Editing Mohism (section)

===Caring and impartiality===
{{See also|Love#Chinese and other Sinic}}
Mohism promotes a philosophy of impartial caring; that is, a person should care equally for all other individuals, regardless of their actual relationship to them.<ref>One Hundred Philosophers : A Guide to the World's Greatest Thinkers</ref> The expression of this indiscriminate caring is what makes a person a righteous being in Mohist thought. This advocacy of impartiality was a target of attack by other Chinese philosophical schools, most notably the [[Confucian]]s, who believed that while love should be unconditional, it should not be indiscriminate. For example, children should hold a greater love for their parents than for random strangers.

Mozi is known for his insistence that all people are equally deserving of receiving material benefit and being protected from physical harm. In Mohism, morality is defined not by tradition and ritual, but rather by a constant moral guide that parallels [[utilitarianism]]. Tradition varies from culture to culture, and human beings need an extra-traditional guide to identify which traditions are morally acceptable. The moral guide must then promote and encourage social behaviours that maximize the general utility of all the people in that society.

The concept of ''Ai'' ({{lang|zh|愛}}) was developed by the Chinese philosopher Mozi in the 4th century BC in reaction to Confucianism's benevolent love. Mozi tried to replace what he considered to be the long-entrenched Chinese over-attachment to family and clan structures with the concept of "universal love" (jiān'ài, {{lang|zh|兼愛}}). In this, he argued directly against Confucians who believed that it was natural and correct for people to care about different people in different degrees. Mozi, by contrast, believed people in principle should care for all people equally. Mohism stressed that rather than adopting different attitudes towards different people, love should be unconditional and offered to everyone without regard to reciprocation, not just to friends, family and other Confucian relations. Later in [[Chinese Buddhism]], the term ''Ai'' ({{lang|zh|愛}}) was adopted to refer to a passionate caring love and was considered a fundamental desire. In Buddhism, ''Ai'' was seen as capable of being either selfish or selfless, the latter being a key element towards enlightenment.