In every culture, there is always a creation story that details the creation of the first humans. In religions around the world creation stories are part of their culture. In this light the following paper will delve into parallels and connections between Christian and Chinese creation stories along with their interactions and beliefs throughout the history of mankind.
There was once nothing in the cosmos save for a massive egg-shaped monster. As with Chinese creation tales, the theme of emptiness is highlighted; this may be the initial point of contact between the two faiths; the bible asserts that there was nothing but darkness in the beginning. The notion of emptiness appears in several creation tales from throughout the globe. The opposing powers of yin and yang were all jumbled within the “egg”; it was a total mess. The messiness of the cosmos is also reproduced in the Christian creation narrative; it is recorded that the earth was formless and empty in the beginning, a mirror of the messiness of the universe in Chinese creation legends (Wong, 2020). The relationship between these faiths is remarkable. However, throughout time, the interactions of diverse elements and energy resulted in a being conception. Pan Gu is a hairy, horned giant. Pan Gu slept and grew for 18,000 years. He awakened unexpectedly one day. When he opened his eyes, all he saw was absolute darkness. He strained his ears but was met with an eerie quiet. Pan Gu was very disturbed by his drab surroundings. Pan Gu produced a magical ax and delivered a powerful chop to the egg, flustered, with a thundering crack, the egg broke in half. Yin and yang gradually started to diverge. Everything black and heavy sunk into the soil to create it. And the remainder, which was clean and light, floated upward to create the sky. Like in Christian creation accounts, light/day is created first; this is another significant parallel. However, Pan Gu was concerned that the halves might rejoin, so he stepped between them to keep them apart. Each day, the sky expanded ten feet higher above him; the ground grew ten feet thicker below him, and Pan Gu grew ten feet to keep up with the expanding vastness and cling on to it. It was solitary and tiring work. He toiled for another six million five hundred and seventy thousand days, or another 18,000 years until he was convinced that the realms had been stabilized. Pan Gu then collapsed and perished in a spectacular accident. Although the parallel is not clear, it is nevertheless significant: just as Jesus sacrificed his life for humanity, Pan Gu sacrifices his life for humanity, there is a connection between nature, supernatural beings and mankind just like in the Christian creation story. As the exhausted Pan Gu collapsed, a miraculous transformation occurred: his final breath transformed into winds and clouds; his voice transformed into rumbling thunder; his left eye blazed into the sun, and his right eye gleamed into the moon; his hair and beard transformed into Milky Way stars; his limbs, hands, and feet transformed into great mountains, and the blood coursing through his veins transformed into flowing rivers; his flesh transformed into fertile farmlands, and the hairs on his skin burgeon. According to others, Pan Gu’s spirit never died but transformed into humans, which explains why ancient Chinese believed people to be the essence of all matter. The link between spirits and human kind in Chinese creation stories is similar to that one of man and spirits in Christian creation spirits. The second link from this point of creation is the way the world is constructed in stages; similar to Christian creation tales, Chinese creation stories place order on creation sequence. As with Jesus, Pan Gu gave his life to build the world and his body to enhance and beautify it. Among his other creations was a strong woman named Huaxu, who gave birth to twins named Fu Hsi and Nüwa (Yao, 2011). The two gods soon married and collaborated on the creation of humanity. Nüwa started constructing people by hand-forming yellow clay models.
However, after a while, her hands started to ache. As a result, she dipped a rope in dirt and swung it over her head. As a consequence, she was surrounded by gobs of sticky mud. According to the Chinese, the clay figurines created by Nüwa’s hands became the nobles, while the mud blobs became the ordinary people. Just like in the Biblical creation story man is created from the earth (Lee, 1994). Fu Hsi and Nüwa sincerely cared about the individuals they made and saw them as their children, often interfering in their lives whenever they faced serious difficulties. After Nüwa repaired the sky with the assistance of Fu Hsi and humanity was rescued, the human population grew tremendously. The last parallel noticed between Chinese and Christian creation tales is the creation of the two Gods. In Chinese creation legends, the two Gods create the Adam and Eve effect. Similar to how Adam and Eve are the parents of mankind in Christianity, the two Gods, Fu Hsi and Nüwa, are the parents of humanity, and they are each obliged to create life in their unique manner.
