On Tian 天 And "Heaven"

To some extent, Chinese culture and western culture can be condensed to two most revealing words, tian and"heaven". A contrastive study of the two terms based on systematic and independent investigations as is tentatively demonstrated here in this paper could facilitate a better understanding of the two cultures, upon which the translation between the two words depends.The study of tian has aroused the interest of many scholars, among whom Feng Youlan attributes five senses to this concept, namely, the physical tian, the ruler tian, the fatalistic tian, the naturalistic tian, and the patriarchal and ethical tian. However, his classification is incomplete in its exclusion of"a natural state of things", an important point in Xunzi's doctrine, and his failure to recognize the central status of the patriarchal and ethical tian which, according to Yang Shi, justifies the rules and the laws of the traditional stratified family-oriented society where the obediently accepted ethical values in the name of love and care in actuality could bring the ones in lower status into the submission to the ones above them when a great deal of attention and regard are paid to the subordination of a son to his father, the younger brother to the elder, and a wife to her husband. Similarly, the semantic changes of"heaven"in the Christian classic– the Bible have been diligently studied by western scholars throughout history as well as in modern times, and their research shows that the significance of this word lies in its centrality of man's focus on salvation.This thesis is composed of three chapters. The first one is devoted to an investigation of tian. The Confucian tradition of Chinese culture underlies the notion that the concept of tian as laid down by Confucius, Mencius and Xunzi, the founding fathers of Confucianism, is a microcosm of what it is in Chinese culture. And the five senses of tian in their mind converge on the patriarchal and ethical tian,a confirmation of Professor Yang's argument.The second chapter attempts to investigate"heaven"in the Christian classic– the Bible, which to some extent has laid the very foundation of the western culture. It reflects and engenders a God-centered culture pregnant with the spirit of freedom and equality. Though it is equal to tian in its physical sense, its impact on western culture is most felt in its theological dimensions. As God's domain, it is the place of salvation where the blessed enjoy their eternal bliss. The conception of this Christian term suggests that degenerated men learn, in their arduous pursuit of heaven, that the only way of attaining eternal happiness is to be God's faithful servants, i.e., to be sincere and steadfast in religious belief and in good conduct, the strict practice of which secures every God's devotee the equal opportunity of entering heaven, and therefore helps to establish a harmonious society of freedom and equality.The third chapter makes a contrastive study of tian and"heaven"in terms of their translation. The independent researches in the first two chapters show the fundamental discrepancy between the two words, and thus deny the legitimacy of"heaven"as the most accepted rendering of tian (except in its physical sense). In addition, tian, with its five senses, has been translated, however, by different and seemingly unrelated words in different circumstances, which unavoidably undermines the integrity of these senses and fails to convey tian's complete meaning for westerners. The widely-acknowledged Chinese rendering of"heaven", tian tang天堂, is also a partial translation suggesting more spatial connotation of"heaven"than its temporal implication. Hence a proper way of dealing with tian may be not to translate it but to keep it as pinyin"tian"in the TL text and aid it with additional explanations. Translation is in a sense the replacement of the SL culture with the TL culture, and on many occasions, on account of its disregard for cultural uniqueness, could only end in either distortion or failure.