Mozi
470–391 BC 7 entries
Biography
Mozi, “Master Mo”, whose name was Mo Di, was a Chinese philosopher of the fifth century BC and the founder of Mohism, for two centuries the great rival of Confucianism. He was born around 470 BC, probably in the state of Lu, the homeland of Confucius, and may have come from a family of craftsmen. He taught that people should love all others without distinction, as they love their own, that offensive war is the greatest of crimes, that rulers should raise up the able whatever their birth, and that a state should spend only on what benefits the people.
His followers formed a disciplined community that offered its skill in defending cities to small states under attack. A famous story tells that Mozi walked for ten days and nights to the state of Chu and, after defeating in a game all the siege engines of the engineer Gongshu Ban, persuaded its king not to attack the state of Song. The book that bears his name also holds early writings on logic, geometry and optics. He died around 391 BC; after the unification of China his school faded, and Chinese scholars rediscovered it only in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
- Quotes 7