Mozi c. 470 BC – c. 391 BC

Mozi, also known as Mo Di or Master Mo, was a Chinese philosopher of the 5th century BC, founder of the Mohist school of philosophy, the major rival of early Confucianism during the Warring States period. His teaching, recorded in the book that bears his name, defended the doctrine of impartial care, holding that one should care for all people equally and without partiality, against the Confucian emphasis on differentiated duties to family and rulers. He developed influential arguments against offensive war, against ritual extravagance, and in favour of meritocratic political appointment. He and his school made early contributions to logic, optics, mechanics, and military engineering, and trained disciplined communities of students who lived austere lives under the direction of a school head. Mohism declined sharply after the Qin unification and was rediscovered as a major Chinese philosophical tradition in the 19th century.

Mozi (Mo Di, c. 470–391 BC) was the founding figure of Mohism, the philosophical school that competed with Confucianism for prominence in early Warring States China before being eclipsed in later Chinese intellectual history. The historical Mozi was probably a craftsman or member of the artisanal class, and his school was the first organized philosophical-religious movement in Chinese history, with a strict internal hierarchy and disciplined community life.

The surviving Mozi text is one of the most systematic philosophical works of the pre-Han period. Its central doctrines include impartial concern (jian-ai, sometimes translated universal love), the pragmatic evaluation of practices by their consequences for the welfare of the people, the rejection of elaborate Confucian ritual and music as wasteful, the doctrine of the will of heaven as a source of moral authority, and a sophisticated theory of language and dialectic. The Mohist Canons contain the most rigorous early Chinese work on logic, mathematics, and natural philosophy.

Mohism was politically powerful in the late Warring States period — the Confucian Mencius treats Mohism as Confucianism's chief rival — but largely disappeared after the Qin unification, surviving as a textual tradition rather than as a living school. Its rediscovery by twentieth-century Chinese scholars and its philosophical conversation with Western consequentialism and analytic philosophy of language have made it one of the most actively reread early Chinese traditions in contemporary scholarship.