Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 79:313 (Jan 1922)
Article: The Supreme Object Of Worship In Ancient China. Was It Jehovah?
Author: Joseph Elkanah Walker

BSac 79:313 (Jan 1922) p. 23

The Supreme Object Of Worship In Ancient China. Was It Jehovah?

J. E. Walker

Chinese myth, legend and history, all testify to one Supreme Object of Worship. This was usually called Heaven, but sometimes also was styled Ti or Shang Ti.

Earth is sometimes associated with Heaven, especially in the production of living things, but never as the equal of Heaven. They also worshipped the shen which were the subordinate agents of Heaven. Some translate shen by the word gods, others by the word spirits. But Heaven is before all, above all, and the source of all. Shang Ti was sometimes classed with the shen as an object of worship; and the first meaning of shen is “That power or cause which operates by its own energies, formless and inscrutable, yet making things develop.” A Chinese Christian teacher told us that “Shen originally meant the same as Shang Ti but had become exceedingly debased in common usage.”

Chinese writing might be said to consist of symbols; and the symbol of Heaven is composed of the symbol for one and that for great, and is explained as “The great ONE.” So we say “God alone is great.” In the name Shang Ti shang means above while Ti is denned as “One who rules in his own right,” also as “Judge.” Its symbol is composed of that for establish, slightly modified to make it overarching, and three lines forming a trident extending downward from underneath the other part. Related to this is a symbol composed of two parallel lines above and three lines descending from under these. Dr. Williams says that these three lines represent “the light of sun, moon and stars coming down upon the earth.” The symbol for Ti means one enthroned on high and ruling all beneath. The first meaning of this other related sym-

BSac 79:313 (Jan 1922) p. 24

bol is “To make known the will of Heaven to men.” The Chinese mind does not readily conceive of bodiless spirit; and it associates the visible heavens and earth with the invisible Beings thus named. Ti is sometimes used for Heaven; but as there were five mythical rulers who were styled the “Five Ti,” shang was usually prefixed to Ti when it designated Heaven. The title Ti was never applied to a merely human ruler till (?) B. C, when Shi Huang-Ti arrogated it to himself. In modern time the Taoists have grossly debased the term shang ti, using it as the title of men whom they have deified.

The early missionaries were sharply divided on the use of Shang Ti to designate God; and a very respectable minority both in numbers and in scholarship, claimed that Shang Ti was to the Chinese about what Zeus was to the Greeks. They were strenuous f...