It will become evident to the diligent student of Chinese history that among all the beings whom they worship there is one who does stand forth, so pre-eminent in his attributes, that we cannot but recognize in Him the God we know in our Christian faith. Unfortunately, the Chinese have not only worshipped Shang Ti, they have also worshipped a multitude of other beings besides, and with their knowledge of the true God have associated a mass of superstitions and follies. This we are not attempting to vindicate. There will be false gods in every society where the truth of God’ s special revelation in the Holy Bible is either unknown or not obeyed. However, concerning the one true God we can always say, “ who is like unto thee O LORD, among the gods? (Ex. 15:11). The Bible, foreseeing such problems thousands of years ago, proclaimed, "Thou LORD, art high above all the earth: thou art exalted far above all gods" (Ps. 97:9; Deut. 10:17).

Oracle-bone inscriptions along with other archaeological excavations have traced back the Shang Dynasty ( 商) history to the period of King Wu-ting (1324 B.C.). From these findings it has become evident that the Shang people had a well-developed religion even at the very beginning of their history. For the Shang people there were three classes of spirits. They were Ti or Shang Ti (God or God on High), nature gods (or spirits), and ancestors. The simultaneous existence of these three classes of spirits makes it difficult to accept any simple evolutionary theory that Shang religion evolved from nature gods to ancestors eventually culminating in one supreme God. Ti is already treated as the all-powerful and supreme deity from the very beginning. The oracle bone inscriptions also suggest that Ti could command enemies to invade Shang as punishment. This indicates that Ti was not merely the ruler of the Shang! The oracle bone inscriptions have collaborated what we know about the Shang Dynasty from the Shu King (Book of History). The Shang people knew Shang Ti governed the wind, clouds, thunder, drought and rain; thus He also governed the success or failure of agriculture. They also believed He governed the building of cities, the outcome of wars, and the fortune and misery of the human world. Shang Ti had the ultimate authority over the human world. For Shang Ti to exert such influence on Shang society He had to be very real to them and thus very imminent. It is interesting to observe that when the Chou Dynasty (1122 – 256B.C.) conquered and replaced the Shang, the Chou also worshipped a supreme deity just like the Shang did but they knew Him by the name Tien. When the Chou dynasty compared Ti and Tien, it was evident to them that they were the same God. For a long time the Chou dynasty used the terms Ti and Tien interchangeably. Toward the end of the Chou Dynasty they almost always used Tien. At the present time we have no conclusive evidence from archaeology or ancient literature on the origin of the concept of Tien, Ti, or Shang Ti. Tien always was. He appears at the very beginning of China’ s long history in all His supreme power and sovereignty. This is exactly what we would expect based on the truth of the Bible. The one true God says, “ Before me there was no God formed” (Isa. 43:10).
The earliest evidence for the existence of Shang Ti in
China’ s ancient literature mentions Emperor Shun ( 2250 B.C.) as offering sacrifice to Shang Ti.

