Home Categories Chinese history Yi Zhongtian History of China 06·A hundred schools of thought contend

Chapter 16 4. Governance by man produces spies

That's right, even if he was reborn, Mo Zi would most likely not approve of Han Fei. This can be guessed. Once, Mozi asked Tian He, the prince of Tian Qi: Now there is a knife here, and I tried to cut off a person's head with it, and it cut off with one knife. Is it sharp? Tian He said: sharp. Mozi asked again: All the way through the cut, it will be broken with one knife. Is it sharp? Tian He said: sharp. Mozi asked again: The knife is sharp, who will be unlucky? Tian He said: The person who tried the knife. So Mozi finally asked: Who will be unlucky to annex other countries, destroy other people's armies, and harm other people's people?

Tian He lowered his head and then raised his head, thought and said: I will be unlucky. Mozi told this story, of course, to oppose the war and to promote his idea of ​​universal love.But the truth he said is universal, that is, don't use the knife easily.Soldiers are also murderous weapons, and it is ominous to use them.Those who try the knife are in danger, and there are also those who offer the knife, not to mention that the offer is still "double-faced and three-sword"! How can the Legalists be appreciated by the Mohists? In fact, Mohism and Law are fundamentally different: Legalism is "for the monarch", while Mohism is "for the world".Mozi's thinking has a general outline, which is "to promote the benefits of the world and eliminate the harm of the world".For such a thinker, it is easy to understand that he upholds civil rights; it is incomprehensible to say that he does not want civil rights.

Unfortunately this is true. There is no doubt that Mozi never said that he did not want civil rights, let alone openly advocated autocracy.It can be said that he didn't even think that his doctrine and practice would eventually lead to dictatorship.But it is undeniable that he has indeed turned his organization into a society of bees and ants.So, is it possible for a bee-ant society to be a civil rights society?Will worker bees and worker ants also have citizenship in this organizational structure? of course not.But why? It's very simple, because Mozi, like Confucianism and Legalism, both advocated that society should be orderly.It's just that the maintenance of this order, Confucianism advocates relying on propriety, Legalism advocates the law, but Mozi places his hope on others.

who? leader. In Mozi's view, leaders are very important. Mozi said that at the beginning of the birth of human beings, there was no political system and no leader (no political chief).Thus, one person has one opinion, two people have two opinions, and ten people have ten opinions.The more people, the more doctrines.Everyone says they are right and others are wrong, attacking each other and criticizing each other.As a result, "the chaos in the world is like a beast." This is the serious consequence of lack of leadership. It can be seen that if there is a problem in society, there must be two reasons, one is "not loving each other", and the other is "no political leader".If there is no love, there will be fighting, because there is no humanitarianism; if there is no political leader, there will be chaos, because there is no unified will.

Because of this, Mozi prescribed two prescriptions: for those who do not love each other, it is universal love; for those who have no political leadership, it is Shangtong. The meaning of Shang Tong has already been said before, and we have already made it clear that the opinions of the villagers are unified by the village head, the opinions of the villagers are unified by the head of the village, the opinions of the people are unified by the monarch, and the opinions of the whole people are unified by the emperor.The son of heaven "shares the righteousness of the world", and the princes "shares the righteousness of their country".By analogy, all wills can be unified, and the world is orderly.

Mozi believed that this is the origin of politics and the meaning of politics.Politics is the unification of the will by wise leaders. This kind of politics is, of course, the rule of man. That's where the problem lies. According to Mozi, the reason why human beings want a government is to unify their will; they want an emperor to unify their thoughts.It must be assumed in advance that the government must be correct, the emperor must be wise, and they must all be universally loving.Otherwise, what do you want him to do? So, is this premise warranted? Mozi said yes.Because from the very beginning, the emperor was selected according to this standard.Moreover, the facts have proved that he is both virtuous and holy.For example, if a villager does something good or bad, not all the family members know about it, and not all the villagers know about it, but the emperor knows it clearly and directly orders rewards or punishments.So everyone said that "the son of heaven is also the god of hearing and hearing".

strangeness!How did he know? God knows! Mozi himself knew that he couldn't justify it.But in order to maintain the rule of man, he added that the emperor is not actually a god.He can know everything because he "makes others' eyes and ears help him see and hear", that is, someone informs him. This of course makes sense.But we still have to ask: who tipped him off?the people?Seems unlikely.Because these things mentioned above are "not widely known by the people in his room, and not widely heard in the village".The masses themselves don't know, so how can they talk about it?

There is only one explanation: the emperor arranged an undercover agent. Isn't this terrible? In fact, it would be even more terrifying if it was the masses who reported it, because there are spies everywhere.This is even worse than the society of bees and ants.Although worker bees and worker ants have no brains, they can't be spies either. An analogy is the Qin State under the rule of Shang Yang.That is also what all people obey and take orders from the supreme leader.However, in Shang Yang and Qin after Shang Yang, all the people are soldiers or policemen; in the world designed by Mozi and Mozi, all people are spies or undercover agents.Which is scarier?

All terrible. There is no doubt that such a society will not talk about civil rights.This is of course far from Mozi's original intention, but it is a logical necessity.Because everything Mozi does is for social fairness and justice, but he never considers individual rights and dignity, nor does he know that without individual rights and dignity, there will be no social fairness and justice. So, has anyone thought of this? Have. Who thought of that? Yang Zhu.
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