8:00 – 18:00

5 RMB per person

Tel: 0632-3314883

Autumn is the optimal travel season every year. Visitors can arrange a combined tour with other scenic spots in Tengzhou, and the International Mozi Symposium is usually held in autumn.

0632-3350123

Take Bus No.6 from Tengzhou Railway Station or Tengzhou Bus Station and get off at Tasi Street Stop. A taxi ride costs 6 RMB.

Mozi Academy is located inside Jinghe Park of Tengzhou. Jinghe Park sits on the north bank of the City River and the west side of South Shanguo Road, constructed by utilizing the water surface and land formed after straightening the curved City River. Construction of the park started in March 1985. After seven to eight years of development, it has taken initial shape.

Mozi was a great thinker in the early Warring States Period and the founder of the Mohist School. His surname was Mo and given name Di, and his exact birth and death years remain unrecorded.

Modern scholars generally believe Mozi was born around 476 BC and passed away around 390 BC. Disputes also exist over his birthplace. Records of the Grand Historian · Biographies of Mencius and Xunzi notes he was "a minister of the State of Song". Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals · When Dyeing holds he was a native of the State of Lu, while other records state he was originally from Song and resided in Lu for a long time. Mozi once stated, "I bear no official duties above, nor toil as a farmer below", suggesting he belonged to the shi (scholar-official) class of that era. Yet he also acknowledged himself as a "common man of humble status". He may have worked as a craftsman or small handicraftsman, possessing abundant practical production skills. Mozi "labored day and night, taking extreme hardship as his norm". He traveled extensively among various vassal states for years to promote his political doctrines.

According to legend, he once persuaded the State of Chu to abandon its attack on Song, putting his ideas of universal love and non-aggression into practice. He "traveled south to the State of Wei as an envoy" to advocate retaining capable warriors for national defense. He also visited the State of Chu many times and submitted writings to King Hui of Chu. He declined the fief granted by the Chu monarch and left. In his later years, he journeyed to the State of Qi, attempting to dissuade Xiang Ziniu from launching an invasion against Lu, yet his efforts ended in failure. The King of Yue invited Mozi to serve as an official, promising him a fief spanning five hundred li. Mozi agreed to go only on the condition that the king adopt his words and implement his doctrines, caring nothing for fiefdoms or official titles, for his sole aim was to realize his political aspirations and ideals.

Mozi was also one of the pivotal pioneers of ancient Chinese logical thought. In the book Mozi, he consciously and extensively employed logical deduction to establish and demonstrate his political and ethical theories. Mozi was the first to propose the principle that names must correspond to realities. He also introduced core logical concepts including bian (argumentation), lei (category) and gu (reason) for the first time in the history of Chinese logic. In the chapter Gengzhu, he advocated that "those skilled in argumentation should engage in argumentation" and required argumentation to be studied as a specialized discipline. When refuting others’ viewpoints, he often remarked, "You have not examined the category of my words, nor clarified their underlying reasons." He set the debating principle that "statements without grounds ought to yield to those with grounds". Although Mozi’s bian generally referred to the art of debate, it was rooted in distinguishing categories and identifying reasons, thus falling under the scope of logical analogy and demonstration.

Mozi’s "Three Standards" served not only as criteria for discourse but also contained elements of deductive reasoning. He excelled at using analogical reasoning to expose contradictions in opponents’ arguments. Inspired by Mozi’s advocacy, the Mohist school formed a tradition valuing logic, and the later Mohists established the first complete system of ancient Chinese logic.

Mozi’s philosophical thought reflects the duality of the small producer class liberated from patriarchal slavery. The rational elements in his theories were inherited and developed by later materialist thinkers, while its mystical dross was absorbed and exploited by teleological theologians after the Qin and Han dynasties. As the founder of the pre-Qin Mohist School, Mozi exerted a profound influence on the history of Chinese philosophy.

Mozi delivered countless lectures and demonstrated his ideas through words and deeds, yet he left no handwritten works himself. Surviving chapters in Mozi such as "Exalting Worthiness", "Identifying with the Superior", "Universal Love", "Non-Aggression", "Economy of Expenditure", "Simplicity in Funerals", "Will of Heaven", "Explaining Ghosts", "Condemning Music" and "Destiny Does Not Exist" are records of his thoughts and speeches compiled by his disciples and later followers. This book constitutes the core source for the study of Mozi’s ideology.