HIDDEN MOUNTAIN HISTORICAL CONTEXT WITHOUT SPOILERS - UNDERSTAND HIDDEN MOUNTAIN STORY PROPERLY

[00:00:12]For as long as humanity itself existed, in our endless search for the truth, we have always looked up to the heavens for answers. In China, one of those answers originated more than 3,000 years ago.

[00:00:25]This answer is known as tianing the mandate of heaven. The word heaven not being any religious heaven as we have come to know this word in English but heaven as universal cosmic order that dictates the balance of humanity as a whole.

[00:00:44]For centuries scholars and philosophers have debated the nature of this balance and how it is meant to be upheld. Who bears the responsibility of maintaining this balance? And upon whose shoulders does the burden fall to restore it in times of chaos?

[00:00:59]But what do you believe, young master?

[00:01:02]If you were given an opportunity to seek this truth on your own by reaching the heavens themselves, would you choose a bird or a ladder?

[00:01:14]On July 25th, Werewins Meet will introduce its next major expansion, The Hidden Mountain. This video has no spoilers. This isn't a plot summary for Hidden Mountain. This is real Chinese philosophy that sustains the core of this expansion story like a beating heart. By understanding Mohist philosophy, you will come to understand the story of the expansion more deeply and personally.

[00:01:39]And why is the mountain shrouded in mist? After this video, you will understand.

[00:01:52]Imagine for a moment an ancient Chinese philosopher.

[00:01:56]What do you see? If I may guess, [music] you probably see a sophisticated man with groomed hair carrying scrolls, [music] wearing flowing, perhaps even lavish robes.

[00:02:07]But now, instead of that image, picture an average worker. A man with mud stains on his face, skin darkened by the sun, [music] hands calloused from gripping tools and doing hard labor, wearing simple linen clothes. This second image is what the philosopher at the center of our story once looked like. His name was Modi. He was born a simple commoner, worked as a craftsman, [music] and because he was cut from the cloth of the common people, he felt their suffering on his own skin.

[00:02:42]What kind of philosophy would a man like that preach? Whom would his philosophy seek to protect?

[00:02:48]In his younger years, Modi used his skill as a craftsman to work on [music] a project that would later become a thing of legends. He built a [music] wooden contraption.

[00:03:00]Some call it a kite, some call it a glider, but many simply call it a bird.

[00:03:06]He spent 3 years laboring over the intricacies of the mechanism's engineering. When he finally [music] built the final prototype, he launched it into the sky, and it is said that for an entire day, it soared in the wind.

[00:03:18]Some retellings of the legends say that it eventually broke and collapsed to the ground, and others say that the bird flew so high that it [music] disappeared into the clouds. But the fate of the bird is not what's important in this legend, young master. What truly matters [music] is what the bird represented.

[00:03:36]Invention for the sake of human [music] curiosity.

[00:03:40]It was a wooden bird created during a time in history [music] when invention was enslaved by warfare. When human advancement was concerned above all with tools of conquest. [music] During this time of endless warfare, Modi spent three long years meticulously engineering a [music] wooden bird whose entire purpose was to simply fly.

[00:04:04]It was a contraption that wasn't meant for destruction of others. It wasn't a tool of war. It was simply a creation born of nothing but human wonder.

[00:04:14]small wooden bird that asked nothing of [music] the earth that created it, but to give its wings the wind it needed to fly. [music] Like many others of his time, Modi grew up on the teachings of Confucianist philosophy. He understood its teachings of adhering to the societal hierarchy and the worship of your ancestors. But while he learned how Confucianism defined the fabric of society and demanded elaborate rituals and ceremonies, he also looked outward into the world of the common man. During the waring states period, China was being torn apart by chaos. He saw warlords burning down villages, armies slaughtering civilians, and war leaving nothing but emptiness in its wake. He learned the rituals and ceremonies, but in the world around him, all he saw was a contradiction.

[00:05:07]A question for you, young master. In a time of chaos and war, who pays the ultimate price?

[00:05:14]Is it the politicians who start these wars under the guise of prosperity of their nation? Or is it the noblemen who preach sacrifice while using their own wealth as a shield from the danger?

[00:05:26]No, of course not.

[00:05:28]You know the answer and Modi knew it too. In every era, in every nation, it was always the common people who paid the price of war with their own blood.

[00:05:43]Confucian philosophy, for all of its wisdom, had a major flaw that Modi could not settle on. It was too concerned with the internal structure of society.

[00:05:53]upholding the mandate of heaven through maintaining a proper relationship between a father and his son, a husband and his wife, a ruler and his subjects.

