by Ying-shih Yü
2. Life and Immortality in the Mind of Han China
Confucius once said, “While you do not know life, how can you know about
death?”1 Life and death are among the basic prob lems with which the tradi-
tional Chinese mind has been grappling unceasingly ever since the time of
Confucius, and to which vari ous kinds of answers have been given. Especially
during the Han Period, these two prob lems were discussed with even greater
enthusiasm, not only because of scholars’ intellectual interest but also because
of the existential necessity of the common people.
As the above familiar saying of Confucius suggests, however, in Chinese in-
tellectual history, the emphasis seems to have been laid much more on the prob-
lem of life than on that of death. Sometimes one may even fi nd that the latter is
impor tant, not because it is a prob lem as such, but because it is, in the last analy-
sis, a prolongation of the former. “For,” as a Western phi los o pher has best ex-
pressed it, “humanly speaking, death is the last thing of all, and, humanly
speaking, there is hope only so long as there is life.”2 It is hoped that the case
study of the views on life and immortality in the intellectual history of the Han
Period presented below will, to a certain extent, support this generalization.
l ife a nd im m or ta l i t y in t h e mind of h a n c h ina 21
T H E I M P O R TA N C E O F L I F E
The idea of life occupied a uniquely prominent place in the mind of ancient
China. This point is amply borne out by the fact that the term “life” ( sheng
)
appears very frequently in pre- Qin lit er a ture from bronze inscriptions to philo-
sophical writings.3 One may say that, as an idea, “life” was a point of departure
for most of the Chinese philosophical systems at their founding stage. It may
even be further suggested that these philosophical systems varied from one
another primarily because their original builders viewed life from diff er ent
angles and, accordingly, interpreted it in diff er ent ways.
Of the leading pre- Qin philosophical schools, Confucianism stressed the
idea of life with special emphasis on the worldly aspect. It therefore taught
people to cultivate worldly virtues while leaving to fate such matters as happi-
ness or misfortune and length of life.4 Mohism, on the other hand, paid more
attention to death than did other schools because it alone laid emphasis on the
existence of spirits. As for life, the Mohist view is one of unbearable harshness
and has been criticized ever since its appearance as a thorough denial of all the
pleasures of human life. It is Daoism that established its philosophy centering
on the idea of life. Moreover, unlike the Confucians, the Daoists conceived of life
not merely in terms of a vast vital force that pervades the entire universe, but also
in terms of the concrete individual life. Thus, both Laozi and Zhuangzi show a
deep concern for man’s life and death, and discuss the cultivation and prolonga-
tion of life. Therefore, we see that from about the end of the Warring States Pe-
riod (481–221 b.c.e.) to early Han (Western Han, 202 b.c.e.–8 c.e.) times, the
idea of life developed along two general lines. One is the Confucian- Daoist
view, which took life as a productive cosmic force. The other is a Daoist concep-
tion, which emphasized the importance of individual life. Let us now examine
these two aspects of the idea of life in more detail.
In the Laozi (or Daodejing), we fi nd that Dao (the Way) and De (Virtue),
the two most impor tant concepts in Daoist philosophy, are described as forces
that produce and nourish life, respectively.5 In the “Xici” (Commentary on the
Appended Phrases) to the Yijing (Classic of Changes), prob ably a Confucian
work of the early Han tinged with much Daoist fl avor, the idea of life takes on
two basic meanings. First, life is regarded as the paramount virtue of Heaven
and Earth.6 Second, it is also an infi nite pro cess of production and reproduc-
tion.7 Such an idea of life, as will be shown below, was not only accepted but
also greatly elaborated upon in popu lar thought of the Later Han (25–220 c.e.)
Period, as is attested by some of the earliest Daoist canons.
