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Tian

Heaven: the supreme power and moral order of Chinese religion and philosophy.

Also: t’ien, heaven

Daoism and Chinese thought

Tian, heaven, was the high god of the Zhou dynasty and became, in Confucian thought, the moral order of the cosmos and the source of human nature. Mencius taught that to know one’s nature is to know heaven. Daoists placed the Dao above heaven.