[00:06:03]The philosophy believed that if everyone fulfilled their roles properly, that balance would follow. The very same balance of the cosmic order dictated by the heavens [music] themselves.

[00:06:13]The philosophy was wise, and it wasn't even wrong. But to Modi, it was simply impractical.

[00:06:21]Too focused on the small rituals and micro rules of society, mistaking the forest for the trees. Too focused on the pebbles while the mountain burns around you.

[00:06:33]Historical records tell us that Modi criticized Confucianism for its extravagance and waste, its elaborate ceremonials that did nothing to help the starving, the thick burials that impoverished the people. Modi had come to believe that Confucianist philosophy was becoming a distraction from humanity's real goal. Helping each other survive.

[00:06:57]To him, a philosophy that did not concern itself with feeding those who are hungry was a philosophy that failed.

[00:07:06]And so Modi walked away alone at first, but over time surrounded by a community of fellow outcasts of like-minded nature. Teachers, engineers, craftsmen, soldiers, people from all walks of [music] life who were not bound by the status of their social hierarchy anymore, but now only by a shared moral code.

[00:07:30]As this community grew in number, it grew in organization, too. It became a quasi religious paramilitary organization.

[00:07:39]They called themselves the moia, the mohists.

[00:07:43]The character Zu is an honorific title meaning master or teacher. And so as the moia were established, Modi would become known as Mozu.

[00:08:01]If you are like most other people, young master, you probably love your family above all else. Whether it be your parents, children, and siblings, or your chosen family, whoever they may be, they probably come first. Then perhaps your friends and acquaintances, then your community, your neighborhood, then your nation. Whatever the order of priority for you may be, there is likely an order nonetheless. And in that order, somewhere far down the list is the stranger, the outsider, even the person who shares neither your blood nor your home.

[00:08:41]It is human to take care of those most important to us first. This way of thinking is natural to most of us.

[00:08:47][music] In fact, this is the very same thing that Confucian philosophy taught people for centuries, the importance of a carefully constructed hierarchy of love. But Mozel looked at this tidy system of favoritism and branded it the root of all chaos.

[00:09:06]You might feel baffled at the notion at first, but think about it, young master.

[00:09:11]Why is favoritism the root of all chaos?

[00:09:15]When you have limited resources, you must decide where to place them.

[00:09:20]Naturally, when a ruler loves only his own kingdom, he [music] may attack another. When a household has just enough for itself, the starving stranger on the street may go hungry. A feudal lord would wage war on his neighbor, not because he's cruel, but because he's simply responsible for the survival of his own people. A king gazes at the maps of his neighbors, not with malice, but with the concern for his own nation's future.

[00:09:49]It makes sense. And yet in this favoritism, chaos does persist for those who go hungry, for those who are farther away, for those who are loved less by fewer others.

[00:10:07]Moza simply saw this favoritism as a poison that turns humanity's hearts callous to the suffering of others.

[00:10:15]Because every act of injustice can be traced back to the same common belief that those closest to us matter more than those further away.

[00:10:26]Moses rebellion against this widely accepted hierarchy of favoritism was giani. Something he called the universal love. A love without any distinction that treats your neighbor's father as your own father and a stranger's suffering as your own. To many of us in [music] the West, this concept might sound familiar. It's the simple act of loving thy neighbor, the golden rule, do unto others as you would have them do [music] unto you.

[00:10:55]And you would not be entirely wrong to draw this parallel, but the primary difference was that for Moes, there was no reward for good deeds in the shape of a heaven waiting at the end of the road.

[00:11:07]Moza did not promise eternal bliss to his followers who did enough good deeds in the world. Nor did he threaten them with damnation for not doing enough. In fact, to the Moists, the concept of doing a good deed did not really exist.

[00:11:22]Empathy was the answer simply because it was the right answer.

[00:11:28]It wasn't a good deed born of holiness.

[00:11:30]It was a deed that was simply correct because it was the most practical for the benefit of the most.

[00:11:36]If everyone loved universally, then everyone would benefit. This was a philosophy of cold and hard logic [music] of mutual benefit. So an act of selflessness wasn't an outlier that made a mohist feel virtuous. It was a necessity because to them that is just how it should be. And here is where this principle of moist philosophy fits perfectly into a parallel of wooia storytelling.

[00:12:05]Woo stories are often [music] tragic, but the focus shifts from mourning the suffering of the individual [music] onto the bittersweet celebration of what collective benefit that suffering upholds.

