Besides religious sanctions, political ones are also needed if people
are to practice all·embracing love. In the Mo-t:w, there are three
chapters titled "Agreement with the Superior," in which Mo Tzu
expounds his theory of the origin of the state. According to this
theory, the authority of the ruler of a state comes from two sources:
the will of the people and the Will of God. Furthermore, the main
task of the ruler is to supervise the activities of the people, rewarding
those who practice all·embracing love and punishing those who do
not. In order to do this effectively, his authority nlust be absolute. At
this point we may ask: Why should people voluntarily choose to have
such an absolute authority over them?
TIle answer, for Mo Tzu, is that the people accept such an au·
thority, not because they prefer it, but because they have no alternative. According to him, before the creation of an organized state, people lived in what Thomas Hobbes has called "the state of nature."
At this early time, "everyone had his own standard of right and
wrong. When there was one man, there was one standard. Vi'hcn
there were two men, there were two standards. VVhen there were ten
men, there were ten standards. The more people there were, the more
were there standards. Every man considered himself as right and
others as wrong." "The world was in great disorder and men were
like birds and beasts. They understood that all the disorders of the
world were due to the fact that there was no political ruler. Therefore, they selected the most virtuous and most able man of the world,
and established him as the Son of Heaven." (Mo-tzu, ch. 11.) Thus
the ruler of the state was first established by the will of the people,
in order to save themselves from anarchy.
人们若要实行兼爱,除了宗教的制裁,还需要政治的制裁。《墨子》有《尚同》三篇,其中阐述了墨子的国家起源学说。照这个学说所说,国君的权威有两个来源:人民的意志和天帝的意志。它更进一步说,国君的主要任务是监察人民的行动,奖赏那些实行兼爱的人、惩罚那些不实行兼爱的人。为了有效地做到这一点,他的权威必须是绝对的。在这一点上,我们可能要问:为什么人们竟然自愿选择,要有这样的绝对极威来统治他们呢?
墨子的回答是,人们接受这样的权威,并不是由于他们选中了它,而是由于他们无可选择。照他所说,在建立有组织的国家之前,人们生活在如汤玛斯·霍布士所说的“自然状态”之中。在这个时候“盖其语曰天下之人异义。是以一人则一义,二人则二义,十人则十义,其人兹众,其所谓义者亦兹众。是以人是其义。以非人之义,故交相非也。”“天下之乱,若**然。夫明乎天下之所以乱者,生于无政长。是故选天下之贤可者,立以为天子。”(《墨子·尚同上》)如此说来,国君最初是由人民意志设立的,是为了把他们从无政府状态中拯救出来。