The difference between Mozi's theory of universal love and Confucian benevolence

Why did Mencius call Mozi "fatherless" an "animal"? -the difference between Confucian benevolence and Mohist universal love.

As we all know, among the pre-Qin philosophers, Mozi talked about "universal love", but Mencius, a great Confucian scholar, strongly criticized Mozi's "universal love":

? Mencius under Teng Wengong: "The holy king did not do it, the ministers let it go, Chu Shi argued, and Yang Zhu's words prevailed in the world." What the world says belongs to Mo if it doesn't belong to Yang. Yang, for me, there is no gentleman; Mohist universal love is fatherless. Without a father and a gentleman, it is an animal. "

The severity and directness of Mencius' tone is almost insulting, but people don't know why, which leads to different opinions. Those who cover "benevolence" are out of human nature, that is, close to human instinct "pro" heart. It is based on the natural feelings in the family, with blood as the link, emphasizing a warm atmosphere and paying attention to harmony as the basic essence. The so-called: "What is benevolence and righteousness? Father's kindness, son's filial piety, brother's kindness, brother's kindness, husband's righteousness, woman's listening, long-term benefit, gentleness, gentleman's benevolence and minister's loyalty. " (The Book of Rites). Based on human relations, then push yourself and others, the Analects of Confucius? "Eternal Night" said: "A benevolent person wants to be a man, and he wants to be successful. It can be said that the benevolent side has already existed. " The so-called "being able to look at others closely" means that you can take a sympathetic attitude towards others, empathize with their situation, and always treat others according to your own needs, so you can "provide for the old, be young and be young." (Mencius Hui Liang Wang Shang) From himself and him, from the body to the home country, that is, "self-cultivation, keeping the family in order, governing the country and leveling the world" This is a process of continuous growth and divergence from family ties, and it is a living, rooted and real process. On the other hand, Mohism's "universal love" seems to be "universal love" on the surface, but it has no foundation in it. It has no natural emotional growth process based on family and blood relationship, nor does it have a natural diffusion process from near (relatives) to far (strangers). So, it doesn't make sense. Everyone "loves", but in fact no one loves and no one has feelings for everyone. In fact, feelings for anyone are neither deep nor true. People are not immortals, and the contribution of feelings can never be evenly distributed, otherwise people's likes and dislikes will be cancelled, and then people's normal interpersonal relationships will be cancelled. In addition, a high-level person's broad mind and compassion will never happen overnight. It needs to be gradually improved through subtle cultivation and constant flow of water. This is by no means a dogmatic "fraternity" education that can be deeply rooted in people's hearts.

If dogmatic "fraternity" is to be carried out smoothly, we must first unify people's thoughts based on some unusual "ism", but the unity of thoughts cannot replace the firm maintenance of feelings, so the next task is to incite people's fanaticism and "unite" strangers who were originally isolated from each other with irrational passion. Break the strange barrier between people by the way of instant passion generation, so that everyone can "love" each other, even put it above family and affection, and leave home, children and life behind. It is precisely because he clearly realized the great destructive effect on family and interpersonal relationships that Mencius accused "Mohist universal love has no father." And "no father, no gentleman, an animal." Therefore, in essence, the "benevolence" of Confucianism and the "universal love" of Mohism are absolutely incompatible.

? "Kindness" is warm and lasting; And "universal love" is passionate and short-lived. "Kindness" based on family relationship tends to be conservative and self-satisfied; The "fraternity" based on social relations tends to be radical and fanatical. They pursue a self-made "goal" and "truth" and try to "achieve it" (at this time, the so-called "universal love" is mostly used as a means to achieve a certain purpose, not the purpose they pursue). Of course, there are generally only two ways to achieve this radical achievement: either cancel the "other" or cancel the "self". Abolishing "the other" is the common principle and pursuit of all ideological crystallization-"ism", and it is also the root of all wars, turmoil and conflicts. And canceling the "self" is probably only the "Buddha" that can really be done. Therefore, if we want to carry out this theory and doctrine, it must be more or less a kind of "abandoning the world" or simply an anti-secular thought. For example, Mohism's self-suffering behavior, excessive "frugality" and absolute "universal love" simply don't work in normal secular society. On the contrary, most adults and gentlemen who advocate "universal love" (or "universal love") and are conscious of the truth, as well as fanatics who actively practice this "universal love", are proud of sparing no effort to destroy family ties and family ties, and confidently believe that this is the first step towards greatness.

