초록 열기/닫기 버튼
The main purpose of this article is to study 'social life' through ancient Chinese literature. 'Eternal life' was lifelong dream for ancient Chinese people. In order to live eternally, they devised various kinds of alchemy, relied on shaman, and hold a memorial ceremony. However, sometimes, ancient Chinese people abandoned their own lives willingly when they were facing with 'the life worse than death.' As a result of psychological autopsy, it was proved that their death and sufferings were quite related to 'social life.'As social life contains a great meaning, this research tries to investigate its meaning through two ancient characters: Sima-Qian(司馬遷) and Qu-Yuan(屈原). Ancient Chinese punishments had close relationship with social life. They were imposed for the purpose of social discrimination and exclusion of criminals with physical violation. As Sima-Qian was sentenced to castration, he went through not only physical violence but also felt humiliation. Also, he suffered a great indignity. However, in case of Qu-Yuan, he was expelled from the country as a punishment. Even though he didn't undergo any physical violence, but this punishment was said to be as a capital punishment for him: Because of the punishment, he was isolated from social life. As a result, he threw himself in Miluo River and committed suicide. The major difference between these two characters was related to 'social life.' Sima-Qian endured his messy life by completing Shi-Ji(史記) and took advantage of his work as an opportunity to regain his fame. (He had strong belief that his 'social life' would recover again.) However, Qu-Yuan eventually gave up his own life because he thought his 'social life' could be irrecoverable. Until now, many people are eager to extend their lives. However, as we can see from Sima-Qian and Qu-Yuan's case, 'the severance of social life' can lead physical death. As human have been regulated as 'social being' or 'relational being' regardless of centuries, all human should consider 'social life' as well as 'physical life' seriously.
