Against Aggressive War, Part Three非攻下
子墨子言曰：今天下之所譽善者，其說將何哉？爲其上中天之利，而中中鬼之利，而下中人之利，故譽之與？意亡非爲其上中天之利，而中中鬼之利，而下中人之利，故譽之與？雖使下之愚人，必曰：「將爲其上中天之利，而中中鬼之利，而下中人之利，故譽之。」今天下之所同義者，聖王之法也。今天下之諸侯將猶多皆免攻伐并兼，則是有譽義之名，而不察其實也。此譬猶盲者之與人同命白黑之名，而不能分其物也，則豈謂有別哉？是故古之知者之爲天下度也，必順慮其義而後爲之行。是以動則不疑，速通成，得其所欲，而順天鬼百姓之利，則知者之道也。是故古之仁人有天下者，必反大國之說，一天下之和，總四海之內，焉率天下之百姓，以農臣事上帝山川鬼神。利人多，功故又大，是以天賞之，鬼富之，人譽之，使貴爲天子，富有天下，名參乎天地，至今不廢。此則知者之道也，先王之所以有天下者也。
Mozi said, "What the world now praises as good, what is the account of it? Is it praised because above it meets the benefit of Heaven, in the middle it meets the benefit of the spirits, and below it meets the benefit of people? Or is it praised where it does not meet the benefit of Heaven above, the benefit of the spirits in the middle, and the benefit of people below?
Even the most foolish man below would surely say, 'It is praised because above it meets the benefit of Heaven, in the middle it meets the benefit of the spirits, and below it meets the benefit of people.'
What the world now holds right in common is the law of the sage kings. Yet the feudal lords of the world still for the most part all strike and attack and swallow one another up. This is to have the name of praising rightness and not to look into its kernel. It is like a blind man who calls the names white and black along with others and yet cannot tell the things apart. How can that be called telling apart?
So when the wise men of ancient times measured for the world, they surely thought a thing through according to rightness and only then carried it out. In this way, when they moved they did not doubt. They came through quickly and brought things to completion, they got what they wished for, and they followed the benefit of Heaven and the spirits and the people. This is the way of the wise man.
So the benevolent men of ancient times who held the world surely overturned the talk of the great states, made the concord of the world one, and drew together all within the four seas. Then they led the people of the world, and with farming they served as subjects the Lord on High and the mountains and the rivers and the spirits. They benefited people greatly, and their merit was great as well, and so Heaven rewarded them, the spirits enriched them, and people praised them. They were honored so as to be Son of Heaven, enriched so as to hold the world, and their names stand as a third beside Heaven and Earth and are not put away to this day. This is the way of the wise man, and it is how the former kings came to hold the world."
今王公大人、天下之諸侯則不然。將必皆差論其爪牙之士，皆列其舟車之卒伍，於此爲堅甲利兵，以往攻伐無罪之國。入其國家邊境，芟刈其禾稼，斬其樹木，墮其城郭以湮其溝池，攘殺其牲牷，燔潰其祖廟，勁殺其萬民，覆其老弱，遷其重器。卒進而柱乎鬭，曰：「死命爲上，多殺次之，身傷者爲下。又況失列北橈乎哉，罪死無赦！」以譂其衆。夫無兼國覆軍，賊虐萬民，以亂聖人之緒。意將以爲利天乎？夫取天之人，以攻天之邑，此刺殺天民，剝振神之位，傾覆社稷，攘殺其犧牲，則此上不中天之利矣。意將以爲利鬼乎？夫殺之神，滅鬼神之主，廢滅先王，賊虐萬民，百姓離散，則此中不中鬼之利矣。意將以爲利人乎？夫殺之人，爲利人也博矣。又計其費，此爲害生之本，竭天下百姓之財用不可勝數也，則此下不中人之利矣。
Now the kings and dukes and great men and the feudal lords of the world are not like this. They will all surely sort out and weigh the officers who are their claws and teeth, and all draw up in ranks their companies of boats and chariots. With these they make hard armor and sharp weapons, and they go off to strike and attack a state that has done no wrong.