Mozi didn't know that human morality was born out of natural feelings-everyone "loves his body" and "loves his relatives", which is also the starting point of his argument (Mozi and Love: If Love Loves Your Body); Mo Zida: "If you love your loved ones, you must love them." )。 He is not ignorant that the ultimate goal of Confucianism lies in the harmony and mutual love of the whole world. In fact, he guessed that his theory of "universal love" was not much better than Confucian "benevolence" in terms of its political blueprint and how many new things there were. What's more, he can't figure out how people can jump from "love themselves" and "love their loved ones" to "treat others as they are, … take people's room as their room, … take people's home as their home, … take people's country as their country." Great love is boundless, that is, how a "mortal" suddenly sublimates into a "saint" In the end, there was no way to solve it, so the word "benefit" was used (of course, a "ghost"-"bright ghost" was also used to teach Shinto, but it was essentially based on political "interests", so it was not redundant), and his so-called "benefit" certainly did not exceed the usual "altruism", "benefiting people" and ".

Zi Mozi said: "The reason why benevolent people do things is to promote the benefits of the world and eliminate the harm of the world." (Mozi in Love)

Zi Mozi said, "The ancient soup is sealed in Bo, which is extremely long and extremely short, and it is hundreds of miles away. You love the people and are mutually beneficial, but you are divided when you move. " Leading the people and respecting the ghosts of heaven means enriching the people with the ghosts of heaven, benefiting the governors and the people, and returning the sages to them without dying, governing the world and governing the governors. In the past, King Wen was sealed in qi zhou. "Extremely long and extremely short, hundreds of miles away, love the people and benefit the people. Then, if you are near, you will be politically safe, and if you are far away, you will be virtuous. King Wen, all rise. Those who are unscrupulous and unlucky say,' why not make the land of the king of Wen and me, and I will benefit, not the people of the king of Wen.' It is built on the wealth of ghosts and gods. The princes and the people kiss it and the sages return it, but they are not dead, but kings of the world and political princes. The villagers said: the righteous are above the world, and the world will be ruled. God, mountains and rivers, ghosts and gods will all have a master, and all people will benefit from it. I know that. (Mozi Death)

In order to make a fundamental distinction with Confucianism, Mozi thinks that the biggest difference between him and the so-called "benevolence" of Confucianism lies in the word "benefit", which is the premise and representation of love and the actual content of love. It is meaningless to talk about righteousness and love without benefit;

? "Yili." (Mozi Shang Jing)

? "Sages love without profit, and the words of Confucianism are also the words of guests" (Mozi Daqu was corrected according to Sun Yirang)

Then the problem will be solved: "benevolence" based on kinship needs to be cultivated slowly, while "universal love" based on "profit" can be achieved quickly. As long as everyone follows his requirements and methods, the world will soon be ruled.

Combined with other expressions in his text, we can see that his concept of justice and benefit is an "interactive" value: I "don't do to others what you don't want others to do to you", and I also hope and demand that others can "do to others what you don't want them to do to you", and everyone must "don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you", so that my "don't do to you" behavior will not fail and my theory will be effective. And asking others to "don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you" is based on the inducement of "profit": let us "love" people, "I am for everyone and everyone is for me", "As long as everyone contributes a little love, the world will become a better world", and private interests can be truly and better realized. This "grand" "interest" induction seems reasonable and beautiful, but in fact, for every layman living in reality, the advocacy of "I am for everyone and everyone is for me" is unrealistic. When confronted with the immediate conflict of real interests, the demands for real self-interests immediately stand out. When the current private interests conflict with the slogan-style grand public interests, Confucius said: "A gentleman is righteous, a villain is beneficial" (The Analects of Confucius, Establishing People), if it is not higher than "interests". From the Confucian point of view, Mozi is really a "villain" (no matter what the name of this "benefit" is, whether it is personal interest or overall interest, whether it is for one's own small benefit or for the benefit of the world). Although his goal is grand ("love each other"), he is trapped in the entanglement of interests (telling the people about "interests" and "benefits"

And Confucianism has achieved some transcendence. Confucius and Mencius did not seek the long-term and overall grand interests of the society ("ruling the country and leveling the world"), but clearly saw that the return of grand interests could not replace the private reality and the current interest demands, and the absolute personal interests of reality could never be established as universal values, otherwise all the construction based on ethics and morality would collapse instantly. Logically speaking, the overall recognition and care for personal interests does not necessarily bring about the overall construction of big interests. The expected commitment of long-term private interests can't really stop people's hunger and short-sighted pursuit of personal immediate interests. Therefore, in the end, people found that the truly feasible pursuit of grand interests can only be implemented in the process of the birth and construction of human natural ethics based on "kissing", and this kind of "kissing" behavior based on human nature really goes beyond the consideration of any current realistic "interests", which is universal in people's daily family life and has been verified (on the contrary, the obvious dispute over the interests of family in our society today is that It is precisely because Mozi's theory of "universal love" has obvious theoretical and empirical cracks that cannot be bridged, so it finally achieved his utopian dream of transcending time and space: "loving the world is similar to loving a few, and universal love is similar; Love the world and love the afterlife, if you are from this world. " (Mozi Daqu) Its political and moral idealism and naivety are exposed completely.

(This article was originally written by Bu Diandong. Welcome to pay attention to "empty rooms make white luck" and communicate. )