The Heavenly Learning (天學; Tian Xue) in Late Ming Dynasty
and the Ideas of Tian in Early Confucianism
by Lu Keija who is from the University of Southern California.
[Introduction: “Heavenly Learning” in the 16th Century China]
The name “Heavenly Learning” first appeared in the writing of an anonymous missionary in the late Ming Dynasty. It generally refers to the doctrine of Western missionaries, such as Michele Ruggieri (1543~1607) and Matteo Ricci (1552~1610) who came to China to proclaim the Christian gospel in the sixteenth century. “Heaven” in this phrase mainly refers to God in Christianity. These writings on Heavenly Learning focused on interpreting God, God’s creation, and His will in the earthly life. “Heaven” not only implied the dominating tactic of the missionaries but also demonstrated their identification with the Chinese religious groups. By using terms familiar to Chinese people, the missionaries hoped to evoke their sympathy and identification. The Westerners in general rejected Buddhism and attempted to assimilate Confucianism which was regarded as compatible with Christianity compared to other religions. In order to convert the Chinese to Christianity, the missionaries tried all kinds of methods to assimilate useful vocabulary and concepts from classical texts, so as to argue that “Heaven” or “Lord” in the early Confucian classics was equal to “God” in Christianity. Among the early Jesuits, Matteo Ricci assumed that the Ancient Theology had been present in earliest China and that the writings ascribed to Confucius and other ancient Chinese classics were compatible with Christian ethics and monotheism.
[Early Confucianism and Tian – A Missionary Perspective]
Ricci once described the faithful spiritual constitution of the earliest Chinese people: “From the very beginning of their history, it is recorded in their writings that they recognized and worshipped one Supreme Being whom they called the Lord of Heaven, or designated by some other name indicating his rule over heaven and earth. It would appear that the ancient Chinese considered heaven and earth to be animated things and that their common soul was worshipped as supreme deity.”
Although the word “heaven” presented by the Western Jesuits was referred both to the religious teaching about The Lord of Heaven (天主; Tian Zhu) and to the scientific knowledge of patterns of Heaven (天文; Tian Wen), such as astronomy, the main focus concerned in Heavenly Learning was preaching the Gospel. The seventeenth-century missionaries were trying to guide the Chinese to get a full knowledge of God. Having read Confucian classics, they concluded that what they and Westerners called God or the Lord of Heaven was the same as Lord or Tian in the classics.
“In order to couple the idea of authority with the name of God, instead of saying God, the missionaries always used the title Tianzhu, meaning, Lord of Heaven. They could hardly have chosen a more appropriate expression, because there is no consonant sound of D in the Chinese language, and to them there was something magnificent and a touch of the divine in this particular name. In fact, this title, first used at the beginning of our missionary work, is still in vogue today when God is mentioned in discourse and in writing, though several others have been introduced by way of amplification and for clearer understanding. Among the titles most commonly employed are Sovereign Director of All Things, and First Cause of All Things.”
It is evident that such an important conclusion- God equals to the Lord of Heaven- was drawn more from the consideration of monotheism. There is no wonder that the following verses made Ricci interpret the Confucian Classics that this Lord of Heaven full of will and emotions rightly matched the monotheism of Christianity: “The suburban sacrifice is to worship Lord”; “The arm of King Woo was full of strength; Irresistible was his ardor. Greatly illustrious were Ching and Kang, Kinged by God”; “And his (T’ang) wisdom and virtue daily advanced. Brilliant was the influence of his character [on Heaven] for long, (To be reverent to God)”; and “King Xia was guilty. He revered Lord so he never dared to correct himself”. He thought that his idea that Tian; 天 or Di; 帝 was identical to God and what God had already existed in the original ideas of Confucianism.