They enter the borders of that state, cut down its rice and its grain, hew its trees, throw down its walls and fill up its ditches and pools, seize and slaughter its sacrificial beasts, burn and ruin its ancestral shrines, kill its ten thousand people by force, overturn its old and weak, and carry off its heavy vessels.
When the soldiers advance and hold their ground and fight, it is said, "To die at the command is highest, to kill many comes next, and to be wounded in the body is lowest. And how much worse to lose your place in the ranks and fall back and bend. The penalty is death without pardon." So they frighten their multitude.
Now to swallow up another state, to overturn its army, to harm and abuse its ten thousand people, throws the thread of the sages into disorder. Is this meant to benefit Heaven? To take Heaven's people and with them attack Heaven's settlements is to stab and kill Heaven's people, to strip and shake the seats of the spirits, to tilt and overturn the altars of land and grain, and to seize and slaughter the sacrificial beasts. So this does not meet the benefit of Heaven above.
Is it meant to benefit the spirits? To kill people is to do away with the masters of the spirits, to put away and destroy the former kings, and to harm and abuse the ten thousand people so that the people are scattered. So this does not meet the benefit of the spirits in the middle.
Is it meant to benefit people? To kill people and then call the benefit to people broad? Reckon the cost of it as well, and this is the root of harm to life. It uses up the goods and the means of the people of the world beyond all counting. So this does not meet the benefit of people below.
今夫師者之相爲不利者也，曰將不勇，士不分，兵不利，教不習，師不衆，卒不和，威不圉，害之不久，爭之不疾，孫之不强，植心不堅，與國諸侯疑。與國諸侯疑，則敵生慮而意嬴矣。偏具此物，而致從事焉，則是國家失率，而百姓易務也。今不嘗觀其說好攻伐之國，若使中興師，君子庶人也必且數千，徒倍十萬，然後足以師而動矣。久者數歲，速者數月。是上不暇聽治，士不暇治其官府，農夫不暇稼穡，婦人不暇紡績織絍，則是國家失率，而百姓易務也。然而又與其車馬之罷弊也，幔幕帷蓋，三軍之用，甲兵之備，五分而得其一，則猶爲序疏矣。然而又與其散亡道路，道路遼遠，糧食不繼傺，食飲之時，厮役以此飢寒凍餒疾病而轉死溝壑中者，不可勝計也。此其爲不利於人也，天下之害厚矣。而王公大人樂而行之，則此樂賊滅天下之萬民也，豈不悖哉！今天下好戰之國齊晉楚越，若使此四國者得意於天下，此皆十倍其國之衆，而未能食其地也，是人不足而地有餘也。今又以爭地之故而反相賊也，然則是虧不足而重有餘也。
Now that army of theirs is a thing by which they make one another suffer loss. It is said that the general is not brave, the officers are not sorted, the weapons are not sharp, the training is not practiced, the host is not numerous, the soldiers are not in accord, the show of force does not hold the enemy off, the harm done does not last long, the fighting is not swift, the grip on the enemy is not strong, the planted heart is not firm, and the feudal lords who are their allies grow doubtful. When the feudal lords who are their allies grow doubtful, then the enemy takes thought and their own purpose slackens.
To be furnished with all these things and still go on with the business is for the state to lose its guiding cord and for the people to change the work they should be at.
Have you never looked at those states that are said to love striking and attacking? If a great host is raised, then the gentlemen and the common men must number several thousand and the drafted multitude twice a hundred thousand, and only then is there enough to make an army and move it. The long campaigns take several years, the quick ones several months. Then the ruler above has no leisure to hear cases and govern, the officers have no leisure to manage their offices, the farmers have no leisure to sow and reap, and the women have no leisure to spin and weave. This is for the state to lose its guiding cord and for the people to change the work they should be at.
And besides this there are the chariots and the horses worn out and broken down, and the tents and the curtains and the covers, the gear of the three armies, and the furnishing of armor and weapons. If one part in five of it came back, that would still be called a thin reckoning. And besides this there is what is scattered and lost along the road, and the road stretches far away so that the food does not reach them and their eating and drinking are out of season, and the drafted men by this grow hungry and cold and frozen and sick, and those who tumble into the ditches and the valleys and die are beyond all counting.
This is how it does not benefit people, and the harm of it to the world is heavy. Yet the kings and dukes and great men do it gladly. So this is to take joy in harming and destroying the ten thousand people of the world. How is it not turned upside down?
The states of the world that love war are Qi and Jin and Chu and Yue. Even if these four states were to get their wish in the world, all of them could make the multitude of their own state tenfold and still not be able to eat up their land. So people are what is lacking and land is what there is to spare. Now once again, for the sake of fighting over land, they harm one another instead. Then this is to waste away what is lacking and to make much of what there is to spare.
今逮夫好攻伐之君，又飾其說以非子墨子曰：以攻伐之爲不義，非利物與？昔者禹征有苗，湯伐桀，武王伐紂，此皆立爲聖王，是何故也？子墨子曰：子未察吾言之類，未明其故者也。彼非所謂攻，謂誅也。昔者三苗大亂，天命殛之，日妖宵出，雨血三朝，龍生於廟，犬哭乎市，夏冰，地坼及泉，五穀變化，民乃大振。高陽乃命玄宮，禹親把天之瑞令，以征有苗。四電誘祗，有神人面鳥身，若瑾以侍，搤矢有苗之祥。苗師大亂，後乃遂幾。禹既已克有三苗，焉磿爲山川，別物上下，鄉制大極，而神民不違，天下乃靜，則此禹之所以征有苗也。逮至乎夏王桀，天有誥命，日月不時，寒暑雜至，五穀焦死，鬼呼國，鶴鳴十夕餘。天乃命湯於鑣宮，用受夏之大命：「夏德大亂，予既卒其命於天矣，往而誅之，必使汝堪之。」湯焉敢奉率其衆，是以鄉有夏之境，帝乃使陰暴毀有夏之城。少少，有神來告曰：「夏德大亂，往攻之，予必使汝大堪之。予既受命於天，天命融隆火於夏之城閒西北之隅。」湯奉桀衆以克有夏，屬諸侯於薄，薦章天命，通于四方，而天下諸侯莫敢不賓服，則此湯之所以誅桀也。逮至乎商王紂，天不序其德，祀用失時，兼夜中十日，雨土于薄，九鼎遷止，婦妖宵出，有鬼宵吟，有女爲男，天雨肉，棘生乎國道，王兄自縱也。赤鳥銜珪，降周之岐社，曰：「天命周文王伐殷有國。」泰顛來賓，河出綠圖，地出乘黃。武王踐功，夢見三神曰：「予既沈漬殷紂于酒德矣，往攻之，予必使汝大堪之。」武王乃攻狂夫，反商作周，天賜武王黃鳥之旗。王既已克殷，成帝之來，分主諸神，祀紂先王，通維四夷，而天下莫不賓，焉襲湯之緒，此即武王之所以誅紂也。若以此三聖王者觀之，則非所謂攻也，所謂誅也。
Now when it comes to those rulers who love striking and attacking, they dress up their talk as well and hold Mozi to be wrong, saying, "If striking and attacking is held to be not right, is that not to hold a useful thing wrong? In ancient times Yu chastised the Youmiao, Tang struck Jie, and King Wu struck King Zhou, and all of these were set up as sage kings. What is the reason for that?"
Mozi said, "You have not looked into the kind my words belong to, and you have not made its reason clear. Those were not what is called an attack (攻). They are called a chastisement (誅).
