Names of China - Sinitic Names - Zhongguo and Zhonghua

Zhongguo and Zhonghua

China is called Zhōngguó in Mandarin Chinese. The first character zhōng (中) means "central" or "middle," while guó (國/国) means "state" or "states," and in modern times, "nation." In ancient texts, Zhongguo, which can be either singular or plural, referred to the group of states in the central plain or to a state or city. The official name of the imperial dynasties referred to the Empire of the Great Qing, Empire of the Great Ming, and so forth, not Zhongguo. Although it was a common name often used in both Chinese and Western literature and references, it became the official name only after 1911. Many Western works, however, use the translation "middle kingdom" or "central kingdom."

The term "zhōngguó" first appeared in text form in the Classic of History as the name for "the centre of civilization" or "Tianxia", depending on the interpretation. The first appearance of (中國) in an artifact was in the Western Zhou vessel He zun.

The general concept of the term "zhōngguó" originates from the belief that the Zhou Dynasty is the "centre of civilization" or "centre of the world", while the ethnic groups in the four cardinals are called Eastern Yi, Southern Man, Western Rong and Northern Di respectively. However, there are different uses of the name "zhōngguó" in every period. It could refer to the guó (capital) of the Emperor, to distinguish from the guó of his vassals, as in Western Zhou; or it could refer to states in Central China, to distinguish from states in outer regions. It is also used, in later dynasties, by states who see themselves as the "legitimate" successors of previous dynasties, as in the case of the Southern Song Dynasty. Finally, it is used to mean the sovereignty in the traditional area "zhōngyuán (中原)" or "zhōnghuá (中華)", which both have the same origins, such as in the case of the Republic of China ("Zhōnghuá Mínguó (中华民国/中華民國)") and the People's Republic of China ("Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó (中华人民共和国/中華人民共和國)").

The Chinese character "guó" (国/國) originally had a different meaning from the English "state" or the modern Chinese concept "guójiā" (国家/國家), though it is taken to mean "state" today. In its origin, it refers to the area where the Tiānzǐ lives, while the outer areas governed by the same sovereign is called "yě" (野). For example, a riot of nobles living in the capital of Western Zhou is called "the Riot of the guó people". Gradually, the vassal states of the Tiānzǐ began to use the name "guó" as well. The Book of Han talked about an incident where the Gōng of one of the vassal states loved feeding cranes and gave them official posts in the government. "When the Northern Di attacked, the guó people were unwilling to fight, and the guó was destroyed." Thus, there was the need to classify the "guó" of the Tiānzǐ from that of the Gōng. Gradually, the name "zhōngguó" is used to refer to the "guó" of the Tiānzǐ. Mao Heng of the Han Dynasty gave an explanation: "Zhōngguó: the capital."

During the Spring and Autumn Period, it was used only to describe the states politically descended from the Western Zhou Dynasty, in the Yellow River (Huang He) valley, to the exclusion of states such as the Chu along the Yangtze River and the Qin to the west. However, by the time of the Han Dynasty, the states of Chu, Qin and others had linked themselves to the politics of "Zhōngguó" and were already considered integral parts of a newer "Zhōngguó". This usage of "Zhōngguó" has been translated into English as "the Central States."

By the Han Dynasty, three usages of "Zhōngguó" are common. The Book of Poetry explicitly gives this definition that "Zhōngguó" is the capital; the Records of the Grand Historian uses the concept that China is the centre of civilization: "Eight famous mountains are there in Tianxia. Three are in Man and Yi. Five are in Zhōnghuá." The Records of the Three Kingdoms uses the concept of the central states in "Zhōnghuá", or the states in "Zhōnghuá" which is the centre, depending on the interpretation. It records the following monologue: "If we can lead the host of Wu and Yue to oppose Zhōngguó, then let us break off relations with them soon." In this sense, the term Zhōngguó is synonymous with Zhōnghuá (中华/中華) and Huáxià (华夏/華夏), a name for "China" that comes from the Xia Dynasty.

