Jehovah is Not上帝 (ShangDi); 上帝 was the God of gods in ancient Chinese religion

Translated from Chinese by Sherwin Lu
(Including quotes from classics except otherwise noted)

EDITOR’S NOTE: At this time of human histry, which has been witnessing another round of outrageous wars between world political forces in the name of different religious, and non-religious, beliefs, this article is topically significant and especially valuable. The views expressed in this article is personal and, of course, is open to discussion. Any comment using reason is welcome.
Religion is a natural development of a civilization to meet its people‘s need for a spiritual home with supreme moral authority over social affairs. All religious beliefs are actually metaphorical and symbolic expressions of worldviews, i.e., views on the true nature of Existence. There should be only one such truth but, as Existence is intangible and hard to define in human languages, it can only be described in metaphorical and symbolic images and, as peoples with different environmental and historical-cultural backgrounds view the world from different perspectives, their way of using metaphorical symbols tend to be somewhat different. As every civilization has its strengths and weeknesses, all major religious and non-religious worldviews which have survived for thousands of years should treat each other with respect and learn from each other but not to impose on one another using physical forces. Let history test and pick what in each belief match the truth of Existence. For this purpose, peaceful coexistence and competition is a fundamental prerequisit if we want to avoid wholesale destruction of all humanity in this nuclear age.

Montesquieu found it almost impossible to establish Christianity in China, because Chinese civilization is unbeatable. But today Christianity has taken root in China and is competing with native Chinese faiths. One of the major reasons for this has been that, with the title of the sole Christian god Jehovah translated as上帝 (ShangDi) , which had been the title of the Chinese God of gods, Christianity was able to assume the majesty of the traditional Chinese Supreme God in promoting itself.

According to the Classic of History, or Shangshu (《尚书》, the sacred book for Confucianism as a religion and as a secular school of thought), The Rites of Zhou (《周礼》, by the Duke of Zhou), and the Records of the Grand Historian (《史记》, by Sima Qian), 上帝 (ShangDi) was the God of gods for ancient Chinese, i.e., the Supreme God who commanded all other gods. Therefore, the title上帝 does not fit Jehovah’s rank and identity; its meaning is inexact.

ShangDi the Supreme God bestowed on the Chinese The Great Plan in Nine Categories (《洪范九畴》) , which can be regarded as mankind’s earliest constitution, while Jehovah’s Ten Commandments was only a provisional covenant used to warn the Jews against betraying him, not on a par with the Chinese Great Plan.

With the translation of the Christian “God” as “上帝” (ShangDi), which had been the title of the god of gods in ancient Chinese religious faith, Jehovah, while declaring himself as the ONLY authentic God in the world, was able to usurp the prestige originally enjoyed by the Chinese God of gods, thus essentially rejecting all other gods and other religious faiths as inauthentic. Such a mindset, which views one’s own religion as the only one that is authentic and authoritative and thus harbors enmity against all other faiths, is a virogene in Christianity and a major cause for clash of civilizations.

This essay is meant to restore the original state of affairs, i.e., the supreme status of ShangDi as the Chinese originally recognized in their religious faith, and at the same time --

To appeal to religious Confucianism for reforming and reconstituting itself and, instead of sticking to its “two fundamental beliefs”, i.e., whatever Confucius said must be followed and whatever he advocated be adhered to, for restoring worship of China’s original ShangDi so as not only to pay close attention to the realities of human life but also to show earnest concern about its purpose and destiny;

And to appeal to the Christian Church for a new Reformation to do away with its “two fundamental beliefs”, i.e., (1) its fraudulent use of ShangDi, the name of god of gods in Chinese religious faith, for the purpose of aggrandizing Jehovah in spite of historical facts about Christian and Chinese beliefs and (2) its exclusion of other religious beliefs, so as to make a real contribution to man’s efforts at breaking through the “prisoner’s dilemma” of clash of civilizations.

I. What agonized Montesquieu: He found Chinese civilization unbeatable and it almost impossible to establish the Christian Church in China.

II. ShangDi (上帝) being the Chinese God of gods, the translation of God Jehovah as“上帝”does not match His position and identity

(2) The god of gods and the final approver of secular regimes as legitimate and justifiable

(4) Bestowing on the Great Yu (大禹) The Great Plan in Nine Categories (《洪范九筹》), the earliest constitution in human history

(5) Polytheist Confucianism, with a more mature covenant (vs. that of monotheist Western Church) and unitary church management

(1) Not a universal god: Having created the Garden of Eden and the Jews only, not the whole world nor the whole mankind

(3) A virogene in his Ten Commandments triggering ceaseless clashes between civilizations

i. “God does not play dice!” exclaimed Einstein angrily: With the end of miracles came the end of faith

ii. Abandoned by his “chosen people”: With the end of justice came the end of faith

iii. His omnipotence proved to be false by the antimony: Can he create a stone that he cannot move?

