The Mohist school is a philosophical school in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, one of the hundred schools of thought. It is listed as a school that specializes in ” natural science ” among the hundred schools of pre-Qin scholars with ” famous ” and ” mathematicians “.
Mencius, the representative of Confucianism, once said, “The words of the world will not return to Yang, but to Mo (Mozi)”, etc., which proves the glory of Mohist thought in China. Yang Mo is originally the two sides of the coin, so Yang Mo complements each other. However, people have always used Mencius’ general thinking of “distance from Yang Mo” to evaluate Yang Mo, which is unfair.
Mohism was born during the Warring States Period. The founder is Mo Di. The Mohist school is a disciplined academic group. Its leader is called the ” just “. Its members must promote the Mohist school when they are officials in various countries, and their salaries must also be contributed to the group. The Mohist school is divided into the early and late periods: the early thoughts mainly involve social politics, ethics, and epistemology, and pay attention to the current wars; the later Mohists have made important contributions to logic and began to move closer to the field of scientific research.
The main ideological propositions of the Mohist school are: equal love between people, oppose the war of aggression, respect economy, oppose extravagance and waste, and attach importance to inheriting the cultural wealth of the predecessors, Master the laws of nature, etc.
Legalist representative Han Feizi called Confucianism and Mohism the “manifest studies of the world”. Because of the unique political attributes of Mohist thought and the official collusion policy of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty to “remove a hundred schools and respect Confucianism,” Mohism was continuously suppressed and gradually Losing the realistic basis for existence, Mohist thought gradually became extinct in China; it was not until the end of Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China that scholars re-excavated Mohist from the pile of old papers and discovered its progressiveness. In recent years, through the efforts of some new Mohists, some useful points of Mohist theory have begun to enter people’s field of vision.
