Humans must first of all eat to live. Taste is secondary. Mozi (468?-376 BC) opposed extravagance in favor of frugality and utility. He argued that an extravagant way of life was wasteful of labor and raw materials. He prioritized eating one’s fill and dressing warmly over aesthetic demands. It was not that he abhorred beauty or was unable to appreciate it. Rather, he adopted functionality and usefulness as his criteria for judging beauty, and believed that whatever was impractical or of only formal elegance had no true beauty. Whereas Confucian philosophers valued both form and content, arguing that external features and inner substance were equally important, Mozi placed substance well above form, which also illustrates the relationship between aesthetics and practicality.

Hence, a person must be able to eat his fill before he can shift his focus to taste. He must dress warmly before he can consider elegance. He must also have a secure dwelling before he thinks about enjoying comfort. Mozi, as cited in Liu Xiang: Garden of Stories

Sages of old times who shunned extravagance and pomp fully understood this. Emperor Yu of the Xia Dynasty was one such person. His cottage was both small and low, and he repeatedly cut expenditure on food and drink. There were only three earthen steps leading up to his cottage. His clothing was a patchwork of small pieces of cloth. In his days, excessive adornment was simply not helpful. People only required that things be durable and sturdy. Mozi, as cited in Liu Xiang: Garden of Stories