Talk:Nüwa: Difference between revisions

Content deleted Content added
Line 40:
 
:Thanks, [[User:Mamgeorge|mamgeorge]] 14:07, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
 
==Character Relationships?==
 
Just as a point of interest on correspondence between Chinese antiquity and the Biblical accounts, the Chinese character for SHIP (large sea-going vessel) is made up of the pictographs for "eight persons" and "boat" which corresponds to the Bible account of 8 persons (Noah, his wife, 3 sons, their wives) that survived a global deluge in an ark.
 
Anonymous, thank you for your contribution. I am intrigued by the possibility you present here, however, I have reason to question that derivation.
:The character 船 [chuan2] boat, is considered to be made up of the characters 舟 [zhou1] boat, and [yan3] divided outlets. Yan3 is itself made up of 八 [ba1] eight, and 口 [kou3] mouth, which makes sense for your suggestion. Here, however, the ba1 character is apparantly used in the sense to divide, as in 分 [fen1] to divide. In this case, ba1 means divide with a 刀 [dao1] knife. I base this on Weigers "Chinese Characters" (ISBN 0486-213218) now scanned in google books. If you have a more detailed etymolgy, or a reference indicating a more reliable derivation, please describe it.
 
:Another possible link to Noah based on the characters may possibly be found in the phonetic sound of the name of Nuwa (compared to the sound of the name in Hebrew, Hindi, Egyptian, Aztec versions of the story, et. al.).
 
:Additionally, Noah is often linked to Fuxi, whose etymology "may" have relationship to the characters for "rest"; this happens to be the Hebrew meaning of of the word Noah. While these seem tantalizing possibilities, in my opinion these links are too tenuous to rely upon and require more evidence. [[User:Mamgeorge|mamgeorge]] 05:22, 5 March 2007 (UTC)
 
==Nüwa and Deluge traditions==