This document discusses various aspects of Chinese culture, traditions, and history from a Christian perspective. It provides analysis of Chinese festivals and customs, discussing which elements should be retained or redeemed from a biblical viewpoint, and which should be rejected due to religious or superstitious elements. It encourages applying biblical truths to one's life and relationships to experience breakthroughs through putting God first and showing love to others.
3. Origin of Chinese Civilization
Creation
Gen 1 Fall of Man
Gen 3
Biblical Record:
4. Origin of Chinese Civilization
Great Flood & Noah’s Ark (Gen 6)
• 2348 B.C.
• Men’s wickedness
• Rain: 40 days
• Flood: 150 days
• 370 days in ark
• Mt Ararat (Gen 8:4)
• Rainbow
• Only 8 were saved
5. Origin of Chinese Civilization
Gen 8:20… “Then Noah built an altar to
the Lord… he sacrificed…”
Noah’s Sacrifice / Religion
6. Origin of Chinese Civilization
The Tower Of Babel (Gen 11)
• 101 yrs later (2247 B.C.)
• One common language
• Moved east and settled
in Shinar (Babylon)
• “Let us build….”
• “… make a name for
ourselves…”
7. Origin of Chinese Civilization
• Dispersion of people
• Beginning of nations
• “Let us go down…”
• Confusion of
language
8. Origin of Chinese Civilization
Chinese records:
• China’s first dynasty, the Xia dynasty,
started in c 2205 B.C.
• Tower of Babel incident: 2247BC.
• The time it took for the proto-
Chinese to migrate to China from
present-day Iraq (the site of the
Tower of Babel): 42 years
9. Origin of Chinese Civilization
1. Record of Flood in Chinese history
2 historical facts:
10. Origin of Chinese Civilization
2. Chinese Border Sacrifice
• Shu Jing, oldest Chinese History
book
• In 2230BC, Emperor Shun
“sacrificed to Shang-Di”
• “Supreme Ruler” or “Emperor
Above”
11. “Present Day” Chinese Religion
“Assimilation” of
• Taoism
• Confucianism
• Buddhism
“Original” Chinese Religion
• “Shang-Di-ism”
12. 1. Chinese New Year
2. Mid-Autumn Festival
3. Dragon Boat Festival
4. QingMing Festival
5. Winter Solstice Festival
13.
14. - Religious & Demonic
- Cultural & beneficial
- Neutral
15. 1. Chinese New Year
2. Mid-Autumn Festival
3. Dragon Boat Festival
4. QingMing Festival
5. Winter Solstice Festival
23. 1. Retain – cultural & beneficial
2. Reject – Religious & demonic
3. Redeem – Neutral
• Couplets
• Yee Sang
24. 1. Retain – cultural & beneficial
2. Reject – Religious & demonic
3. Redeem – Neutral
• Couplets
• Yee Sang
• Lion Dance
25. 1. Retain – cultural & beneficial
2. Reject – Religious & demonic
3. Redeem – Neutral
• Couplets
• Yee Sang
• Lion Dance
• “Shou Shui”
• Family Tradition
26. • Represented by 12
animals, each for a year
• A person’s personality
or events in his or her
life is influenced by the
person’s relationship to
the cycle
• Begins with lunar new
year
31. Effect on Life:
• Love Compatibility
• Family relationship
• Business partnership
• Bad luck on own Chinese Zodiac year (本命年)…
wear red every single day
• Birth of babies – couples shuns year of sheep
babies; welcome dragon babies
33. Christian Response:
• Our lives are not influenced by Zodiac… “In His
hand is the life of every creature and the breath
of all mankind.” (Job 12:10)
• Unscientific
• Superstitious; with possible undesirable
consequences…
• Nurture vs nature… “self-fulfilling”???
• AVOID REFERRING TO CHINESE ZODIAC
34. 1. Chinese New Year
2. Mid-Autumn Festival
3. Dragon Boat Festival
4. QingMing Festival
5. Winter Solstice Festival
36. • Family gathering
• Memory of ancestors
• Cleaning of graves
1. Retain – Cultural & Beneficial
• Repair of
tomb-stone
37. 1. Retain – Cultural & Beneficial
• Ancestral worship – at home
and at grave-site.
2. Reject – Religious & Demonic
38. 1. Retain – Cultural & Beneficial
2. Reject – Religious & Demonic
• Food offered
@ ancestral
worship.
• Ancestral worship – at home
and at grave-site.
39. 1. Retain – Cultural & Beneficial
2. Reject – Religious & Demonic
3. Redeem – Neutral
• Filial piety
40. 1. Chinese New Year
2. Mid-Autumn Festival
3. Dragon Boat Festival
4. QingMing Festival
5. Winter Solstice Festival
42. Dragon Boat Festival
• Duānwǔ Jié -- 端午节 (Duān – opening;
wǔ – 5th month in lunar calendar);
summer solstice
• Rice Dumpling Festival
• 5th day of 5th month (Chinese lunar
calendar)…. June 20, 2015
• Commemorate Qu Yuan, a great patriot
and poet in China
45. Dragon Boat FestivalCustom & Practices
• Fore and stern of the boat is in a shape of
traditional Chinese dragon
#1 -- Dragon Boat Racing
46. Dragon Boat FestivalCustom & Practices
• Pyramid-shaped
glutinous rice
wrapped in reed or
bamboo leaves
• Used to be home
made
#2 – Eating Zongzi (Rice Dumpling)
55. Jellyfish
• Not a fish, plankton
• No brains, elementary nervous
system
• 2 basic life stages: polyps &
medusa
• “watermelons with tentacles”: 95-98% water
• Box jellyfish can kill a person by stopping his
heart within 2 minutes
• Not strong swimmers; at the mercy of ocean
currents
56. Porcupine
• Rodent with soft hair.
• Mixed with sharp quills on
back, sides and tail.
• Quills cannot be shot, but
will be easily released.
• Quills have sharp tips and overlapping scales
or barbs; difficult to remove once stuck in
another animal’s skin.
• Quills can be 30 cm long.
• Embedded quill can be fatal.
61. 2015 - Year of Breakthroughs: Wholesome Living
Just knowing the Truth does not change lives.
We need to apply the TRUTH. (Col 1:9 – 10)
Are you willing to invite the Holy Spirit to
breakthrough in your life this CNY?
Putting God first above all that we do
Breaking away from Personal & Family sins & fleshly
desires which are contrary to the Spirit
Restoring & Reuniting Family Relationships
Breaking forth to be Salt & Light to our families,
relatives & friends. (Col 1:11-14) & Show love!
