Author | (trad.) Mo Di |
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Original title | 墨子 |
Translator | Burton Watson A. C. Graham Mei Yi-pao Ian Johnston |
Language | Classical Chinese |
Genre | Philosophy |
Publication date | 5th–3rd centuries BC |
Publication place | China |
Published in English | 1929 |
Media type | manuscript |
181.115 | |
LC Class | B128 .M6 |
Translation | Mozi at Wikisource |
Mozi | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Chinese | 墨子 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Literal meaning | "[The Writings of] Master Mo" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Mozi (Chinese: 墨子), also called the Mojing (Chinese: 墨經) or the Mohist canon,[1][2] is an ancient Chinese text from the Warring States period (476–221 BC) that expounds the philosophy of Mohism. It propounds such Mohist ideals as impartiality, meritocratic governance, economic growth and aversion to ostentation, and is known for its plain and simple language.
The book's chapters can be divided into several categories: a core of 31 chapters, containing the basics of Mohist philosophy; several traditionally known as the "Dialectical Chapters", among the most important in early Chinese texts on logic; five sections containing stories and information about Mozi, his disciples, and his followers; and eleven chapters on technology and defensive warfare, on which the Mohists were expert and which are valuable sources of information on ancient Chinese military technology.[3] There two other minor sections: an initial group of seven chapters that are clearly of a much later date, and two anti-Confucian chapters, of which one has survived.
Benjamin I. Schwartz took the Mozi's early chapters, deriving more directly from Mozi, as including concepts like "Rejecting Fatalism," "Heaven's Will," and "Universal Love". Although Mozi clearly values the intellect, it's works on logic are "patently" a later development of the third century BC, though "illuminating" it's original doctrine.[4] The Mohist philosophical school went into decline in the 3rd century BC, and copies of the Mozi were not well-preserved. The modern text has been described as "notoriously corrupt". Of the Mozi's 71 original chapters, 18 have been lost, and several others are badly fragmented.[5][6]