1. Choose one quotation/passage from your reading on Mohism or Legalism and analyze the passage. What does it mean? How does it connect to the overall philosophy of Mohism or Legalism? How is it meant to be applied to Chinese society? Is it a response to Confucianism or another philosophy?

Mohism

"I have heard that the truly superior man of the world regards his friend the same as himself, and his friend's father the same as his own. Only if he does this can he be considered a truly superior man. "

Treat others as how you want to be treated. People often think that having more money and fame than others acutally give them victories. Thus, they unconsciously compete and fight everyday to make themselves better. However, truly superior man gives other what they want and make others feel good. This way, he truly accomplishes his superiority while keeping others happy.

This connects to the universality love that Mohism is focusing on. Love every individual equally. Love your friend as you love yourself, and love his father as you love his father. If one loves everyone equally, there is no possilibity of fighting. There will be no competition among people to be better than others. Also, even when one accomplishes something, the others would be truly happy about it since they love everyone. In this way, Mozi has tried to make a world without wars and fights but love.

Mohism was depicting a perfect utopia to live in, where everyone is truly happy. Yet, it was too idealistic. Mohism evolved with confucianism, taoism and legalism as one of the philosophic schools. It was once the powerful rival to confucianism. Yet, due to its strong idealistic ideas, Mohism disappeared during Qin dynasty. Eventhough it was gone, Mohism left the big foundation of Chinese history. The communism, which focuses on equality of every individual has a foundation in universal love. Equality of everyone, equal love to everyone.

While mohists focused on universality, confucianists focused on partiality. They basically supported the opposite ideas. Confucianists thought that it is better to be filial towards your own father than the stranger wallking on the street. Both ideas have strong opinions about ther own concepts.

Eventhough it is idealistic, it would be great if there is a world where everyone loves and truly cares about each other.