Tian

Tian (天 Pinyin Tiān) is the Chinese character for heaven or sky. As such, it holds an important place in many Chinese belief systems such as Mohism, Taoism and Confucianism. The ideograph itself suggests the expanse of sky above the earth on which humans dwell, thereby giving rise to the term "Tianxia" (天下 All under heaven); the phrase is often used to describe the earthly domicile in Chinese literature.

Tian sometimes seems to be God itself, or Heaven, or the entire celestial bureaucracy. Therefore, it is often difficult to ascertain whether Tian is being used to mean a personal force or an impersonal one.

Although the Zhou Dynasty claimed that their deity, Tian, originated with the Xia Dynasty, modern historians believe that Tian was originally a deity worshipped only by the Zhou people. In the beginning, Tian likely referred to esteemed ancestors. After conquering the Shang Dynasty, the Zhou Dynasty merged their deity, Tian, with that of the Shang, Di (Shangdi). By the time of the founding of the Zhou Dynasty, Tian acquired the ability to alter the Mandate of Heaven and was linked to the Zhou Emperor, who was considered to be the "Son of Heaven".

Tian in the Classical Chinese Idiom

First and foremost, the Chinese word tian (represent by the character 天) refers simply to the celestial firmament. Though later uses add considerable nuances to this basic notion (from the ideas of destiny and the relationship with proper leadership, to the moralization of the Confucian philosophers), it never loses this basic meaning.

Further, the significance of tian as a single character led to its frequent use in compound phrases (which pervade classical and poetic literature, and have also entered vernacular Chinese as idiomatic expressions). Two of the most common include tian xia (天下), meaning "under heaven" (which refers to the entire world (as everything is, quite literally, "under Heaven")), and tian di (天地), literally "heaven and earth," but used to signify the entire universe (as everything, in the classical cosmology, belonged to the domain of one of these two polarities).

Tian in the Early Chinese Religio-Political Sphere

In earliest Chinese history, it is postulated that the Shang dynasty (who worshiped a heavenly ancestor called Shang Di) were displaced by the more war-like Zhou, who instituted a new social order and a new religious system, centered around a pseudo-anthropomorphic sky god (Tian).<reference> Under this system, Tian was considered responsible for the orderly functioning of the cosmos, including the maintenance of appropriate seasonal weather (allowing for maximal harvests and growing seasons).<reference>

As was the case among many early rulers (including the pharaohs of Egypt and the emperors of the Incas), the first Chinese kings (wang 王) were understood to be directly affiliated with the cosmological order, as manifested by Tian. <transition> One honorific often used to describe these monarchs was tian zi (天子), which can be literally translated as "Son of Heaven." Because of this purported lineal relationship, certain correspondences were suggested between the person and actions of the king and the systematic operation of natural processes. <rituals>

important ideas: rulership through the mandate (tian ming)

Confucian Conceptions

Tian, in a religious (or at least cosmological) context, was one of the foundational concepts for the Confucian school. As each of the early Confucians built their religio-philosophical worldviews around the idea of an orderly cosmos where people could lead meaningful lives, an understanding of Tian became central to each of their respective humanistic programmes. However, and in spite of this notable similarity, each of them also interpreted the term in a particular manner.

Confucius

Confucius built upon the inherited, cultural understanding of Tian (described above) by reinterpreting it in an immanental, humanistic light. Though it was still understood to refer to Heaven (and to orderly natural processes), these processes were understood in light of their relationship to lived human experience. As Tu Weiming notes, "Confucius' insistence that he loved the ancients and that he was a transmitter rather than a maker symbolises his attempt to provide a transcendental anchorage for human civilization. To Confucius, what had already been created, notably the 'ritual and music' of the human community, was not merely of humans, it was also sanctioned and sponsored by the mandate of heaven." Further, Confucian historicism can be seen as "predicated on a deep-rooted faith in the continuation of human culture not only as a historical fact but also as the unfolding of a transcendent reality."

From this perspective, human life and culture have a transcendental referent, and are based upon the sanction of

Moist Conceptions

The Moist tradition, which flourished during the Hundred Schools of Thought period (700-220 B.C.E.), propounded views of Tian that held much in common with their Daoist and Confucian contemporaries, though their conception of its nature and role were far more specific than either. Namely, they believed that Tian referred to a quasi-anthropomorphic deity who viewed human actions with omniscient vision and dealt out rewards and punishments accordingly. As described by Benjamin Schwartz:

The order of human society (and, one would presuppose, of the cosmos) is produced and maintained by the purposeful cooperation of Heaven, spirits, and men of good will in the face of what seems to be the inherently centrifugal tendencies of the pluralistic, recalcitrant world of the "ten thousand things." ... Order must be imposed on chaos. Unless men believe that Heaven, the spirits, and they themselves can exert themselves constantly and without relaxation against the disintegrating tendencies, disorder and chaos will prevail.

Despite the stated importance of Tian in this framework, it is not necessarily the case that Moism was a more religious doctrine than the Confucian or Daoist theories that it was contending with. As A. C. Graham notes, "there is little evidence of a spiritual dimension deeper than a guilty fear of ghosts. The Mohists are in a sense less religious than some they would denounce as skeptics. The awe and resignation with which thinkers as far apart as Confucius and Chuang-tzu [Zhuangzi] accept the decree of Heaven has much more of the sense of the holy than anything in Mo-tzu."

See also

• Chinese mythology
• Emperor of China

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• The Analects of Confucius. Translated and with an introduction by Roger T. Ames and Henry Rosemont, Jr. New York: Ballantine Books, 1998.
• Berthrong, John H. Transformations of the Confucian Way. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998. ISBN 0813328047
• Chan, Wing-tsit. A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963.
• Ching, Julia. Mysticism and Kingship in China: The Heart of Chinese Wisdom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-521-46293-2.
• Creel, Herrlee G. The Origins of Statecraft in China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970. ISBN 0226120430.
• Faurot, Jeanette L. Gateway to the Chinese Classics: A Practical Guide to Literary Chinese. San Francisco: China Books, 1995.
• Fitzgerald, C. P. China: A Short Cultural History. London: The Cresset Library, 1986. ISBN 0-09-168751-9.
• Graham, A.C. Disputers of the Tao: Philosophical Argument in Ancient China. LaSalle, IL: Open Court Press, 1993. ISBN 0812690877.
• Harbaugh, Richard. Chinese Characters: A Genealogy and Dictionary. New Haven, CT: Yale University Far East Publications: 1998.
• Schwartz, Benjamin. The World of Thought in Ancient China. Cambridge, MS and London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1985.
• Tu Wei-ming. "The Way, Learning, and Politics in Classical Confucian Humanism" in Way, Learning, and Politics: Essays on the Confucian Intellectual. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1993. 1-12. ISBN 0-7914-1755-1.
• Tu Wei-ming. "The Structure and Function of the Confucian Intellectual in Ancient China" in Way, Learning, and Politics: Essays on the Confucian Intellectual. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1993. 13-28. ISBN 0-7914-1755-1.

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