Proposed Research Title: The Ideological and Textual Research on Mozi’s Edition Compiled in the Yongle Canon

The Yongle Canon is the first and largest encyclopedia in the world which has only 815 volumes left. In 1986, Zhonghua Shuju中華書局 published a photocopy of the Yongle Canon’s 797 volumes. The 10th book preserved the whole catalogs of 22877 volumes, in which edited two lost volumes:“ Volume 54, ‘Shangtong’<尙同> chapter of Mozi《墨子》” and “Volume 1814, the Mohism墨家”. According to the Index of the Yongle Canon《永樂大典索引》, there are four existing copies of Mozi’s texts: the “Qinshi”<親士> chapter that marked as “‘Qinshi’ chapter of Mozi” was completely edited according to its phonology (Volume 13453). The other three incomplete copies which was only marked Mozi are the “Feigong”<非攻> chapter which was edited according to Chiwu赤烏’s phonology (Volume 2345), the “Gengzhu”<耕柱> chapter which was edited according to Xiading夏鼎’s phonology (Volume 11956), and the “Shangxian”<尚賢> chapter which was edited according to Sanfu三輔’s phonology (Volume 14912). In addition, other newly discovered volumes of the Yongle Canon did not edit other texts of Mozi. It could be found that the “Yanyuan”<顏淵> chapter is not in the catalogs, but part of its texts was marked “Lunyu” which was edited according to Feiliwudong非禮勿動’s phonology (Volume 13082). And there is a sentence that was edited according to Jiaoyou交友’s phonology (Volume 12016) while being marked as the “‘Yanyuan’ chapter of Lunyu” which was edited according to Yiyoufuren以友輔仁’s phonology (Volume 14912). The other 19 chapters’ names of their book and chapter were completely edited in the catalogs. The “Yaoyue”<堯曰> chapter of Lunyu which was continuously marked with numbers in the catalogs was edited in Volume 5378 to 5379. At the same time, part of its texts was marked “Lunyu Yaoyue”論語堯曰 which was edited according to Tianluyongzhong天祿永終’s phonology (Volume 489). Another part of its texts was marked “Lunyu Yaoyue chapter”論語堯曰章 which was edited according to Zhiren知人’s phonology (Volume 2979). The Yongle Canon recorded some roughly codified principles. It could be speculated that the Yongle Canon only edited the “Shangtong” chapter which could not include its gloss according to the number of contents Volume 54 edited and the long length of the chapter. In addition, all or part of the texts of Mozi’s several chapters should be recorded separately after different characters’ phonology. Therefore, we need to research the following problems: In Mozi’s previous versions, only these two classics which were presided and compiled by the official adopted the way of excerpting Mozi’s chapters. Qunshuzhiyao’s Mozizhiyao《墨子治要》 broke early Tang dynasty’s situation of excluding Mohism but abandoned Mozi’s ideological tenet of eliminating hierarchy. With the purpose of safeguarding the royal power, it reinterpreted Mozi's concept of managing the country and promoted the governance methods of Mozi to the political strategy used by the emperors. Then the emperor of Ming dynasty slaughtered the prime minister and wasted the province to set up a political and military system, which made the central monarchy strengthened as never before. Correspondingly, only the “Shangtong” chapter as a representative of Mozi’s thought has been specially recorded in the catalog. So this version should also subordinate to the Qunshuzhiyao’s governance method selection system. Because the Mohist ideologies have an enduring relevance going beyond the confines of a particular culture or epoch, “Shang tong” 尙同 (Conform Upward) was still required by the authoritarian monarch. This doctrine was merged by Legalism as well as Confucianism and spread by the way of thinking. “Shang tong” was put forward from the extension of “Shangxian”尚賢 (Elevate the Worthy), which carried out “Jian ai” 兼愛 (Inclusive Care)’s political measures and employment ideas. Mozi attempted to unify the world’s system by making private profits attached to the public interest, accompanying by rewards and punishments, and encouraging revealing goodness and adultery, etc. However, Han Fei Tzu韓非子 transformed Mozi’s bottom-up thought of “Shang tong” into an absolute top-down centralized monarch power. In addition, the Han-Confucians漢儒 advocated the “Da yi tong”, which in fact absorbed Master Mozi’s “Shang tong”. These all symbolized the idealized rule of virtue which takes “Tian zhi” 天志 (Will of Heaven) as “Fayi” 法儀 (Laws and Etiquette) and takes “Ming gui” 明鬼 (Explaining Ghosts) as vigilance was finally abolished and transformed into a set of autocratic monarchy theory, due to the neglect of the actual evil in humanity and the fact that the feudal monarchical power was intensified. After collating Mozi compiled in the Yongle Canon and the photocopies of the Zhengtongdaozang《正統道藏》(The Orthodox Taoist Canon), it could be found that the “Qinshi” chapter’s texts and punctuation are basically same as while there are some differences in the other three chapters. However, these texts with differences are more similar to those in Yuhai《玉海》 in the Southern Song Dynasty. Therefore, it is concluded that Mozi compiled in the Yongle Canon originated from the Fifteen Volumes System and directly inherited from the Southern Song dynasty’s version with fifty-three chapters. This is the first important Mozi’s inscription in the Ming Dynasty. However, due to the large number of its lost texts as well as the rapid rise of Daozangben道藏本 and Jiajingben嘉靖本, it was ignored by the scholars. As a result, the author added it to the study of Mohism through the ideological and textual research on Mozi’s edition compiled in the Yongle Canon. Focus on excerpts from the book Mozi in such collections as Qunshuzhiyao群書治要, Yilin意林, Yiwenleiju藝文類聚, Yongle Canon永樂大典 and popular encyclopedias from the Ming dynasty onword. Answer these questions: What parts are quoted in those sources? How do these quotes differ from the oldest transmitted Zhengtong edition of the Ming? How do they differ from each other? In what section of the collections do they occur, etc.