3. Fish weirs: fenced-in areas in bodies of water, used to trap large quantities of migrating fish.
home early and return late, sowing seed, planting trees, and gathering large crops of vegetables and grain, and as a result there will be a lack of vegetables and grain. If women are fond of music and spend their time listening to it, then they will be unable to rise early and go to bed late, spinning, weaving, producing large quantities of hemp, silk, and other fibers, and preparing cloth, and as a result there will not be enough cloth. If you ask what it is that has caused the ruler to neglect the affairs of government and the humble man to neglect his tasks, the answer is music. Therefore Mo Tzu said: Making music is wrong!
How do we know that this is so? The proof is found among the books of the for- 10 mer kings, in Tang's "Code of Punishment," where it says: "Constant dancing in the palace—this is the way of shamans! As a punishment, gentlemen shall be fined two measures of silk, but for common men the line shall be two hundred pieces of yellow silk." It also says: "Alas, all this dancing! The sound of the pipes is loud and clear. The Lord on High does not aid him, and the nine districts[113] are lost to him. The Lord on High does not approve him, but sends down a hundred misfortunes. His house will be destroyed." If we examine the reason why he lost the nine districts, we will find that it was because he idly spent his time arranging elaborate musical performances.
The "Wu kuan"[114] says: "Ch'i gave himself up to pleasure and music, eating and drinking in the fields. Ch'iang-ch-iang, the flutes and chimes sounded in unison! He drowned himself in wine and behaved indecently by eating in the fields. Splendid was the Wan dance, but Heaven clearly heard the sound and Heaven did not approve." So it was not approved by Heaven and the spirits above, and brought no benefit to the people below.
Therefore Mo Tzu said: If the rulers, ministers, and gentlemen of the world truly desire to promote what is beneficial to the world and eliminate what is harmful, they must prohibit and put a stop to this thing called music!
UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT
What does Mo Tzu mean by "music"? What aspects of contemporary Western culture might fit into Mo Tzu's overall category of "music"?
Why does Mo Tzu begin the essay by acknowledging the delight and pleasure that music brings? What effect does this acknowledgment have on his ethos (p. 663)?
According to Mo Tzu, what are the people's three primary concerns? How does he believe music will prevent people from performing their duties and therefore hurt the well-being of the entire community? Are his arguments reasonable? How so?
How might music affect government? What might then happen to the state?
What difference between humans and animals does Mo Tzu use to support his argument?
6. What kinds of activities does Mo Tzu claim are useful to society? Do you agree with his assessment? Why or why not?
MAKING CONNECTIONS
What ideas about beauty does Mo Tzu's "Against Music" imply? Is it possible under his assumptions to say that something is beautiful unless it has some practical value to it? How would Mo Tzu's ideas about beauty and usefulness compare to those of Tolstoy (p. 265), who argued that nothing can be truly beautiful unless it can be universally comprehended?
Compare Mo Tzu's views on beauty and justice to those of Elaine Scarry (p. 279). How does each of them see the connection between a work of art and a more just society?
How might advocates of a broad liberal education, such as Seneca (p. 13) and John Henry Newman (p. 31), defend music against Mo Tzu's charges?
WRITING ABOUT THE TEXT
Think of something in your own culture that is comparable to what music was for Mo Tzu—an expensive luxury item or service that only the wealthy can afford. Make an argument in the style of "Against Music" that society should not be required to devote time or money to this item or service.
Write an essay agreeing or disagreeing with Mo Tzu's argument that beautiful things can only be morally justified if they promote some social good. Is it possible to find positive moral value in a thing simply because it is beautiful?
Drawing on Mo Tzu's arguments, refute or defend the proposition that colleges and universities should require students to study art, music, literature, and other liberal arts that do not have an immediately obvious social or industrial purpose. Consider the arguments of Seneca (p. 13) and John Henry Newman (p. 31) as you make your argument.
boethius
from Of Music
[CIRCA 500]
ANICIUS MANLIUS SEVERINUS BOETHIUS (circa 480-circa 524 ce) has been called both the first medieval philosopher and the last philosopher of the Roman world. Born in Rome shortly after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Boethius came from a family of prominent Roman Christians, including two emperors and one pope. Though Rome had come under control of the Ostrogoths (the Eastern branch of the Germanic tribe known as the Goths), who set up their kingdom in post-Roman Italy, Roman educational and political institutions did not disappear all at once. Boethius and other members of his family held positions under the Ostrogothic king, Theodoric the Great.
Boethius was a philosophical prodigy who came to the attention of Rome's rulers at a young age. By the time he was twenty-five, he was a member of the Roman Senate, and at thirty he was appointed Consul of Rome. In 522 ce, at the age of forty-two, he was appointed magister officiorum, effectively the head of the Roman government—a position that he used to try to improve religious ties between the Christian churches of Rome and Constantinople, who had different views about the authority of the Pope and the role of government in religion. Through these efforts, however, he ran afoul of Theodoric, who imprisoned him for treason in 523 ce and had him executed a year later.
While in prison, Boethius wrote his most famous work, The Consolation of Philosophy, which became one of the most important philosophical works of the early Middle Ages. In addition to this work, he composed (we are not exactly sure when) treatises on rhetoric, arithmetic, theology, and music. The reading in this chapter is drawn from his book De institutione musica, or "Of Music," a study of the forms of music common in the Greek and Roman worlds and their influence on human psychology. Of Music became an important resource for preserving Greek theories of music during the Middle Ages, including an understanding of the seven musical "modes" or note progressions that formed the basis of Greek musical composition.