(1) China’s ShangDi who cares about all people vs. Jehovah who does not tolerate people of different faiths

(2) China’s ShangDi who has the spirit of inclusiveness, inspiring both affection and respect, vs. Jehovah who lacks the spirit of forgiveness

(3) China’s ShangDi who is broad-minded and sagacious vs. Jehovah who is bent on revenge

(4) China’s ShangDi who educates people about the cycles of Nature vs. Jehovah who is always on guard against people for fear of treason

(5) China’s ShangDi who advocates fairness and justice vs. Jehovah who hits upon one redeeming point – teaching people to be filial to their parents

(6) China’s ShangDi’s occasional lapse in thought vs. Jehovah’s total incompetence in managing the secular world

(7) China’s ShangDi giving advices on communion with him, on preventing and mitigating disasters, and on moral cultivation and health enhancement

VI. Need for reformation for both Confucianism as religion and Christianity: To break away from their respective versions of “two false beliefs”

I. What agonized Montesquieu: He found Chinese civilization unbeatable and it almost impossible to establish the Christian Church in China

Montesquieu the French Enlightenment thinker, on getting to know about the history of China through the missionaries, discovered the secret for the uninterrupted continuation of Chinese civilization: It is difficult to conquer China; even if it was conquered militarily by other ethnic tribes, the conquerors would soon be assimilated by Chinese civilization. He lamented:

“Hence it follows that the laws of China are not destroyed by conquest. Their customs, manners, laws, and religion being the same thing, they cannot change all these at once; and as it will happen that either the conqueror or the conquered must change, in China it has always been the conqueror. For the manners of the conquering nation not being their customs, nor their customs their laws, nor their laws their religion, it has been more easy for them to conform by degrees to the vanquished people than the latter to them.” (The Spirit of Laws, XIX-18.)

Hence his virtual conclusion: Chinese civilization cannot be beaten. This discovery much agonized him as a Christian, because “it is almost impossible for Christianity ever to be established in China”:

“There still follows hence a very unhappy consequence, which is that it is almost impossible for Christianity ever to be established in China. The vows of virginity, the assembling of women in churches, their necessary communication with the ministers of religion, their participation in the sacraments, auricular confession, extreme unction, the marriage of only one wife — all these overturn the manners and customs of the country, and with the same blow strike at their religion and laws.

“The Christian religion, by the establishment of charity, by a public worship, by a participation of the same sacraments, seems to demand that all should be united; while the rites of China seem to ordain that all should be separated.” （Ibid.）

Montesquieu’s conclusion might be a little too lopsided and hasty, because the invincibility of Chinese civilization and its ability to assimilate military conquerors lies in its core spirit, generalized by Guan Zhong as “orientation towards the people” (《管子》第23章,霸言), that was more in agreement with human nature and, being open, highly capable of learning from, digesting, assimilating and integrating foreign culture for the purpose of creative innovation.

Chinese civilization is experiencing the severest test ever in its five-thousand-year history, that is, how to properly confront the challenges from modern Western civilization with its advantages in such modern institutions as science and technology, capital power, the Christian religion and political democracy. While China is growing stronger and rising rapidly through competition with the West and mutual learning in science and technology, capital growth, and institutional reform to jointly promote human development, in the realm of spiritual belief Christianity is taking root and spreading quickly in China in its rivalry with native Chinese spiritual tradition, in spite of Montesquieu’s prediction that “it is almost impossible for Christianity ever to be established in China”.

However, this competition has not been fair because the Christian Church in trying to attract native Chinese people and promote its own influence has, through translation of the god of Jehovah’s name, usurped the divine title and power of the authentic Chinese上帝(ShangDi) or “God of gods”. Its approach is not only obviously unfair but also inconsistent with the covenant between Jehovah and Moses and with the Church’s rule, either. According to Jehovah’s professed will, this approach should be rectified.

II. ShangDi (上帝) being the Chinese God of gods, the translation of God Jehovah as“上帝”does not match His position and identity

According to the Classic of History, or Shangshu, the sacred book for religious Confucianism, Emperor Yao (2377 – 2259 BC) abdicated and handed over the crown to Shun, who accepted and held a grand coronation ceremony to report this to ShangDi with sacrifices to him and all other gods:

“Shun did not accept at first, giving preference to somebody else with virtue. Then on an auspicious day in the first month of the lunar year, Shun finally accepted the appointment in Yao’s imperial ancestral temple. After observing the movements of the Big Dipper, Shun listed seven major government duties. Then, ceremonies were held to report to ShangDi on the succession and to offer sacrifices to Heaven, Earth and the spirits of the four seasons, and to gods of mountains and rivers, and also to report and offer sacrifices to all other gods in the heavens.” (《尚书·舜典》)

Obviously, ShangDi was the supreme god of all other gods in the remote ancient times of China, comparable only to Zeus of ancient Greece and Jupiter of ancient Rome.

In contrast, the first of the Ten Commandments in the Christian Bible reads:

“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me.”

This shows that Jehovah has made it clear that he is the sole god for the Jews. As a sole god, he is no doubt a loner, not the god of all gods, which means he does not have the status of a supreme god. Therefore, he is in no position to have his title translated into ShangDi, which was the supreme god in China in remote antiquity.

By translating Jehovah as ShangDi, the Christian Church has stolen the supreme authority and prestige from China’s original supreme god and, in collusion with Western colonialist and capitalist forces, been trying to hoodwink Chinese believers and imposing on them the loner imposter Jehovah as the authentic ShangDi.

If the Christian Church had shown respect for its Bible, for its God Jehovah and for His Ten Commandments, it should have acknowledged that He is the only god for the Jews and for the Church. Even though there is the record of the coming of Jesus Christ in the New Testament, since the Church has declared God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit as a trinity, that is, three in ONE, there is still only ONE God for it. Therefore, as a monotheist religion, Christianity does not leave room for lower- or middle-level gods for Jehovah to command and, hence, Jehovah is not a supreme god and should not be translated as ShangDi the god of gods. There should be no ShangDi in the Christian Church.

Considering the above, this author would like to appeal to the Chinese Christian Church not to call God Jehovah “ShangDi” any more, and also appeal to all authors writing on this topic not to translate or call God Jehovah as “ShangDi” any more, lest they should go against God Jehovah’s own position and the Ten Commandments and also contradict the history of China and that of the Jews.

