Mozi

Mo Di, known as Mozi, was born about 470 BC at the turn of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. A craftsman by origin, he was a master of mechanics and of the defence of cities. He first studied Confucianism but, rejecting its elaborate rites and costly funerals, founded his own school. His followers formed a disciplined community, dressed in coarse clothes and endured every hardship, ready to wear themselves out 'from head to heel for the good of the world'. It is said that when Chu prepared to attack Song, Mozi walked ten days and nights to the Chu capital, laid out his belt as a city wall and in nine mock assaults defeated every engine of the craftsman Gongshu Ban, so that the king gave up the war. In the Warring States period the Mohists and Confucians were the two most prominent schools.