To get a glimpse of how Christianity and Chinese religions shaped each other it is necessary to examine one of the main Chinese religions and analyze practices that are common in them not just from creation but also general norms and practices. Religious affiliations and beliefs can unite societies and divide them. Today, technology facilitates the transmission of knowledge and blurs the geographic boundaries that once separated faiths and spiritual activities. Individuals who would have gone their whole lives without hearing the Buddha now spend full semesters in college learning. Those who have never heard of the Christian Bible may suddenly be poring into its parables and tales to understand them better. Both Buddhism, one of the three major Chinese religions, and Christianity have separate histories that are closely linked and must be understood in their entirety; Christianity and Buddhism have many parallels extending back to creation, which has blended into each other through time. Both talked about living a life of holiness, being helpful and compassionate, and not succumbing to fleshly appetites or desires. And both of their teachings became an integral element of their respective faiths’ philosophy (Carus, 1894). Dharma is a term used in Buddhism to refer to the Buddha’s discourses or teachings, including the Middle Way, the Four Noble Truths, and the Eightfold Path. In Buddhism, the Four Noble Truths are as follows: one life entails pain, dukkha; second, suffering is produced by desire and grasping; and third, suffering is caused by ignorance. Finally, there is a route out of suffering, and that path is the Noble Eightfold Path. PP – The Buddha’s Dharma, a wheel with eight notches symbolizes the Eightfold Path; each notch represents particular ethical conduct or thought habit; these habits serve as the framework for Buddhist life: comprehension, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration. Among them, good action is believed to be one of the five commandments that form the bedrock of all morality: Observing the five fundamental laws of morality: not murdering, not stealing, not indulging in sexual immorality, not lying, and refraining from intoxicating oneself.
Before the advent of Jesus Christ, Christianity had a doctrine or scripture. The Christian Bible is divided into the Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament, often known as the Hebrew Bible, comprises 39 books that detail God’s deeds and prophesies before the advent of Christ. The Old Testament starts with the creation of the world and its people and the tale of The Fall. The New Testament comprises 27 books that chronicle Jesus’ life and teachings. Another parallel between Buddhism and Christianity is when the Eightfold Path and Five Precepts are compared to the Ten Commandments of Christianity. The Ten Commandments are Old Testament biblical teachings about ethics and worship. According to Christian tradition, Moses received the Ten Commandments directly from God on Mount Sinai.
Both also meet in groups, with Christian worship in churches and Buddhist meetings taking place in temples. While some Christians consider traveling to the Lord’s House a necessary part of their devotion, Buddhists are not bound by the temple. Certain Buddhists keep shrines in their houses for convenience. Christians incorporate elements of community worship into their everyday life, such as prayer. Additionally, they may read the Bible or listen to music geared for their worship routines. It is important to highlight that Christians and Buddhists see their contributions as an excellent method to demonstrate appreciation for their faith. It is customary in Christianity to tithe or pledge a part of one’s income offerings to one’s place of worship. In Buddhism, these offerings may be monetary but are more often than not made in the form of flowers, candles, and other goods. Christianity has had a tremendous impact on Far Eastern faiths and vice versa; striking parallels exist from creation to their respective rituals, practices and beliefs that were shaped and reshaped as these two religions progressed.
