The historical process of Mohism?

Mozi may have been born in a craftsman's family who lived as a carpenter. At that time, the society was a "government-led society", that is, craftsmen were under the strict control of the government, subordinate to and serving the government, and their social status was very low. At that time, the craftsmen were hereditary, so Mozi inherited the woodworking technology from an early age, and because of his clever thinking, he became an excellent carpenter and an outstanding mechanical manufacturer, which laid a good foundation for his later social activities. Mozi undoubtedly benefited from Confucius' popularization of civilian education. Although Mozi was dissatisfied with his cumbersome "rites" and set up a new school, he was also deeply influenced by Confucianism. Because Mozi was born in a craftsman's family, Mohism attached great importance to practical technology from the beginning. Mozi himself is an excellent craftsman. It is said that the axle he cut into wood can bear 600 kilograms of objects. Seeing eagles and birds flying in the sky, he made a wooden kite that could fly in the sky for three days. Also invented the ladder and so on earlier than the skillful hand (Lu Ban) at that time; Seeing that the wild fruit shells all over the mountain were soaked in rain, they invented the pit cloth method to guide the villagers to dye cloth. Mozi also raised his understanding of pit cloth technology to the height of philosophical thinking, which is his later famous work Dyeing. Mozi and his disciples went one step further and invented various weapons for guarding the city, such as trebuchets. There is a story: In the early years of the Warring States, King Hui of Chu wanted to restore the hegemony of Chu. He expanded his army and attacked the state of Song. King Hui of Chu reused one of the most capable craftsmen at that time. He is from Shandong, and his name is Gong Bo. Later, people called him Lu Ban. The king of Chu was made a scholar-bureaucrat, so he invented the ladder to attack the capital of Song State. When Mozi heard about it, he sent 300 disciples to Song with various guarding equipment, while he himself ran from Lu to the capital of Chu in ten days to find public disaster and persuade him not to support the king of Chu. He said like a loser, "No, I have promised the King of Chu." Mozi asked to take him to see King Hui of Chu like a loser, and the loser agreed. In front of King Hui of Chu, the two men conducted a confrontation drill, and nine sets of attack methods were defeated, and all the methods of siege were exhausted, but Mozi still had many ingenious methods of guarding the city. The king of Chu was defeated like a loser. Mozi told his disciples that he was waiting for the Chu army with tools, so the king of Chu had to give up. This is the confrontation between the earliest recorded weapons inventors in history.

Mohism's emphasis on practical technology has gradually sublimated into theoretical research. Starting with the observation of all things in nature and the operation of daily skills, they systematically summarized the theory through the study of large-scale and complex urban defense technologies, and created a set of scientific theories with outstanding achievements in geometry, physics and optics.

Geometry: In Mo Jing's definition of geometry, many items can correspond to the definitions and formulas in Euclidean geometry. For example, article 6 1 of Classic says about Mohism: "The earliest is the end, and the body is not thick". Jing Shuo: "In the end, there is no similarity." These two sentences correspond to the definitions in Article 1 and Article 2 of Volume I of Euclid Geometry: 1, and the dot has no part. 2. The two ends of the first line are the point 59 in the classic: "Four rights of square, column and corner". A square has four straight sides and four right angles. There are many more, I won't list them one by one. British scientist Joseph Needham (the author of the History of Science and Technology in China and the most authoritative expert in the history of science and technology in China) said: "If the route followed by Mohism continues to develop, Euclidean geometry system may have been produced." Unfortunately, Mohism ended prematurely.

Needham also said: "Mohist Scripture, an ancient work, involves almost all branches of physics to varying degrees."

In many aspects of mechanics, it also gives a scientific classical definition, for example, Article 2 1 in the classic: "Force and shape are also exciting." Force is the root of object motion. Needham pointed out after studying the scientific principles such as lever in Mohist Scripture: "Mohism has been like Archimedes' theory of total balance. "The Mohist Classics also recorded the optical experiment of Mohist disciples: a small hole was opened in the wall of a dark hut, and a man stood outside. Under the sunlight, a reflection will appear on the wall in the house. This is the earliest pinhole imaging experiment in the world. The Mohist Classic also records that Mohist experimented with convex mirrors, concave mirror and pulleys. This shows that Mohist theory and experiment are carried out together. Compared with ancient Greece at the same time, it is not inferior. Joseph Needham, a British scientist, said: "Mohism completely trusts human rationality, and they clearly define the basic concepts of natural science in Asia. They sketched out a whole set of theories that can be called scientific methods, while Mohist tried to establish an ideological system that can be used as the basis of experimental science. "There are many outstanding inventions in the history of science in China, such as the Four Great Inventions. However, since Mohism, scientists who do theoretical exploration have disappeared, which is a pity.

