Metaplasia, Resurrection and Deification:Three Attitudes towards Death in the Ancient China

• Main Authors: Siao-rou Shen, 沈曉柔
• Other Authors: Chien-wen Wang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/64713507773498923101

碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 歷史學系碩博士班 === 97 === That life comes with death is a fate common to all human beings. One could observe the phenomenon of death but never understand its reality, which explains why humans have had such a great fear of death. Yet, death remains a brutal fact after all and only with an adequate interpretation of it can human being face up to death. The present dissertation is intended to explore ancient views on death in terms of three kinds of “life-seeking” attitudes: metaplasia, resurrection and longetivity. The primitives employed the collective myth-making to explain the riddle of death and create the belief in the “solidarity of life.” Chuang-tzu accepted such a belief and developed, in addition, the idea of “qi” through his concept of “metamorphosis.” In the period of Eastern Zhou, it became popular to imagine dead people turning into ghosts and this brought out the idea of “soul.” Yet, is there another world after one dies? Is there any connection between soul and corpse? Is it possible to bring about resurrection by the “ritual of recalling soul”? So many uncertainties remained that people began the search for the route leading to immortality to avoid the sting of death. The idea of deification appeared in this age, which attempted to persuade people that one could become divine by, on a long-termed basis, doing exercise and taking immortal potions. The idea of deification became popular from Eastern Zhou down right to Han Dynasty and profoundly influenced the development of Taoism.