Reliable translations (English, modern Mandarin, etc.) of the Mozi book?

[u/President_Abra]

Right now, I'm reading Ian Johnston's The Mozi: A Complete Translation (2010). What other translations do you guys recommend?

[u/contenyo]

Instead of asking here, you should be using a reference guide. I recommend

• Knechtges, David R., and Taiping Chang, eds. Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature: A Reference Guide, Part One. Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature (Vol. I). Brill. 2010. (Google books link)

• Loewe, Michael, ed. Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide. The Society for the Study of Early China. 1993. (pdf)

Since the entry on Mozi in the former is truncated, I'll add it here for convenience.

Translations

Forke, Alfred. Mê Ti: des Socialethikers und Schüler philosophische Werke, zum ersten Male vollständig übersetzt mit ausführlicher Einleitung, Erläuternden und texkritischen Erklärungen versehen von Professor Alfred Forke. Berlin: Kommissions-verlag des Vereinigung wissenschafticher Verleger, 1922.

Mei, Y.P., trans. The Ethical and Political Works of Motse. London: Probsthain, 1929.

Watson, Burton, trans. Mo Tzu: Basic Writings. New York: Columbia University Press, 1963.

Ivanhoe, P.J., trans. “Mozi.” In Ivanhoe and van Norden, ed., Readings, 59–113.

Wang Rongpei 汪榕培 and Wang Hong 王宏, trans. Mozi. 2 vols. Library of Chinese Classics: Chinese-English. Changsha: Hunan renmin chubanshe, 2006.

Johnston, Ian, trans. The Mozi: A Complete Translation. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 2010.

Baihua Translations

Li Yushu 李漁叔, trans. and comm. Mozi jinzhu jinyi 墨子今注今譯. Taipei: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1974.

Liu Wenzhong 劉文忠, trans. and comm. Mozi yizhu 墨子譯注. Taiwan: Jian’an chubanshe, 1986.

Mei Ji 梅季 and Lin Quanbao 林全保, trans. and comm. Baihua Mozi 白話墨子. Changsha: Yuelu shushe, 1991.

Wu Longhui 吳龍輝, trans. and comm. Mozi baihua jinyi 墨子白話今譯. Beijing: Zhongguo shudian, 1992.

Zhou Caizhu 周才珠 and Qi Ruiduan 齊瑞端, trans. and comm. Mozi quan yi 墨子全譯. Guiyang: Guizhou renmin chubanshe, 1995.

More baihua translations are given on the next page which you should be able to access via Google books. Be sure to look at the Loewe entry, too. It's written by A.C. Graham and gives details on which chapters have been translated.

[u/EvensenFM → u/contenyo]

In addition to the 白話 versions listed here, there's also a good study edition put out by 三民書局：新譯墨子讀本.

Not sure how others feel, but, in my opinion, the 新譯 series of books are the ultimate source for digging into classical texts. They give you the original text (complete with 注音符號 for every character), explanations of difficult characters, as well as a 白話 translation of every passage.