China proper (also Inner China) or Eighteen Provinces was a term used by Western writers on the Qing Dynasty to express a distinction between the core and frontier regions of China. There is no fixed extent for China proper, as many administrative, cultural, and linguistic shifts have occurred in Chinese history. One definition refers to the original area of Chinese civilization, the North China Plain; another to the "Eighteen Provinces" system of the Ming Dynasty. Still, the expression is relatively unknown in nowadays China.
Read more about China Proper: Origin of The Concept, Modern, Extent
Famous quotes containing the words china and/or proper:
“Riot in Algeria, in Cyprus, in Alabama;
Aged in wrong, the empires are declining,
And China gathers, soundlessly, like evidence.
What shall I say to the young on such a morning?—
Mind is the one salvation?—also grammar?—
No; my little ones lean not toward revolt.”
—William Dewitt Snodgrass (b. 1926)
“Divorce these days is a religious vow, as if the proper offspring of marriage.”
—Tertullian (c. 150–230)