In ancient times the Sanmiao fell into great disorder, and Heaven commanded that they be put to death. The sun came out at night as an omen, blood rained for three mornings, a dragon was born in the shrine, dogs wept in the market, ice formed in summer, the earth split open down to the springs, and the five grains changed their kind, and the people were greatly shaken. Gaoyang (高陽) then gave the command in the Dark Palace, and Yu himself took up the auspicious command of Heaven and chastised the Youmiao. Lightning struck on the four sides, and there was a spirit with a man's face and a bird's body who held a tablet and attended him, and he pressed down the omens of the Youmiao with an arrow. The host of Miao fell into great disorder, and afterward it came to its end. When Yu had already overcome the Sanmiao, he then divided and settled the mountains and the rivers, set apart the high and the low among things, and cut out the great bounds, and the spirits and the people did not go against him, and the world became quiet. This is why Yu chastised the Youmiao.
When it came to Jie, king of Xia, Heaven had a command to declare. The sun and the moon kept no season, cold and heat came mixed together, the five grains scorched and died, spirits cried out in the state, and cranes called for more than ten nights. Heaven then gave its command to Tang in the Biao Palace (鑣宮), that he should receive the great command of Xia, saying, 'The virtue of Xia is in great disorder. I have already finished its command in Heaven. Go and chastise it. I will surely make you able to bear this.'
Tang then dared to take up and lead his multitude, and he turned toward the borders of Xia, and the Lord on High then had the walls of Xia secretly thrown down. After a little while a spirit came and told him, 'The virtue of Xia is in great disorder. Go and attack it. I will surely make you greatly able to bear it. I have already received the command in Heaven. Heaven will command that fire come down on the northwest corner between the walls of Xia.' Tang took up the multitude of Jie and overcame Xia, gathered the feudal lords at Bo (薄), held up and made plain the command of Heaven, and reached through to the four quarters, and there was not a feudal lord in the world who dared not come as a guest and submit. This is why Tang chastised Jie.
When it came to King Zhou, king of Shang, Heaven did not set his virtue in order. The sacrifices lost their season, ten suns rose together in the middle of the night, earth rained down at Bo, the nine cauldrons moved and came to a halt, a woman prodigy came out at night, a ghost chanted in the night, a woman became a man, flesh rained from the sky, and thorns grew on the roads of the state, and still the king let himself go as before. A red bird holding a jade tablet in its beak came down at the shrine of Mount Qi in Zhou and said, 'Heaven commands King Wen of Zhou to strike Yin and hold the state.' Taidian came as a guest, the green chart came out of the He, and the yellow horse came out of the earth.
When King Wu trod the work, he saw three spirits in a dream, and they said, 'I have already steeped Zhou of Yin in the virtue of wine. Go and attack him. I will surely make you greatly able to bear it.' King Wu then attacked the mad man, turned Shang over, and made the state of Zhou, and Heaven gave King Wu the banner of the yellow bird. When the king had already overcome Yin, he brought about the coming of the Lord, parcelled out the charge of the many spirits, made offerings to the former kings of King Zhou, and reached through to the four Yi, and there was none in the world who did not come as a guest, and so he took up the thread of Tang. This is why King Wu chastised King Zhou.
Looking at it through these three sage kings, this is not what is called an attack. It is what is called a chastisement."
則夫好攻伐之君，又飾其說以非子墨子曰：子以攻伐爲不義，非利物與？昔者楚熊麗始封此雎山之閒，越王繄虧出自有遽，始邦於越，唐叔與呂尚邦齊、晉。此皆地方數百里，今以并國之故，四分天下而有之。是故何也？子墨子曰：子未察吾言之類，未明其故者也。古者天子之始封諸侯也，萬有餘。今以并國之故，萬國有餘皆滅，而四國獨立。此譬猶醫之藥萬有餘人，而四人愈也，則不可謂良醫矣。
Then those rulers who love striking and attacking dress up their talk again and hold Mozi to be wrong, saying, "You hold striking and attacking to be not right. Is that not to hold a useful thing wrong? In ancient times Xiong Li of Chu was first given his fief here between the Ju Mountains (雎山), and Yikui, king of Yue, came out of Youju (有遽) and first founded his state in Yue, and Tang Shu and Lü Shang founded their states in Qi and Jin. The land of all of these was a few hundred li square, and now, because they swallowed up other states, they have divided the world in four and hold it. What is the reason for that?"
Mozi said, "You have not looked into the kind my words belong to, and you have not made its reason clear. In ancient times, when the Son of Heaven first gave out fiefs to the feudal lords, there were more than ten thousand of them. Now, because states have been swallowed up, the more than ten thousand states have all perished and only four states stand. This is like a physician who gave his medicine to more than ten thousand people and four of them got well. He cannot be called a good physician."
則夫好攻伐之君又飾其說曰：我非以金玉子女壤地爲不足也，我欲以義名立於天下，以德來諸侯也。子墨子曰：今若有能以義名立於天下，以德來諸侯者，天下之服可立而待也。夫天下處攻伐久矣，譬若傳子之爲馬然。今若有能信効先利天下諸侯者，大國之不義也，則同憂之；大國之攻小國也，則同救之；小國城郭之不全也，必使修之；布粟乏絕則委之，幣帛不足則共之。以此効大國，則小國之君說。人勞我逸，則我甲兵强。寬以惠，緩易急，民必移。易攻伐以治我國，攻必倍。量我師舉之費，以諍諸侯之斃，則必可得而享利焉。督以正，義其名，必務寬吾衆，信吾師，以此授諸侯之師，則天下無敵矣，其爲下不可勝數也。此天下之利，而王公大人不知而用，則此可謂不知利天下之巨務矣。
Then those rulers who love striking and attacking dress up their talk again, saying, "It is not that I find my metal and jade, my sons and daughters, and my land not enough. I wish to set up the name of rightness in the world and to bring the feudal lords to me by virtue."
Mozi said, "Now if there were one able to set up the name of rightness in the world and bring the feudal lords to him by virtue, the submission of the world could be awaited standing. The world has dwelt in striking and attacking for a long time, and it is like setting a child to serve as a horse.
Now suppose there were one able to benefit the feudal lords of the world first and in good faith. When a great state is not right, he shares the worry of it. When a great state attacks a small state, he joins in saving it. When the walls of a small state are not whole, he surely has them repaired. When its cloth and its millet run short and are cut off, he sends supplies. When its gifts of silk are not enough, he joins in supplying them.
If a great state is met in this way, the ruler of the small state is glad. When others toil and I am at ease, my armor and my weapons are strong. When I am generous and kind and trade their haste for ease, the people will surely come over to me. When I change striking and attacking for governing my own state, the strength of my striking will surely be doubled. When I weigh what it costs me to raise an army and contend for what the feudal lords have worn away, I can surely get it and enjoy the benefit.
If I oversee things with what is straight, make my name right, and surely work to be generous to my multitude and keep faith with my army, then if I meet the armies of the feudal lords with this, there will be no match for me in the world, and the benefits that come below are beyond all counting. This is the benefit of the world, and yet the kings and dukes and great men do not know it and use it. So it can be said that they do not know the great work of benefiting the world."
是故子墨子曰：今且天下之王公大人士君子，中情將欲求興天下之利，除天下之害，當若繁爲攻伐，此實天下之巨害也。今欲爲仁義，求爲上士，尚欲中聖王之道，下欲中國家百姓之利，故當若非攻之爲說，而將不可不察者此也。
So Mozi said, "Now if the kings and dukes and great men and the officers and gentlemen of the world truly wish in their hearts to raise up the benefit of the world and to clear away the harm of the world, then as for doing striking and attacking often, this is truly the great harm of the world. If one wishes now to practice benevolence and rightness, to seek to be an officer of the first rank, to meet the way of the sage kings above and to meet the benefit of the state and the people below, then this is why the words that hold attacking wrong cannot go unexamined."