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殇, 十五至十二死为中殇, 十一至八岁死为下殇”. (“殇” means death of those who never grow up. Death between 19 and 16 is “长殇”, 15 and 12 is “中殇”, 11 and 8 is “下殇”)( 刘纯豹 1990). As filial piety is important in Chinese family, parents mean big wealth to children; they provide home and spiritual support to their children. So the death of parents means a lot to a family. The term “大故”(dagu) (lit. a big event) is used to express one of the most important events happened in one’s life. Other death euphemisms as “见背”(jianbei), “弃背”(qibei), “弃养”(qiyang), “违养”(weiyang), “失恃”(shishi) (lit. death of mother) and “失怙”(shihu) (lit. Death of father) are used to express the death of parents which as a big blow to people living. A famous Chinese scholar 韩婴 once said: “树欲静而风不止, 子欲养而亲不待也”(lit. the trees want to stand still, but the wind blows; The children want to be filial, but the parents are no more). In the phrase, this comparison “风树”(fengshu) and “风枝”(fengzhi) became death euphemisms for parents.( 刘纯豹 1990) “佩兰”(peilan) and “蕙草”(huicao) are derived from “兰心蕙质”(lanxinhuizhi) symbolized beauty. The destruction of those plants are borrowed to refer to the death of beauty as “蕙损兰摧”(huisunlancui). Beauties are pure and precious as jade and pearls. Thus, there are death euphemisms as “珠残玉碎”(zhucanyusui) and “玉碎珠沉”(yusuizhuchen) used to express the death of beauty.( 刘纯豹 1990) B. Death Euphemism in English 1. Death of Religious People Christianity has a dominant influence in English-speaking countries. There are many death euphemisms in Bible to show the respect of Christians to God. Sir Allan, K.& Burridge (1991)’s “sleep the sleep that knows not breaking” has religious origin. “Asleep” performs the same function. “Fall asleep” is a common death euphemism carved on gravestones. Others death euphemisms as “asleep in the Arms of God” and “asleep in the Lord” are also used by many people. Heaven in the Christian tradition is the most people who want to dwell after they died. So “in heaven” and “with Jesus” occurred. Heaven is the soul’s true home and the world the dead called “to be taken home” or “be called home”. Some phrasal verbs incorporating “over” imply the spiritual existence of the soul after death, for instance, “go over”, “cross over the Great Divide” or “cross over the River Jordan”. If someone is bereaved want to ease the pain called “being at rest”, “of being laid to rest”, “to have found rest”, “at peace” or “peace at last”. Other widely used prepositional phrases brought out by religions as in “God took her to himself” or “He was gathered to his father or ancestor”. 2. Death of Hospital and Maritime Death is a common scene in hospital, medical workers created amount of death euphemisms to relief the pain of the relatives and friends of the dead. So “to check out” occurred. In western hospitals, patients who are “out of pain or have breathed their last” are described as “to check out”, which means to leave hospital. If one is checked out, he is no longer with us, or “has gone under” meaning gone under the level of consciousness or of measurable vital signs associated with life. The term “to pull the plug” was popularized by the Karen Quinlan case (1925-1976), one in which a comatose patient’s vital functions were maintained by life support machines. Whether to turn off the machines----and thus perhaps permit her to die----was the agonizing ethical question of pulling the plug. The expression itself is an earlier one, which means to withdraw one’s support