Mozi Memorial Hall 墨子纪念馆

About Mozi Memorial Hall

Mozi Memorial Hall (墨子纪念馆), also called the Mozi International Research Center (墨子国际研究中心), is a courtyard complex in eastern Tengzhou (滕州), Shandong, on the west bank of the Jing River (荆河). It brings together offices, a collection, exhibitions and conferences devoted to the study of the thinker Mozi (墨子).

Scholars have not settled where Mozi was born, but Tengzhou is said to be his home town. The hall was built in July 1994 on a 10,200 m² plot with 4,100 m² of buildings, laid out as two linked siheyuan (四合院), the traditional Chinese courtyard house. Longquan Pagoda (龙泉塔) stands in front and the Wang Xuezhong Art Museum (王学仲艺术馆) behind. The east courtyard holds Huiwen Hall (汇文堂), a library and the Mozi Shengji Hall (墨子圣迹堂); the west courtyard has offices, a guest house and Yili Hall (义利堂).

The exhibition rooms follow Mozi's work. Mo Hall (墨堂) sets out the case for Tengzhou as his home, with a sand-table model of the reconstructed home town, Chinese and foreign editions of the Mozi (墨子) text, old and new, and records of the international Mohist conferences. The science and technology hall divides his ideas into time and space, mathematics, mechanics and optics, with the pinhole image among the optics displays, and his military thinking into weapons, city defence works and defensive installations; visitors can operate some of the exhibits. In the Shengji Hall a mural of more than 200 m², drawn in 62 linked scenes with short captions and borrowing Dunhuang (敦煌) mural techniques, tells his life.

Around the east courtyard's cloister run 83 stone tablets carrying the full text of the Mozi, written in small regular script by the calligrapher Ma Yongyun (马永云); Chinese Wikipedia notes that it is said to be the first stone-carved Mozi in Chinese history. A second gallery carries inscriptions by public figures including Fei Xiaotong (费孝通) and Ren Jiyu (任继愈). A 2009 notice from the Tengzhou tourism bureau on the Shandong culture and tourism department site records that the hall had held seven international Mohist conferences and had been chosen as one of Shandong's ten best film and television location bases. In May 2023 the Dazhong Daily (大众日报) described the hall at Longquan Square (龙泉广场) as newly renovated, its old and new buildings joined into one.

What to look for

• Mo Hall (墨堂), with a sand-table model of Mozi's home town and editions of the Mozi
• The science and technology hall (墨子科技堂), with displays on Mozi's optics, mechanics and city defence, some of them hands-on
• Mural of Mozi's life in the Mozi Shengji Hall (墨子圣迹堂), 62 scenes over more than 200 m²
• The full Mozi text carved on 83 stone tablets around the east courtyard cloister
• Gallery of inscriptions by public figures (中外名人书法墨迹碑廊)
• Longquan Pagoda (龙泉塔), in front of the hall

Location & getting there

Getting to Mozi Memorial Hall

• Search for 墨子纪念馆 with 枣庄市 and 滕州市.