Mo Tzu was one of the most influential Chinese philosophers, who proposed a society based on all-embracing love.
The Chinese philosophy started by Mo Tzu is known as Mohism. Mo Tzu’s teachings were collected together in the book Mo Tzu by his followers. One of the essential doctrines of Mohism is jian ai: other people’s parents, families, and countries are to be treated like one’s own. This term is usually translated as “all-embracing love”, “universal love” or “inclusive care”.
Mo Tzu was not against the Confucianists’ central idea of ren (human-heartedness) and yi (righteousness). But what he meant by these terms was somewhat different. For Mo Tzu, ren and yi meant an all-embracing love. This was a logical extension of the professional ethics of the class of knights errant (游侠). That was, knights errant enjoyed equally and suffered equally within the group. Mo Tzu tried to broaden it by preaching that everyone in the world should love everyone else equally and without discrimination.
The human-hearted man must practice all-embracing love. When everyone in the world adopted all-embracing love as the standard of action, “then attentive ears and keen eyes will respond to serve one another, limbs (四肢) will be strengthened to work for one another, and those who know the proper principle will untiringly instruct others. Thus the aged and widowers will have support and nourishment (营 养) with which to round out (使充实) their old age, and the young and weak and orphans will have a place of support in which to grow up.” This is Mo Tzu’s ideal world.
墨子的思想
墨子在政治上提出了“兼爱”“非攻”“尚贤”“尚同”等主张。所谓兼爱，包含平等 与博爱的意思。墨子要求君臣、父母、兄弟都要在平等的基础上相互友爱，爱别人就像 爱自己，并认为社会上出现强执弱、富侮贫、贵傲贱的现象是天下人不相爱所致。