During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, legend has it that there was such a mysterious organization, which not only possessed the most advanced technology in the world at that time, but also cultivated a large number of private armed forces.
The members of this organization roamed among the various princes for many years, and were even able to reverse the fate of a country at will according to their own wishes.
Their every move involves the situation in the whole world, and their words and deeds are related to the direction of the entire history, and the name of this organization is called the Mo family.
The owner of the top technology of the pre-Qin Dynasty - Mozi
As the most powerful unofficial force in the pre-Qin period, the Mo family has always had many legends.
Some say they are a bunch of scientists disguised as chivalrous;
It is also said that they are a group of thinkers disguised as arms dealers;
There are even people who say that they are a group of traversers from the future;
According to the records in the history books, Mozi was originally just a nameless pawn living at the bottom of society. About his experience before he became famous, it was basically a blank slate.
Mozi seems to have appeared on the historical stage of the Warring States out of thin air, and also brought people scientific ideas far beyond that era, and used this to establish the Mojia School.
As for how advanced is mojia's science and technology? Compare this with a true story.
According to the Mozi book, on one occasion, the State of Chu prepared to attack the State of Song. So the King of Chuxiang asked lu ban, a master craftsman at the time, to create various siege equipment with mass destruction for himself.
In order to prevent the occurrence of this war, Mozi traveled thousands of miles to the Chu Kingdom. With the help of the sandbox of military exercises, a simulated battle was launched with Luban.
In this simulated battle, Lu Ban took out various siege equipment he had made and took turns in battle. Whether it was a ladder chariot or a catapult crossbow, all came in handy, but they were never able to break through Mozi's defenses.
In the end, Lu Ban's siege methods had all been exhausted, but Mozi's defensive equipment was still emerging. That is to say, in the skill competition with the craftsman master Lu Ban, Mozi won the final victory completely in a crushing posture.
Master Lu Ban, who claimed to have mastered the most advanced manufacturing technology under the heavens at that time, in front of Mojia Technology, seemed to be like a child, facing an adult, and had a heartfelt sense of powerlessness.
And in addition to those instruments used for defense, the Mo family also made their own siege equipment.
For example, in the Book of Mozi, there is a siege chariot called "Nationality Car".
The whole vehicle is made of pure iron, part of it is buried in the ground, operated by many people, and can throw charcoal, stones, etc., which is simply an ancient cannon.
In addition, there are "repeaters", the structure is extremely complex, can fire dozens of arrows in a row, and can also be flexibly steered, all-round, multi-angle attack.
And in addition to these basic manufacturing techniques, Mojia also has a knowledge of the times in other scientific concepts.
For example, Mozi was the first person in the world to distinguish the mass and gravity of an object.
He not only clearly states in the Sutra that force is the cause of the accelerated motion of objects, but also points out the equivalent relationship between force and gravity, and completely corrects the erroneous concept of people confusing gravity with mass.
This theory predates the Western laws of classical mechanics of Galileo and Newton by more than 2,000 years.
At the same time, Mozi also elaborated on the relative relationship between time and space in the Ink Classic, believing that space-time itself is an inseparable concept.
Many of these theories are very similar to Einstein's theory of space-time relativity.
Therefore, the pre-Qin Mo family is almost like a modern person who has traveled to ancient times. Many things that people at that time could not understand were applied to some specific fields.
For example, the principle of leverage, geometric algebra, atomic theory, and the linear propagation of light, etc., can be found in the works of the Mo family, clear records.
However, the reason why the Mo family was able to occupy an extremely important place among the hundred families of the pre-Qin dynasty.
Relying on not only advanced black technology, but more importantly, the ideas they advocate and their strong social influence.
The terrifying Mo family forces
Mencius. Teng Wengong has a saying:
"Yang Zhu Mo Zhai's words are in the world, and the words of the world do not belong to Yang, that is, to Ink."
This means that the two most popular schools in the Warring States period were the Taoists and Mojia represented by Yang Zhu and Mo Zhai. Among the hundred families of the sons, none of the schools could compete with them.
Including the Confucians who were later enshrined as xianxue, in front of the Mo family at that time, they were only counted down.
For example, Mozi once listed the four major sins of Confucianism, believing that these four crimes are the source of Confucianism's disaster in the world.
