Shen is a Chinese word with senses of deity, god or spirit. The Japanese equivalent is shin, as in Shinto. This single Chinese term expresses a range of similar, yet differing, meanings.
The first meaning is a generic word for deities which are intimately involved in the affairs of the world, or spirits, such as dead ancestors.[1] Spirits generate entities like rivers, mountains, thunder, and stars.
A second meaning of shen refers to the human spirit or psyche that is seen in the body as luster or vigor and in the mind as vitality and enthusiasm; it is the basic power or agency within humans that accounts for life, and in order to further life to its fullest potential, the spirit (Shen) is transformed to actualize potential (Jing 精).
A third understanding of shen describes an entity as supernatural in the sense of inspiring awe or wonder because it combines categories usually kept separate, or it cannot be comprehended through normal concepts.
In the traditional Chinese theory of sanbao, shen is associated with the yang side of yin and yang and Jing is yin in comparison (Heaven and Earth; Earth tied to jing in particular in traditional Chinese medicine). Heaven is the origin of the spiritual aspect of humanity and provides ongoing spiritual influences, and therefore, it is associated with the heart, while Earth is the origin of the physical aspect of humankind/nature and is traditionally related to our kidneys or lower dantian. The ongoing harmonious interaction of Heaven and Earth creates qi in this case human and therefore is associated with the spleen, stomach and liver in the middle Jiao, which is essential to create balance and harmony of yin and yang, therefore maintaining a good standard of health and creating life.
It is said in the classics that the human is the best creation of Heaven and Earth. In traditional Chinese medicine, Taoist, Buddhist, and Chinese folk religious tradition, the balance of yin and yang is important to provide external harmony and internal health within life, thereby preventing injury, illness, or harm to body, mind, spirit, or the environment.
See main article: Chinese gods and immortals.
| Shen | |
| C: | 神 |
| L: | god, deity |
| Mc: | ʑiɪn |
| Oc-Zz: | /*hlin/ |
| Oc-Bs: | /*Cə.li[n]/ |
| W: | shen |
| Poj: | sîn |
| J: | san4 |
| Kanji: | 神 |
| Hiragana: | 1. かみ 2. しん |
| Revhep: | 1. kami 2. shin |
| Hangul: | 신 |
| Hanja: | 神 |
| Rr: | sin |
| Qn: | thần |
Shén (in rising 2nd tone) is the Modern Standard Chinese pronunciation of Chinese: 神 "god, deity; spirit, spiritual, supernatural; awareness, consciousness etc". Reconstructions of shén in Middle Chinese (ca. 6th-10th centuries CE) include dź'jěn (Bernhard Karlgren, substituting j for his "yod medial"), źiɪn (Zhou Fagao), ʑin (Edwin G. Pulleyblank, "Late Middle"), and zyin (William H. Baxter). Reconstructions of shén in Old Chinese (ca. 6th-3rd centuries BCE) include *djěn (Karlgren), *zdjien (Zhou), *djin (Li Fanggui), *Ljin (Baxter), and *m-lin (Axel Schuessler).Although the etymological origin of shen is uncertain, Schuessler notes a possible Sino-Tibetan etymology; compare Chepang gliŋh "spirit of humans".
The Chinese shen Chinese: 神 "spirit; etc." is also present in other East Asian languages. The Japanese Kanji Japanese: 神 is pronounced shin (Japanese: しん) or jin (Japanese: じん) in On'yomi (Chinese reading), and kami (Japanese: かみ), kō (Japanese: こう), or tamashii (Japanese: たましい) in Kun'yomi (Japanese reading). The Korean Hanja Korean: 神 is pronounced sin (Korean: 신).
The Zihui dictionary notes that Chinese: 神 had a special pronunciation shēn (level 1st tone, instead of usual 2nd shén) in the name Shen Shu Chinese: 神荼, one of two "gods of the Eastern Sea", along with Yu Lu Chinese: 鬱壘.
In the Vietnamese language, it is pronounced as thần.
