Mo Tzu
Mo Tzu (ca 468 B.C. - ca 376 B.C.), originally named Mo Di, was a celebrated philosopher during the early Warring States period. Mo Tzu, meaning Master Mo, is an honorific title. The school of philosophy he established is called Mohism and his thoughts and main theories are collected and preserved in The Mohist Canons.
As the son of a carpenter, Mo Tzu learned carpentry from childhood. While learning the classics of Confucianism, he gradually got tired of the Confucian canons, regarding them as uptight, egotistical, pretentious upper class, and characterized by a mindless devotion to empty rituals. Finally he gave up Confucianism and formed a school of his own, namely, the Mohism. Gaining a growing number of followers and giving lectures all round, Mo Tzu established his school against Confucians in ideas of rituals and class stratification. He spoke for the lower classes of society, opposed wars, demanded to diminish expenditures for rites and burials, and make use of a universal love. He committed himself fully to the nation and determined to save people from sufferings and wars. The most well known story is that on hearing that the King of the State of Chu intended to attack the State of Song, he went to Chu and by simulating the coming war, he convinced the King that the war of aggression would eventually lead to nowhere.
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