China's Cosmological Prehistory

An examination of the earliest creation traditions and symbols of China and their similarities to those of other ancient cultures

• Reveals the deep parallels between early Chinese words and those of other ancient creation traditions such as the hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt

• Explores the 8 stages of creation in Taoism and the cosmological origins of Chinese ancestor worship, the zodiac, the mandala, and the I Ching

• Provides further evidence that the cosmology of all ancient cultures arose from a single now-lost source

Building on his extensive research into the sacred symbols and creation myths of the Dogon of Africa and those of ancient Egypt, India, and Tibet, Laird Scranton investigates the myths, symbols, and traditions of prehistoric China, providing further evidence that the cosmology of all ancient cultures arose from a single now-lost source.

Scranton explores the fundamental similarities between the language that defined ancient Chinese cosmology and that of other creation traditions, revealing the connections between the phonetic structure of the words, their glyphs, and their use. He demonstrates striking parallels between the earliest systems of writing in China and the hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt. He examines the 8 levels of creation in Taoism and the cosmological origins of Chinese ancestor worship, mythical emperors, the zodiac, the mandala, and the I Ching. He details the fundamental principles of land-use in ancient China in relation to the symbolism of a Buddhist stupa and the Dogon granary, ritual shrines that are also the central symbol of other creation traditions. Understanding the true meanings of these symbol complexes also reveals the sophisticated scientific understanding of these ancient cultures, for these creation symbols directly correlate with our modern understanding of atoms and the energetic makeup of matter.

In exploring Chinese cosmological traditions, Scranton sheds new light on the contention that the sacred knowledge of the ancients is the legacy of an earlier culture who gave primitive humanity the tools they needed to birth the first known civilizations.

Autorentext

Laird Scranton is an independent software designer who became interested in Dogon mythology and symbolism in the early 1990s. He has studied ancient myth, language, and cosmology since 1997 and has been a lecturer at Colgate University. He also appears in John Anthony West's Magical Egypt DVD series. He lives in Albany, New York.

Inhalt

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 Contours of a Shared Creation Tradition

2 Early Chinese Concepts of Cosmology

3 Ancestor-Teachers in the Chinese Cosmology

4 The Chinese Concept of the Mulberry Tree

5 The Well-Field System

6 The Earliest Chinese Cities

7 Daoism and the Seven Stages of Creation

8 The Mandala

9 The Yijing (I Ching)

10 The Eight Trigrams

11 The Zodiac

12 The Cosmological Role of the Turtle

13 Oracle Bone Writing

14 Symbolism of the Ger, or Yurt

15 The Magic Square and the Numbers Eight and Nine

16 Reconciling China with the Plan of Ancient Cosmology

**Notes

Bibliography

Index