Zhao Xiurong
School of History, Renmin University of China
Abstract:In early modern English and European culture, suicide was both a sin and a crime. Suicide was condemned both by religion and civil law. The corpse of the suicide would be profaned;his/her property would be confiscated, and his/her family would be humiliated. In China at the same time, suicide was neither a sin nor a crime; the body of a suicide was never subject to any form of abuse. Until the 17th century, the term for “suicide” in English was “selfmurder.”The terms for “suicide” in Chinese convey the manner of death, but never suggest the idea of “murder,” and there are many terms in Chinese that start with “xùn” (meaning“sacrifice one’s life for …”). Although Chinese and English people often had similar reasons for committing suicide (for love, illness, debts and humiliation), there were forms of suicide that were peculiar to Chinese culture. These included suicide to achieve moral fulfilment;suicide to remonstrate or admonish; and suicide as a way of redressing a wrong. In the early modern period, English people believed that the right of ownership of life resided solely with God; no one had right to take their own life. By contrast, the Chinese were primarily concerned with whether someone had caused the suicide and whether it had been committed for a reason. My conclusion is that in Chinese and English culture, notions of the “self”are different, and the way suicide is understood in Chinese culture is different from the way it is conceived in English culture. This is in large part due to the differences between Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism on the one hand and Christianity on the other. Chinese society conceives of suicide in an obligational sense and sanctions certain forms of suicide as righteous; English society focuses on the absence of a right to commit suicide and condemns suicide no matter what its motivation might be.
Keywords: suicide, culture, China, England
友情链接: 中国社会科学院官方网站 | 中国社会科学网
网站备案号:京公网安备11010502030146号 工信部:京ICP备11013869号
中国社会科学杂志社版权所有 未经允许不得转载使用
总编辑邮箱:zzszbj@126.com 本网联系方式:010-85886809 地址:北京市朝阳区光华路15号院1号楼11-12层 邮编:100026
>