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Do not fill this in! ====''Tian'' and the gods==== [[File:Precessional north pole (Běijí 北极) in α Ursae Minoris, drawing a wàn 卍 in the four phases of time.svg|thumb|Like other symbols such as the ''[[sauwastika]]'',{{sfnb|Didier|2009|p=256, Vol. III}} {{zhi|out=c|p=wàn|c=卍|l=all things}} in Chinese, the [[Mesopotamia]]n ''[[dingir]]'' or ''[[anu]]'' {{lang-akk|𒀭𒀭|label=none}},<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mair |first=Victor H. |title=Dynamics in the History of Religions between Asia and Europe: Encounters, Notions, and Comparative Perspectives |publisher=Brill |year=2011 |isbn=978-90-04-22535-0 |editor-last=Krech |editor-first=Volkhard |location=Leiden |pages=85–110 |chapter=Religious Formations and Intercultural Contacts in Early China |doi=10.1163/9789004225350_005 |editor-last2=Steinicke |editor-first2=Marion}} pp. 97–98, note 26.</ref> and also the Chinese {{zhi|c=巫|p=[[wu (shaman)|wu]]|l=shaman}} (in [[Shang dynasty|Shang]] script represented by a graph resembling the [[cross potent]] ☩),{{sfnb|Didier|2009|p=257, Vol. I}} ''Tian'' refers to the northern [[celestial pole]] ({{zhi|c=北極|p=běijí}}), the pivot and the vault of the sky with its spinning constellations.{{sfnb|Didier|2009|loc=''passim''}} Here is an approximate representation of the {{zhp|p=tiānmén|c=天門|l=gate of heaven}}.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Reiter |first=Florian C. |title=Purposes, Means and Convictions in Daoism: A Berlin Symposium |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag |year=2007 |isbn=978-3-447-05513-0 |page=190}}</ref> or {{zhp|p=tiānshū|t=天樞|l=pivot of heaven}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Milburn |first=Olivia |title=The Spring and Autumn Annals of Master Yan |publisher=Brill |year=2016 |isbn=978-90-04-30966-1 |series=Sinica Leidensia}} p. 343, note 17.</ref> as the precessional north celestial pole, with [[Polaris|α Ursae Minoris]] as the [[pole star]], with the spinning [[Big Dipper|Chariot]] constellations in the four phases of time. According to Reza Assasi's theories, the {{lang|zh-hant|卍}} may not only be centred in the current precessional pole at α Ursae Minoris, but also very near to the north [[orbital pole|ecliptic pole]] if [[Draco (constellation)|Draco]] ({{zhi|p=Tiānlóng|s=天龙|t=天龍}}) is conceived as one of its two beams.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Assasi |first=Reza |year=2013 |title=Swastika: The Forgotten Constellation Representing the Chariot of Mithras |url=https://www.academia.edu/4087681 |journal=Anthropological Notebooks |type=Supplement: Šprajc, Ivan; Pehani, Peter, eds. ''Ancient Cosmologies and Modern Prophets: Proceedings of the 20th Conference of the European Society for Astronomy in Culture'' |volume=XIX |issn=1408-032X |number=2}}</ref>{{refn|group=note|Whether centred in the change-ful precessional north [[celestial pole]] or in the fixed north [[orbital pole|ecliptic pole]], the spinning constellations draw the {{lang|zh-hant|卍}} symbol around the centre.}}]] {{Main|Tian}} ''Tian'', a key concept in Chinese thought, refers to the God of Heaven, the [[celestial pole|northern culmen of the skies]] and its spinning stars,{{sfnb|Didier|2009|loc=''passim''}} earthly nature and its laws which come from Heaven, to 'Heaven and Earth' (that is, "all things"), and to the awe-inspiring forces beyond human control.<ref name="Hagen">{{Cite web |last=Hagen |first=Kurtis |title=Confucian Key Terms – Tian 天 |url=http://faculty.plattsburgh.edu/kurtis.hagen/keyterms_tian.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141203164801/http://faculty.plattsburgh.edu/kurtis.hagen/keyterms_tian.html |archive-date=3 December 2014 |publisher=State University of New York at Plattsburgh}}</ref> There are so many uses in Chinese thought that it is impossible to give a single English translation.{{sfnb|Littlejohn|2010|p=35}} Confucius used the term in a mystical way.{{sfnb|Hsu|2014}} He wrote in the ''[[Analects]]'' (7.23) that ''tian'' gave him life, and that ''tian'' watched and judged (6.28; 9.12). In 9.5 Confucius says that a person may know the movements of ''tian'', and this provides with the sense of having a special place in the universe. In 17.19 Confucius says that ''tian'' spoke to him, though not in words. The scholar Ronnie Littlejohn warns that ''tian'' was not to be interpreted as a personal God comparable to that of the Abrahamic faiths, in the sense of an otherworldly or transcendent creator.{{sfnb|Littlejohn|2010|pp=35–36}} Rather it is similar to what [[Taoists]] meant by ''Dao'': "the way things are" or "the regularities of the world",<ref name=Hagen/> which Stephan Feuchtwang equates with the ancient Greek concept of ''[[physis]]'', "nature" as the generation and regenerations of things and of the moral order.{{sfnb|Feuchtwang|2016|p=146}} ''Tian'' may also be compared to the ''[[Brahman]]'' of [[Hinduism|Hindu]] and [[Veda|Vedic]] traditions.{{sfnb|Adler|2014|p=10}} The scholar Promise Hsu, in the wake of Robert B. Louden, explained 17:19 ("What does ''Tian'' ever say? Yet there are four seasons going round and there are the hundred things coming into being. What does ''Tian'' say?") as implying that even though ''Tian'' is not a "speaking person", it constantly "does" through the rhythms of nature, and communicates "how human beings ought to live and act", at least to those who have learnt to carefully listen to it.