Chapter 21 3. To do justice, live to hell

Mencius acted chivalrously and righteously, while Mozi pretended to be a ghost. By saying this, Mo Zi may be wronged, because he may really believe in ghosts and gods.In order to prove the existence of ghosts and gods, Mozi once told a lot of stories about living people seeing ghosts.As a result, he was embarrassed. Once when Mozi was ill, a student named Bibi came to question: Why is Mr. Mozi sick?How can sir be sick? This is strange! People get sick, so why can't Mozi get sick? Because Mozi said that ghosts and gods are everywhere and omnipotent.If anyone practices universal love and does good deeds, ghosts and gods will reward him and make him lucky; if he does not practice universal love and do bad things, ghosts and gods will punish him and make him unlucky.

Sickness is the punishment of ghosts and gods. So he dropped his nose and asked: Isn't sir a saint? How could he be sick?Is there something wrong with my husband's words and deeds, or is it that ghosts and gods are blind? Of course Mozi couldn't admit it.He said to Shui Bi, I am sick and can't prove anything.There are many reasons for a person to be sick.The weather changes, work is too tiring, and so on.This is like a house with a hundred doors, and you only close one of them, and the thief cannot come in through which door! This doesn't make sense. Yes, your illness is not punished by ghosts and gods, so may I ask, who is ill?In other words, Zhang San’s illness is due to his exhaustion from work, and Li Si’s illness is the punishment of ghosts and gods. How to prove the causal relationship?

What's more, even if it can be proved, it can't be done.Because according to the logic just now, there may be hundreds of reasons for a person's luck or misfortune, and the rewards and punishments of ghosts and gods are only one of them.That being the case, what is there to be afraid of? However, in Mozi's view, people are not afraid of ghosts, they are scary. Mozi said that the reason why the world is in chaos today is because people don't believe in ghosts and gods, and they don't know that ghosts and gods "reward the virtuous and punish the violent".If you believe it, how can you act so boldly?

This also does not stand up to scrutiny. For example, the police want to catch bad people.Is it because the criminal does not believe that there are police in the world, so the police will not arrest him?Similarly, if there are ghosts and gods in the world, it won't care whether you believe it or not! The police don't have to be believed to work. The same goes for ghosts and gods. So, why does Mozi still talk about ghosts and gods? For righteousness. Doing righteousness is righteousness, why should you be afraid of ghosts? Because doing righteousness is too difficult.Mozi knew this very well.In fact, someone has already told him that now the whole world does not do justice, and you are the only one asking for trouble, so forget it!But Mozi said, for example, in a family of ten, one farms the land and nine idles, how can the only one who farms the land not work hard?Nothing is more precious than righteousness.If I don't do it, who will?

Unfortunately, it is probably only Mozi and his students who take this mission.All living beings can only be restrained by ghosts and gods.Ghosts and gods are deterrent.Officials know that there are ghosts and gods, so they dare not be dishonest, and they dare not neglect their duties; people know that there are ghosts and gods, they dare not disobey the law, and dare not commit adultery and violence.Respecting gods and fearing ghosts is "the way to govern the country and benefit the people". However, do ghosts and gods really "reward the virtuous and punish the violent"?

not necessarily. For example, Mozi himself did not seem to get any benefits.He and his students lived the hardest days.Their deeds of righteousness can be described as helpless, people do not help each other when they see them, and ghosts do not help them when they see them. So Wumazi, who was mentioned earlier, raised doubts. Wumazi said: Mr. does those righteous deeds, "people help when they don't see them, and get rich when ghosts don't see them." Mr. is still doing endlessly, is he sick? Mozi asked back: Suppose you have two assistants under your command.One does things only when he sees him, and he does not do them when he sees them.What about the other one?Do things when you see your husband, and do things when you don't see them.Excuse me, which one do you value, sir?

Wumazi said: Of course it is the latter one. Mozi said: That's it, sir, I also value the sick. Well!Since an assistant should do things regardless of whether the owner sees it or not, then, does a person full of justice in his heart need ghosts and gods to see his righteous deeds?Don't you need it? It can be seen that Mozi's theory of ghosts and gods is actually to deal with unrighteous people, and it cannot be taken as true, although this "pretend to play ghosts" deserves our respect. As for Mozi's own outlook on life, it is "Nothing is more valuable than righteousness".For this reason, he practiced himself, worked tirelessly, and struggled all his life.It was his duty to save the Song Dynasty; it was his duty to criticize Confucius.

To be a righteous person is Mozi's attitude towards life. We wish him the best of luck. Notes: