c. 470–391 BCE · Chinese (Mohist)
The rival of the Confucians who taught impartial care and mutual benefit.
兼相愛，交相利
Original (Chinese)
“Let there be inclusive care for one another, and the exchange of mutual benefit.”
Mozi, “Impartial Care” II (兼愛中)
Mozi, or Mo Di, was a craftsman turned philosopher of the early Warring States period and the founder of Mohism, for two centuries the chief rival of the Confucian school. He located the world's disorder in partiality, the habit of loving one's own family and state above all others, and taught impartial care joined to mutual benefit as its cure. He measured every practice, ritual, music, lavish funerals, war, by the benefit it brings to the people, and condemned aggressive war outright. His followers formed a disciplined community famous for rushing to the defense of besieged cities. Mohism faded after the Qin unification, and its texts waited two thousand years for modern readers to take them up again.
To be added: how this thinker was received, contested, and read today.
Thinkers in conversation with Mozi: