Valuing Righteousness貴義

Mozi said, "Among the ten thousand affairs nothing is more precious than righteousness.

Now if you say to a man, 'I will give you a cap and shoes, but I will cut off your hands and feet. Will you do it?' he will surely not do it. For what reason? Because a cap and shoes are not worth as much as hands and feet.

Again if you say, 'I will give you all under heaven, but I will kill your body. Will you do it?' he will surely not do it. For what reason? Because all under heaven is not worth as much as the body.

Yet men kill one another in a quarrel over a single word, and this is to hold righteousness more precious than their own bodies. Therefore it is said, among the ten thousand affairs nothing is more precious than righteousness."

Mozi went from Lu to Qi, and on the way he called on an old friend. The friend said to Mozi, "Now no one in all under heaven practices righteousness, and you alone toil by yourself and practice righteousness. You had better stop."

Mozi said, "Suppose there is a man here who has ten sons, and one of them plows while nine sit idle. Then the one who plows cannot but work the harder. For what reason? Because those who eat are many and those who plow are few. Now no one in all under heaven practices righteousness. You ought to urge me on. For what reason do you stop me?"

Mozi traveled south to Chu and presented a writing to King Hui. King Hui declined, pleading his age, and sent Mu He to see Mozi. Mozi won Mu He over, and Mu He was greatly pleased and said to Mozi, "Your words are truly good, but the king is a great king of all under heaven. Will he not say, 'This is the work of a lowly man,' and leave them unused?"

Mozi said, "Only let them be fit to practice. It is like medicine. The Son of Heaven eats the root of a herb and it cures his illness. Would he say, 'This is but the root of one herb,' and not eat it?

Now the farmer brings in his tax to the great men, and the great men prepare wine and millet offerings and sacrifice with them to the Lord on High and to the ghosts and spirits. Would they say, 'This is the work of a lowly man,' and not accept the offering? Therefore, though a man be lowly, compare him above with the farmer and below with medicine, and is he worth less than the root of one herb?

And has my lord ever heard what Tang said? In antiquity Tang was about to go and see Yi Yin, and he had the son of the Peng clan drive his chariot. Halfway along the road the son of the Peng clan asked, 'Where is my lord going?' Tang said, 'I am going to see Yi Yin.' The son of the Peng clan said, 'Yi Yin is the lowliest man under heaven. If my lord wishes to see him, then summon him and question him, and he will take it as a favor.'

Tang said, 'This is not for you to know. Suppose there is a medicine here, and eating it makes the ears keener and the eyes clearer. Then I would surely rejoice and make myself eat it. Now Yi Yin is to our state as a good physician and a good medicine, and you do not wish me to see Yi Yin. This is to wish that I should not become good.' And he put the son of the Peng clan down and would not let him drive. Only when a man is truly like that will it do."

Mozi said, "Whatever the word and whatever the deed, if it benefits Heaven, the spirits, and the people, do it. Whatever the word and whatever the deed, if it harms Heaven, the spirits, and the people, set it aside. Whatever the word and whatever the deed, if it accords with the sage kings of the three dynasties, Yao, Shun, Yu, Tang, Wen, and Wu, do it. Whatever the word and whatever the deed, if it accords with the tyrant kings of the three dynasties, Jie, Zhou, King You, and King Li, set it aside."

Mozi said, "If a word is enough to be carried into action, say it always. If it is not enough to be carried into action, do not say it always. To say always what is not enough to be carried into action is only to wag the tongue."

Mozi said, "In silence, think. In speech, teach. In motion, work. Let these three take their turns in service, and he will surely become a sage."

One must be rid of the six leanings. One must be rid of joy, rid of anger, rid of pleasure, rid of sorrow, rid of love, rid of hate, and must use benevolence and righteousness. When the hands and feet and mouth and nose and ears go about the work of righteousness, he will surely become a sage.

Mozi said to several of his disciples, "Though you practice righteousness and are not able, do not for that push aside its way. It is as when a carpenter hews and is not able, and yet does not push aside his marking line."

Mozi said, "Set a gentleman of this age to butcher a single pig, and he declines, saying he is not able. Make him prime minister of a whole state, and he does it though he is not able. Is this not perverse?"

Mozi said, "Now if a blind man says, 'What gleams is white, and what is murky is black,' even a man of clear eyes could not better it. But set white and black side by side and have the blind man choose between them, and he cannot tell.

Therefore when I say that a blind man does not know white from black, it is not by his naming that I say it, but by his choosing.

Now when the gentlemen of all under heaven give benevolence its name, even Yu and Tang could not better it. Yet set benevolence and what is not benevolence side by side and have the gentlemen of all under heaven choose between them, and they cannot tell.

Therefore when I say that the gentlemen of all under heaven do not know benevolence, it is not by their naming that I say it, but again by their choosing."

