Shen (Chinese folk religion)

(in rising 2nd tone) is the Modern Standard Chinese pronunciation of "god, deity; spirit, spiritual, supernatural; awareness, consciousness etc". Reconstructions of in Middle Chinese (ca. 6th-10th centuries CE) include (Bernhard Karlgren, substituting j for his "yod medial"), (Zhou Fagao), (Edwin G. Pulleyblank, "Late Middle"), and (William H. Baxter). Reconstructions of in Old Chinese (ca. 6th-3rd centuries BCE) include (Karlgren), (Zhou), (Li Fanggui), (Baxter), and (Axel Schuessler). Although the etymological origin of is uncertain, Schuessler notes a possible Sino-Tibetan etymology; compare Chepang "spirit of humans". The Chinese is also present in other East Asian languages. The Japanese Kanji is pronounced () or () in ''On'yomi (Chinese reading), and (), (), or () in Kun'yomi (Japanese reading). The Korean Hanja'' is pronounced (). The dictionary notes that had a special pronunciation (level 1st tone, instead of usual 2nd rising tone ) in the name Shen Shu , one of two "gods of the Eastern Sea", along with Yu Lu . In the Vietnamese language, it is pronounced as . as part of the Heavenly Pantheon under the Jade Emperor. ==Semantics==

's polysemous meanings developed diachronically over three millennia. The , an authoritative historical dictionary, distinguishes one meaning for ("a deity ()) and eleven meanings for translated below: • Celestial god(s)/spirit(s) of stories/legends, namely, the creator of the myriad things in heaven and earth and the supreme being. () • Spirit; mind, mental faculties; consciousness. Like: concentrated attention; tire the mind; concentrate one's energy and attention. () • Expression, demeanor; consciousness, state of mind. () • Portrait, portraiture. () • Magical, supernatural, miraculous; mysterious, abstruse. Like: ability to divine the unknown, amazing foresight; highly skilled doctor; genius, masterpiece. () • Esteem, respect; valuable, precious. () • Rule, govern, administer. () • Cautious, careful, circumspect. () • Display, arrange, exhibit. () • Dialect. 1. Dignity, distinction. () 2. Entrancement, ecstasy. () 3. Clever, intelligent. () • Surname, family name. () This dictionary entry for lists early usage examples, and many of these 11 meanings were well attested prior to the Han dynasty. Chinese classic texts use in meanings 1 "deity", 2 "spirit, mind; attention", 3 "expression; state of mind", 5 "supernatural", and meaning 6 "esteem". The earliest examples of meaning 4 "portrait" are in Song dynasty texts. Meanings 7-9 first occur in early Chinese dictionaries; the Erya defines in meanings 7 "govern" and 8 "cautious" (and 6, which is attested elsewhere), and the Guangya defines meaning 9 "display". Meaning 10 gives three usages in Chinese dialects (technically "topolects", see Fangyan). Meaning 11 "a surname" is exemplified in Shennong ("Divine Farmer"), the culture hero and inventor of agriculture in Chinese mythology. The Chinese language has many compounds of . For instance, it is compounded with in , with in , and in . Several "spirit; god" compounds use names for other supernatural beings, for example, in , in , in , in , and in . The earliest discovered character form for shen suggests two components. The right side of the character gives the basic meaning and pronunciation, as well as providing a graphic representation of flashing lightning from the clouds. This visual displays ancient people’s belief that lightning was the manifestation of god.1 The left side displays a modified character shi which pertains to ritual ceremonies, worship, or prayer. This concept originally referred to stone table used for offering ceremonial sacrifices to the gods. Wing-Tsit Chan distinguishes four philosophical meanings of this : "spiritual beings", "ancestors", "gods and demons", and "positive and negative spiritual forces". The primary meaning of is translatable in English as god, gods, God; deity, deities, spirit, spiritual, spiritlike, spirits, Spirit, spiritual beings; celestial spirits; ancestral spirits, supernatural beings, etc. is sometimes loosely translated as "soul", but Chinese hun and po distinguishes and . can be used as a loanword. The Oxford English Dictionary (2nd ed.) defines in these terms, "In Chinese philosophy: a god, person of supernatural power, or the spirit of a dead person." can also refer to a living, "'spiritual' or 'spiritlike'" person or people when they accomplish things perceived to be superhuman, such as saving "people through the power of Virtue." In acupuncture, is a pure spiritual energy devoid of memory and personality traits, whereas is the spiritual energy associated with the personality and the energy tied to the sustenance of the physical body. In this system, resides in the heart and departs first at death, resides in the liver and departs second, and resides in the lungs and departs last. plays a central role in Christian translational disputes over Chinese terms for God. Among the early Chinese "god" names, or was the Shang term, was the Zhou term, and was a later usage (see Feng Yu-Lan. Modern terms for "God" include , , (esp. Catholics), and (esp. Protestants). ==Graphics==

The character for exemplifies the most common class in Chinese character classification: , which combine a radical (or classifier) that roughly indicates meaning and a phonetic that roughly indicates pronunciation. In this case, combines the "altar/worship radical" or and a phonetic of . Compare this phonetic element differentiated with the "person radical" in , the "silk radical" in , the "mouth radical" in , the "stone radical" in , the "earth radical" in , and the "big radical" in . (See the List of Kangxi radicals.) Chinese was an ancient phonetic loan character for . The Mawangdui Silk Texts include two copies of the Dao De Jing and the "A Text" writes interchangeably as and : "If one oversees all under heaven in accord with the Way, demons have no spirit. It is not that the demons have no spirit, but that their spirits do not harm people." (chap. 60). The defines as and says that in the 7th lunar month when forces increase, bodies . The earliest written forms of occur in Zhou dynasty bronzeware script and Qin dynasty seal script characters (compare the variants shown on the "Chinese etymology" link below). Although has not been identified in Shang dynasty oracle bone script records, the phonetic has. Paleographers interpret the Oracle script of as a pictograph of a "lightning bolt". This was graphically differentiated between with the "cloud radical" and with the "worship radical", semantically suggesting both "lightning" and "spirits" coming down from the heavens. ==See also==