유가철학에 나타난 ‘生死’관의 현실적 의의 - 왕부지의 ‘생사’관을 중심으로 -

Abstract

Confucian philosophy which traditionally seeks a moral community built on benevolence, righteousness, propriety and wisdom is characterized by a rich sense of respect for life. Wang Fu zhi tries to critically analyze the traditional Confucianism’s view of life and death, especially the text in the Book of Changes (I Ching) reads: “[The sage] traces things to their beginning and follows them to their end; thus he knows what can be said about death and life (原始反終, 故知死生之說).” According to Wang Fu zhi, this world is filled with qi (氣), or an ever-moving vital energy, and all things are formed as the vital energy is collected and condensed by virtue of reason as logic but go back to the noumenon of qi referred to as the taixu(太虛) when the qi is scattered. In other words, life refers to a state in which the condensed qi takes shape, whereas death is a state in which the qi is scattered by virtue of reason and become invisible. The beginning is that something nonexistent appears, whereas the end is that a living thing which has been existent fulfills its roles. However, qi takes a new form everyday because it is always in motion, and the new form is scattered after accomplishing its task. In this sense, it can be said that life and death to Wang Fu zhi represent the beginning and end, respectively, of an individual being from a point of view of xing qi (形氣, form and vitality), but they are not the beginning and end of qi. The reason for this is that the life coming from the condensation of qi is not a creative beginning, but rather a frequently occurring phenomenon, and that the death resulting from the scattering of qi is a lack of life, not a mere extinction of life. Therefore, there is no need to be afraid of death or worry about it. However, even if death is not subject to extinction, humans can’t exclude their natural feelings of sadness such as compassion in the presence of death. They would rather reflect on their own past lives with such a pure state of mind as compassion and prepare themselves properly for their ultimate destination for the rest of the time. This attitude towards death can help people not only clean up the traces of their lives peacefully, but also lead the rest of their lives worthily. Wang Fu zhi regards humanity as the greatest being of all things. He states that Heaven gives an ming(命) to humanity everyday and that human beings should create good natures upon the ming given to them and embody the significance of the natures day by day. This is the right way for humans to live. This original idea of Wang Fu zhi is differentiated from the view of neo-Confucianism that human nature is unchangeable and should be thus restored. Wang believes that the way of life cannot remain contemplative, but rather should be to solve problems at hand by taking active part in the dynamically changing reality. The view of life and death of Wang Fuzhi who tried to create a peaceful mingling community by establishing human duties in an ever-awakening attitude may provide a meaningful ideological basis for those people who seek to overcome the problem of life devaluation rampant in contemporary society and wish to meet their death with dignity.