Wiktionary

天下

Chinese

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day; sky; heaven
under; next; lower
under; next; lower; below; underneath; down(wards); to go down; latter
 
simp. and trad.
(天下) 		天 下
Literally: “under heaven”.
 
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Etymology

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Earliest attestations are in the Book of Documents and Classic of Poetry (as「天之下」then「天下」).

Pines (2002) thinks it "likely that "originally tianxia referred to the area under the direct rule of the Son of Heaven [a.k.a. the Zhou king], and its limits might have shrunk together with the contraction of royal power". See there for more on the term's gradual semantic evolution through the Spring and Autumn period, Warring States period, until after Qin's wars of unification.

Pronunciation

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Rime
Character 天 下
Reading # 1/1 1/2
Initial (聲) 透 (6) 匣 (33)
Final (韻) 先 (85) 麻 (98)
Tone (調) Level (Ø) Rising (X)
Openness (開合) Open Open
Division (等) IV II
Fanqie 他前切 胡雅切
Baxter then haeX
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang 		/tʰen/ /ɦˠaX/
Pan
Wuyun 		/tʰen/ /ɦᵚaX/
Shao
Rongfen 		/tʰɛn/ /ɣaX/
Edwin
Pulleyblank 		/tʰɛn/ /ɦaɨX/
Li
Rong 		/tʰen/ /ɣaX/
Wang
Li 		/tʰien/ /ɣaX/
Bernhard
Karlgren 		/tʰien/ /ɣaX/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex 		tiān xià
Expected
Cantonese
Reflex 		tin1 haa6
Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 天 天 下
Reading # 1/2 2/2 1/2
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin) 		tiān xiān xià
Middle
Chinese 		‹ then › ‹ xen › ‹ hæX ›
Old
Chinese 		/*l̥ˁi[n]/ /*l̥ˁi[n]/ (W dialect: l̥ˁ- > Hàn-time *xˁ- > MC x-) /*ɡˁraʔ/
English heaven heaven down

Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter–Sagart system:

* Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence;
* Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p;
* Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix;
* Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary;

* Period "." indicates syllable boundary.
Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character 天 下
Reading # 1/1 1/2
No. 12387 13445
Phonetic
component 		天 下
Rime
group 		眞 魚
Rime
subdivision 		1 0
Corresponding
MC rime 		天 下
Old
Chinese 		/*qʰl'iːn/ /*ɡraːʔ/

Noun

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天下

  1. (literary, figurative) the world; everything under the sky; all under heaven
  2. (literary, lofty) China; the Chinese nation
    統一天下／统一天下  ―  tǒngyī tiānxià  ―  to unify China (literally, “to unify all under heaven”)
    格物、致知、誠意、正心、修身、齊家、治國、平天下。 [Literary Chinese, trad.]
    格物、致知、诚意、正心、修身、齐家、治国、平天下。 [Literary Chinese, simp.]
    Géwù, zhìzhī, chéngyì, zhèngxīn, xiūshēn, qíjiā, zhìguó, píngtiānxià. [Pinyin]
    Investigate the nature of things, pursue knowledge, act in good faith, rectify one's mind, cultivate one's moral character, manage one's household, administer state affairs and bring peace to the nation.
  3. (archaic) society
    天下大亂／天下大乱  ―  tiānxiàdàluàn  ―  unrest society, society in turmoil
  4. (literary, figurative) state power; domination

Synonyms

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  • (the world):
  • (China):

Derived terms

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Descendants

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Sino-Xenic (天下):

Others:

Japanese

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Etymology 1

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Kanji in this term
天 下
てん
Grade: 1 		か
Grade: 1
on'yomi kan'on

From Middle Chinese 天下 (MC then haeX, “heaven + under”). The kan'on, so likely a later borrowing.[1]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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天(てん)下(か) • (tenka) 

  1. the whole world, the earth
  2. the whole country, all of Japan
  3. the government of Japan
  4. power, control over the government
  5. (historical, Edo period) the shogun
  6. (card games) in traditional Japanese card games, one of the strong cards known as 蠣 (aza)
  7. short for 天下一 (tenka ichi): the best in the world (often used attributively with the particle の (no))
    天(てん)下(か)の横(よこ)綱(づな)
    tenka no yokozuna
    the best yokozuna in the world

Etymology 2

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Kanji in this term
天 下
てん
Grade: 1 		げ
Grade: 1
on'yomi goon

From Middle Chinese 天下 (MC then haeX, “heaven + under”). The go'on, so likely the earlier borrowing.[1]

Appears with this reading in the Kagerō Nikki, dating to roughly 974 CE.[2] Superseded in modern Japanese by tenka above.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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天(てん)下(げ) • (tenge) 

  1. (archaic, possibly obsolete) the world, the earth

See also

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References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Shōgaku Tosho (1988) 国語大辞典（新装版） [Unabridged Dictionary of Japanese (Revised Edition)] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  3. ^ NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 [NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary] (in Japanese), Tokyo: NHK Publishing, Inc., →ISBN
  4. ^ Kindaichi, Kyōsuke et al., editors (1997), 新明解国語辞典 [Shin Meikai Kokugo Jiten] (in Japanese), Fifth edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN

Korean

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Hanja in this term
天下

Noun

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天下 • (cheonha) (hangeul 천하)

  1. hanja form? of 천하 (“world, earth; China”)

Vietnamese

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chữ Hán Nôm in this term
天下

Noun

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天下

  1. chữ Hán form of thiên hạ (“world”).
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