As early as in remote antiquity before the times of the Yellow Emperor, religion had already been part of the Chinese civilization. According to Sima Qian the Great Historian, the Yellow Emperor saw the most frequent sacrifices offered to the gods since antiquity:

“Since ancient times, offering of sacrifices to the gods of mountains and rivers and other spirits has been most frequent during the reign of the Yellow Emperor.” (《史记·五帝本纪第一》)

Historical records of Shun holding ceremonies on accepting the appointment from Yao to report to ShangDi and offer sacrifices to Him and all other gods show that as early as 4000 years ago the religious practice of worshipping ShangDi had already been part of Chinese civilization. That is to say that at that time China was already under the divine reign of ShangDi and all other gods below him.

(2) The god of gods and the final approver of secular regimes as legitimate and justifiable

“As he was getting on in years, Emperor Yao had Shun act on behalf of him in government administration as the Son of Heaven, to see if the latter can fulfill the mandate of heaven. Then, on observing the movements of the Big Dipper, Shun listed seven major government duties, and held ceremonies to report to ShangDi on his succession to the throne and to offer sacrifices to Heaven, Earth and the spirits of the four seasons, and to gods of mountains and rivers, and also to report and offer sacrifices to all other gods in the heavens.” (Ibid.)

So, both historical records show that Shun also reported to other gods on his accepting Yao’s appointment after he did to ShangDi, which indicated that ShangDi was not a loner god but the god of gods and also that only with His final approval could the emperor’s authority be legitimate and justified.

Later, Shun passed on the crown to the Great Yu, who said that Shun worshipped ShangDi piously and so ShangDi would show auspicious signs:

“Yu said: ‘Ah, Emperor! You have treated your ministers with care and performed your administrative duties properly. The ministers assisting you are virtuous and, so, all under heaven have responded to you with firm support. You have followed ShangDi’s mandate with a serene heart and, so, ShangDi will show you auspicious signs from time to time.’” (《史记.夏本纪第二》)

This demonstrates that the continued legitimacy of the secular regimes of emperors also came from ShangDi’s final approval, without which their authority would not be guaranteed.

About the revolution that had overthrown the Xia dynasty, King Tang of Shang said that he had just acted on the mandate from ShangDi, which he should not disregard: “I hold ShangDi in awe and veneration and, so, dare not ignore Him.” –

“The king said: ‘’Come on, everybody, and listen to me. It was not to assert my humble self that I dared to rise in revolt, but just because the king of Xia had committed too many atrocities and it was the mandate from heaven to overthrow him.… I hold ShangDi in awe and veneration and, so, dare not ignore Him.”(《商书·汤誓》)

When King Wu of Zhou marched into Chaoge, the capital of Shang, Yidie (伊佚) made an announcement in the former’s name to the people of Shang, saying that, because King Zhou of Shang (商纣王) had slighted the gods by not offering sacrifices to ShangDi, their revolt was an act on ShangDi’s mandate:

“Ji Zhou (季纣, the same as “Zhou”), the last descendent of Shang, abandoned your former kings’ virtuous tradition – he slighted the gods by not offering them sacrifices, and tyrannized his own people. His flagrant crimes were reported to ShangDi the Heavenly God.” Then King Wu knelt down and bowed twice, touching his forehead to the ground, and said “In answer to ShangDi’s divine order, I have abolished the Shang regime. I am acting on the mandate from the Heavenly God.” And he bowed again, touching his forehead to the ground, before withdrawing. (《史记·周本纪第四》)

After King Wu died, King Cheng (成王) succeeded but, as he was too young, Duke Zhou acted as regent. In 1063 BC, some of King Wu’s brothers rebelled and Duke Zhou decided to send troops out to put them down. Some other dukes and princes and the ministers thought it a very difficult task and tried to persuade Duke Zhou to ignore the message from the tortoise-shell divination and stop the military action, but the Duke said that it was a mandate from ShangDi, which he should not ignore: “I am too humble to disregard the mandate from ShangDi.” –

“I am spurred by the mandate from heaven. ShangDi entrusts me with this hard task. I should not care for only myself. You fellow sovereigns and ministers should have encouraged me by saying ‘Do not be daunted by hardships. You should not give up what King Wen has started!’

“Well, I am too humble to disregard the mandate from ShangDi. ShangDi has obliged King Wen by helping our small state of Zhou rise. It was through tortoise-shell divination at that time that King Wen undertook the mandate. Now it is also through the same kind of divination that ShangDi is giving help to our people. The mandate from heaven should be held in awe. Please help me with this great mission!” (《尚书·大诰》)

The above shows that all through the three dynasties of Xia, Shang and Zhou the authority of the monarch was granted by the supreme god in China’s political tradition, that is, ShangDi had the final say on secular politics and power transmission.

(4) Bestowing on the Great Yu (大禹) The Great Plan in Nine Categories (《洪范·九筹》), the earliest constitution in human history

Due to repeated destructions during times of political upheavals, such as that of the imperial library and archives of Zhou and Qin Shihuang’s burning of books, no more records on ShangDi have been retained. The greatest impact ShangDi has left on Chinese civilization is embodied, however, in The Great Plan in Nine Categories, the earliest constitution in human history, which He bestowed on the Chinese during the reign of the Great Yu.

After Yu began to put the Great Plan into trial use, he started to establish rules and regulations on the greatest scale since SanHuangWuDi (三皇五帝, the great three emperors and five sovereigns, partially legendary and partially historical tribal union leaders in ancient China before Xia dynasty – trans.), which was recorded in the Classic of History.

