The Chinese Language and the Creative Hands of God

The Chinese Language and the Creative Hands of God

by Ethel R. Nelson, M.D.*

“Who among all these [God's creatures] does not know That the
HAND OF THE LORD has done this, In whose HAND is the life of
every living thing, And the breath of all mankind?”
(Job 12:9,10) -NKJV-

Few realize that the early Chinese (c. 2200 B.C.) worshiped a Creator- God, the Heavenly Ruler. Fewer still have appreciated the "second Genesis" which their ingenious ancient character writing contains.1 The 4,000-year old Imperial Sacrifice ceremony observed annually by China's reigning emperors attests to their original post-deluge patriarchal connections.2 A word-of-mouth knowledge of God (even the Trinity), the Creation, Garden of Eden, and Fall of man, could have come to them from Adam via Lamech, Noah's father; and Noah's son, Shem, the probable Chinese progenitor.

A study of the oldest known Chinese scripts, the bronzeware and oracle bone writing, supports the concept of their detailed knowledge of the antediluvian world. These early written forms are more pictographic (picture writing) than today's surviving "shorthand" transcriptions. The most primitive and basic characters, called "radicals," serve as the "ABC's" of the writing. When radicals are combined, they form one type of a more complex character, called the "ideograph," which relates a story or concept.

Note the following radical samples, which will be used in the context of this article portraying the Creation of the human family from the Chinese perspective. The radical, mouth , is frequently used to symbolize a person. We have the same idiom in English, indicating a person—"so many mouths to feed."

A person, man may also be portrayed by a simple "stick" figure; and a woman by a more curvaceous "stick" as. Additional multiple forms for a person (either God or man) may be drawn as , , , , (perhaps for our purposes they may be better visualized by adding "heads" as: , , , ).

A vessel , represents not a boat, but a clay pot, or a person.

The pictogram, , may variously depict a son, offspring, bride.

How significant that the ancient Chinese used varied pictograms of God's hands to represent His creative acts, especially in regard to mankind! Hands are pictured as , , (which we believe are God's hands reaching down from above); or (man's hands reaching upward in praise).

As the Hebrews had multiple names for God, such as Yahweh, Shaddai, Adonai, and Elohim, likewise the Chinese used multiple names for God as Shang Ti (Heavenly Ruler), T'ien (Heaven), and Shen.

In the name, Shen, we find the Creator depicted: . (). The left-hand radical is a "God radical" and by itself means to manifest. But the right-hand radical, meaning to state, instruct , is the one which catches our eye because we find a manbetween hands . Is this actually depicting the creation of Adam? The bronzeware form, , is even more explicit, for the added large black dot () meaning an adult male, further designates the "man". Note also the "blackened" "fingers" of the hands, which we will find, indicates "holiness."

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).

Hands in the next pictogram are portrayed as digging in to a pit, hole () bringing forth the man(), whom we can identify as Adam.

Whereas God spoke the other creatures and creation into existence, He FORMS man with His hands , using the dust or clay of the earth.

The radical, clay, earth (), interestingly, reveals the man,, designated as an adult male (), arising from the ground . Adam, furthermore was made in God's "image."

Let us make man IN OUR IMAGE, AFTER OUR LIKENESS:...so GOD created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him (Genesis 1:26, 27).

T'ien (God, Heaven) () is clearly depicted as a noble Person (), not a place. Note the "blackened" head. Now we can understand that the adult male, person was drawn to resemble God. A second rendition of T'ien, , further depicts God's glory radiating as the sun (). "The LORD God is a sun and shield" (Psalm 84:11). Once more we find Adam, the adult male , reflecting God's appearance by being covered with the glory of the sun in the character dawn (). Is it possible that Adam was created by God at dawn of the sixth day of that first Creation week?

We do know that Adam's first day was occupied completely with naming the animals as God created them.

And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was no found a help MEET FOR HIM (Genesis 2:20).

An additional character form of Shen (God) , (),shows in the second radical,a person (God:leaning over two sunlike persons , obviously Adam and his mate, Eve. An additional meaning of is a person.)

But when was Eve created? A similar character toabove, is () which has the widely divergent meanings of dusk and to marry. This apparent incongruity of meanings can be easily resolved in the Creation context. The Person (God) () is bending over a glorified person (Adam), to created from him a marriage partner at dusk .

That Eve was formed at dusk is further verified by the character meaning evening, dusk (), where we find Adam again represented as a glorified person . God's hands are removing from him the woman (), Eve. The time: evening, dusk of the sixth day.

Note what Adam exclaimed, upon awakening, to find Eve standing before him:

"At last, here is one of my own kind—bone taken from my bone, and FLESH from my FLESH. Woman is her name because SHE WAS TAKEN OUT OF MAN" (Genesis 2:23, TEV).

One form of the radical, flesh () actually reveals God's hand reaching into the man (), Adam, to draw out his bride (), who is intimately attached to him .

The very radical for woman () shows how the womanwas taken out of a reclining, sleeping man , ().

God had prepared a very satisfactory () mate for Adam, a beautiful woman as she came from the hand of her Creator.

A character in our brief study, which reveals God as the divine Potter, further illustrates the early Chinese familiarity with the Genesis story. The initiation, beginning () of human beings is illustrated through the creation of Adam and Eve by God's own hands . Here He is found forming a vessel (), symbolizing Adam, the man of clay, from which a second person (), Eve, emerges. What a Creator—worthy of the praise, designated by uplifted hands !

But now, O LORD,
You are our Father;
We are the CLAY, and You our POTTER;
AND ALL WE ARE THE WORK OF YOUR HAND (Isaiah 64:8 NKJV).

Finally, the early Chinese concept of God's regard for Adam and Eve can be deduced by following the development of the radical, precious, valuable (). God's hands are identified once more. (In case you have not noticed by now, God's hands always show three fingers—doubtless representing the Trinity's cooperation in Creation.) A second rendition, , portrays His hands cleverly joined together, forming the couple ; while a third form tells the whole story; the couple now become apparent as two people, PRECIOUS , indeed in God's sight!

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*Dr. Nelson is a physician in Dunlap, Tennessee.