知生知死与事死如生——孔子生死观理路探微

Understanding the Living, Understanding the Death and Honoring the Death as the Living—Confucius’s View of Life and Death

摘要: 孔子阐发出了“知生知死”、“事死如生”的独特生死观。首先，以“知生方知死”、“天道不可违”宽慰世人焦虑作为起点，鼓励世人注重现世生活；其次，在现实生活中，培养以“仁”和“礼”为核心的生命价值取向，通过“弘道”实现从个人生命到社会生命的转变；最后，区分“死得其命”和“死非其命”，推崇生荣死哀、慎终追远的死亡意义。对孔子的生死观进行探析，有助于现代人在生死困顿找到超越死亡之法。

Abstract: Confucius has developed a unique view of life and death, which is “understanding the living, understanding the death and honoring the death as the living”. Firstly, he used the words “understanding the living” is the only way to “understand the death” and “the way of heaven cannot be violated” as a starting point to relieve people’s anxiety and encourage them to focus on the present life; secondly, in real life, people should cultivate the value of life with “benevolence” and “ritual” as the core, and transform from individual life to social life by “promoting the way”; finally, he also distinguished between “death is one’s destiny” and “death is not one’s destiny”, then advocated two ways of dying: one, to be respected while alive and mourned after death; and two, to use death as a medium to transmit positive spiritual power to future generations. The distinction between these two ways of dying has profound implications for death. Helping later generations to explore Confucius’ view of life and death will help modern people find ways to overcome death in the dilemma of life and death.