Week 27 · 5 July 2027 – 11 July 2027
Against the Confucians
Chapter 39 Against the Confucians II
This week's question
Against the claim that a gentleman must speak and dress in the ancient way, Mozi answers that everything now called ancient was once new. Which of the three tests does that reply lean on? And if a Confucian turned the same reply against Mozi's own first test, grounding claims in the sage kings, would Mozi still stand?
This week's practice
This week pick one view you disagree with, restate it in words its holder would accept, and then say which specific claim you reject, not which person.
Introduction
Against the Confucians II is the angriest chapter in the Mozi. Its first half attacks Confucian positions one by one: care that is graded by kinship, lavish funerals and long mourning, belief in fate, elaborate ritual and music, the rule that a gentleman must speak and dress as the ancients did, and the image of the gentleman as a bell that sounds only when struck. The second half tells unflattering stories about Confucius, and some of these were very likely added by later Mohists.
Keep two things apart as you read. One is the argument. Mozi says everything now called ancient was new once, so if a gentleman may only wear ancient clothes and say ancient words, the first person to say so was no gentleman. And if a gentleman sounds only when struck, must he wait to be asked before warning of a disaster? These are real arguments and still usable. The other is the tone. Painting an opponent as a small person is not the three tests; it is abuse. 墨门 / The Mohist Community does not skip this chapter, precisely because it reminds us that a tradition built on impartial care can lose its fairness in a quarrel.
Our way of reading it: keep the arguments, drop the heat. You can firmly reject lavish funerals and fatalism while treating Confucius as a thinker who deserves serious attention.
The three tests
The chapter mostly leans on the third test, use: lavish funerals exhaust the people, belief in fate stops effort, endless ritual leaves no time for work. All of these are judged by consequences. But the "ancient was once new" reply does something more interesting. It challenges the first test itself. If every ancient rule was once a new one, "ancient" cannot be a reason on its own; you still have to ask whether it benefits people. That is this week's question: the knife Mozi uses on the Confucians also cuts him.
For families
- Play "old or new": which household habits came "from the grandparents"? Ask how each one actually started.
- Take a small disagreement at home (bedtime, getting a dog) and practice restating the other side's reasons before giving your own.
- Tell the story of Confucius, his students and his travels, and ask the children why Mozi disagreed with him and why both still deserve respect.
For chapters
- 20 min reading · 20 min 墨辩 · 10 min 三表 review · 10 min 职 reports.
- 墨辩 motion: "Should the stories about Confucius in the second half of this chapter be kept in our reader?" One side argues to keep them as part of the record, the other to drop them as unfair attacks.
- 三表 review: each Mohist names one argument in the chapter they think holds and one they think fails, and says which test they used to decide.