| Summary: | 碩士 === 元智大學 === 中國語文學系 === 98 === The thesis aims to conduct an in-depth discussion on the thoughts and significance on the parameter of “funeral and burial” in the “Three Rites” broaching from the “etiquette of the imperial scholars” by highlighting the issue of “mankind’s existential value” through the funeral and burial etiquettes, in an attempt to reflect on the current funeral and burial rituals, and perhaps to inject the modern day rituals with a touch of the traditional culture.
As humans tend to be intimidated and relentless when faced with the limited life span, hoping that they would be able to surpass their lifetime without any sorrow, not wanting to be abandoned recklessly after death, thus the issues of handling death and afterlife was regarded as something that could best capture the meaning of an individual’s life. The process of a funeral not only provides an outlet for the survivors to express their mourning and grief, and to accept rationally the fact of a death, but each step in the rituals also reinforces the ethnical and value behavioral modes, enabling the participants to understand the meanings behind the funeral rituals and ceremonial rites after witnessing and emulating a funeral ceremony, and most importantly it serves to urge the participants to put forth their action to fulfill their obligations in their short life span, by which to instill their mortal existence with an immortal value and meaning, and to convey the social function of moral and ethical teaching through the solemnity of participating in a funeral. As a whole, the characteristic of the Zhou dynasty’s funeral rites lies on rediscovering the voluntary nature of humanity, deterring the focus of one’s life, scrutinizing the meaning of human existence, fulfilling the value of life, by which to steer the funeral rites in the pursuit of a “meaningful life”, and the worship of “moral and ethical value”. Its core philosophy rests more than on a humanity-based funeral ritual, but also has an important social underlying meaning of “respecting the ancestors, and abiding by the traditional familial and moral value” by steering the society toward a familial, moral and ethical-oriented social value system.
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