China has many contemporary and historical designations given in various languages for the East Asian country known as ('Central State' or 'Middle Kingdom') in Standard Chinese, a form based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin.
The English name "China" was borrowed from Portuguese during the 16th century, and its direct cognates became common in the subsequent centuries in the West. It is believed to be a borrowing from Middle Persian, and some have traced it further back to the Sanskrit word () for the nation. It is also thought that the ultimate source of the name China is the Chinese word , the name of the Qin dynasty that ultimately unified China after existing as a state within the Zhou dynasty for many centuries prior. However, there are alternative suggestions for the etymology of this word.
Chinese names for China, aside from , include , , and . While official notions of Chinese nationality do not make any particular reference to ethnicity, common names for the largest ethnic group in China are and . The People's Republic of China () and the Republic of China () are the official names of the two governments presently claiming sovereignty over "China". The term "mainland China" refers to areas under the PRC's jurisdiction, either including or excluding Hong Kong and Macau.
There are also names for China used around the world that are derived from the languages of ethnic groups other than Han Chinese: examples include "Cathay" from the Khitan language, and from Tuoba. The realm ruled by the Emperor of China is also referred to as the Chinese Empire.
Sinitic names
Zhongguo Pre-Qing
Zhongguo () is the name for China most commonly used in Chinese in modern times. The name has ancient origin: the earliest appearance of this two-character term is on the He zun, a bronze vessel dating to 1038–, during the early Western Zhou period. The phrase "" came into common usage in the Warring States period (475–221 BCE), when it referred to the "Central States", the states of the Yellow River Valley of the Zhou era, as distinguished from the tribal periphery. In later periods, however, was not used in this sense. Dynastic names were used for the state in Imperial China, and concepts of the state aside from the ruling dynasty were little understood. Rather, the country was called by the name of the dynasty, such as "Han", "Tang", "Great Ming", "Great Qing", etc. Until the 19th century, when the globalizing world began to require a common legal language, there was no need for a fixed or unique name., p. 93-94 .
As early as the Spring and Autumn period, could be understood as either the domain of the capital or used to refer to the Chinese civilization Zuo Zhuan "Duke Min – 1st year – zhuan " quote: "諸夏親暱不可棄也" translation: "The various Xia are close intimates and can not be abandoned"Du Yu, Chunqiu Zuozhuan – Collected Explanations, "Vol. 4" p. 136 of 186 . quote: "諸夏中國也" or ,Zuozhuan "Duke Xiang – 4th year – zhuan " quote: "諸華必叛" translation: "The various Hua would surely revolt"Du Yu, Chunqiu Zuozhuan – Collected Explanations, "Vol. 15". p. 102 of 162 quote: "諸華中國" and the political and geographical domain that contained it, but Tianxia was the more common word for this idea. This developed into the usage of the Warring States period, when, other than the cultural community, it could be the geopolitical area of Chinese civilization as well, equivalent to Jiuzhou. In a more limited sense, it could also refer to the Central Plain or the states of Zhao, Wei, and Han, etc., geographically central among the Warring States. Although could be used before the Song dynasty period to mean the trans-dynastic Chinese culture or civilization to which Chinese people belonged, it was in the Song dynasty that writers used as a term to describe the trans-dynastic entity with different dynastic names over time but having a set territory and defined by common ancestry, culture, and language.
The term was used differently in every period. It could refer to the capital of the emperor to distinguish it from the capitals of his vassals, as in Western Zhou. It could refer to the states of the Central Plain to distinguish them from states in the outer regions. The Shi Jing defines as the capital region, setting it in opposition to the capital city.Classic of Poetry, "Major Hymns – Min Lu " quote: " Legge's translation: "Let us cherish this center of the kingdom, to secure the repose of the four quarters of it. [...] Let us cherish this capital, to secure the repose of the States in the four quarters."Zhu Xi (publisher, 1100s), Collected Commentaries on the Classic of Poetry (詩經集傳) "Juan A (卷阿)" p. 68 of 198 quote: "中國，京師也。四方，諸夏也。京師，諸夏之根本也。" translation: "The center of the kingdom means the capital. The 'four quarters' refer to the Huaxia. The capital is the root of the various Xia." During the Han dynasty, three usages of were common. The Records of the Grand Historian use Zhongguo to denote the capitalShiji, "Annals of the Five Emperors" quote: "舜曰：「天也」，夫而後之中國踐天子位焉，是為帝舜。" translation: "Shun said, 'It is from Heaven.' Afterwards he went to the capital, sat on the Imperial throne, and was styled Emperor Shun."Pei Yin, Records of the Grand Historian – Collected Explanation Vol. 1 "劉熈曰……帝王所都為中故曰中國" translation: "Liu Xi said: [...] Wherever emperors and kings established their capitals is taken as the center; hence the appellation the central region" and also use the concepts ("center, central") and to indicate the center of civilization: "There are eight famous mountains in the world: three in Man and Yi (the barbarian wilds), five in " ().Shiji, "Annals of Emperor Xiaowu" Shiji "Treatise about the Feng Shan sacrifices" In this sense, the term is synonymous with and , names of China that were first authentically attested in the Warring States periodZuo zhuan, "Duke Xiang, year 26, zhuan" text: "楚失華夏．" translation: "Chu lost (the political allegiance of / the political influence over) the flourishing and grand (states)." and Eastern Jin period,Huan Wen (347 CE). "Memorial Recommending Qiao Yuanyan" (薦譙元彥表), quoted in Sun Sheng's Annals of Jin (晉陽秋) (now-lost), quoted in Pei Songzhi's annotations to Chen Shou, Records of the Three Kingdoms, "Biography of Qiao Xiu" quote: "於時皇極遘道消之會，群黎蹈顛沛之艱，中華有顧瞻之哀，幽谷無遷喬之望。"Farmer, J. Michael (2017) "Sanguo Zhi Fascicle 42: The Biography of Qiao Zhou", Early Medieval China, 23, 22-41, p. 39. quote: "At this time, the imperial court has encountered a time of decline in the Way, the peasants have been trampled down by oppressive hardships, Zhonghua has the anguish of looking backward [toward the former capital at Luoyang], and the dark valley has no hope of moving upward." DOI: 10.1080/15299104.2017.1379725 respectively.
