Mortality in Traditional Chinese Thought

SUNY series in Chinese Philosophy and Culture

by Amy Olberding (Editor), Philip J. Ivanhoe (Editor)

A wide-ranging exploration of traditional Chinese views of mortality.

Mortality in Traditional Chinese Thought is the definitive exploration of a complex and fascinating but little-understood subject. Arguably, death as a concept has not been nearly as central a preoccupation in Chinese culture as it has been in the West. However, even in a society that seems to understand death as a part of life, responses to mortality are revealing and indicate much about what is valued and what is feared. This edited volume fills the lacuna on this subject, presenting an array of philosophical, artistic, historical, and religious perspectives on death during a variety of historical periods. Contributors look at material culture, including findings now available from the Mawangdui tomb excavations; consider death in Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist traditions; and discuss death and the history and philosophy of war.

Genres: Philosophy, China

313 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2011

Reviews

[Brian Griffith]

A great collection of studies on how views of the afterlife evolved in China. One rather striking difference from Western myths is that China seems to have no story of a time before mortality, or of how death entered the world. It's not like we used to be immortal, and did something wrong to deserve mortality. Basically, death is presumed inevitable and natural. The images of our fates after death are extremely diverse, according to changing social concerns. Ancient tombs are built to enshrine hierarchies of status, or else to replicate the comforts of home. The underworld develops a fiendishly oppressive bureaucracy. Families compete to make their members' graves more prestigious than those of others. Daoists claim that dead commoners live on as ghosts, but the enlightened attain a state of nothingness, free from all care. Where Westerners often feel that belief in the afterlife gives comfort and tranquility, many Buddhists argue that such hopes are just emotional attachments that cause suffering. Overall, I found this parade of Chinese responses to mortality refreshing, and sometimes refreshingly comical.