The Disenchantment of Hell and the Emergence of Self-Conscious Individuality

Examining Su Shi's Philosophy of Disposition

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3570204
AutoresShuang Xu (0000-0002-3470-0609, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University), Y NI (0000-0003-0154-3421, Zhejiang University, autor correspondente)
Ano2025
Volume16
Fascículo2
Páginas220
Data de publicação2025-02-12
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoReligions (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
EditoraMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel16020220
OpenAlexW4407412811
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas11

In pre-Song Chinese thought, the afterlife, or the subterranean realm was a sacred space distinctly separate from the world of the living, an extension of the political-religious-cultural order of the Chinese empire. Even after the introduction of Buddhism to China, although the Buddhist concept of hell applied karmic retribution to the present life in an attempt to provide ethical norms for real life, the sacredness of the afterlife remained intact. Song Dynasty Chinese thought underwent a profound "modernization" transformation. Su Shi, with the concept of qing 情 [disposition] at its core, disenchanted the sacred afterlife, shaping a new, self-conscious individuality in the interplay between the living and the dead, the finite and the infinite, the mortal and the immortal. This new individuality, with its spiritual spontaneity and freedom, integrated the afterlife with the present world, internalizing infinity and immortality into a utopian spiritual homeland. This free individuality, entirely different from Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism, marking a hidden potential in the development of Chinese intellectual history that has yet to be fully revealed

Aesthetics · Disenchantment · Disposition · Epistemology · Political science · Politics · Psychoanalysis · Chinese history and philosophy · Law · Philosophy · Psychology