Mohist moralizers deployed belief in watchful punishing ghosts

Evidence

In the “Mohist” period (fifth century BCE), we see Mohist philosophers arguing for the existence of supernatural punishment. Many Mohist philosophers believed that much of the chaos of their time could be traced to what they saw as the loss of belief in watchful ghosts who dole out punishment and reward. Modern scholars debate the meaning of these arguments. Did the Mohists themselves believe in supernatural monitoring, or did they think that it was an effective social tool, even if not literally true? Either way, for such arguments to be relevant, they must have been occurring against the background of some cultural belief in supernatural punishment. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 829

Categorization

• XREF: Relevant to the reader’s framework of belief-as-social-tool — the Mohist debate (sincere belief vs. strategic social claim) parallels the question of whether authorities weaponize watchful-God rhetoric.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: whether ancient Chinese elites who doubted Big Gods still deployed them for social order — a cultural analogue to Rodrigues’ own crisis of doubt amid Japanese persecution.