【文章內(nèi)容簡介】 ans face death with an optimistic attitude. They expect to meet their god and have a happy life in heaven.3. The expressions of “death” in Chinese “Death” in literary worksBecause of the taboos in expressing “death”, there are a lot of different expressions about “death” in Chinese. The examples are given as follows (Xian Dai Han Yu Ci Dian, 1999):Emperors’ death: “崩”、 “駕崩”、 “山陵崩”；Common people’s death: “過世”、“過去了”、“過了”、“去了”、“走了”、“返鄉(xiāng)”、“回去”、“離開”、“長眠”、“先走一步”、“老去”、“作老人”、“作古”、“千古”、“上西天”；Under ages’ death: “夭”、“夭折”、“短折”、“夭亡”、“殤”、“夭殤”、“早逝（英年早逝）”、“夭逝”、“天逝”、“棄養(yǎng)夙殞”、“天服之殤”、“早夭”；Taoist priests’ death: “羽化”、“登仙”、“兵解”；Beauties’ death: “香消玉殞”、“天妒紅顏”、“紅顏薄命”；Image saying: “見馬克思”、“見老祖宗去了”；Other euphemisms: “辭世”、“與世長辭”、“辭去人世”、“百年之后”、“壽終正寢（男）”、“壽終內(nèi)寢（女）”、“成為故物”、“嗚呼哀哉”、“已故”、“大去”、“仙逝”、“安眠”、“安息”、“往生”、“駕鶴西歸”、 “風(fēng)去樓空”、“天妒英才”、“南極星沉”、“駕返瑤池”、“音容宛在”、“師表長存”、“殺身成仁”；The expressions of “death” in Chinese above show us profound cultural background.TheDreamsofRedChamber(紅樓夢) is the best example to support the points of Chinese culture about death. In this work, many expressions are used to decribe people’s death. For example, “如今從夢中聽見說秦氏死了，連忙翻身爬起來，只覺得心中似戳了一刀的，不覺的‘哇’的一聲，直噴出一口血來”,“林黛玉焚稿斷癡情，薛寶釵出閣成大禮”,“苦絳珠魂歸離恨天，病神瑛淚灑相思地”(Cao Xueqin, 1987：792). Here Lin Daiyu’s “death” is not expressed by the word “die”, but we can still feel the shadow of death to the heroine, and we can feel her struggling with life and her attitude to love. We can also see how painful she was while her love vanished into thin air. If we were just told that Lin Daiyu was dead, then we might just feel that a soul was leaving her body and we might not feel sadness strongly.Besides, there are also a lot of different expressions of “death” in poems, such as the following sentences of Qu Yuan’s poems:“國殤”: “身既死兮神以靈，魂魄毅兮為鬼雄”?！皯焉场? “知死不可讓，愿勿愛兮”。“憶往昔”: “焉舒情而抽信兮，恬死亡而不聊”, “寧溘死而流亡兮，恐禍殃之有再”。 “悲回風(fēng)”: “寧溘死而流亡兮，不忍為此常愁”?！疤靻枴? “何所不死，長人何守？”（長人，一說為長壽之人）, “延年不死，壽何所止”, “天式縱橫，陽離愛死”。“漁父”: “寧赴湘流，葬于江魚腹中”。All of the expressions of “death” the poets give us are very suitable for each role in the stories. They not only show us the poets’ writing skills, but also show us the corresponding cultural backgrounds. We can better recognize Chinese culture in the phenomenon of “death”. “Death” in euphemisms and taboosIt has been widely recognized that “taboo” is the very foundation of the oute of euphemisms, euphemisms of death, in particular. And it can be found that both in China and English countries the psychology of taboo is the main root of the production of euphemisms. In the ancient days, people lived in poor conditions, in which both the economic and spiritual life were at low levels. So the worship and fear for nature bee widespread among the human world. Our forebears tend to associate some kinds of magic power with the human world, the result of which is the appearance of “word magic”. They would fairly bine words uttered with fortune. Those words, associated with bad or unenjoyable things, make people shiver, and are to be avoided to the best they can. “Death” is considered to be cursed or unfortunate happenings, with the result of numerous euphemisms ing out. Therefore, when talking about “death”, most of us would like to use euphemisms. Originated in the psychology of taboo, thousands of euphemisms e out in Chinese. Such expressions as “安息”, “百歲”, “去世”, “犧牲”, “病故”, “作古”, “去見馬克思”, “賓天”, “沒了”, “升仙”,and so on, are all the euphemisms of “death”. A mon theory holds that death is a taboo subject in most Englishspeaking cultures precisely for the psychology of taboo. It may be said that one is not dying, but fading quickly because the end is ing. People who have died are referred to as having passed away or departed (Net. 2).4. The expressions of “death” in English “Death” in literary worksIn English, there are also many different expressions of “death”. For example, “kicking the bucket”, “enter the celestial city”, “dying young”,“on the point of death”, “parting forever”,“dying”, “passing away”,“resting in peace”,“be over”, “be done for”,“l(fā)osing one39。s life”,“dying in battle”,“dying at one39。s post”,“dying (for a just course or for one’s country)”,“going our of this world”,“meeting one’s death”, “meeting one’s end”,“devoting oneself to”, “sacrificing oneself”,“breathing one’s last”, etc. (An Intermediate Learners’EnglishChinese Dictionary, 2003).Plato (Net. 1) once expressed the death of a soldier in his work literary circles. He said that when he saw his body buring on the firewood, he believed that his soul had left his body and was going into a place called “passage” which took people to enter another life. And Plato advised his readers that people must observe the God to seek welfare and moral excellence, because human spirits are lasting forever.Because In English culture, people think that human’s soul can live after their death, so their expressions of “death” always emphasize that they are going