Mozi, the School of Names, and Yang Zhu

Mozi (Master Mo, personal name Mo Di, traditionally dated c. 470-391 BCE) founded the Mohist school, the first serious rival to Confucianism and, for roughly two centuries during the Warring States period, one of the most influential schools of thought in China, organized as a disciplined, quasi-military community of followers led by an elected "Grand Master" (Juzi) who enforced a strict code of conduct, frugal living, and collective discipline among disciples who could be dispatched to help defend besieged cities. The Mozi, the text preserving the school's teachings, was compiled by multiple generations of disciples rather than written by Mozi himself, and is organized into triads of parallel chapters on the same topics, likely reflecting the positions of different factions within the later, divided Mohist movement. Mozi is thought to have originally trained within or alongside the Confucian tradition before breaking decisively with it over its perceived elitism, costly ritualism, and insufficiently universal ethics.