Chinese Legal Thought: Mohist School

Abstract

Confucianism has been widely known in China and around the world, but a rival philosophical school of thought to Confucianism in pre-imperial China and much less well-known both in China and beyond is Mojia or Mohism (墨家). This entry outlines and highlights the main philosophical ideas relevant to law of Mohism, one of the most important philosophical schools of thought in early China. Mohism evolved around the same time as Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism as one of the four main philosophic schools during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period (770 BC–221 BC), fundamental to Chinese philosophy and thought and Chinese culture as a whole. It then declined and parts of the thought of Mohism were absorbed by Confucianism and Legalism and some later merged into the Taoism, disappearing as an independent school of thought. Its main contributions were in the areas of philosophy of logic, rational thought, and science to Chinese ancient thought and civilization.