Emperor Kangxi – The Death of Christ

In tune with my previous posting, dated 05/08/17, and yesterday, I miraculously, located the cover of the calendar of 2005, not 2008 that was with the Emperor’s poems on it, I had been looking all over for it, for years, in vain, and it had been on the small shelf on top of my writing desk for the past 12-year. It is all because of HIM that I was able to find it.

功成十字血成溪 (Pinyin – Gōng chéng shízì xiě chéng xī)

When the work of the cross is done, blood flowed like a river,

The second part of the first sentence is about the shedding of the blood. And the Emperor correctly and amazingly stated what says in tune with the scripture (1) that Jesus was already dead, then one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear and  Jesus’ blood and water immediately flowed out.…

The poetry of any poem without punctuation would open up rooms for many different interpretations. As for 血成溪 (Xiě chéng xī), – 血 (Xiě )is blood; 溪(xī) means Brooks that is a form of water; and the Chinese etymology of 成 (chéng) according to the Kangxi dictionary means the ending, at the end (2).

Evidently, the translation is true to its original Chinese text, but for the spiritual reading of 血成溪 (Xiě chéng xī), you may have to agree with me that the scripture 1 John 5:6 (3-NLT) would be more in tune with the whole sentence than John 19:34. It is because that  Jesus Christ was baptized in water as the son of man; by shedding the blood on the Cross as the Son of God. So His finished work is done by water and blood, and the Spirit confirms it with the testimony.

So His finished work is done with both of the water and His blood, and the Spirit is the truth to testify that. I sincerely hope that by the grace of the social media would have more people to give their comments on it.

五(5) 百(100 – Hundred) 鞭挞寸肤裂 (- pinyin – Biāntà cùn fū liè)          

Five hundred lashes tore every inch of His skin

It has always been for over an hour; without having outlines, only power pointing scriptures and without giving out the sermon topic till the middle of the coming week, that’s how Pastor Prince gave his sermon. Last Sunday, (06/08/17)(4), we were on ‘by His stripe(s) we are healed, from Isaiah 53:5b, (5)1 Peter 2:24-25 (6) and beyond. 

It was Pastor’s continuation on the theme of how of God’s healing virtue would have impacted us as Christians. He prayed for God’s healing for the sick during the worship service.  And I was stunned when he called out the in-house-produced big screen visual aid with the sound effect to show how the soldier would deliver blows to Jesus.

I first heard Pastor Prince’ in-depth word study on ‘stripe(s)’ in October 2016. He explained that how the “Hebrew noun translated “stripes” uses a grammatical singular” to fall in with the cruelty of how Jesus was inflicted on the road to the Cross. Last Sunday, Pastor used the Greek translation of the English word of ‘laceration.‘

Physically, the succeeding blows would ripple all the small blood vessels, and all whiplashed were soaked into the skeletal muscles with no skin adhesion left, therefore, what covered Jesus‘ upper back would appear like a Single Strip. Then we would want to ask, as to how many lashes Jesus received?

Pastor Prince further contended that according to Moses’ Law, scourging couldn’t exceed forty (40), but it was under the Roman Law, so Jesus was scourged with more than forty. Although the Emperor brilliantly used 7-word poetic sentence to animate the beatings, however, 500 lashes would be unreal, a hundred is more acceptable, right?

Then I pondered why the Emperor put the 五(5) before the hundreds (百) lashes?Is it that he understood the symbolism of Hebrew numerology? As the number 5 symbolizes God’s grace. Can we conclude that in Nature, Jesus even had to endure a hundred brutal beatings, God’s  grace was sufficient for Jesus to glorify Himself and the Father Supernaturally.

Obviously, we saw the numeral 7 occurs in the last sentence of the poem. Frequently the number 7 is found in contexts that talk about the completeness, but it’s also about the 7 pieces of evidence of Jesus’ Messiahship; 7 miracles (signs) in the Gospel of John and more than 50 times in the book of Revelation. 

There is more symbolism of 7 occurs in the Old Testament. Of course, we can light-heartedly say that 7 is just a number, but we can’t overlook the spiritual significance that’s evident from cover to cover in the entire Bible. So I would have to write another chapter to see how the Emperor puts his magnificent number 7 into his poem contextually.

Please stay tuned

Kay

1. //biblehub.com/John/19:30b; 19:33-34 ESV
2. 又終也。凡樂一終爲一成。 【書·益稷】簫 – www.zdic.net/z/a4/kx/2
3. 1 John 5:6 New Living Translation- ‘And Jesus Christ was revealed as God’s Son by his baptism in water and by shedding his blood on the cross–not by water only, but by water and blood. And the Spirit, who is the truth, confirms it with his testimony.‘
4. JosephPrince.com – http://bit.ly/2urxBen
5. /biblehub.com/Isaiah/53-5.htm – 18k
6. /biblehub.com/1 Peter 2:24-25.htm – 18k

p.s. Pastor Joseph Prince’ sermon dated 06/Aug/2017 was ‘ See the Price God Paid for Your Healing and Receive with a Merry Heart.’ -www.miltongoh.net

