生與死，是人生重要的課題，而死亡更是人們想避免卻又無法避免，想要解決但也無從解決之難題。眾所周知，中國人自古以來即避談死亡、諱言死亡。相較之下，日本人則正視死亡、無畏死亡，甚至有將死亡美化之傾向。究竟日本人是如何思考死亡，而日本人又是如何美化死亡？本論文以日本近世殉情作品之代表名著《曾根崎心中》為例，藉由作品中所描述之殉情，先說明近世日本人對愛及死亡之認知，進而建構日本人的死亡愛情觀。再自宗教學的觀點，考察殉情與佛教思想之關連，探討殉情思想形成之緣由，闡述日本人是如何藉由佛教思想美化了死亡。最後自比較思想之視點，論述中日兩國對愛情與死亡之看法，試論中日兩民族對愛與死亡概念之差異。期藉拙論，釐清日本人對死亡之思想觀念，闡明中日兩國死生觀之差異。並期藉此研究，對國內生命與死亡之研究能小有助益。

Life and death are important lessons of life. Between the two, death is a difficult lesson people want to avoid but fail to, and also a problem people want to solve but fail to. As it is well known, Chinese have avoided talking about death ever since the ancient times, treating it as a taboo. Comparatively speaking, Japanese, not afraid of death, confront death as it is. They even have a tendency to beautify death. How exactly do Japanese think about death? How do they beautify death? This paper uses an Early Modem representative work of suicide for frustrated love in Japan, ”Sone Zaki Sin Juu,” as an example to first examine the Japanese understanding of love and death in Early Modem times through the suicide event described in the work and then to construct the Japanese concept of love and death. In light of theology, this paper investigates the connection between suicide for frustrated love and Buddhist thoughts, explores the causes of the idea of suicide for frustrated love, and explicates how Japanese beautify death by means of Buddhist thoughts. Finally, from a comparative point of view, this paper discusses Chinese and Japanese concepts of love and death with an attempt to analyze the differences of such concepts between the two cultures. It is hoped that this paper may help clarify the Japanese concept of death and the differences of Chinese and Japanese concepts of life and death. It is hoped that this paper may offer its little contribution to the study of life and death in Taiwan.