"So Emperor Shao Hao was an alien, and the people of Shao Hao Country were called the Qing Yang Clan. It was an alien ruling over a bunch of humans, right?" Lin Li asked.
Huang Ji shook his head. "I don't know whether Emperor Shao Hao was an alien... but God Shao Hao was definitely a robot. Because 'god' meant electrically powered machinery."
Lin Li was baffled. How had he figured that out?
Huang Ji had no idea how to explain it to him. Was he supposed to say he had sensed it?
In the "Classic of Mountains and Seas," "shen" did not mean a god in the modern sense. "Hao" was the character that came closest to meaning a deity: a Sun God, a "person" shining like the sun in the sky. In short, a celestial!
A person of the heavens was called Hao; a person of the mountains was called an immortal. Those worshipped as deities who also served as political leaders were called emperors.
As for "shen"... in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas," it merely referred to tools.
After thinking for a long while, Huang Ji said, "The 'Classic of Mountains and Seas' has many classifications. There are people, mountains, beasts, birds, fish... and gods!"
"The gods in it aren't deities as we understand them. In Oracle Bone Script, the character for 'god' was also the character for 'electricity,' a pictograph of a twisting electrical arc. Only in the Zhou Dynasty did people start adding an altar beside it, producing the character for 'god' we use today."
"The 'Classic of Mountains and Seas' has no category for artifacts. It never says, 'There is an implement.' It describes so many things, so why is there no category for artifacts?"
"There actually is. It's just written as 'There