Occasional Green Pastures and Quiet Waters

I title this blogpost after a book quite similar in content to this video which I am about to review. I'm not sure if the book has had any bearing on the production of the video, but I wouldn't be very surprised if it did. The content is very similar - drawing a line of relation between Ancient Chinese history and Christianity, with Chinese characters as proof. The book goes into much more detail and bases its thesis on the interpretation of the word Sinim (Isa49:12) to be China, but I am reviewing the video, so we won't go there.

First, I have to laud the effort put into this attempt to evangelise, for after all, it is our call as Christians to announce the good news.

With a title 'Who are the Chinese?', I was expecting a documentary on perhaps the Chinese diaspora or the history of China. That the video did deliver in the first half. The turning point begins when the video talks about the development of Chinese characters, from bone oracles to the modern day Chinese characters. Craftily introduced at that point is how Chinese characters tells a story which alludes to the Bible storyline. My contentions with the video are mainly at this point.

The video talks about how the Chinese character for boat 船, can be broken down into the characters for boat舟, eight八, and mouth口. This therefore, the video insists, must be a reference to the Biblical account of the Flood, where Noah and his family (eight of them) were saved by God in the Ark. There are several other examples, but my argument is twofold:

1. This is a fine example of eisegesis, the reading of one's personal ideas into a text, or in this case, a character. As there are no given explanations on the components of the character, any explanation can be provided by anyone. I could give an explanation which has nothing to do with Biblical narrative: 船 is basically a picture of a big boat with 舟being the body of a ship, while the remainder on the left looks like a superstructure of a boat, giving you an image of a houseboat, quite like the ones you see in Hong Kong harbour. My father provides an alternative to my alternative: the word 沿 means a river bank and therefore 船 would simply be a picture of a boat by the bank. You get the point.
2. There are some cases where the archaic form and the modern form of the character varies too greatly to make such connections. Take for example, the word for flood 洪, which the video puts up as evidence, varies too greatly from it's archaic form seen at 21:06 of the video. To be able to make such conclusions, the breaking down of the character has to be consistently do-able with the archaic form, not just solely with the modern form, since the assumption would be that the archaic form is closer to the Biblical period the video is suggesting.

Edit (13/7/2012): I just realised you can't find the English version through the search function on Youtube, so for the sake of those who would like to watch the video for yourselves, click here. You can also download the video I mentioned, and five others, it seems from the distributor here.

Book 1-3, from left to right

I don't think I've ever done a book review... oh wait. I did do one a while back on the Mortal Instruments. I'm usually quite a big fan of fantasy - magic, dragons, knights, wizards... you get the picture. But after quite a while in the fantasy genre, I find myself growing weary of the repetitive, predictable storyline: dark lord appears, hero(es) gain power and raise army to defeat dark lord in an all out battle. The details vary, but the spine of it all is all too familiar. As such, you would understand why this set was quite the risky purchase for me, having bought all three book in the span of two days before I had any idea what the contents were like.

I am pleased, surprisingly enough, to report that it was not a purchase in vain. I found the language used to be reminiscent of Tolkien's detailed narration, describing sufficient detail, drawing you into the lifeblood of the story without being too wordy. I could actually feel myself walking through the busy streets of Armathelieth, and feel the pain Kellen, the protagonist felt. Such work has been few and far between.

The other thing which I really liked about this series is that the authors don't burden you with an entire kingdom of characters and names to remember like the Game of Thrones. Characters are introduced, although initially with no purpose, you will find as you go along, that all their stories intertwine beautifully, reflecting one of this series' themes of the interconnectedness of all existence.

Finally, I find that the idea of evil so far in this series (I've just finished the second book at the time of this review's writing) to utterly refreshing. You do have the horde of evil hatching their evil plots, but you don't see any direct conflict as one would in Harry Potter or the Dragonlance series. Their tendrils weave deep and dark, through the shadows, ever so subtly, keeping you barely aware of their existence and plots, but always guessing as to what their true intentions really are. You would read of battles, but it is never yet with the Endarkened, but with their pawns, keeping the suspense ever high. And even within the block of evil, you have factions vying for power, trying to out plot each other. Never have I read of such truly chaotic evil!

Should you read these books? Unequivocally, yes. I highly recommend them, to those beginning to taste the nectar of fantasy and those jaded by the rigidity of lawful evil. However, I do have to warn that procuring these books were not easy - book 1 and 3 were the only copies left at the bookstore I was at, and book 2 I had to have transported from another branch.

Kids grow up and eventually leave the house. When we did, my parents decided to box our stuff up and chuck them... well... here and there. Prime areas are the now unused study room ('cos who studies anymore?), and the little space under the stairs I like to call the dungeon.

'The Dungeon'

Deep in the recesses of the Dungeon, I found a scroll. Pretty cool, seeing how scrolls and dungeons usually go together. I think it must have been a gift from my uncle in Singapore. Rather tasteful Chinese calligraphy of a poem by renown Tang poet, Li Bai. Next step is to find a bit of wall worthy to hang it on.


Ah... my old treasure trove. The childhood equivalent of oil deposits - everybody wanted that unique piece, and if you didn't have it, you'd do anything to get it, including a fist fight. God knows how many fights I've gotten into with my brother and sister over these little tiny pieces of leg godt.

By the way, ever stepped on one in the dark before? Haha...


Of all the treasure I've dug out so far, I think these are the best by far. A possible 1957 edition of Alexander Dumas' Three Musketeers, and 100 Nursery Rhymes which has now gone out of print. A quick search on the Great Internet reveals that there's only one copy of the nursery rhyme book available for sale. Whoa... pity my copy's wrecked beyond redemption.

Here's a picture of my favourite rhyme of all time.

MPH was selling them at 20% off. I couldn't resist the sweet seduction of fiction, so I bought the first two books. When I went up to the counter to ask for the City of Bones, since it wasn't on display, the lady at the counter looked me in the eye and said:

Ahh... sweet relief at last! It has been like a fart that has been building up, and finally released (^^) No more lectures, no more homework, unlimited fun ( and possible boredom ), until I register for uni, that is.