Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Dates
- 1 Chinese Philosophy
- 2 Confucius and the Confucian Concepts Ren and Li
- 3 The Cultivation of Humanity in Confucian Philosophy: Mencius and Xunzi
- 4 Early Mohist Philosophy
- 5 Early Daoist Philosophy: The Dao De Jing as a Metaphysical Treatise
- 6 Early Daoist Philosophy: Dao, Language and Society
- 7 The Mingjia and the Later Mohists
- 8 Zhuangzi's Philosophy
- 9 Legalist Philosophy
- 10 The Yijing and its Place in Chinese Philosophy
- 11 Chinese Buddhism
- Postscript
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - Early Mohist Philosophy
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of Dates
- 1 Chinese Philosophy
- 2 Confucius and the Confucian Concepts Ren and Li
- 3 The Cultivation of Humanity in Confucian Philosophy: Mencius and Xunzi
- 4 Early Mohist Philosophy
- 5 Early Daoist Philosophy: The Dao De Jing as a Metaphysical Treatise
- 6 Early Daoist Philosophy: Dao, Language and Society
- 7 The Mingjia and the Later Mohists
- 8 Zhuangzi's Philosophy
- 9 Legalist Philosophy
- 10 The Yijing and its Place in Chinese Philosophy
- 11 Chinese Buddhism
- Postscript
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Mozi's (480? BCE–390? BCE) criticisms of Ruist (Confucian) teachings and practice were incisive. It is likely that he had studied Confucian philosophy and interacted with a particular group of Ruist scholar-officials associated with the disciples Zixia and Ziyou. These disciples were preoccupied with the study of texts, ceremonial ritual and the cultivation of a privileged lifestyle. Mozi reacted to these aspects of Ruist doctrine and is said to have praised Confucius but rejected the Ruists he had met. Mozi also rejected a number of Confucian doctrines. He singled out their reliance on paradigmatic men to bring about socio-political well-being and argued for a more participatory approach to maximising collective welfare: everyone must practise jianai, impartial and mutual concern for everyone. Mozi believed that the root cause of socio-political unrest was the selfishness of individuals; the majority of people lacked genuine concern for others not immediately connected with them. To make matters worse, the Confucians were propagating a culture of divisiveness and factionalism by encouraging people to give priority to family relationships.
Up until relatively recently, scholarship in Mohist philosophy has been fairly disparaging of its ideas and influence. For instance, Wing-tsit Chan, an influential Chinese philosopher, noted that ‘philosophically Mohism is shallow and unimportant’. The tendency was to interpret Mohism as a reaction against Confucianism, and a fairly weak attempt at that.
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- Information
- An Introduction to Chinese Philosophy , pp. 55 - 70Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008