To comprehend the effect and impact of Christianity on Chinese religions and vice versa, it is necessary to explore the relationship between the two faiths beginning with their first meeting and interactions. Christianity, the Western world’s biggest religion, and China, the East’s oldest country, have interacted several times throughout history and continue to do so now. However, as seen in the following paragraphs, the interaction has often been turbulent, characterized by several unexpected occurrences, both good and bad. Christianity’s history in China began with silk. Since the early first century A.D., the Roman Empire imported silk from China. However, the development of the Sasanian Empire in the third and fourth centuries, which was at odds with Rome, severed the Silk Road, significantly slowing imports to the Roman Empire. Emperor Justinian, the Byzantine Empire’s first Emperor, determined to seek a remedy in the sixth century. There, two monks of the Nestorian Church conceived of their scheme to amass wealth. The Nestorian Church, or Church of the East, adheres to the vision of Nestorius, Archbishop of Constantinople, who held that Jesus was not God but simply partially divine and partially human; contemporary Christianity stresses Jesus’ divinity in addition to his humanity (Bays, 2011). In India, where Buddhism was strongly ingrained, the two Nestorian monks taught Christianity. During this period, the first contact between Christianity and the faiths of the far East occurred. They advanced to China in 551 A.D. to study the silk-making technique. Christianity most likely made first contact with Chinese land at that time. The next year, the monks persuaded Justinian, who consented to launch an expedition to sneak silkworms into the Byzantine Empire. Around 554 A.D., the Eastern Roman Empire had a silk monopoly. Christianity had its first documented appearance in China just a few centuries ago. A few decades later, another Nestorian missionary and his companions made his way to China, most likely through the northern Silk Road. Alopen was his given name. The Nestorians had arrived at this time to preach, bringing holy scriptures and pictures with them. They landed at Chang’an in 635 A.D., the capital of the Tang Dynasty and the world’s biggest metropolis. Emperor Gaozu of Tang died the same year. Taizong, his son, was a scholar and patron of the arts who was generally tolerant of all faiths. He met the Nestorian missionaries and urged them to have their scriptures translated into Chinese. These were the earliest Jesus Sutras, Chinese adaptations of Christian scriptures. Taizong directed that the papers be distributed across the nation.
The Tang Emperor supported the building of a Nestorian Church at Chang’an in 638 A.D. and acknowledged 21 Nestorian priests. Following his death in 649 A.D., his son Gaozongon continued the policy of religious tolerance, and many more churches were built in China, allowing Christian teachings and stories to reach the Chinese masses; this was one of the many positive interactions as Christians, and other religious factions exchanged ideas over the next couple of centuries, Christianity flourished in China, and Christian texts and images were produced. In 781 A.D., the Christian community of Chang’An engraved the Chronicles of Nestorian activities in China, including the Adventures of Alopen, on a stele in a monastery. It pertains to the Church of the East’s distinct structure, with bishops and dioceses. However, when the Tang Dynasty’s power waned in favor of provincial military leaders known as Jiedushi, Christianity in China declined. Between 878 and 879, persecution against Christians and other religious groups began; rebel commander Huang Chao, who had turned against the Tang dynasty after his failure at the Imperial Examinations, conducted a slaughter against foreigners in the city of Guangzhou. Muslims, Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians had all been slaughtered, and the relationship between these faiths had deteriorated. Guangzhou was already a massive commerce center, and the death toll may have exceeded 200,000. In 987 A.D., the Arab historian Ibn Al-Nadim records a conversation with a monk sent to China to report on the status of the Christian Church there in Baghdad’s Christian district. The monk said, “Christianity has just died out in China. The indigenous Christians had died in various ways.” The Church they had used had been demolished, and the territory was now home to just one Christian.” Although a few Christian gravestones were unearthed later, it was apparent that the first age of Christianity in China had ended due to a terrible encounter.
Christianity was restored a few centuries later. However, it came from the invading Mongol Empire this time, not the West. Early Christianity thrived in Mongolian areas. After plundering China, the Mongols established the Yuan dynasty in 1260 A.D., when Kublai Khan was named Emperor. Kublai was Temujin’s grandson, better known as Genghis Khan. His father, Tolui Khan, had four sons with Sorghaghtani Beki, a Nestorian Christian. She was a member of the Kerait tribe, one of numerous Mongol Turkic tribes who had converted to the East Church. After discovering that Christians existed in eastern Asia due to the Mongol Empire’s advance into Eastern Europe, western Catholic missionaries began traveling to the Mongol steppes to convert the Nestorians to Catholicism. Tibetan Buddhism influenced Kublai Khan’s beliefs (Winkler & Tang, 2009). However, due to his family’s strong Christian influence and the vast variety of his realm, he promoted religious tolerance; this was partly due to the parallels between Christianity and Buddism. Meanwhile, two Westerners, Italian merchants from Venice, had fled the West to seek more wealth and political stability.