 

It probably was in 2008, I received a calendar from the local office of Campus Crusade For Christ (1 )as a give away to people to for the New Year. I immediately felt seriously humbled and challenged as I saw Emperor KangXi – The Death of Christ as the cover of the calendar with the English translations as below:

康熙皇帝 － 基督之死 (Jīdū zhī sǐ) (2)

Emperor Kangxi – The Death of Christ

功成十字血成溪 When the work of the cross is done, blood flowed like a river,
千丈恩流分自西 Grace from the west flowed a thousand yards deep,
身列四衙半夜路 On the midnight road he was subjected to four trials,
徒方三背兩番鸡 Before the rooster crowed twice, three times betrayed by a disciple.
五百鞭达寸肌裂 Five hundred lashes tore every inch of skin,
六尺悬垂二盜齐 Two thieves hung on either side, six feet high,
慘恸八垓惊九品 Sadness greater than any had ever known,
七言一毕万灵啼 Seven words, one completed task, ten thousand spirits weep.

The structure of the poem was in the total conformity with the ancient Chinese classical of 七 言 诗 (qi-yen-she) format, which means that every complete sentence consisted exactly seven words with rhymes. So the poem only has had 8 complete sentences with 56 Chinese characters, in total and with no punctuation. 

With an unbroken history for 5000-year, the Chinese people have been exposed to many folk religions even longer before philosophies such as Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism that didn’t come into China till 5th/6th centuries. So it would need more than a miracle for the Emperor to tell the story of the Cross to the Chinese during his reign.

I was gravitated by the Chinese numerals that amazingly occur in the poem, which has symbols for the decimal power from 1 (一, Yi); 10 (十, Shi); 100 (百 –Bai); 1000 (千 – Qiān) and 10,000 ( 万– Wàn).  And 13 out of the total of 56 words are Chinese numerals. And each numeral has its deep scriptural significance.

功成 十(10)字血成溪    千(thousand)丈恩流分自西      身列四(4) 衙 平夜路    

徒方三(3)背两番雉      五(5)百(100)鞭挞寸肤裂             六(6)尺悬垂二(2)盗齊 

惨恸八(8) 垓惊九(9)品      七(7)言一(1)毕万灵啼     

People may puzzle why the Emperor would choose to use a numerical approach to convey his faith? Presumptuously I would think that he, being a Manchurian was probably led to show his cultural sense and sensitiveness as of the Han ethnic people, many in general, are superstitiously obsessed with numbers and even till today.

1 =     Once for all, the finished work, or you can say ‘the one task’

2 =      Two thieves

3 =      Three times denials

4 =      Four trials back and forth

5 =      Five hundred stripes

6 =     Six feet high tree for crucifixion

7 =     Seven final words to

8 =     Eight points of a compass – to the furthermost point of the world

9 =     Nine ranks of officials – all walks of people

10=    Chinese Numeral 10, also the pictographs of the Cross

The poem is descriptive and pictographic as if the Emperor were at the scene as the spectator to witness from the trials, the beatings, Peter’s denials and as if he was at the foot of the Cross next to Jesus’ earthly mother, Mary when the physical crucifixion actually took place.

Let us intently look at how the Emperor magnificently weaved the Chinese numerals and his choices of words into this awesome seven-word poem. Evidently, the Emperor had interfaced his perfect grip of the spiritual significance that’s our dear Lord Jesus’ finished work on the Cross.

I would never be in any position or attempt to compare and definitely not trying to contrast with the existing translation, but to share my reflection on the original text with my Chinese resources and prayerfully in tune with passages of scriptures in the Bible.

功成十字 ‘When the work of the Cross is done’

The first 2-word phrases are “功 成 (pinyin – Gōng chéng), “ which literally, means ‘the work is done,’ or, ‘it is finished.’ And 十 (Shi)is the Chinese numeral Ten (10) but according to the “Historical forms of the character 十” (3)as below, don’t you think that it pictographs the Cross to us, especially the large seal script? but definitely how I see it. 

Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Bamboo and silk script	Large seal script	Small seal script

The character of 字(Zi) means ‘word’ or character in Chinese. And the commonly used translation of the Cross  in the Chinese version of the Bible would be十字架 (Shízìjià). And 架 (jià) means ‘frame,’ ‘rack,’ ‘stand,’ or ‘shelf.’  however, I think that with the restraint of 7-word poem in consideration, the Emperor omitted the word of 架, but it wouldn’t compromise what he intended to express.  

And it shall be easy for Christian to relate the four (4) words of – “功 成 十字(- Gōng Chéng Shi Zi)“to the following passage of Scriptures, which Apostle John has entailed the ‘finished work‘ with four (4) passage of scriptures that occurs both in the book of ‘Revelation,’ and the Gospel of John. 

John 17:4 “ I have finished the work, which You have given Me to do.”

John 19:30 – “It is finished.” And it says “that is the final word in the redemption of humankind,’’– Oswald Chamber.

