All under heaven
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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All under heaven, or literally, "heaven under", is a phrase in the Chinese language and a cultural concept in China.
The Chinese character 天 means "sky" or "heaven". 下 means "under" or "down". 天下 together, literally means "under the sky". The word 天下, besides the literal meaning, is also taken by Chinese as referring to the whole world. In this context then, it can perhaps be best understood and translated as "Everything Under the Heavens". Only in modern times has the term 世界 (shì jiè) come into use to directly refer to the world.
In classical Chinese political thought, the Emperor of China (Chinese:天子, or 皇帝) would nominally be the ruler of All under heaven, that is, the entire world. Although in practice there would be areas of the known world which were not under the control of the Emperor, in Chinese political theory the political rulers of those areas derived their power from the Emperor(皇權).
