Concept of God in Ancient China

24 September 2018 (Wall Street International)* – Religious practice in ancient China dates back over 7,000 years ago. Long before the Confucius, Lao Zi and the Buddha got accepted and developed philosophical and spiritual teachings, the people believed, developed and worshipped personifications of nature and concepts like “wealth” or “fortune” which eventually developed into a religion. Such thoughts and beliefs still influence religious practices today.

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Evidence suggests Chinese mythological symbolism from the 12th century BC carved in the Oracle bone scripts. Legend of creation were passing down for over a thousand years before was written in books such as Classic of Mountains and Seas 山海經 (4 BC – 2 BC).

The first writer to record the myth of Pangu was Xu Zheng 徐整 during the Three Kingdoms period (220 – 280 AD). Pangu 盘古 was the first God – Creator, equivalent to concept of God found in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Pangu is creator and founder of the Heavens and the Earth. Creation story goes as follow: In the beginning of time, there was nothing in the universe except a formless chaos. This chaos coalesced into a black cosmic egg for about 18,000 years.

Within it, Pangu was born inside of this egg, and the perfectly opposed principles of Yin and Yang became balanced. Having been realized he was trapped within it, Pangu woke up from the egg.

What is outstanding about story of Pangu is first appearance of consciences and existence of thoughts. Pangu is usually presented as a tinny, primitive, hairy giant who has horns on his head and wears fur.

Story continues as Pangu cracked the egg and began to push it apart, essentially splitting the Yin and Yang in order to produce new creations. The upper half of the shell became the sky above him, and the lower half became the earth. To keep them disconnected, Pangu stood between them and pushed up the Sky.

With each day, the sky grew 3 meters higher, the Earth 3 meters thicker, and Pangu 3 meters taller. This process took him 18,000 years to finish it. At the same time, Pangu grew to an incredible size.

During this period, the heaven continued ascending and expanding while the earth was sinking and thickening until the distance between them was as far as 90,000 kilometers. That was the condition of the universe in our eyes at present.

Interestingly enough, at the present time, the Earth circumference size is about 40,041 km. When we estimate circumference size of the Earth this legend provide us with, we can get following results: as mention earlier on daily basis Earth was growing 3 meters.

When we multiply 3 meters daily growth of the Earth within one year, cumulatively is 1,95 km yearly. Finally, when we multiplied 1.95 km within time zone of 18000 years, it gives the Earth final circumference size of 35.100 km.

It is amazing to reach such numbers, and practically such circumference size is equivalent to circumference size of the present time Earth. If we exclude for time being factors such as, comets and meteors impact, which definitely contributed to the present Earth mass, it is hard to believe that legend is created by primitive people without knowing mathematics, astronomy, etc.

However, lets continue story of Pangu. Pangu gradually weakened after he separated the heaven and the earth. After the 18,000 years had elapsed, Pangu died. After he died, his body turned into all the things in the universe. His left eye became the sun and his right eye, the moon.

The protruded parts in his body turn out to be high mountains and his blood became rivers. His muscles became the soil field, and his hair and beard became the stars on the sky and grasses on the ground. His teeth and bones turned out to be iron and huge stones, while the essence in his body became pearls and precious jade. His breath became the wind and cloud, his shout became the thunderbolt, and the sweat turned out to be the rain.

Religious beliefs were found in the Yellow River Valley, which prospered between 5000-3000 BC. In Banpo Village situated in Shaanxi Province (between c. 4500-3750 BC) 250 tombs were found containing grave goods, which point to a belief in life after death. It was a matrilineal culture, meaning women were dominant, so this religious figure would have been a woman based on the grave goods.

Lajia Village from the Qinhai province historically is often described to as the “Chinese Pompeii”, because it was destroyed by an earthquake. Archeologists on the spot found evidence that the people worshipped a supreme god who was king of many other lesser deities as early as c. 2200 BCE.