Chapter 270: The Mo Attack

"Xiangli Ge of the Southern Mo, you have come to this Commandant's tent — for what purpose? Could it be that you wish to speak for peace on behalf of the city, to have our army abandon the attack on Ruyin, to have Qin abandon its campaign against Chu?"

As soon as Li You said this, all the commanders in the tent burst out laughing. In their eyes, this was of course a fool's daydream, though they had heard that the Southern Mo were most fond of such things.

Heifu, however, did not laugh. He glanced at the Qin Mo Cheng Shang, whose expression was complicated. Yesterday, after Cheng Shang told him there might be Mohists in Ruyin helping defend the city, and since he couldn't fall back asleep for a while after being woken anyway, Heifu sat with Cheng Shang for half the night and asked about the origins of the Mohist schisms...

It turned out that the early Mohist school, while Mozi was still alive, already had three distinct divisions of labor: "Let those who can debate, debate; let those who can expound the texts, expound the texts; let those who can do practical work, do practical work." At that time, though differences existed among the Mohists, they could still pull in the same direction.

After Mozi's death, the Mohist school increasingly fragmented. After the incident in which "Meng Sheng and one hundred eighty Mohists perished in Lord Yangcheng's calamity," the main body of the Mohist school was dealt a heavy blow, and the various currents began an inevitable schism. Ultimately, they split into three branches: the Eastern Mo, the Southern Mo, and the Qin-entering Mo.

The Eastern Mo favored debate and textual exposition. This faction focused primarily on academic disputation; they traveled the various states, gathered at Jixia, and immersed themselves in arguing over names and realities with the School of Names. They produced piles of theories and wrote books establishing their doctrines, but did relatively little practical work. Gradually they lost their popular base and became metaphysical.

The Qin-entering Mo were the "practical work" faction — little empty talk, much solid action. After entering Qin, they quickly integrated with the Qin upper strata and contributed greatly to Qin's rise. The Qin Mo Grand Master Fu Tun was even an honored guest of King Huiwen of Qin, so this Mohist faction, like the Agriculturalists and the Military Strategists, was one of the few schools permitted to exist by the Qin Legalists and did not suffer brutal suppression.

Today, Cheng Shang and the other Qin Mo are their later disciples. Qin Mo disciples often serve in the Lesser Treasury; Qin's so-called "standardized" production and its formidable military-industrial capacity are inseparable from the Qin Mo.

The Southern Mo, however, neither became academic nor attached themselves like vines to a powerful state apparatus. They continued to walk among the common people. They insisted on "wearing coarse wool and hemp as clothing, wooden clogs as footwear, toiling day and night without rest, taking self-imposed hardship as the ultimate standard," emulating the ascetic ways of the ancient sage-king Yu the Great. They could be considered the fundamentalists within Mohism.

They also inherited the Mohist ideals of universal love and opposition to offensive war. In successive wars, they had played the role of helping small invaded states resist great powers, and they often traveled to persuade the feudal lords to cease arms.

Yesterday, after explaining all this to Heifu, Cheng Shang spoke to Heifu in a tone both admiring and regretful: "I heard Master Tang say: when Song destroyed Teng, the Southern Mo were in Teng; when Qi destroyed Song, the Southern Mo were in Shangqiu; when the five states attacked Qi, the Southern Mo were in Jimo, helping Tian Dan defend the city..."

But as the small states along the Si River were mostly wiped out by great powers like Qi and Chu, and as Qin's wars of annexation grew ever larger in scale, the shadow of the Southern Mo gradually faded from the world's sight.

Yet who would have expected that, at this moment when Chu is perilously close to collapse, they would once again appear before the Qin army!

And moreover, on the opposing side!

Li You was a man of Shangcai. In his youth, he had heard no small amount about the deeds of Meng Sheng and the Southern Mo, so even with his eyes shut, he knew what this group intended to do! Thus he directly stated their purpose.

Unexpectedly, Xiangli Ge did not deny it at all, and said calmly, "Indeed. Xiangli Ge has come precisely to urge the General to cease the attack on Ruyin..."

Li You did not immediately throw him out. He sneered, "I have long heard that Mohists are skilled in argument. Do tell me your reasoning."

Xiangli Ge bowed with clasped hands and spoke freely: "I have heard that Qin's laws and ordinances are strict and clear. Suppose there is a man who enters another's garden or orchard and steals their peaches and plums. When people hear of it, they condemn him, and those who govern will certainly arrest and severely punish him. Why? Because harming another to benefit oneself is an unlawful and unrighteous act."

He then launched into a lengthy discourse, listing one by one such unlawful and unrighteous acts as someone seizing another's dogs and pigs, taking another's oxen and horses, or taking up sword and halberd against another person. Finally, he said:

"Yet none of the above acts are as grave as attacking another's state! To attack another's state, to raze their gardens and orchards, to seize their dogs, pigs, oxen, and horses, to kill their common people, to occupy their cities, towns, and temples — this is the greatest unrighteousness of all!"

Li You glanced at the Qin Mo Cheng Shang. The meaning was obvious: he wanted Cheng Shang to offer a rebuttal.