[00:12:17]It hurts to care for others [music] more than yourself. But if every single person does the same, then the net benefit to humanity is immeasurable.

[00:12:27]The moist principle of universal love was not a philosophy for the soft-hearted. It demanded gargantuan discipline and sacrifice. It demanded that everyone look at their own family and proclaim, "I love them, but I love the stranger, too, and I will protect them as I protect my own."

[00:12:49]Is it any [music] wonder that the nobles despised him? This principle threatened all their power and demanded them to share their comfort and resources with complete strangers. If universal love became the law of the land, what would happen to the noblemen who hoarded wealth while his people starved?

[00:13:06]Of course, they despised Moses teachings. He was holding up a mirror to their own sins and showed the ugly reflection to the rest of the world.

[00:13:15]But universal love was not the only Moist doctrine that threatened the status quo.

[00:13:21]What went hand inhand with universal [music] love was frugality, a radical rejection of extravagance and waste.

[00:13:28]Moza hated the elaborate [music] funerals that drained families of their life savings and pointless ceremonies that did nothing to feed the hungry.

[00:13:37]Everything Mosa looked at, if it did nothing to help the less fortunate, then to him it was absolutely worthless.

[00:13:45]Moza was the man with the audacity to [music] tell a king that his lavish palace was wasteful and to tell a noble that his tomb was an insult to the poor.

[00:13:55]And he practiced what he preached. Moz and his followers lived in near poverty by choice. They ate simple food, wore coarse clothing, and poured every bit of their resources into protecting the weak because they truly believed that excess caused damage to the good of others.

[00:14:15]In Moses' [music] times and for many generations before, your birth determined your destiny. The son of a noble would be a noble, and [music] the son of a farmer would farm until his back achd. This was the natural order after all, the [music] balance dictated by the mandate of heaven. Everyone had a place in the hierarchy.

[00:14:35]But Moza rejected the notion. He argued that rulers should promote people based on their merit, not their bloodline, which of course was a direct challenge to the hereditary aristocracy. In his world, the son of a farmer could be a better ruler than the son of a king, and a craftsman could outshine a general.

[00:14:55]Moza believed that heaven did not care about your bloodline or family name, but rather that it cared about your actions, your virtue, and your contribution to the collective good.

[00:15:07]And of course, being the product of the environment he witnessed growing up, Moza heavily condemned warfare. After all, it was the ultimate violation [music] of universal love because it did not only hurt the outsiders you attacked, but your own people as well.

[00:15:24]All the lost lives, [music] the trauma inflicted upon generations, the wasted resources, it was all too much damage for too little gain.

[00:15:34]>> [music] >> But here is where Mosa differed from many other pacifist philosophers.

[00:15:39]He did not simply condemn the powerful with strong words offering no alternative.

[00:15:45]Moza was a brilliant and practical man.

[00:15:48]When his ideals were challenged, he proved them in practice.

[00:15:54]Remember that Mohis were a parlimitary group of many craftsmen, teachers, and engineers. He and his followers traveled between states, offering their expertise in counter siege technology to defend weaker nations from their aggressors.

[00:16:09]They built walls, [music] designed catapults, and trained defenders. They transformed the art of war into the art of preventing war.

[00:16:20]And so when a man named Luban built a weapon that threatened to destroy an entire nation, Moza once again took matters into his own hands.

[00:16:37]Lubon is known to history as the [music] patron saint of Chinese craftsmen. He was born a commoner just like Moza. They were both intelligent men and brilliant engineers of their time. truly the brightest minds of their generation.

[00:16:53]Lubon invented the saw, the plane, the drill, and the shovel. His inventions would shape Chinese civilization for millennia. He designed siege weapons and naval contraptions that could hook and destroy enemy ships. Lubon's name became synonymous with mastery itself. So much so that even to this day there is a Chinese [music] proverb that speaks of a foolishly arrogant act by saying that the act is to wield an axe before Lubon's door. But of all his creations, the most fearsome one was the cloud ladder. A wheeled tower [music] taller than any wall rolling across the battlefield like a titan. At the top, a covered platform shielded soldiers from arrows and lowered assault bridges that dropped directly [music] onto the enemy's ramparts to bring those soldiers right to the siege. It was a weapon so immense in its height that it seemed to touch the very clouds. And that's how it earned the name cloud ladder.