During the period of division after the fall of the Han Dynasty, the term Zhōngguó was subjected to denote political legitimacy apart from the previous usages. It was used in this manner from the tenth century onwards by the competing dynasties of Liao, Jin and Song. The term Zhōngguó came to be related to geographic, cultural and political identity and less to ethnic origin.

Zhōngguó quickly came to include areas farther south, as the cultural and political unit (not yet a "nation" in the modern sense) spread to include the Yangtze River and Pearl River systems. By the Tang Dynasty it sometimes included barbarian regimes such as the Xianbei and Xiongnu, which submitted to the Han people.

In the nineteenth century, the term changed in its significance. The late Qing reformer Liang Qichao argued in a famous passage that "our greatest shame is that our country has no name. The names that people ordinarily think of, such as Xia, Han, or Tang, are all the titles of bygone dynasties." Another reformer wrote that the other countries of the world "all boast of their own state names, such as England and France, the only exception being the Central States." Liang argued that in order to preserve the race (minzu, a term which he adopted from the Japanese usage) that the concept tianxia had to be abandoned in favor of guojia, that is, "nation," for which he accepted the term Zhongguo.

Finally, since the May Fourth Movement, educated students began to spread the concept of Zhōnghuá (中华/中華), which represented the people, including 56 minor ethnic groups and the Han Chinese, with a single culture identifying themselves as "Chinese". The Republic of China and the People's Republic of China both used the title "Zhōnghuá" in their official names. Thus, "Zhōngguó" became the official names for both sovereigns. Overseas Chinese are referred to as huaqiao (华侨/華僑), literally "Chinese overseas", or huayi (华裔/華裔), literally "Chinese descendant" (i.e., Chinese children born overseas).

"Zhōngguó" in different languages

• Czech: Říše středu (literally: "The Empire of the Center")
• Dutch: Middenrijk (literally: "Middle Empire")
• Finnish: Keskustan valtakunta (literally: "The State of the Center")
• French: Empire du Milieu (literally: "Middle Empire")
• German: Mittelreich (literally: "Middle Empire")
• Hmong: Suav Teb, Roob Kub, Tuam Choj, 中國. literally: Land of China, The Golden Throne, (Land of the)Stepped Bridge.
• Indonesian: Tiongkok (from Tiong-kok, the Hokkien name for China)
• Italian: Impero di Mezzo (literally: "Middle Empire")
• Japanese: Chūgoku (中国; ちゅうごく)
• Kazakh: Juñgo (جۇڭگو)
• Korean: Jungguk, Chungguk (중국; 中國)
• Li: Dongxgok
• Manchu: (Dulimbai gurun) or ᠵᡠᠨ᠋ᡬᠣ (Jungg'o)
• Mongol: (Dumdadu ulus)
• Polish: Państwo Środka
• Russian: Срединное Царство (Sredínnoye Tsárstvo) (literary: "Middle Empire"); Поднебесная (Podnebésnaya) - related to 天下 (Tiānxià).
• Tibetan: Krung-go (ཀྲུང་གོ་)
• Uyghur: Junggo (جۇڭگو)
• Vietnamese: Trung Quốc (中國)
• Zhuang: Cunghgoz (older orthography: Cungƅgoƨ)

"Zhōnghuá" in different languages

• Indonesian: Tionghoa (from Tiong-hôa, the Hokkien counterpart)
• Japanese: Chūka (中華; ちゅうか)
• Korean: Junghwa, Chunghwa (중화; 中華)
• Kazakh: Juñxwa (حالىق)
• Li: Dongxhwax
• Manchu: ᠵᡠᠩᡥᡡᠸᠠ (Junghūwa)
• Zhuang: Cunghvaz (Old orthography: Cuŋƅvaƨ)
• Tibetan: ཀྲུང་ཧྭ (krung hwa)
• Uyghur: جۇڭخۇا (Jungxua)
• Vietnamese: Trung Hoa (中華)