Several weeks ago, Sharon and I gave a fireside to the youth of our ward about China. We talked about our trip and also about China in general. We spent considerable time talking about how some Chinese characters seem to have Christianity inside of them. Chinese characters are not like letters; every character has a very specific meaning. The characters, however, are made up of smaller pieces that also have meaning called radicals. Hence, similar to a compound word, you can often look at the radicals that make up a character to get a true sense of its meaning and origin.
I wrote an entry for Sharon’s Chinese blog a few days ago about this subject, and I’m not sure what people’s reaction in China will be when they read it. In any case, the kids at the fireside certainly liked it (which has aroused talk of us doing more firesides to other wards… whoops), so perhaps you might also find it interesting.
Originally, I planned on simply using an online translator to convert my article from Chinese to English, but my laziness lead to an overestimation of translating software. It said things like Adam and Eve being sexy instead of naked and was sometimes incomprehensible. Here’s a
link to read the chinglishly translated article if you want, and here's one to the
Chinese.
Anyway, without further delay here are 8 Chinese characters that seem to have the Bible written all over them.
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| Explanation of the origin of 先 by radicals |
The character "xian" means first. One radical means moving or alive, the other means dust, and the other means man; together, they mean first. Genesis 2:7 tells us: "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." Can you see the power of Chinese characters? Symbols carry far more meaning than words alone, and every Chinese character is made of many symbols. Thus, in this one character "xian" we have many symbols that seem to tell the story of the creation of the first man very succinctly.
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| Explanation of the origin of 禁 by radicals |
The character "jin" means to warn or forbid. In the Garden of Eden, there were two trees of prominence: the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. God reveals to Adam and Eve about these two trees, and then expressly forbids them to partake of the tree of knowledge of good and evil in Genesis 2:16. The radicals that make up this character are two trees and one that means to reveal; together, they mean to forbid.
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| Explanation of the origin of 始 by radicals |
This character "shi" means the beginning or to start. One radical means woman, one means mouth/eat, and the other is a bit harder to define but can reasonably be defined as secretly. The Bible shows that Eve ate the forbidden fruit without Adam's knowledge and hence did it secretly. Her eating of the fruit led to Adam eating the fruit, which led to them falling from God's presence and from immortality to mortality, starting mankind's existence as we know it.
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| Explanation of the origin of 裸 by radicals |
The character "luo" means naked, and its radicals mean body and fruit. What does fruit have to do with being naked? After eating the forbidden fruit, Genesis 3:7 says: "And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked." From a biblical viewpoint, fruit has everything to do with being naked.
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| Explanation of the origin of 困 by radicals |
The character "kun" is often associated with difficulty. It has two radicals, which mean both tree and enclosure. What kind of famous historical tree in an enclosed area brought difficulty? I hope you're catching on: the tree of knowledge of good and evil. In Genesis 3:16-20, God punishes Adam and Eve for their transgression. He curses the earth, making it bring forth thorns and thistles, and tells Adam he will need to labor all his days. He also tells eve that childbirth will be full of suffering (sorry Sharon!!). If the Bible is true, than indeed a tree in an enclosed area (the Garden of Eden) verily brought forth all the difficulty we experience today.
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| Explanation of the origin of 船 by radicals |
This character "chuan" means boat. One radical also means boat, another means eight, and the other means mouth. What famous boat in ancient history has only had 8 mouths/people on it? The first (and so far only) one that comes to mind is Noah's ark. Go to Genesis and count how many were on the ark, or let Peter do it for you in 1 Peter 3:20 and either way the number is 8. I am not an expert on world cultures, but I have heard that cultures all around the world have traditions of great deluges. China, it appears, might have one too.
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| Explanation of the origin of 义 by radicals |
This character "yi" is very exciting because of how directly it ties into Christianity (I think it might be for this reason, that it is so obvious, that when the communists in China simplified their Chinese characters they simplified this one to look totally different. The simplified one looks like this: 义). Anyway, in this character a lamb on top of me means righteous. All pious Christians are able to tell you that Christ is the Lamb of God, that ancients in the old testament sacrificed lambs and bulls to point forward to the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and that only with our lives centered on Christ can we ever be righteous and obtain forgiveness of sins. It is well known that the ancient Chinese performed animal sacrifices of lambs and bulls, and it appears the significance of the lamb exceeded all others and was symbolic in the exact same way that it was for those in the old testament.
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| Explanation of the origin of 样 by radicals |
This character "yang" is also exciting, because, similar to the last character "yi", it summarizes the gospel and the atonement. The character yang can be translated to mean type or method or way or like (as in "like this" or "like that"). It is one of the most commonly used characters in everyday speech. The radicals that make this character are tree, lamb, and forever. The lamb of God raised up unto a tree brought to pass the eternal atonement that will forever bless those willing to follow Christ and enter into the way. The Lord declared: "I am the way
, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). If you were to design a symbol to describe the way or the gospel, how would you do it? Could you do much better than this one?
There are other characters which I won't talk about now, but they also imply Christianity in their roots. Surely, there are also many more characters which have disappeared/evolved into something different over the years or simply escaped my notice. Many, however, have survived the massive burning of records by despotic emperors that ravaged China's past and remained unchanged enough to tell the story of what the ancient Chinese believed. The ancient Chinese were Christians, just like every other nationality on this planet! All Christians are supposed to believe this, but few are brave enough to declare it.
