On Mozi's "Universal Love" And "Heaven's Will" Thoughts

Mozi's"universal love"and"Heaven's will"thoughts play a very important role in Mozi's Ten Arguments."Universal love"means to"love each other", and this thought embodies the principle of equality and mutual love. Mozi's"universal love"thought is based on the hypothesis that human nature can be changed and thus human nature can be led to"kindness". Compared with the"relative to relative"thought of the Confucianism, Mozi does not simply criticize and negate the Confucianism thought of love with difference and categorization. Mozi held that the love with difference and categorization thought held by Confucianism was reasonable to some extend. The goal of"universal love"is not to love self and benefit self by the means of loving and benefiting others. It emphasizes the true equality, mutual benefit, and mutual love and even to benefit and love others by harming self. And Mozi lived to this sublime thought all his life. Since Mozi held the thought of"mutual love and mutual benefit", Mozi was opposed to war which did harm to the two sides. Thus, this thought is call"non-attack". All these show that"universal love"is not to love without principles and conditions. Mozi held that people should prevent the immoral and evil aggressive invaders from attacking and even should attack them actively. And all these can show Mozi's dialectical thought which integrates peace-loving and violence admiration. The universal love thought not only emphasizes that people should love and benefit others actively but also should love and benefit mutually. Only by doing so can the world be perfectly governed. The"universal love"thought often emphasizes"justice"and"love". In Mozi's opinion, love and benefit is integrated and support each other. Theoretically, Mozi's universal love thought is without difference and categorization, however, it is inevitably with difference and categorization in reality.Mozi's"Heaven's will"thought holds that Heaven which controls the good fortune, the bad fortune, disaster and luck is the master of the universe. Heaven has his own will and controls the universe with integrity as his unique characteristic, love and benefit to others as his essence and means and justice as his principle. Heaven's will will be conveyed to the human society through ghosts. The assistance function of ghosts is necessary, so there is a need to"enlighten the ghosts". The human society should be governed by the principles of"reward the able and punish the violent, reward the kind and punish the evil"according to the"Heaven's will". Mozi was against the fatalism which held that human being could not change their fate whatever they did. The"non-fatalism"thought and the"Heaven's will"thought is not contradictory but inherently consistent.Mozi's"universal love"thought and"Heaven's will"thought play an extremely important role in his Ten Arguments. Taiwan scholar Cai Renhou holds that the"universal love"thought is connected horizontally and the"Heaven's will"thought is connected vertically in Ten Arguments. However, he just puts forward his opinion without elaborations. This paper tries to fill the gap and discusses the horizontal and vertical connection. The author of the paper holds that Mozi's"universal love"thought is the logical base of his social ethical thoughts and the"Heaven's will"thought is the belief polar of the"universal love"thought. The two thoughts interact with each other and form the essence of Mozi's thoughts. Mozi's"universal love"thought is tinted with strong mythical and religious color. However, his"universal love"thought is very beneficial to the political and ethical notion of"harmonious society"nowadays.