China & East Asia · c. 470–391 BCE
Mozi
Founder of Mohism and critic of Confucian partiality
Argued for impartial care and against offensive war and costly rituals, judging every doctrine by its benefit to the people; he is often called China’s first consequentialist.
Life and thought
Mo Di flourished around 430 BCE, probably in Song or Lu; Sima Qian calls him an official of Song, and later tradition links him with craftsmen. He led a disciplined band of followers who studied argument and also the defence of cities: the Mozi tells how he walked ten days and nights to dissuade Chu from attacking Song, out-manoeuvring the engineer Gongshu Ban in a model siege. His teachings survive in chapters written down by his followers.
Mozi asked a simple question of every custom: does it benefit the people? Wars, theft and feuds arise because people care for their own family or state and not others’. If everyone regarded others’ states as their own, who would attack them? Hence impartial care (jian’ai), the condemnation of offensive war, and attacks on costly funerals and court music. He proposed three tests for any doctrine: its basis in the sage kings, the evidence of ordinary people’s eyes and ears, and its benefit in use. For two centuries Mohism rivalled Confucianism; then it vanished, to be rediscovered in the Qing.
Works
Argued against
551–479 BCE (traditional)ConfuciusThe Mozi contains a chapter “Against the Confucians”.Meanwhile, in other traditions
c. 483–375 BCEGorgiasSicilian master of rhetoric and envoy to Athensc. 480–400 BCE (debated; an older dating is c. 563–483 BCE)The Buddha (Siddhārtha Gautama)Founder of Buddhism, who taught a middle way out of suffering5th c. BCELeucippusFounder of atomism, about whom almost nothing is knownc. 470–385 BCEPhilolausPythagorean whose book first set out the school’s doctrinesc. 470–399 BCESocratesAthenian questioner, executed for impiety in 399 BCEc. 460–370 BCEDemocritusThe “laughing philosopher” of Abdera, who developed atomismOn the record
Mozi, Shang Yang, Hui Shi, Gongsun Long, Zhuangzi and Xunzi are given conventional birth and death years.
None of these dates is secure. Current reference works give: Mozi flourished c. 430 BCE; Shang Yang c. 390–338 BCE; Hui Shi flourished 313 BCE; Gongsun Long c. 320–250 BCE; Zhuangzi flourished in the latter half of the 4th century BCE; Xunzi was born perhaps c. 310 BCE and was still alive in 238 BCE. The atlas’s ranges fall within these and are marked “c.”.
Sources: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Mohism” · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “School of Names” · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Xunzi”