A Study of the Idea of Rebirth : Focusing on the Picture of Dragon, Boats and Fusan in Acient China

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25370048
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Chinese philosophy/Indian philosophy/Buddhist studies
• Research Institution: Osaka Prefecture University
• Principal Investigator: OHGATA Tohru 大阪府立大学, 人間社会学部, 教授 (60152063)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): TSUJIO Eiichi 大阪府立大学, 人間社会学部, 客員研究員 (10458002)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 龍 / 舟 / 扶桑 / 復活再生 / 太陽 / エジプト / 死生観 / 尸解仙

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The idea of the sun loaded into Egyptian crescent-shaped boat influenced China. As the sun revives and rises after the sun set, the dead ride the boat and also revive in the other world. In China, there is molding of a man riding a dragon in the tomb of Yangshao. The original form of a dragon is a crocodile, it went up to the Milky Way from the horizon, and it probably carried the spirits of the dead people on its back to heaven. In the Yin and Zhou periods, the horn of a dragon is a giraffe’s, and later it changed to an antelope and deer’s horn. They probably cannot go up to the sky without the horn.　From the Age of Civil Wars to the Han period, the boat shaped a dragon was appeared. Then, the idea was created that the entombed people ride on a dragon boat and they revive in the other world. This is same idea as the sun which revive on branches of fusan. It can be said that the early original form of hermit that the dead revive.

Free Research Field

中国哲学