More Mo Tzu

Francesco Sisci reports on the "English translation of the work of Confucius' earliest philosophical enemy" — A new battle for Confucius. An excerpt:

In the 17th century, when Western Jesuits embarked on the daring task of spreading Catholicism in China, they found in Mozi some cultural basis for belief in a Christian God. Mozi's religious faith in a "will of Heaven" lent some grounds to the Jesuits to argue that Christianity was not totally alien to Chinese culture. Centuries later, the Jesuits' efforts helped Chinese who were willing to modernize without giving up all of their traditions to confront Western culture with a piece of their own philosophy - Mozi.

Furthermore, Mozi's doctrine of "universal love" sounded like the idea of Christian love propagated in the 17th century, as well as like the drive to egalitarianism by the communists in the 20th century.

Opposition to communism, meanwhile, had gained a deeper philosophical basis as it was conducted in the name of the standard official ideology of many dynasties - Confucianism. Communism was seen as deeply anti-Confucian, just as Mozi's thought.

After the birth of communist China in 1949, leader Mao Zedong confirmed this reading by promoting the study of Mozi, and thus presenting himself to all Chinese who wanted the modernization of China as the real heir of Liang Qichao, Hu Shi and Feng Youlan. Mao even branded some of his communist fellows, like Zhou Enlai and other moderates, as "Confucians".

Also worth noting:

Mozi theorized about defensive wars and his followers, the Mohists, were renowned tacticians who helped organize the defense of small states being attacked by larger ones.

This was at a time when small states were being gobbled up by large ones competing for dominance in the Chinese central plain. The aggressive theories of famous strategist Sunzi helped conceive those and many other future wars of attack, whereas Mozi argued against aggressive wars....

It's possible that gong, a word commonly understood as aggressive war, at the time meant more precisely war by a large force against a small one, as Lu Xiang, a modern student of Sunzi argues in a forthcoming essay. This kind of war is what Sunzi preferred and Mozi opposed.

Signore Sisci concludes by reminding us of "the diversity and richness of ancient Chinese tradition" and suggesting "in a world in which most states are small and weak and a few large ones might want to impose their dominant culture and military strength, people might want to study more of Mozi."