The purpose of this study is to trace the origin of the Chinese character, tian (or cheon in Korean, 天, meaning “heaven”), inscribed on the bronze vessels of Western Zhou, by examining its ancient forms, and increase understanding of the ideologies of the ruling class of ancient societies in China based on the analyses of the use of the oracle bone scripts in the Yin and Shang dynasties, bronze ware scripts of Western Zhou, and textual sources from ancient times. In the Yin and Shang period, the character tian featured the shape of a human body with a prominent head and meant the crown of the human head. The meaning of the character expanded during the Western Zhou period to refer to “a lofty subject armed with absolute authority” or “a high physical and abstract space” which performed a key function for the ruling class of the Western Zhou dynasty, exerting a widespread influence. The following discussion focuses on how the character tian, came to mean “the lofty subject endowed with absolute authority” or “a high physical, abstract space” based on an analysis of the structure of “five directions” perceived by the ruling class in the ancient Chinese societies. According to ancient resources on the oracle bone scripts of the Yin and Shang dynasties, the ruling class of the dynasties divided the space under their control into five sections, East, South, West, North, and Center, and expanded the center, where the rule class was to the neighboring area, controlling all created in it. In other words, the “principal heaven” was created from the subjective perception that all the constituents of sovereignty were located at the center of physical space, operating all things under it and controlling all actions. It was manifested from homocentric ideologies and gradually objectified its authority and power, separating itself from all others and perceiving itself as an independent being. The meaning of the character, tian, came to be further evolved in the following periods to refer to the physically lofty space called “sky” and then, combining itself with the meaning of the place it objectified, the “heaven” abided by celestial beings. It was then ultimately led to the birth of a supreme status endowed with sovereign power that could dominate even the ruling class as a whole. In sum, the basic form of the “principal heaven” (tian) began to be constructed under the perception that all the creatures in the universe are controlled at the center of the space for all the living, which was, as for the ancient political entities in China, divided by five realms. It was then in the Western Zhou period that the constituents of the entity became gradually objectified and completed the principal heaven (tian) that exercises formidable influence upon all beings under and around it.