Also known as Mingzhai

Gender: male

Date of birth and death: 468-376 BC

Dynasty: Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period

Literary period: pre-Qin literature

Historical background: a hundred schools of thought contend

Genre: Prose of various schools of thought

Representative works: Mozi

Contemporary writers: Monk, Xun Kuang, Han Fei.

Writer Studies: Mozi and Mohist School

Mozi

Mozi, named Zhai, was born in Mushi Town, Tengzhou City during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Born in 468 BC and died in 376 BC, he was an outstanding thinker, educator, scientist, strategist, social activist and founder of Mohism in the ancient history of China.

Mozi claimed that "there is nothing in the throne today, and there is no agricultural difficulty under it", which seems to belong to the "scholar" class at that time. But he also admitted that he was a "bitch". He may have been a craftsman or a small owner of handicraft industry, and he has quite rich production skills. Mozi "worked hard day and night, taking self-suffering as the extreme", and wandered among vassal States for a long time to publicize his political views. According to legend, he prevented Chu from attacking the Song Dynasty and advocated universal love without attack. He "guards the south" and advocates "storing scholars" to guard. He also visited Chu many times and presented books to King Hui of Chu. He refused the land given by the king of Chu and defected to Qi in his later years in an attempt to stop Xiangzi from cutting Lu, but without success. The king of Yue asked Mozi to be an official and promised to fief 500 Li. He took "listen to my words, use my way" as the condition to stay or stay, regardless of fiefs and titles, in order to realize his political ambitions and opinions.

The main contribution of Mozi's philosophy is epistemology. He regards the direct feeling experience of "the truth of eyes and ears" as the only source of understanding. He believes that judging the existence of things should be based on what everyone sees and hears, not personal imagination. Based on this simple materialist empiricism, Mozi put forward the criteria for testing the truth and falsehood of knowledge, namely, three tables: "The origin of knowledge lies in the matter of ancient sages", "The truth of people's eyes and ears is observed below", and "Abandoning criminal politics and observing the interests of the people in the country". Mozi integrated "matter", "reality" and "benefit" and tried to eliminate personal subjective prejudice by taking indirect experience, direct experience and social effect as the criterion. On the relationship between name and substance, he put forward the proposition of "not taking it by name, taking it by name" and advocated naming it by substance.

Politically, Mozi put forward the ideas of "universal love", "mutual non-aggression", "Shang Xian", "Shang Tong", "frugal use", "frugal burial" and "unhappy". The core of his social and political thought is "being different", and "breaking without breaking" is his concrete action program. He believes that as long as everyone "loves each other and benefits each other", there will be no bullying, arrogance, ignorance and mutual attacks between countries in society. He sharply exposed and criticized the evils brought by the rulers' waging war and the luxury and enjoyment in ordinary customs and habits. In the principle of employing people, Mozi advocated meritocracy, opposed cronyism, and advocated that "officials are impermanent and expensive, and the people are not cheap." He also advocated that from the emperor, governors to chiefs at all levels, we should "choose the best people in the world and use them" to act as; The people should obey the monarch and realize "universal justice".

Mozi is also one of the important pioneers of China's ancient logic thought. His "three forms" are not only the ideological standard of speech, but also the factors of reasoning and argumentation. Mozi is also good at revealing the enemy's contradictions by analogy. Due to Mozi's advocacy and enlightenment, Mohism developed the tradition of attaching importance to logic, and later Mohism established the first system of ancient logic in China. Mozi's philosophical thought reflects the duality of the small working class liberated from patriarchal slavery. The reasonable factors in his thought were inherited and developed by later materialist thinkers, and the dross of his mysticism was absorbed and utilized by theologians after Qin and Han Dynasties.

Mozi, as the founder of mohists in pre-Qin Dynasty, had a great influence in the history of China philosophy. Mozi gave a lot of lectures, but he didn't write anything himself. Shang Xian, Shang Tong, fraternity, non-attack, salvation, funeral, celestial record, Ming ghost, Le Fei and Fei Ming are all records of his disciples' thoughts and speeches. This is an important basis for studying Mozi's thought.