The Mohist scholar Yi Zhi, through Xu Bi (a disciple of Mencius), requested to meet Mencius.
Mencius said:
“I’d be glad to see him, but I’m still unwell. Once I recover, I’ll go to him – Yi Zhi need not come!”
A few days later, Yi Zhi again asked for a meeting.
Mencius replied:
“Now I can see him. But if I don’t speak plainly, the truth won’t be clear – so I’ll be direct.
I hear Yi Zhi is a Mohist. The Mohists hold that funeral rites should be simple and frugal – that’s their principle.
Yi Zhi wishes to transform the world with this view. Surely he doesn’t think anything other than frugality is worthy?
Yet when he buried his own parents, he did so lavishly – using the very practice he disdains to serve his parents!”
Xu Bi relayed this to Yi Zhi.
Yi Zhi responded:
“Don’t Confucians also say, ‘The ancients protected the people as if safeguarding an infant’?
I interpret this to mean: human love has no degrees of closeness; it’s just that in practice, we start with our relatives.”
Xu Bi reported this back to Mencius.
Mencius retorted:
“Does Yi Zhi really believe one loves one’s brother’s child exactly as one loves a neighbor’s baby?
That saying about ‘protecting infants’ refers to a specific situation! If a baby crawls toward a well, about to fall in – it’s not the baby’s fault, so anyone would instinctively rush to save it.
But that doesn’t prove love is undifferentiated.
Moreover, Heaven creates all life from a single root – yet Yi Zhi insists on two roots!
In high antiquity, some people didn’t bury their parents. When a parent died, they’d simply toss the body into a ravine.
Later, passing by, they’d see foxes eating it, flies and gnats swarming it.
Their foreheads would sweat, and they’d turn away, unable to look.
That sweat wasn’t put on – it welled up from deep within and showed on their face.
So they’d go home, fetch baskets and spades, and return to cover the body.
Burying one’s parents is indeed right – but filial children and humane persons do so according to a deeper principle: natural affection, not external rules.”
Xu Bi conveyed this to Yi Zhi.
Yi Zhi was deeply moved, fell silent for a while, and finally said:
“I’ve been instructed.”
墨者夷之，因徐辟而求見孟子。孟子曰：「吾固願見，今吾尚病，病愈，我且往見，夷子不來！」
他日又求見孟子。孟子曰：「吾今則可以見矣。不直，則道不見；我且直之。吾聞夷子墨者。墨之治喪也，以薄為其道也。夷子思以易天下，豈以為非是而不貴也？然而夷子葬其親厚，則是以所賤事親也。」
徐子以告夷子。夷子曰：「儒者之道，古之人『若保赤子』，此言何謂也？之則以為愛無差等，施由親始。」
徐子以告孟子。孟子曰：「夫夷子，信以為人之親其兄之子為若親其鄰之赤子乎？彼有取爾也。赤子匍匐將入井，非赤子之罪也。且天之生物也，使之一本，而夷子二本故也。蓋上世嘗有不葬其親者。其親死，則舉而委之於壑。他日過之，狐狸食之，蠅蚋姑嘬之。其顙有泚，睨而不視。夫泚也，非為人泚，中心達於面目。蓋歸反虆梩而掩之。掩之誠是也，則孝子仁人之掩其親，亦必有道矣。」
徐子以告夷子。夷子憮然為閒曰：「命之矣。」
Note
This passage from Mencius: Teng Wen Gong I captures the core Confucian-Mohist debate over “graded love” versus “universal love”, revealing the humanistic foundation of Confucian ethics.
The contradiction between doctrine and practice
Mohists like Yi Zhi preached frugal funerals yet buried parents lavishly – exposing a rift between intellectual doctrine and emotional instinct. Mencius seizes this to argue that special affection for kin is innate, not culturally imposed.
A misreading of Confucian compassion
Yi Zhi tries to harmonize Mohism with Confucianism by claiming universal love merely “starts with kin.” But Mencius clarifies: Confucian care expands naturally from family outward (“love your kin, then the people, then all things”), whereas Mohist “universal love” demands equal concern for all – a psychological impossibility.
“One Root” vs. “Two Roots”
Mencius asserts that Heaven endows humans with a single moral root: familial bonds. Filial piety is the sprout of benevolence. Mohist universalism, by denying this hierarchy, creates an artificial “second root,” leading to inner conflict – as Yi Zhi’s behavior shows.
The phenomenology of grief
The image of the ancient man sweating at the sight of his exposed parent’s corpse illustrates that moral emotion arises spontaneously from the heart. Rituals like burial express this inner truth – they are not empty formalities.
Historical Context: Funeral debates in the Warring States
Amid social chaos, Mohists condemned Confucian three-year mourning as wasteful. Confucians countered that rituals cultivate virtue. Mencius demonstrates that even Mohists, when faced with parental death, revert to heartfelt rites – proving Confucianism aligns with human nature.
“I’ve been instructed”
Yi Zhi’s final admission marks a rare moment of cross-school recognition: no ethical system can override fundamental human feelings. True morality begins not with abstract equality, but with the tears shed for one’s own parents.
This dialogue remains a masterpiece of moral psychology, affirming that ethics must grow from the soil of real human relationships.
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