Week 23 · 7 June 2027 – 13 June 2027
Standards and models
Chapter 4 Standards and Models · Chapter 7 Three Arguments
This week's question
法仪 says 'no one who undertakes anything in the world can do without a standard'; even the craftsmen have compass, square, line and plumb, so how can governing go without? Then Mozi asks: can we take parents, teachers or rulers as the standard? No, he says, because among all three 'the humane are few.' Whom do you actually take as your model when you act? If that person is unreliable, how would you know? Is there a standard that does not depend on any particular person?
This week's practice
Write down the person you are actually imitating in one important area of your life (raising children, spending money, making decisions). Then run that person through the three tests: is there precedent that their way works? Have you seen its effects yourself? Are those effects benefit or harm?
Introduction
The first half of the year has covered the main body of the ten doctrines. For the next four weeks we read chapters 1 to 7, the short essays generally thought to be later introductory material, which makes them a good review. This week: 法仪 and 三辩.
法仪, Standards and Models, is the book's other statement of method, the twin of the three tests in 非命上. It opens: "No one who undertakes anything in the world can do without a standard and model; there has never been anyone who accomplished their work without one." Then the familiar image: every craftsman "has a standard to measure by": the square for what is square, the compass for what is round, the line for what is straight, the plumb for what is upright. A skilled worker hits the standard; a poor one, working by the standard, still does better than by guesswork.
Then the key question: what is the standard for governing? "Should all take their parents as the standard?" "Parents in the world are many, but the humane among them are few"; to take parents as the standard is "to take the inhumane as the standard." Teachers? The same. Rulers? The same. None of the three will serve. What then? "Nothing is better than to take Heaven as the standard." Heaven "acts broadly and without partiality, gives generously and takes no credit, shines for ages and does not fade." So take Heaven as the standard, and taking Heaven as the standard means "caring for one another and benefiting one another."
This chapter restates the conclusion of the three 天志 chapters in the shortest possible form: the standard cannot be any particular person, because any person may be inhumane; it must be something impartial that treats everyone alike. The Community calls this the "objective standard" and writes it into 墨者之法.
三辩, Three Arguments, is a short dialogue. Cheng Fan asks Mozi: the sage kings had music too, so why do you oppose it? Mozi answers that the sage kings' music grew "more elaborate" with each generation, while their government grew worse: "the more elaborate the music, the less the order." So music is not a tool of government; "what the sage kings commanded was to have less of it." This supplements week 16's 非乐上: not no music, but less.
Read together, the two chapters share one theme: work needs a standard; the standard must be testable; it cannot be one person's preference.
The three tests
法仪 rests mainly on the second test, evidence: everyone can see that craftsmen use standards; everyone can see that most parents, teachers and rulers fall short. Then the third, application: take Heaven as standard and there is impartial care, and with it order.
三辩 uses the first test, precedent: the sage kings' music grew and their government declined, a historical pattern.
Ask: if 法仪 says parents, teachers and rulers cannot serve as the standard, what about the first test's "deeds of the sage kings"? The sage kings were people too. Mozi would say they were sage kings precisely because they "took Heaven as the standard." Is that answer circular?
For families
- Get out a compass, a ruler and a piece of string and measure things in the house with a child: is the square thing square, the round thing round? Ask: "Without a ruler, just by eye, could you measure exactly?"
- Ask a child: when you do something, whom are you copying? What if that person is wrong?
- Tell 三辩: the more a ruler indulged, the worse the state was run. Ask the child for an example of "the more you play, the worse things get done."
For chapters
- Reading: from 法仪, "no one who undertakes anything in the world can do without a standard" to "nothing is better than to take Heaven as the standard"; all of 三辩.
- Debate: focus on whom to take as the standard. Each person names the model from their practice and the result of the three tests.
- Three-tests review: use 法仪 to revisit the three-sentence summary of 天志 filed in week 21. Does anything need amending? Record it.