Two streams from the same source?

I have already written about the mysterious origin of the several Chinese characters. Today I want to think back to beginnings of recorded history and ancient legends. The Hebrew Torah records some the earliest events near the origin of man. Is there any record outside of this book that would provide additional corroboration? Amazing yes and from a very unlikely source - ancient Chinese writers. The Chinese scholar Yuan Zhimin has made a major contribution by connecting these two ancient sources. For more on Yuan Zhimin's work, go to the China Soul website.

Here are some amazing parallel accounts.

1. In the book of Genesis we read about the first man and women, Adam and Eve. In Chinese legends they are known as An Deng and Nu Wa.

2. The creation story in Chinese writings does not appear but the Chinese poet Qu Yuan raised the questions "Who made An Deng the ruler? How was Nu Wa's body made?"

3. God finished his creation and rested on the seventh day. The Chinese classic Zhou Yi states "the way of the heavens comes around in seven days".

4. In Genesis, a river flowed from Eden that water the garden and it separated in four headwaters. In the Chinese classic Huai Nan Zi, there were four headwaters under the heavens - divine springs for the sustenance of herbs and nourishment of all things.

5. Genesis records two tree in the garden: the Tree of Life that gave immortality and the Tree of Good and Evil made one wise as God. The Chinese text "The Book of Mountains and Seas" tells us that in the beginning was a tree of immortality and tree of sacredness - also known as the Tree of Wisdom. Whoever ate of it's fruit would be as wise as God.

6. When Adam and Eve sinned by eating the forbidden fruit, the were banished from the garden with a flaming sword to guard the entrance. Two Chinese classics, Shang Shu and Guo Yu, tell us because of sin, God instructed an angel to block the way to heaven thereby cutting of interaction with between God and man.

7. The Bible says God flooded the Earth to cleanse it from evil. Several Chinese classics refer to a person name Gong Gong who led a revolt that provoked divine judgement. The columns supporting heaven collapsed and the cables holding the earth broke and water covered the earth.

8. After Noah, the Bible describes the world as having one language which was later confused by God due to man's pride. Beijing Television station excerpt tells of ancient Chinese legends that speak of a world wide language call Yashi. The Loulan inscriptions shed light on this mysterious age.

John Calvin writes in the introduction to his commentary on Genesis "It is indeed probable that shortly after the building of Babel, the memory of [mans origins] ... was obliterated." and "... no nation, the posterity of Abraham excepted, knew for more than two thousand succesive years, either from what fountain itself had sprung, or when the universal race of man began to exist." But had Calvin been informed by this research highlighted above, he may ask as Yuan Zhimin asks "Could the two ancient cultures of Israel and China be mysteriously linked? Could the wondrous tales of God and man told along the banks of the Jordan and Yellow River flow from the same source?"