PEACE IN THE CHAOS IMPLICATIONS OF THE CONSCIOUS ELIMINATION OF CONFLICT IN DIVINELY DESIGNED AND SPONTANEOUS CREATION FROM THE HEBREW AND CHINESE TRADITIONS Emma Kirk Department of Ancient History Macquarie University 2015 i TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract .................................................................................................................................................................iii Statement of Candidate ..................................................................................................................................iv Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................................... v Introduction .........................................................................................................................................................1 Methodology ........................................................................................................................................................6 Myth ...................................................................................................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER ONE – ISRAEL: THE BACKGROUND .................................................................................. 19 1.1 Myth, the Bible and Changing Trends ............................................................................................. 19 1.2 The Hebrew Tradition and the Ancient Near Eastern Myths ............................................... 23 1.3 The Rising Impact of Monotheism ....................................................................................................26 CHAPTER TWO - GENESIS .......................................................................................................................... 31 2.1 Genesis and the Documentary Hypothesis ................................................................................... 31 2.2 In the Beginning ....................................................................................................................................... 35 2.3 “And God Said…” ...................................................................................................................................... 47 2.4 The Garden of Eden ................................................................................................................................ 62 2.5 Traversing the Gap .................................................................................................................................. 72 CHAPTER THREE – ALTERNATE HEBREW NARRATIVES ........................................................... 75 3.1 The Prophet ............................................................................................................................................... 76 3.2 The Psalmists ............................................................................................................................................ 85 3.2.1 The Ezrahite ........................................................................................................................................... 89 3.2.2 The King ................................................................................................................................................... 99 3.3 The Sufferer .............................................................................................................................................107 3.4 The Wise Man ..........................................................................................................................................121 CHAPTER FOUR – ISRAEL: INTERTEXTUALITY .............................................................................135 Interwoven Connections ............................................................................................................................135 CHAPTER FIVE – CHINA: THE BACKGROUND .................................................................................143 5.1 China, Myth and the Rising Interest in Chinese Cosmogony ..............................................143 5.2 The Religion Effect ................................................................................................................................149 5.3 The Laws of Morality ...........................................................................................................................155 CHAPTER SIX – SHANGDI, DIVINITY AND KINGSHIP ...................................................................161 6.1 Shangdi: God or Ancestor ..................................................................................................................163 6.2 The Mandate of Sonship .....................................................................................................................171 6.3 The Model of Divine Kingship ..........................................................................................................177 6.4 The Sacrificial Tradition .....................................................................................................................181 6.5 The Divine Connection ........................................................................................................................186 CHAPTER SEVEN – CHINESE CREATION MYTHS ...........................................................................189 7.1 The Rebel ..................................................................................................................................................190 7.1.1 The Cosmogony of the Third .........................................................................................................194 7.1.2 The Echoes in the Seventh .............................................................................................................203 7.2 The Disillusioned Scholar ..................................................................................................................208 ii 7.3 The Quintessential Creator .............................................................................................................. 219 7.3.1 The Transformer ............................................................................................................................... 223 7.3.2 The Dying God .................................................................................................................................... 229 7.4 The Lonely Survivor ............................................................................................................................ 233 7.4.1 The Artist .............................................................................................................................................. 239 7.4.2 The Mother .......................................................................................................................................... 244 CHAPTER EIGHT – CHINA: INTERTEXTUALITY ............................................................................ 253 A View to a Connection .............................................................................................................................. 253 CHAPTER NINE – COMPARATIVE CONCLUSIONS ......................................................................... 261 A Bridge Between the Worlds ................................................................................................................ 261 Notes .................................................................................................................................................................. 270 Appendix I – Hebrew Creation Myths ................................................................................................. 271 Appendix II – Chinese Creation Myths ................................................................................................ 280 Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................................ 285 References ....................................................................................................................................................... 288 iii ABSTRACT Hebrew and Chinese creation myths appear to stand in mythological contrast to one another, with the significance of the former conceived of in religious terms and the latter in humanistic, though neither can be so simply defined. The early history of comparative scholarship between the two disciplines was dominated by a religious perspective, and a clear connection was thought to have been identified through a shared conception of God. This shaped the discussion up until the early twentieth century when it was replaced by the belief that the Chinese tradition possessed neither a god, nor even an account of the creation of the world. Thus, the two traditions are considered to exist in philosophical contrast to one another sharing very little in common. While this is an accepted observation, the two cultures share a unique connection in their mutual aspiration and conscious effort to eliminate the traces of conflict from their respective creation narratives. This endeavour was motivated by different perspectives fuelled by the religious, political and philosophical requirements of the society to which they spoke. In the hands of one, the creation stories were preserved as etiological accounts to