The Impact Of Mohism On The Social Development In The Late Qing And Republic Period

The late Qing Dynasty and the Republic period was very important in Chinese history, when Chinese society evolved into a modern form from an ancient form and Mohism revived its decline. Mohism had a profound impact on the development of the society in that period, and reached the second peak following the first peak in between the Warring States Period and the early Western Han Dynasty. Mohism played a significant role in the modernization process of science and technology, politics, religion, humanities, logic and many other areas in the late Qing and Republic society. In this process, despite that Mohism does bear some negative elements, its influence was positive overall for China's social development.First of all, Mohism significantly impacted on the introduction of modern natural science and technology from the West in the late Qing and Republic period. Many late Qing scholars once believed in a doctrine "xi xue mo yuan"("西学墨源")which states that the western science and technology originated from Mohism. That was an important part of the prevalent doctrine "xi xue zhong yuan"("西学中源")stating that the western culture originated from China, which promoted the introduction of the western science and technology.Late Qing scholars'new theory of the relationship between "Dao"(道)and"Qi"(器)could provide further evidence to support the doctrine that the western culture originated exactly from the study on "Qi" of the Mohism. This doctrine reflected strong Chinese cultural centrism of the late Qing scholars.In late Qing Dynasty, the doctrine "xi xue mo yuan" was initiated by a few scholars of Mohism such as Zhou Boqi, Chen Li, Zhang Zimu etc, and thereafter progressively influenced the whole literati class. This influence reached its peak during the Reform Movement, and still had aftermath in the early 20th century. After the failure of the Reform Movement, many scholars represented by Yan Fu made harsh criticism on this "xi xue mo yuan" pointing out its theoretical errors and the resulted adverse effects. However, "xi xue mo yuan" was a part of another prevalent doctrine "xi xue zhong yuan" in academia of late Qing Dynasty. As a result, "xi xue mo yuan" effectively connected the western culture and the Chinese ancient culture. The introduction of the western science and technology mainly by the westernization movement was just directed by this doctrine. In a form of cultural-misreading, Mohism made its contributions to the communication and integration between the western and Chinese cultures.Nevertheless, "xi xue mo yuan" was confined to the theoretical framework of Confucianism. It was the the adjustments of Confucianism to adapt itself to the new era. Given the fact that the academic status of Mohism was still below Confucianism, the influence of Mohism on field of science and technology of late Qing was weaker than that of Confucianism.Additionally, the theories of "Universal Love"(兼爱),"Conformity Model"(尚同),"Anti-Fate"(非命)provided an important reference for the pioneering Chinese scholars understanding and accepting the modern western humanistic spirits and Socio-political ideas and systems. However, there once existed some invalid analogy considering Mohism as the same as the western culture, which in turn results in the prevalence of the doctrine "xi xu mo yuan". Despite this invalid analogy, Mohism still played a catalytic role in the reforms and changes of the humanistic spirits and Socio-political ideas and systems in the late Qing and Republic period.In the period prior to the failure of the Reform Movement, as the part of the trend of thought "to restore for liberty", the theory of "Conformity Model" helped the late Qing scholars to understand and accept the western modern democratic ideas and political systems. Some scholars believed "Conformity Model" as the same thing as the western modern democratic ideas and Parliamentary system. Even more, some scholars thought those western ideas and systems were originated from Mohism. Theories of "Conformity Model" and "Universal Love" also helped scholars to understand and accept the idea of Equality which was closely related with the democratic ideas.From the failure of the Reform Movement to the times 1911 Revolution gradually reached its climax, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many Chinese intellectuals noticed the similarities between the theory of "Universal Love" and the western Humanitarianism and Socialism. They vigorously propagandaed "Universal Love" as the same thing as the western Humanitarianism and Socialism and enhanced the spread of those methods. In the ideological trend against determinism in the late Qing and Republic period, the theory of "Anti-Fate" played a certain role, thus benefited national salvation. The theory of "Anti-War"(非攻)brought some inspiration to the intellectuals who wanted to achieve world peace in this period. Liang Qichao made great contributions to enlarge the influence of Mohism. The influence of Mohism in this period had basically eliminated the errors of believing western culture originated from Mohism.Thirdly, Mohism had a great impact on the religious thoughts and activities in the late Qing and Republic period. It was especially closely connected with the spread of Christianity and the prevalence of the religious thoughts in some Specific periods.The unique theories such as "Will of Heaven"(天志)and "Existence of Ghosts "(明鬼)in Mohism