Brief introduction and detailed information of Mozi

Alias: Mo Zhai

Mozi's native place: Lushan, Henan

Gender: male?

Ethnic group: Han nationality?

Nationality: China?

Date of birth: 468 BC?

Date of death: 376 BC?

Occupation: Other thinkers? Sophist? Military adviser? creator

Representative works: Mozi?

Character brief introduction Mozi (about 468- 376 BC), surnamed Mo and named Zhai, was a scholar, thinker and founder of Mohism in the early Warring States period. Mozi came from a humble background and studied Confucianism. Because he was not satisfied with his complex theory of harmony, he created his own Mohist school to compete.

Mozi Mozi, as a famous thinker, politician, strategist, social activist and natural scientist in the Warring States period, put forward the views of "universal love" and "non-aggression" and founded Mohist theory. The book Mozi was compiled by his disciples and re-disciples. Mohism had a great influence at that time, and it was also called "outstanding learning" with Confucianism. He advocated "universal love" and "non-aggression", and put forward the political thoughts of "Shang Xian" and "Shang Tong". He advocated that all the emperors, governors and leaders at all levels should "choose the best people in the world and use them". The people should obey the monarch, be righteous with the world, and love each other and oppose the war of bullying. The rational factors in his thought were inherited and developed by later materialist thinkers, and the dross of his mysticism was absorbed and utilized by theologians after Qin and Han Dynasties. Mozi, as the founder of Mohism in the pre-Qin period, had a great influence in the history of China philosophy. Mozi gave a lot of lectures, but he didn't write anything himself. Shang Xian, Shang Tong, fraternity, non-attack, salvation, funeral, celestial record, Ming ghost, Le Fei and Fei Ming are all records of his disciples' thoughts and speeches. This is an important basis for studying Mozi's thought.

Rereading Mozi's Public Loss is like public loss. Mozi once studied Confucianism. Dissatisfied with the complexity of "rites", he set up a new theory and gathered his disciples to give lectures, which became the main opposition force of Confucianism. It is said that the king of Chu originally intended to attack the Song Dynasty, but Mozi went to persuade him to surrender, and won the simulated attack and defense with a public losing set, so the king of Chu had to retreat. See Mozi's thoughts and opinions.

Wang Zhongzhi, a scholar in Qing Dynasty, equated Mozi with Confucius, saying that "Confucius is a doctor of Lu, and Mozi is a doctor of Song, with different status". Mozi and Confucius are quite different. Confucius advocated long burial and heavy burial, and attached great importance to sacrifice. Confucius said, "I never tire of delicious food." This is a description of sacrifice. Mozi lived a simple life all his life, "Eat with the belly as the sky, clothes with the body as the clothes" [2], and advocated "frugal burial, not happiness". His disciples are also "short brown clothes, quinoa soup, if you get it, you will get it at night."

There are 53 existing works of Mozi, which are gradually supplemented by Mozi and his disciples of various generations, and are the basic materials for studying Mozi and Mohism. Mozi is also the name of the philosophical text compiled by Mohist children according to Mozi's thought. This paper initially includes 7 1 chapters. Confucianism ruled China in the Han Dynasty. Because Mohism is against Confucianism, it rejected the text Mozi. In the Song Dynasty, only 6 1 chapter was left. Today we only have 53 chapters, through which we try to understand the thoughts of this family. This is a version compiled by Sun Yirang. Because Mohism, as a living tradition, has disappeared from China, its texts have not been well preserved, and many chapters have been lost or in a state of destruction. For example, there is only one chapter left in the three chapters of "Anti-Confucianism".

The things collected from Mozi's texts are a rich resource, which can provide a glimpse of the history and culture of China's early dynasties. Many of Mozi's remarks were supported by historical voices in earlier records. His conversations with other famous philosophers of that period were also recorded. From these, we can clearly distinguish Mohism from other schools.

Mohism was suppressed in Qin dynasty and completely disappeared in Han dynasty, making Confucianism an official doctrine (dogma). Sun Yat-sen took "universal love" as the basis of his China democratic thought. Recently, China scholars under communism tried to restore Mozi as a "people's philosopher", emphasizing his rational-empirical approach to the world and his "proletarian (ordinary class)" background.

Some viewpoints assert that Mozi's philosophy was once advanced, but not as advanced as Confucianism. His concept of "universal love" supports more people's organizations than Confucianism, but when he criticizes all things that are not directly "useful" and rejects the educational functions of art and music, it seems that there is no tolerance of Confucianism. At the same time, Zhuangzi, who criticized Confucianism and Mohism, recorded this point in his fable "On Usefulness and Useless". Of course, this emphasis on usefulness comes from an era when wars and famines are widespread, which is enough to make all nobles' ostentation and extravagance insignificant. However, some people will say that the above views are not completely accurate, but in fact, the "fraternity" and "the world is public" advocated by Sun Yat-sen are both Confucianism. There is a little difference between Confucian fraternity and Mozi's universal love: in Confucianism, it tends to emphasize that it is a relationship that is beneficial to human nature, while in Mozi's thought, it tends to face the commune and makes no difference to individuals. Some modern supporters of Mozi (that is, communists) assert that Mohism and modern communism have much in common in the ideal way of commune life. Others assert that Mohism is more similar to the core ideals of the Christian spirit, especially in the ideals of "universal love" (Greek, "great love"), "golden rule" and the relationship between human beings and the supernatural.

