The word "China" first appeared in The Book of Songs. But it refers to the capital (capital), such as "China is also the capital" in the Book of Songs. China is called "China" in The Book of Songs, which means "within a country" and "the center of a country", that is, the capital. The first section of Daya People's Labor: "Benefit from this China, surrounded by the Sui Dynasty" is in contrast with the third section "Benefit from this capital, surrounded by the Sui Dynasty". Zheng Xuan's Mao Zhuan and Kong's Shu all think that "China is also the capital; Sifang, Zhu Xia also. " In addition, there is circumstantial evidence: the word "Central Plains" is well known today, and it is used in Xiaoya Xiaowan: "The Central Plains is full of flowers, and Shu Ren adopted it", and Mao Chuan explained: "The Central Plains is also in the original."
Here to combine some concepts of ancient Chinese grammar to explain:
Mr. Xing Gongwan, a linguist, once pointed out the inverted sentences of many Chinese characters in The Book of Songs. For example, the four pests of Nan Zhou rabbit (sound falling, a net for catching animals): "The four pests of Susu rabbit are suitable for forests". "In the forest" is the antonym of "in the forest". Gao Feng Wei: "Hu Wei is exposed?" "Exposed in the middle" is the inversion of "Exposed in the middle" (see "Hu Weiwei in the mud?" )。 "Nan Zhou Ge Tan": "Grief from Gezhi is applied to the bells and drums." "Zhonggu" is also in the valley; White boat: "Pan Pi white boat, in Pi River." "In the river" means in the river and so on. Perhaps the best example is "Qi Feng Yang Qiu": "Don't you think? The center is mourning. " The "center" here can only be interpreted as "heart". In short, the above example shows that the ancient "Zhongmou" structure represents "Zaimou". The word "Zhong" here is equivalent to the Middle Ages in modern English. If you want to use word analogy, it is similar to amid or immedia. Mao Zedong's poem "Heroes Everywhere Sunset Red" reverses the word "Xia", which is quite similar. But hair is used to rhyme. Many examples in the Book of Songs, especially "mourning as the center", cannot be explained by rhyme. Therefore, the name "China" originally refers to "China", which means "the center of the country", that is, the capital of the country. The inversion of word order in ancient Chinese is by no means limited to "Zhonghe", "Zhongyuan" and "Lin Zhong". Other examples are the order of "big name" and "small name". For example, "Mulberry" is a nickname and the tree is a big name. The nickname comes before the name, so modern Chinese can't say "tree mulberry". However, the Book of Songs Captain Zheng Feng, which describes the tryst between young men and women, mentions "tree qi", "tree mulberry" and "tree sandalwood". Regardless of rhyme, locusts are used as "insect locusts". There is also the problem of adjective inversion (it is typical in modern Vietnamese and reserved in Cantonese, such as calling "rooster" as "rooster" and "guest" as "guest", etc.). These "inversions" from a modern point of view often reveal the complex composition of China's ancient ancestors. Even today's "China" can derive this "non-Chinese" grammar, which makes people think deeply about why China is China.
Although the concept of China originally refers to the national capital, in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the Chinese people in the Central Plains called their four-sided ethnic groups barbarians, barbarians, Rong and Di, and called themselves "China". At this time, China has become a regional concept, and has experienced a process of expansion from small to large with the passage of time. When "China" appeared in Shangshu, it was only the name people used to address the Guanzhong and Heluo areas where they lived in the Western Zhou Dynasty. In the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the region to which Zhou belonged could also be called "China", and the meaning of "China" extended to the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, including the vassal states. With the territorial expansion of vassal states, "China" became the title of all countries. As a regional concept, ancient "China" mainly refers to:
1: refers to the area directly ruled by the Emperor of Heaven. For example, Zhuge Liang said to Sun Quan, "If you can compete with China with the people of wuyue, it is better to give up early."
2. Refers to the Central Plains, such as Historical Records Biography of East Vietnam: "Dongou invites the whole country to be a disciple of China".
3. It refers to the mainland and China, such as "Historical Records of Emperor Wu": "Eight famous mountains in the world, three barbarians and five China".
4. Refers to the area where Xia people live, such as The Analects of Confucius: "Summer, China also".
Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, the area that did not belong to the Yellow River basin but was within the jurisdiction of the Central Plains Dynasty was called "China", so later, the regime state that occupied the Central Plains was usually called China, and this title often appeared in Historical Records and Hanshu. So from the Han Dynasty, people often called the Central Plains Dynasty "China".
