this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2024
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Today I Learned (TIL)
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Ancient Chinese mysticism (yijing, wuxing, daoism) have the concept of earth as either kūn (field, like of grass) or di (earth, like soil). I believe both are 地. This is in contrast to Heaven (tian) which is above. I believe both were conceived of as infinite parallel planes.
天地人 (tiān-dì-rén) are Heaven, Earth, and Human; and were sometimes seen as the 3 primal forces of reality.
Thanks for the further info! That 地 alone does follow the pattern of the other languages.
Your explanation gives Ricci's odd calque a lot more sense - he's using the old term, but highlighting that it's a ball, not an infinite plane. As in, he was trying to be accurate to the sources, and he could only do it through that calque.