Chinese history is long….. over 5,000 years old for sure… which would mean it most likely (and most logically) started back at the Tower of Babel, as you can read about in Genesis 11:1-9.
During my time in Taiwan and as I’ve had a better opportunity to investigate Chinese history and culture and tradition, etc… I’ve only become more and more convinced that there is still a strong relationship between modern Chinese culture and ancient. Despite all of the progress and westernization and modernization we see in the Chinese world, I still find that modern Chinese culture is most similar to ancient Chinese culture and to another ancient culture… one beginning with Abraham. We could say it started sooner… and we’d be correct… but it is fine to say Abraham as that is when it gets most interesting.
One way these cultures are so very similar is their view of holidays and festivals. Whereas the West primarily takes a single day or maybe two every once in a while to celebrate something… the Jewish holidays would last for several days. This year, Chinese New Year (in late February) lasts for 9 days… This is the way to do holidays! No wonder holidays are so stressful in the West! You only get one day! Here, when we ask our friends what they do over the New Year… the answers are *really* predictable… play Mahjong… play cards… eat… and they do this for *days*. In other words… they *really* rest and relax!
As I was reading in Genesis 23 today, I read something that happened to Abraham that seemed *exactly* like it would have happened here in Taiwan. The text is clear as to what is happening so I’ll just quote it for you from the New Living Translation:
GENESIS 23:1-16
When Sarah was 127 years old, she died at Kiriath-arba (now called Hebron) in the land of Canaan. There Abraham mourned and wept for her.
Then, leaving her body, he said to the Hittite elders, “Here I am, a stranger and a foreigner among you. Please sell me a piece of land so I can give my wife a proper burial.”
The Hittites replied to Abraham, “Listen, my lord, you are an honored prince among us. Choose the finest of our tombs and bury her there. No one here will refuse to help you in this way.”
Then Abraham bowed low before the Hittites and said, “Since you are willing to help me in this way, be so kind as to ask Ephron son of Zohar to let me buy his cave at Machpelah, down at the end of his field. I will pay the full price in the presence of witnesses, so I will have a permanent burial place for my family.”
Ephron was sitting there among the others, and he answered Abraham as the others listened, speaking publicly before all the Hittite elders of the town. “No, my lord,” he said to Abraham, “please listen to me. I will give you the field and the cave. Here in the presence of my people, I give it to you. Go and bury your dead.”
Abraham again bowed low before the citizens of the land, and he replied to Ephron as everyone listened. “No, listen to me. I will buy it from you. Let me pay the full price for the field so I can bury my dead there.”
Ephron answered Abraham, “My lord, please listen to me. The land is worth 400 pieces of silver, but what is that between friends? Go ahead and bury your dead.”
So Abraham agreed to Ephron’s price and paid the amount he had suggested—400 pieces of silver, weighed according to the market standard. The Hittite elders witnessed the transaction.
I understand that Abraham was negotiating a far more important purchase… a family burial plot… and I need to acknowledge that aspect before I feel free to say… the negotiation over paying for a meal or any number of other things would happen that same way in Taiwan! I’m still not too good at playing the game… because my cultural history is about 100% opposite to this. I’m from middle America where the conversation would go like this:
Thanks for letting me stick around so long… How much for the cave?
100 bucks.
Would you take 75?
I could take 90.
Great. Let’s go drink some black coffee.
-done-
I *prefer* that way… but now I live where they do it this way… like Abraham did… with much ceremony and many words as if everyone knows the script… and I’m convinced that there *is* as script and that all the locals here *know* it and I usually don’t.
Abraham offers to buy the plot 3 times… and is answered with appeals to friendship and honor at each turn… I’d have given in… but Abraham knows that he’s to pay the man for the cave and surrounding land and just keeps reading his lines until the transaction is completed.
In cultures like the one where I serve… it is critical to make these kinds of connections with the Old Testament… it does, after all point to Jesus throughout. If the OT is accurately spoken… Jesus fits in *exactly* the right context for people here in Taiwan or for people in 1st century Palestine, etc. Whereas if Jesus is spoken of outside of the historical and cultural context… he seems like that tall Swedish guy that so many people have impressed in their minds when they think of Jesus. Not exactly the picture we are looking for, eh.
One thing I’m looking for? I’ve gotta get my hands on the cultural script…
2 responses so far ↓
1 amanda // Jan 10, 2007 at 9:30 pm
Oh, I REALLY hope you continue to post insights like this one.
I read that passage last week and never made the same connection you did. I agree with you that there are many parts of Chinese culture that stem all the way back to the OT.
Have you read Discovery of Genesis or ever seen this: http://www.wbschool.org/chinesecharacters.htm
And those red papers over the door frames? Could they possibly be a twisted version of a tradition that started with blood on doorposts?
Anywho, my main point is this–thank you for sharing this insight and please continue to! Thanks!!!!
2 Michael Turton // Jan 11, 2007 at 7:00 pm
Whereas the West primarily takes a single day or maybe two every once in a while to celebrate something… the Jewish holidays would last for several days.
This is purely a legacy of the modern capitalist commercial world. It was normal in the ancient and medieval world for festivals to last many days, all over the world. Think of Lent, still celebrated today, the many days of Xmas all over the Orthodox world, the massive and longlasting festivals of Hinduism….there are many points of agreement between ancient Jewish culture and ancient Chinese culture, from Canaanite and Chinese polytheism to honor/shame family systems, but one can always find points of agreement between any two cultures, humans being largely the same.
Chinese culture that stem all the way back to the OT.
Have you read Discovery of Genesis or ever seen this: http://www.wbschool.org/chinesecharacters.htm
That one is laugh-out-loud stupid. The Chinese character for “boat” is purely a post-medieval version — it is a homonym for the word for rudder which was invented sometime in the early middle ages — the ancient character for boat is part of modern one, and the 8″ and “mouths” are worn-down forms of other characters (in other words, they are neither 8 nor mouth). Any expert will tell you there is zero relationship between those characters and Genesis. Further, the relationships between the characters and the stories told about them are inventions of a much later era. All of the characters like “mouth man” for “brother” are worn down forms or abstracted forms that have nothing to with the reality of the evolution of the character.
Further, the presentation on ancient Chinese religion is beyond absurd. Shang Ti is an ancient term denoting an “elder ancestor” and not a god; it acquired its modern meaning in the 17th century when the Jesuits borrowed it. Buddha is not the “God of China” — he is not even a god of any kind.
The information given on the evolution of the Bible is also incorrect. The first five books were written much later than 1400 BC and no serious scholar believes they were written by Moses. That is strictly an ancient idea long ago demonstrated to be incorrect.
Michael
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