Quotation
Last reviewed:
“To accomplish anything, one must have standards. No one has ever accomplished anything without them.”
Mozi · Mohism · Ancient · 5th–4th century BCE
What does it mean?
The usual reading is methodological: speech and action need a gauge, as a wheelwright needs a compass, or else success is an accident you cannot check. A competing reading hears an appeal to freeze the past, but the chapter's gauges are tests you apply, not a mood of nostalgia. It is the whole point of a very short chapter, placed early among the essays. The sage-kings matter because their recorded practice can function as a square. Without a standard, he says, distinctions between right and wrong cannot be settled.
Did Mozi really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. Burton Watson's English of the opening of the short chapter Fa yi. The standards he then names are the deeds and words of the ancient sage-kings, used as a square and compass are used.
Where it comes from
Mozi, chapter 4, 'On the Necessity of Standards', in Burton Watson's translation
Approximate date: 5th–4th century BCE.
How to use it
A hiring panel in Glasgow that says it will 'know talent when it sees it' has, on this chapter, already given up the job. A written standard can be a bad one and still be correctable in a way that a nod is not. The sentence does not tell you which criteria to use. It says that criteria you could state are a condition of doing the thing on purpose.
A mindset reading
Before trusting a conviction, ask what square it was checked against. The habit is hostile to 'it just feels justified', including when the feeling is yours. It is also hostile to standards nobody could fail, which are not gauges. A compass that passes every wheel is not a compass.
Understand the philosophy
Mozi wants arguments that can be tested the way artisans test an edge. The key term is fa, a standard or model. Chapter 4 is the short statement. Later chapters use the three tests, of origin, evidence, and use, as a more elaborate gauge. The sage-kings are models because their order is taken to have worked, not because antiquity is magical. This is why Mohist writing feels closer to a craft manual than to a dialogue.
- knowledge
- ethics
FAQ
What does it mean?
The usual reading is methodological: speech and action need a gauge, as a wheelwright needs a compass, or else success is an accident you cannot check. A competing reading hears an appeal to freeze the past, but the chapter's gauges are tests you apply, not a mood of nostalgia. It is the whole point of a very short chapter, placed early among the essays. The sage-kings matter because their recorded practice can function as a square. Without a standard, he says, distinctions between right and wrong cannot be settled.
Did Mozi really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. Burton Watson's English of the opening of the short chapter Fa yi. The standards he then names are the deeds and words of the ancient sage-kings, used as a square and compass are used.
Which work is it in?
Mozi, chapter 4, 'On the Necessity of Standards', in Burton Watson's translation Approximate date: 5th–4th century BCE.