Abstract
Abstract Mohism was the first ideology in the pre-Qin period to engage in open critique. Although it shared a common origin with Confucianism, Mohists criticized Confucianism by claiming that “in the teaching of the Confucians there are four elements sufficient to ruin the empire.” Later students of Mohism went so far as to launch personal attacks against Confucius, the founder of Confucianism. Mohist discourse on the concepts of “universal love,” “exalting worthiness,” “reverence for ghosts,” and “opposition to fatalism” mostly aimed at criticizing the philosopher Yang Zhu, especially his concepts of “action in one’s self-interest,” “not exalting worthiness,” “disbelief in ghosts,” and “resting content in the dispositions of one’s inborn nature.” Although, at the time of the Mohists, the schools of thought on yin-yang, diplomacy, legalism, names or logic, agriculture, and syncretism had not officially formed, some of their concepts and ideologies had already begun to emerge. As a result, the Mozi contains many criticisms of them.
Highlights
As an important intellectual trend in philosophy in the pre-Qin period [before 221 BCE], the Mohist school was intimately bound up with the Nine Trends and Ten Schools [ jiuliu shijia 九流十家]
Mohism was the first ideology in the pre-Qin period to engage in open critique
It came under fierce criticism by many scholarly circles in ancient China, including Mencius [372–289 BCE] and Xunzi 荀子 [ca. 313–238 BCE], who are commonly associated with Confucianism
Summary
Mohist criticism of Confucianism abounds, Mohism and Confucianism have a common origin. They even went so far as to contend that “the emperor shall make decisions on all matters regardless of their severity” and adopted anti-Confucian policies aimed at “burning the books and burying the scholars.”[36] At this time, the attitude of the Qin Mohists toward Confucianism tended to merge with that of the Legalists from the Qin and Jin [1033–376 BCE] states In this regard, we only need to look at the attitude of Mohism in the Han Fei zi and compare the “censuring” [ jienan 詰難] of Confucius in the “Against Confucianism II” chapter in the Mozi to related content in the Han Fei zi to see that the two are consistent. It may even have arisen at the confluence of legalism and Mohism around the time that Qin unified China – not long before Kong Fu 孔鮒 [ca. 264–208 BCE] wrote the chapter “Interrogating Mohists” in the Anthology of the Kong Family Masters
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