Because of this, when ethnic minorities entered the Central Plains, they called themselves "China". For example, the Northern Wei Dynasty, founded by Xianbei people, called itself "China" and the Southern Dynasty called it "Island Yi". At the same time, although the Southern Dynasties established by the Han nationality moved away from the Central Plains, they still called themselves "China", called the Northern Dynasties "Rousseau" and the Northern Wei Dynasty "Wei Lu". For another example, the Song Dynasty, the Liao Dynasty, the Northern Song Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty all called themselves "China" and did not recognize each other as "China".
After the Qidan and the Song Dynasty negotiated and signed the "Yuan Tan Alliance" and became brotherly ties, they vigorously promoted the sinicization. The imperial examinations in Qidan completely imitated the Chinese system. Confucius Temple was built at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, which greatly admired Confucius and called itself "the descendants of the Chinese people". "The national system is simple, and the Han system has also been preserved along the wind of fame. It is ruled by vulgarity, it is straight! " So the Khitan declared that China was not without it. However, after the demise of the Liao Dynasty, the royal family led many people to move westward and established the Western Liao regime in Central Asia. Western Liao copied China from court language to political system. Until A.D. 12 1 1 year, Yelv Zhilugu, the last general, died under the attack of Naiman and Huala Mozi, still retaining the most unique title system in China culture (thirty-four years in Liaotian, Weixi). Why is this? They think they are the inheritors of Chinese and China culture!
The Jin people began to call themselves Han Chinese in the Southern Song Dynasty in11year, and the capital of Jin is now Beijing. "Jurchen gold is said to have become the patriarch of Koreans, Uighurs and Xixia people because of tribute, so it followed the tradition of China and was declared as the great empire of the Yu family. Before the Song envoys paid tribute, the Jin Dynasty had already started the imperial examination, and the rank of civil servants had also been promulgated. Its monarch wore a Chinese coronation ceremony, and the forty-ninth grandson of Confucius was also made a duke. When offering sacrifices to Confucius, the gold master personally saluted. " Later, the State of Jin claimed to be orthodox in China and called itself Han Chinese. Later, the Yuan Dynasty called the people under Kim China people.
China's reference to the concept of state may have a long history, but China's formal address to the state is a modern thing. And the ancients usually don't claim that I am from China, but that I am from a certain dynasty or China. In previous articles, few people claimed to be from China, but most of them were called "China people" and "China people". Although the modern concept of nationality began to enter China in the late Qing Dynasty, people's recognition of the country name "China" at that time was not as good as that of "zhina". It was not until the founding of the Republic of China that China was regarded as a formal national synonym.
Another example can illustrate the ancient people's attitude towards the country name: Waseda University keeps several volumes of graduation commemorative lists, which are called "Hung Kai Tie". In the fourth volume (part of 1907), 95 people wrote nominations, and 33 people only wrote their names without attaching their place of origin. However, among the 62 people who attached their place of origin, 18 wrote zhina, 12 wrote Qing Dynasty, 7 wrote China or China, and 25 did not attach their country names. Here, the use of the title of Chinaman implies the revolutionary significance of denying the Qing regime. Pay attention to that or word, that is to say, less than 7 out of 95 people agree with the name China. One of Liang Qichao's pen names is "zhina Youth", and the cover of his book Li Hongzhang is engraved with "The Grinch of zhina". It can be seen that in the late Qing Dynasty, China people did not regard the word "China" as a national title.
Let's talk about another historical event: According to the Tibetan National Records of Yutian, a king of Yutian named Wei Chisheng married a Chinese princess, Punia Swaro, and she brought silkworm eggs to Yutian. Princess China is from Loulan and Europa. Because Loulan surrendered to the Han people, Tibetan history books called Loulan China. The western regions are not the Central Plains. In the eyes of Tibetans, the Western Regions are also China. It can be seen that "China" is not completely Central Plains in the psychological stereotype of Han people. What's more, Hiroshima, Okayama, Yamaguchi and other places in Japan are also called "the land of China", and Hiroshima and China Broadcasting Corporation all take the ancient meaning of the word "China".
Although the name "China" has a written history of 3,000 years, it is only a regional concept. From Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties to the end of Qing Dynasty, no dynasty or regime took "China" as its official name. As a country name, "China" began after the Revolution of 1911. 19 12 On New Year's Day, the Republic of China was founded and internationally known as the Republic of China ("China"). At this point, the name "China" became the official name with the concept of modern country. The great People's Republic of China (PRC) (PRC) was founded in 1949, and the concept of "China" was perfected and enriched to today's meaning.
One last question about China's pronunciation.
