Literally, tian means heaven and shi means messenger. However, heaven here actually means the emperor of the Yuan Dynasty. In ancient China, the emperor was considered tianzi 天子[son of heaven], which represented the sacred imperial identity of the Chinese emperor. This calling originated with the Zhou dynasty and was founded on the political and spiritual doctrine of “the Mandate of Heaven”. Calling themselves the Son of Heaven, the emperors asserted that their power was given by heaven, which justified the origin of their rule that the emperor was the supreme universal monarch, who ruled tianxia 天下 [all under heaven]. Therefore, the emperor’s order was equivalent to heaven’s order.
In the context of the story, the messenger was delivering the emperor’s appointment of Huangfu Jing, so he was the messenger of heaven.
