Author : William Stewart, via lookinguntojesus.net
The Creation Account…
Every culture seems to have it’s own peculiar origin story, and the Chinese are no different. Chinese legend speaks of Pan Gu, who separated the heaven and earth from one another, and Nü Wa, who populated the earth with humans.1 However, the etymology of several Chinese characters discounts the legends of Pan Gu and Nü Wa, revealing a creation account which parallels the Bible. The significance of this enhanced with the knowledge that the details herein were recorded in the Chinese language before Moses wrote Genesis.2
In our previous article, we looked at four words for God in the Chinese language. Two of them tell us about God’s role in creation. The upper portion of Ling (靈) pictures ONE (yī, 一) who COVERS (mì, 冖) the WATERS (shuĭ, 氺). The Bible account of creation tells us that
… the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. (Genesis 1:2, NKJV)
The alternate form of Shén (神) clearly reveals God’s activity in creation. On the left, is the image for REVEAL or DECLARE (shì, 示). The words “…God said…” appear throughout creation (Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26). Commenting on creation, the Psalmist wrote:
By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth… For He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast (Psalm 33:6, 9, KJV)
The right side of Shén has two images intertwined, MAN (gŭn, 丨), the crowning jewel of God’s creation, and the GARDEN (tián, 田) of Eden where he was placed. Moses recorded
The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. (Genesis 2:8, KJV)
To demonstrate the intricate agreement between the Chinese characters and the Genesis account, consider that the four lines proceeding from the middle of tián (田) may represent four rivers. Moses, in describing the garden stated
…a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. (Genesis 2:10, NKJV)
The word shēng (生) means to BRING FORTH. Kang and Nelson suggest that the horizontal strokes represent the heaven, earth, sea and all the creatures and vegetation which were BROUGHT FORTH in them.3 The Genesis account of creation reads:
And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth; and it was so.’ …And God said, ‘Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.’ …And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after his kind; and it was so.’ (Genesis 1:11, 20, 24, KJV)
The radical on the left of shēng (生), called p’ieh (ر) appears as an abbreviated form of shēng in many other words, indicating activity or life. We shall see some of these below.
The word zào (造) unmistakably shows the creation of man. It is a combination of chuò (辶) which means WALK and gào (告), which is translated TALK. Adam was created a full grown man, able both to walk and talk. But gào (告) breaks down even further, with compelling details revealing that this is indeed Adam being pictured. The words p’ieh (ر), tŭ (土) and kŏu ( 口) on the right side of gào (告) speak of a LIVING DUST MAN. This is exactly what the Bible reveals in Genesis 2:7,
And 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. (Genesis 2:7, KJV)
The word FIRST (xiān, 先) also speaks of Adam. Again we see p’ieh (ر) and tŭ (土), but now MAN is represented by ér ( 儿). The components of xiān (先) identify the FIRST human as a LIVING DUST MAN.
Being the first man, Adam is our universal ancestor. In the Chinese word for ANCESTOR (zŭ, 祖) we are given details about Adam’s nature. Two smaller words are found in zŭ ( 祖), GOD (Shì, 礻) and MOREOVER (qiě, 且). When God spoke about the creation of Adam, consider what was said:
And God said, ‘Let us make man in Our image, after Our likeness…’ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. (Genesis 1:26-27)
Genesis 2 provides a more detailed report of the events on the sixth day of creation, the day upon which God made man and woman. Adam was created first, and for a short while, he was the only human being on the earth. The Bible records,
And the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.’ (Genesis 2:18)
The Chinese word dīng (仃) pictures Adam ALONE. In it, we see the words for MANKIND (rén, 亻) and MALE (dīng, 丁). With no woman yet on the face of the earth, this one man, Adam, comprised the human race.
Alone in the garden (Genesis 2:8, 15), Adam WANTED and God saw it NECESSARY to provide a companion – woman. The word yào (要) shows ONE (yī, 一), MAN (ér, 儿) in the garden ENCLOSURE (wéi, 囗) who needed a WOMAN (nǚ, 女).
The Scriptures tell us of an operation performed by God, whereby Adam’s
wife was created.
And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said: ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man.’ (Genesis 2:21-23)
This operation can be seen in the word ròu (肉) which means FLESH. It shows one PERSON (rén, 人) being taken from the BORDER (jiōng, 冂) of a second PERSON’s (rén, 人) body. God took a rib from Adam’s side, and having closed up his FLESH, God then made woman from the rib.
Pictorially related to ròu (肉) is the word nèi (羧) which means INSIDE. Two words join to make nèi (羧), ENTER (rù, 入) and BORDER (jiōng, 冂). The Genesis account says that woman “…was taken out of man,” which makes her the INSIDE man. Nèi (羧) is still used among Chinese men, who refer to their wives as “my INSIDE man.”4
In our next article, we will consider these two individuals whom God created in greater detail. There are several Chinese characters which seem to be based upon Adam and Eve and their experiences.
1, Creation Stories from around the World, Fourth Ed. July 2000, pg. 29 (hosted at www.gly.uga.edu/railsback/CS/CSIndex.html)
2, The Genesis Echo (Part 1). William J. Stewart
3, The Discovery of Genesis, Ethel R. Nelson & C.H. Kang.
4, The Discovery of Genesis, Ethel R. Nelson & C.H. Kang.
Other Resources:
Nelson, Ethel R. & C.H. Kang. The Discovery of Genesis: How the Truths of Genesis Were Found Hidden in the Chinese Language, St. Louis, MO : Concordia Publishing House, 1979.
Nelson, Ethel R., Richard E. Broadberry, & Ginger Tong Chock. God’s Promise to the Chinese, Dunlap, TN : Read Books Publishers, 1997.
MDBG Chinese-English Dictionary, mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php
