Mozi

(c. 470 BC - c. 391 BC)

Born around the beginning of the Warring States period—shortly after the death of Confucius—Mozi professed a doctrine of undifferentiated love: “When everyone regards the states and cities of others as he regards his own, no one will attack the others’ states or seize the others’ cities.” In his eponymous work of philosophy, The Mozi, he recounts that after he heard that the state of Chu planned to attack his native Song, he walked for ten days and nights hoping when he arrived to dissuade the ruler from launching the assault; he was successful.