Speaking of the Mo family as a faction, we all feel sorry for its demise, and many historical records have led to the disappearance of the Mo family because Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty deposed hundreds of families and exalted Confucianism. In fact, Mojia's thought has never disappeared, but it is invisible, and it exists in our ideological and cultural system in another form and thought.
Mozi, Confucius, and Lao Tzu are known as three important figures in the history of ancient Chinese thought. It is said that Mozi studied Confucian thought in his early years, but he later went to the opposite of Confucianism and created his own doctrine. Most of the Mo family believers came from working people, mainly handicraftsmen, and Mo Zhai, the founder of the Mo family, was a professional carpenter himself.
In recent years, a group of scholars believe that Mojia was the first to put forward the idea of equality and fraternity, and he was also a great civilian thinker. In fact, the Mo family never escaped the limitations of that era, nor did it have any advanced theories. The Mo family's ideology is still the supremacy of royal power, and the main idea is to maintain autocratic rule, which is not comparable to modern democracy and fraternity.
Mojia Thought - Tianzhi
The Mo family put forward the ideas of "Tianzhi", "Festival OfUnunity", "Saving Use", "Simultaneous Love", "Non-Attack", "Shangxian", "Shangtong" and so on, "Tianzhi" is the will of heaven, and the Mo family believes that it is the supreme authority to uphold justice and dominate all social activities in the universe, nature, the state, and society. It is a social order composed of the Son of Heaven, the Three Dukes, the princes, the generals, and the scholars, and it is a kind of power given by Heaven.
"Tianzhi" emphasizes the use of heaven as the law, but what is the content of the law in heaven? The Mo family did not propose, which required the public to act according to the opinion of the Son of Heaven and obey the will of the Holy King, which was also the starting point of the "Shang Tong" theory. The Mo family believes that "righteousness does not come from the foolish and the lowly, but from the noble and the wise." Order cannot be proposed by those "untouchables", but by those who are noble and wise. And believes that "there is no government from below, it must be from above", all government decrees should be from top to bottom, which so-called popular opinions, will only cause the country to fall into chaos. So those who took Mozi out and proposed democracy and civil rights found the wrong ancient thought leaders.
Moreover, Mozi does not advocate that all people should support themselves, and favor the division of labor among all strata, the so-called "living by relying on their strength" is only relative to the common people, and it is by no means against the power of the ruler to obtain a special position for nothing, let alone the exploitation of the people by the ruler, what he advocates is only to stabilize the order of social division of labor.
Opposing war is the emphasis of the "Tianzhi", and Mozi believes that the Chu state's invasion of the neighboring small state of Song is an act of inhumanity and injustice. However, he also described Yu Fa Youmiao, Shang Tang Fei Jie, Zhou Wu Fei Shu, and so on as "Curses", believing that it was a just war to eliminate harm for the people. This is actually justification for the later rulers, and there is a strong idea of becoming a king and defeating the king.
Mojia thought - and love
Combined love refers to "simultaneous love and mutual benefit", which is a utopian ideal society. Mozi believes that all the human disasters in the world are because everyone cannot love each other, and "self-love" is selfishness that makes people fight for power and profit, and the order is chaotic. This is actually a rather superficial idea, a large part of the development of human society for so many years is because of human selfishness to promote, respect for individual rights, is the basis for promoting private property rights. It seems that love and love sound grand, to build an ideal and harmonious society, but human society has developed for so many years, without exception, it has failed.
Mozi pinned the realization of this ideal society on the Saint King, on the Saint King monarchs like Xia Yu, Shang Tang, Zhou Wen, and Zhou Wu, and relied on one or two Ming Juns to establish an ideal society? This is actually a self-deceptive idea. From the current point of view, Mozi's thought has its limitations, which are influenced by the mainstream ideas of society at that time.
On the one hand, Mozi wanted to establish a hierarchical monarchical society, and on the other hand, he also wanted to love, and this seemingly contradictory idea actually had to be interpreted in the social environment at that time. The love proposed by Mozi, like the democracy of ancient Greece, can only be limited to the aristocratic ruling class, and cannot include the general public, which is not the same concept as the "fraternity" proposed by Dr. Sun Yat-sen later.
