A Comparative Study of Funeral Culture between China and Western Countries

摘要

自人类文化生成以来，死亡一直被神秘面纱掩盖。虽然人类试着用多种方法去揭开它，但是无一成功。人类逐渐认识到死亡是不可避免的。面对死亡只能选择超越，超越死亡的不同方式正是人类的丧葬习俗。中西方不同的丧葬习俗蕴含和反映了中西方不同的文化特征。

丧葬礼俗与人类文明一样古老，反映着人们对于世界和自己与世界之间的关系的认知。东西方之间在丧葬习俗上存在的巨大差异基于它们对死亡有着各自不同的理解和阐释。本文以丧葬礼仪为切入视角，从哲学，宗教，文化角度解析中西各具特色的丧葬习俗形成的内因—中西方人对待死亡和生命的态度，以掌握两种文化的不同特点。

中西方文化的差异导致了中西方民族不同的生死观，也正是由于生死观的差异孕育了两种截然不同的文化特质。中国人的生死观形成受中国传统文化和多种宗教的影响，西方生死观的形成主要受基督教和个人主义观念的影响。虽然中西方生死观大相径庭，但是对比之下还是有共同之处。有共同之处就有借鉴的地方。因此本文通过对比分析，借鉴西方生死观中值得学习之处，试图为中国青少年的生死关教育提供建议。以期能帮助其树立正确的人生观，价值观。

关键词：丧葬习俗，生死观，中西方文化，死亡教育

Abstract
Since the beginning of human culture, death is mysterious for human. Although human tries their best to uncover the mystery. None of them is fully successful. Consequently human realized that death was inevitable. People tended to choose transcendence. And the way one chooses for transcendence reflects the unique cultural features between Chinese and western cultures.
Funeral customs had the same history of human culture. They reflected the prototypical human perceptions about the world and their relations. Differences between Chinese and western funeral customs based on their different understandings about death. This paper tries to make a comparative study of funeral customs between Chinese and western countries to obtain the original causes—the attitude to death, for the differences. Then grasp the different characters of the two kinds of culture.
The differences between Chinese and western countries lead to the different attitudes to death. Chinese attitude to death is influenced by Chinese traditional culture and multi-religions. While western attitude to death is mainly affected by Christianity and individualism. Although they are widely divergent, through comparative study, common factors are found, which could be borrowed by Chinese. This paper tries to compare Chinese attitude to death with western, learn from western advantages, and then provide suggestions for Chinese death education to help youngsters build right view of life and death
Key Words: Funeral customs, attitudes to death, Chinese and western culture death education