A single root word, "Di" or "Ti", can be isolated in languages and language families worldwide. It is a language factor or morpheme which indicates: (1) the name of God, (2) a common noun for deities, (3) sacred concepts, or (4) an honorific for ancestors or kings. The morpheme is present in the early clay tablets (3000 B.C.) uncovered in the Middle East. This language factor is present as a complete word in isolating languages like Chinese and inflectional languages like English. It is found as a prefix, suffix, or infix in agglutinative languages like Finnish and Navajo and polysynthetic languages like Algonquin. This is certainly strong evidence that the factor was disseminated worldwide from a common source.
The presence of the morpheme in the American Indian languages is evidence that these tribes may have brought the word with them from the Old World. This morpheme is common in the Indo-European family of languages. English uses deity as a generic term to express the concept of the supreme God as well as gods. Deity draws on a Latin word deus, which immediately suggests the Italian Dio, French Dieu, Spanish Dios, old Irish Dia, Welsh Duw, Breton Doue, Lithuanian Dievas, Lettish Dieus, Sanskrit Dyu, Greek Theos, etc..
The three names used for the supreme deity in China: Shang Ti ( 上帝 ), Ti ( 帝) and Tien ( 天 ) all contain the universal morpheme for deity discussed above. These three terms cannot be easily separated for discussion because they are often used interchangeably. Shang Ti was the most common name for God during the Shang ( 商 ) Dynasty (1766 - 1123 BC). Shang ( 上 ) means "above" (or supreme) and Ti ( 帝) can mean emperor, ruler, or God. Thus it would refer to the sovereign above all other rulers. It is easy to see how the term would be applied to the Supreme God. In the Imperial Dictionary, Kang-Hsi gives the meaning of the term Shang ( 上 ) first as: "above, upon, to honour, to esteem highly"; second, it can be used to designate a "sovereign" or one "most high" or "most honorable"; and thirdly, it can mean "first in order". So when applied to a ruler it means most high and most honorable and thus we are warranted in translating it as "Supreme" when applied to Heaven's Potentate. The term Ti ( 帝 ), in the same dictionary, is said to be related to Te ( 諦 ), which signifies "to judge, to examine, to inspect, to separate between right and wrong." Thus the primary use of the word is "a judge." The God revealed in the Holy Bible is "the judge of all the earth" (Gen. 18:25). All "his ways are judgment" (Deut. 32:4). There is no problem at all in applying the term "Heaven" (Tien = 天 ) to God. This is done quite frequently in the Scriptures themselves. Shang Ti has definitely come to be used as a personal name for God. Tien seems to be more an abstraction. It was used often in the Classics in a broad, indefinite sense, in a similar way that Christians substitute "Heaven" for "God" in sayings like, "Heaven helps those who help themselves." However, the original pictograph of the character for Heaven (Tien = 天 ) could represent the "one" ( 一 = "one","over", or "above") "great" ( 大 ) or the great one above all. The term Heaven can also refer to the Sky (the "great" "above") which is above all and whose magnitude knows no limit. However, even in its most ancient written forms it appears as a pictograph that resembles a "man” and as such was already being used for the Supreme God who dwelled in the heavens. Even from the etymology of the word it is easy to see how it became associated with the Supreme Being of their religious faith, who dwelt in the sky, whom everyone knew to be God. The fact that man was created in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-27) helps explain the anthropomorphic pictograph. God was perceived as being both imminent and transcendent in ancient China.
The etymology of these three Chinese characters ( 天, 一, 大) is strong evidence that the religion of the ancient Chinese was monotheistic in nature. There is also evidence for the original unity of the Chinese with the rest of the human race as they adopted a similar morpheme ("Ti" or Di"), as many other ancient peoples, to express their concept of God. This would be expected for God’ s Word tells us that He "hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth" (Ac. 17:26).

In one Chinese-English dictionary under god (little "g") they give the Chinese word shen ( 神). Under God (capital G) they give the Chinese word Shang Di or Di ( 帝 ). Under the English word "Almighty" they give the Chinese word Shang Di ( 上帝 ). In another dictionary under "god" (Chinese shen = 神 ) they give a definition as "any being regarded as or worshipped as having power over nature and control over human affairs; image in wood or stone, etc. to represent such a being." However under God (Chinese Shang Ti = 上帝 ) the definition is "creator and ruler of the universe." An older dictionary under the Chinese word ( 上帝 = Shang Ti) gives the definition as "the Supreme Ruler - God. It then gives about twenty-five quotations and sayings in Chinese that illustrate the given meaning. Mathews' Chinese-English Dictionary gives the meaning of Shang Ti ( ?W ?O ) as "Supreme Ruler; God". Herbert A. Giles, who is considered one of the great Chinese scholars from the west, in his dictionary of 1912 gives the definition of Ti as: "God; the Supreme Ruler of the Universe; a god; a deified being, such as a deceased emperor. The emperor; the supreme ruler on earth or vice-regent of God." So Ti by itself can refer to gods, emperors, or God, but Shang Ti always refers to God.

What makes the study of the Supreme God, Shang Ti so hard today is that some of the new dictionaries don't even list the name of Shang Ti! However, most of the dictionaries make it clear that Shang Ti is the one true God. Notice that He is even called the "Creator and ruler of the universe".

It is important to point out the major distinction in English between "God" and "gods" or "a god". God and gods are not of the same genus in English any more than they can be likened to each other in Sacred Scripture. There has only ever been one God! God Himself says: "Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." (Isa. 46:9-10). Shang Ti is the one and only of His kind. "The LORD he is God in heaven above and upon the earth beneath: there is none else." (Deut. 4:39; Ps. 86:10). The difference between the God and a god is greater than the difference between an enormous elephant and a tiny worm!

