mengzi3a5reconsidered.PDF

mengzi 3a5 reconsidered jeffrey riegel A Root Split in Two: Mengzi 3a5 Reconsidered The Master said, “He is not one of my followers. Little ones, I give you leave to strike the drum and assail him.” 子曰非吾徒也小子鳴鼓而攻之可也 Lunyu 論語 11.16 A snake most certainly has no legs. How then can you, sir, provide it with legs? 蛇固無足子安能為之足 Zhanguo ce 戰國策, Book 9 I n T R o d u c T I o n The antagonism between the Ru 儒 and the Mo 墨 is a prominent mo- tif that runs through the history of pre-Qin philosophical literature. Mo school philosophers found the Ru advocacy of ritual excessive and their emphasis on the family selfish. For their part, Ru school thinkers argued that the Mo school promotion of frugal policies disastrous and their support of altruism a denial of the filial respect owed to parents. Among the several texts that attest to the verbal attacks by the followers of one against the doctrines and even the adherents of the other, Mengzi 3A 5 is especially noteworthy since it records an exchange in which the Ruhist Mengzi 孟子 and the Mohist Yi Zhi 夷之 make claims and respond to one another’s statements in a way that comes close to a debate.1 1 See Jiao Xun 焦循, Mengzi zhengyi 孟子正義 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1987; hereafter M Z ) 11, pp. 401–8. In its opening line the text refers to Yi Zhi as a Mo zhe 墨者, a “Mohist,” and at a later point in the text, Yi Zhi refers to a Ru 儒, “Ruhist” or “confucian,” teaching that he believes Me