Revelation 16:17  “when God proclaimed the end of His catastrophic wrath.. and

Revelation 21:6a  “HE said unto me, it is done –“

To be continued

Kay

1. https://www.cru.org/communities/campus.htm
2. blogspot.com/2008/12/kangxi-his-poems.html
3. wiktionary

 

 

I had a lunch fellowship with my BFF We Tsoo, a few months ago. Apart from catching up with each other, she asked if I knew of whether Emperor KangXi (1645-1722) (1) was a Christian? Immediately, two of emperor’s poems with English translations, which I came across a few years ago, came back to my mind.

After the lunch, I reflected on what’s the significance for people to know whether or not the Emperor was a Christian?  It probably would bring a sense of purpose to Christians who were called to serve our dear Lord of God, in China if they knew about KangXi’ policy to open doors for foreign mission works done in China.

Time flies, a few months later, today, Arthur and I had lunch with my cousin Michael and his wife, Taky. And I couldn’t believe that in the course of having our fellowship, we were talking about Emperor KangXi and his magnificent poems.By the grace of social media, Michael managed to show Kangxi’ ‘The Death of Christ,” on his smart phone for us,

In the restaurant, Michael and I joyously recite the poem together. We were a bit loud but surely, we had Christ centered conversation at lunch with the family member. And Taky suddenly asked if KangXi was a Christian? What an awesome way to direct me that’s what I am going to put up for posting today.

Although evidently no record of the Emperor being baptized as Christian, but in Chinese history, he had befriended with Ferdinand Verbiest,(2) a Catholic missionary from Belgium, Europe.Many Jesuit priests managed to win his trust and lived in with him in the Forbidden City.

And in 1692, he personally issued a decree to legalize Catholic churches and the practice of Christianity nation wide. Regrettably, the friendly relationship had its ramifications. Speculations were saying that the live-in priests disapproved the emperor to have more than one wife.

As a matter of fact, it was that his priest friends sent by the Vatican fervently condemned Chinese ‘Ancestor worship and ‘Confucian Ceremonies. In a rage, therefore, the Emperor thus decided to closed hundreds of churches and banned missions, so the Emperor was never a Catholic.

My former Pastor, David Packer, once contended that “you don’t need to tell people that you are a Christian, but let them be surprised when they found out that you are one.” So, it is immaterial that no record revealed that the Emperor was Christian. And it wouldn’t surprise us if we saw him when we get to heaven because of the Christ centered poems he wrote.

Has it ever occurred to you, that the Manchurian, descended from North Nomadic (游 牧) tribe, hunters and horsemen of China came to rule the majority of sophisticated civilized, ethnic Han-Chinese people during the Feudal times for almost two hundred years if it were not by God’s will? (3)

It was a miracle for a non-Han emperor not only to have an exceptional good command of the language that’s differed from his own, but was also given a vision, in 1710 to order the compilation a new version of Chinese dictionary, the KangXi Dictionary (康 熙 字 典– Kāngxī Zìdiǎn) (4) that had evolved from an early 2^nd Century, Classical ‘Chinese Dictionary (说 文 解字 – Shuōwén Jiězì),’(5) on Han Dynasty.

It took more than 5-year to complete the compilation. Therefore, the  KangXi Dictionary was named after the emperor’s era name. And it was the standard Chinese dictionary during the 18th and 19th centuries. And it has always been a useful tool for people who are learning the Chinese language ever since.

It is hard to fathom that the Emperor had never left the country, and the printed bible was probably not readily available during his entire reign, especially after he parted with his Jesuit priest friends, but he could compose few spirit led poems. The one with the title of ‘The Death Of Christ,” with only 8 completed sentences and 56 Chinese characters to depict the suffering Christ and the essence of HIS finished work on the Cross.

God has always worked in mysterious ways. Last year, in 2016, I couldn’t find a single slot to rejoin the local BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) (6) for the book study on Revelation. At the end, thankfully I got into the one and only Chinese class, in Singapore, and it’s the first time, in my life, to study the Bible with my Chinese resources.

I have continued on the Gospel of John in the Chinese class since the beginning of 2017. I didn’t expect the Chinese version of the Bible would come as a perfect aid for me to ponder Emperor Kangxi’ poem, ‘The Death Of Christ,’ all over again. The English version of the poem is available via Google search(7).

In general, I rejoiced that the profoundness of the poem was not lost in translation. But have a bit of reservation to say Amen to few sentences of the translation when I refer to the actual scriptures.  And prayerfully, I hope to be able to footnote the original text with the passage of scriptures from the Bible, on ‘The Death of Christ.’

To be continued!

Kay

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangxi_Emperor
2. 2014.net/blog/background-jesuit-relations-with-emperor-kangxi
3. com/romans/13-1.htm
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kangxi_Dictionary
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuowen_Jiezihttps://en.wikipedia.or
6. http://www.informationvine.com/Results‎
7. blogspot.com/2008/12/kangxi-his-poems.html