 To an extent, ancient Japanese conceptions of space also reflected distinctly Confucian nuances. Yamato and Nippon were terms used to refer to the imperial realm that came to be known, in the West, as Japan, but when ancient Japanese spoke in the most universal terms, referring not just to their own socio-political realm but to the larger world, they often did so by use of the expression tenka (C: tianxia), or “all-below-heaven.” This term first appears in the ancient Confucian classical literature including in particular the Book of History and Book of Changes (Yijing).