Di (Chinese concept)

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.

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.

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

References
  1. 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.
  • The dictionary definition of 地 at Wiktionary
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