Communications in Humanities Research ISSN: 2753-7072
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Research Article

An Analysis of the Concept of Death in Chronicle of a Blood Merchant

Nuo ChenZhuhai College of Jilin University* Lexi DingGuangdong University of Foreign Studies South China Business College Yuanzheng LuQuanzhou Normal University

* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

Chronicle of a Blood Merchant is one of the masterpieces of Yu Hua’s late pioneering literature, which has an important place in the history of contemporary Chinese literature. This article takes the analysis of Chronicle of a Blood Merchant as its research direction, mainly using Heidegger’s existentialist philosophical theory as the core theoretical support and following the principle of seeing the big picture in a small way to analyse the work. By analysing the imagery of blood in the text, this paper identifies the triple meaning of blood in work as representing life, kinship and the value of life. In the second and third parts, this essay further analyses and discusses the character Xu Sanguan’s concept of death and his transcendence of death, as well as the sense of life and its values, conveyed throughout the work, by analysing the character’s act of selling blood. Ultimately, the paper concludes that the characters’ life consciousness is based on a struggle with suffering and self-giving and is guided by a sense of life that leads to a transcendence of death.

Keywords: Chronicle of a Blood Merchant; transcendence of death; life consciousness
Published: October 31, 2023
DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/10/20231243
Volume: CHR Vol.10
pp. 67-73
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