Mozi believes that the universe is a continuous whole, and all individuals or parts are separated from this unified whole and are all components of this unified whole. In other words, the whole contains individuals, and the whole is composed of individuals, and there is an inevitable organic connection between the whole and the individuals. Starting from this continuous view of the universe, Mozi further established a theory about time and space. He named time "Jiu" and space "Yu", and gave the definitions of "Jiu" and "Yu", that is, "Jiu" refers to all time in ancient and modern times, and "Yu" refers to all spaces in east, west, north and south, and time and space are continuous. After giving the definitions of time and space, Mozi further discussed whether time and space are finite or infinite. He thinks that time and space are limited. For the whole, time and space are infinite, while for some people, time and space are poor. He also pointed out that continuous space-time is composed of space-time elements. He defined the elements of time and space as "beginning" and "end". "Start" is the smallest unit of time and "End" is the smallest unit of space. In this way, space-time is continuous and infinite, and this continuous and infinite space-time is composed of the smallest units. There is finiteness in infinity and discontinuous space-time theory in continuity.

The definition of "time" in mathematics. Mozi said, "Double is two." (The Book of Mohism) That is, the original number is added once, or the original number is multiplied twice, which is called "times". such as

Regarding the definition of "the same length", Mozi said: "the same length, the same positive phase." (On the Book of Mohism) That is to say, the lengths of two objects are exactly one-to-one correspondence and completely equal, which is called "equal length". Two feet is a multiple of one foot. On the definition of "Ping". Mozi said, "The level is the same as the height." (The Book of Mohism) is the same height, which is called "Ping". This has the same meaning as Euclid's geometric theorem that "the common vertical lines between parallel lines are equal".

On the definition of "zhong". Mozi said, "China people are of the same length." (On the Book of Mohism) The "middle" here refers to the symmetrical center of the object, that is, the center of the object is a point with the same distance from the surface of the object.

About the definition of "artificial intelligence". Mozi said, "Hey, a China person is as long." (On the Book of Mohism) The word "Ai" here is the image of a circle. Mozi pointed out that the circle can be drawn with compasses or checked with compasses. Compasses have been widely used before Mozi, but it is Mozi's contribution to give a precise definition of circle. Mozi's definition of circle is exactly the same as that in Euclid's Geometry.

On the definition of a square. Mozi said that all four corners are right angles, and a quadrilateral with four equal sides is a square. You can draw a square with the "moment" of a square ruler and test it.

Philosophical Mozi believes that the source of human knowledge can be divided into three aspects, namely, listening, speaking and knowing. He divided what he heard into hearsay and personal hearsay, but in Mozi's view, neither hearsay nor personal hearsay should be simply accepted, but must be digested and integrated to make it his own knowledge. Therefore, he stressed the need to "smell and get its meaning", that is, after listening and accepting, to think and investigate, based on other people's knowledge, to inherit and carry forward.

Mozi's "knowledge" contains the meaning of reasoning and investigation, and refers to the knowledge obtained through reasoning. He put special emphasis on "smell"

If Mozi doesn't know what he knows, he knows both ",that is, inferring unknown knowledge from known knowledge." If the fire is known to be hot, it is inferred that all fires are hot; Compasses can draw circles, and it is inferred that all circles can be measured with compasses. It can be seen that Mozi's knowledge and learning is not passive and simple acceptance, but contains a positive and enterprising spirit.

Epistemology The main contribution of Mozi's philosophy lies in epistemology. He regards the direct feeling experience of "the truth of eyes and ears" as the only source of understanding. He believes that judging the existence of things should be based on what everyone sees and hears, not personal imagination. Based on this simple materialist empiricism, Mozi put forward the criteria for testing the truth and falsehood of knowledge, namely, three tables: "The origin of knowledge lies in the matter of ancient sages", "The truth of people's eyes and ears is observed below", and "Abandoning criminal politics and observing the interests of the people in the country". Mozi integrated "matter", "reality" and "benefit" and tried to eliminate personal subjective prejudice by taking indirect experience, direct experience and social effect as the criterion. On the relationship between name and substance, he put forward the proposition of "not taking it by name, taking it by name" and advocated naming it by substance. Mozi's epistemology which emphasizes the authenticity of sensory experience also has great limitations. He once concluded that there were ghosts and gods on the grounds that someone "tasted the things of ghosts and gods and smelled their voices". But Mozi didn't ignore the function of rational knowledge, and Mohist created China's first logical thought system.

One view is that Mozi's world outlook has profound internal contradictions. On the one hand, he emphasized "non-fate" and "respect for power" and thought that it was not "fate" but "power" that determined people's different experiences. On the other hand, Mozi affirmed the role of "Heaven" and "Ghost". He described "Heaven" as a personality god with will, and preached that "those who obey the will of God will be rewarded". "Those who go against God's will" will be punished. He believes that "loving each other and benefiting each other" means "obeying God's will" and "opposing evil and stealing from each other" means "violating God's will". However, another view holds that "non-destiny" and "ambition" reflect Mozi's strong thinking tension of "the debate between heaven and man" In Mozi's religious philosophy, ambition loves everything but does not control fate, and heaven rewards diligence, and heaven likes people who are constantly striving for self-improvement.

Logical Mozi is also one of the important pioneers of China's ancient logic thought. Mohism, Egyptology and ancient Greek logic are called the three major logics in the world. He consciously and extensively used logical reasoning to establish or demonstrate his political and ethical thoughts. He also put forward logical concepts such as argument, category and reason for the first time in the history of China's logic. And it is required to study debate as a kind of specialized knowledge. Although Mozi's "argument" refers to the debating technique, it is based on the knowledge of categories (things and the like) and reasoning (grounds and reasons), so it belongs to the category of logical analogy or argumentation. Mozi's "three forms" are not only the ideological standard of speech, but also the factors of reasoning and argumentation. Mozi is also good at revealing the enemy's contradictions by analogy. Due to Mozi's advocacy and enlightenment, Mohism developed the tradition of attaching importance to logic, and later Mohism established the first system of ancient logic in China.