Proactive Peace in Early China: Mohist Strategies of Self-Defense and the Evolution of Chinese Peace Thought

The Mohist doctrine of “non-offensive warfare” (fei gong) is fundamentally grounded in the principles of robust defense and the strategic use of strength to deter armed conflict. In contrast to the Confucian conception of “righteous war”, the Mohist philosophy of peace exhibits a distinctly pragmatic orientation: it reconceptualizes the very nature of warfare by rejecting annexation and expansion motivated by avarice; it seeks the cessation of war not through moral exhortation but through the establishment of effective defensive capabilities; and it develops a systematic military thought that privileges defense over aggression. This intellectual shift is deeply rooted in the socio-political transformations of the Warring States period, during which the collapse of the old order rendered appeals to moral authority insufficient to counterbalance the pervasive drive for territorial consolidation. Departing from prior scholarship that has largely focused on the Confucian ideal of “harmony as the highest virtue”, this study contends that Mohist fei gong embodies an active pacifism—a proactive paradigm of self-defense aimed at the prevention of war. This framework offers a more dynamic and agentive philosophical resource than models of “passive peace”, thereby illuminating the historical lineage and civilizational foundations of China’s peace-oriented thought.

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