A further distinction between a hedonistic and naturalistic view of life may
be made with regard to the individual aspect of life as developed by the early
Daoists.8 According to the hedonists, the meaning of life lies in the pursuit of
pleasures, with special emphasis on satisfaction of sensual desires. For instance,
22 l ife a nd im m or ta l i t y in t h e mind of h a n c h ina
Tuo Xiao
and Wei Mou
, who are criticized by Xunzi for advocating a
theory of self- indulgence in sensual plea sure, may be taken as hedonists.9 This
hedonism was generally known as the doctrine of quansheng
(perfecting
the individual life).10 In the eyes of the moralists, this doctrine was inimical to
social order. “If the doctrine of perfecting the individual life prevails,” one criti-
cism states, “then integrity and shame will not stand.”11 Whether the hedonists
ever went so far as to put the importance of individual life above that of social
order, we have no way of knowing. Nevertheless, they did value the enjoyment of
life much more than its prolongation. In their opinion, suppression of free will
as well as of basic desires would make for a life so miserable as to be worse than
death.12
The naturalistic view of life takes individual life as an end rather than a
means. According to it, the individual life is more honorable than an imperial
throne and more valuable than the total wealth of the world.13 It does not reject
plea sure as an ideal of life but argues that unless one lives long, he will not be
able to enjoy life.14 Thus, longevity is desirable, and for its attainment, the culti-
vation of life becomes necessary. To obtain longevity through cultivation of life,
according to this view, is fully in accord with rather than against nature, because
it is believed that man’s life is naturally long. The fact that all people cannot live
out their natu ral span of life is a result of the unrestrained pursuit of sensual
plea sure. The Lüshi chunqiu
(Annals of Lü Buwei) states: “Longevity is the
nature of man. Since [this nature] is being disturbed by things, man cannot live
long. It is things that are to nourish [man’s] nature; [it is] not [man’s] nature to nour-
ish things.”15 According to the commentary of Gao You
(fl . 205–212 c.e.), the
“ things” in this passage refer to the material objects of wealth, and the criticism
is directed at the fact that most people give unlimited rein to their material de-
sires. Cultivation of life is, therefore, nothing more than bringing life back to its
natu ral course.16
L I F E A S A C O S M I C F O R C E
With this general historical background of the idea of life, we can now examine
the manifestation of the idea in the popu lar thought of the Han Period. More
will be said on the individual aspect of life below. In this section, we shall ex-
amine the idea of life as a cosmic productive force.
First there is a general stress on the importance of life. A Daoist canon of
about the second century c.e.,17 the Taipingjing
(Scripture of
Great
Peace), following the Confucian- Daoist tradition, regards life as the paramount
virtue of Heaven and Earth. The idea that Heaven produces life and Earth
nourishes it is emphatically repeated there.18 And since Dao and De are equated
with Heaven and Earth, respectively, it is the attribute of Dao to produce life
l ife a nd im m or ta l i t y in t h e mind of h a n c h ina 23
and of De to nourish it. Therefore, as the argument goes, all things come to life
when Dao fl ourishes, and all things, including human beings, are well nour-
ished when De fl ourishes.19 In the Laozi Xiang-er zhu
(Xiang-er Com-
mentary to Laozi), a Daoist work of the late second century c.e. discovered at
Dunhuang,20 the importance of life is given still greater emphasis. There the
idea of life is enhanced to something equivalent to Dao itself. “Life is a diff er ent
substance of Dao,” it states,21 and in some places the commentator does not
hesitate to emend the character “king” ( wang
) in the original text to “life”
( sheng ) to support this new conception of life.22
Another aspect of the idea of life that is elaborately developed in popu lar
thought is its reproductiveness. The Scripture of Great Peace says: “Now what
Heaven stresses and values is the succession of life. Therefore, the four seasons,
following the teachings of the Heavenly Way, carry on and help to complete the
development of life in an endless pro cess so that all kinds of things can grow.
So Heaven is known as Father, the Life Producer, and Earth is known as
Mother, the Life Fosterer.”23 At another juncture, the work further stresses the
necessity of reproduction: “Dao produces life. When Dao ceases [to exist], all
things will cease to live. When all things cease to live, there will be no species
of life left in the world and nothing to pass on [to later generations]. When all
things cease to reproduce and propagate their species, there will be destruc-
tion.”24 The same idea is also discernible in the Xiang-er Commentary. On one
occasion, for instance, it says: “What Dao stresses is the succession of [ances-
tral] worship. [It is, therefore, necessary that the human] species must not
perish.”25 This is precisely one of the theoretical bases on which female infanti-
cide is denounced by the Scripture of Great Peace:
Man is to carry on the tradition of Heaven, and woman, the tradition of
Earth. Now people cut off the tradition of Earth and thus make reproduc-
tion of life impossible. So people [who exercise female infanticide] are
mostly deprived of their off spring. How heavy is the sin they commit!
These people should all have off spring to propagate their species from
generation to generation. But on account of their having cut off the
tradition of Earth and destroyed human beings, as a punishment, Heaven
takes away from them their posterity forever.26
It is still more in ter est ing to note that even chastity is repudiated on the same
ground:
A chaste man is one who does not disseminate [seeds] and a chaste
woman is one who refuses to transform [seeds into life]. If females and
males had no intercourse, all species of life would perish. Thus, being
covetous of the fi ctitious and artifi cial name [of chastity], two persons
24 l ife a nd im m or ta l i t y in t h e mind of h a n c h ina
together cut off the tradition of Heaven and Earth, and on that account,
suff er an actual loss by being deprived of off spring. These are certainly a
great evil in the world.27
The emphasis so lavishly laid on the importance of life, as will become clear,
throws much light on our understanding of many of the ideas in the Scripture
of Great Peace. It may be legitimately argued that this idea of life must be taken
as a point of departure for the study of the ideological system of early Daoist
religion.
