天眼

Chinese

		day; sky; heaven	eye
simp. and trad. (天眼)		天	眼

Etymology

Calque of Sanskrit दिव्यचक्षुस् (divyacakṣus) or Pali dibbacakkhu.

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): tiānyǎn

  (Zhuyin): ㄊㄧㄢ ㄧㄢˇ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): tin¹ ngaan⁵

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: tiānyǎn
    • Zhuyin: ㄊㄧㄢ ㄧㄢˇ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: tianyǎn
    • Wade–Giles: tʻien¹-yen³
    • Yale: tyān-yǎn
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: tianyean
    • Palladius: тяньянь (tjanʹjanʹ)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /tʰi̯ɛn⁵⁵ jɛn²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
    • Jyutping: tin¹ ngaan⁵
    • Yale: tīn ngáahn
    • Cantonese Pinyin: tin¹ ngaan⁵
    • Guangdong Romanization: tin¹ ngan⁵
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /tʰiːn⁵⁵ ŋaːn¹³/
    • Homophones:

      edit edit 天目 天眼

Noun

(deprecated template usage) 天眼

1. (Buddhism) divine eye

Synonyms

• 天目 (tiānmù)

Descendants

Sino-Xenic (天眼):

• → Japanese: 天眼(てんげん) (tengen); 天眼(てんがん) (tengan)
• → Korean: 천안(天眼) (cheonan)

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Japanese

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term
天	眼
てん Grade: 1	げん Grade: 5
on’yomi

From Middle Chinese 天眼 (MC then ngeanX).

Noun

天(てん)眼(げん) • (tengen) 

1. (esoteric Buddhism) heavenly sight by heavenly beings
2. (esoteric Buddhism) short for 天眼通 (tengentsū): knowledge of others' karma: one of the six kinds of abhijñā or “direct knowledge”

Derived terms

Derived terms

• 天(てん)眼(げん)通(つう) (tengentsū, “knowledge of others' karma: one of the six kinds of abhijñā or “direct knowledge””)

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
天	眼
てん Grade: 1	がん Grade: 5
on’yomi

The literal eye sense and sight sense are likely a coinage within Japanese based on Middle Chinese-derived elements 天 (ten, “heaven, heavenly”, also used in reference to the emperor) + 眼 (gan, “eye”).

The Buddhist sense is likely a sound shift from tengen above, adopting the kan'on reading of gan for the 眼 character.

Noun

天(てん)眼(がん) • (tengan) 

1. the eye of the emperor or imperial prince
2. (in compounds) sight of something not usually visible to the naked eye
3. (esoteric Buddhism) see the tengen reading above for additional senses

Derived terms

Derived terms

• 天(てん)眼(がん)鏡(きょう) (tengankyō, “a magnifying glass; (archaic) a telescope”)
• 天(てん)眼(がん)通(つう) (tengantsū, “knowledge of others' karma: one of the six kinds of abhijñā or “direct knowledge””)

References

• Matsumura, Akira (1995) 大辞泉 [Daijisen] (in Japanese), First edition, Tokyo: Shogakukan, →ISBN