Reflections over Biblical Story "the Curse of Ham", 3/6/2022
One of the most debated biblical story is "the Curse of Ham". Some people in history used it to justify for the slavery of black people and others use it to explain the Imperialism. The story caught my curiosity for other reasons, as it seemed very common that some people are blessed while others are cursed throughout their lives and I wonder why.
I found an interesting coincidence that the word "Curse" sounds almost the same as Chinese word "克死”, meaning also "curse". "相生相克"（generating & overcome）is the important rule of nature defined by Yi Jing, The Book of Change, or the Chinese "Bible". According to Yi Jing's Law of Changes, very thing that grows over the peak of its maturity or prosperity will start to decline or will be overcome by nature. From this I found a good reason to understand the curse of Ham, or more accurately, the curse of Cannon, Ham's 4th son.
First, let's review the original story "the Curse of Ham" in Bible, Genesis Chapter 9 18-27:
"The sons of Noah from the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan).These three were the sons of Noah, and from these, the people of the whole earth were dispersed. Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son has done to hime, he said, “cursed be Canaan”; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.” He also said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. “May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant.”
The three son of Noah: the first born Shem is the ancestor of Semitic of Asia; the 2nd son Ham is the ancestor of the Hamitic of Africa; and the 3rd Japheth the ancestor of European. So it is not unreasonable that people think the curse of Ham representing the curse of African who became slaves to their brothers in history. However, it is not that simple, because in the bible story, it is not Ham nor all his sons being cursed, but only his 4th son Canaan, who is the youngest son of Ham.
Why Canaan was cursed?
I noticed two facts from the family tree of Ham, as shown below:
First, among the four sons of Ham, the first three sons Cush (the land of Kush of Ethiopia), Mizraim (the land of Egypt), Phut(the land of ancient Libya) are all based in Ham's homeland -Africa, while only the 4th son Canaan migrated into middle east of Asia which was Shem's homeland. Secondly, Canaan had the most children, total 11 sons. And it was the only one mentioned in Bible with its vast expansion: "the territory of the canaanites extended as far as gaza...as far as Lasha...", overlapping with Shem's homeland.
As the last son of Ham, Canaan should have carried the best genes and should have been blessed so he had the most prosperous offsprings. However, according the Law of Change, when it grows over its peak of prosperity and even trespass to Shem's lands, it will be overcome by God (or Nature's law as Yi Jing believes). Just like a tree, when a branch grows too wild and expanding into other branches' original space, it will be cut or "overcome" or "cursed" in order to keep the original shape ( or genes) of the tree with great original genes. Otherwise, the tree will turned into a jungle and lost.
Why Israelites were blessed?
Same logic can be found in Shem's family tree. Shem has five sons, Israelites' ancestor Arpachshad was the 3rd son of Shem, that was the middle or central stem of Shem's family tree. Arpachshad who was born in Ur, and so was Abraham the father of Israelites. Their roots are deep in their original homeland, the middle east of Asia. Not only that, when I look at the whole family tree from Adam and Eve, I found this central stem of Shem happens to be the central stem of Adam's whole family tree.
In fact, when I look at the family tree of China far history, I found the same pattern that the family tree of first Emperor Qin's (秦始皇）. Qin was located right at the middle of the central stem from the origin of Huangdi (黄帝）, as you can see from the following picture.
In my book "Dog & God", I uncovered the secret of a tree evolution from its root Y as a metaphor to illustrate how human family tree evolves from its patriarchal Gene Y, as shown below:
Tree grows toward maximized sunlights and so does human life. After several generations, all branches reach out all directions, and a perfect "star" will be formed at the top of the center with the maximum of sunlight exposure. This is the "lucky" star with most sunlights and best chance to live. This is what we see the position of Israelites out of Adam's family tree and the First Emperor Qin (秦始皇） out of Huang Di's （皇帝） family tree. In Chinese, it is called "正根”，“正宗” （the direct decedents). They are the most blessed because they combined the best, most balanced genes from their far ancestors.
If you look at your own family tree, you will find the same pattern who was the most outstanding offspring. It must be located at the central stem, and most often, from the last one that survived from previous lives. This is the same reason why Noah was blessed and become the new common ancestor for our current family trees. In fact, this is also the same reason why Human are most blessed among all animals, because we are the lucky star located right in the central stem of all the family tree of animals and plants.
Collective unconsciously, we carry out the simple common rules of nature not only physically, but also mentally or consciously. That's why and how Bible story as well as Yi Jing carries all the simple common truth from nature. To explore how collective unconscious governs our individual minds to follow common roots of rules, check my book "Dog & God" on Amazon book store.
