The Study Of Death Consciousness In Shi Shuo Xin Yu

The distinct death awareness of the scholars in the Wei and Jin Dynasties is deeply reflected in New Anecdotes of Social Talk,and in this paper,the study on the death awareness of the scholars in the Wei and Jin Dynasties is divided into two parts:The first part is the first chapter of this paper,which discusses the ontology of death awareness.Based on the theory of death phenomenology,the new definition of “death” is given in the first section,and Heidegger’s connotation of death,“being-towards-death” is introduced,in which death is regarded as the essential way of human existence;the second section analyzes the relationship between death awareness and life awareness,and demonstrates that the study of death awareness has independent ontological significance.The third section illustrates the influence of death awareness on human’s faith of existence,and points out that the awakening of death awareness is the foundation of constructing the faith of existence,thereby revealing the significance of death to human existence and value choice.The fourth section expounds the value of death awareness,and points out that death awareness is the inherent stipulation of being human being and death transcendence is the root of the occurrence of human culture,which are the two most important values of death awareness.The second part is the second,third and fourth chapters of the paper.On the theoretical basis of the first part,the author makes deep analysis on the death awareness of the Wei and Jin Dynasties reflected in New Anecdotes of Social Talk s well as its influence and value,and discusses it by following the logical thinking of “what kind of death awareness”,“the influence of death awareness on scholars’ lives” and “how to transcend the pain of death”.The second chapter solves the question of “what kind of death awareness”.The first section points out that its collective characteristics are different from those of death awareness of the Qin and Han dynasties,and that individual death awareness had already awakened.The scholars begun to have independent thinking of “death” itself,which is mainly reflected in the deep emotion of death on the basis of individual emotion,i.e.the “affection” and “true feeling” toward death and the “sublimation” of this emotion as the sentiment of universe and life;the second section pointed out that after the awakening of death awareness,death appears in the way of presence at any moment,and the scholars generate a strong and even extreme awareness of “fear of death and attachment for living”,which is manifested in life practice as “sigh of the passage of time” and “the climate of taking medicine”;the third section expounds the death awareness of the scholars with the characteristics and charm at that period,that is to artisticize death and to face and resolute death with the spirit of art: firstly,it is expressed as the artisticization of the process of death and the way of funeral and mourning;secondly,it is expressed as that the scholars convey their own perception and recognition of death through the artistic way of singing elegy.The third chapter deals with the question of “the influence of death awareness on scholars’ lives”.The influence is manifested in two levels,spiritual life and practical life,and the conjunction of these two levels lies in the construction of the scholars’ faith of existence.The first section demonstrates that the essence of the dispute between the “Confucian ethical code” and “nature” is the dispute of faith of existence: “Confucian ethical code” represents the traditional group ethical Confucian belief of existence,while “nature” is the belief of existence in the period reconstructed based on individual death consciousness;the second section analyzes the coexistence of “Confucian ethical code” and “nature” and makes reflection on it,and points out that the Wei and Jin dynasties are the era of transition of values and that the emergence of the new death awareness is exactly the basis of the emergence of the “nature” faith of existence;the third section explores the contradiction between “Confucian ethical code” and “nature” faith of existence,and it makes new definition for the concept of “nature” on this basis: the first refers to that the scholars take individual nature as the principle of the establishment of life values,and the second refers to that the scholars comply with the real inner experience and feelings as guidance for their way of life and behavior,of which the core lies in the emphasis on human nature and real inner experience.The fourth chapter deals with the question of“how to transcend the pain of death”.It mainly analyzes the various transcendence strategies chosen by the scholars of the Wei and Jin dynasties,and points out the really effective way of aesthetic transcendence.The first section analyzes the two ways of transcend the pain of death,the immortal impulse of the Confucianism faith and “carpe diem” in real life,but due to the awakening of individual death awareness,these two ways are not really effective.The second section illustrates the ultimate way of death transcendence selected by the scholars and points out that the mental imbalance caused by the death awareness leads to the emergence of corresponding aesthetic needs;it also analyzes the three realms of the scholars of the Wei and Jin dynasties in natural aesthetic experience,i.e.“visual pleasure”,“mental satisfaction” and “spiritual comfort”,in which the aesthetic experience runs throughout the entire life process and the scholars realize the ultimate death transcendence with aesthetic attitude towards the temporal life practice.