A controversy raged for many years among the missionaries as to which term would be the best rendering of "God" into the Chinese language. The difficulty began in the late 1600s. The Jesuits, including Matteo Ricci (1552 – 1610 A.D.), wanted to use the terms Tien ( 天) and Shang Ti ( 上帝) for the true God. The Dominicans and Franciscans objected to using those terms. K'ang-hsi (1661 – 1722 A.D.), who is considered one of the greatest emperors in all of China's history, was the reigning emperor at this time. This controversy was presented to the emperor and he issued the following statement.
I had agreed with the formulation the Peking fathers had drawn up in 1700: that Confucius was honored by the Chinese as a master, but his name was not invoked in prayer for the purpose of gaining happiness, rank, or wealth; that worship of the ancestors was an expression of love and filial remembrance, not intended to bring protection to the worshipper; and that there was no idea, when an ancestral tablet was erected, that the soul of the ancestor dwelt in the tablet. And when sacrifices were offered to Heaven it was not the blue existent sky that was addressed, but the Lord and Creator of all things. If the ruler Shang Ti was sometimes called Heaven, (Tien), that had no more significance than giving honorific names to the emperor.
Emperor K'ang-hsi, as a student of the Chinese classics, understood both Shang Ti and Heaven to stand for the Supreme Being. When K'ang-hsi was hard pressed by the missionaries to accept baptism, "he always excused himself by saying that he worshipped the same God as the Christians." It is important to realize that K'ang-hsi referred to Shang Ti as "the Lord and Creator of all things."

Almost all of the greatest pioneer missionary scholars (Ricci, Morrison , Milne, Medhurst , Legge) did acknowledge Shang Ti to be the same "God" we worship as Christians. Wang T’ ao was a well-known Chinese scholar in the 1800s. He specially mentions Morrison, Milne, Medhurst and Legge as notable western scholars. Of these he said, “ Legge, the youngest, was the most outstanding in learning and personality. With the death of Ch’ en Huan in 1863, Wang T’ ao believed the only scholar in China capable of succeeding him was Dr. Legge. This, coming from a Chinese . . . was very high praise indeed.”

It appears that the dictionaries are almost in unanimous agreement about the definition of Shang Ti and shen. The dictionaries would reflect the general publics understanding of the definitions of these two terms. From the dictionary it appears that Chinese society generally understands Shang Ti to be the same Creator God that Christians worship under the name of Jehovah or Jesus Christ. If Christians use the term shen, it will cause confusion in the minds of the general public as to who the God of Christianity really is.

Shang Ti is the God of Christianity, who never left Himself without witness in China. The gospel is not a foreign western religion but indeed has roots in China’ s ancient past because of its relationship to the one true God who revealed Himself to the Chinese by the name Shang Ti. The truth of Shang Ti is a call to return to the God of your Fathers (an important concept in the Bible). When you are ready to return to your true spiritual roots in Shang Ti, you can come to know Him personally from His own special revelation in Holy Scripture and in the Lord Jesus Christ! (John 8:19; Heb. 1:1-2)
Shang Ti or Heaven is the name by which the Creator God reveled Himself to China throughout her long history. Shen is a general term applied to many other "gods". If you use Shen, you must do a lot more explaining if you want people to know you mean the God of Christianity. And then God still appears to be a western foreign one! If you use Shang Ti for the name of God you remove this unfortunate misconception, held by the majority of the Chinese, that Christianity is a totally foreign religion.

