Note 14 — Chapter III · KHOTEN. PROCESSIONS OF IMAGES. THE KING’S NEW MONASTERY.
James Legge translation
(14) {.} {.}, “all the thien,” or simply “the thien” taken as plural. But in Chinese the character called thien {.} denotes heaven, or Heaven, and is interchanged with Ti and Shang Ti, meaning God. With the Buddhists it denotes the devas or Brahmanic gods, or all the inhabitants of the six devalokas. The usage shows the antagonism between Buddhism and Brahmanism, and still more that between it and Confucianism.