A concrete case of embodied assimilation is The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven. In The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven, Ricci employed this recognition to draw analogies between some plausible ideas so as to guide Chinese literati though his designed argumentation that God had already been in Confucianism. In his introduction to The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven, Ricci declared the purpose of this catechism as to exhort the Chinese people to turn back to the initial understanding of the Lord of Heaven:
“Whether westerners or easterners, we have the same mind. The only difference lies in the languages. At the very beginning, Confucius said that to cultivate one, one should serve one’s parents first and then extend to know Heaven. When it came to Mencius, he set up his theory of serving Heaven with your cultivation. That means serving Heaven is as same as serving one’s parents since Heaven is the supreme parent of everything. The Book of Change said that Di; 帝 is the dominator. But today people seldom know the true meaning of Heaven or the Lord of Heaven. Even many Confucians are familiar with the Mandate of Heaven, the Principle of Heaven, the way of Heaven, and the virtue of Heaven but deviate from these and fall into indifference or defy Di, do not mention the ignorant men are unconsciously fearless.”
Ricci’s catechism has ten chapters and the purpose of this book is to enlighten people to realize that the Lord of Heaven is Heaven (天; Tian) or Lord (帝; Di) in the ancient Classics. He is the only all-inclusive Creator (造物者; zaowuzhe) in the universe. Humans are above the ten thousand things (萬物; Wanwu) for his spirit partakes God’s Holy Spirit. That’s why the human can receive the knowledge of God. Only the human needs to be open to the Spirit and live in the Spirit to achieve his transformation and salvation.
Ricci extended the relationship between father and son (filial piety) and the relationship between ruler and subject, as two of the cardinal characteristics of Confucian ethics to his Christian argument. In Christianity, Lord is the father and the head is in heaven. Ricci pointed out that from country to household, there was a relationship between ruler (head) and subject. Similarly, this was also found in the analogy of the relationship between father and son in both the national ruler and household head. Recognizing these prevalent distinctions between father/ son and ruler/subject in human beings, Ricci went on to extend such distinctions to make sense of the relationship between the common fatherhood of the Lord of Heaven.
Ricci further proved that the Master of Heaven was the creator of the universe. Not only heaven and earth, but all creatures were products of Him and it was He who supplied and nourished them.
[The Interpretation of Tian in the Early Confucians: A Reflection on the Christian Interpretation]
From the brief descriptions of the Lord of Heaven above, it is necessary for us to get down to the original Classics to examine whether Ricci’s expediential cooperation with the concept of Di; 帝 or Tian; 天 is practicable.
From the Oracle Bone Scripts and other written materials that occurred in later dynasties, we can trace the development of the concept of Tian. The people of the Shan dynasty (1766-1045 B.C.) continued to worship many deities which included nature deities, cultural heroes, and royal ancestors. H.H. Dubs has presented his classification to summarize the supreme human beings in ancient China: the supreme being; departmental gods and tribal gods, which covered the high-gods and ordinary gods; and family gods or deified ancestors that can be called spirits. Among these deities, there is always one deity above the others, which was usually called Shang-di; 上帝 (Lord) or Tian; 天 (Heaven). In the Book of Odes (Shijing), the Ancient History (Shangshu), and even in the later writings such as Shi-ji (the Grand History Records) and Han-shu (History of the Former Han), we can see such as Shen, Shang-di, Heaven, and the Ju-shen demonstrate a hierarchy of deities in the ancient ritual. The shen; 神 or ju-shen; 主神 denotes the various gods including the high god, spirit, or ghost. Shang-di, Di, or Tian are different from shen. Shang-di, Di, or Tian means the lord on high or the highest high god. And they are divine since they are ranked in the first place.
