The Discovery of Genesis (80 page)

Chapter 3: Easy Lessons in “Character Building”

1.
R. H. Mathews,
Chinese-English Dictionary
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, Twelfth Printing, 1972). All radical number references throughout the book.

2.
Korea — Its Land, People and Culture of All Ages
(Seoul: HakwonSa Ltd., 1960), pp. 114–118. See also
Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations
(New York: Harper & Row, Fourth Edition, Vol. 4, 1971), pp. 176, 184; G. Bourgois,
Dictionary and Glossary for the Practical Study of the Japanese ideographs
(Yokohama: Tokyo-Kyo Bun Kwan), p. xviii.

3.
James H. Shultz, “The Christian Church in T’ang China” (Los Angeles: A thesis presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School, University of Southern California, 1970), pp. 17, 25, 35.

4.
Robert K. Douglas,
The Language and Literature of China
(London: Trubner and Co., 1875), pp. 18–27.

5.
Since this is such a debatable point and the whole logic of the hypothesis for the book revolves about the classification of many characters as ideographic instead of phonetic, additional arguments will be here offered.

There are many radical combinations that have become phonetic. However, it is only logical to assume that the
first
use of a radical combination must have been ideographic, or the radicals would never have been combined in the first place. Once the radicals had been brought together and had a certain phonetic sound attached (taken from the original ideograph), they then became a phonetic set, and could be used to form other characters by phonetic sense only. If one examines all the characters listed phonetically carrying the same radical combination,
the original must be the ideogram.

For example, let us examine the characters listed in Mathew’s
Chinese-English Dictionary
under “fu,”
to fill, a roll of cloth
. This radical combination by itself does not appear to be ideographic. One would deduce that originally it must have been part of a larger ideographic character. Then there is
to fall prostrate, to crawl on hands and knees
(not ideographic);
a strip of cloth, a hem or border
(also not ideographic).
Happiness, prosperity, good fortune
is a character which can be analyzed ideographically, if one were familiar with primeval history as revealed in sacred Scriptures. The first
happiness
known to man was
God’s
gift to the
first
person
(Adam) of
landed property, the Garden
of Eden. It is logical to deduce, therefore, that the radical combination “fu”
originated in this ideographic character for
happiness
(which incidentally is a very ancient and simple character).

Furthermore,
a bat
(also used as an emblem of
happiness
, from the sound), is obviously a phonetic character formed on the basis of
and would also contribute to the theory that
was the original combination.