No matter how sweet the melon is, the melon is bitter, and everything in the world is not perfect. That nothing is perfect.

Tong: Nothing in the world is beautiful. Meaning: Melon stems have bitter taste, which means that everything in the world can't be perfect.

Mozi introduced:

Mozi's works

The works about Mozi are Mozi. This book is a record of Mozi's words and deeds by his disciples and his re-disciples.

Mozi is divided into two parts: one part records Mozi's words and deeds, expounds Mozi's thoughts, and mainly reflects the early Mohist thoughts; On the other hand, Shang Jing, Xia Jing, Jing Shuo Shang, Jing Shuo Xia, Daqu and Xiaoqu, generally called Mo Bian or Mo Jing, embody Mohist epistemology and logical thought, and also contain many natural science contents, reflecting Mohist thought in the later period. In the history of logic, it is called late Mohist logic or Mohist logic (one of the three major logic systems in the ancient world, the other two are the logic system of ancient Greece and the theory of Buddhism); It also contains many natural sciences, especially astronomy, geometric optics and statics.

The compilation of Mozi's Mohist works was compiled by Liu Xiang in the Western Han Dynasty and gradually lost after the Six Dynasties. At present, 53 books of Taoist Collection were originally written by Mo Zhai, but there are also works by Mozi disciples and later Mohists, which are the main historical materials for studying Mohists now. The book Mozi can be divided into five groups according to its content: Mozi's early seven works, from pro-Confucianism to three debates, the first three are mixed with Confucianism, which should be the traces of Mozi's early "learning from Confucianism and being taught by Confucius"; The last four chapters are mainly about Shang Xian, Shang Tong, Tian Zhi, frugality, non-happiness and other theories. Twenty-four articles from Shang Xian I to Fei Ruxia are a group, which systematically reflect ten propositions of Mozi: universal love, non-aggression, Shang Xian, Shang Tong, frugality, mourning, unhappiness, ambition, ghosts and fate. Five Chapters from Geng Xu to Gong Bo is a record of Mozi's words and deeds, similar in style to the Analects of Confucius, compiled by Mozi's disciples, and is the first-hand information to study Mozi's deeds. The following to the last twenty articles (including nine lost articles) are devoted to guarding the city and the city defense system, which is similar to that of Qin Dynasty. It was written by Mohist in the Warring States Period and is an important material for studying Mohist military books.

Mozi has a wide range of contents, including politics, military affairs, philosophy, ethics, logic, science and technology, etc. It is an important historical material for studying Mozi and his later studies. In the Western Jin Dynasty, both Lu Sheng and Le Yi commented on Mozi, but it has been lost. Nowadays, Sun Yirang's Mozi Idleness and The Scholars Integration are very popular.

Since the Qin Dynasty, Mozi's and his disciples' remarks have been scattered in various ancient books, such as New Preface, Autopsy, Yanzi Chunqiu, Han Feizi, Lu's Chunqiu, Huainanzi, Liezi, Warring States Policy, Old Events in Palace, Biography of Immortals and so on. Liu Xiang recorded Mozi as seventy-one articles in the Records of Han Shu Yi Wen Zhi in the Western Han Dynasty. There were only 60 articles in the Song Dynasty, and now there are only 53 articles, which have been lost 18. Among them, the second part of frugality, the first and second parts of frugality and burial, the second part of Ming Ghost, the second part of Feiyue and the first part of Feiru are all lost. Except for these eight parts, all the other ten articles are lost. Of these ten articles, only poetry is just.

The book Mozi was neither written by one person nor accomplished overnight. It is generally believed that Mozi was written by Mozi himself and his disciples to describe Mozi's remarks.

According to Liang Qichao's classification, Mozi's content can be divided into five categories.

The first category: pro-scholar, self-cultivation, positive dyeing, easy to develop, seven diseases, resignation from the country, and three debates.

This kind of miscellaneous has the words of famous scholars and mixed with the words of miscellaneous scholars. For example, ""in the article "Home"? Those who make mistakes must lose first, and those who make mistakes must lose first. "Ganjing is exhausted first, wood is cut first" and "Too prosperous to keep" all come from the language of Taoism. The word "cultivate one's morality" is a Confucian saying. In Dyeing, the suspicion that "dyeing is weak, dyeing is yellow" is due to the nature of famous artists. The word "easy to send" is suspected to be the words of legalists, which is purely false. The last four articles are Mohist theses, which may be Mohist theses.

The second category: Shang Xian, Shang Tong, full love, non-aggression, festival burial, celestial record, ghosts, unlucky, unlucky and funeral. This category represents the main political thought of Mohism. Except for the first book "Non-attack" and the second book "Non-Confucianism", all the articles have the word "Mozi Zi Yue", which is considered to be written by Mozi's disciples.

The third category: Jing, Jing Shuo, Daqu and Xiaoqu, consisting of six chapters. This kind of person treated by Mohism is called Mohist Debate, also called Mohist Scripture. These six articles are difficult to translate, with many old sayings and profound arguments. They are also mixed with simple materialism and idealism theories, natural science theories such as photomechanics and mathematics, social science, ethics, logic and so on. It is really difficult to understand. This category is the essence of Mozi. Liang Qichao believed that these six articles were written by Mo Zhai. And Sun Yirang thought it was written by post-Mohist scholars. One of the reasons that Sun Yirang relied on was that GongSunLong and Mozi lived in different times. GongSunLong was behind Mozi, and there could be no strong white stone theory.

The fourth category: Geng Xu, Gui Yi, Meng Gong, Lu Wen, Gong Bo, etc. These five articles were written by Mozi's disciples. It is also a record of Mozi's life, and its genre is close to The Analects.

The fifth category: guarding the city. They are eleven items: prepare the city gate, prepare the high surface, prepare the ladder, prepare the water, prepare the sudden, prepare the cave, prepare the moth ambush, meet the enemy hall, flag, order and miscellaneous guards. This can be said to be the art of war of Mohism. Mozi advocates not attacking, but focusing on defending, and all eleven are methods that focus on defending. Mohist art of war was developed by Mohist disciples. There are many ancient words in these eleven articles, and there are also many words in the ancient art of war, which are rarely translated.

The style of this book is unpretentious, but some of its contents have been discounted, so that few people care about it for two thousand years. Until modern times, some scholars read this ancient book carefully, only to find that Mohist school had discussed optics (light propagates along a straight line, and some imaging situations of plane mirror, concave mirror mirror and spherical mirror, especially the theory that light can form an inverted image through pinhole), mathematics (the definition of circle has been discussed scientifically), mechanics (the relationship between force and weight has been put forward) and other natural sciences as early as 2,000 years ago. It's a pity that this science, however, shocked the current academic circles and made modern people sit up and take notice of Mohism and even a hundred schools of thought.

In an era when hundred schools of thought contended in the pre-Qin period, Mozi stood out from the crowd, which was the best proof of his strength.

Ancient Chinese meaning

"Bitter gourd is bitter" is included as an idiom in some idiom dictionaries. The explanation is: "Melon is sweet, but bitter. Metaphor is that there are no perfect things and people. " There is another dictionary example: Tang Ma's Yilin quoted Mozi: "There is no beauty in the world." It also explains that melon stems have bitter taste, which shows that everything in the world can't be perfect.