上博楚簡 『凡物流形』의 사상적 특징과그 死生論 고찰

Abstract

This paper seeks to survey the contents and the philosophical features of the Shanghai Museum manuscript(上海博物館藏戰國楚竹書) Fanwuliuxing(凡物流形) through comparing it to preceding manuscripts, as well as to clarify the manuscript’s significance in light of philosophical history by contemplating on the discussions on life and death that took place in ancient China. Fanwuliuxing shares some similarities with Taoism. In specific, the idea that posits that one can sit down still and still understand the truth of the Tianxia and of the universe as long as one achieves Tao, and the theory where the universe was created from a separation of Tao, as well as the questions about who operates the movements of the nature are all similar to ideas found in Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu. On the other hand, there are also parts of the manuscript that are incompatible with Taoism, namely the approval on the use of languages. Also, Fanwuliuxing’s argument on how one is born again when one dies is related to Taoism’s zhuansheng(轉生). The logic where ‘the One’(一) is gained for a life to begin and lost for a life to end also shares the context with ‘yiqi’(一氣) found in Taoism. In greater detail, however, even these similar concepts have subtle differences. The reason that Fanwuliuxing is related to Taoism while also bearing dissimilarities is because it is not a manuscript that purely contains the philosophies of one school. Toward the end of the Warring Country period, various schools such as Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism actively implement each other’s philosophies, resulting in exchanges of mutual influence. Fanwuliuxing, which exhibits philosophies and structures from various schools such as Confucianism while sharing its basic philosophy with Taoism, then, appears to reflect the above-mentioned situation of its day.