Everything under Heaven Belongs to the People

This notion originated in The Book of Rites. Contrasting the feudal idea that the state is property of the sovereign, it hypothesizes the ideal society of universal harmony envisioned by the ancient Chinese in which everything under heaven belongs to the people. "Tianxia," or "All-under-heaven," was a core concept of the traditional Chinese vision of the world order. It refers to all the land and people under heaven-literally the whole world.

As a political goal and social ideal, it not only serves the people's desire for social fairness and justice, but also as a gauge to evaluate and improve the real world. The ideal has featured prominently in numerous revolutions and reforms in modern China. It inspired the philosophy of a nation accommodating the interests of other nations and the world in the pursuit of its own to realize harmonious coexistence and common development.

天下為公

天下為公出自《禮記·禮運》，意為天下為天下人所共有。這是中國古人心目中“大同”理想社會的基本特征，與天下為一人或一家所有的私有制相對。“天下”是中國古代世界觀的核心觀念，其基本含義是“天”之“下”的所有土地和人民，即整個世界。

天下為公作為一種政治目標和社會理想，反映了人們對于社會公平、正義的要求，并且為人們提供了一種評價和改進現實世界的標準，突出反映并貫穿于近代以來中國革命和改革的歷史進程中。這一理念啟示我們，各國在謀求自身利益的同時，也應做到兼顧其他國家和整個世界的公共利益， 以實現和諧共存、共同發展。