노자의 생사관과 장생사상

Abstract

In this paper, Lǎozǐ's view of life and death and idea of longevity were summarized. The main ideas of Lǎozǐ's ideology are the thoughts of ‘Muwijayeon(action of non-action)’ and ‘Tao’ and ‘Te’. He claimed that one should adapt oneself to nature because both life and death were the matter of the nature and all creation eventually went back to nature. And he believed that this world was composed of the relations and interactions of conflicting things and that all the things existed by the principle of consistent creation and changes. The discussion in this paper can be summarized as follows. First, Lǎozǐ's view of life and death can be said to be ‘Muwijayeon view of life and death’ which “saves life with Muwi.” Like ‘Muyisaeng’(無已生), ‘Yiksawng’(益生), ‘Saeng- eng’(生生), and ‘Gwisaeng’(貴生), ‘Muwi’ with no effort to lengthen life forcefully is the very way to save life. Second, while ‘Tao’ is the principle of all things’ creation and change, ‘Te’ is an individual fundamental. ‘Te’ is valuable because the principle of ‘Tao’ comes to take concrete form by ‘Te’. Third, the view of life and death in 『Lǎozǐ』 is the one of coexistence and change of conflicting things. Lǎozǐ penetrated the existence of this world in the relations and changes of conflicts. He analyzed the characteristics of living groups and dead ones by contrasting weakness(柔弱) and stubbornness(堅强). Weakness, the symbol of life, coexists with stubbornness, the symbol of death, and then gradually becomes interconverted with and head for death. Fourth, Lǎozǐ said that “the one who is not forgotten after death is the one who lives a long life.” This idea has something in common with Confucian ‘Sambulhu’ thought and Shelly Kagan's pseudo-eternal life. Fifth, an individual’s life was considered important in Taoism, and precaution was taken so that a person’s life wouldn’t run into danger because of a group’s values. Sixth, ‘regimen’ was an early concept of ‘curing’. Some of Lǎozǐ's principles for regimen can be summarized as “①be self-effacing, ②stay back rather than interfere, ③become flexible, ④don’t assure fulfillment or don’t be absorbed, ⑤economize, ⑥empty, ⑦don’t be greedy, and ⑧be calm. ⑨cut off a holy person, give up one’s wisdom.”