The Artisan Cultural Characteristics Of The Mohism

The artisan stratum,which occurred in Chinese ShangZhou Period,had both craftsmanship and cultural spirit.Mohist came from the artisan stratum and formed unique artisan cultural characteristics,so as the Mohism had both the identity of being artisans and the artisanal thinking.Mohism came from the craftsmen,advocating labor,criticizing the fatalism,advocating utility,negating pleasure,and transforming artisan skills into scientific methodologies.They had a mindset that cares for real objects and enriches the value of life,a mindset that empirically examines the world through experience,an identical mindset with strict organizational structure and unification of technical norms,as well as an objective,scientific,and practical logic mindset.In the ethical view of artisans,Mohism advocated that the righteousness is a kind of utility,it formed the concept of artisanal ethics which based on the principle as expanding utility and eliminating losses,and extending to the universal love.In the socio-political view of artisans,Mohism advocated that the selection of virtuous people can accomplish the unity of social thoughts,negated the warfare with the logic and the vital interests of the people,and used the law of practicality and moderation to guide the using of resource and thrifty funeral.Although the artisan cultural characteristics of the Mohism have the contradictions in the phase of the development of the ideology and the limitations in the two extreme tendencies,at that time,Mohism's proposition helped restore material production and emphasize the people's consciousness.While studying the artisan cultural characteristics of the Mohism,many new materials have been used in Mo zi.It helps to interpret Mohism in a new perspective.Thanks to the combination of the scientific logic mindset,the social utilitarianism,the self-sacrificing communion,as well as the natural sense of making no losses in resource,the artisan cultural characteristics of the Mohism provides new ideas for interpreting the spirit of contemporary artisans.