One person, one standard

Introduction

Aligning upward, 尚同, is the most easily misread of the ten doctrines. On its face it seems to say "unify thought, obey superiors." Read the whole chapter and you find it is about something else: without a shared standard there is no cooperation.

尚同上 opens with a thought experiment. Long ago, before there was any political organization, "people's standards differed." Each person had their own 义, their own measure of right and wrong. One person, one standard; two people, two; ten, ten. The more people, the more standards. Each held their own to be right and everyone else's wrong, "so they condemned one another." Fathers and sons, elder and younger brothers resented each other; people "harmed one another with water, fire and poison"; those with strength would not help, those with surplus let it rot rather than share it, those with good methods hid them rather than teach. "The disorder of the world was like that of beasts."

Diagnosis: disorder "arises from the absence of leaders," no one to unify the standard. Prescription: choose the worthiest person in the world as Son of Heaven; let him choose three dukes, then feudal lords, then heads of districts and villages, each "worthy and capable." Then the Son of Heaven proclaims: "Whoever hears of good or evil shall report it to their superior. What the superior holds right, all shall hold right; what the superior holds wrong, all shall hold wrong."

Then the key line: "Align upward, and do not form factions below" (上同而不下比). The village head aligns with the district head, the district head with the lord, the lord with the Son of Heaven, and the Son of Heaven with Heaven.

Notice the last step. Even the Son of Heaven must align upward with Heaven. He is not the highest standard; Heaven is. In today's terms: the head of the organization also answers to an objective standard and cannot be the standard himself. That layer is what separates 尚同 from autocracy, and weeks 19 to 21 on 天志 develop it.

For the Community the meaning is concrete: chapters share one set of rules (墨者之法), set by the council and the assembly; anyone may propose changes; once set, everyone follows them, and no one forms cliques.

The three tests

This chapter mainly uses the third test, application. The "one person, one standard" state is a construction, not history; Mozi uses it to show the consequences of having no shared standard (mutual condemnation, beasts), then the consequences of having leaders (order).

The first and second tests are nearly absent. Ask whether Mozi's "state without leaders" is real. What does anthropology say? This is a place where the second test can be applied.

For families

• Play "one person, one standard": three people each set one rule for a game and refuse to yield. Can the game be played? Then set one rule together.
• Is there a house rule everyone knows but no one has stated? Write it down this week and post it.
• Ask a child: do the parents have to follow rules too? Whose rules apply to the parents?

For chapters

• Reading: from "when people first came into being, before there was law or government" to "the disorder of the world was like that of beasts," then the passage "align upward, and do not form factions below."
• Debate: focus on where a shared standard comes from: set by someone, or worn in by everyone. This is the most contested point in 尚同; let every view finish.
• Three-tests review: record how the chapter's shared standards are currently set. Compare in week 13 with 尚同下.