Although many deities are involved in the sacrifices or worship, it is not correct to conclude that ancient Chinese people were polytheistic rather than monotheistic. They lifted up the highest god and reduced other gods or spirits to a dependent or subordinate position. Through such worship and sacrifice, only one deity stands out above the others. Whether such sacrificing practices are or are not consistent with monotheism depends not upon whether spiritual beings are believed in, but on whether there is an absolutely determined relationship between them. Besides the One God in three persons in Christianity, there is also the Virgin Mary, a set of archangels, together with a host of angels, personal guardian spirits, and saints being worshipped. However, the acceptance of such spiritual beings does not violate the fundamental purity of Christian monotheism Spiritual beings are always believed in as members of a body, and there is only one leader who controls and directs all parts to perform in perfect order. Ricci took a whole chapter in The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven to argue that the Lord of Heaven is the only all-inclusive creator and he made a classification between the dependent and the independent beings. Even the independent deities, ghosts, or other spirits are under the charge of the Supreme Lord. Concerning the all-in-one, none is independent at all. Therefore the worship towards other subordinate spiritual beings could not affect our honor but actually amplify the dignity of the highest high Lord.
King Wu and his supporters of the Zhou dynasty found reasons to conquer the Shang dynasty by claiming that Zhou acted as the agent of Tian and was empowered to govern the country. That was called the Mandate of Heaven.
[The Duke of Jou, speaking] for King [Cheng], said: “You, many offices of Yin, now our Jou King [Wu] grandly and excellently received this matter from the High-god [Di; 帝]. [King Wu] possessed a mandate which said, ‘Destroy the Yin [dynasty], He reported his reforming [work] to the High-god [Di; 帝]. Verily, as our actions did not go contrary to [God’s] course [of action], your Royal house has come under our [control].
“I will explain it to you. Your [ruler] was greatly lawless. Our [house] did not [originate] this movement [against] your house. [It came] from your [own] city. When I reflect that Heaven (Tian) has applied to the Yin [ruler] such great severity, it shows that he was not upright.”
Tian was an omnipotent guarantor of peace, justice, and virtues, while the king embodied the righteousness and authority. Tian; 天 and king; 天子 were almost indistinguishable and it actually was the personal deity of the king. Tian intervened in human affairs directly by the King’s conquest which contributed to reconciling the people of the Shang to Zhou rule and confirming the king’s intimate relation to Heaven. People were kept out of any involvement with Tian. Tian was remote in their consciousness and what they could do was to obey the king. In The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven, Ricci also stressed the Mandate of the Lord of Heaven which included miracles, punishment, and moral order as well. Ricci wanted to assimilate with the ancient classics and Confucian ethics to place the traditional concepts of such as filial piety, faithfulness, propriety, and righteousness to the Lord of Heaven. Ricci argued many times that the Lord of Heaven was the supreme parent. A parent always cares for his children, so children should be humble and obedient. He stressed the spiritual interaction between the Lord of Heaven and human beings but never associated the Lord of Heaven with one king. When the relationship of father and son and the relationship of ruler and subject were admitted and when such distinctions were viewed in the relationship to the common fatherhood of the Lord of Heaven, “they all became brothers with an equal standing.”
When the Zhou dynasty collapsed, warfare and suffering occurred continually. People could not help wondering about the fate of the righteousness of Heaven and the justice of the royal power. The idea that goodness or virtues originated from Tian was almost fallen into a pessimistic fatalism. However, during the Warring States period, the way of righteousness had been reduced to mere military trickery. Many schools of thought boomed and intended to reverse militarism. Among them arose a philosophical thought that put vehement efforts to restore the holy power of Tian. Such a pioneering mission was one of Confucius.
Although Confucius avoided giving direct answers about what Tian is, there is no doubt that Tian is a concept with infinity and ultimacy. In the writing of Confucius, the purpose of Tian mainly focuses on the moral self-discipline as the constitution of the Mandate of Heaven. This teaching evoked the self-consciousness that the individual was the agent of the Mandate of Heaven. Through permeating the concrete ritual practiced in the sacrifice (li), a person can experience the Mandate of Heaven as a transforming power in daily life. The essence of the Mandate of Heaven has been transformed from the state fortune administrated by Heaven to the virtues endowed by Heaven. This transformation has also shaped the main route of Chinese culture: The purpose of learning is to practice, and the aim of practice is to achieve virtues.
