Mo Tzu
Name Chao Yang
Professor Mark D Meritt
Class RHET 120
Date April 25 2013
Mo Tzu’s Against Music is not against Music: How Mo Tzu critiques early Chinese Class based society in their Musical Practices
Music in Mo Tzu’s China was a historical and religiously based event. Music has always been a form of expression in Chinese cultural history, whether it is among the musical festivals of the common people, or the extravagant operas held in the courts of the ruling class aristocracy. Other than these forms of musical entertainment, more critical were the “rites” often closely associated with the “music” of the time. In fact, “rites-music” is a more general term often used to describe these early practices of playing and performing ritualistic forms of music. These forms of music asserted how the upper class was inherently more spiritual, nobler, and better individual beings than the common man. For Mo Tzu, whose fundamental notion is a theme of “universal love” between all men, this notion of ranked relationships just because of the different ways people played and enjoyed music was hypocrisy. In contrast to the Confucian notion of ranking the relationships of kinship and blood relations, Mo Tzu felt that individual births were more like random events, and all men has a responsibility to love himself and others. Mo Tzu’s notions of universal love was not only threatening to the Confucian way of thought, it also threatened the very basic clan-tribal relationship early Chinese governments were formed under. These tribal clans emphasized the superiority of their bloodline, in contrast to the commoners, to justify their heavy taxation and other unequal practices. When Mo Tzu criticizes Music in “Against Music,” he is criticizing the musical practices that have already become synonymous with materialist luxury and class distinction.
The fundamental beginning of Chinese musical arts cannot be separated from forms of religious expression. Like the early medieval Church hymns
Professor Mark D Meritt
Class RHET 120
Date April 25 2013
Mo Tzu’s Against Music is not against Music: How Mo Tzu critiques early Chinese Class based society in their Musical Practices
Music in Mo Tzu’s China was a historical and religiously based event. Music has always been a form of expression in Chinese cultural history, whether it is among the musical festivals of the common people, or the extravagant operas held in the courts of the ruling class aristocracy. Other than these forms of musical entertainment, more critical were the “rites” often closely associated with the “music” of the time. In fact, “rites-music” is a more general term often used to describe these early practices of playing and performing ritualistic forms of music. These forms of music asserted how the upper class was inherently more spiritual, nobler, and better individual beings than the common man. For Mo Tzu, whose fundamental notion is a theme of “universal love” between all men, this notion of ranked relationships just because of the different ways people played and enjoyed music was hypocrisy. In contrast to the Confucian notion of ranking the relationships of kinship and blood relations, Mo Tzu felt that individual births were more like random events, and all men has a responsibility to love himself and others. Mo Tzu’s notions of universal love was not only threatening to the Confucian way of thought, it also threatened the very basic clan-tribal relationship early Chinese governments were formed under. These tribal clans emphasized the superiority of their bloodline, in contrast to the commoners, to justify their heavy taxation and other unequal practices. When Mo Tzu criticizes Music in “Against Music,” he is criticizing the musical practices that have already become synonymous with materialist luxury and class distinction.
The fundamental beginning of Chinese musical arts cannot be separated from forms of religious expression. Like the early medieval Church hymns