Mozi Academy

Mozi Academy

The Mozi Academy is located within the Jinghe Park in Tengzhou. Jinghe Park lies on the north bank of the Cheng River, west of Shanguo South Road, built on the reclaimed land and water area after the river’s course was straightened. Construction of the park began in March 1985, and after seven or eight years of effort, it has now taken initial shape.

Mozi was a great thinker of the early Warring States period and the founder of the Mohist school. His surname was Mo and his given name Di; his birth and death dates are unknown.

Modern scholars generally believe that Mozi was born around 476 BCE and died around 390 BCE. There is also debate about his birthplace. “Records of the Grand Historian: Biographies of Mengzi and Xunzi” states that he was “a minister of Song,” while “Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals: On Dyeing” considers him a native of Lu. Others say he was originally from Song but later lived in Lu for a long time. Mozi referred to himself as “now Di, with no affairs of lords above, nor hardships of plowing below,” suggesting he belonged to the “shi” (scholar-gentry) class of the time. Yet he also acknowledged he was “0.” He may have been a craftsman or small artisan, possessing considerable technical skills in production. Mozi “day and night without rest, took self-discipline and hardship to the extreme,” traveling extensively among various feudal states to promote his political ideals. It is said that he once stopped the state of Chu from attacking the state of Song, putting into practice his principles of universal love and opposition to offensive war. He “traveled south to Wei,” advocating for “maintaining trained forces” in preparation for defense. He also visited the state of Chu multiple times, presenting writings to King Hui of Chu. He declined the land offered by the King of Chu and, in his later years, went to the state of Qi, attempting to dissuade Xiang Ziniu from attacking Lu, though he was unsuccessful. The King of Yue invited Mozi to serve as an official and promised him a fief of five hundred li. Mozi set the condition of “listening to my words and adopting my Way” for going, without concern for land or rank, aiming to realize his political ambitions and ideals.

Mozi was also one of the important pioneers of ancient Chinese logical thought. In the book “Mozi,” he consciously and extensively employed methods of logical reasoning to establish or argue his political and ethical ideas. Mozi was the first to propose that names must correspond to realities. He also introduced logical concepts such as debate, category, and cause for the first time in the history of Chinese logic. In the chapter “Gengzhu,” he required that “those who can engage in debate should do so,” and advocated learning “debate” as a specialized body of knowledge. When refuting others’ views, he often said, “You have not examined the categories of my words, nor understood their causes,” and regarded “following the unreasonable over the reasonable”—that is, yielding to reason rather than baseless claims—as a principle of debate. Though Mozi’s “debate” broadly refers to debating techniques, it was grounded in understanding categories (types of things) and clarifying causes (bases or reasons), thus falling within the realm of logical analogy or argumentation. Mozi’s “three criteria” (san biao) served both as standards for discourse and contained elements of reasoning and argumentation. He was also adept at using analogical methods to expose contradictions in his opponents’ arguments. Thanks to Mozi’s advocacy and enlightenment, the Mohists developed a tradition that emphasized logic, and the later Mohists established the first systematic framework of logic in ancient China. Mozi’s philosophical thought reflected the duality of the petty producer class, which had freed itself from the patriarchal slave system. The rational elements in his thinking were inherited and developed by later materialist philosophers, while the mystical aspects were absorbed and utilized by theological teleologists after the Qin and Han dynasties. As the founder of the pre-Qin Mohist school, Mozi had a significant impact on the history of Chinese philosophy. Although Mozi did much speaking and teaching, he left no personal writings. The extant chapters of the book “Mozi,” such as “Exalting the Worthy,” “Exalting Unity,” “Universal Love,” “Opposing Offensive War,” “Economizing Expenditure,” “Simplifying Funerals,” “Heaven’s Will,” “Clarifying Spirits,” “Opposing Music,” and “Opposing Fatalism,” are records of his thoughts and sayings by his disciples or later followers. These form an important basis for studying Mozi’s ideas.