First of all, the first one is that Confucianism is disrespectful, and heaven and earth are disrespectful to ghosts and gods. As a result, people have lost their reverence and no longer abide by benevolence and morality.
The second is to bury for a long time, for example, after people died of their parents at that time, they had to keep filial piety for three years.
During this period, they could not engage in any productive activities, and officials must also be suspended from their posts at home until the expiration of the period of filial piety before they could continue to engage in politics.
Such behavior seriously hinders the development and progress of society, and at the same time greatly reduces the productivity of the entire human society.
The third point is that Confucianism pays too much attention to liturgy, covets spiritual pleasure, and does not pay attention to practical development.
In addition, there is a final point, that is, Mozi believes that Confucianism is too faithful to the Mandate of Heaven.
Repeated emphasis on life and death, wealth in the sky, in this way, it will seriously discourage the enthusiasm of the people, and eventually lead to class solidification, civilization stagnation.
These four points add up to the root cause of Confucianism's ability to lose the world.
Moreover, in addition to these four original sins, Mozi also listed various inappropriate behaviors of Confucianism and Confucius in his own non-Confucian chapter.
However, the reason why the Mo family was able to have such a great social influence in the pre-Qin era was certainly not only because they were good at criticizing Confucianism.
Behind it, there is also a very large practical force as a support, and this huge practical force is the members of the Mo Family.
The members of this organization are extremely complex, down to the craftsmen at the bottom of society, to the high-ranking officials and nobles who come and go between the various princely states, and to the middle level, there are scholars and doctors who control the direction of various social opinions.
In addition, they also had the most advanced military technology in the world at that time, as well as a large number of rangers with superb martial arts and dared to be born into death.
Therefore, the essence of the Mo family is like a very powerful non-governmental organization.
Moreover, all the members of this organization will unconditionally hand over their own remuneration property to the outside world, even including themselves, and be uniformly allocated by the managers and giants of the Mo family.
Therefore, once the Mo family is operational, it is completely enough to reverse the fate of a country.
For example, in the case of the Chu state attacking the Song Dynasty, the reason why Mozi was able to prevent the occurrence of that war.
In fact, it was not only because he defeated Lu Ban in the sandbox exercise, but because at the same time that he left for the Chu State, the 300 dead soldiers of the Mo Family were already carrying a large number of high-tech weapons, stationed on the walls of the Song Kingdom, waiting for the Chu State to attack at any time.
And it was precisely because the King of Chu learned of this news that he finally dismissed the idea of attacking Song.
The pursuit of the Mo family
The pursuit of the Mo family is actually four words - both love and non-attack.
In fact, what Mozi said about family love is a very advanced idea, and the most important point is that he can treat everyone in the world with an equal eye.
Perhaps equality seems to be a very basic concept today. But in the pre-Qin period, when slavery had not yet been completely abolished, the word equality could only be a luxury for most people.
Because in the society at that time, the hierarchical differentiation was extremely serious, and people distinguished between high and low and noble according to their bloodline.
Nobles are born noble, and commoners are born lowly. Therefore, even the Confucians, who promote the way of benevolence and righteousness, only advocate that monarchs and nobles can show kindness to the commoners.
But this so-called benevolence, in the final analysis, is still a downward attitude. The reason why the monarch wants to be benevolent is to be able to consolidate his rule, so that the people can support themselves more.
Therefore, this kind of human love is a political means with a purpose, not an equality in the true sense of personality. However, the love proposed by Mozi just broke the solidification of the class and the differentiation of the nobility and inferiority of the bloodline.
He advocated that people with high status should not be noble, and those who have strength should not be proud of themselves, nor should they harm others for their own interests, but should treat others as they should treat themselves.
In the eyes of the Mo family, in fact, there is no so-called high and low, and all people in the world have an equal personality.
The interaction between people should also be based on this foundation and exist with the mentality of mutual benefit and mutual love.
This is what Mozi mentions in the book: both love and mutual benefit.
The purpose of his advocacy of this concept is to enable the whole society to achieve a state of "non-attack".
The so-called non-offensive means that there is no unkind and unjust war, and there is no undesirable phenomenon of aggression, occupation, annexation, etc., and mutual harm in the whole world.
The Mo family actually wants to create an ideal world, so that everyone lives in the state they envision.