Mojia Thought - Heavy Profit
Many people regard Confucianism and Mojia as opposites, and one of the important contradictions is that Confucianism "emphasizes righteousness over profit", believing that when "righteousness" and "profit" conflict, people cannot only seek profits, but must attach importance to morality, that is, take morality and ethics as a code of conduct. Mozi believes that "righteousness" and "profit" are the same thing. You may feel that this is a bit against common sense. However, the "profit" that Mozi said is not his own selfish interests, but the interests of the people of the country. "Profit" is as morally justified as "righteousness" in this sense.
The mo family's profit is the minimum condition for only maintaining a living, and Mozi himself pursues ascetic frugality and advocates abstinence such as abstinence, funeral, and non-pleasure. However, Mozi's abstinence and frugality basically have little restrictive effect on the luxurious life of the nobility, nor is it in line with people's living habits, and it is people's continuous pursuit of material life that promotes the development of society.
Although Mozi was born into a noble family, his later life made him mixed with the low-level craftsmen, so his thinking was more inclined to the low-level people, believing that as long as everyone satisfies the lowest desires, then it can achieve "the hungry get food, the cold get clothes, and the laborers get rest", and everyone can eat enough and dress warmly.
Mojia Thought - Shang Tong
Shang Tong means great unification, which holds that "only by being able to unite with the righteousness of the world is to rule under the heavens." All the nations of all nations are equal to the Son of Heaven, but they dare not compare. What the Son of Heaven is, he must be, and what the Son of Heaven is not, he must not be. In fact, this is one after another with Confucianism, which is also the idea of absolute monarchy, which is also recognized by Confucianism, Law, and Taoism.
Later, Qin Shi Huang unified his thoughts, and Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty respected Confucianism alone, all of which were practices of the idea of "one world together", not the words of the Mo family. What we often call "burning books and pit Confucianism" is actually to kill those who deceive the public, such as Shusun Tong, a great Confucian, or will be reused by Qin Shi Huang, killing Confucianism is not the goal, unifying thinking is the ultimate goal.
Mozi also attaches great importance to "Shangxian Lifting Ability", believing that this is the "political foundation" of a country, as long as it is "Shangxian", all social problems can be solved. The so-called "shangxian" still has a limited scope, and it is a selection of sages dominated by kings or princes and nobles, not democracy in the modern sense.
In the "Shang Ibid.", it is recorded that "the holy king of the ancients is the five punishments, please govern the people, for example, if there is a discipline in the silk, there is a program for the recklessness, and even the people of the world are not the same as those who are above them." Mozi advocated severe punishment and harsh law, similar to the one implemented by the later legalists, and "If you see that the evil thief country does not tell the truth, and the evil thief country also gets and punishes it, the public hears it is not." The Mo family also advocated a reign of terror in the form of whistle-blowing and sitting- and so on, which was the same as the whistle-blowing used by the Qin State later. It also advocates the dispatch of inspectors to closely monitor the people's situation. If we trace the eunuchs such as the East Factory and the West Factory of the Ming Dynasty, the Spring and Autumn Period already has a prototype.
These ideas of the Mo family not only have the limitations of the times, but also are distorted and interpreted by our future generations, using ideas such as democracy and fraternity in modern thought to whitewash Mozi. The Mozi in history has not disappeared, in the Taiping and prosperous world, the common people live in a stable network of relations formed by blood and geography, and they have no worries about food and clothing, and they are of course more willing to be obedient. At this time, the Mo family was of little use. However, once there are operational problems in society, or even frequent wars, and when the people do not have enough to eat and wear warmly, the simple idealism of the Mo family will be useful.
Moreover, the Mo family is a group of careerists and conspirators, who want to organize a scattered stream of displaced people and become a tool for changing dynasties. The discipline of the Mo family organization is very strict, the leader "Juzi" is the spiritual leader of the entire organization, and more than 180 people under Mozi can go to the soup for Mozi. This kind of death squad, which is composed of a small number of fanatical believers, is actually an authoritarian and cruel religious organization.
However, Mozi's personal character is impeccable, often in his career, he takes the world as his responsibility, and his personal life is also diligent and thrifty, and his personal quality is also consistent in appearance, which is a moral model. However, such a model advocates the "Shang Tong" of great unification and is very obsessed with the rule of the Holy King. The so-called love is just a utopian dream that cannot stand up to practice, and does not have any practical value. The Mo family is a missionary of battle, and this kind of missionary is only needed in times of chaos. In the Taiping period, this kind of organization of a society managed according to militarization, unified will, unified thinking, unified action, and unified property, was not tolerated by the times.