Immortality

====Taoism====
{{See also|Chinese alchemy|Taoism and death|Xian (Taoism)}}

It is repeatedly stated in the ''[[Lüshi Chunqiu]]'' that death is unavoidable.<ref>{{cite book|last=Creel|first=Herrlee G.|title=What is Taoism?: and other studies in Chinese cultural history|date=1982|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago|isbn=978-0226120478|page=17}}</ref> [[Henri Maspero]] noted that many scholarly works frame Taoism as a school of thought focused on the quest for immortality.<ref>Maspero, Henri. Translated by Frank A. Kierman, Jr. Taoism and Chinese Religion (University of Massachusetts Press, 1981), p. 211.</ref> Isabelle Robinet asserts that Taoism is better understood as a ''way of life'' than as a religion, and that its adherents do not approach or view Taoism the way non-Taoist historians have done.<ref>Robinet, Isabelle. ''Taoism: Growth of a Religion'' (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997 [original French 1992]), p. 3–4.</ref> In the Tractate of Actions and their Retributions, a traditional teaching, spiritual immortality can be rewarded to people who do a certain amount of good deeds and live a simple, pure life. A list of good deeds and sins are tallied to determine whether or not a mortal is worthy. Spiritual immortality in this definition allows the soul to leave the earthly realms of afterlife and go to pure realms in the Taoist cosmology.<ref>Translated by Legge, James. ''The Texts of Taoism.'' 1962, Dover Press. NY.</ref>