On winning over all under heaven, King Wu asked Qizi (箕子), minister of the overthrown Shang regime, to analyze the causes for the downfall of Shang dynasty and tell about the fundamental principles of statecraft. Qizi evaded talking about former emperors but told King Wu how Shang’s fundamental governing policies had been originated in ShangDi’s revelation:

“Qizi said, ‘I heard that in the past Gun (鲧) tried to deal with the flood by blocking it up and messed up with the five-way relations of things (五行). ShangDi was infuriated and refused to give him The Great Plan in Nine Categories, thus common-sense statecraft was corrupted. Later, Gun died in exile and Yu [Gun’s son – Trans.] took over the task of flood control. Then ShangDi bestowed on him The Great Plan in Nine Categories, and thus regular governance guidelines were established.’” (《尚书·周书·洪范》)

Evidently, it was because ShangDi had revealed to him the nine major guidelines for governing the world that Yu was able to lay down the fundamental governance policies for Xia dynasty. Therefore, The Great Plan has been China’s, perhaps also the world’s, earliest constitution.

(5) Polytheist Confucianism, with a more mature covenant (vs. that of monotheist Western Church) and unitary church management

The bestowing of The Great Plan by ShangDi on Great Yu marked the shaping up of the fundamental creed of Confucianism as a religion.

As a polytheist religion, Confucianism is not radically exclusive but broadly inclusive.

On the other hand, because of its strong capability to include and unify diverse elements, its polytheism was not an obstacle to the development of a unified creed as was the case with polytheist religions in other areas of the world, such as in ancient Greece and Rome, where people worshiped too many gods for a unitary creed to take shape.

As compared with the covenants of Western monotheist religions with a single god, which originated in the Ten Commandments and were more or less the same, the Chinese Great Plan in Nine Categories as a covenant law from ShangDi was more mature, thorough and nearly perfect.

During the three dynasties of Xia, Shang and Zhou, the Church and the state were unified as one with Confucianist religion as the official church. The religious ritual system, which later developed into the Confucianist Church, was at first embodied in the rites of Xia dynasty, which were later inherited and further developed in the rites of Shang, and still further developed in those of Zhou. About this process, Confucius once said:

“Shan dynasty inherited Xia’s ritual system; What was omitted and what added are known to us. Zhou dynasty again inherited Shang’s ritual system; What was omitted and what added are also known to us. What will be carried on from Zhou in the future, even till after a hundred generations, can also be foreseen.” (《论语·为政》)

Zhou’s ritual system abounded in ceremonial rites for worshipping and offering sacrifices to ShangDi and all other gods. The government department in charge of such ceremonial affairs, that is, Grand Zongbai (大宗伯)’s office, was the de facto official Church’s power center:

“The duties of Grand Zongbai’s office were to institute the empire’s system of rites for offering sacrifices to the gods of Heaven and Earth and to the spirits of ancestors so as to assist the monarch in establishing and stabilizing all the states under heaven, and to take charge of such grand ceremonies to pay respect to celestial, terrestrial and human spirits, and to worship the Reigning Sovereign in Heavens with smoke-ascending rites.” (《周礼·卷三春官宗伯》)

The office had one Grand Zongbai minister, two Intermediate Daifus (中大夫) as Grand Zongbai officials, four Junior Daifus (下大夫) as Sishi (肆师, altar setter), several assistants and “numerous clerics” (Ibid.), forming a fully-staffed religious power center of the Church of Confucianism.

This indicates that the Church was managed by the state through the office of Grand Zongbai, which functioned simultaneously both as the Church’s power center and the state’s religious affairs administration, thus unifying the state and the Church as one entity. But the Chinese church-state unity was different from that of the medieval West in that Grand Zongbai was a functional department of the state while being the top Church authority, not some religious power above the secular regime.

(1) Not a universal god: Having created the Garden of Eden and the Jews only, not the whole world nor the whole mankind

The Christian Church, copying from the Old Testament of Judaism, from which it had originated, and declared in the first chapter Genesis of its Bible that Jehovah the God had created heaven and earth and man’s earliest ancestors Adam and Eve, i.e., created the whole mankind. Hence, The Church has been worshipping Jehovah as the sole god and an omnipotent god.

However, what is recorded in the Bible has debunked the above myth. The Hebrews or early Jews, who were Adam’s descendents, were once exiled in Egypt and oppressed by the Egyptians but finally fled from there. When Moses and Aaron went to Egypt and entreated the Pharaoh, saying that Jehovah the God of Israel hoped that the Pharaoh would allow his people to leave --

“The Pharaoh said, ‘Who is Jehovah to have me obey him and allow the Israelites to leave? I don’t know him, nor shall I allow the Israelites to leave.’” (The Bible· Exodus, back translation from Chinese.)

The Bible·Genesis and other records indicate that long before the Jews there had already been existing many other peoples such as the Egyptians, that Heaven and Earth had already existed for these other peoples, that Jehovah had not created the whole Heaven and Earth nor the whole mankind – he had created no more than the limited garden of Eden and the Hebrews, or the earliest Jews. Obviously the Christian Church has arrogated to itself the merits of others.

The Egyptian Pharaoh’s turning a deaf ear to Jehovah’s request shows that in his eyes Jehovah was just an insignificant lesser god.

(2) A merciless god, arbitrary about man’s original sin and the Judgment Day

Adam and Eve could not see anything and were ignorant at first when Jehovah created them. Induced by the snake, they ate the forbidden fruits from the tree of wisdom so that they began to see the world, could tell good from evil, and acquired wisdom and a sense of shame. On discovering this, Jehovah went into a rage:

“… I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your descendents and hers ...

“God said to Adam, ‘Because you listened to your wife, and disobeyed Me, she will be cursed for your sake. And you would have to work hard to get food to grow.’ …

… “And Jehovah said ‘the man has become as one of us and knows good and evil and, by putting forth his hand and eating fruits from the tree of life, he can live for ever’ … Then he drove out the man and at the east of the garden of Eden placed the cherubim and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.” (The Bible·Genesis, back translation from Chinese.)