From the Qin to the Ming dynasty, literati discussed as both a historical place or territory and as a culture. Writers of the Ming period in particular used the term as a political tool to express opposition to expansionist policies that incorporated foreigners into the empire.Jiang 2011, p. 103. In contrast, foreign conquerors typically avoided discussions of and instead defined membership in their empires to include both Han and non-Han peoples.Peter K Bol, "Geography and Culture: Middle-Period Discourse on the Zhong Guo: The Central Country," (2009), 1, 26.
Qing appeared in a formal international legal document for the first time during the Qing dynasty in the Treaty of Nerchinsk, 1689. The term was then used in communications with other states and in treaties. The Manchu rulers incorporated Inner Asian polities into their empire, and Wei Yuan, a statecraft scholar, distinguished the new territories from , which he defined as the 17 provinces of "China proper" plus the Manchu homelands in the Northeast. By the late 19th century, the term had emerged as a common name for the whole country. The empire was sometimes referred to as Great Qing but increasingly as .
is the Manchu name for China, with "Dulimbai" meaning "central" or "middle" and "Gurun" meaning "nation" or "state".Hauer 2007 , p. 117.Dvořák 1895 , p. 80.Wu 1995 , p. 102. The historian Zhao Gang writes that "not long after the collapse of the Ming, China became the equivalent of Great Qing ()—another official title of the Qing state," and "Qing and China became interchangeable official titles, and the latter often appeared as a substitute for the former in official documents." The Qing dynasty referred to their realm as "Dulimbai Gurun" in Manchu. The Qing equated the lands of the Qing realm (including present-day Manchuria, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Tibet, and other areas) with "China" in both the Chinese and Manchu languages, defining China as a multi-ethnic state, rejecting the idea that China only meant Han areas; both Han and non-Han peoples were part of "China". Officials used "China" (though not exclusively) in official documents, international treaties, and foreign affairs, and the "Chinese language" referred to Chinese, Manchu, and Mongol languages, and the term "Chinese people" (; ) referred to all Han, Manchus, and Mongol subjects of the Qing. Ming loyalist Han literati held to defining the old Ming borders as China and using "foreigner" to describe minorities under Qing rule such as the Mongols and Tibetans, as part of their anti-Qing ideology.Mosca 2011 , p. 94.
When the Qing conquered Dzungaria in 1759, they proclaimed that the new land was absorbed into in a Manchu language memorial.Dunnell 2004 , p. 77.Dunnell 2004 , p. 83.Elliott 2001 , p. 503. The Qing expounded on their ideology that they were bringing together the "outer" non-Han Chinese, like the Tibetans, Inner, Eastern, and Oirat Mongols, together with the "inner" Han Chinese, into "one family", united in the Qing state, showing that the diverse subjects of the Qing were all part of one family. The Qing used the phrase "" () or "" (), to convey this idea of "unification" of the different peoples.Dunnell 2004 , pp. 76-77. A Manchu-language version of a treaty with the Russian Empire concerning criminal jurisdiction over bandits called people from the Qing "people of the Central Kingdom ()".Cassel 2011 , p. 205.Cassel 2012 , p. 205.Cassel 2011 , p. 44.Cassel 2012 , p. 44. In the Manchu official Tulisen's Manchu language account of his meeting with the Torghut Mongol leader Ayuki Khan, it was mentioned that while the Torghuts were unlike the Russians, the "people of the Central Kingdom" (/) were like the Torghut Mongols, and the "people of the Central Kingdom" referred to the Manchus.Perdue 2009 , p. 218.
The geography textbooks published in the late Qing period gave detailed descriptions of China's regional position and territorial space. They generally emphasized that China was a large country in Asia but not the center of the world. For example, the "Elementary Chinese Geography Textbook" () published in 1905 described the boundaries of China's territory and neighboring countries as follows: "The western border of China is located in the center of Asia, bordering the (overseas) territories of Britain and Russia. The terrain is humped, like a hat. So all mountains and rivers originate from here. To the east, it faces Japan across the East China Sea. To the south, it is adjacent to the South China Sea, and borders French Annam and British Burma. To the southwest, it is separated from British India by mountains. From the west to the north and the northeast, the three sides of China are all Russian territories. Only the southern border of the northeast is connected to Korea across the Yalu River." It further stated that "There are about a dozen countries in Asia, but only China has a vast territory, a prosperous population, and dominates East Asia. It is a great and world-famous country."