Part 8 (2/2)

2There are multiple versions of many of the central chapters of the Mozi; these probably reflect the views of the three different sects of Mohism, which appeared after Mozi's death. I have chosen what I consider to be the most interesting version of each chapter translated here. Our chapter headings refer to the primary divisions in standard editions of the complete text.

3The Mozi is unique among early Chinese philosophical texts in the manner in which it refers to its author. Most philosophers of the period were referred to as ”Master so-and-so” by adding the honorific zi after the person's surname (see Important Terms). In the case of Mo Di this would yield ”Mozi.” But the Mohists refer to their master as zimozi . This probably meant ”Our teacher Master Mo.” A similar prefixed use of zi is found in the Gongyang commentary to the Spring and Autumn Annals.

4The Mozi often employs the literary device of an unnamed interlocutor to carry forth the dialogue.

5The site of important state sacrifices and often used as a metaphor for the foundation and stability of the state. Cf. Mozi's various references to this and other sacrificial sites in ”On Ghosts.” See Mozi, chapter 31, pp. 94104.

6That is, people were evaluated and served only on the basis of their righteousness.

7This seems to have been a recognizable political slogan of the time.

8A place of uncertain location.

9Yi is Bo Yi (not to be confused with the brother of Shu Qi-see Important Figures). Bo Yi a.s.sisted Yu in his flood-control work and served him as an exemplary minister. Yinfang is a place of uncertain location. According to an ancient system of territorial division, China consisted of ”nine realms.”

10Hong Yao and Tai Yi were gamekeepers for King Wen. Technically, ”rabbit snares” should be rendered ”rabbit nets.” See selection # 177 (Mao # 278) in Arthur Waley, The Book of Songs (London: Allen and Unwin, 1952) for a poem singing the praises of such a gamekeeper, describing him as a fitting companion and confidant for a king. (Note: The Book of Songs is Waley's translation of the cla.s.sic referred to in this volume as the Odes.) 11The character yi ,that I here translate as ”norm” (for deciding what is right and wrong) is often rendered as ”right” or ”righteousness” (see Important Terms). The senses are clearly related, but the context here argues for ”norm” as more appropriate.

12”Right and wrong” is the translation of the Chinese terms s.h.i.+/fei . Below, these terms are rendered verbally as ”to approve” and ”to condemn.” Cf Mengzi 2A6 and n. 27 to that pa.s.sage.

13The Five Punishments are said to be tattooing the face, cutting off the nose, cutting off the feet, castration, and death.

14Ba, Yue, Qi, and Jing are four ancient states that were far removed from the center of Chinese civilization at the time.

15People lying unburied in the ditches and gullies was a common trope used to ill.u.s.trate a state of profound misrule. Cf. for example, Mengzi 1B12, 2B4 (not in this volume).

16Picking up Mount Tai and carrying it across a vast expanse of water is a common trope for an impossible task. Cf. Mengzi 1A7 where the vast expanse of water is the North Sea. The Chang Jiang or ”Yangtze River” and the Huang He or ”Yellow River” are the largest rivers in central China.

17Kings Yu, Tang, Wen, and Wu.

18The ”Great Oath” was a speech purportedly given by King Wu. The original was said to be included in the History but was lost. A later forgery is included in the present edition of the History and part of it is quite similar to what Mozi quotes here. See Legge, The Shoo King, pp. 29697.

19The Oath of Yu is a lost section of the History that purportedly recorded the words of the sage-king Yu. Again a pa.s.sage that is quite similar to what Mozi quotes can be found in the present text. See Legge, The Shoo King, pp. 64-65.

20The ”little one” (literally, ”small child”) is a self-deprecating term of self-reference used by virtuous kings.

21The Miao are said to be a people who lived to the southeast in the area of present-day Hunan and Hubei.

22The Declaration of Tang is another lost section of the History that purportedly recorded the words of the sage-king Tang. However, lines similar to what Mozi here quotes appear in a.n.a.lects, chapter 20. Also similar lines can be found scattered throughout the present Announcement of Tang section of the History. See Legge, The Shoo King, pp. 18490.