They began their journey east. They arrived at the court of Kublai Khan in 1266 A.D. in Beijing. These brother explorers went by the names Niccol and Maffeo Polo. Kublai Khan (assumed throne here) greeted them captivated by the Western culture and their Christian belief systems; he addressed a letter to the Pope in Rome requesting that he send a hundred educated Christians to China to teach Western traditions and Catholicism. He also asked for oil from the lamp of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The letter’s addressee was to be delivered by the Polo brothers. On the other hand, the Yuan Emperor sent an emissary to Rome, who abandoned his journey halfway across Europe, leaving the Polo brothers alone. They traveled by Jerusalem on their route back to Italy, during a period governed by the Crusaders, to get some oil from the lamp. In 1271 A.D., freshly elected Pope Gregory X received the message sent by the polos and returned to Kublai Khan with two friars and various gifts. The expedition was given to Niccol and Maffeo Polo, who were joined by their 17-year-old son and nephew, a young man called Marco Polo. Due to fear, the two friars withdrew during the expedition, and the Polos arrived in Beijing in 1274 A.D. Marco made a strong impression on cable Kublai Khan, who hired him. They remained in China for another 17 years before returning to Venice. In 1289, Pope Nicholas IV charged John of Montecorvino with preaching Christianity in the East. He arrived in Beijing in 1294 A.D. and rapidly expanded the Western religion by translating the New Testament and other texts into Chinese and erecting churches. Conflicts between Catholicism and the Nestorian Church erupted, as both churches took a distinct approach to Christianity and exerted distinct influence in the Chinese lands. European Franciscans However, he continued to visit China to support John’s efforts. Nestorianism collapsed swiftly and was eventually supplanted by Catholicism. In a little more than five years. John evangelized about 6,000 individuals. In 1308 A.D., he was consecrated as the first of many archbishops of Beijing. However, the religion’s flourishing would come to an end.
Franciscans were prevented from leaving Europe to undertake missions in China due to the outbreak of the Black Death in Europe. Additionally, a revolution was imminent as the Mongol Yuan empire began to fall. Zhu Yuanzhang, a peasant of the Han ethnic group in China, rose to prominence after joining the Red Turban Rebellion. He seized Beijing in 1368 A.D., thereby ending the Yuan dynasty. He was anointed Emperor Hongwu, the first of the Ming Dynasty’s emperors. The Ming were fundamentally anti-foreign. While it supported Buddhism and indigenous religions, it ruled Nestorianism and Catholicism to be prohibited. By 1369 A.D., all Christians had been driven out of China. Christianity’s second age in China has come to an end.
The Ming dynasty’s connection with Christianity was disastrous. As previously said, Christianity had a mixed effect on Chinese faiths. Although certain teachings did permeate contemporary religions at the time, the discrepancies created havoc. While the Nestorian Church would never return to those areas, the Catholic Church, more broadly European, had not yet spoken their last words. The history of these two religions and their interactions just goes on to show how influential they were at the time and the strong long interaction between them definitely led to influence on both sides from creation stories to religious practices.
The parallels in culture, creation and beliefs among world religions especially Christianity and Chinese religions is enormous. More study should be directed towards this field.
References
Bays, D. H. (2011). A New History of Christianity in China (1st ed.). Wiley-Blackwell.
Carus, P. (1894). JSTOR: Access Check. The Monist. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27897205
Lee, A. C. (1994). The Chinese Creation Myth of Nu Kua and the Biblical Narrative in Genesis 1–11. Biblical Interpretation, 2(3), 312–324. https://doi.org/10.1163/156851594×00114
Winkler, D., & Tang, L. (2009). Hidden Treasures and Intercultural Encounters: Studies on East Syriac Christianity in China and Central Asia (1) (orientalia – patristica – oecumenica). LIT Verlag.
Wong, S. K. (2020). Chinese and Biblical Creation Myths. https://www.pearsonhighered.com/assets/samplechapter/0/2/0/5/0205909213.pdf
Yao, W. (2011). “Pangu and Ancient China (2011)” by Weiwei Yao. Scholar.Valpo.Edu. https://scholar.valpo.edu/core_reader/13/
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