China is now the English translation of "China" and "Porcelain". The original name of ceramics was "Chinaware", literal translation: Chinese tile. Ceramic products were called pottery in ancient times (any clay pottery vessel made of clay in ancient times could be called "tile"); here ware is the transliteration of tile, which means vessel. China is placed before ware, which shows that China did not have the meaning of porcelain in the beginning; later, ware was omitted, and its prefix was lowercase, and porcelain was simply called china; it was already in the late Qing Dynasty that China acquired the meaning of porcelain.
The word "China" appeared no later than the Liao, Jin and Song Dynasties and no earlier than the Pre-Qin Dynasty; it appeared roughly in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Academic circles basically believe that its pun meaning as porcelain is much later than the original meaning of "China" as China, so China originally meant China. Originated from the transliteration of Chang'an
1. The continuity of Chang'an as the capital
China's capital will not change due to changes in political power, so ancient capitals such as Chang'an, Luoyang, Beijing and Nanjing have done The capital of many dynasties. Although the country names are different, there is only one in Chang'an. Businessmen traveling between the East and the West no matter what your country is called in the past, present or future, in short, your capital will always be "Chang'an".
2. Since ancient times, there has been a habit of referring to the capital as a country or civilization.
Rome is a city, but today we use it to refer to the entire ancient Roman civilization in the Mediterranean.
The ancient city-state of Athens, the representative of ancient Greek civilization.
The Grand Duchy of Moscow, the predecessor of Tsarist Russia.
3. The original translation of Chinaware Fang is porcelain
ware as a noun: goods, utensils
ware as a verb: be careful, pay attention to, avoid
< p>ware as an adjective: cautiousThese three meanings closely link ware with terracotta. Therefore, it is completely reasonable to infer that the word "ware" in Chinaware refers to porcelain (ceramic products, also known as "earthenware" in ancient times).
Tile → transliterated as → ware; Chang'an tile → transliterated as → Chinaware; and now Chinaware still means ceramics.
4. The result of transliteration is directly related to the culture of the transliteration source
For example: the transliteration of Beijing in the old days was not "Bei jing", but "Peking"
The transliteration of Hong Kong is "Hong Kong", which originates from Cantonese, and is not a modern pinyin translation
The transliteration of the Kuomintang is still "Kuomintang", which originates from the Wuyue dialect and is not a modern pinyin translation
The transliteration of Chiang Kai-shek is "Chiang Kai-shek", which originates from the Wuyue dialect and is not a modern pinyin translation
Mandarin based on Beijing dialect gradually formed after the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, while the Zhou and Qin The capitals of China, Han, Sui and Tang were all in Xi'an.
5. The influence of Chang'an culture on the world
(1) The influence of Guanzhong dialect on Europe:
Silk → transliterated as → silk (English) → seide (German); where "seide" comes from "silk" or "satin"
Clay → transliterated as →terra (English); after clay, it was transformed into the meaning of "earth" in English
Terracotta → transliterated as → terracotta (English); the English translation of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses is "Terracotta Army" and the literal translation is "Terracotta Army"
(2) The influence of Guanzhong dialect on Japan is deep into the bone marrow, as follows Here are a few examples:
"Lang" - in Guanzhong dialect means wandering and debauchery. People in Xi'an call going out for fun "going out to wander". The "ronin" among the Japanese ronin originated from this.
"House" - Xi'an people rarely call a house a house, but it is more common for Xi'an people to call it a "house". The Japanese are also influenced by it, such as: "Nagoya".
"Problem" - pronounced as "má da" in Xi'an dialect, meaning "trouble", the Japanese word "problem" is pronounced as "měn dai", which originates from Chang'an dialect.
"Sweeping" - The pronunciation of "sweeping" in Japanese and "sweeping the floor" in Xi'an dialect are exactly the same, both are: "sào ji".
"Ringo"-apple is native to the southern Caucasus and coastal areas of Persia. Northwest China is also one of the important birthplaces of apples. It has a cultivation history of more than 2,000 years, but it was not called apple at first, but "Ringo". "Ringo" means apple in Japanese and is pronounced Ringo. It is not known whether the word "Ringo" was introduced from the Xi'an dialect, but it definitely comes from China.
"It must be like this" - When people from Guanzhong, Shaanxi Province confirm whether what the other party says is true, they will ask: "It must be like this (díe sí di)?" It means "It must be like this?" ". The same is true in Japan today. To check if the other person is like this, you will say "díe sí gá" (díe sí gá).
There are countless replicas of Xi’an culture in Japan, and the above examples are just the tip of the iceberg. People from Xi'an who have studied Japanese feel this especially clearly, as do those who have an understanding of Sui and Tang culture as well as Japanese culture. Japan is almost a modern island version of Sui and Tang culture.
Including Japanese palace lanterns, architecture, and clogs, they are basically the same as those in the Sui and Tang Dynasties.
