On Motzu versus confucianism

[Aulus Dionysius Mencius]

Salvete omnes

This is a little topic, which is related to my previous posting on ancestral worship in China and Rome at ColRel....

I retook my exam of Classical Chinese today, and had to translate one of Motzu's texts and give some in depht comments about his behaviour towards confucianism.

For Motzu, there are 4 reasons to criticise the confucianist. (From now on I will use C and M)

- The C ancestral worship and three years of mourning is causing the people harm, because they are not allowed to cultivate their land.

- Music and litterature are useless, therefor should be banned

- According to M, the C shool does not believe in ghosts and thus has angered them, causing harm to the people.

- The C believes in a predestined fate, and thus becomes lazy
NOTE : In the last chapter of his work, Motzu corrected this. He admits that C only relies on fate when he has exerted all his possible means.

Now, from reasons one and three, one might say that there is a contradiction: C do not believe in ghosts and yet perform ancestor worship, whilst M does not but does believe in ghosts and gods.

There is no real contradiction. The confucianist does not see ancestor worship as a religious act, but as an expression of filial love and piety.

Motzu does believe in ghosts, because he wanted to create a religious framework in which he could easily devellop his theory of 'All-embracing Love'...

Here we can see that both C and M share their views on righteousness and the importance of good relations within the family and with the ruler, but that they have different accents.

Vale bene, amici