Tian Xia has not been detailed more than the few pages it got in the Campaign Setting hardcover.
It will be a couple of years before we get the big Pathfinder Oriental Adventures book with all the eastern flavour.
In the meantime, Tian Xia is whatever you want it to be. (Actually, it will be whatever you want it to be even after that, at least in your version of the Pathfinder world).
If you want some inspiration about the real-world inspirations for TX, look up all kinds of myths about Eastern Asia.
If you want something that already went through the "modern fantasy roleplaying" filter once, look at role playing games like Legend of the Five Rings or computer games like Jade Empire - or whatever you already know and love.
I haven't played a Tien yet in a Golarion game, but I did play a ninja in a Ravenloft game years ago. He actually was from Rokugan and was drawn into the mist like everyone else.
I also played a samurai type in a forgotten Realms campaign (there are eastern continents and nations there, but I had little if any information about them, so it was make-stuff-up-time!), and for his background, I mixed Jade Empire and Rokugan (hence the two mentions above).
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You can certainly use the Rokugan-based information in the 3.x Oriental Adventures book, if you have or can find a copy.
The Pathfinder Campaign Setting provides some great clues for where to look for cultural references, too:
- Tian Xia is analagous to the greater Chinese empire of 1000+ years ago. In fact, "tian xia" is an old Chinese phrase that basically means "everything under heaven" and relates to a world view that the seat of the empire, the "Middle Kingdom", is at the center of, and stationed above, all that is. "Tian Xia" is the heavenly mandate by which the emperor rules.
- The Successor States would probably be similar to the various states that fought wars of consolidation and "reunification" until the colonial period came along to mess up everyone's day. ;)
- Minkai would be like feudal Japan.
- Nagajor is your analogy to the ancient kingdoms that would eventually become Thailand and Cambodia.
- Xa Hoi is pretty close to the kingdom that would one day become Vietnam.
This is my take on things, anyway. I'm doing some pretty quick extrapolation and leaving out a lot of detail for the sake of brevity, and it's been awhile since I delved into my graduate studies books. My degree was in Regional Security Studies for the Far East, Southeast Asia and Pacific, but I've been working on ships and haven't spent much time in my specific field of study in the past several years. There are several folks on the boards who are far better versed in Chinese cultural lore than I am.
To sum up, though, Paizo's done a pretty good job of offering a wide variety of Asian cultures from which to draw your inspiration. They've also managed to preserve some of the real-world relationships that make the region so ethnically interesting. The ties between Vudra and Sarusan and places like Nagajor really give the place an authentic feel.
Lastly, if you're interested, you can also take a look at a core class I came up with for a game one of my friends was going to run. I wanted a five elements-based battle sorcerer (someone who could shape elemental forces but still fight), kind of like a fantasy-style Taoist monk. I ended up creating a Wu Xing Sorcerer (linkified). It's probably a little overpowered, but the design was created for a solo campaign. (Sorry for the page formatting...my site's still a work in progress.)
Another source of Asian material you could try would be Heroes of the Jade Oath by Rite Publishing. The beta version is out and it also has several free previews all in the Paizo store. Multiple Asian cultures are featured in the setting. However, I should point out that it was made for the Arcana Evolved rules, but it would be easy to convert to Pathfinder as it was also made to be compatible with 3.5.
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I have on suggestion on materiel for Tien Xia. Robert Van Gulik's books. They are called "The Chinese gold murders" "the Chinese lake murders" " the Chinese Bell murders". etc. The main character is called Judge Dee. These period murder mystery books are a great read, and they give a laymen like myself a look into 7,00 ad imperiel china.
I hope this helps.