Chapter 118: The Mo Family

PS: Mohist is one of the main philosophical schools in ancient China, which was born around the Warring States Period and was founded by Mo Zhai. Pen | fun | pavilion www. biquge。 infoMohist is a highly disciplined academic society, and its leader is called "Juzi", and its members must carry out Mohist ideas when they go to various countries to serve as officials, and the income must also be donated to the group. The Mohist school is divided into the early and late periods, and the early thought mainly involves socio-political, ethical and epistemological issues; In the later period, Mohists made important contributions to logic. The Mohist doctrine advocates that people love each other on an equal footing, oppose wars of aggression (non-aggression), attach importance to cultural inheritance (Ming ghosts), and master the laws of nature (Tianzhi).

Mohism is one of the main philosophical schools in ancient China, which was born around the Warring States Period and was founded by Mo Zhai. The Mohists were a disciplined academic society, and their leaders were called "Juzi", and their members were required to promote the Mohist ideas when they went to various countries to serve as officials, and the income was also to be donated to the group. The Mohist school is divided into the early and late periods, and the early thought mainly involves socio-political, ethical and epistemological issues; In the later period, Mohists made important contributions to logic. The Mohist doctrine advocates that people love each other on an equal footing, oppose wars of aggression (non-aggression), attach importance to cultural inheritance (Ming ghosts), and master the laws of nature (Tianzhi).

1. Members come from the lower strata of society

Most of the ink scholars come from the lower strata of society, with the purpose of "rejuvenating the world's benefits and removing the harm of the world" for the purpose of education, "Confucius is not warm, ink is not abrupt", especially hard practice, "short brown clothes, quinoa soup, the morning is obtained, then Xi Fude", "Mo Ding heel, benefit the world, for it" ("Mencius. Wholeheartedly). "Clothed in fur brown and clothed in straw sandals, day and night. Take self-suffering as the extreme", and live a hard life. The ink can "go to the soup and fight the blade, and die without turning the heel". It means that you will not turn your heels and retreat until you die. Those who engage in debate among the ink scholars are called "ink debate"; Those who engage in martial arts are called "ink heroes". The Mo must obey the leadership of Juzi, and its discipline is strict, and it is said that "the law of the Mo man, the murderer dies, and the wounder is punished" ("Lü's Spring and Autumn Period. Go private"). For example, the son of Juzi Belly killed someone, and although he was forgiven by King Qin Hui, he still adhered to the "law of the ink man" of "death to the murderer".

According to the regulations of the Mohists, the Mohists who were sent to various countries to be officials. It is necessary to promote the political ideas of the Mohists; It's better to quit when that doesn't work. In addition, the inkers who are officials should donate money to the group, so as to "share the wealth". Leaders should lead by example.

2. Uphold justice and morality

Mohists are a school of thought with leaders, doctrines, and organizations, and they have a strong spirit of social practice. The Mo scholars endured hardships and stood hard work, were strict with themselves, and regarded the maintenance of justice and morality as an unshirkable responsibility. Most of the ink writers were knowledgeable laborers.

1. Features

In the early period, the Mo family had a great influence at the beginning of the Warring States period. Together with the Yang Zhu school, it is called Xianxue. Its social ethics centered on love and love, advocating "harmony and ease of separation", and opposed the concept of social hierarchy emphasized by Confucianism. It proposes "mutual love and mutual benefit". Shangxian, Shangtong, thrifty use, and thrifty burial are used as methods of governance. It also opposed the annexation wars of the time. Make non-offensive claims. It advocates non-fate, heavenly will, and clear ghosts, denying the mandate of heaven on the one hand, and at the same time acknowledging the existence of ghosts and gods. In the early period, Mohists put forward an experience-based method of epistemology, advocating "hearing what is seen" and "taking truth and name". It proposes three tables as a method to test the correctness of understanding (Three Tables: the standard proposed by Mozi to test the correctness of understanding. The three tables are:

"The above is based on the historical experience of the ancient holy kings". "Shimohara examines the reality of the people's ears and eyes", that is, based on the feelings and experiences of the people. "Abolish (issue) as a criminal policy, and look at the interests of the people of the country", that is, whether the results of political practice are in line with the interests of the state and the people as the basis. This is the earliest proposition on the criterion of truth put forward in the history of Chinese philosophy. had an important impact on later generations).

In the later period, the Mohists were divided into two branches:

A group of researchers focusing on epistemology, logic, geometry, geometric optics, statics and other disciplines is called "Mohist Post-Studies" (also known as "Late Mohists").

The other was transformed into the rangers of the Qin and Han dynasties. The former inherited many of the social and ethical propositions of the Mohists in the early period. He has made great achievements in epistemology and logic. In addition to affirming the role of sensory experience in cognition, the later Mohists also recognized the role of rational thinking in cognition, which overcame the empiricist tendency of the early Mohists. It also made a clear definition of the basic categories of ancient logic, such as "reason", "reason" and "class", distinguished three types of concepts such as "reach", "class" and "private", and also studied the forms of judgment and reasoning, which occupies an important position in the history of ancient Chinese logic.

2. Inheritance

After the Warring States period, the Mozi family has declined. By the time of the Western Han Dynasty, due to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's policy of exclusive respect for Confucianism, changes in social mentality, and the hard training, strict rules and noble ideas of the Mo family itself, which were not accessible to everyone, the Mo family basically disappeared after the Western Han Dynasty. However, according to archaeological findings, the last generation appeared in the late Qing Dynasty and all perished.

