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| Mozi
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| (Traditional names)
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| Ancestral name (姓): | Jiang (Ch: 姜 ; Py: Jiāng)
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| Clan name (氏): | Mo¹ (Ch: 墨 ; Py: Mò)
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| Given name (名): | Di (Ch: 翟 ; Py: Dí)
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| (Modern scholarship)
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| Ancestral name (姓): | Unknown
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| Clan name (氏): | Unknown²
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| Given name (名): | Di (Ch: 翟 ; Py: Dí)
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| Styled: | Master Mo
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| | (Ch: 墨子; Py: Mòzǐ)
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1 Traditionally, Mozi was supposed to be descending from
the Lord of Guzhu (孤竹君), himself descending from
Shennong the legendary emperor. The descendants of the
Lord of Guzhu had the clan name Motai (墨胎) ,
which later was shortened into Mo.
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2 Modern scholarship suggests that Mo was not the clan name
of Mozi, this clan/family name Mo not being encountered
during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods,
but that Mo was rather the name of the mohist school
itself, derived from the name of a criminal punishment
(tattooing of the forehead of criminals). The actual
ancestral name and clan name of Mozi is not known.
It may be that, because Mozi was born in the low classes
(which seems established), he did not have ancestral
or clan names. During Chinese Antiquity, the vast majority
of Chinese people, who were not related to aristocratic
families, did not possess ancestral and clan names.
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Mozi (ca. 470 BC - ca. 390 BC), whose name is sometimes latinised as Micius, lived in China during the Hundred Schools of Thought of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. He founded the school of Mohism and preached strongly against Confucianism and Daoism. The school did not survive the Qin Dynasty and throughout both traditional and modern Chinese eras was viewed largely in historical terms rather than as a school of thought that was actively being developed.
Mozi idealised the Xia Dynasty, and advocated judging ideas and objects through the human senses, by their utility and their antiquity. Mozi denounced offensive warfare, extravagant funerals and music, and tried to replace Chinese family and clanic structure with the concept of bo-ai which can be translated as "impartial caring" or "universal love". In this, he argued directly against Confucians such as Mencius, who argued that it was natural and correct for people to care about different people in different amounts. Mozi, by contrast, argued that one should care for all people equally, a notion that philosophers in other schools found absurd as it would imply no special amount of care or duty towards one's parents and family.
He favoured frugality, denouncing music and ceremony as extravagant, and advocated increasing the power of the state through early marriage and a system of rewards and punishments.
Mozi also held a belief in the power of ghosts and spirits, although he is often thought to only worship them pragmatically. That is, that heaven, tian, should be respected because failing to do so would subject one to punishment. In this regard, Mozi favors government which imitates his conception of heaven.
The Mozi is the name of the philosophical text compiled by Mohists from Mozi's thought.