Cheng Shang could only brace himself and step forward. He said, "However, the King of Chu, Fuchu, murdered his elder brother and usurped the throne, and also violated his sworn covenant with Qin. The great army's campaign against him is like Yu's punitive expedition against the Youmiao, Tang's attack on Jie, or King Wu's attack on Zhou. This is a righteous army! Even Master Mozi did not forbid such!"

"Not so!"

Xiangli Ge immediately seized upon this flaw and said, "Yu's punitive expedition against the Youmiao, Tang's attack on Jie, and King Wu's attack on Zhou were not offensive wars — they merely executed the chief culprits. Because the people could not make a living, Heaven decreed their punishment. The Three Kings received Heaven's mandate to campaign, and only thus could they succeed. They did not burn, kill, or plunder, but established a new order, allowing the common people to live and work in peace..."

"This..."

Heifu knew that Cheng Shang was an honest man, and that the Qin Mo were mostly of the "practical work" faction — experts at concrete tasks. But in debate, how could he possibly match the Southern Mo, who were often responsible for persuasion and dabbled in theory? Cheng Shang was suddenly at a loss for words.

Moreover, what Xiangli Ge said next, based on the Mohist theories Cheng Shang knew, was also irrefutable.

"When the Qin army entered Chu territory at the start of spring, the spring plowing and farming of both Qin and Chu were abandoned! If this war continues into autumn, the people's harvest and storage will also be delayed. In this way, over the course of a year, the common people of both states who die from hunger, cold, and exposure will be beyond counting!"

"And when the Qin army set out, the bamboo arrows, feathered banners, tents, armor, halberds, spears, swords, halberds, and war chariots — those that are broken and cannot be brought back are beyond counting. The oxen and horses that were fat and strong when brought here are now mostly gaunt and weak; those that have died and cannot return are beyond counting. The road from Guanzhong to Chu is long and distant; provisions are cut off and cannot be sustained; the civilian laborers who fall ill from disease and toil and die along the roads are also beyond counting!"

"Furthermore, does the General now think that to attack Ruyin's two-li inner city and four-li outer wall, one can seize this place without using elite troops, without killing or wounding multitudes, and gain it for nothing? Not so. Between attackers and defenders, the slain will number in the tens of thousands at most, and in the thousands at least. Chu is a thousand li in breadth and has over a hundred cities. Calculated thus, the Qin army's losses will also be beyond counting!"

These were all arguments from the Mo Canon, irrefutable theories in the eyes of any Mohist, so Cheng Shang was left speechless.

Xiangli Ge seized the momentum to rebuke him: "Cheng Shang, you also call yourself a Mohist. Yet, ever since Master Mozi, the Mohist school has vigorously advocated promoting what benefits all under Heaven and eliminating what harms all under Heaven. But now you have cast aside opposition to offensive war and universal love, and you abet this unrighteous war, this great harm to all under Heaven. Though you possess a body of ingenious skills, you are no longer a Mohist, but a false Mo! You are a Gongshu!"

In Mozi's era, there was also a master craftsman — none other than the renowned Lu Ban, also called Gongshu Ban. Gongshu Ban did not share the Mohists' scruples. He helped the King of Chu modify siege engines and invented sharp devices like the cloud ladder, aiding the King of Chu in attacking Song and striking at Yue. For this, later Mohist disciples regarded him as one who ran counter to the Mohist path.

Cheng Shang recalled that during the Qin army's campaign against Chu, unrighteous acts such as killing captives had indeed occurred. The ideals in his heart began to waver, and for a moment he could speak no further. He could only retreat in shame.

Having rebuked Cheng Shang into retreat, Xiangli Ge then entreated Li You: "Therefore, war annexes states and destroys armies, plunders and cruelly treats the myriad people, despoils the spirit altars, and scatters the common folk. It benefits neither Qin nor Chu, nor does it benefit Heaven above, nor the ghosts and spirits, nor the common people. I beseech the Commandant to convey this to General Wang, to convey it to the King of Qin — to turn weapons of war into gifts of jade and silk!"

Li You's expression grew somewhat awkward. He had originally wanted Cheng Shang to refute this fellow and send him packing. Who would have thought that Cheng Shang, usually quite capable in practical matters, was so inept at argument that he had been defeated?

But even if Xiangli Ge talked the heavens into breaking apart, Li You could not possibly withdraw his troops, much less petition the King of Qin for peace talks and a ceasefire. His own bright future still depended on this war to be consolidated. How could he do something so self-defeating as throwing away favor?

Yet, just as he was pondering how to wrap this up now, and whether to simply have this man seized and thrown out, Heifu, who had been seated at the lower end listening to this debate for a long time, suddenly rose to his feet!

Heifu rather appreciated the Qin Mo and Cheng Shang's practical, workmanlike style. He was somewhat displeased at seeing Cheng Shang thoroughly refuted by Xiangli Ge and retreating in dejection, and wanted to win back some face for him. So he burst out laughing.

"Master Xiangli, do you and the Mohists of the Southern Mo still live two hundred years ago, unaware that winter and summer, cold and heat, have changed?"

PS: For those interested in Mohism, I recommend reading "Warring States Ambitionist" — it goes into far more detail than my brief sketch here.

(End of Chapter)