Genesis in Chinese Calligraphy

A review of the book “The Discovery of Genesis” by C H Kang and Ethel R Nelson, Concordia Publishing House, (1979), 140pp.

“Of old in the beginning, there was the great chaos, without form and dark. The five elements [planets] had not begun to revolve, nor the sun and the moon to shine. In the midst thereof there existed neither forms nor sound. Thou O Spiritual Sovereign camest forth in Thy presidency, and first didst divide the grosser parts from the purer. Thou madest heaven; Thou madest earth; Thou madest man. All things with their reproducing power got there being.”

This reads just like a summary of the Creation account in Genesis chapter one, but is, in fact, from the Chinese 'Book of History' compiled by Confucius (b 551 BC). It is part of a border ceremony dating back to the Emperor Shun in 2230 BC, immediately following the dispersal of the nations from Babel.

Chinese writing began at this time. In order to write down their new language, the early orientals employed pictographs to represent objects. These pictographs were combined in various ways to construct ideograms which conveyed more abstract concepts. Inscriptions using this calligraphy have been found on bones and tortoise shell from the Shan dynasty (1766 - 1122 BC) as well as on stone, jade, bronze, and pottery vessels. This style of writing changed little before being standardized by the Emperor Ch'in Shih Huang-ti who conquered the whole of China and gave his name to the land - China. (He is known for building the 1,500 mile Great Wall of China and for the 6,000 life-sized terracotta soldiers in the recently excavated burial chamber in which he was placed in 209 BC.) The writing has not changed over the past two millennia, and identical characters are used in Japan and Korea. However, since 1950 the ancient writings have been simplified, and pictographic Chinese could become a dead language.

Ideograms

The Chinese language contains some 214 radicals, each requiring from 1 to 17 strokes of the pen. These have been combined into more than 700 ideograms. There are also some 20,000 phonetic characters brought together for their sound rather than for their meaning. Changes in the sounds over the centuries have rendered the origin of many characters obscure. What is significant, however, is that although this writing dates from centuries before the time of Moses, there are incorporated within the ideograms the concepts of Creation and the Flood as recorded in Genesis! Moreover, the Chinese have always had a seven-day week.

The ancient Chinese were monotheists, worshiping the heavenly Emperor, Shang Ti (compare with the Hebrew Shaddai, the Almighty.) Shang Ti was self-existing, eternel, and no image was made of Him.

Gen 1:2 says that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Heb 11:3 says that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear - powerful magic indeed and the opposite of attempts to explain Creation in terms of natural processes. The Trinity is also embodied in this ideogram.

Gen 2:7 says that the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Adam was created an adult, able to speak and walk.

Many ideograms incorporate the pictograph for garden;

The Garden of Eden was an enclosure (since Adam and Eve were later excluded from it,) with four rivers flowing from it. The Holy of Holies within the tabernacle, as well as the new Jerusalem, are foursquare also.

It is difficult to imagine any other origin for this ideogram than that the ancient Chinese knew about Eve in the Garden with the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life.

linking the results of the Fall with exclusion from the two trees in the Garden.

It might be said that some of these associations of ideas could be coincidental. However, when all of these, and many more cited by Dr Kang (a former missionary to China) and Dr Nelson (a medical pathologist who served for many years in Thailand) in their book “The Discovery of Genesis - how the truths of Genesis were found hidden in the Chinese language” - when all of these are considered together, one has to conclude that the early Chinese took with them from Babel a knowledge of the Creation.

Noah and the Flood

And along with this knowledge of the Creation, of course, there was a knowledge of the Flood.

Noah's family amounted to eight persons, who handed down all the antidiluvian knowledge, such as of living things, music and metallurgy (see Gen 4.)

There seems also to be an element of prophetic knowledge in this ancient script.

1 Peter 2:21-24 tells us that Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow His steps: ... Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree.

The Father has committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father (John 5.)

To quote from Acts 14:15-17 (out of context) 'the living God, Who made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein: Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless he left not Himself without witness ...'