The school of Moism was founded by Mo Ti, who was born shortly after the death of Confucius. Mo Ti lived during the period of the Warring States, which was characterised by chaos, confusion and conflict between the various feudal states. Mo Ti sought to address the problems of his period through creating a philosophy based on universal love and promoting attitudes and conduct that is most useful to people. Mo Ti lived out the principles of his philosophy. It is recorded that on one occasion he walked for ten days and ten nights to prevent a larger state from attacking a smaller one.

Mo Ti was treated by his followers as virtually infallible, and his successors were also accorded great obedience by their followers. During the fourth century BCE the movement was strong enough to rival Confucianism. Mencius (371-289) denounced the doctrine of universal love as one that undermined children's relations with their parents and fit only for "beasts". Hsun-tzu attacked Mo Ti's opposition to music as indicative of a lack of refinement on the part of Mo Ti.

During the third century BCE the movement went into decline, all but disappearing by the time of the unification of China in 221 BCE. Little interest was paid to the Mo-tzu until the arrival of Christianity in China, when scholars explored the similarities between Moist and Christian teaching on universal love. Later, during the communist period Moism received some official sympathy because of its opposition to aristocratic privilege.