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The Heaven-Earth Cosmic Faith 51

Heaven” (The Doctrine of the Mean,《中庸》). As Zheng Xuan (郑玄 127–200) noted in
his Annotations on the Book of Rites (《礼记正义》), “Without naming the Empress of
Earth, She, is a ritual offering to the Empress of Earth.” Zhu Xi in his Annotations on
)
The Doctrine of the Mean (《中庸章句集注》 suggested that “Jiao means a ritual
offering to Heaven, and She, an offering to Earth. Not mentioning the ‘Empress of
Earth’ is an omission.” In other words, the full version of the Confucian text could
have been: “By performing Jiao and She rituals they served both the Emperor of
Heaven and the Empress of the Earth.”
“Heaven” or the “Emperor of Heaven” was venerated as the ultimate deity in
Chinese faith. During the Spring and Autumn Period (771 B.C.E.–476 B.C.E.),
Confucius was quoted as saying “Heaven alone is great, and King Yao alone
emulated it” (“Tai Bo” in The Analects, 《论语 · 泰伯》). “Heaven” in such a faith
system is opposite to “Earth,” both being father and mother of humanity and all
things. This supports the notion that the highest Emperor/Ruler dwells in “this
world,” which is human centred, rather than a metaphysical “other world,” found
in Chinese culture and cosmic faith. In other words, it shares “continuity of being”
with the world in which humans inhabit (Du, 2002, p. 222).
The Heaven-Earth polarity marks an important difference between Chinese
culture and that of the Christian West. When Christian missionaries first arrived
in China, they were critical of the Chinese “Heaven-Earth” faith. Matteo Ricci,
for example, not only stressed in his True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven (《天主
)
实义》that there is only one Lord in Heaven, but suggested “our Lord of Heaven
is tantamount to the Emperor of Heaven described in ancient (Chinese) scrip-
tures.” He challenged Zhu Xi’s point about the linguistic omission of “Empress
of Earth” in the latter’s commentary on the Confucian text: “by Jiao and She
rituals they served the Emperor of Heaven.” (The Doctrine of the Mean)He
asked, “What omission is there, but a clear statement by Confucius of a single,
unique God?” The belief in one God no doubt conforms to the fundamental
doctrine of Catholicism. However, Ricci’s criticism of Zhu Xi does not hold,
given the duality of ritual offerings to Heaven (Jiao)and Earth(She)inthe
Chinese cultural context. Furthermore, the meaning of “Heaven” had been well
articulated in classical literature in China, as the Confucian scholar Cheng Yi
(程颐 1033–1107) commented, “In terms of its physical form, it is called Heaven;
in terms of its omnipotent power, it is called Emperor.” (The Extant Works of the
Cheng Brothers, 《程氏遗书》,PartI,Vol.22).Ricci wouldhavenoneofthis, and
wrote, “Emperor is no name for Heaven,”“How can the Lord of Heaven, being a
formless spirit, be attributed a physical form?” Riccicould notacceptthatboth
Heaven and Earth were objects of sacrificial rituals in the Chinese tradition and
argued that “if Heaven above is not venerated as omnipotent, what dignity can
there be for Earth below, for it is trodden by all where filths befall?” (Zhu, 2001,