John Oxenham Goodman

The Chemical Elements and the 88 Constellations in Art, Myth and History John Oxenham Goodman

This book is Volume 1 of a 5 volume series. Volume 1 deals with the mythology and history surrounding the first 112 chemical elements and the 88 constellations. It contains stories of the gods, mythical beings, legendary heroes and sacred objects which gave their names to the chemical elements and constellations. These stories give background information on the 1000 drawings of Volume 5. In addition to elements and constellations, there are planets, moons and asteroids as well as items of Chinese and Japanese cultural and astrological significance. This 5 volume series in some respects represent the measurement of time using Chinese and Western traditions. The 5 Elements of ancient China combine with the sun and moon to give us the 7 days of the week which are still used in Japan. The Old English (Anglo-Saxon) and Roman gods are depicted as representatives of the days of the week in the Western calendar. Then the animals of the 28 Chinese Lunar Mansions complete the lunar month while the 12 months of the year are represented by the monthly flowers on the Japanese Flower Cards (Hanafuda). The 12 Earthly Branches represented by 12 animals give us a 12 year period and when combined with the 10 Heavenly Stems, they give us the 60 year cycle of the traditional Chinese calendar. Then there are the 5 Seasons, Directions, Emperors and Mountains, the 10 Suns of the Shang Dynasty, the 9 Northern Dipper Stars, the 6 Southern Dipper Stars, the 8 Trigrams, the 64 Hexagrams and the 24 Solar Terms. My drawing program culminates in the creation of a Chinese version of Tarot based on the game of Mahjong and traditional Chinese playing cards. Inspiration for the Oriental content of this series came at first from my study of Chinese and Japanese at the Australian National University, the University of Canberra and the University of New South Wales. Then when I retired and started living in China in 1910, I travelled all over the country visiting museums and temples. These ranged from Tibetan and Mongolian temples in Inner Mongolia, Qinghai Province and Chengde City to the White Horse Buddhist Temple in Luoyang and the Temple of Confucius in Qufu. Of particular interest was the 16th Century Tian Yi Ge Library in Ningbo City which houses China's best Mahjong museum from which I gained many valuable insights. My pictorial history of playing cards and Chinese paper money in Volume 4 reflects this. All these experiences inspired me to complete this series. Volumes 1-4 contain information about the gods, mythical figures, animals, plants and other objects in the drawings of Volume 5 and the drawings have been produced in a format suitable for imprinting on playing cards. All of these numbered series of drawings are related to text in Volumes 1-4 which explains the mythology and history surrounding them and their connections and relationships with one another.