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All under heaven
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| Chinese name | |||||||||||
| Chinese: | 天下 | ||||||||||
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| Japanese name | |||||||||||
| Kanji: | 天下 | ||||||||||
| Kana: | てんか or てんげ or てんが or あめのした | ||||||||||
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| Korean name | |||||||||||
| Hangul: | 천하 | ||||||||||
| Hanja: | 天下 | ||||||||||
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| Vietnamese name | |||||||||||
| Vietnamese: | thiên hạ | ||||||||||
| Hán tự: | 天下 | ||||||||||
All under heaven, or literally, "heaven under" (Chinese: 天下; pinyin: tiān xià), is a phrase in the Chinese language and a cultural concept in China.
The Chinese character 天 means "sky" or "heaven". 下 means "under" or "down". 天下 together, literally means "under the sky". The word 天下, besides the literal meaning, is also taken by Chinese as referring to the whole world. In this context then, it can perhaps be best understood and translated as "Everything Under the Heavens". Only in modern times has the term 世界 (shì jiè) come into use to directly refer to the world.
In classical Chinese political thought, the Emperor of China would nominally be the ruler of All under heaven, that is, the entire world. Although in practice there would be areas of the known world which were not under the control of the Emperor, in Chinese political theory the political rulers of those areas derived their power from the Emperor.
Usage
A common term meaning "the world", tiān xià has been used throughout history. It is ordinary to name various things, ranging from city gates, such as Shanhai Guan, to snacks, as "The first under heaven" or "The best under heaven" (tiān xià dì yī, 天下第一).
Another usage for "tiān xià" is "tiān xià wéi gōng" (天下為公), which literally means "all is equal under heaven". In other words, the world exists not for a ruler or one person, but for all.
"Tiān xià wú nán shì" (天下無難事) is another phrase concerning "Tiān xià", meaning "[There is] no difficulty under heaven".
Variants
The Chinese term "All under heaven" has been borrowed into Korean, where it is pronounced Cheon Ha. In the ssireum, Korea's traditional style of wrestling, Cheon Ha refers to the championship of all weights (perhaps best interpreted as world champion).
It has also been borrowed into Japanese, where it is pronounced tenka. For example, moves to unite the whole of Japan by lords such as Oda Nobunaga or Tokugawa Ieyasu were characterized as 'seizing tenka' (tenka wo toru 天下 を 取る).
The term is also borrowed into Vietnamese as thiên hạ. Its usage is similar as in Chinese, where it means "the world" or "everybody".
See also
- Sinosphere
- Hero - a major 2002 film centred on the term
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 20 October 2008, at 09:35.
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