Confucianism represents the slave-owning class. They advocated the restoration of the etiquette system of the Zhou Dynasty and yearned for the social order in the ancient Yao, Shun and Yu era. Their thought of great harmony is the reappearance of social order in Yao, Shun and Yu era, and it is a new ideal.
What is Mohist Shang Tong Thought? "What is it, it must be something; What is wrong in the world must be wrong "and" what is the son of heaven, it must be; If the son of heaven is wrong, there must be mistakes. "Mohist Shang Tong thought is the thought of unifying the spirit to oppress the people. This is far from the Confucian idea of harmony but difference.
And Mohism does not advocate equality. "Without the festival of elders and children, without the ceremony of father and son, the world is in chaos." At the beginning of non-Confucianism, Mohism did not object to the principle of respect and inferiority embodied in Confucianism's funeral. Only the order of Mohism and Confucianism is different. Mohism believes that brothers and sisters should be above their wives and children.
Mohist school believes that political inequality is distributed by selecting sages, but Mohist school never said that this sage was elected by the people, and those who chose the sages in the world thought that he was the son of heaven. But who will choose? No theme. Therefore, it cannot be said that Mohism has democratic thoughts. On the contrary, there are more democratic factors in Mencius' thought than in Mohism's. Mencius believed that the legitimacy of the son of heaven should be tested by public opinion, and the son of heaven should not give the world to others, but to the people of heaven.
In addition, the biggest weakness of Mohist political thought is that there is no provision to take any measures against those unqualified emperors. Mohism naively believes that only by recommending sages can a sage be elected. This kind of elected monarch will not make mistakes or do unjust things, and the emperor will not be corrupt after the power is concentrated. Therefore, it is enough for people all over the world to follow the example of the son of heaven. I didn't know that dictators like Caesar and Hitler were actually elected through democracy. Popper said that the essence of democracy is that the people have the right to launch a violent revolution without bloodshed. In other words, if you have the right to overthrow the emperor, that is true democracy. Obviously, compared with Mencius' preaching that "it is unheard of to kill a single husband and kill a monarch" and "remonstrate when a monarch is too big, and change it without listening" (it is expensive and expensive), Mohist thought is further away from democracy. The son of heaven of Mohism is a red sun, which is absolutely correct and will never go wrong.
In addition, the ideological basis of Mohism is a kind of utilitarianism, and the ethical principle of universal love is also based on utilitarianism. Therefore, Mohism believes that it is normal to sacrifice immediate interests for long-term interests and personal interests for social interests.
Mohist ethics is an extreme teleological ethics, which holds that means can be ignored for proper purposes. This can be seen from the non-Confucian passages in Mozi, which criticize the Confucian ethical principles of war. Mohism believes that the unjust will be punished. "The mob must live and the world will not be hurt. This is a deep shame for disabled parents. " In other words, Mohism believes that under the banner of justice, you can do whatever you want without any restrictions. Mencius said: "It is better to believe in books than to have no books. I adopted two or three strategies in Wucheng. The benevolent is invincible in the world, and even the benevolent is ruthless. Why does the blood flow? " In other words, Mencius believed that even with a king like King Wu,
King Wu conquered Shang Zhouwang, a heartless and bad king, so he shouldn't go to war with Shang Zhouwang's army. "Don't kill people" is an unshirkable responsibility for Confucianism, and the problem of killing people is only a means to achieve harmony in the world for Mohism. Mozi stipulated all kinds of cruel laws and penalties in the articles about guarding the city in the following chapters. Fundamentally speaking, this is all due to the basic reason of Mohist utilitarianism.
The Confucian theory of three generations embodies profound political philosophy. Confucianism believes that Datong society is the best society, but it must be step by step and cannot develop by leaps and bounds. Therefore, Confucianism believes that to enter a harmonious society (peaceful and prosperous times), we must first experience a well-off society (prosperous times). Mohism, on the other hand, simply ignores this progressive development view and hopes to leap into the world of Datong with a utopian social project. Perhaps no one in China knows better than we do what utopian social engineering means. This is the childish performance of Mohism.