In the Analects, Confucius referred to the Mandate of Heaven only three times:
The master said, “At fifteen, I set my mind upon learning; at thirty, I took my place in society; at forty, I became free of doubts; at fifty, I understood Heaven’s Mandate; at sixty, my ear was attuned; and at seventy, I could follow my heart’s desire without overstepping the bounds of propriety.
The master said, “The gentleman stands in awe of three things: the Mandate of Heaven, great man, and the teachings of the sages. The petty person does not understand the Mandate of Heaven, and thus does not regard it with awe; he shows disrespect to great men, and ridicules the teachings of the sages.”
It is said that Confucius didn’t realize the Mandate of Heaven until he was fifty. But once he recognized it and related the moral cultivation to the ultimacy of being, he found an inexhaustible strength to be human. According to him, at that time and age, the clarity and sense of ease this brings with it leads to a stage, where one’s disposition has been so thoroughly harmonized with the dictates of normative culture that one accords with them spontaneously. In other words, training and innate nature would be then perfectly meshed, and the way of Heaven and man, perfectly matched as well.
In the Mencius, the ‘Mandate of Heaven’ appeared only once and it was quoted from the Book of Odes. Mencius’ opinion of the Mandate of Heaven was mainly demonstrated through his view of fate (命 ming):
Preserving one’s heart-mind and nourishing one’s nature are the means by which to serve Heaven. Considering with equanimity an untimely death or long life, and cultivation of oneself to simply await what comes-these are the means by which to establish fate(命).
The issue of fate is also linked to the distinction between internal and external concerns: “Pursue them, and you will get them; let go and you will lose them.” This refers to the situation where pursuing something helps one to get it because the search lies within oneself. “Pursuing it requires a technique; whether or not you actually get it is a matter of fate(命).” This refers to a situation where pursuing it does not help one to get it because the search lies outside oneself. The point is that the aspiring gentleman needs to focus his energy on the internal of the Confucian practice, the attainment of which is within his control, instead of wasting his time pursuing such externalities as wealth or fame. The differentiation between internal and external shows that the mandated fate is to make people live out what is inherent in them.
In Mencius, all kinds of virtues (humanity, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom) are endowed by Heaven and human beings possess them by birth. These virtues are innate constitutions of human nature. Therefore the ming(命); mandate demonstrated through these moral practices what was rather internal. Once a superior person has established to pursue such virtues as his fate, he was responding to the Mandate of Heaven to individual moral practice. Moreover, Mencius presented his original thought that identifies the virtues mandated by Heaven with human nature that everyone can become a sage and can be viewed as one with Tian.
Compared with Confucius and Mencius, Hsun Tzu held disparate views about Heaven. In the Hsun Tzu, there is a chapter that focuses on Nature (Tian, Heaven). “Nature (Tian, Heaven) operates with constant regularity. It does not exist for the sake of (sage-emperor) Yao nor does it cease to exist because of (wicked king) Jie.” The portrait of Tian; 天 is obviously closer to the Dao; 道 of the Taoists than to Tian (Heaven) of Confucius and Mencius. Their Tian is still purposive, but Hsun Tzu’s Tian is of non-purposive nature. Tian, the natural basis of the human ability, is to make ethical distinctions and create ritual order. Although ming appeared in different contexts in the Hsun Tzu, its major purpose hinges on reconciling human ritual li with the extended structure of Tian-as-Nature into human sphere. “Man who knows about his fate does not complain to Heaven.” Here the human beings to show cognitive subject. The Mandate of Heaven only appeared once in the Hsun Tzu which refers to natural rules. Because the human possesses innately a set of Tian-like organs and capacities, he can appreciate these rules and use them. This is “to grasp the mandate of Heaven and make use of it.” The ability to make cognitive activity into practice is distinguished from showing reverent apprehension of the Mandate of Heaven. In brief, a person in Confucius and Mencius is the subject of moral practice but in Hsun Tzu, a person is the cognitive subject.
