P'eng Ch'ing Shengtse said: "The past can be known, the future cannot."
Mo Tzu said: Suppose your parents met with misfortune a 30 miles away,
and there was just the margin of a single day. If they could be reached they
would live, if not they would die. Here are a strong wagon and an excellent
horse, and here are a bad horse and a square-wheeled cart. You are allowed to
choose. Which would you take?
It was replied that the excellent horse and the strong wagon would of
course make for a more speedy journey.
Mo Tzu said: How then is the future not knowable?
.................
www.humanistictexts.org/motzu.htm#Universal%20Love
Mozi (Mo Tzu: ca. 490-403 BC) was China's first true philosopher. Mozi
pioneered the argumentative essay style and constructed the first normative and
political theories. He formulated a pragmatic theory of language that gave
classical Chinese philosophy its distinctive character. Speculations about
Mozi's origins highlight the social mobility of the era. The best explanation
of the rise of Mohism links it to the growth in influence of crafts and guilds
in China. Mohism became influential when technical intelligence began to
challenge traditional priestcraft in ancient China. The "Warring States" demand
for scholars perhaps drew him from the lower ranks of craftsmen. Some stories
picture him as a military fortifications expert. His criticisms show that he
was also familiar with the Confucian priesthood.
The Confucian defender, Mencius, (371-289 BC) complained that the "words of
Mozi and Yang Zhu fill the social world." Mozi advocated utilitarianism (using
general welfare as a criterion of the correct daoguiding discourse) and equal
concern for everyone. The Mohist movement eventually spawned a school of
philosophy of language (called Later Mohists) which in turn influenced the
mature form of both Daoism (Zhuangzi ca 360 BC) and Confucianism (Xunzi 298-238
BC).
The core Mohist text has a deliberate argumentative style. It uses a balanced
symmetry of expression and repetition that aids memorization and enhances
effect. Symmetry and repetition are natural stylistic aids for Classical
Chinese, which is an extremely analytic language (one that relies on word order
rather than part-of-speech inflections). Three rival accounts of most of the
important sections survive in the Mozi.
www.chinakongzi.com/2550/eng/mozi.htm
The universal person regards one's friend the same as oneself and the father of
one's friend as one's father. Only the person who does this can be considered a
truly superior person. Such a person will feed people when they are hungry,
clothe them when they are cold, nourish them when they are sick, and bury them
when they die. The selfish person will not. To which type of person will one
trust the support of one's parents? To the universal person or the selfish one?
Even if one does not believe in universal love, that person would trust his or
her family to the universal person. Thus people criticize universal love in
words but adopt it in practice. Also if people had to choose between these two
types of rulers, which would they follow?
www.san.beck.org/EC15-Taoism.html#3