Thus, Adam’s descendents, the Jews, have been burdened with the original sin of betraying Jehovah. They have been born sinners in his eyes, for which they would suffer from calamities, miseries and deaths as severe and endless punishments. When the Judgment Day comes, they will be judged by Jehovah, and the primary criterion for telling between good and evil will be whether they have abided by the first of the Ten Commandments, that is, if they have worshipped Jehovah as the sole god.

The above shows that Jehovah is a merciless god, as it was just because of his negligence and failure to guard against the snake that Adam and Eve were induced to eat the fruits from the tree of wisdom. Though they were wrong

In failing to comply with his prohibition, it was first of all because they had been made ignorant by Jehovah that they could not resist the temptation. The fault originated with no other than Jehovah himself. But, instead of blaming himself, Jehovah imposed overly heavy penalties on Adam and Eve for lesser offences.

Furthermore, even if Adam and Eve deserved heavy punishments, it is not just to penalize all their descendents for that without end, for his practice has involved innocent people of all future generations in endless punishments till the Judgment Day.

Even more sadly, terrified by the Christian myths of original sin and Judgment Day and tempted by the prospect that true believers of Christianity will be forgiven for their sins on the Judgment Day and be sent to the paradise in the next world, all other groups of people who have not been in any way related ethnically to the Jews but have converted to Christianity and believed in Jehovah have also been considered unreasonably as sinners subjected to the final Judgment.

(3) A virogene in Jehovah’s Ten Commandments causing ceaseless clashes between civilizations

While almost all religions are more or less exclusive, Judaism, Christianity and Islam are extremely so because all of them take the Ten Commandments as their basic precepts.

The first commandment says: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me.”

Jehovah himself said that he was the only god for Israelis and hence demanded that Israelis reject all other deities.

The second commandment reads “You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

This means that anyone who hates him is guilty of sin so that he should avenge by imposing punishments even onto innocent descendents till the fourth generation.

Jehovah insisted that his followers should relentlessly put to death all those Israelis who believe in other religions, even including their wives and sons, brothers, and friends:

“…do not yield to them or listen to them. Show them no pity. Do not spare them or shield them. You must certainly put them to death. Your hand must be the first in putting them to death, and then the hands of all the people. Stone them to death, because they tried to turn you away from the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.” （Deuteronomy 13： 8-10）

Also, if people of other tribes try to convert Israelis to their beliefs, they should all be killed by destroying their cities and sparing no one:

“…you must certainly put to the sword all who live in that town. You must destroy it completely, both its people and its livestock. You are to gather all the plunder of the town into the middle of the public square and completely burn the town and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. That town is to remain a ruin forever, never to be rebuilt.” (Ibid. 15-16)

This was how Christians massacred believers of other deities in the Crusades and how they exterminated indigenous peoples in the Americas and Australia in their fury of conquest.

Thus, the gene for religious intolerance that originated in Jehovah’s Ten Commandments and is rooted in Hebrew culture has infatuated all other religions that take the Ten Commandments as their fundamental precepts – they have all adopted an inimical attitude towards other religions and their gods and their followers would reject, fight, slaughter and try to eliminate all those who have different religious beliefs.

As a result, mutual rejection, wars, massacres, and genocides between such religions, or endless clashes between civilizations, are inevitable. All these have been happening even between different sects within a same religion. Wars of this kind have been raging on in the name of “holy wars”. All this are manifestations of attacks from exclusionist virogenes.

Therefore, although in earlier years the Ten Commandments provided a unitary moral principle for the unity of the Jews against oppression and for the consolidation of the Roman Empire, such deeply-rooted extreme intolerance and irreconcilability has become one of the virogenes that have been triggering ceaseless clashes between different human civilizations.

In China, the genesis of the world was marked by the separation of heaven and earth accomplished by Pangu (盘古) ; that is, Pangu did not create the world, just as Jehovah did not. And the first human being was made from earth by Nüwa (女娲); that is, she did not create man from nothing, just as Jehovah did not. In ancient Chinese religion, ShangDi was worshipped as the god of all gods, but he was never viewed as omnipotent, while the Christian Church has been deluding its followers by declaring Jehovah as almighty.

i. “God does not play dice!” exclaimed Einstein angrily: With the end of miracles came the end of faith

A major reason for people to believe Jehovah as the only God is because he appears to have great magic power. For instances, he used magic power to beat the Egyptians and help the Jews flee Egypt by carving out a way through the Red Sea. These miracles gave the Jews of that time faith in him.

However, though Jehovah had promised to grant his “chosen people” the Jews the Sinai area “flowing with milk and honey” (today’s Palestinian territory), the Jews have never obtained a foothold since then but, in spite of their exceptional intelligence, have been wandering and driven from place to place all over the world and even been subjected to genocide by the Nazis during WWII. How many pious Jews did appeal to their “Almighty God” for help, but trainloads of Jews were still being sent, one after another, to the incinerators of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp.

Where was the Almighty God Jehovah? Why did he not use the same magic power to beat the Nazis as he did before with the Egyptians? Not surprisingly, faced with Jehovah’s inaction, the ethnically Jewish Einstein roared angrily: “God does not play dice!”

Though the Jews have established their own state today in western Palestine, it was not the work of Jehovah’s magic power but the arrangement of United nations after WWII together with the support from Jewish capital forces.

Distrust in Jehovah went back as early as when he concluded the Ten Commandments with Moses. When Jehovah gave the stone tablet with inscriptions of the Ten Commandments to Moses, the clansmen were not happy about these commandments at all so that they destroyed the tablet in anger. That was why Jehovah ordered Moses to make a new tablet and on completion place it in the Ark of the Covenant for its security.

