Mozi (fifth century B.C.) was an important political and social thinker and formidable rival of the Confucianists. He advocated universal love -- his most important doctrine, according to which all humankind should be loved and treated as one'* kinfolk; honoring and making use of worthy men in government; and identifying with one'* superior as a means of establishing uniform moral standards. He also believed in the will of Heaven and in ghosts. He firmly opposed offensive warfare, extravagance (including indulgence in music and allied pleasures), elaborate funerals and mourning, fatalistic beliefs, and Confucianism.

Describes the classical age of Chinese philosophy (500-200 B.C.) that coincides with the final decline of the Chou empire and the period of 'warring states' (403-221 B.C.), an exceptional era in Chinese history when there was no central authority which could claim to rule the entire civilized world. In the absence of a single unified state power enforcing conformity, there blossomed a hundred schools of thought. Philosophical argument and rational debate flourished in China as never before or since.