Against Waste

A sage who governs a single state can double that state's wealth. Govern all under Heaven, and the wealth of all under Heaven can be doubled too. He does not double it by taking land from outside. He works with the state he already has, cuts away the useless spending, and that alone is enough to double it. When the sage-king governs — when he gives an order, starts a project, sets the people to work, spends the state's wealth — he makes nothing that does not add use. So wealth is not wasted, the people are not worn out, and the benefit he raises is great. A sage who governs one state — that state can be doubled. Govern the empire on the larger scale, and the empire can be doubled. The doubling is not by taking land from outside. Relying on the state itself, removing its useless expense, that is enough to double it. When the sage-king governs, in issuing orders, raising enterprises, employing the people, and using wealth, there is nothing he makes that does not add use. Therefore wealth is not wasted, the people's strength is not toiled, and the benefit raised is much.

Why make clothing? To keep out the cold in winter and the heat in summer. The rule for clothing is simple: whatever adds warmth in winter and coolness in summer, keep. Whatever adds neither, drop. Why build a house? To keep out wind and cold in winter, heat and rain in summer, and to hold against thieves. Whatever makes it sturdier against those, keep. Whatever adds nothing, drop. Why make clothing and furs? To ward off cold in winter and heat in summer. The way of all clothing: what adds warmth in winter and coolness in summer, keep; what adds neither, remove it. Why make palaces and houses? To ward off wind and cold in winter, heat and rain in summer, and where there are robbers and thieves, to add security. What adds neither, remove it.

Why forge armour, shields, and the five weapons? To hold off invasion and revolt, bandits and thieves. When those come, the side with armour and weapons wins and the side without them loses, so the sage made armour and weapons. The test: whatever makes them lighter, sharper, harder to break, keep. Whatever is mere decoration and adds none of that, drop. Why make armour, shields, and the five weapons? To ward off invaders, revolt, bandits, and thieves. If invaders, revolt, bandits, or thieves come, the one with armour, shields, and the five weapons wins; the one without does not. Therefore the sage made armour, shields, and the five weapons. For all armour, shields, and weapons: what adds lightness and sharpness, firm and hard to break, keep; what adds none of this, remove it.

“Anything that adds cost but no use, drop it.”

Why make boats and carts? A cart to travel the hills and plains, a boat to cross the rivers and gorges, so the wealth of all four quarters can move. The test is the same: whatever makes them lighter and more useful, keep. Whatever does not, drop. In every one of these things he makes nothing that does not add use. So wealth is not wasted, the people are not worn out, and the benefit he raises is great. As Mozi put it: to cut out useless spending is the way of the sage-kings, and a great benefit to the world. Why make boats and carts? A cart to travel hills and dry land, a boat to travel rivers and valleys, to open the benefit of the four quarters. The way of all boats and carts: what adds lightness and use, keep; what adds neither, remove it. In all his making of these things, there is nothing he makes that does not add use. Therefore wealth is not wasted, the people's strength is not toiled, and the benefit raised is much. So Master Mozi said: To remove useless expense is the way of the sage-kings, the great benefit of the world.

The same test reaches past goods to grief. The man of conscience works to raise up what benefits the world and to clear away what harms it. So put any custom to the test. Does it make a poor state rich? Does it make a thin population grow? Does it steady a state in danger? Does it bring a disordered people into order? Lavish funerals and years of mourning were defended as duty — to the dead, to the family, to the rite. Mozi runs them through the test and asks whether they pass. The man of ren works to raise up the benefit of the world and remove the harm of the world. Take a practice and test it: can it enrich the poor, increase the few, secure the endangered, bring order out of disorder? Elaborate funerals and long mourning — measure them by this. If they cannot enrich the poor, increase the few, secure the endangered, and order the disordered, then they are not benevolent, not right, not the work of a filial son.

Count the cost. A grand burial puts wealth into the ground and buries it: bronze, jade, cloth, all of it carried down and sealed away from the living. Then the long mourning forbids the living to work — to plough, to weave, to build — for years on end. To seek a rich state this way, Mozi says, is like banning farming and then waiting for the harvest. The wealth will not come. Reckon up elaborate burial: it is to bury away much taxed wealth. Reckon up long mourning: it is to forbid work for a long time. Wealth already produced is carried down and buried with the dead; those who could go on producing are long forbidden to. To seek wealth this way is like forbidding ploughing and expecting a harvest — the case for wealth cannot be found in it.

Then music. Mozi is careful here. He does not say the great bell and the booming drum, the zither and the pipes, make an ugly sound — the ear knows they are pleasant, the eye knows the carved ornament is fine. That is not the point. The point is who pays. To cast those bells and string those instruments, heavy taxes are wrung from the common people, taken from the food and cloth of those who can least spare it. It is not that the sounds of the great bell, the booming drum, the qin and se, the yu and sheng are not pleasant; not that the carved and patterned ornament is not beautiful. The body knows they are comfortable, the mouth knows their sweetness, the eye knows their beauty, the ear knows their pleasure. Yet to make them, heavy levies must be laid on the ten thousand people, to obtain the sounds of the great bell, the booming drum, the qin and se, the yu and sheng.

And there is the second cost: the hands. Set a man to making music and you take him from his ploughing and planting. Set a woman to it and you take her from her weaving and spinning. So the bells do not just drain the granary — they pull people out of the work that fills it. That is Mozi's case against music. Not that it is ugly. That a hungry people pays for it twice, in tax and in labour, and gets back nothing it can eat or wear. If men are set to it, it ruins the season for their ploughing, planting, and tending. If women are set to it, it ruins the work of their spinning and weaving. The objection to music is by this measure: it takes from the people who can least afford it, in their wealth and in their labour, and returns no benefit to those who must pay.

節用 The original Chinese · honored as an artifact

聖人為政一國，一國可倍也；大之為政天下，天下可倍也。

Opening lines, classical Chinese · The Mozi 墨子