Europeans first called China "Khitan", which originated from Russians. So far. Russians still call China Kitan (Khitan) and China Kitanyes (Khitan). In Russian, Greek and Middle English, the whole of China is called Qidan (pronounced Kitay, Kita 1a, Cathay), and in Muslim literature, northern China is often called Qidan (Hada). Cathay, a Latin word used to refer to China, has never disappeared from western languages since Kelpolo and Columbus. For example, Cathay Pacific Airways in Hong Kong has been in business since the British era in Hong Kong and has continued to this day. Strictly speaking, it should be called "Khitan Airlines" according to its original English name. CHINA is now called "China" in English, but it was only in modern times that the name was changed. In fact, this name may have the meaning of discrimination. It seemed fierce some time ago. Many people suggest changing back to Cathay Pacific. However, it has become an international habit, and no one regards it as a derogatory term today, so it was forgotten later.
Finally, let me talk about Zhina.
Although China has a history of 5,000 years, the name "China" is surprisingly young. 19 12 Before the founding of the Republic of China, the official name of China was never "China". According to the different dynasties of Qin, Han, Ming and Qing, the official titles in ancient China changed. For example, in the Qing Dynasty, the official name of China was "Qing" or "Qing Empire". Although the official country name has never been China, there are colloquial words of "China" or "China people" in China. However, in the past, people mentioned the word "China", generally referring to the narrow sense of the Central Plains, and "China people" referring to the people of the Central Plains to distinguish them from the border people in Xinjiang, Tibet and Mongolia. In the past, "China" was not used to represent the country.
Because of its close contact with China, Japan also called China according to the name of China's dynasty. Unlike the western countries, which had little contact with China, no matter which dynasty China was in, it was always called China. In the Sui Dynasty, the Japanese called China Sui, and in the Tang Dynasty, China Tang, so they called it "sending envoys to Sui" and "sending envoys to Tang". In the past, when referring to the general concept of China, Japan referred to China as "Chinese soil" or "Tang soil", Chinese characters as "Chinese characters" and Chinese as "Chinese language". In ancient Japan, neither "China" nor "zhina" was used to represent China. These characters appeared in Japan after modern times.
By the end of Edo and the beginning of Meiji in Japan, foreign words became popular with Japan's opening to the outside world. People who like to be unconventional no longer call China "China native", but call China "zhina" according to foreign transliteration. As a result, the name became popular, and newspapers and books used "zhina" to address China.
I am not happy to hear that the Japanese population is called "zhina". It was only after Article 21, the invasion of Siberia, the Paris Peace Conference and the May 4th Movement that Japan's ambitions were exposed one after another.
In Wang Gongbi's A Sweaty Journey to the East (first edition191911), a summary of Japanese diplomacy-Zhina was included.
In the article "Japan's Fundamental Policy", there is such a passage: Japan's diplomatic truth in the past 50 years has no diplomatic value at all. Since the beggar gang Japanese defeated the former dynasty, they have called me Huawei "Zhina", which is a national education. Moreover, if the word zhina is meaningless, it can represent China people.
Ignorance makes Mishima popular with the word zhina, which is an excuse for the Japanese to despise China people. When describing inappropriate behavior, they will say "zhina style" to make fun of it. This kind of education has been instilled in the minds of citizens. Today, even if a three-foot child sees China people, he shows an ugly attitude and says "China people" and "China people". It seems that the word "zhina" represents all the evils of China people. This kind of education was made by the Japanese's "fundamental policy of governing Na", and it didn't happen overnight. Now the Japanese are doing business to promote this kind of education, so as to increase the insult of their own people to China.
However, if we study the origin of the word "zhina", we will find that it was not the Japanese who originally called China "zhina", but the China people themselves. In ancient times, Indians called China cina. It is said to be a transliteration of Qin. In ancient Rome, China was called Sinoa (see Old Testament). Later, China in English and Chine in French were said to come from this etymology. Now the prefix "China" or "China" stands for China. For example, the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 was the Sino-Japanese War, and Sinology was the China Study. After China introduced Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures from India, few people knew Sanskrit and needed to translate them into Chinese. When monks translated Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures, they translated cina into "zhina" according to transliteration, and now China is still called "zhina" in China Buddhist scriptures. After the Buddhist scriptures spread to Japan, they also brought the word "zhina" into Japan.
As mentioned above, the word "zhina" became popular in Japan after the Meiji Restoration. However, the official title of China at that time was Qing, so the Japanese government called China Qing or Qing Empire on formal occasions, called the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, and called the Boxer Movement the Northern Qing Incident. However, in general folk newspapers and periodicals, China is generally called "zhina", War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression is called "Japanese invaders" and China people are called "zhina". The Japanese don't call China's official title Qing, but zhina. Are China people angry about this? Not exactly. It turned out that the Han people in China at that time, especially the revolutionaries in China, were not angry with the Japanese for calling China "zhina", but rather grateful.
