We use "Later Mohists" to refer
to the wing of the school of Mozi (See MOZI) whose central work is known as the
Mohist Canon. This and two later writings comprise Chapters 40-45 of The
Mozi. Accounts may also refer to them as Neo-Mohists or Dialectical
Mohists. They focused on theory of language, though their writings include
fragments on ethics, and included embryonic scientific reflections on
economics, geometry, and optics. Traditional accounts sometimes include them in
the pseudo-school they call the "School of Names." Traditional
scholars gave the latter name to a cluster of thinkers who analyzed names in
conflicting ways. Their reconstructed motivations reflect three differing
trends in social political thought (Confucianism, Mohism and Daoism). The usual
additional members of this school included Gong-sun Lung (treated below) and
Hui Shi (treated in ZHUANGZI).
The Later Mohist Canon was
continuously extant in library collections. However, a freak textual accident
(together with its location in the most heretical and reviled philosophical
text of the period) rendered it virtually unintelligible. Its importance came
to light only in comparatively modern times. The Confucian traditional orthodoxy
had effectively lost all access to its content. Rescuing that text rekindled a
long-lost interest in Chinese theories of language and revealed unappreciated
links to the thought of Xunzi, Laozi and Zhuangzi. Confucian orthodoxy,
however, still tends to treat their sophisticated linguistic theories as
"un-Chinese."