L O N G E V I T Y A N D I M M O R TA L I T Y
It is only natu ral that the general emphasis on life should fi nally lead to a par-
tic u lar stress on individual human life. In this connection, we must examine
two time- honored ideas: longevity and immortality. The idea of longevity is a
very old one originating in time immemorial. In Zhou bronze inscriptions,
shou
(longevity) is found to be by far the most popu lar term in prayers for
blessing.28 It was a general practice of the Zhou people to pray to their ances-
tors, and sometimes also to Heaven, for prolongation of life.29 Longevity, there-
fore, may be said to be one of the most ancient and universal worldly desires of
the Chinese people.30
The idea of immortality, on the other hand, came into existence rather late.
Not until the early Eastern Zhou Period (eighth century b.c.e.) was there, either
in literary references or in bronze inscriptions, any trace of the idea that man
could preserve his physical body permanently. From the eighth century on,
however, such terms as nanlao
(retarding old age) and wusi
(no death)
abound in prayers for blessing in bronze inscriptions.31 The use of these terms
marks the beginning of the idea of physical immortality.
Before we discuss immortality more fully, a few impor tant points must be
clarifi ed. First, the Chinese concept of immortality contains some subtle diff er-
ences that its En glish equivalent fails to convey. Under the general label of
immortality, a number of terms, such as changsheng
(long life), busi
(no death), baoshen
(preservation of the body),32 dushi
(transcending
the world), dengxia
(ascending to the distant place),33 chengxian
(be-
coming an immortal), etc., may be grouped together as unit- ideas.34 Although
they may all be rendered as immortality, they refer to immortality on diff er ent
levels. The fi rst three prob ably developed out of the traditional worldly desire for
longevity because the early stage of that development is still evident in bronze
inscriptions and in lit er a ture, especially in the Shijing (Classic of Poetry). In gen-
eral, during the Western Zhou Period (1027?–771 b.c.e.), people only prayed for
limited longevity and natu ral death. But during the Spring and Autumn (Chun-
qiu) Period (771–481 b.c.e.), people became more avid and began to pray for es-
l ife a nd im m or ta l i t y in t h e mind of h a n c h ina 25
cape from old age as well as for “no death.”35 Thus, the idea of immortality may
very well be regarded as a result of the intensifi cation of the worldly desire for
longevity and need not be interpreted wholly in terms of exotic impact.36
The last three terms, however, indicate immortality of a diff er ent kind and
prob ably of a diff er ent origin as well. This is the immortality of the immortality
cult. Modern scholars are divided in their opinions on the origin of this cult,
but their theories may be roughly classifi ed into two groups: one regarding the
cult as a purely native product37 and
the other holding the view that it arose
under the infl uence of imported ideas.38 We are not concerned here with which
theory is better. The only point to be stressed is the fact that toward the end of
the Warring States Period, there emerged a new conception of immortality that
diff ered considerably from its traditional counterpart. To achieve this new im-
mortality was not to live permanently on Earth as a man but rather to leave this
world as a xian , or immortal.39 Terms like dushi and xiaju
, which are used
in lit er a ture in association with xian, indicate unmistakably that the achieve-
ment of xian immortality necessarily involves departure from this human
world. The new conception of immortality is, therefore, essentially otherworldly
in nature. For con ve nience we shall hereafter call the traditional immortality
that developed out of the ancient worldly desire for longevity “worldly immor-
tality” and the later xian immortality “otherworldly immortality.” It goes with-
out saying that the two kinds are not always easy to distinguish because of their
mutual infl uence or cross- fertilization. Moreover, it is also true that in later
Han times, as we shall see, the two streams tended to merge into one. Never-
theless, the distinction between a worldly immortality and an otherworldly one
is, on the whole, not only clear but very useful in tracing the development of the
idea of immortality.
In the case of worldly immortality, we have seen how intensifi cation of the
desire for longevity gradually led to the idea of “no death.” Because of the lords’
or princes’ interest in longevity, this idea became particularly widespread
toward the end of the Warring States Period. As early as 522 b.c.e., Duke Jing of
Qi
is reported to have expressed his longing for longevity thus: “How
happy it would be if there had been no death since ancient times!” 40 It is evident
from this report that even during the Chunqiu Period, the idea of “no death”
was already deeply imprinted in men’s minds. Down to the late Warring States
Period (481–221 b.c.e.), princes of vari ous states pursued worldly immortality
with even greater enthusiasm at the instigation of fangshi
(necromancers).
For instance, according to Hanfeizi, a sort of “drug of no death” ( busi zhi yao