殉

Refers to voluntary death in loyalty to a person, duty, or principle.

A phono-semantic compound:

歹 (알) — semantic, death

旬 (순) — phonetic

Originally, 殉 meant “to die in accordance with (following) another”, especially retainers buried or killed with their lord.

From early on, the word carried ritual and moral weight, not merely physical death.

Historical semantic development

Ancient ritual context:

- retainers killed or buried with rulers

- funerary sacrifice

Ethical reinterpretation (Confucian era):

- loyalty unto death

- righteousness above life

Later moral & modern usage:

- martyrdom

- dying in service (police, soldiers, firefighters)

순직 (殉職) — dying in the line of duty

순국 (殉國) — dying for one’s country

순사 (殉死) — following another in death

순교 (殉敎) — martyrdom for religion

순명 (殉命) — sacrificing one’s life for a command or cause

Philosophical nuance:

殉 ≠ 死

死 = to die (neutral)

殉 = to die for something

殉 ≠ 犧牲

犧牲 = sacrifice (often abstract or metaphorical)

殉 = actual death

Thus, 殉 always implies:

- moral justification

- conscious choice

- relational or ideological object

In East Asia, 殉 gradually shifted:

- from ritual killing to moral martyrdom

- from feudal obligation to ethical choice

Modern usage preserves the honorific tone, especially in:

순직 (public service)

순국 (national sacrifice)

순교 (religious martyrdom)

Semantic family:

忠 — loyalty

義 — righteousness

烈 — heroic death

犧 — sacrifice

Contrast characters:

亡 — to perish

死 — to die

逃 — to flee

Classical citations

From the Zuo Zhuan:

「臣聞以死殉義」

“I have heard that one may die in order to follow righteousness.”

Here 殉 is explicitly paired with 義 (righteousness), establishing its ethical meaning.

Mencius (paraphrased doctrine)

「舍生取義」

“To give up life and choose righteousness.”

Although 殉 is not used verbatim, later commentators explicitly gloss this act as 殉義.

In Buddhist Chinese translations:

「為法殉身」

“To offer one’s body in sacrifice for the Dharma.”

殉 here denotes bodhisattva-like self-sacrifice, free from coercion.

From dynastic histories:

「將士多殉城而死」

“Many soldiers died in sacrifice with the city.”

Used to describe collective loyalty unto death.