Di (Chinese concept)

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Not to be confused with di 帝, a title used singularly or in combination for various Chinese deities or royal monarchs, or with di the irregular plural of the Latin deus, or with 帝 (also pronounced Dì), the short form of the ancient Chinese sky god Shangdi.
The Chinese character for Dì.

Di (Chinese: 地; pinyin: dì; Wade–Giles: ti; lit. 'earth') is one of the oldest Chinese terms for the earth and a key concept or figure in Chinese philosophy and religion, being one of three powers (sāncái, 三才) which are Heaven, Earth, and Humanity (tiān-dì-rén, 天地人), a phrase which originates from the Yijing.

Etymology[]

Dì is the modern Mandarin Chinese pronunciation. The Old Chinese pronunciation has been reconstructed as *lˤej-s.[1]

The Chinese character 地 is a phono-semantic compound, combining the 土 radical ("earth", "dirt") with the (former) sound marker 也 (Modern Chinese yě, Old Chinese *lajʔ[1]). As 埊, it was one of the characters briefly affected by Wu Zetian's short-lived character reforms.

Taoism[]

The relationship between Heaven and Earth is important to Taoist cosmology. They are among the "three realms" of the world presided over by the Three Great Emperor-Officials, and thought to maintain the two poles of the "three powers", with humanity occupying the pivotal position between them.

See also[]

  • Agriculture (Chinese mythology)
  • Sheji
  • Houji

References[]

  1. ^ a b Baxter, Wm. H. & Sagart, Laurent. "Baxter–Sagart Old Chinese Reconstruction". Archived from the original on 2013-09-27. (1.93 MB), pp. 20 & 176. 2011. Accessed 11 October 2011.

External links[]

  • The dictionary definition of 地 at Wiktionary
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