[00:17:57]The king of Chu was ecstatic because with this mighty invention in his hands, there was not a single fortress that could stand against him. And so he set his eyes [music] on the fortress of song. Moda heard the news of this invention while he was inqi, hundreds of miles away. And so he did what any man who practiced what he preached would do and started walking. For 10 days straight without rest, he walked towards the capital of Chu until his feet were so blistered and calloused that he tore strips of his own clothes to wrap his bleeding feet in just so he could keep walking. Historical records tell us that he traveled the distance [music] of nearly a thousand miles, powered by nothing but his own conviction. When he arrived looking like an exhausted beggar, he went to see Luban in what would then become one of the most extraordinary stories in Chinese history.

[00:18:55]In his confrontation, Moza argued with Lubon, tried to reason with him, and appeal to his conscience. Lubon was not a cruel man, but he was a brilliant engineer, and the cloud ladder was his masterpiece. So of course he wanted to see it tested. And Moza was not an unreasonable man either. He understood the desire of seeing your own invention sore. And so when words failed, Moza proposed to play a game instead.

[00:19:29]In the presence of the king of Chu himself, Moza took off his belt and laid it on the floor in the shape of a city wall. He gathered a handful of wooden sticks and said to Lubon, "Attack!"

[00:19:42]Lubon sent the cloud ladder towards the walls. Moda countered by burning the ladder before it could reach the battlements. Lubon tried tunneling beneath the walls. Moza countered by sending smoke through the trenches and collapsing them. Lubon tried [music] battering rams, siege towers, grappling hooks, all of which were also countered.

[00:20:06]Nine different strategies deployed by Lupon and nine [music] successful counterattacks by Moza, the most brilliant engineer of his age, could not break through the defenses of a carpenter.

[00:20:21]Finally, frustrated, Lubon said, "I know one way to win, but I will not say it."

[00:20:28]But even here, Moza countered. He said, "You think that if you kill me, then no one will be left to defend against you.

[00:20:37]But I have already sent 300 of my finest disciples [music] to song. They are armed with my machines, and they know everything that I know. Killing me will not stop the defense. It will only ensure that [music] when your armies arrive, they will be met by 300 masters who have been expecting them."

[00:20:59]The king of Chu looked at the exhausted philosopher standing before him. He looked at his own general, the greatest engineer in the world, defeated by a belt and some sticks. He considered the prospect of sending his armies against a nation defended by 300 Mohist engineers.

[00:21:17]And he conceded.

[00:21:20]I will not attack Song, the king said.

[00:21:24]And so a tragedy that would have killed thousands of people was prevented [music] by a man who had nothing but his own conviction.

[00:21:34]Young Master, it would be easy to assume Lubon as the villain of the story, the arrogant engineer drunk on his own genius, building weapons of destruction for the highest bidder. But to assume so would be to assume wrong. At his core, Lubon was a brilliant and humble craftsman who simply loved the work of his own hands. He was a commoner who rose to prominence through sheer skill and dedication to his work. Among his inventions were many that [music] helped make the lives of the common people easier. This is why even to this day he is revered as the patron [music] saint of Chinese carpenters and builders.

[00:22:13]Lubon built the cloud ladder simply because he was an engineer and engineers solved [music] problems. The king of Chu had a problem and Luban invented a solution. It was that simple.

[00:22:28]But Moza and Lubon despite having so many things in common had one major difference. Lubon built solutions to problems. Moza recognized that every problem has a solution but believed that not every solution should be built.

[00:22:47]Lubon was not a malicious [music] man but rather a man who only asked himself can I instead of asking should I.

[00:23:01]And now young master let us return to the question I posed at the very beginning of this journey.

[00:23:08]If you tried to reach the heavens, would you choose a bird or a ladder?

[00:23:15]Lubon's cloud ladder was a machine of conquest. It rose by force and demanded that the world bend to the will of its builder. It reached for the heavens to dominate them and prove that human ingenuity could conquer anything, even the sky itself.

[00:23:35]The latter is ambition without restraint. It is genius without conscience.

[00:23:43]Moses wooden bird that he labored over for 3 years asked nothing of the earth but for the wind beneath its wings. It froze not by force but by craft.

[00:23:55]The bird is ambition tempered by wisdom.

[00:24:00]It is genius guided by conscience. It is the belief that the highest purpose of human ingenuity is not to prove our power, but to understand our place in the great cosmic order.

[00:24:16]And perhaps the biggest irony of it all is that both men reached for the heavens. But while Lubon's ladder was designed to climb over others and crush them, Moza's bird was designed to soar above the shallow boundaries that divide us. And perhaps only by choosing to soar above it can a person witness the entire mountain instead of being [music] clouded by its mist.