Chapter 43 Letter to Chen Boda[2] about the article "Mozi's Philosophical Thoughts"[1]

(February 1, 1939) Comrade Boda: I read "Mozi's Philosophical Thoughts". This is a great contribution to you, and you found Heraclitus[3] in China.There are a few individual opinions, which are written on a separate sheet for reference, but they are just impressions taken literally and have no basis for research. salute! Mao Zedong night of february (1) Topic It would be better to change it to "an ancient dialectical materialist——Mozi's philosophical thought" or "Mozi's materialist philosophy". (2) The reality of a thing is not only its attributes, but also its most fundamental quality. Quality and attributes are inseparable, but there is a difference. live. "Ambition" refers to the quality of things, things that don't change (within the scope of one thing), and gas seems to refer to quantity and attributes, things that change.

(3) "A gentleman cannot tell what is benevolent and what is not benevolent from his behavior", the meaning of this sentence should be: when a gentleman does something, he only knows how to do things that are not benevolent, but he does not know how to do benevolent things. It seems to be more clear . (4) The section on causality seems to be the relationship between necessity and contingency at the same time. "The reason why things are" is inevitability, and the manifestation of this inevitability is contingency.All manifestations of necessity are contingency, and they are all expressed by contingency.Therefore, "Without this part of the reason, there would have been no Wuchang Uprising on October 10" is correct, but the inevitability of the Revolution of 1911 (big story) must have erupted due to another accident (small story), and it has gone through countless accidents. (Small Story) and completed, may become the Hanyang Uprising on October 11, or an uprising in a certain place on a certain day of the month. "If it does not erupt at the most appropriate time, it may not necessarily become a prairie fire", but it will definitely erupt at another most appropriate time and become a prairie fire.

(5) The problem of moderation Mohism's "want to correct power, evil to correct power and harm" [4], "two without partiality" [5], "right but unshakable" [6], and Confucianism's "holding dual purposes" [7], " "Choose the mean and keep it in mind without losing it"[8], "Neutral and unreliable", and "Unchanged until death"[9] have the same meaning, they all affirm qualitative stability, and fight on two fronts for this qualitative stability , against too much and too little.Here are a few comments: (1) It is fighting on two fronts, using the method of fighting on two fronts to determine the relative quality. (2) The words of Confucianism and Mohism are different, but the meaning is the same. Mohism has no special development. (3) "Zheng" is a qualitative concept, which is the same as the Confucian "middle" (not biased). "Quantity" is not a concept of quality, but a method to define the difference between different qualities, which is the same as the "persistence" in Confucianism's "holding dual purposes". The "positive" of "desire" is "benefit", which distinguishes between cause and harm. The "positive" of "evil" is "harm", which distinguishes and does not mix with benefits. "The power is both without bias" should be interpreted as stipulating that a certain quality of things should not be biased to the left or right (not to be biased towards heterogeneity), but this sentence is not as clear and appropriate as "too much is not enough". development". (4) As for saying "Two without bias, it is Mozi who sees two different aspects of a quality and does not lean towards any one, which is right and truly conforms to that quality", which is very inappropriate. Call Mohism a theory of eclecticism.A quality has two aspects, but one aspect of the quality in a process is the main one, which is relatively stable and must be biased. The so-called certain quality, or a quality, refers to this aspect. On the one hand, this is quality, otherwise it negates quality.Therefore, Mo said that "no bias" means not to be biased towards the heterogeneous left and right, not to be biased towards one of the two qualitative aspects (in fact, this is not biased, it is just positive). If Mohism is materialist dialectics, it should be Do this solution.

(6) "half, end" problem Mozi's passage, especially Hu Shi's explanation, cannot prove the problem of qualitative transformation, which seems to be talking about the problem of finiteness and infinity. According to the "Selected Letters of Mao Zedong" published by People's Publishing House in 1983. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] The article "Mozi's Philosophical Thoughts" was written by Chen Boda. It was published successively in the 82nd, 102nd and 104th issues of "Liberation" in 1939 and 1940.

[2] Chen Boda, who was working in the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China at that time. [3] Heraclitus (about 540 BC - 470 BC), an ancient Greek materialist philosopher and the founder of the Ephesian School.His philosophy has simple materialism and simple dialectical thought. Lenin once called him "one of the founders of dialectics". [4] See "Mozi Jing 1".The original text reads: "If you want to correct rights, you will not correct rights and harm." [5] See "Mozi Jing Shuo 1".The original text is: "Those who fight, don't take sides." Sun Yirang said in "Mozijian Gu" that "war" should be regarded as "right".

[6] See "Mozi Jingxia".The original text is: "It's upright but not bearable." Sun Yirang said in "Mo Zi Jian Gu" that "carry" should be regarded as "shake". [7] See "The Doctrine of the Mean".The original text is: "The Master said: 'Shun's great knowledge is also with him. Shun is good at asking questions but is good at observing others' words. He conceals evil but promotes good. He holds both ends of his mind and uses it for the people. He thinks that Shun is the same.'" [8] See "The Doctrine of the Mean".The original text is: "The Master said: 'As a human being, you should choose the mean, and if you get a good thing, you will remember it with fist and fist, and you will never lose it.'"

[9] See "The Doctrine of the Mean".The original text reads: "A gentleman who is harmonious and not aloof is strong to correct; he is neutral and not leaning on him, it is strong to correct; a country has the way, and it does not remain blocked, it is strong to correct; the country has no way, and it does not change until death, it is strong to correct."