{{sfnb|Hsu|2014}} [[Duanmu Ci]], a disciple of Confucius, said that ''Tian'' had set the master on the path to become a wise man (9.6). In 7.23 Confucius says that he has no doubt left that ''Tian'' gave him life, and from it he had developed right virtue (''[[De (Chinese)|de]]''). In 8.19, he says that the lives of the sages are interwoven with ''Tian''.{{sfnb|Littlejohn|2010|p=35}} Regarding personal gods (''[[shen (Chinese religion)|shen]]'', energies who emanate from and reproduce ''Tian'') enliving nature, in the ''Analects'' Confucius says that it is appropriate (''[[Yi (philosophy)|yi]]'') for people to worship ({{lang-zh|labels=no|c=敬|p=jìng}}) them,{{sfnb|Littlejohn|2010|p=36}} although only through proper rites (''[[Li (Confucianism)|li]]''), implying respect of positions and discretion.{{sfnb|Littlejohn|2010|p=36}} Confucius himself was a ritual and [[sacrifice|sacrificial]] master.{{sfnb|Littlejohn|2010|p=37}} Answering to a disciple who asked whether it is better to sacrifice to the god of the stove or to the god of the family (a popular saying), in 3.13 Confucius says that in order to appropriately pray gods one should first know and respect Heaven. In 3.12, he explains that religious rituals produce meaningful experiences,{{sfnb|Littlejohn|2010|pp=36–37}} and one has to offer sacrifices in person, acting in presence, otherwise "it is the same as not having sacrificed at all". Rites and sacrifices to the gods have an ethical importance: they generate good life, because taking part in them leads to the overcoming of the self.{{sfnb|Shen|Shun|2007|pp=278–279}} Analects 10.11 tells that Confucius always took a small part of his food and placed it on the sacrificial bowls as an offering to his [[ancestor]]s.{{sfnb|Littlejohn|2010|p=37}} Some Confucian movements worship Confucius,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Chuarsa |first=Ira |date=2017-11-14 |title=The Invention of Indonesian Confucianism |url=https://crcs.ugm.ac.id/the-invention-of-indonesian-confucianism/ |access-date=2023-04-30 |website=Program Studi Agama dan Lintas Budaya Center for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies Graduate School, Universitas Gadjah Mada |publisher=[[Gadjah Mada University]] |language=en-US}}</ref> although not as a supreme being or anything else approaching the power of ''tian'' or the ''[[tao]]'', and/or gods from [[Chinese folk religion]]. These movements are not a part of mainstream Confucianism, although the boundary between Chinese folk religion and Confucianism can be blurred.{{Citation needed|date=April 2023}} Other movements, such as [[Mohism]] which was later absorbed by Taoism, developed a more [[theism|theistic]] idea of Heaven.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dubs |first=Homer |year=1960 |title=Theism and Naturalism in Ancient Chinese Philosophy |journal=Philosophy East and West |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |volume=9 |pages=163–172 |doi=10.2307/1397096 |jstor=1397096 |number=3–4}}</ref> Feuchtwang explains that the difference between Confucianism and Taoism primarily lies in the fact that the former focuses on the realisation of the starry order of Heaven in human society, while the latter on the contemplation of the Dao which spontaneously arises in nature.{{sfnb|Feuchtwang|2016|p=146}} However, Confucianism does venerate many aspects of nature<ref name=":0" /> and also respects various ''tao'',<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Dao |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia Britannica]] |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/dao |access-date=2023-04-30 |last=Stefon |first=Matt |date=2012 |language=en}}{{pb}}{{Cite journal |last=Wong |first=Pak-Hang |date=2012-03-01 |title=Dao, Harmony and Personhood: Towards a Confucian Ethics of Technology |journal=Philosophy & Technology |language=en |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=68–71, 76–78, 80–81 |doi=10.1007/s13347-011-0021-z |s2cid=256085508 |issn=2210-5441 |via=[[Springer Science+Business Media|SpringerLink]]|doi-access=free }}</ref> as well as what Confucius saw as the main ''tao'', the "[Way] of Heaven."<ref name=":1" /> The Way of Heaven involves "lifelong and sincere devotion to traditional cultural forms" and ''[[wu wei]]'', "a state of spontaneous harmony between individual inclinations and the sacred Way".<ref name=":1" /> [[Kelly James Clark]] argued that Confucius himself saw ''Tian'' as an anthropomorphic god that Clark hypothetically refers to as "Heavenly Supreme Emperor", although most other scholars on Confucianism disagree with this view.<ref name=":03">{{Cite book |title=Classical Theism: New Essays on the Metaphysics of God |date=2023 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-000-83688-2 |editor-last=Jonathan Fuqua |chapter=Searching for the Ineffable: Classical Theism and Eastern Thought about God<!-- pageno unknown -- info is from the e-book--> |oclc=1353836889 |editor-last2=Robert C. Koons}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page