Ricci however, presented a different opinion. He drew an analogy between the Lord of Heaven in Christianity and Tian in the ancient Confucian Classics; and transformed the meaning of Tian and the Mandate of Heaven. Descending from Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, the impersonated and purposive Tian or Shang-di has gradually been replaced by a more rational and naturalistic definition. However, after Ricci’s and other Western missionaries’ interpretation, the implication of Tian and the Mandate of Heaven returned to its origin. Ricci not only denied the rational, naturalistic, and empirical senses of Tian but amplified that there was a God, the only highest anthropomorphic Lord who administrated the universe. Earlier, the mandate of God included the original meanings such as virtues, punishments, and ritual cultivation, but now some new items have been added [the pure original ideas have been distorted]. No matter what was ancient or original, the marrow of this compound word was now totally remodeled.
Firstly, when the Mandate of Heaven was replaced by the Lord of Heaven or God, the vague or indistinct Tian had become an omniscient, almighty, and triune God (Father, Son, and Spirit) who created the universe and, through the incarnation, implemented salvation.
Secondly, the relationship between the Lord of Heaven and the ten thousands things (Wan wu) had changed according to the new definition of the Lord of Heaven: Everything originates from the Lord of Heaven but all the creatures only share a tiny part of the Lord of Heaven’s almightiness and omniscience. The Heavenly principle or the way undertaken by the creatures is only subject to the Lord of Heaven and they would never be equal to the Lord of Heaven. The creatures are not independent entities at all and Lord of Heaven is actually the ontological Being. Everything on earth is dependent on the Lord of Heaven. Birth, development, and results are all controlled by the Lord of Heaven.
Thirdly, about the relationship between Tian-zhu; 天主 and human beings; 人間: Confucius and Mencius paid attention to the individual ritual cultivation and a self-conscious effort to take on the social-political responsibility. In Hsu Tzu, his concentration was based on the self-consciousness to know about ming; mandates to keep li so as to make use of Tian. All of the enlightened people look into themselves to find their intrinsic virtues to obtain unity with Tian. But Ricci emphasized the dependence on the Lord of Heaven. The entire individual life is under the charge of God. Although only humans have spirit which makes them superior to other creatures, they need to be enlightened to be aware that they have spirit. To be a gentleman (superior man) is to respond to God’s purpose. Just like the Ten Commandments, God’s purpose, the mandate of the Lord of Heaven, is to transform the human being into god-man, which means God is the head of the human. The individual should access God in everything. Everything is to be found only in God and open to God to have significance. Thus, God’s glory is open to everyone. So to lead a moral life consciously is to realize that the holy glory is intrinsic in oneself. On the other hand, if a person does something wrong, he is violating God’s purpose and he is abusing the free will that God gives him. From the Christian perspective, that a person has been chosen to have spirit in the glory of God’s creation is the prerequisite. There should be God’s glory or God’s enlightenment pre-existent before a person can be inspired to practice transformation according to God’s purpose in a self-conscious way. At last, the Lord of Heaven’s blessing or punishment seems now to be operative on the spirit that caused the differentiation between Heaven and Hades.
[Conclusion]
To conclude, the 16th-century Christian teaching about Tian or Lord of Heaven was an influential reinterpretation of the early Confucian ideas. From the reinterpretation, we notice the purpose of the missionaries, their expediential hermeneutical tactics, and their orientation of Chinese religions in a worldly historical context. When we read these writings after many centuries, they can still inspire us. This inspiration is displayed in the responses between the learning from the Western and Eastern traditions.
Q: The essential following Question about this conclusion for me is then, where did these early Confucian ideas of Tian(天) come from? What is the root cosmology and principle of the idea of Tian and Lord of Heaven(天主)? It was the Cheonbugyeong and Samilsingo.