Later, when people did not see any more miracles from Jehovah, though not long after fleeing Egypt, they slipped back into Egyptians’ religious faith again. On this, Hobbes concluded: “With the end of miracles, came the end of faith.” See below:

“Moses had shown them God’s will, which he had accepted, by way of the miracles and the fact that he had guided them out of Egypt through dangerous situations. But forty days after they left, they abandoned their faith in God that Moses had taught them, and worshipped the golden calf as their god (see Exodus, XXXII, 1-2), thus falling back into the idolatry of the Egyptians, from whose bondage they had just escaped. Besides, after the death of Moses, Aaron, Joshua and the generation that had witnessed God’s great feat in Israel (see Book of Judges, II, 11), another generation rose and worshipped Baal. This shows that ‘with the end of miracles came the end of faith.’” (The Leviathan, Chap 12, On Religion. Back translation from Chinese.)

ii. Abandoned by his “chosen people”: With the end of justice came the end of faith

The Jews established the Judaist Church on the covenant with Jehovah, but the corruption of the church shook the chosen people’s faith in Jehovah again, so much so that they wanted to abandon him:

“Besides, on being appointed by Samuel as judges at Beer-Sheba, his sons did not follow his example but took bribes (see Books of Samuel, VIII, 3) and, so, the people of Israel did not want to keep Jehovah as their king who ruled in a way different from those in other nations. Hence, they appealed to Samuel and asked him to appoint a king over them as in all the nations. This shows that with the end of justice came the end of faith. Thus, they deposed Jehovah, abandoning him as their king.” (Ibid.)

Later, the Christian Church also degenerated like its Judaist predecessor and indulged serious corruption in accumulating wealth through imposing private mass charges, earthly purgatory charges, etc. Hobbes questioned:

“Many of the things to be done for salvation as declared by the Roman Catholic Church were serving the interests of the Pope and of the believers in the Christian kingdoms… One may ask: In whose pockets did those private mass charges and earthly purgatory charges end up? There were also signs of other self-seeking tricks besides these. If, as I said above, the clergymen’s sanctity, wisdom and integrity as assessed by secular officials and by the general public fell short of their support, all this was enough to stifle a most viable faith.” (Ibid.)

But Jehovah has never been witnessed to perform any miracles to punish his Church for their degeneration and corruption. Therefore, many Christians abandoned their faith in him, just as Hobbes said: “With the end of justice came the end of faith”.

iii. His omnipotence proved to be false by the antimony: Can he create a stone that he cannot move?

As early as the Reformation during the medieval times, people already questioned Jehovah’s omnipotence. He was actually placed into a helpless impasse by the following omnipotence paradox: Can he create a stone that he cannot move?

If he can, that would prove he is not omnipotent because there would be some stone he cannot move.

If he cannot, that would prove he is not omnipotent because he cannot create a certain kind of stone.

i. China’s ShangDi who cares about all people vs. Jehovah who does not tolerate people of different faiths

The Great Plan has nine categories. The first one demands compliance with the Five-Way correlations (五行) between all things:

“… the first is represented by water; the second, fire; the third, wood; the fourth, metal; the fifth, earth. Water moistens everything below. Fire burns upwards. Wood can be bent or straightened. Metal can be reshaped as people wish. Earth can nourish all crops. Moistening water produces salty taste. Burning fire, bitterness. Bendable wood, sourness. Malleable metal, hot taste. Nourishing earth, sweetness.”

Apparently, China’s ShangDi does not demand of people unconditional worshipping of him but shows care for their livelihood and farming business by giving advice regarding the paramount necessity of following the law of nature in managing state affairs.

In contrast, the first article in the Ten Commandments demands of the Jews unconditional worshipping of Jehovah as the only deity, threatening them with punishments on them and on all future generations of their descendents. This shows his extreme exclusionist intolerance.

ii. China’s ShangDi who has the spirit of inclusiveness, inspiring both affection and respect, vs. Jehovah who lacks the spirit of forgiveness

The second category of The Great Plan demands attention to “five things”, such as correct world outlook and way of thinking, talking and acting properly, and clear observation:

“… the five things: first, physical appearance; second, verbal expression; third, observation; fourth, knowledge; fifth, thinking. One’s physical appearance should show respect for others; verbal expressions be proper; observations accurate; knowledge extensive; and thoughts thorough. Respectful appearance means earnestness; proper expressions good administration; accurate observation better understanding; extensive knowledge resourcefulness; and thorough thinking excellent judgment.” (《尚书·周书·洪范》)

Obviously this is a broad-minded Supreme God, worthy of affection and respect like a beloved father and teacher.

In contrast, the second of the Ten Commandments demands “You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

This is a further elaboration of collective punishment threats for violating the first commandment. It betrays Jehovah’s lack of magnanimity and his obstinate vengefulness against opposition, showing him as a narrow-minded, unforgiving low-class deity without the largeness of mind embodied in the second category of The Great Plan, which teaches people how to observe, think, express etc.

iii. China’s ShangDi who is broad-minded and sagacious vs. Jehovah who is bent on revenge

The third category of The Great Plan sets forth eight major administrative duties:

“…the eight administrative duties: first, see to it that the people have enough to feed themselves on; second, manage financial and material wealth for the state; third, administer sacrificial affairs; fourth, take care of all the residents of the state; fifth, manage educational affairs; sixth, harness robbers and thieves; seventh, manage affairs related to pilgrimage or paying tribute to the emperor; eighth, manage military affairs.” (Ibid.)

Clearly, this is a Supreme God who cares for humanity and teaches secular monarchs how to serve the people diligently, how to take an overall view of all things on the one side while at the same time handling all affairs separately on the other without neglecting either side.

