試論中國傳統社會幽冥說

自從人類有生命存在之始，便不可避免要面臨死亡帶來的威脅，可以想見，初民面對它所帶來的震憾，是如何地驚懼與束手無策，雖然無法改變自然規律下的生老病死，但初民們仍試圖盡最大的力量消解死亡所帶來的人生陰影，於是，無論是後世遺留下來的文化、宗教、哲學等，其中莫不內涵對於死亡問題的解釋與超越，最為直接的敘述莫過於神話傳說的情節內容，包括融合佛教與道教民間信仰的幽冥說，其中所表現出的思維正是出於一種非理性的意識認知，但它卻是中國傳統社會文化的瑰寶；在本文中，筆者透過簡潔式的思考，嘗試建構中國傳統社會幽冥說的意義與價值。

關鍵字

幽冥；宗教；民間信仰

並列摘要

Every human-being have to face the threat from the death. We can imagine how hopeless and terrify in primitive society people. Under the law of nature, uncivilized peoples are still trying to avoid or even fight to the threat from the shadow of death. In this way, from generations to generations, the legacy of culture, religion and philosophy are all indicate the explanations or problem of death. Just like Chinese mythologies and legends, including the integration of Buddhist and Taoist folk religion of the dead; those precisely show out of an irrational emotion, however, it is still a precious gem of Chinese traditional society and culture.In this article, the author attempts to construct meaning and value of thinking about the after life believe in Chinese traditional society.