The Discovery of Genesis (17 page)

The
Li is a square character
, introduced about 200 B. C., now used only on scrolls, fans, and stone tablets. About A. D. 350, during the Tsin dynasty, the
Ts’ao, Grass or Rapid style
was introduced, taking its name from the straw paper that it was first used upon. Today is used only for scrolls or on paintings.

A form used by
printers
in books was developed during the Sung dynasty A.D. 960–1279. The
Cursive, or Running hand
was first used during the T’ang dynasty A. D. 618–906, and has been in common use for handwriting and bookkeeping ever since.
⁹

Besides unifying the written language of China through the use of the lesser seal characters, Ch’in Shih Huang-ti’s prime minister, Li Ssu, was also given the task of listing the then-known characters. This original catalog, produced in 213 B. C., contained about 3,000 words, The creation of new pictographic radicals had ceased before 800 B. C., and the phonetic principle was already in use for inventing new characters by combining the radicals.

The first etymological (word origin) studies in Chinese are attributed to Hsu Shen (86 B. C.), who used Li Ssu’s catalog and produced the
Shuo Wen.
Hsu Shen thus attempted to explain for the first time possible derivations of nearly 8,000 characters.
¹⁰

By this time in the course of history, ideas of Taoism had already become firmly rooted in Chinese thinking. The original religion, known and understood 2,000 years before at the time when the writing was first invented, had become nearly extinct. Naturally Hsu Shen’s interpretations of certain characters would be in the light of his own knowledge and belief. Even today the
Shuo Wen
is the basis of most modern interpretations and analyses of Chinese writing.

We would like to introduce an entirely different etymological interpretation, of applicable characters, based upon primeval history as found in Genesis, which was no doubt known to the ancient Chinese monotheists by oral tradition. This, from a historical perspective, would appear to be a more logical foundation of analysis for some of the simplest and most primitive radicals and characters. Occasionally the more ancient forms portray specific details lacking in today’s “modern,” 2,000-year-old traditional characters. Therefore, in order to clarify or substantiate an interpretation, a few of these unique older stylized figures will be included.

So, in summary, we find that the written Chinese language had its origin about 2500 B. C., shortly after the migration of the future Oriental people from the vicinity of ancient Babel. This point in time corresponds quite closely to the genealogical date of the dispersion of Genesis 11 (c. 2218 B.C. See p. ix). Thus
The Discovery of Genesis
has good foundation in chronological, historical, and geographical fact. The next chapter will begin a study of selected meaningful characters comparing them with the Genesis narrative.

Chapter 4: Creation—Chinese Style

Since the advent of modern technology and the computer, it is perhaps easier for us to begin to comprehend how God’s creative acts might have been instantaneously accomplished. A single spoken word by God, such as “dog,” was promptly translated into an adult animal of given size, with fur, head, tail, and all anatomy complete and specific for a dog down to the last cell. Its brain was canine; its voice was characteristic of this creature, with a growling, barking, and whining “vocabulary” already built into the cerebral convolutions. We might say that God had “programed” each object of creation to the last detail, so that it took only a spark of creative energy in a word to bring it into being.

The opening words of Genesis record: “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep” (Genesis 1: 2). Out of the emptiness and darkness of this initially water-covered, terrestrial ball came perfection and beauty. On successive days light, the firmament, dry land and seas, vegetation bearing seed, the luminaries of the heavens, birds, fishes, and mammals came forth at His fiat. He thereby converted His measureless energy, expressed as a command, into mass, or created objects, following an elementary law of nature: Mass and energy can neither be created nor destroyed, but energy can be converted into mass, or mass into energy. “For
He spoke
, and
it came to be: He commanded
, and
it stood forth”
(Psalm 33: 9).

One of the words for
God
, a Spirit, is written
Let us look at the radical on the left
, for it bears on the creation story. This portion may be written in three forms:
, or
. The first of these,
, may be written alone and conveys the meaning
to proclaim, to exhibit, to manifest, reveal.
Surely God did these as He performed His creative work. The Gospel of John in the New Testament comments on the Creatorship: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. … All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:1, 3, 14). The Creator is called the “Word,” for His creative power was
manifested
by His command, which was simply, “Let there be,” and it was so.