Have the Chinese, in their four thousand years of history, ever fashioned an image of Shang Ti? They have not! "One of the last emperors of the Shang Dynasty, Wu I (aZ ?A), who reigned 1198 - 1194 B.C., went so far as 'to make an image in human form, which he called God. With the image he used to play at dice, causing some one to throw for the image; and if God lost he would overwhelm the image with insult. He also made a bag of leather, which he filled with blood and hung up. Then he would shoot at it, saying that he was shooting God. By and by, when he was out hunting, he was struck down by a violent thunderclap and killed.'" We know that God's majesty and power are revealed in the forces of nature. "The God of glory thundereth: the voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty" (Ps. 29:3-5). The Scriptures make it clear that God sometimes executes His judgment with thunder and lightning (Isa. 29:6; 30:30).
Archaeology confirms that idolatry was very rare among the Chinese until the time of Confucius. Worshippers throughout China seem to have understood that Shang Ti must never be represented by idols. This is very strong evidence that Shang Ti is the one true God’ s revelation of Himself to the Chinese (Ex. 20:4). We are aware that there have been isolated instances of temples and individuals that have made idol images of Shang Ti. However, we must not take this comparative rarity as a reason to eliminate the overwhelming evidence from history, and the Chinese Classics, that idol images of Shang Ti were never to be made. Even the names for God, El and Elohim, are applied to idols in the scripture! Theos, El, Allah, Gott, and most every other term of equal import among other nations have all been at one time, and in some places even now, given to false gods. Just because a name might once have been given to false gods does not necessarily mean it is not a legitimate name for the one true God of Scripture. From our understanding of general revelation, we know every nation has some knowledge of the one true God (Rom. 1:19-23). The right term for "God" in any particular nation is to be looked for, found, and used in that nation alone. Idolatry should fade away as the one true God is made known and exalted above all other gods through the preaching of the Gospel. God’ s very first commandment to His people was," Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Ex. 20:3).
The use of Shen will tend to promote idolatry because every false god of China is referred to as a Shen! Especially considering the house Church situation in China where there simply are not enough good teachers around to explain away the misconceptions caused by the term. There has only been one Shang Ti in China and it can be proven He is the same God revealed in all His glory in the Holy Bible of Christianity.

When we study the attributes of God revealed in the Bible we learn that He is a "person." In Scripture He revealed himself to his people by speaking of Himself as a person. He introduces himself as "Father", as the "King" who reigns over His people, as a "Judge" who shall judge the righteous and the wicked, and as a "mighty man of war" who shall prevail against His enemies. God is our defender, our refuge, our strength. He makes the clouds His chariot. He dwelleth with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit, and that trembleth at His word.
All of these are expressions of "personal" and not of exclusively "spiritual" attributes. They are easily seized upon by the mind and can capture the heart. So uniform is God's dealing with men, in this respect, that it was not until four thousand years after He had first created man, that "God manifest in the flesh" taught men in plain terms that "God is Spirit" (John 4:24). God did not want Himself revealed as "Spirit only" but as a "personal" God. This was to aid finite humans to better understand who He is and also to prepare mankind for the coming "in person" of the "Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace" (Isa. 9:6). Jesus is "the image of the invisible God" and the "express image of His Person" (Heb. 1:3; Col. 1:15).
So patent, indeed, is the fact, that God being a "personal God", is not just to be considered abstractly as "a Spirit only" that the names by which He is called in the world in general, and in the scriptures in particular, are all expressive of "power", "might", "excellence", or of "glory" but never of "Spiritual" essence alone. We would never be able to pledge our allegiance to any but a personal God.
For the Chinese people, Shang Ti captures the essence of this Supreme Personal God, who demands total commitment and obedience from His people!
We could give a list of all the passages in the ancient Chinese classics that teach us something of what the Chinese understood Shang Ti to be like. But people eminently qualified have already done this research. We quote Medhurst's conclusions here:
Out of 175 instances in which the word
Shang-ti is used, in the Chinese classics, only one refers to human rulers, and all the rest to the Supreme Ruler [God]; and in only one instance of the latter class is any thing said complainingly or disparagingly of the Highest Potentate. In no case do we find Shang-ti exhibited under any figurative representations; indeed, we are warned against confounding him with the images in the temples; while the Supreme Ruler is declared, again and again, to be distinct from the visible heavens. The main idea attached to Shang-ti is universal supremacy, uncontrollable power, justice, glory, majesty, and dominion. The superstitious of later ages have gradually corrupted the original idea attached to Shang-ti, and applied the name with various additions, to different deities, the creatures of their own imaginations, to whom they have erected temples, dedicated images, and appointed birth and feast days; but these are different from him whom the Ancients worshipped under the title of the Supreme Ruler [God].
We have adduced upwards of ninety instances from the Confucian classics in which Ti ( ?O ) is used synonymously with Shang-ti (?W ?O ), the Supreme Ruler, and must be translated the most High God. Sixteen cases are adduced of Ti being used by classical writers for the gods of the various elements and seasons; numerous instances also occur in the Buddhist and Taoist classics, in which the word Ti is used for God, as they understood the term, and is applied both to Buddha, and the imaginary deities of Tao: from which we infer, the Ti (?O ) by itself has sufficient classical authority to warrant its being used for the Supreme Potentate; while the adoption of the term by all the sects for deities of different orders, as well as for earthly monarchs and judges, shews us that Ti is the exact representative of Elohim, and is the generic term for God; more particularly when Shang ( ?W ) is prefixed, it then expresses the idea of the most High God ( ?O ), and is equivalent to the word GOD, par excellence, as it is expressed in capitals, or with a capital letter, on our editions of the Bible."
At this point I would like to include some other quotes from various sources that support the conclusion that Shang Ti is indeed China’ s revelation of the one true God. These are all quotes showing that Shang Ti was considered to be the Creator of all things. Both James Legge and Medhurst mention a passage from the "I Ching" (Book of Changes) which alludes to Ti (?O) "as the creator of all things, or at the least, as the upholder of all things - the maintenance of creation from year to year, and season to season."
From the Collected Statutes of the Ming Dynasty we learn some of the songs used in the worship of Shang Ti, at the altar of Heaven, by the Emperor Kea-tsing in the seventeenth year of his reign (1538?). The first Song to greet the approach of the Spirit of Shang Ti says:
"Of old in the beginning, there was the great chaos, without form and dark. The five elements had not begun to revolve, nor the sun and the moon to shine. In the midst thereof there existed neither form nor sound. Thou, O spiritual Sovereign, camest forth in Thy presidency, and first didst divide the grosser parts from the purer. Thou madest heaven; Thou madest earth; Thou madest man. All things with their re-producing power, got their being."

