The Titan is a false Üebermensch, the superman of popular, but incorrect Nietzschean interpretation. The true Üebermensch knows "the meaning of the earth ... I beseech you, my brothers," says Zarathustra, "remain faithful to the earth, and do not believe those who speak to you of other worldly hopes." [4] Recall that Zarathustra has to learn this lesson from a crippled dwarf, whom he initially curses, but finally accepts as a

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necessary "spirit of gravity." I believe that it is Taoism and Confucianism that are most "faithful to the earth" and are most cognizant of our role as stewards of the earth and as mediator between Heaven and Earth. In fact, I believe that Zhuangzi comes very close to capturing the subtleties of Nietzsche's enigmatic sayings about the child. (They also have, amazingly enough, similar advice to the cripples of the world.) [5] But again I choose Confucian cosmology and Confucian models of the ideal person as the best eastern answer to Titanism.

　　 Philosophers after Confucius wrote often about human beings as equal partners in a trinity with Heaven and Earth. Only rarely are the roles of these constituents confused in the way we find in the cosmotheandric hymns of the Vedas, Samkhya-Yoga, or Hindu or Christian incarnational theologies. Of all Confucian philosophers it is Xunzi who appears most intent on preserving the integrity of each partner in the cosmic triad. In the First section of this paper I will analyze Xunzi's view of the cosmic triad, drawing on the recent contributions of Edward Machle. In the second section I show that the traditional reading of Xunzi as a thoroughgoing naturalist and prototechnologist appears to undermine my thesis that Xunzi offers an answer to Titanism. In the third section I present Machle's answer to the received view. The fourth section is a discussion of the deification of the sage, and my reservations a bow how Roger Ames, David Hall, and Machle handle this issue. Claiming that the sage is a god threatens, I believe, the essential balance of Heaven (Tian), Earth, and human beings. The deification of the prophet, sage, or mystic is a sure sign of Titanism, but Xunzi's "perfect man" (zhi ren) does not "compete with Tian" by encroaching on "Tian's province."

I.
　　 Modern commentators have assumed that Xunzi was the most naturalistic of the early Confucian philosophers and that whenever he used the word tian we should usually read "nature." Edward Machle's recent

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book Nature and Heaven in Xunzi, a new translation and innovative commentary on Chapter XVII of the Xunzi, represents a formidable challenge to the traditional view. Machle believes that Xunzi is closer to the ancient Zhou belief in Tian as a providential deity, separate but in no way transcendent to the constancies of the heavens and the seasons. Xunzi's Tian, therefore, is God of the Heavens, a demythologized sky father god and the yang consort of the yin Earth. Using Schleiermacher's principle of absolute dependence and drawing on Otto's mysterium tremendum, Machle argues that Tian can be conceived, with the qualifications above, as a bona fide Confucian God. As Machle states: "Tian performs the functions of a god, but has no anthropomorphizing stories." [6] The latter is unique and essential in the Confucian answer to Titanism.

　　 Machle demonstrates his view in his translation as well as in his commentary. For example, at the beginning of Chapter XVII, where Wing-tsit Chan tends to merge Heaven and Nature by stating that Tian "operates with constant regularity," Machle subtly separates Tian and nature's regularities with "Tian maintains constant routines for the heavenly bodies"; and he comments that "Tian is thus distinguishable from nature both by its primacy and its functions..." [7] Machle of course agrees that Tian's providence is "general" rather than "specific," so Tian does not favor one person or society over another. Even though the barbarians may have their customs, Xunzi maintains that only the Chinese have Li, the correct rules of human behavior. This is due, however, to the keen perception of Chinese sages and not to any special action on the part of Tian.

　　 Xunzi believes that Tian rules only in the higher levels of the cosmic hierarchy and that humans should always expect irregularities in their immediate lives and environment. Separating those that might be signs of Tian (eclipses and falling stars) from those that are not (floods, drought, etc.) is an important duty of the sage and the wise administrator. Only the superstitious person thinks that the latter are acts of divine retribution. "As for the falling of stars and the groaning of trees, they are but (passing) changes in Tian and Earth, mutations of yin and yang or deviant

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emergents among things, It is appropriate to think them weird, but dreading them is an error." [8]