The Book of Mozi Daoist Classic 墨子

The Hanshu·Yiwenzhi (Book of Han·Treatise on Literature and Arts) recorded seventy-one chapters of the Mozi, a collection of works by Mo Di and later scholars of the Mohist School during the Warring States Period.

The book gradually became incomplete after the Sui and Tang dynasties; the existing version preserved in the Daozang (Daoist Canon) consists of fifteen volumes and fifty-three chapters, included in the Taiqing (Supreme Purity) section. Wang Niansun stated in his Preface to the Critical Notes on Reading: "Among the surviving printed editions of this book, the Daozang version is the most superior". Mohism was a prominent school of thought during the Warring States Period, and its doctrines of universal love, opposition to warfare, exaltation of the virtuous, and adherence to unified standards exerted a profound influence on various philosophical schools of the time. Chapters such as Tianzhi (Will of Heaven) and Minggui (Manifestation of Spirits) propagate the ideas of ghosts and deities, while chapters like Feiming (Against Fatalism) and Jieyong (Frugality in Use) oppose extravagance and emphasize the importance of earning one’s own livelihood—ideas that were also absorbed by early folk Daoism. Mohism declined after the Wei and Jin dynasties, and its works have been preserved to this day precisely because they were included in the Daozang, making them truly precious.