An important school that emerged in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period v Hundred Schools of Thought v. The book "Mozi" was recorded and compiled by his disciples when Mozi was lecturing. The writing is simple and unpretentious, lacking in literature, but it is logical, and he is good at using specific examples to reason, which has made the reasoning essay have developed greatly, and has played an important role in the development of argumentative essays in later generations.

The founder was the famous thinker Mozi (Mo Zhai), who advocated "both love", "non-aggression" and "Shangxian", which was sharply opposed to the Confucian view.

Mohism is a school of thought that preaches benevolent government. Before the rise of Legalism, which represented the interests of the new landlord class, Mohism was the largest school of thought in opposition to Confucianism in the pre-Qin period, and it was ranked as "Xianxue".

Han Feizi. Xianxue records: "The world's Xianxue, Confucianism also." Where Confucianism goes, so does Confucius; Where the ink goes, the ink Zhai also. "Mozi wants to greatly change Zhou's system.

3. Historical value

Mozi's portrait of the Confucian scholar who lived in the temple and had fun, the king and the officials of the world who were severely punished and served, and the Taoist priest who played the world outside the world, there was always a group of ink men in simple clothes, for the peace of the world and the well-being of the people, risking the wanted of the vassal states and the soldiers of the army, working and running on the land of China.

Mohist thought is dialectical materialism and dialectical materialism in the complete version of ancient Chinese texts. The characteristics of Chinese culture are a kind of humanistic culture, and people who love natural science and care about material sports are classified into the class of "laborers", and this consciousness of almost instinctively despising natural science is the main drawback of Chinese culture. Therefore, in Chinese history, natural scientists rarely have a high status. Mozi knew too much about nature and had so many inventions and creations, which cannot but be said to be a miracle in ancient Chinese history. Whether it is a Confucian scholar who follows the rules or a romantic and transcendent Taoist, they are only seeking their own peace and the perfection of their self-image, but Mozi can truly get rid of the entanglement and temptation of various social forces, grasp the original meaning of life and recognize the truth of the world from a wide range of knowledge fields such as mechanics, optics, geometry, and logic, so as to form a valuable character of seeking true knowledge, paying attention to practice, and self-motivation and self-improvement.

4. Limit theory

(1) "The Book of Ink"

In the Spring and Autumn Period, there was a person named Corpse Jiao who defined the universe in this way: "The upper and lower four directions are called the universe, and the ancient and modern times are called the universe." Hundreds of years later, Mozi, an ambitious scientific enlightener, attempted to describe the universe he observed in more systematic and rigorous language, and a bizarre work, the Book of Ink, was circulated.

The Book of Ink is divided into four parts: "The Scriptures", "The Scriptures", "The Sutras", and "The Sutras". Most of the scriptures are principles, definitions, and theories; The "Sutra II" establishes the thesis and argues; The Sutra is the interpretation and elaboration of the Sutra.

(2) The famous paradox

Zeno, the Greek, famously proposed a paradox: Achilles could not catch up with the tortoise. Achilles is the hero of Homer's epic poems. Achilles on the run could never overtake the turtle that was slowly crawling in front of him. Because he had to reach the starting point of the turtle first, and when he reached that point, the turtle crawled forward a little further. There was a similar paradox in pre-Qin China, such as Zhuangzi, in order to prove his nihilism, proposed: "One foot of air, half of it in a day, inexhaustible." ”

Mozi resolved this age-old problem. He envisioned a line AB that went from end A to end B, and went to half of the full length of C, then cut off, and the remaining CB was half of the length of the whole length. As before, half of the CB is taken, and the rest is a quarter of the total length. This is done as many times as possible, and eventually it will reach the very front of the line, B. This is the mathematical principle of limit approximation. It was not until 1655 that the English Varys published The Infinite Arithmetic that the concept of "limit" was correctly explained.

(3) Force is the driving force

As we all know, Mozi was first and foremost a machinist, so his writings contain a large number of principles of mechanics and mechanical design.

He clearly stated in the "Sutra I" that force is the reason for the accelerated motion of objects, that is, "force, the reason why punishment is also excited". Further, he pointed out in the Sutra that force is equivalent to gravity, that is, "force, the word for weight." Corrects the age-old fallacy of confusing gravity with weight. His assertion is very close to the theories of Galileo and Newton nearly 2,000 years later.

(4) Plain time and space

In the Book of Ink, space is a concept that is inseparable from time, and Mozi believes that "yu" is "domain migration", that is, the area where objects move. More than 2,000 years later, Einstein's theory of relativity added a perfect footnote to this intuitive and naïve view of space-time.

(5) Small hole imaging

In terms of optics, Mozi also explained in detail the principle of small hole imaging. The light rays that shine into the holes are the same as the arrows that go in, that is, the light travels in a straight line, and the rays that enter from the high part of the object reach the bottom of the wall, and the light that enters from the low part of the object reaches the top of the wall. The human foot is below, shielded from the lower light, so the shadow of the foot is formed at the top of the wall, and the human head is on the top, and the shadow of the head is formed at the bottom of the wall.

(6) Geometric doctrine

The Book of Ink was written earlier than Euclid's Geometry in ancient Greece, but it covers a much richer content. (To be continued.) )