The three tests

Introduction

This week we read the Community's method itself. Every "three tests" section in the past sixteen guides comes from this chapter.

非命上, Against Fatalism I, opens as usual: rulers want a rich state, a large population and orderly government, and get the opposite. This time the cause is "those who hold to fate." They say: rich if fated to be rich, poor if fated to be poor, many or few, ordered or disordered, all by fate, and "however hard you strive, what use is it?" Preach that to rulers, says Mozi, and no one governs; preach it to the people and no one works. Fatalism is therefore "a great harm to the world."

Then the method: "Every statement must have a standard." Without one, it is like marking east and west on a spinning potter's wheel; nothing can be told apart. So there are three tests:

"There is grounding it, tracing it, and applying it."

Grounding (本之): "ground it above in the deeds of the ancient sage kings." Look at what the sage kings did. Tracing (原之): "trace it below in the facts taken in by the ears and eyes of the common people." Look at what ordinary people have witnessed. Applying (用之): "put it into law and policy and observe whether it benefits the state and the people."

He then runs fate through the three. First test: did any sage king govern by fate? No. Jie and Zhou brought disorder, Tang and Wu brought order, to the same world and the same people; the men changed, so the outcome changed. Not fate; people. Second test: from antiquity to now, has anyone "seen the thing called fate or heard its voice"? No. Third test: if people believe in fate, those above neglect government and those below neglect work; "so if effort is made there will be order; if not, disorder." "Effort brings order; no effort brings disorder. Effort brings safety; no effort brings danger." Fate fails all three, so it is rejected.

Note the order and the weight. Mozi spends the most words on the third test. His core claim is not "fate does not exist" but "believing in fate is harmful." It is an argument from consequences, not from metaphysics.

For the Community, this chapter is the working method. We ask no one to believe anything; we ask that claims be run through the three tests. This is why we say the Mozi can be tested: it hands us the ruler.

The three tests

This week there is no need to ask which test the chapter uses; the chapter is the tests. What can be discussed are their weaknesses.

The first can be hijacked by "the ancients": precedent is not correctness. The second can be hijacked by a crowd's illusions: what everyone sees is not always true (week 4's question). The third requires a definition of benefit first: whose benefit, over what span of time?

Does Mozi answer these? He weights the third test most heavily and defines benefit concretely (many people, a rich state, orderly government). Is that enough?

For families

• Teach a child the three questions: has anyone done this before? has anyone seen it? what happens when you do it? Practice on one household decision.
• Tell the contrast of Jie and Zhou with Tang and Wu: same world, different people, different results, so fate does not explain it.
• Ask a child: is there something you feel you "just can't do"? Run it through the three tests.

For chapters

• Reading: from "every statement must have a standard" to "these are the three tests of a statement," then the passage "effort brings order; no effort brings disorder."
• Debate: focus on which test to follow when they conflict. Ask each person for a conflict they have lived through.
• Three-tests review: this week's review is of the three tests themselves. Pull out the "weakest test" notes from the past sixteen weeks and see whether it is always the same one. Record the chapter's proposed amendments to the method for the council.