This paper considers how death and dying are presented in literary texts . A wide range of texts from the English and Chinese literary texts are used to illustrate theme.In this paper we analyse metaphors for death in English and Chinese literary texts using the theoretical framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory as initiated by Lakoff and Johnson (1980). We categorise and exemplify five death metaphors in English and Chinese literary texts in order to explore whether the two languages use the same metaphors when dealing with the taboo of death. On the basis of our analysis, it seems that English and Chinese literary texts share the same conceptual mappings as regards death to avoid speaking death straightforwardly.