And in order to achieve his great goal, Mozi further gave a set of perfect operating mechanisms according to this core concept.
First of all, he told people that human beings actually live in a state of self in the beginning, and everything they do is for their own personal interests.
Therefore, in everyone's heart, there is a set of criteria for judging whether it is good or bad. Therefore, it is difficult to have a unified norm for people's thinking and behavior.
And people's behavior, if there is no unified norm, will inevitably cause a lot of disputes. Where there are disputes, there are conflicts, there are wars, and the world becomes more and more chaotic.
So according to this state, Mozi proposed a concept called "Shangtong". This concept is somewhat similar to the car with the same track book and text promoted during the Qin Dynasty.
In short, it is to let everyone unify their thinking, unify their caliber, and standardize their behavior constraints. But in order to achieve this effect, it is necessary to establish a stable order.
Therefore, someone needs to stand in the position of the ruler to defend all this.
But this ruler could not use power for personal gain and war to satisfy his desires, as the princes of the time had done. So the best thing to do is to elect the most virtuous man from all the people in the world.
And this is what Mozi called "Shangxian". For only the rulers elected in this way can promote the idea of love in the world.
And as for why it is necessary to promote the idea of love? The answer given by Mozi was that this was the will of Heaven! The so-called will of heaven is also the "will of heaven."
In Mozi's view, this is a supernatural will that overrides human beings and everything in the world.
It will bring blessings and misfortunes according to the good and evil of man's deeds, and if the ruler acts in accordance with the will of heaven, the country will prosper, and vice versa, there will be turmoil.
Moreover, in order to improve this concept more graphically, Mozi proposed the concept of "famous ghost" on the basis of "Tianzhi". This statement is somewhat similar to the religious worship of ghosts and gods, just like the ancients said that there are gods who raise their heads three feet.
Mozi believes that there is indeed a spirit and will after death. And this spirit and will can be understood as an extension of the will of heaven, and can also be blessed according to man's good and evil deeds.
There is a very strange phenomenon here, that is, although Mozi acknowledges the existence of ghosts and gods, he does not pay much attention to the funeral sacrifices, but also attaches great importance to the use of funerals.
He felt that the set of funeral and sacrifice rituals advocated by Confucianism was completely superfluous. According to Mozi, after a person dies, there is no need for martyrdom to accompany the burial, nor do they need to use several layers of coffins to contain the body.
These acts are a waste of human and financial resources and have no practical value at all. As for the ancient people's view of death as life, in the Mo family, it has long been completely overturned.
His criterion is that everything is based on actual value, whether it is any ideological proposition or political custom, as long as it does not bring real value to the world, it is not worth promoting.
So from this point of view, Mozi advocates the worship of ghosts and gods and the fear of heaven. It doesn't seem to be viewed as a religious idea, but more like a tool for promoting the idea of love.
For in his remarks, the only criterion for heaven and demons to give blessings and misfortunes to people is to see whether a person can love and benefit each other at the same time!
Or the so-called Tianzhi is actually the will that Mozi wants to instill in this world. He just wants to bring people into his ideal world in these ways.
The reason why he chose to use the illusory concepts of ghosts and gods and providence may only be to cater to the humanistic ideas of that era. As for himself, he may not believe in the existence of these supernatural factors.
end
Therefore, Mozi's thought and his scientific concept are indeed at a very advanced level, even far exceeding the entire feudal era.
But it is precisely for this reason that the fate of the pre-Qin Mo family is also destined to be full of ups and downs. Because at that time, the hundreds of sons and hundreds of schools, all of them needed to be attached to the rulers to exist.
Their ideas and ideas must also be promoted through the rulers to the world. However, the crux of the matter is that the Mo family's thinking is too advanced to fit in with the inner needs of the ruler.
So in the end, the rulers of the feudal dynasty only absorbed the military technology of the Mo family, but did not accept their political ideas.
Even after using the Mo family's various military black technologies, it in turn carried out a fatal suppression of the Mo family, making this school completely disappear into the long river of history. Therefore, anyone who understands the Mo family will inevitably have a feeling.
I think if Mozi was not born in the pre-Qin era, but appeared in the 15th and 16th centuries. Then the world's first industrial revolution may be dominated by the East!