Di (Chinese: 地, Dì, Ti, "earth") is one of the oldest Chinese terms for the earth and a key concept or figure in Chinese mythology and religion. In Taoism and Confucianism, Di is often translated as "Earth" and is mentioned in relationship to its complementary aspect of Tian, most often translated as "Heaven".
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Etymology
Dì is the modern Mandarin Chinese pronunciation. The Old Chinese pronunciation has been reconstructed as *lˤej-s.
The Chinese character 地 is a phono-semantic compound, combining the 土 radical ("earth", "dirt") with the (former) sound marker 也 (Modern Chinese yě, Old Chinese *lajʔ). As 埊, it was one of the characters briefly affected by Wu Zetian's short-lived character reforms.
Taoism
The dualism of Heaven and Earth are important to Taoist cosmology. They are thought to maintain the two poles of the Three Realms of reality, with the middle realm occupied by Humanity.