Do Chinese Characters Tell

Us Something About Genesis?

The Fall page is the third of five pages that attempt to relate the forms of Chinese characters to ideas from the Book of Genesis.

The first character on the Fall page is duo3, with the modern meaning "to hide". The authors say that this character consists of the elements "body", "is", and "tree". Nelson and Broadberry no longer support this interpretation.

Actually, the right side of the character, also pronounced duo3, is simply the phonetic element. This element does not consist of "is" (nai3) above "tree" (mu4), but is explained as follows.

Shu2, chu2. The jerky flapping of a short wing. Then, in general, any rhythmical and jerky motion. The derivatives of shu2 must be carefully distinguished from those of nai3 and ji1.

Duo3. The balancing of twigs and flowers. It is used as a specificative [classifier] of flowers.

The second character on the Fall page is jian4, with the modern meaning "see, perceive; visit". The authors see this as a compound of "eye" and "walk", but it appears to be just a man with a big, over-emphasized eye. The spoken word has no sense of walking.

Jian4. To look. An eye (mu4) above a man (ren2).

The third character on the Fall page is shi4, with the modern meaning "look at; vision". The authors say that this is a compound of "god" and "to observe" (meaning the preceding character, jian4). However, in reality, the element that is supposed to represent "god", also pronounced shi4, is the phonetic element, and jian4 is the semantic element. Nelson and Broadberry no longer support this interpretation.

The fourth character on the Fall page is guo2, with the modern meaning "fruit; result". The authors say that this character has the part "garden" on top of a "tree". This seems like an odd juxtaposition. Wieger has a different interpretation.

Guo2. The fruit of a tree, represented by tian2 on top of mu4.

The fifth, sixth, and seventh characters on the Fall page are variants of the morpheme luo3, with the modern meaning "naked". The authors list these as compound indicative characters, but guo2, fruit, is the phonetic element in all of them.

The eighth character on the Fall page is gu2, with the modern meaning "ancient, old". The authors are correct in interpreting it as being composed of "ten" and "mouth", but then go overboard in interpreting the "ten" as referring to "fingers", and the "mouth" to "eating", with no explanation of how that might produce the meaning "ancient". Nelson and Broadberry no longer support this interpretation.

Here is Wieger's explanation:

Gu2. That which has passed through ten mouths, i.e. a tradition dating back ten generations.

The ninth character on the Fall page is ku3, with the modern meaning "bitter; sorrow, suffering". The authors interpret it as a compound indicative character, but the gu2 portion is simply the phonetic element. Nelson and Broadberry no longer support this interpretation.

The tenth character on the Fall page is chu3, the name of an ancient Chinese state. The authors interpret this as "two trees" above "piece". Nelson and Broadberry no longer support this interpretation.

The first problem is that it doesn't mean "sorrow" on it's own. It has the additional meaning of "sharp, keen; clear, distinct". The second is that the lower part of the character is the phonetic element, pronounced shu2, not the character pi3 ("a rolled up piece of cloth") that they took it to be. The third is that it means "foot in motion, to turn". Here's Wieger:

Chu3. A country planted with trees; shu2 is phonetic.

The eleventh "character" on the Fall page is not a single character at all. It is a two-character phrase, ku3chu3, that can be found in any dictionary. It means "distress; suffering and pain".

The twelfth character on the Fall page is yu2, with the modern meaning "in, on, at, by; than". The authors state that it means "offender", but I don't know where they came up with that interpretation.

The thirteenth character on the Fall page is xing2, with the modern meaning "to punish; punishment; a law". The authors claim that it consists of two "offenders" and "knife". Nelson and Broadberry no longer support this interpretation.

There are no offenders there. The left-hand element was originally jing3, with the modern meaning "a well", but originally "designed to represent eight square lots of fields, divided among eight families, reserving the middle square for public use, and digging a well in it. The well is represented by a dot."

Xing2. Legal punishment (by a sword), which was arbitrarily written by the scribes as in the lower right.

The fourteenth character on the Fall page is jing1, with the modern meaning "thorn, bramble". The authors interpret it as a compound of "punishment" and "weeds", but the "punishment" portion is simply the phonetic element. Nelson and Broadberry no longer support this interpretation.

The fifteenth and sixteenth characters on the Fall page are interpreted by the authors as if the upper portion of each, two "fires" and "cover", were used for the meaning "glorious". Nelson and Broadberry no longer support this interpretation.

Actually, the upper portion is the phonetic element in both cases.

Ying2. The light (huo3 fire) of many lamps in a room. This character forms a large group of compounds in which the huo3 at the bottom gives room to the radical.

The Creation The Garden of Eden The Flood The Tower of Babel

Back to the Chinese Characters and Genesis Home Page

Languages Page

Back to RaccoonBend.com Home Page