Meritocracy

Mozi was unhappy about the societal structure he lived in, and aimed to change it by calling on his followers to establish a new way of ruling. He thought the power of aristocratic families should be broken and the shackles of family background be shaken off. For good rule of state, Mozi had two suggestions, also double-sided: promotion of the virtuous and capable, and compliance to superiors.

For Mozi, everyone deserved the chance to participate in social management no matter what background they came from. He encouraged rulers to select candidates for official posts only on the basis of their ability. Most Mohist followers had humble roots, so they looked forward to a political system in which competence mattered, instead of one in which pedigree decided one’s position.

His dictum that selected officials should align themselves with their higher-ups was to establish unified moral standards and political centralization. He encouraged officials to communicate their opinions to those of higher ranks, but insisted that they had to finally get onto the same page by any means. According to Mozi, subordinates must ultimately accept that what their superior thinks is right as right, and what is said to be wrong is wrong. When the superior is at fault his acolyte should provide good counsel, and when the powerful spots virtue in subordinates he should promote it among other underlings. Here Mozi demonstrates a contradictory attitude on the issue of state governance. On one hand, he hoped that rulers could become open-minded, and grant official posts only to the qualified; on the other hand, he advocated absolute obedience to the lord of a state on the presumption that his ascension to that position meant he was the most high-minded and tender-hearted of men.

Unlike the ritual worship and passion for music in Confucian teachings, Mozi disdained music and dance as extravagant and wasteful. He contended that state policies should give priority to meeting the primary needs of the people, like subsistence, and be mindful not to add to their burdens. He deemed the development of music as an unnecessary diversion of financial resources compared to the more important concerns of food, clothing and shelter for all members of society. Mozi also recommended spartan funerals because he believed squandering money on the dead unnecessarily depleted the fortunes of the living. Elaborate exequial rituals and prolonged mourning for the deceased exhausted their families both emotionally and financially. Mozi argued that instead of being obsessed with the afterlife, rulers should pay more attention to this life and the living with whose welfare they were charged.

Mozi was a strong opponent of fatalism. The view that dominated at the time was that one’s fate was predetermined, but Mozi put forward the idea that people are not destined for failure or success, wealth or poverty, a noble or a low status, and they should take a positive attitude toward life and strive for all they could possibly achieve from their vantage point.

The Mohist school was eclipsed in the centuries that followed the Qin Dynasty, and not until the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) did some scholars go back and study it. For most of China’s ancient history Confucianism was upheld by the ruling class and became orthodox as Mohism was nudged to the margins. Mozi offended those in power for trying to hobble their authority with the threat of being watched by heaven, and for decrying the profligate living that went hand-in-hand with their privilege. Meanwhile Mozi was not popular among commoners either for drumming into them the virtues of submission to an unfair and hierarchical system, and also for bidding them to love strangers as much as their own family. Despite its ups and downs in Chinese philosophical history, the logic, the scientific spirit and the ideal of a just society in Mohism remain unmatched contributions to the spiritual development of humanity.

WEN HAIMING is an associate professor at the School of Philosophy of Renmin University of China. He has a doctorate from the University of Hawaii and specializes in Chinese and Comparative Philosophy.