Mozi in history was an outstanding craftsman with military color. Different from ordinary craftsmen, Mozi was not only a laborer, but also founded a unique school according to his social role. The leader of Mohism is called a giant, that is, a craftsman with a ruler. Different from the pre-Qin philosophers, Mohism is a labor and technology fighting group, which mainly represents the interests of small producers belonging to the lower classes of society. In the long-term production practice, Mohism has mastered a wealth of natural science knowledge such as civil mechanics, geometry and optics. , and a highly concise summary (see Mohist classics), its views shocked contemporary people. At the same time, Mohist school is very combative ("Mozi's door is full of warriors"), which is not a positive military expansion, but an active defense backed by advanced technology, as evidenced by the famous "stopping Chu and attacking Song". The professionalism of hard work (production) and the arduousness of military struggle (defense) make Mohist school disciplined and extremely simple, so that it is regarded as "frugal and difficult to follow" (Biography of Taishigong in Historical Records). Philosophy is the essence of the spirit of the times. Mozi lived in the pre-Qin period, which was an era of the collapse of etiquette, the decline of kingship and the struggle between kings and bees. Mozi paid positive attention to and thought about real life, and embodied a distinct sense of hardship, the spirit of joining the WTO and the spirit of saving the world. The history book says: "I am worried about perseverance and saving the princes." In Mozi's salvation strategy, apart from advanced military defense, the most striking thing is that he put forward a set of ideas of "loving each other and bringing out the best in each other"
What is "mutual love and mutual benefit"? Mozi said: "to see the people's country, we must look at their country;" Treat others' homes as their own; Look at a person's body, if you look at his body. Therefore, if princes love each other, they will not compete; If the masters love each other, they will not usurp each other; If people love each other, they will not be thieves; When the monarch and the minister love each other, there must be loyalty; Father and son love each other, that is filial piety; Brothers love each other and are happy. Everyone loves each other, strong but not weak. People don't rob widows, rich people don't bully the poor, expensive people don't be arrogant, and cheating people don't bully fools. Those who are disturbed by resentment and can't bear it can live with love and be praised by the benevolent. "Mozi has no intention of pursuing the romance of love, but regards it as a good way to save the world. Mozi believes that the pre-Qin society was chaotic because people did not love each other. " Therefore, when princes don't love each other, they fight in other places; If laymen don't love each other, they will usurp each other's throne; People who don't love each other are thieves; Princes and ministers are disloyal if they don't love each other; If father and son don't love each other, they are not filial; If brothers don't love each other, there will be no harmony. Along with this, selfishness is also the cause of troubled times, such as "losing father for personal gain", "losing brother for personal gain", "losing minister for personal gain", "losing family for the benefit of one family" and "attacking other countries for the benefit of one country". In short, the evil consequence of violating the principle of fraternity and mutual benefit is that "the strong will be weak, the rich will be light on the poor, the expensive will be arrogant, and the deceiver will deceive the fool". This shows that Mozi deliberately highlights the reality of love, and is not good at or disdainful of rendering the dreamy color of love. And this step is mainly done through the link between love and benefit. In other words, love must be profitable, and benefiting from love and benefiting from love is an organic whole. " At the same time, love "is not a denial of self-love, but a combination of self-love and love." "Mutual benefit" is not to despise self-interest, but to strive to make self-interest and mutual benefit not be ignored. If a husband loves a person, he will love; He who benefits others must sharpen his tools. "Only in this relationship of love and mutual obligation can the world achieve harmony and prosperity. Therefore, universal love and mutual benefit is the way to govern the country. " Today's gentleman is loyal to the wealth of the world and hates its poverty; If you want to rule the world and hate its chaos, you will love each other and complement each other. This holy king's law, the rule of the world, must be done. "
As the title of utilitarian category, interest mainly refers to interest, benefit, mutual benefit and profit. In Mozi's view, there seems to be no specificity. However, once interest and love are linked, and interest becomes the help and evidence of love rather than the opposite, then interest gains extraordinary significance. Mozi did not unilaterally advocate self-love and self-interest, but constantly denied it. Instead, it emphasizes "concurrent", "phase" and "communication" and advocates the mutual cooperation and coordination between similar items (monarch, minister, father and son, home country, etc.). This is the essence of "loving each other and bringing out the best in each other". Therefore, profit is not narrow selfishness, calculation, gains and losses, and should not be arbitrarily belittled, excluded and criticized, but a realistic interest that can be relied on, affirmed and owned, with a broader mind and momentum.
In order to demonstrate power and convenience, Mozi put forward several opposing concepts: love-mutual evil, benefit the world-harm the world, love and benefit people-villains and thieves, control chaos and be different. Obviously, Mozi's choice is very clear. Moreover, Mozi further demonstrated the feasibility of universal love and mutual benefit: first of all, he drew a conclusion from the hypothesis that "if the world loves each other, the world loves each other and governs, and evil is chaotic", and took two different behaviors of scholars and gentlemen as examples. Secondly, he pointed out that the key to "loving and benefiting others" lies in effectiveness. Third, he put up the signboard of "Ancient Sages Go" and thought that Yu, Tang, and Zhou had implemented the law of universal love and mutual benefit. In the process of argumentation, Mozi answered an important question, that is, whether universal love and mutual benefit violate filial piety ("meaning disloyalty to the interests of relatives and damage to filial piety"). Mozi believes that the dutiful son "loves others and benefits relatives" rather than "hates others and steals relatives". In order to achieve this goal and maintain this filial piety, we should "make love first, and then people will repay me with love and love." It can be seen that universal love and mutual benefit not only do not hinder filial piety, but increase its benefits. The profound meaning is that this talk is aimed at Confucianism. Although it is not publicly pointed out, it has received the actual effect of "silence is better than sound". This is an important confrontation between Mohism and Confucianism.
