Mozi - Name

Name

There has been considerable debate about the actual name of Mozi. Traditionally, Mozi was said to have inherited the surname "Mo" from his supposed ancestor, the Lord of Guzhu (Chinese: 孤竹君; pinyin: Gūzhú Jūn), himself descended from Shennong the legendary emperor. The descendants of the Lord of Guzhu had the clan name "Motai" (Chinese: 墨胎; pinyin: Mòtāi), which later was shortened to "Mo". However, modern scholarship suggests that "Mo" was not, in fact, the clan name of Mozi, as this clan name/family name is not encountered during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, but that "Mo" was rather the name of the Mohist school itself, derived from the name of a criminal punishment (tattooing of the forehead of criminals; "mo" literally means "ink"), usually inflicted on slaves. It signals the Mohists' identification with the lowest of common people. The actual ancestral name and clan name of Mozi is not known. It may be that, because he was likely born into the lower classes, he did not have an ancestral or clan name. During Chinese antiquity, the vast majority of the Chinese people who were not related to aristocratic families, did not possess ancestral and clan names. And one final plausible source of Mozi's name may have been the philosopher's skin complexion itself, which is referred to as "dark" (lit. "black") in the text. "Mozi was going north to Qi and met a fortune teller on the way. The fortune teller told him: "God kills the black dragon in the north today. Now, your complexion is dark. You must not go north."