Talk:Shen (Chinese religion)

This article shouldn't exist
in its present form. It's possible it could form a special spinoff of Chinese gods once that page called for it, with the list of proper deities coming here.

All of the current gobbledygook about pronunciation and etymology, however, simply belong at the character's Wiktionary entry. — Llywelyn II   13:06, 7 December 2016 (UTC)


 * I strongly oppose the merger. The concept of shen, because of its semantic richness (it does not translate merely the Western concept of "god", but it is a nexus of a variety of concepts which in Western thought are usually kept separate) deserves a specific article, just as it is the case for xian.--82.53.193.223 (talk) 11:24, 11 December 2016 (UTC)


 * Oppose It would be more constructive to expand this into something like the Tian article. what would you suggest the current article needs to become more encyclopedic? Keahapana (talk) 01:13, 13 December 2016 (UTC)


 * Strong oppose This would amount to running the topic through a Western conceptual filter where balance would be next to impossible to achieve. Note that this is English Wikipedia, and that there are many native English speakers whose spiritual practice has deep Asian roots. Like Chinese food, the version here and the version there have diverged (as have Indian cuisine and Indian cuisine in England). The version here is worthy of treatment. We shouldn't take the stance that the version here is merely a failed replica, and then use Wikipedia to document what the real thing properly ought to be. That would be a disservice to both sides. &mdash; MaxEnt 15:06, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

Heart and Kidney were capped
Capitalization of Heart and Kidney caused me to normalize capitalization throughout the lead. My knowledge of pinyin is that capitalization is limited to sentence caps and proper names; I can't find any reference that "Concepts" like Qi are proper names (except in English translations of Heidegger, where it constantly makes me wince).

If someone has a source for this treatment, please add it here before reintroducing a capitalization scheme that might appear improvised. &mdash; MaxEnt 14:59, 24 June 2023 (UTC)