Facing the enemy; signals

Introduction

Two short chapters this week. Rites for Meeting the Enemy covers ceremonies before an enemy arrives; Flags and Banners covers the signal system on the wall.

Rites for Meeting the Enemy looks at first like a manual of sacrifice. If the enemy comes from the east, build an altar outside the east gate, eight feet high, presided over by eight men of eighty, under a green flag; south, red, seventy, seven feet; west, white, sixty; north, black, fifty. Every number follows the five phases. Then "cloud-reading," judging victory from the shapes of vapor.

The last section changes the meaning of the whole. Station the shamans, physicians and diviners; stock medicines; and the results of divination "the commander alone knows." Whoever spreads them as rumor and alarms the people is "cut down, without pardon." The ceremony is public, the conclusion secret, and anyone circulating "the will of heaven" is punished. People who really let spirits decide whether to fight would not arrange things so. The Mohists treated ceremony as a tool for steadying people and divination as something that must not touch decisions. That is how 墨门 / The Mohist Community reads 明鬼: not as belief, but as the management of confidence and fear.

Flags and Banners is a complete signal system. "For timber, a green flag; for fire, red; for firewood, yellow; for stone, white; for water, black; for food, the mushroom flag." Picked men, reserves, boys and women each have a flag; so do crossbows, halberds, chariots and cavalry. When a flag goes up on the wall, the officer in charge of that supply sends it up; when there is enough, the flag comes down. At night, torches by the same rules. Anything not on the list gets a flag in its own shape. It is communication without shouting or runners, visible to the whole city.

The three tests

The rites look like the first test, following ancient forms; but the rule that the commander alone knows exposes the real basis as the third test. Ceremony is useful because it steadies people; divination is harmful because it unsettles them; so one is public and the other secret. Flags is pure use: a signal is good if the supplies arrive on time. This week's question lives in the gap between the two chapters. Who is closer to Mozi, the person who treats ceremony as a tool or the person who rejects it?

For families

• 科技堂: flag game. Five colors of paper stand for water, fire, wood, stone and food; one person raises a flag, the others fetch the matching item, and see who is fastest and most accurate.
• On "the commander alone knows": why should good and bad news both pass first through one calm person? Is there such a person at home?
• Night signals: agree what one long and one short flash of a torch mean, and try it once as a family.

For chapters

• 20 min reading · 20 min 墨辩 · 10 min 三表 review · 10 min 职 reports.
• 墨辩 motion: "The Community should keep its ceremonies (memorial days, welcoming new members) because they are useful." One side cites Rites for Meeting the Enemy; the other cites Gongmeng, "hospitality with no guest."
• 三表 review: check the chapter's communication against Flags. Does it run on shouting or on flags? Agree a simple set of help signals and write them into the chapter's rules.