At that time, the Han nationality in China was under the rule of different nationalities. Because Japan secretly supported the China Revolution, Japan became a paradise for China revolutionaries, and anti-government organizations such as the League and the Guangfu Association were formed in Japan. At that time, the first two things that many Han Chinese came to Japan were: the first thing was to cut their braids to show that they were no longer loyal to the Qing court; Second, they call themselves "adherents" and refuse to admit that they are "Qing people". Because the word "China" was not recognized at that time, many revolutionaries directly called themselves "China people" in Japanese. 1902, Zhang Taiyan and others launched the "242nd anniversary of zhina's national subjugation" campaign in Tokyo, Japan, and put forward that "the restoration of the Han Dynasty, the return of my country, and the success of our country" ("zhina's national subjugation" refers to the year when the Ming Dynasty perished in the Qing Dynasty); 1904, Song founded the magazine of the 20th century in Tokyo, which was the predecessor of People's Daily, the party newspaper of the League. Even Liang Qichao, a constitutionalist, took "zhina Youth" as his pen name, and Kang Tongbi, Kang Youwei's second daughter, once called "I am the first person in zhina" in his poem.
At that time, many revolutionaries in China used the word "zhina" to address themselves, which also showed that the Japanese used "zhina" to address China at that time, which was not derogatory, but included respect for the Han people in China. If the Japanese call China people "Qing people" and China people "Qing language" according to the official address of China at that time, it would be an insult to the Han people in China. Before the Revolution of 1911, the word "zhina" was recognized by both China and Japan, and no one raised any objection. However, after the Revolution of 1911, the official title of China was changed from "Qing Empire" to "Republic of China", which triggered the dispute between China and Japan about "zhina".
With the establishment of the Republic of China 19 12, China has a new official title of "Republic of China", but the title of "Republic of China" has not been immediately recognized by all countries in the world. After the demise of the Qing Dynasty, civil strife occurred in China and the provinces became independent. The revolutionary party in the south set up an interim government called the Republic of China in Nanjing, but at that time, the scope of the Republic of China was limited to several southern provinces, and a large area of land in the north did not belong to the Republic of China. At this time, with the collapse of the Qing Dynasty, China can no longer be called the "Great Qing Dynasty"; It is also inappropriate to call it "the Republic of China". First, it could not represent the whole of China at that time (the name of "Republic of China" was recognized by the North only after the North-South peace talks); Second, because the Japanese government has not officially recognized the "Republic of China" for some time. In this case, the Japanese government abandoned the title of "Qing State" and used the folk term "zhina" to address China. 19 13 in July, the Japanese government clearly stipulated that no matter how the name of China changes in the future, Japan will call China "zhina".
19 13 10 In June, Yuan Shikai officially became the president of the Republic of China, and Japan officially recognized the "Republic of China". However, the Japanese government only uses "Republic of China" in Chinese literature and "Republic of zhina" in Japanese literature to address China. At first, Japan didn't encounter too many problems, because the word "zhina" has been popular in Japan for decades, and China people didn't think much about it for a while.
19 15, Japan proposed "Article 21" to Yuan Shikai's government, which was the starting point for the deterioration of Sino-Japanese relations. 19 19 Japan handed over the German Concession, which caused an anti-Japanese upsurge in the May 4th Movement. An anti-Japanese topic raised by patriots at that time was that Japan called China "zhina". Some patriotic youths suggested that the Japanese called China "zhina" to insult the people of China, and patriotic fire broke out. Patriots have written to the government to protest the Japanese government's use of words such as "zhina" and "zhina Republic". Since then, the China government has repeatedly made representations to the Japanese government, but all failed.
Japan does not use the name "Republic of China". In addition to the Japanese government's stipulation in July 19 13, another reason is that the Japanese think that the word "China" hides contempt for Japan. Originally, "China" and "Central Plains" in history were words used to distinguish neighboring countries of different nationalities. In the past, China referred to Dongyi as Dongyi (Japanese and Koreans), Nanman as Southeast Asian, Xirong as West Asian and Beidi as Mongols. The relationship between China and barbarian countries is not reciprocal, but a top-down tributary relationship. The Japanese think that China people call themselves "China", which contains the pride of being the best in the world and having superior culture. Therefore, some people think that changing their name from "zhina" to "China" is an insult to admit that they are a tributary country of "Dongyi". This is the internal reason why Japan is unwilling to use "Republic of China" and "China".
However, under the repeated protests and urging of the China government, 1932, the Japanese government finally agreed to use "Republic of China" instead of "zhina" in government documents, but the folk newspapers still called China "zhina". It was not until Japan was defeated that the Japanese government issued the Notice on Avoiding the Use of Zhina's Address to the whole country at 1946. Since then, the word "zhina" has completely disappeared from Japanese government official documents, textbooks, newspapers and magazines. The title dispute between China and China was completely resolved under the overall compromise of the defeated Japanese.