Mozi is proficient in manual skills. He calls himself "my man" and is called "the man in clothes". Mozi used to be a doctor in the Song Dynasty. He is a scholar who sympathizes with farmers. Mozi once learned Confucius' skills from Confucianism. But later, I got tired of the complicated rites and music of Confucianism, and finally abandoned Confucianism and formed my own Mohist school. Mozi received many disciples in his life, actively publicized his theory and spared no effort to oppose the merger war.
Mohism is a well-organized and disciplined group. The supreme leader is a "giant" and all Mohist members are called "Mohists". They must obey the guidance and command of giants. There are hundreds of close disciples of Mozi, forming a huge Mohist school. Mozi traveled all over China.
Mozi's theoretical thought is: 1. Love without attacking. The so-called universal love means equality and fraternity. Mozi asked the monarch, father and son, and brothers to love each other on the basis of equality. 2. God knows ghosts. Advocating heaven and ghosts is another feature of Mozi's thought. The innate human rights and the thought of restricting monarchs in Mozi's religious philosophy are one of the highlights in Mozi's philosophy. 3. Shangxian County, Shang Tong. Shang Tong asked the people and the son of heaven, like Tian Zhi, to unite and practice just politics. Shang Xian includes choosing the virtuous as the official and the virtuous as the emperor. 4. Save money and bury. They criticized the extravagance and waste of monarchs and nobles, especially opposed the custom of long funeral and heavy burial valued by Confucianism.
The main contribution of Mozi philosophy is epistemology. In his view, judging the existence and non-existence of things depends not on personal imagination, but on what everyone sees and hears, and draws the standard for testing the authenticity of knowledge. Mozi combines "material", "reality" and "profit" and tries to eliminate personal subjective prejudice by taking indirect experience, direct experience and social effect as the criterion. Mozi was also one of the important pioneers of China's ancient logic thought. He used the method of logical reasoning to establish and demonstrate his political and ethical thoughts.
The book Mozi is a record of Mozi and his disciples' words and deeds. The part of Mozi records Mozi's words and deeds, and discusses Mozi's thoughts, mainly the thoughts of Mohism in the early stage; There are also some Mohist debates or Mohist classics, which focus on Mohist epistemology and logical thought, and there are many natural science contents, all of which are later Mohist thoughts. There are many natural sciences, especially astronomy, geometric optics and statics.
The content of Mozi also involves politics, military affairs, philosophy, ethics, logic and science and technology, and it is an important historical material for studying Mozi and its later generations.
Mozi's achievements and contributions in the field of science and technology are various. In Mozi's view, the universe is a continuous whole, and both individuals and parts are separated from and part of this unified whole. Mozi was also the first scientist in the history of China to treat mathematical problems rationally. He gave a series of propositions and definitions of mathematical concepts. The mathematical concepts he gave are: the definitions of "double", "equal length", "middle" (that is, the symmetrical center of an object), circle, square and straight line. In addition, Mozi also discussed the decimal numerical system. Mozi's study of physics involves mechanics, optics and acoustics. Mozi was proficient in mechanical manufacturing, invented flying wooden birds and made cars with a load of 30 stones. He also knew that there were many innovations in the manufacturing technology of various weapons, machinery and engineering buildings at that time.
The most outstanding philosophical achievements of Mozi are epistemology and logic, and his contribution is incomparable to other philosophers in pre-Qin period. Mozi believes that there are three sources of human knowledge: listening, speaking and personally knowing. Mozi was also the founder of China's logic.
The most famous book on guarding city tactics in China's ancient war is Mozi written by Mohist school.
In a word, Mozi was one of the outstanding scientists in ancient China. Regrettably, Mozi's rational light in the field of science and technology will almost go out with the decline of Mohism in the future. Most scientists in later generations paid attention to practicality and neglected rational exploration, which was a great loss in the history of science and technology in China.