My intention in giving the above quotations and explanations, is merely to prepare the way for the extremely remarkable passage, which it is the object of the present chapter to communicate, and to render that passage more intelligible to the reader by first making him realize the standpoint from which these investigations were made, and thus throwing light upon the relation between them and their subject. For Europeans, when investigating this matter in China in the way and in the spirit described, always inquiring for the supreme principle of all things, the power that rules the world, &c. &c., had often been referred to that which is designated by the word Tien (Engl. T'hëen). Now, the more usual meaning of this word is "Heaven," as Morrison also says in his dictionary; still it is a well-known thing that Tien is used in a figurative sense also, and then has a metaphysical signification. In the "Lettres Édifiantes"[338] we find the following explanation: "_Hing-tien_ is the material, visible heaven; _Chin-tien_ the spiritual and invisible heaven." Sonnerat too,[339] in his travels in East-India and China, says: "When the Jesuits disputed with the rest of the missionaries as to the meaning of the word Tien, whether it was Heaven or God, the Chinese looked upon these foreigners as restless folk and drove them away to Macao." It was at any rate through this word that Europeans could first hope to find the track of that Analogy of Chinese Metaphysic with their own faith, which had been so persistently sought for; and it was doubtless owing to investigations of this kind that the results we find communicated in an Essay entitled "Chinese Theory of the Creation" were attained.[340] As to _Choo-foo-tze_, called also _Choo-hi_, who is mentioned in it, I observe that he lived in the twelfth century according to our chronology, and that he is the most celebrated of all the Chinese men of learning; because he has collected together all the wisdom of his predecessors and reduced it to a system. His work is in our days the basis of all Chinese instruction, and his authority of the greatest weight. In the passage I allude to, we find: "The word _Teen_, would seem to denote 'the highest among the great' or 'above all what is great on earth:' but in practice its vagueness of signification is beyond all comparison greater, than that of the term _Heaven_ in European languages.... Choo-foo-tze tells us that 'to affirm, that heaven has a _man_ (_i.e._ a sapient being) there to judge and determine crimes, should not by any means be said; nor, on the other hand, must it be affirmed, that there is nothing at all to exercise a supreme control over these things.' [338] Édition de, 1819, vol. xi. p. 461. [339] Book iv. ch. i. [340] To be found in the "Asiatic Journal," vol. xxii. anno 1826, pp. 41 and 42.