Shens polysemous meanings developed diachronically over three millennia. The Hanyu dazidian, an authoritative historical dictionary, distinguishes one meaning for shēn ("a deity (Chinese: 神名)) and eleven meanings for shén Chinese: 神 translated below:
This dictionary entry for shen lists early usage examples, and many of these 11 meanings were well attested prior to the Han dynasty. Chinese classic texts use shen 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 shen 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 shen. For instance, it is compounded with tian Chinese: 天 "sky; heaven; nature; god" in tianshen Chinese: 天神 "celestial spirits; heavenly gods; deities; (Buddhism) deva", with shan Chinese: 山 "mountain" in shanshen Chinese: 山神 "mountain spirit", and hua Chinese: 話 "speech; talk; saying; story" in shenhua Chinese: 神話 "mythology; myth; fairy tale". Several shen "spirit; god" compounds use names for other supernatural beings, for example, ling Chinese: 靈 "spirit; soul" in shenling Chinese: 神靈 "gods; spirits, various deities", qi Chinese: 祇 "earth spirit" in shenqi Chinese: 神祇 "celestial and terrestrial spirits", xian Chinese: 仙 "Xian (Taoism), transcendent" in shenxian Chinese: 神仙 "spirits and immortals; divine immortal", guai Chinese: 怪 "spirit; devil; monster" in shenguai Chinese: 神怪 "spirits and demons; gods and spirits", and gui Chinese: 鬼 "ghost, goblin; demon, devil" in guishen Chinese: 鬼神 "ghosts and spirits; supernatural beings". 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 guishen: "spiritual beings", "ancestors", "gods and demons", and "positive and negative spiritual forces".
The primary meaning of shen is translatable in English as god, gods, God; deity, deities, spirit, spiritual, spiritlike, spirits, Spirit, spiritual beings; celestial spirits; ancestral spirits, supernatural beings, etc. Shen is sometimes loosely translated as "soul", but Chinese hun and po distinguishes hun Chinese: 魂 "spiritual soul" and po Chinese: 魄 "physical soul". Shen can be used as a loanword. The Oxford English Dictionary (2nd ed.) defines shen in these terms, "In Chinese philosophy: a god, person of supernatural power, or the spirit of a dead person." Shen 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, shen is a pure spiritual energy devoid of memory and personality traits, whereas hun is the spiritual energy associated with the personality and po the energy tied to the sustenance of the physical body. In this system, shen resides in the heart and departs first at death, hun resides in the liver and departs second, and po resides in the lungs and departs last.
Shen plays a central role in Christian translational disputes over Chinese terms for God. Among the early Chinese "god; God" names, shangdi Chinese: 上帝 or di was the Shang term, tian Chinese: 天 was the Zhou term, and shen was a later usage (see Feng Yu-Lan. Modern terms for "God" include shangdi, zhu Chinese: 主, tianzhu Chinese: 天主 (esp. Catholics), and shen Chinese: 神 (esp. Protestants).
The character Chinese: 神 for shen exemplifies the most common class in Chinese character classification: xíngshēngzì Chinese: 形聲字 "pictophonetic compounds, semantic-phonetic compounds", which combine a radical (or classifier) that roughly indicates meaning and a phonetic that roughly indicates pronunciation. In this case, Chinese: 神 combines the "altar/worship radical" Chinese: 礻or Chinese: 示 and a phonetic of shēn Chinese: 申 "9th Earthly Branch; extend, stretch; prolong, repeat". Compare this phonetic element differentiated with the "person radical" in shen Chinese: 伸 "stretch", the "silk radical" in shen Chinese: 紳 "official's sash", the "mouth radical" in shen Chinese: 呻 "chant, drone", the "stone radical" in shen Chinese: 砷 "arsenic", the "earth radical" in kun Chinese: 坤 "soil", and the "big radical" in yan Chinese: 奄 "cover". (See the List of Kangxi radicals.)
Chinese shen Chinese: 申 "extend" was anciently a phonetic loan character for shen Chinese: 神 "spirit". The Mawangdui Silk Texts include two copies of the Dao De Jing and the "A Text" writes shen interchangeably as Chinese: 申 and Chinese: 神: "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 Shuowen Jiezi defines shen Chinese: 申 as shen Chinese: 神 and says that in the 7th lunar month when yin forces increase, bodies shenshu Chinese: 申束 "bind up".
The earliest written forms of shen Chinese: 神 "spirit; god" occur in Zhou dynasty bronzeware script and Qin dynasty seal script characters (compare the variants shown on the "Chinese etymology" link below). Although Chinese: 神 has not been identified in Shang dynasty oracle bone script records, the phonetic shen Chinese: 申 has. Paleographers interpret the Oracle script of Chinese: 申 as a pictograph of a "lightning bolt". This was graphically differentiated between dian Chinese: 電 "lightning; electricity" with the "cloud radical" and shen Chinese: 神 with the "worship radical", semantically suggesting both "lightning" and "spirits" coming down from the heavens.