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Summary: If You Like Chinese -AND- Genesis (the book, not the band)
Review: I really enjoy studying Chinese characters, especially with explanations that enhance memorization - and this book's unique approach definitely helps out there - while simultaneously providing a refresher on the fundamental chapter of Judeo-Christian theology.
Confucianists and the early Hebrews were both fixated on the concepts of piety, righteousness, and proper relationships (especially toward superiors, all the way up to heaven), and such concepts among ancient Chinese scholars (without any connection to Hebrews) could have independently influenced some aspects of Chinese character development. So, I think the premise of the book is off the mark - but that doesn't impact what I find as appealing in the book. There are some unique coincidences between Genesis and individual aspects of some characters - but for me it is still just a coincidence, and the analytical connection between the two is a bit of a stretch.
Just the same, it is an excellent resource for memorizing some characters because it provides the reader with a very vivid and meaningful experience regarding Chinese. I like Chinese characters and I like the book of Genesis. Although I feel that there is no realistic connection between the two, I really like this book and enjoy it for making the connection that makes Chinese more meaningful for me. In fact, I liked it enough that I bought the second book in the series (and copies for friends too).
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Summary: Very unique approach to origins apologetic
Review: I think this would be indispensible for your collection of Christian apologetic collection. It's a rudimentary study and much of the material can be disputed but it hasn't been, largely because so much of Chinese linguistical research is untouched. Regardless, this book is definitely food for thought.
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Summary: Breathtakingly bad
Review: I'm usually a sucker for just about any kooky theories backed up by barely-there evidence. Even trying very hard to be generous (hey, I'm a Christian and I think it would be fabulous if the stuff in this book were true), I think I could poke a hole in every page. And that's after perhaps 12 months of formal Mandarin study and a similar amount of Cantonese.
Don't buy it. It's embarrassing to Christians that this sort of thing gets passed around as scholarship. If they'd wrapped it up with a plot around it, it'd make a great work of fiction.
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Summary: intersting
Review: interesting, but not academic enough, lacks historically accurate support
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Summary: Biblical connection to chinese, korean, and japanese
Review: Read Bible, especially Genesis, then read this book. And then You will be surprised! What a great message! No more conflict!
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Summary: Good basic idea marred with creationist errors
Review: The basic idea, that Chinese characters reflect influence from a source that also inspired Genesis, is interesting. However, one of the writers insists upon couching that idea within the absurdity that everything in Genesis is literally true. She assumes that Babel occurred in 2218 BC. This is sheer nonsense, since Sumer, Egypt, India and cultures of western Europe all had thriving civilizations and separate languages (all of them written) long before that, in some cases more than 1000 years earlier. Another flaw stems from the admittance that one of the words for God entails a triune character set, indicative of the Holy Trinity. Without batting an eye, she claims that this predates Christianity by more than 2000 years. It seems far more reasonable to conclude that it reflects additional characters added to the original Chinese writing during the Christian era, especially since it is one among many words that mean God. Although she claims that the earliest Christian contact with China was in the 7th century AD, that character symbol alone is evidence of an earlier, unrecorded contact. This writer is a close minded creationist who tries to force evidence that doesn't fit into a pet contention. Then she accuses anyone who refuses to accept that heavily disproven idea of being close minded! Skip the creationist drivel and examine what is quite interesting evidence on its own merits. And find out what isotopic radiation is, because it thoroughly disproves creationism and literalist interpretation of the Bible!
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Summary: A Hit With Readers In People's Republic of China
Review: The best test for the accuracy of this book was to have native Chinese speakers read it. They devoured the book and begged to keep it. We've ordered extra copies for our next visit to China.Important events recorded in Genesis were archived in the ancient pictograms of the Chinese language. The worldwide flood of Genesis, the creation of man in the Garden of Eden, and other events are discussed in light of written Chinese. The information in this book gives unexpected support that the events recorded in Genesis are true, historical records.
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Summary: Nonsense Upon Nonsense
Review: The kinds of analysis given in this book are totally without foundation.