The second song says,
"O Ti, when Thou hadst separated the Yin and the Yang (i.e. the heavens and the earth), Thy creating work proceeded. Thou didst produce, O Spirit, the sun and moon and the five planets, and pure and beautiful was their light."

Another song on this occasion says,
"When Ti, the Lord, had so decreed, He called into existence heaven, earth, and man."

We also learn from one of these songs of the Ming Dynasty that the Chinese did have some understanding of Shang Ti as "Father". One song says,
"Thou hast vouchsafed, O Ti, to hear us, for Thou regardest us as a Father. I, Thy child, dull and unenlightened, am unable to show forth my dutiful feelings. I thank Thee, that thou hast accepted the intimation."

Chu Yuan (322 -295 B.C.) was a famous statesmen poet, who drowned himself in despair at his country's outlook. His body is still symbolically searched for annually at the Dragon Boat festival. He frequently alluded to a Supreme Being in his writings. Herbert Giles records a quote from Chu Yuan’ s biography that says, "Man came originally from God, just as the individual comes from his parents. When his span is at an end, he goes back to that from which he sprang. Thus it is that in the hour of bitter trial and exhaustion, there is no man but calls to God, just as in his hours of sickness and sorrow every one of us will turn to his parents.”

There is a passage in the Li Chi that Legge translates as follows:
"The rites to be observed by all under heaven were intended to promote the return (of the mind) to the beginning (= Creator of all); to promote (the honoring of) spiritual beings; to promote the harmonious use (of all resources and appliances) of government; to promote righteousness; and to promote humility. They promote the return to the beginning, securing the due consideration of their originator."

In the 1800's, one of the main arguments against using the name Shang Ti for God was that there was no evidence showing Shang Ti to be considered either self-existent or to be the Creator. Creation (an act) is clearly attributed to Shang Ti in many Chinese writings. From the earliest archaeological evidence and recorded history, we learned it is impossible to discover the origin of Shang Ti or Tien, or of faith in Him. He is already there at the beginning and already worshipped as the Most High God. From this, it is possible to infer His self-existence.

The existence of Shang Ti as the sovereign Creator from the very beginning of China's history is powerful proof against any evolutionary theories on the origin of religion. It is also a powerful proof for the inspiration of the Bible which tells us God never left Himself without a witness (Romans 1:19-23; Acts 14:16-17).
It is important to realize that the Apostle Paul held that God's "goodness in giving us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness" was sufficient to raise the minds of men to the knowledge of the Creator (Acts 14:15-18). One of the most evident facts of Chinese history is that they ascribe to Shang Ti their fruitful seasons, and recognize him as the Lord and Governor of heaven and earth. This is especially evident in the emperor's worship of Shang Ti each year at the Temple (Altar) of Heaven complex in Beijing, where the emperor came to sacrifice and pray for good harvests. China could never have become the most populous nation on earth if Shang Ti had not blessed the nation as a whole with "fruitful seasons."