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Like other symbols such as the swastika,[1] wàn 卍 ("myriad things") in Chinese, the Mesopotamian 𒀭 Dingir/An ("Heaven"),[2] and also the Chinese 巫 wū ("shaman"; in Shang script represented by the cross potent ☩),[3] Tiān refers to the northern celestial pole (北極 Běijí), the pivot and the vault of the sky with its spinning constellations.[4] Here is an approximate representation of the Tiānmén 天門 ("Gate of Heaven")[5] or Tiānshū 天樞 ("Pivot of Heaven")[6] as the precessional north celestial pole, with α Ursae Minoris as the pole star, with the spinning Chariot constellations in the four phases of time. According to Reza Assasi's theories, the wan may not only be centred in the current precessional pole at α Ursae Minoris, but also very near to the north ecliptic pole if Draco (Tiānlóng 天龙) is conceived as one of its two beams.[7][note 1]
The north ecliptic pole (Běijí 北极, represented by a red dot which does not correspond to any astral body since the north ecliptic pole is starless, 無極 Wújí, "without pole") coiled by Draco, which slithers between the Little Dipper and the Big Dipper (Great Chariot), respectively representing yin and yang, death and life.[8][9] As the symbol of the "protean" primordial power which contains yin and yang as one,[10] the dragon is the curved line in-between yin and yang in the "diagram of the Supreme Pole" (太极图 Tàijítú, of 太极 Tàijí) → ☯.
Small seal script form, from the Shuowen Jiezi, of k:氣 qì (pneuma, "breath", "matter–energy", "power" of Heaven). Because all beings are considered coalescences of it, some scholars have employed the term "(poly)pneumatism", first coined by Walter Medhurst (1796–1857), to describe Chinese spirituality.[11] The many gods are often defined as "traces" (跡 jī) of coalescence of the qi.[12]
玄武 Xuánwǔ, the motif of the snake winding the turtle. While the snake, as the dragon, represents qi, the primordial power of the universe and the constellation Draco at the north ecliptic pole; the turtle represents the cosmos, with "the round carapace representing the dome of the skies and the squarish plastron the squared earth".[13] At the same time they represent two of the four constellations which perfectly enclose, in a square, the north ecliptic pole centred in Draco: Snake (drawn in Corona Borealis + northern stars of Herculs + northern stars of Boötes), Turtle (Cassiopeia), Sword (central stars of Cygnus) and the Big Dipper.[14]
Shang-dynasty graphemes signifying the power of ordering
①
②
③
④
❶ k:巫 wū — "shaman", "man who knows", the cross potent ☩ being a symbol of the magi and magic/craft also in Western cultures;[15]
❷ k:方 fāng — "square", "phase", "direction", "power" and other meanings of ordering, which was used interchangeably with the grapheme wu;
❸ k:矩 jǔ — "carpenter's square";
❹ k:央 yāng — "centering".
All of them contain the rod element signifying the square tool, used to make right angles. According to David W. Pankenier, the same staff is the horizontal line in the grapheme 帝 dì, "deity" or "emperor".[16]
The squared northern culmen of the skies, which is Tian, as a liubo board. The Luoshu square, the Hetu, liubo boards, sundials, Han diviner's boards (shì 式) and luopan for fengshui, and the derived compass, as well as TLV mirrors, are all representations of the supreme God as the squared north celestial pole.[17]
How Dì 帝 was drawn according to the scholar Pankenier, by connecting the stars γ, β, and 5 of the Ursa Minor (of which the former two are part of the scoop of the Little Dipper) and ζ, ε, and δ of the Ursa Major (and Big Dipper). Amongst the graphemes containing Dì there are 締 dì ("appropriately conjoined" and verbally "to do", "to form"), 諦 dì ("careful", "attentive", or verbally "to look into", "to examine"), and 蒂 dì ("calyx", or the "footstalk" that holds a fruit or an inflorescence, which falls and produces other life).[18][19] The scholar Didier, otherwise, says that by connecting stars within the same cluster ancient priests-astronomers drew 口 Dīng, the original form of the word Dì itself, which would represent the supreme God as a square.[20]
The Shang grapheme 帝 Dì, "Deity", outlined by connecting the stars γ, β, and 5 of the Little Bear (of which the former two are part of the scoop of the Little Dipper) and ζ, ε, and δ of the Big Dipper/Great Chariot, to locate the north pole (北极 Běijí, "northern culmen"). Source: Pankenier, David W. (2004). "A Brief History of Beiji 北极 (Northern Culmen), with an Excursus on the Origin of the Character di 帝". Journal of the American Oriental Society, 124 (2): 211–236. DOI 10.2307/4132212. See pp. 226–236. According to John C. Didier the same drawing was originally called 口 Dīng (older form of 丁, the "carpenter's square", symbol of cosmic power, from which the same Dì would derive), and represented the supreme godhead as a square. Source: Didier, John C. (2009). "In and Outside the Square: The Sky and the Power of Belief in Ancient China and the World, c. 4500 BC – AD 200". Sino-Platonic Papers. Victor H. Mair (192). Volume I: The Ancient Eurasian World and the Celestial Pivot, p. 216.
