Life's Hard Journey

Author: Li Dongshan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-09-27
Features: The death described and discussed in "The Hard Journey of Life" is just one form of death—suicide, and it is only a group or class within suicide, the suicide of famous elites. What is suicide? According to émile Durkheim, the author of "Suicide," it is defined as "the death directly or indirectly caused by a positive or negative action performed by the deceased themselves and known to produce such a result." For a long time, Chinese culture has had a tradition that values life and avoids death, and holds a political stance of condemnation toward suicide, which makes it even more taboo to speak of suicide. If a relative or friend dies by suicide, it is often considered deeply shameful and desperately concealed. In reality, this is a misunderstanding of suicide. Throughout Chinese history, those who died by suicide have often died with great heroism; even cultural and artistic elites like Lao She and Shangguan Yunzhu, who died by suicide, were driven by anger and resistance against the "Cultural Revolution," embodying the spirit of "killing is permissible, but humiliation is not." Of course, among those who commit suicide, there are indeed some who are deeply tormented by guilt and regret over their mistakes, even their sins, and ultimately take their own lives to atone. Even in this case, their inner repentance should be understood, and their courage and determination to atone with death should be admired. Of course, those who have committed countless crimes and deserve eternal condemnation, who ultimately take their own lives to escape punishment, are a different matter.