What makes someone worthy

Introduction

尚贤下, Honoring the Worthy III, is the shortest of the three and focuses on one question: everyone says honor the worthy, so why does no one do it?

Mozi restates the claim: honoring the worthy is "the root of government." Then the contradiction. Rulers today "all want their states rich, their people many and their laws orderly," yet "they get poverty instead of wealth, fewness instead of numbers, disorder instead of order." The cause is that "they do not know to govern by honoring the worthy."

He shows what "not knowing" means with a concrete scene. A man has an ox or a sheep to butcher and cannot do it himself; he finds a good butcher. He has a robe to make and cannot sew; he finds a good tailor. In these matters he "shows no favor to fathers and brothers, no partiality to the rich and noble, no fondness for good looks": he does not let a cousin butcher the ox just because they are related. Why? Because if the ox is ruined the loss is his own. But in governing the state, it is otherwise. "A ruler with a sick horse he cannot cure seeks a good physician; with a warped bow he cannot draw, a good craftsman." A sick horse and a bad bow get experts. Only the state gets relatives.

The edge of this passage is the mechanism it exposes. When the loss falls on oneself, everyone honors the worthy. When the loss falls on others (the people), no one does. So the real obstacle is not "we cannot tell who is worthy." It is "the loss is not mine." That is the same problem as impartial care.

At the end Mozi returns to the definition of worth, echoing the first chapter: the worthy "serve Heaven above, the spirits in the middle, and care for people below." In today's terms, the worthy are accountable to the standard, to their responsibility, and to people.

The chapter also says the worthy are to be raised "without regard to poverty or lowliness, without regard to closeness or distance of kin, without regard to near or far." Those three "without regards" are the Community's rule for choosing chapter leads and assignment holders.

The three tests

This chapter rests most on the second test, evidence. Butcher, tailor, physician, craftsman: every comparison is something anyone can confirm from daily life. Mozi holds judgments everyone accepts against actions everyone fails to take.

The third test appears in "wanting wealth and getting poverty": the consequences of neglecting the worthy are visible.

Ask: why does a man find a good butcher for his ox but not a good minister for his state? The answer points to impartial care: the loss falls elsewhere. Can the three tests by themselves solve "the loss is someone else's"?

For families

• Tell the butcher and tailor comparison: when your own thing breaks, whom do you call? When someone else's does?
• Ask a child: how do you know a classmate is reliable? By what they say, or by what they do?
• Together, find one example of "not caring because the loss is someone else's" (a borrowed book, say) and talk about how to change it.

For chapters

• Reading: from "a single ox or sheep to butcher" to "seeks a good craftsman."
• Debate: bring the question to standards. What does this chapter actually use to judge whether someone is reliable? Compare with the criteria recorded in week 8.
• Three-tests review: how many of the three "without regards" does the chapter practice? Record it for the annual self-review.