The most critical point about this particular book is that the analysis is based on modern Kaishu forms, which are often totally different from the original forms, so that the elements into which the characters are analyzed do not even exist in the original forms. Typical examples are "huo3" ("fire"), "rou4" ("meat"), and "yu3" ("rain").
When this was pointed out to Nelson after the publication of this book, she then came out with "Genesis and the Mystery Confucius Couldn't Solve", scrapping most of her previous contentions and producing new ones, using older character forms as a basis. That alone shows that this book is all wrong. (It's interesting that she still permits it to be sold, even knowing that it is full of errors.)
However, this book and the second one share another set of problems. Nelson and her co-authors seem to have no idea that the origins of specific Chinese characters have been well understood for quite some time. They don't even recognize that the vast majority of characters are not simple indicative or compound indicative forms, as they would have us believe, but are semantic-phonetic compounds. They consistently miss this well-know point. It is obvious that they have never read a single work on this subject, but have simply made up their own stories out of whole cloth. This is nothing more than a work of imaginative fiction.
They also don't realize that many characters are known to be phonetic loans. For example, "lai2" ("to come") was originally a character for "barley" or some related grain, also pronounced "lai2". For a while, the same form was used for both. Later on, the "grass" radical was added to the "barley" character to distinguish it. This becomes quite obvious when you compare the character for "barley" with the character for "wheat" ("mai4"), as they have many elements in common. It is simply ridiculous to analyze the character as two people (presumably Adam and Eve) coming from behind a tree. They even analyze the hook at the bottom of the vertical center stroke as "possibly representing a foot...to indicate movement". They didn't even know that the hook is a modern innovation in the brush-written form, and does not even appear in older forms. It's really sad to see people taken in by such nonsensical fantasies.
A final problem with both books is that many of the characters that they analyze did not even exist in the beginning stages of the writing system, which is what these books are trying to deal with. That is, there are no examples of the existence of these characters among the Shang period oracle bone characters--only about 1000 of which had even been deciphered at the time of publication.
If you want to know something about how Chinese characters are really composed, I suggest starting with "The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy", by John DeFrancis. If you want to know more about Chinese oracle bone characters, try "Sources of Shang History" (pretty expensive), by David N. Keightley. A cheaper, but less reliable, source is "The Composition of Common Chinese Characters: An Illustrated Account", from Peking University Press. Even Wieger's "Chinese Characters: Their origin, etymology, history, classification, and signification." is light years ahead of Nelson's attempts.
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Summary: Written Chinese characters correlate with Genesis.
Review: This book is an intriguing look at the thought behind the characters of written Chinese. China's ancient pictographic writing has survived nearly unchanged for at least 3000 years. It is the contention of the authors that the written symbols of Chinese "bear witness to the original beliefs of the Chinese, handed down by oral tradition. The record contained by many specific characters carries such a close similarity to the Hebrew Genesis that it would seem only logical to believe that both civiliations must have access to the same common historical knowledge." This book is accessible to a person with no prior knowlege of Chinese writing. The characters under discussion are explained step by step and also printed large size in the margins, so that the various elements may be seen. There are many striking points. For example the Chinese character for "to covet" has the woman symbol combined with two trees. Simularly, "to warn" is God combined with two trees. The character for a boat combines vessel with person and the number 8. (There were 8 persons in Noah's ark). I found it fascinating and thought provoking. It is a peek at ancient Chinese thought that is not available to us by any other means.
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Summary: WOW! Awesome page-turner!
Review: This book is so cool! The parallels between the way that certain Chinese characters are constructed and the Genesis story are completely amazing! If anyone has a more logical explanation for these extraordinary similarities, I'd love to hear it!
Not only does this book show that the book of Genesis is non-fiction, but it also teaches some of the Chinese radicals (as parts of words) along the way! I am planning to become a translator, and now I can recite about 20 words in Chinese off the top of my head that I otherwise never would have known (more than that if I look in the book)! Some words are brought up many times as parts of several different words (such as the word for "eight", which refers to the eight people on the Ark during the flood), which allows for easy memorization.
I would recommend this to everyone everywhere... Christians, non-Christians, atheists, evolutionists.... EVERYONE should read this amazing book! If anything, it will certainly open up your mind :)
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