Today I Learned (TIL)

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TIL that we don’t know who named the Earth. Unlike other planets there are no records of how it got its name. The name Earth, and variations of it, date back 1000+ years. (www.skyatnightmagazine.com)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

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.