Chinese Religions:  An Overview

 

 

A.  The Cosmological Resonances of "Civilization":  Texts Writ Large

Spoken Chinese

Chinese dialects

  • Cantonese and other regional dialects

  • "Mandarin" Chinese:  the "common" dialect (pu-tong-hua)

Systems of romanization:

  • Wade-Giles

  • Han-yü pin-yin

The Pictographic Origins of Written Chinese

Wen:  Chinese Civilization

The Invention of Writing:  The Myth of Cang Jie

 

Typology of Chinese Characters

 

1.  pictographs

 

日   ri         sun/day
月   yue      moon/month
田   tian      field
口   kou      mouth
水   shui     water
人   ren      person

2.  ideographs

 

上    shang         up/above
下    xia              down/below
中    zhong         middle/center
一    yi                one
二    er                two
三    san             three
凹    ao               concave
凸    tu                convex

3.  lexigraphs (meaning-meaning combinations)

 

日 (sun) + 月 (moon) is 明 (bright)
女 (woman) + 子 (child) is 好 (good)
乃 (breast) +  子 (child) is 孕 (pregnant)
手 (hand) over 目 (eye) is 看 (look)
手 (hand) with 手 (hand) is 拜 (worship)
人 (person) in the 山 (mountain) is 仙 (immortal)
Three 木 (trees) is a 森 (forest)
Three 蟲 (insects) in a 血 (bowl) makes 蠱 (poison)

4.  phonetic lexigraphs (sound-meaning combinations)

 

水 (water) + 羊 (yang) is 洋 (ocean)
火 (fire) + 登 (deng) is 燈 (lamp)
金 (metal) + 同 (tong) is 銅 (copper)
雨 (rain) + 允 (yun) is 雲 (cloud)

 

Advantages of a pictographic system

  • in the face of dialectical diversity

  • in the face of geographical extent

  • in the face of temporal/historical scope

B.  Comparative Cosmology:  The Order of Creation

 

Creation:  Bringing Form to Chaos

God's Creation in Six Days (Genesis 1):  Creation as Acts of Separation

1. light

2. water/land

3. vegetation

4. heavens

5. animals

6. humankind

The Chinese Cosmogonic Myth (Key Terms)

1.  Hun-dun    

2.  Qi     

3.  Dao  

4.  Yin            

5.  Yang         

Contrasts between Judeo-Christian and Chinese Cosmogonic Myths

Genesis

Huai-nan-zi

  • non-anthropomorphism

  • non-anthropocentrism

  • organistic model

  • complement dualism

 

Wilfred Cantwell Smith on the contrast between "conflict dualism" and "complement dualism"