Contrastingly, the third of the Ten Commandments dictates that “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.”

Jehovah, bent on seeking majestic dignity for himself, is obsessed with how people address him, deems those sinful who call him by his name and would not give up penalizing them for that. This shows his petty-mindedness, whereas China’s ShangDi, with a big heart and divine wisdom, never cares how people address him, never allowing such things weigh on his mind.

iv. China’s ShangDi who educates people about the cycles of Nature vs. Jehovah who is always on guard against people for fear of treason

The fourth category of The Great Plan stipulates that the state should implement a calendar that follows the cycles of nature:

“… five ways for recording time: first, by the year; second, by the month; third, by the day; fourth, by the movement of the stars; fifth, by the imperial order of succession.” (《尚书·周书·洪范》)

ShangDi’s purpose in advising people to follow the cycles of stars and seasons is to facilitate farming production and daily life, in the same way as today’s astronomers are interested in the study of the heavenly bodies in the universe. It commands our deep admiration.

On the contrary, the fourth of the Ten Commandments says that “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”

One may wonder why Jehovah prescribed that his people should live and work according to his schedule and rest on the seventh day. Later, his Church made Sunday a holiday, i.e., a day when people should go to the churches to listen to the clergymen’s preaching lectures or to sing psalms or make confessions. This commandment shows some concern for his people but its major purpose was to, through the worshipping rituals, instill his ideology into his disciples’ minds so as to keep them firmly attached to his Church lest they should convert to other faiths.

v. China’s ShangDi who advocates fairness and justice vs. Jehovah who hits upon one redeeming point – teaching people to be filial to their parents

The fifth category of The Great Plan concerns the core issue of constitutionalism, i.e., the implementation of non-hegemonic fairness and justice on the societal level:

“The imperial law: The monarch needs to have a supreme standard, or law, for all administrative affairs. Promote the five blessings [i.e., longevity, wealth, honor, peace, and numerous descendents – note by translator] and award them to the common people. Then the people would respect the law. Here is the tip for maintenance of the law: Make sure that there are no evil ganging-ups or factional practices among your subjects but all looking up to you for the supreme example…. No unfairness or injustice but kingly righteousness to comply with; No partiality but the kingly way to follow; No evil-doing but the kingly course of action to stick to; No favoritism or factionalism -- broad is the kingly way; No factionalism or favoritism -- level is the kingly way; No going contrary or astray – straight forward is the kingly way. Unite those ministers who abide by the law; Submit to those monarchs who adhere to the law. This means: the monarch should have his moral example widely publicized so that ShangDi would be satisfied, while all his subjects propagate and follow the monarch’s example in words and deeds so as to be bathed in the glory of the Son of Heaven. In a word, by treating the people as parents do their children, the Son of Heaven would be a benevolent king of the world.” (Ibid.)

Obviously, the fundamental stipulation in China’s ShangDi’s “constitution” was that the monarch should follow the kingly way, that is, the Heavenly Way or the natural law of selflessness, fairness, justice and impartiality. ShangDi also stipulated that the monarch should be a moral example so that his authority is justifiable and legitimate. That indicates both the sovereign and the common people should follow the non-hegemonic Heavenly way. What a great supreme god ShangDi is, who has programmed the finest political gene into the Chinese civilization!

While China’s ShangDi is concerned about social fairness and justice, the fifth of the Ten Commandment raises a point about familial relations, demanding that his disciples should “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the LORD your God gives you.” At long last, Jehovah showed some humaneness and said something sensible, as actually neither could the Jews escape from nor could Jehovah alter the law of Nature, though he has created the first parents for the Jews, that “there could be no sons and daughters without parents, just as no Earth without Heaven.”

vi. China’s ShangDi’s occasional lapse in thought vs. Jehovah’s total incompetence in managing the secular world

The sixth category of The Great Plan demands that the monarch should have the three virtues of righteousness, winning firmness and winning flexibility:

“… the three virtues: righteousness, winning firmness and winning flexibility. Being just and moderate is righteousness; being firm enough not to befriend indiscriminately, winning firmness; and being agreeable and affable whenever advisable, winning flexibility. It is necessary to curb those who are inadvisably uncompromising and honor those who are sensibly flexible and agreeable. Only the sovereign can enjoy and give out benefits; only he has the final authority to apply penalties; only he can enjoy and entertain others with fine foods. His subjects are not supposed to have these entitlements; if they should be allowed to overstep such bounds, it would harm your family and throw your state into disorder. All the officials would stray from the right path and the common people be misled and disoriented.” (Ibid.)

The purpose of this category was to maintain the hierarchical order with top power invested in the monarch and guard against possible arrogation and disturbance. It demonstrated ShangDi’s majestic dignity in protecting the sacred right of legitimate secular monarchs and embodied the holiness of the god of all gods.

The one lapse in ShangDi’s directive was, however, the lack of necessary check on the monarch’s power and a policy to prevent and penalize possible misconduct on his part, though the latter was required to be a moral example for all. Understandably, ShangDi is not infallible either. This, however, cannot overshadow the brilliancy of ShangDi’s unsurpassed overall wisdom.

The sixth through the tenth of the Ten Commandments admonish: “You shall not kill”, “You shall not commit adultery”, “You shall not steal”, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor”, and “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor’s”. Though important, they are, as the bare minimum requirements for maintaining social order, only part of a penal code and, being too simplistic and leaving innumerable loopholes unclosed, far from adequate for governing a nation. Taken as a whole, the Ten Commandments, with so many major issues in social management uncovered, is not an equivalent to a constitution in nature but a provisional covenant as an emergency agreement used to intimidate the Jews and prevent them from rebelling against him.

vii. China’s ShangDi giving advices on communion with him, on preventing and mitigating disasters, and on moral cultivation and health enhancement

The seventh category of The Great Plan stipulates that, when readings of a divination differ, that of the majority, or of a deity, or of a deity and the people, take precedence respectively over that of the minority, of human beings, and of the monarch and officials (details omitted here for brevity). This is, obviously, to teach people how to communicate with him and make right decisions in running the state.

