Avoiding excess; mid-year review

Introduction

The last chapter of the half-year is 辞过, Avoiding Excess. It applies the principle of moderation to five things, which makes it the right chapter to close on.

Mozi says that before people knew how to build, they lived in caves, and the damp harmed them, so the sage kings built houses. The rule for a house: "high enough to keep off the damp, walls thick enough to keep out wind and cold, a roof sound enough to bear snow, frost, rain and dew, and walls high enough to keep the proprieties between men and women." "Carefully observe this, and stop." Beyond it, carving and ornament: "whatever spends wealth and labor without adding benefit is not done." Rulers now do the reverse, "taxing the people heavily" to build palaces and terraces, "so their wealth is not enough to meet famine."

Then clothing. Before people knew how to make it, they wore skins and grass; the sage kings taught them, with the rule "in winter dark silk, light and warm; in summer fine linen, light and cool," and stop. Food: "enough to strengthen the breath, fill the stomach, strengthen the body and satisfy the belly, and no more." Boats and carts: "a cart to carry loads far, safe to ride and easy to draw"; a boat "to cross rivers and valleys." After each item, the contemporary ruler's excess: for the sake of finery "they tax the people heavily," and the people are poor.

The fifth is the harem. In the sage kings' time "no women were confined in the palace," so "there were no wifeless men in the world." Rulers now confine "thousands in a large state, hundreds in a small one," so that "many men have no wives and many women are confined without husbands," and the population falls. The context is far from us, but the problem it exposes is the same one throughout: excess at the top is paid for at the bottom.

Near the end, one line sums it up: "Frugality brings prosperity; indulgence brings ruin."

The chapter has no new argument. It compresses the lists from 节用, 非乐 and 七患 into a simpler table: five things, and for each one question, what is the use, and what exceeds it? That question can be asked of anything, including our own study.

Mid-year review checklist

Each Mohist should complete this before the assembly. It need not be handed in, but it must be exchanged with at least one other person.

On the text

• Of the twenty-five chapters, which did you read more than once? Which did you skip entirely?
• Which changed your mind? Which of the three tests did the change rest on?
• Which do you think "no longer applies today," and why?

On the three tests

• Over twenty-five weeks, which test did your chapter most often record as "weakest"?
• Which test do you use most? Least?

On the practices

• Of twenty-five practices, how many did you do? Which one led to a real change?
• Which did you not do that you now think you should have?

On the organization

• In week 25's seven-calamities check, how many did the chapter show?
• Have the selection criteria recorded in weeks 8 and 10 been used this half-year?
• Week 12's "can bad news travel upward": better or worse than six months ago?

On yourself

• By the method of 辞过, where did you exceed "use" this half-year?
• In week 21's seven-item scoring, which item did you most often fail? And now?

The assembly

This is assembly week. 兼爱大会 is the Community's half-yearly gathering of all chapters, meeting at the regional (墨区) level or online. The weekly study does not set the assembly's program, but bring this checklist: the assembly's 墨辩 usually opens with each chapter's mid-year review.

The second half of the year begins in week 27 with 非儒下. The first half read what Mozi argued for; the second half reads how he debated, how he acted, and how he defended.

The three tests

辞过 rests on the first and third tests. Precedent: the sage kings' rules for houses, clothing, boats and carts. Application: excess means "wealth not enough to meet famine" and "many men without wives."

The mid-year review is itself a three-tests exercise: look back at your view of each chapter and ask which test it stands on.

For families

• Make the "five things" list with a child: house, clothes, food, getting around; for each, ask how much is enough. (The fifth need not be discussed with children.)
• Hold a family mid-year review: which practice this half-year was most useful at home?
• Ask a child: which story from this half-year do you remember best? Why?

For chapters

• Reading: the passage "high enough to keep off the damp," and the line "frugality brings prosperity; indulgence brings ruin."
• Debate: this week's 墨辩 becomes the mid-year review. Use the four "On the organization" questions; the chapter lead records the answers for the assembly.
• Assignment reports: this week each assignment gives a half-year summary in three sentences: what we did, what we lack, what we need for the second half. The three-tests review folds into the assembly.