人異義天下亂
Differing Standards Lead to Chaos
子墨子言曰：古者民始生，未有刑政之時，蓋其語，人異義。是以一人則一義，二人則二義，十人則十義。其人茲眾，其所謂義者亦茲眾。是以人是其義，以非人之義，故交相非也。是以內者父子兄弟作，離散不能相和合；天下之百姓，皆以水火毒藥相虧害。至有餘力，不能以相勞；腐朽余財，不以相分；隱匿良道，不以相教。天下之亂，若禽獸然。
Master Mozi said: 'In the beginning when people first came into being and there was not yet any government or political administration, their expression of it was that each person had a different standard of right. Thus one person had one standard of right, two persons had two standards, ten persons had ten standards. The more numerous the people, the more numerous the standards they called right. Each person affirmed his own standard and condemned others' standards, so they mutually condemned one another. Within families, fathers and sons, brothers quarreled, separated, and could not live in harmony. The hundred families of the realm all used water, fire, and poison to harm one another. Those with surplus strength could not help others; surplus goods rotted rather than being shared; good teachings were hidden rather than being imparted. The disorder of the realm was like that of birds and beasts.'
Notes
The Shang Tong (Conforming Upward) chapters present Mozi's theory of the origin of government. Unlike Confucian accounts based on sage-king virtue, Mozi presents a proto-contractarian argument: government arose to resolve the chaos of competing moral standards. This anticipates Hobbes by two millennia.