Mozi said, "Now a scholar uses his own person with less care than a merchant uses a single roll of cloth. When a merchant handles a single roll of cloth, he does not dare to piece it out carelessly and sell it, but surely chooses what is good.

Now a scholar does not use his own person so. Whatever his mind desires, that he does, and in the graver case he falls into punishment, and in the lighter he suffers slander and disgrace. So a scholar uses his own person with less care than a merchant uses a single roll of cloth."

Mozi said, "A gentleman of this age wishes his righteousness to be accomplished, yet is angry when another helps him cultivate his person. This is like wishing his wall to be finished and being angry when another helps him build it. Is this not perverse?"

Mozi said, "The sage kings of antiquity wished to hand down their way to later ages, and so they wrote it on bamboo and silk and cut it into metal and stone, and handed it down and left it to the sons and grandsons of later ages, wishing that the sons and grandsons of later ages would take it for their model. Now to hear what the former kings left and not to practice it is to abolish what the former kings handed down."

When Mozi traveled south as an envoy to Wei, the writings loaded in his cart were very many. Xian Tangzi saw this and thought it strange, and said, "Our master taught Gongshang Guo, saying, 'Measure the crooked and the straight, and that is all.' Now the master loads very many writings. What is the reason?"

Mozi said, "In antiquity Dan, the Duke of Zhou, read a hundred writings in the morning and received seventy scholars in the evening, and so Dan, the Duke of Zhou, aided the Son of Heaven as his minister, and what he set in order reaches to this day.

I, Di (翟), have above me no service to a lord and below me no toil of plowing. How should I dare to abolish this? I have heard that even among things that come to the same end there are truly some that go astray. And the hearing of the people is not even, and for this reason the writings are many.

Now one whose mind is like Guo's (過) has gone against the fine and the subtle again and again, and already knows the essential of the things that come to the same end. For this reason I do not teach him with writings. What then do you find strange?"

Mozi said to Gongliang Huanzi, "Wei is a small state, and it lies between Qi and Jin as a poor house lies between rich houses. If a poor house learns the lavish spending of rich houses on clothing and food, its swift ruin is certain.

Now in your house there are several hundred decorated carriages, several hundred horses fed on beans and grain, and several hundred women clothed in figured embroidery. If I took the cost of decorating the carriages and feeding the horses, and the wealth that goes into the embroidered clothes, and reared scholars with it, there would surely be more than a thousand of them.

If trouble and hardship came, which would be the safer, to have several hundred men standing in front and several hundred behind, or to have several hundred women standing in front and behind? I hold that it is not so safe as rearing scholars."

Mozi placed a man in office in Wei, and the one placed in office arrived there and came back.

Mozi said, "For what reason did you come back?"

He answered, "What they said to me was not kept. They said, 'We will treat you with a thousand measures,' and then they gave me five hundred measures, and so I left."

Mozi said, "If they had given you more than a thousand measures, would you have left?"

He answered, "I would not have left."

Mozi said, "Then it was not for their want of care, but for the smallness of it."

Mozi said, "The gentlemen of the common world look on a righteous scholar with less regard than on a man carrying millet.

Now suppose there is a man here resting at the roadside under a load of millet, who wishes to rise and cannot. A gentleman sees him, and whether the man be old or young, noble or base, he surely helps him up. For what reason? It is said, righteousness.

Now when a gentleman who practices righteousness upholds the way of the former kings and speaks of it, they do not take pleasure in it and practice it, but go on further to call it wrong and slander it. So the gentlemen of the common world look on a righteous scholar with less regard than on a man carrying millet."

Mozi said, "A merchant goes to the four quarters, and the price in the market is doubled. Though there is the hardship of barriers and bridges and the danger of robbers, he surely does it.

Now a scholar sits and speaks of righteousness, with no hardship of barriers and bridges and no danger of robbers, and here the doubling is beyond all reckoning. Yet he does not do it. So a scholar's reckoning of gain falls short of a merchant's discernment."

Mozi went north to Qi and met a diviner of days. The diviner said, "The Lord on High killed the black dragon in the north today, and your color is black. You may not go north."

Mozi did not listen and went north as far as the Zi River, but he did not get through and turned back.

The diviner said, "I told you that you might not go north."

Mozi said, "If a man of the south may not go north and a man of the north may not go south, then, since some of them are black in color and some white, for what reason would they all fail to get through?

Moreover the Lord on High is said to kill the green dragon in the east on the days jia and yi, the red dragon in the south on the days bing and ding, the white dragon in the west on the days geng and xin, and the black dragon in the north on the days ren and gui. If your words were used, this would forbid everyone under heaven to travel. This is to hem in the mind and to empty all under heaven. Your words cannot be used."

Mozi said, "My words are enough to use. To cast aside my words and change one's thoughts is like casting aside the harvest and gleaning single grains. To take one's own words and call my words wrong is like throwing an egg at a stone. Though every egg under heaven be used up, the stone will still be as it was, and cannot be broken."