Due to the limitations at that time, Mohism emphasized obeying heaven and dealing with ghosts and gods. This is actually normal, and it is true in contemporary Greece, India, West Asia and other regions. However, most Mohist members come from civilians, and they don't respect nobles like Confucianism. It can be said that Mohist thought represented the ideological trend of the people at that time, Mohist natural philosophy and social philosophy also represented the people's philosophy, and Mohist science was also very practical. This is different from the aristocratic temperament of ancient Greek philosophy of science that did not pay attention to practicality.

Mohism's natural philosophy has a kind of simplicity peculiar to ordinary people, such as: worshipping gods, not as deep as Taoism. It is estimated that there was nothing to say here about what gods were popular at that time. Let's take a look at Mohist social philosophy, which also reflected the civilian philosophy at that time. Universal love is the core of Mohist social philosophy. Mozi said: universal love is not high or low. Warlords only love their own country, not other people's countries, so they will fight. People only love themselves and don't care about others, so they steal. Universal love means loving each other and mutual benefit. It is the people who love and don't love each other that realize mutual love and mutual assistance, not mutual resentment and loss. Confucian attacks on universal love are: no monarch, no father and no beast. This shows the difference between Confucianism and Mohism about lovers. Non-attack is another proposition of Mohism. The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period is an era of frequent wars. The struggle between princes brought great pain to the people and caused many people's opposition. In addition to legalists who encouraged farming, all factions put forward anti-war ideas at that time. Confucius advocated cautious war and believed that conquest was only after the approval of the Zhou emperor. Laozi, on the other hand, based on the principle of respecting human life and obeying Tao, clearly declared that "a strong army must be destroyed." Advocating inaction, arguing and arguing, there is no war. Mozi put forward the pacifism of "no attack" It is believed that war is an unjust act launched by those "aggressive kings" in order to plunder land wealth. It only benefits a few people, but it brings profound disasters to everyone in the world. Mozi also tried his best to stop the war, for example, to stop the king of Chu from attacking the Song Dynasty, and Mozi also successfully stopped the State of Lu from attacking the Song Dynasty. Mozi's words and deeds brought him great prestige, and people came to him one after another. Mohism rose rapidly and became a school to contend with Confucianism. According to historical records, Confucius' disciples were disciples and filled the world.

Politically, Mozi advocated choosing the world's talented, wise, knowledgeable and intelligent people as emperors, and the emperors chose talented people as governors, and then the governors chose talented people as literati, which broke the feudal lineage system at that time. Later legalists used this idea to strengthen the monarchical power, deprived the scholar-officials of their rights, and started the process of China's reunification.

In the history of western philosophy and science, logic occupies a very important position. When commenting on China's philosophy and scientific system, westerners pointed out that China's lack of strict logical thinking was the main reason why modern science did not come into being. For example, geometric proof and mathematical reasoning are a rigorous logical reasoning process. Western society also pays attention to logic in other aspects, such as lawyers' debates in court. Now people in China sometimes laugh at westerners' emphasis on procedures and lack of flexibility, which is also the embodiment of these two different cultures. In fact, as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Mohists and famous scholars attached great importance to logic. In the history of logic, Aristotle's logic (Western), Ingenious logic (Indian) and Mohist logic (China) are called the three major logics in ancient world history. I don't know much about logic, so I'll copy a passage for you to see: The Mohist Scripture says: White horse, horse also; Riding a white horse, riding a horse. Horse, horse also; Riding a jackal, riding a horse. Yes, people are also; Love gains, love also; Zang, people also; Love zang, love also; This is, but it is also. It means that a white horse is a horse, riding a white horse is a horse, a dark horse is a horse, and riding a dark horse is also a horse. Loving a person named Huo is a lover, so loving a person named Zang is also a lover. At the same time, Aristotle's logic also said (see the last article on philosophy and science in the ancient Greek and Roman world): all mortals die (major premise) and Socrates is human (minor premise), so Socrates dies (conclusion).

The decline of Mohism: the rise of Mohism was closely related to the social background at that time. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, princes rose up and competed with each other. Without power, social thought becomes civilized, and the civilian philosophy represented by Mohism enters the stage and becomes a school on an equal footing with Confucianism. In the process of fighting for power and preventing war, Mozi established a semi-militarized team belonging to Mohism, which is intolerable to any big country. After Mozi's death, various governors used the military team and technology of Mohism to compete for hegemony and cultivate their own Mohism, so Mohism split. After Qin Shihuang unified China, he persecuted Mohism, Confucianism and other schools that did not belong to Legalism, and unified their thoughts. Due to the short time, after the demise of the Qin dynasty, the early Han dynasty practiced inaction, and Confucianism and Mohism flooded the world. By the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Mohism was hit again. The inaction of Taoism basically poses no threat to the ruling class, but the semi-militarized Mohism is unacceptable. Coupled with the rule of the Han Dynasty for 400 years, Mohism gradually disappeared in the future. Although there were Mohist disciples later, it didn't become a climate. China society entered the imperial society.