The eighth category is about how to foretell, prevent and mitigate possible disasters, showing that ShangDi is very thoughtful.

The ninth category calls for cultivation of virtues and enhancement of health, showing ShangDi’s concern for the spiritual and physical well-being of each and every individual besides overall administration, general social order and people’s livelihood as a whole.

Evidently, China’s ShangDi is a benevolent god, who teaches people on how to spiritually communicate with him, how to guard against and alleviate disasters, and how to cultivate virtues and build up health.

V. Need for reformation for both Confucianism as religion and Christianity: To break away from their respective versions of “two whatevers”

To sum up, China’s ancient Great Plan in Nine Categories has the following as its core ideas: The sovereign should practice the non-hegemonic way of governing with no self-serving partiality while not allowing any challenge to his supreme authority; should promote virtue among the people and implement benevolent rule with himself as a moral example; should implement the rule of law and develop economy in line with the law of nature to meet the needs of the people and enhance their health; should maintain social order and secure the safety of the state and all people under heaven. This is an outstanding constitution, with which ShangDi has implanted good genes into the long-standing Chinese civilization.

As to The Ten Commandments, while having played an important role in effectively maintaining the unity and independence of the Jewish nation in their fight against oppression by other nations, its virogene of extreme exclusionism has been one of the major causes for the mutual rejection, confrontations, conflicts and wars between Judaism, Christianity and Islam and also for continuous clashes between different human civilizations.

Meanwhile, being merely a provisional covenant between Jehovah and the Jews, not a state law, The Ten Commandments is too simple, even simpler than village regulations in ancient China, to assume the equivalent function of a constitution.

Furthermore, it has been standing in the way for normal contacts and communications between the Jewish and other nations, so that the Jewish people, intelligent and outstanding and dwelling all over the world as they are, are the most secluded and isolated. During WW II, when they were hunted by the Nazis, many countries would not take risks to accept them except a few such as China, an inclusive nation.

In conclusion, Jehovah’s Ten Commandments and China’s ShangDi’s Great Plan in Nine Categories are vastly different as between earth and heaven.

China’s ShangDi is a great and benevolent god of gods, commanding affection and respect from his believers, and at the same time holy and inviolable.

However, later believers of Confucianism worshipped Confucius after his death more than they did “spiritual beings” because “The subjects on which the Master [Confucius] did not talk, were — extraordinary things, feats of strength, disorder, and spiritual beings.” (《论语· 述而》, Chap 7, Trans. by James Legge). Hence, ShangDi gradually faded from people’s memory and they began to focus all their attention exclusively on secular politics and earthly life. As they neglected the wherefrom and whereto of their lives, some false belief in “two whatevers” took shape unwittingly in Confucian faith:

(1) Whatever Confucius had said, such as no talking on “extraordinary … and spiritual things”, must be followed to the letter. Thus, Confucianism shunned and played down people’s faith in and worship of ShangDi and all other gods and gave up its authority in guiding people over spiritual matters and in discourse on religious issues.

(2) Whatever Confucius had advocated, such as exclusive attention on secular politics and social ethics with no concern over the wherefrom and whereto of human lives, must be followed to the letter. Thus, Confucianism gave up attention on and efforts to understand the origin and destiny of human lives and lost its discursive power, not to say guiding power, in the supreme realm regarding the meaning of life.

The false belief in these “two whatevers” have greatly reduced Confucianism’s religious function and its impact on the grass-roots population, so much so that its influence has been limited within the circle of social elites.

Therefore, reform is necessary for Confucianism to revive as a religion. Such questions need to be asked: Shouldn’t Confucianism restore faith in ShangDi and other related gods? Shouldn’t it learn from Buddhism, Daoism, Christianity and Islam and propagate its original understanding of the wherefrom and whereto of human lives? And establish corresponding institutions of a religious nature to provide spiritual comfort and guidance to people and help them transcend reality and reach the other side of life?

As to God Jehovah, he is a great Lord Protector for the Jews and also for the Christian Church, without whom there might not have survived the Jewish nation, nor the Judaist religion, nor the monotheist Christianity, nor the Hebrew civilization as has been.

However, the unfair collective punishment imposed by Jehovah on his people and their descendents is too ruthless; his extremely exclusionist enmity against other religious faiths is too narrow-minded. By implanting the virogene of hostility and aggressiveness against other beliefs, he has been a trouble-maker, an instigator of continuous clashes between different human civilizations.

Hence, for humanity to break through the prisoner’s dilemma of clash of civilizations, the exclusionist religions such as Christianity have to undergo some religious revolution and discard the false belief in the following “two whatevers”:

(1) Whatever their only god has said and has stipulated in a covenant must be followed to the letter.

(2) Whatever religions other than their own are heathenisms and all those believers heathens, and should be rejected, fought against and extinguished even by massacre.

All in all, to realize world peace and happiness for all mankind, it is definitely imperative for all religions to have a kind of self-reformation. It is especially necessary to purge such extremely exclusionist and aggressive virogene as that implanted by Jehovah in Hebrew culture while drawing from Chinese tradition the culture of tolerance and, with due respect for other cultures, effect a re-grouping of religious genes by way of discarding the false and retaining the true, so as to help mankind break out together of the prisoner’s dilemma of clash of civilizations.