhances effect.Symmetry and repetition are natural stylistic aids for Classical Chinese，which is an extremely analytic language（one that relies on word order rather than part-of-speech inflections）.Three rival accounts of most of the important sections survive in the Mo Zi.

qingquang

See author's posts