Once universal love and mutual benefit are taken as the guiding ideology, it will inevitably affect many values of Mohism. In the view of right and wrong, what conforms to and follows universal love and mutual benefit is good, including loving each other and benefiting the world, and what violates and tramples on this road is evil, including not loving each other and being selfish. In the view of public and private, because Mozi is the spokesman of small producers, he advocates distinguishing between public and private, giving priority to public and private, and giving consideration to public and private. In the view of heaven and man, Mozi discussed two aspects: the relationship between heaven and man, and the relationship between life and man. Universal love and mutual benefit are "providence", which people should take seriously and implement with practical actions. However, "fate" is not. It denies man-made, emphasizes fate, fate and let nature take its course. Whether it is universal love and mutual benefit is the same for "fate". Whether it is a lover or a thief, it is decided by fate rather than man. Mozi is in troubled times. How can there be universal love and mutual benefit in troubled times? If you think there is a "destiny", then troubled times are doomed, and it is beyond reproach that there is no fraternity and mutual benefit in troubled times. Mozi criticized "fate", advocated "non-fate" and defended the idea of universal love and mutual benefit. Pointing out that universal love and mutual benefit are "wishes" does not mean that we can wait for "wishes" to come to the world, but that people need to consciously turn them into practical actions and make them universal practical interests. Therefore, Mozi advocated "strength" and "strength" to resist "fate". Mozi criticized the Confucian thought of "those who live" when discussing "non-living". In the view of consumption, Mozi advocated frugality ("use is indispensable"), and the main body of frugality was the ruling group, although Mozi also talked about "people's frugality" and practiced it. Therefore, Mozi believed that rulers should practise economy in palace, clothes, boats, food, desire, funeral and music. "Therefore, they should save money, stand on their own feet and save the country." If the rulers are extravagant and infringe on the people's wealth, it will eventually lead to chaos in the world. On the country, universal love and mutual benefit are the basic principles of governing the country, including two aspects: first, love the people, the king should cherish the people's strength, not seize the people's time, and promote the interests of the whole people; The second is Shang Xian, whose standard is universal love and mutual benefit, and its way is "the rich are expensive", allowing senior officials ("high salary"), generous salary ("heavy money") and real power ("order of breaking off diplomatic relations"). On the theory of motivation, Mozi emphasized the unity of motivation (ambition) and effect (merit), which has two meanings: first, "simultaneous love" is ambition, an ideal and pursuit of universal love, and "mutual benefit" is "merit" and a practical benefit produced by "simultaneous love"; Second, universal love is the unity of ambition and merit, and so is mutual benefit. On the role theory, Mozi is extremely sensitive to the differences and disparities between "expensive and intelligent", "stupid and cheap", "rich and expensive" and "poor and cheap", trying to replace the role and get rid of the status of poverty and cheap. Therefore, Mozi emphasized that "officials are impermanent and expensive, and the people have no ultimate foundation", and "being rich does not humiliate the poor, and being expensive is not arrogant and cheap" is an important content of universal love and mutual benefit. On the theory of division of labor, Mozi takes "Shang Tong" as the object, and its order is: Heaven-Tianzi-Sangong-princes-chiefs-people. This is an orderly social structure. The division of labor at each level is "Shang Tong" for mutual love and benefit, and the duty of rulers at all levels is to love and benefit the people. On the other hand, Mozi's theory of division of labor is a tribute to laborers, pointing out that the difference between man and beast lies in productive labor. On the theory of anti-war, Mozi pointed out that the disaster of war lies in "thieves abusing all the people", which seriously violated the principle of fraternity and mutual benefit. Therefore, he traveled all over the world all his life ("Mozi has no warm seats"), opposed war and advocated "non-attack".
It should be said that Mozi's thought of universal love and mutual benefit embodies the simplicity, innocence and kindness of the working people and is a precious ideal for pursuing a harmonious society. Of course, this idea also has its historical limitations. For example, Mozi advocated universal love without attacking, strongly opposed violent revolution, voluntarily gave up the way and possibility of transforming the world and winning its own liberation through critical weapons, and pinned his hopes on the "holy king", thus making the idea of universal love and mutual benefit that embodies the political and economic interests of small producers an unattainable utopia. In the historical atmosphere at that time, universal love and mutual benefit were unrealistic, and even hindered the historical trend of the merger war to unify the whole country.
Because Mohism has become a masterpiece, the practical effect of Mozi's thought of universal love and mutual benefit can be described as a flash in the pan. Mohism has been forgotten in the traditional society for thousands of years. Until modern times, Mozi was favored by progressive thinkers and democratic revolutionaries (such as Liang Qichao, Lu Xun and People's Daily), and it seems that Mohism is reviving. The reason is that Mohist thought contains the ideological factors of populism, equality and fraternity.