The Tablet of Destiny

Chinese Occultism, by Paul Carus, [1907], at sacred-texts.com

THE TABLET OF DESTINY.

At the beginning of Chinese history stands a tablet which in some mysterious way is supposed to be connected with an explanation of the universe. It has been reconstructed by later Chinese thinkers and is pictured in the hands of Fuh-Hi as an arrangement of the kwa figures preserved in the Yih King. Considering the several traces of Babylonian traditions in ancient Chinese literature and folklore, would it not be justifiable to identify the tablet of Fuh-Hi with the ancient Babylonian "Tablet of Destiny" mentioned in the Enmeduranki Text, a copy of which was discovered in the archives of Asurbanipal ²⁰ and was said to contain the "Mystery of Heaven and Earth?"

p. 34

Enmeduranki, king of Sippar, is the seventh of the aboriginal kings, and he declares that he received the divine tablet "from Anu, [Bel, and Ea]." 21

Chinese sages have their own interpretation of the phrase "the mystery of heaven and earth." They would at once associate the words "heaven" and "earth" with the two opposing principles yang and yin, and the question is whether among the ancient Sumerians there was not a similar tendency prevalent. It seems to be not impossible that the Chinese tablet in the hands of Fuh-Hi is the same as the "Tablet of Destiny" of the Sumerians, and when some Assyriologist has informed himself of the primitive Chinese conception of this mysterious tablet, he may be able to throw some additional light on the subject.

Footnotes

33:20 K2486 and K4364; cf. Zimmern, KAT³ 533.