had set up an platform for the communication between the Chinese intellectuals and the Christians. The Chinese scholars in late Qing noticed the similarities between Mohism and Christianity, and recognized the commonality between Mo Zi and Jesus and considered them comparable. In the course of comparison, some people even believed Mohism as the source of Christianity. However, this did not prevent Mohism from playing a positive role in influencing the religious thoughts and activities of the society at that time. On the one hand, under the control of Confucianism, the intellectuals deepened the understanding of Christianity through the comparison of Mohism and Christianity, ceased taking Christianity as a completely foreign culture. Instead, they started to treat it as a school of philosophy, similar to "the Philosophers Philosophy"("诸子哲学"),relaxing the environment for the spread of Christianity. Under the inspiration of the Christian culture, Chinese intellectuals started to pay more attention to the social role of religion, and carried out a series of activities to protect Confucianism as religion. In addition, Buddhism also was prevalent in that times. In this process, the religious thoughts of Mohism caugtht attention; some people regarded Mohism as a kind of religion, and advocated the religious value of Mohism for social development. In the book "the Theories of Mo Zi"(《子墨子学说》), Liang Qichao strongly advocated the social value of the religious thoughts of Mohism. On the other hand, in the first half of the 20th Century, Confucianism gradually lost its dominance, while the status of Mohism was greatly improved, In this situation, the Chinese priests learned in traditional culture, represented by Huang Zhiji Zhang Chunyi Wang Zhixin and Wu Leichuan, found the cultural basis for the spread of Christianity through the comparison of Christianity and Mohism.Fourthly, born with selflessly salvational spirit and advocating diligence and frugality, Mo Zi was well regarded by the scholars and intellectuals in the late Qing and Republic period. His personality and spirit contributed to the formation of the spirit of modern Chinese personality.Even though Zeng Guofan only had a shallow knowledge about Mohism, and his thoughts of diligence and frugality were very different from those of Mohism, the inheritance relationship between them could not be ignored. Zeng Guofan used Mohism to label his thoughts of diligence and frugality, and regarded Mo Zi as the most representative person of diligence and frugality. He respected, advocated and followed the example of Mo Zi, from which we can find the influence of Mohism upon him. Zeng Guofan's advocation of diligence and frugality labeled by Mohism enhanced the spread of Mohism, and made the acceptance of diligence and frugality by more people easier.After the 1894 Sino-Japanese War, people praised the salvation spirit of Mo Zi without prejudice of Confucian orthodoxy. In the Reform Movement, the person most deeply influenced by the salvation spirit and personality of Mo Zi was Tan Sitong. Just through Tan Sitong, the salvation spirit of Mo Zi revived in the modern society, and through the example of Tan Sitong this spirit was widely spreaded. Including bourgeois revolutionaries and communists, many patriotic pioneers could be seen as the successors of Mo Zi. For example, when 1911 Revolution gradually reached its climax, it was popular for revolutionaries to assassinate the dignitaries of the Qing government. This chivalrous atmosphere can be attributed to Mohism to a certain extent.In Republic period, the personal spirit of Mo Zi attracted even more attention by wider community. The salvation spirit and personality of Mo Zi had gained deep acceptance.Last but not least, under the inspirations of traditional formal logics of the west and indian hetu-vidya(因明),many intellectuals rediscovered the logical value of Mo-Bian(墨辩),which represented the thoughts on logic in Mohism. Mo-Bian, as a special system of ancient logic, played a role in promoting the spread of western traditional formal logic in China, and inspired the modern logic scholars to find out the characteristics of the thoughts on logic in Chinese history and to compare Chinese and western logic. "Logics of Mo Zi"(《墨子之论理学》)by Liang Qichao was the first book to research Mo-Bian using the western logical knowledge. Based on the research of Mo-Bian, Liang Qi-chao came to the conclusion that China had logical tradition of herself. This conclusion was an amendment to Yan Fu's. As the researchers made deeper comparison between Chinese logics and Indian and western logics, represented by Zhang Taiyan, Hu Shi and Tan Jiefu, the scholars gradually admitted the Chinese logics as one of the three independent logical systems of ancient world. In the comparison of Chinese western and Indian traditional logics, Mo-Bian, as the main representative of Chinese logics, had played an irreplaceably important role.In the late Qing and Republic period, the status of Mohism underwent a process of gradual improvement relative to Confucianism. This process reflected the gradually increased social influence of Mohism. Respectively, the identity of Mohism had changed from a science of statecraft to a science of humanistic tradition. The process how Mohism influenced the late Qing and Republic society could be divided into three different historical periods. As it improved the modernization of Chinese society, Mohism achieved its own evolution at the same time.