by Yiyang
Mozism had been one of the most popular philosophies during the Pre-Chin Era. In fact, a legalism classic from the same time, Han Fei-Zi nominated Mozism as ¡§Xian-Xue¡¨(meaning ¡§apparent study of society¡¨) along with Confucism. However, its fate was on a very distinct path after the Chin-Dynasty, when Legalism unified the intellectual world and harshly declined the development of other beliefs. The Han Empire eventually replaced Chin as the holder of heaven¡¦s mandate, but Mozism had never again reached its popularity.
Our modern knowledge of Mozism mostly originates from the book of Mozi. It is a collection of Mozi¡¦s lectures and records of his anecdote, possibly organized by his students. The social philosophy of Mozi is based on the belief of ¡§Jian-Ai¡¨(universal love). ¡§Jian-Ai¡¨ is a term for love or respect to every individual. The chapter of ¡§Jian-Ai¡¨ states that all factors of chaos in a society are due to people abandoning love to each other, while disapproves greediness, which the person who asked me to write this essay happened to have. It concludes that achieving ¡§Jian-Ai¡¨ of every individual will create a ¡§Utopia.¡¨ As a support, an anti-war belief is derived, which is ¡§Fei-Gong¡¨(criticizing war). It believes that war can only bring disasters to the world, even to the invaders, although it seems to be beneficial at the moment. Mozi also talks about the essentialness of putting his thoughts into application (as one may have already heard the story of Mozi stopping the Chu invasion at Song). In the meantime, he criticizes the obsoleteness of Confucian scholars. The book of Mozi also takes in the study of logic and debating. The last few chapters explain numerous technological techniques that can be used to defend a city from invasion; many of them are described with great details.