Abstract:

“Ban” was originally a mythological figure, and according to the Classic of Mountains and Seas, he was the son of Shaohao as well as the inventor of the bow and arrow. During the Spring and Autumn Period, he was combined with the Gongshu family of the State of Lu and became Gongshu Ban. Then he was philosophically and historically transformed by Mohists and Confucians, who portrayed him as a contemporary of Mozi. The Mohists transformed him to promote the ideas of impartial love, non-attack, and non-music; while the Confucians criticized him to uphold traditional ritual propriety. Both the Mohists and the Confucians elaborated their own ideas by recounting Gongshu’s deeds, and in their criticism and denial, they portrayed him as a representative figure of the artisans, and the other artisans in the myth were gradually overshadowed. It is worthy of mention that ancient Chinese myths had been ethically transformed during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, and the thinkers in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods processed and reconstructed the mythological figures again. Most of the myths contained in the pre-Qin literature are new myths transformed by the thinkers, and the original mythological images are rarely known, which is an important issue in the study of the history of Chinese mythological thought.

Key words: Gongshu Ban, Mohism, Confucianism, myth reconstruction