23On the ”little one” see n. 20. Lu is the personal name of King Tang and in such a public context, this use of the personal name is another humble form of self-reference.

24This leads us to look in the Odes. However, the present text has only the last four lines quoted here (Mao # 203) with slight variation. The first four lines, though, are found with slight variation in the present text of the History. For the last four lines, see James Legge, tr., The Chinese Cla.s.sics, Volume IV, The She King, reprint (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1970), p. 353; for the first four, see Legge, The Shoo King, p. 331.

25The Elegies are a section in the Odes (see Odes under Important Texts). Only the first two lines, with slight variation, appear in the present version of the text. See Legge, The She King, op. cit., p. 514.

26This and the following story about the King of Yue are also cited by Han Feizi in ”The Two Handles.” See Han Feizi, chapter 7, pp. 32526.

27The Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties.

28Almost certainly, Mozi here has in mind the Confucians who maintained elaborate and prolonged rituals of mourning. See for example, a.n.a.lects 17.21, Mengzi 3A5 and 7A39, and Xunzi's ”Discourse on Ritual.” See Xunzi, chapter 19, pp. 27485.

29This refers to ritual sacrifice, most popular during the Shang but still practiced in Mozi's own time. Mengzi quotes Kongzi as definitively rejecting even the vestiges of such practices. See Mengzi 1A4 (not in this volume).

30A list of these offices and their duties can be found in a later work called the Liji (”Book of Rites”). See the entry on the Rites under Important Texts. For a translation, see James Legge, tr., The Li Chi: Book of Rites, reprint, vol. 1 (New York: University Books, 1967), pp. 10910.

31The rulers of these particular states were jousting for preeminence in Mozi's time.

32As seen clearly in the following two chapters, Mozi was a religious conservative and a fundamentalist. He insisted that a belief in and the wors.h.i.+p of the Lord on High, ghosts, and spirits was necessary for a stable and flouris.h.i.+ng society. He was very much opposed to the more naturalized, psychological interpretations of religious ceremony that were evolving among Confucian thinkers of the time.

33The name given to various non-Chinese people to the north of Chinese territory.

34The location of this mountain is not clear, though it obviously was located somewhere to the north of what was Chinese territory at the time.

35Showing that it was not accorded any special status.

36The name given to various non-Chinese people to the west of Chinese territory.

37Scholars do not agree about the location of this town. It obviously was located somewhere to the west of what was Chinese territory at the time.

38The name given to various non-Chinese people to the east of Chinese territory. Thus Mozi's narrative purports to report on funeral practices throughout all of China and its three land borders.

39A mountain located in Shanyin county of present-day Zhejiang province.

40This indicates that the grave was of very modest proportions for a king.

41That is, China.

42This appears to have been a common saying of the times.

43The precise location of this state is uncertain but its location, ”east of Yue,” connotes a faraway and culturally primitive area.

44The precise location of this state is uncertain but its location, ”south of Chu,” connotes a faraway and culturally primitive area.

45Such secondary reburial of bones, while never the dominant practice, is well attested in very early China. There is evidence for the practice in the Central Plains and Northwest as far back as the fifth millennium B.C.E. See David N. Keightley, ”Early Civilization in China: Reflections on How It Became Chinese,” in Heritage of China, Paul S. Ropp, ed. (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1990), p. 24.

46Qin was the state farthest to the west and was considered culturally backward in Mozi's time.

47In the basic annals section for the state of Qin in Sima Qian's s.h.i.+ji (”Record of the Historian”), there is reference to a state by this name. Its exact location is still a matter of debate.

48The word translated here as ”will” is zhi , which means the settled and persisting intention of an agent. For Mozi, Heaven was less a personality with a capricious or unknowable will and more an established, observable, and predictable set of inclinations.

49Mozi has in mind here the practice of living in a family compound, where several generations share a common courtyard but each have their separate quarters.

50 This seems to have been a common saying of the time but its source is unknown.

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