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Two thinkers, side by side

Life

Portrait of Mozi
Mozi

c. 470 BCE – c. 391 BCE

ChineseMohist

Love everyone equally. He rejected Confucian hierarchy and built a disciplined community of pacifists who defended besieged cities.

Portrait of Mencius
Mencius

c. 372 BCE – c. 289 BCE

ChineseConfucian

Born Zou

Human nature is good. Like water flows downhill, the heart flows toward compassion. Nurture it, and virtue grows.

Connection

Mozi the doctrine Mencius had to destroy Mencius — Mencius named Mozi and Yang Zhu as the two errors filling the world, arguing that universal love without gradation denies a person's father and so unmakes the family that morality grows from.

Shared Ideas

Ren (Benevolence)JusticeLi (Ritual Propriety)Universal Love

Shared Places

Qufu

Ideas

Universal LoveJusticeRen (Benevolence)Li (Ritual Propriety)
Ren (Benevolence)VirtueJusticeLi (Ritual Propriety)Universal Love

Words

“The purpose of the benevolent is to bring benefit to the world and eliminate harm.”

— Mozi

“If you let people follow their feelings, they will be able to do good. That is what I mean by saying human nature is good.”

— Mencius

Key Moments

c. 470 BCE

Born in the Warring States

c. 440 BCE

Founding the Mohist School

c. 440 BCE

Defending Cities Against Siege

c. 430 BCE

Teaching Universal Love

c. 372 BCE

Born in Zou

c. 340 BCE

Advising the Warring States

c. 320 BCE

The Child at the Well

c. 315 BCE

The Mandate of Heaven

Works

Mozi

Mencius

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Volume I · Ancient Greece · 624-262 BCE