Shang and Zhou graphemes for Di and Tian
①
②
③
④
⑤
⑥
❶ One version of the Shang grapheme for the nominal Dì k:帝 ("Deity", "deities", "divinity"), which according to David W. Pankenier was drawn by connecting the stars of the "handle" of Ursa Major and the "scoop" of Ursa Minor determining the northern culmen (北极 Běijí).[21] Otherwise, according to John C. Didier this and all the other graphemes ultimately represent Dīng 口 (archaic of k:丁, which also signifies the square tool), the north celestial pole godhead as a square.[22] The bar on top, which is either present or not and one or two in Shang script, is the k:上 shàng to signify "highest".[23] The crossbar element in the middle represents a carpenter's square, and is present in other graphemes including 方 fāng, itself meaning "square", "direction", "phase", "way" and "power", which in Shang versions was alternately represented as a cross potent ☩, homographically to 巫 wū ("shaman").[16] Dì is equivalent to symbols like wàn 卍 ("all things")[1] and Mesopotamian 𒀭 Dingir/An ("Heaven").[2]
❷ Another version of the Shang grapheme for the nominal Dì.[24]
❸ One version of the Shang grapheme for the verbal dì k:禘, "to divine, to sacrifice (by fire)". The modern standard version is distinguished by the prefixion of the signifier for "cult" (礻shì) to the nominal Dì.[25][26] It may represent a fish entering the square of the north celestial pole (Dīng 口),[27] or rather k:定 dìng, i.e. the Square of Pegasus or Celestial Temple, when aligning with Dì and thus framing true north.[28] Also dǐng k:鼎 ("cauldron", "thurible") may have derived from the verbal dì.[29]
❹ Shang grapheme for Shàngjiǎ k:上甲, "Supreme Ancestor", an alternate name of Shangdi.[30]
❺ The most common Zhou version of the grapheme Tiān ("Heaven") k:天, represented as a man with a squared (dīng 口) head.[31]
❻ Another Zhou version of the grapheme for Tiān.[31]
Olden versions of the grapheme 黄 huáng, "yellow"
①
②
③
④
❶ Shang oracle bone script;
❷ Western Zhou bronzeware script;
❸ Han Shuowen Jiezi;
❹ Yuan Liushutong.
According to Qiu Xigui, the character "yellow" signifies the power of the 巫 wū ("shaman").[32]: 12, note 33  The Yellow God is the north celestial pole, or the pole star, and it is "the spirit father and astral double of the Yellow Emperor".[32]: 42, note 25 
Wǔfāng Shàngdì (五方上帝 "Five Forms of the Highest Deity") — The order of Heaven inscribing worlds as tán 壇, "altar", the Chinese concept equivalent to the Indian mandala. The supreme God conceptualised as the Yellow Deity, and Xuanyuan as its human form, is the heart of the universe and the other Four Deities are his emanations. The diagram is based on the Huainanzi.[33]
  1. ^ a b Didier (2009), p. 256, Vol. III.
  2. ^ a b Mair, Victor H. (2011). "Religious Formations and Intercultural Contacts in Early China". In Krech, Volkhard; Steinicke, Marion (eds.). Dynamics in the History of Religions between Asia and Europe: Encounters, Notions, and Comparative Perspectives. Leiden: Brill. pp. 85–110. ISBN 978-9004225350. pp. 97–98, note 26.
  3. ^ Didier (2009), p. 257, Vol. I.
  4. ^ Didier (2009), passim.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Reiter was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Milburn was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Assasi, Reza (2013). "Swastika: The Forgotten Constellation Representing the Chariot of Mithras". Anthropological Notebooks (Supplement: Šprajc, Ivan; Pehani, Peter, eds. Ancient Cosmologies and Modern Prophets: Proceedings of the 20th Conference of the European Society for Astronomy in Culture). XIX (2). Ljubljana: Slovene Anthropological Society. ISSN 1408-032X.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Cheu1988 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference DeBernardi2007 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Pankenier (2013), p. 55.
  11. ^ Zhong (2014), pp. 196, 202.
  12. ^ Zhong (2014), p. 222.
  13. ^ Didier (2009), p. 128.
  14. ^ Maeder, Stefan (2011), "The Big Dipper, Sword, Snake and Turtle: Four Constellations as Indicators of the Ecliptic Pole in Ancient China?", in Nakamura, Tsuko; Orchiston, Wayne; Sôma, Mitsuru; Strom, Richard (eds.), Mapping the Oriental Sky. Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Oriental Astronomy, Tokyo: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, pp. 57–63.
  15. ^ Mair, Victor (2012). "The Earliest Identifiable Written Chinese Character". In Huld, Martin E.; Jones-Bley, Karlene; Miller, Dean A. (eds.). Archaeology and Language: Indo-European Studies Presented to James P. Mallory. Institute for the Study of Man. pp. 265–279. ISBN 978-0984538355. ISSN 0895-7258. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
  16. ^ a b Pankenier (2013), pp. 112–113.
  17. ^ Didier (2009), p. 137 ff, Vol. III.
  18. ^ Pankenier (2004), pp. 226–236.
  19. ^ Didier (2009), p. 111, Vol. II.
  20. ^ Didier (2009), p. 216, Vol. I.
  21. ^ Pankenier (2013), pp. 103–105.
  22. ^ Didier (2009), p. 118, Vol. II and passim.
  23. ^ Didier (2009), p. 133, Vol. II.
  24. ^ Didier (2009), p. 100, Vol. II.
  25. ^ Didier (2009), p. 107 ff, Vol. II.
  26. ^ Pankenier (2013), p. 103.
  27. ^ Didier (2009), p. 6, Vol. III.
  28. ^ Pankenier (2013), pp. 138–148, "Chapter 4: Bringing Heaven Down to Earth".
  29. ^ Pankenier (2013), pp. 136–142.
  30. ^ Didier (2009), pp. 227–228, Vol. II.
  31. ^ a b Didier (2009), pp. 3–4, Vol. III.
  32. ^ a b Wells, Marnix (2014). The Pheasant Cap Master and the End of History: Linking Religion to Philosophy in Early China. Three Pines Press. ISBN 978-1931483261.
  33. ^ Sun & Kistemaker (1997), p. 121.


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