A Study On Mozi’s Ethics

Intellectual schools were numerous during the Spring and Autumn Period, and theyall vied for attention. Although the questions that concerned each schools and the issuesthey pursued were different within the larger social environment, inescapably there werepoints of correspondence among them. They assimilated and absorbed from each other.And in the course of mutual rebuttal and criticism, they were affected by the orientationof each other’s intellectual thought and values. As a prominent school among the greatstates of the time, Mohism likewise exerted a broad and profound influence. Throughpresenting its historical background and analysing of philosophical basis of the Mo andchivalrous ethics, this dissertation focuses on the Mo and chivalrous ethics research,trying to start from the thought origin of Mo and chivalrous ethics, trying to find theinternal implication of Mo and chivalrous ethics, and digging into the beneficial part ofit which can make the past serve the present. Subsequently, I explore the reason of theMozi’s decline and discuss the enlightenment of Mozi’s revitalization, then I expoundthe applied research of Mo and chivalrous ethics and make a complete summary of thefull dissertation.Mozi’s ethical thinking revolved around expounding on the fundamental thesis ofembracing universal love and engaging in what is mutually beneficial. What universallove in the main stressed was the breadth of the scope of love, it required one to“universally love all persons in the world.’ In Mozi’s view, the scope of the target of thislove should be ‘the people in the world,’ or the entirety of humanity. This is to say that“the great breadth of universally loving all the world, is comparable to the universalbrilliance of the sun and moon shining on the world without partiality.’ Why is universallove necessary? Mozi felt that the reasons society of the time was in such tumult and thefeudal princes engaged in wanton military action were both because of the lack ofmutual love between men.While promoting ‘embracing universal love,” Mozi furtherdemanded that the people ‘engage in what is mutually beneficial”. As long as eachperson “engaged in what is mutually beneficial,’ it would be possible to ultimatelyachieve the social ideal of “embracing universal love”. Mozi not only promoteduniversal love, but also they led their disciples to do their utmost to bring aboutuniversal love. They took achieving peace in the world as their personal mission, andwandered to the four corners of the world to save the world, to the extent of “his calves had no fuzz, his shins had no hair.” In order to achieve the social ideal of universallove, their disciples even went so far as to “walk in fire and tread on knives, and wouldnot retreat in the face of death.”Mozi’s ethical thinking revolved around fiveaspects.Firstly,on Mozi virtue spectrum from individuals and families to the state is justa complete process.Among them,‘xiu’ is the starting point whose main content is apersonal virtue of exercise and training.Secondly,all the people following Mozi werebrave enough to defeat death.Then,such a spirit of loyalty was both from Chinesetraditional ethics also the result of ideal personality about ‘Ren Xia’. Thirdly, Mozi feltthat the reasons society of the time was in such tumult and the feudal princes engaged inwanton military action were both because of the lack of mutual love between men.Fourthly, Mozi did not discuss without doing anything, and in order to realize the idealpurpose he tried to put it into practice. Fifthly, Mozi not only paid attention to theperceptual experience and effect for the value of moral evaluation, but also thesignificance of rational choice and good motivation.With regard to the issue of“universal love”, Mozi recognized the difference in gradations between people, but stilldemanded that all love each other equally with no distinctions. This unavoidably led tothe trap of internal inconsistency. Actually, in a class society, this type of supra-class“universal love” was merely a kind of beautiful phantasy; it had no social foundation forbeing realized. Because of the limitations of history, Mozi were unable to comprehendthe emptiness of the thought of universal love.Mozi’s thinking on universal love, especially the glorious record of Mohistachievement in concrete actions, not only set lofty moral examples for the Chinesepeople, but also demonstrated the great spiritual strength of humanity. Today, givenglobalization and modernization, and in the face of increasing individualism andegotism, promoting Mozi’s ideal of universal love and seeking to achieve the pathtoward this idealism still possess extremely important practical significance. It isexactly as the famous historian Arnold J.Toynbee said,“Mozi’s theory of regardinguniversal love as a moral obligation is even more appropriate to advocate for themodern world, because the modern world is already unified in terms of technology. Butwith regard to feelings, we still have not become unified. Universal love is the onlyhope in the world of saving ourselves. Mozi’s love is even more needed by modempeople than Confucius’s love.”...