Ancient China had a lot of influence on Japan, such as "You should pity the teeth of clogs and the green moss", in which "geta" means clogs. In ancient my country, clogs were a convenient way of dressing during rainy seasons, and they were not the first to be worn in Japan. Originated from Changnan, Jingdezhen
According to relevant historical records, various porcelains have been produced in the Jingdezhen area since the Han Dynasty. During the Jin Dynasty, there was a man named Zhao Gai who made great contributions to the improvement of the quality of porcelain in the Jingdezhen area at that time. Therefore, he was honored as "Master" by later generations, and temples were built to worship him in successive dynasties. In 583 AD, in order to build luxurious pavilions and pavilions, Emperor Chen Shubao of the Southern Dynasty issued an order to the kilns here to burn exquisitely carved ceramic columns for royal use. In the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty wanted to build two "lion and elephant beasts" here to present to the palace. This shows that the porcelain making industry in Jingdezhen area at that time had a considerable level of skill and porcelain products had a great influence.
After the establishment of the powerful Tang Empire, during the Wude period of Emperor Li Yuan (618-626 AD), the porcelain industry in Jingdezhen, also known as Changnan Town at that time, experienced greater development, with two Famous porcelain makers, one is named Tao Yu and the other is Huo Zhongchu. The porcelain they made was "as clear as jade" and "the soil is white soil, slightly thinner and moist in pigment". They were sent to Kyoto for sale and were called "fake jade". ", caused a sensation in the market, and the emperor ordered tribute, so "Changnan ceramics became famous all over the world."
Jiangxi Changnan Town (Jingdezhen) has been famous for its porcelain production since the Tang Dynasty. Due to the good soil quality in Changnan, the ancestors absorbed the advantages of southern celadon and northern white porcelain to create a kind of blue and white porcelain. Blue and white porcelain is crystal clear and moist, and has the reputation of "fake jade". It is famous far and wide and is exported to Europe in large quantities. Before the 18th century, Europeans did not know how to make porcelain, so fine porcelain from China, especially from Changnan Town, was very popular. In Europe, Changnan porcelain is a very cherished and valuable item, and people are proud to obtain a piece of Changnan porcelain. In this way, Europeans used "Changnan" as a code for porcelain (cina, china) and "China" (cina, China) where porcelain is produced. Over time, Europeans forgot the original meaning of Changnan and only remembered it as " "Porcelain", that is, "China". Before the word China appeared, the European names for China basically came from the pronunciation of Cina, with slight differences according to different languages. Originated from the transliteration of the Qin Dynasty
1
The theory of the Qin Dynasty in China. It is believed that the name China comes from the pronunciation of "Qin" (chin). This is the most popular view in the West and has the most supporters. French scholar M. Pauthier and others put forward this view. He believed that the name of China originated from Sanskrit, and in Sanskrit China was named after the Qin Dynasty in ancient China, so China was called "Qin" (Sin, Chin), and the "a" after China was added by the Portuguese to indicate the region. . This view was later supported by the French sinologist Pelliot. Since Pelliot was a famous sinologist in the West, after him, the name "China" came from the Qin Dynasty and became a quite influential theory. Mr. Zhang Xingxing, a famous Chinese and foreign transportation historian, also supports this view. This view has great influence in contemporary Chinese academic circles.
In ancient times, foreigners did use "Qin people" to refer to people from China. For example, Wei Lu planned for the Xiongnu Chanyu to "dig wells, build city walls, build high buildings to store grain, and guard with the Qin people." However, Wei Lu and the Xiongnu Chanyu did not adopt this plan.
II
"China" originated in India. Ancient Indians called China "chini", which is said to be the transliteration of "Qin". After China introduced Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures from India, it had to translate the Buddhist scriptures into Chinese, so eminent monks translated chini into "China" according to the transliteration. Ancient Rome, which also belongs to the Indo-European language family, called China Sinoa. Later, China in English and Chine in French all came from this etymology. There is a record in "Records of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty": "The king said: 'Where is the Kingdom of Tang Dynasty? According to the route, how far is it?' He said to him: 'More than tens of thousands of miles northeast of here, there is the so-called Mahazhina Kingdom in India. Yes. '"
Some people pointed out that the name Ci^na appears in ancient Indian books such as "Mahabharata", "Manu Code" and "Ramayana". But it is not yet confirmed that this refers to China. "Shijia Fangzhi" quotes the words of Cheng Guangzi, the governor of Qinzhou who entered Zhu in the tenth year of Jian'an during the reign of Emperor Xian of the Later Han Dynasty: "Cheng Guangzi said: 'From the east of the Central Tianzhu Kingdom to the Zhendan Kingdom, it is fifty-eight thousand miles.'" So Zhendan is the latest. It had been widely known to Indians before the Eastern Han Dynasty.
"China" and "China" in Portuguese, Dutch, German, English and Chine in French all originate from the Sanskrit Ci^na-stha^na. In ancient Greece, Rome and other countries, in addition to Serice, which was transformed from the meaning of silk silk, there were also Sin, Thin, or Sinai, Thinai, which have the same origin as my country. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Duke Mu of Qin annexed many nomadic peoples in the northwest and drove the Zhai (Di) tribe to Mobei. During the Qin Shihuang era, he forced the Xiongnu to move westward. As they gradually penetrated into Central Asia, West Asia and Europe, they also made Westerners know about Qin and thought it was China.
This statement is still controversial, but from the "Historical Records", it is said that the Qin State "forbids temples". If the "forbidden temples" refer to Buddha temples, then Qin and India have long had contacts. The Chinese in the Buddhist scriptures are Qin. Thus, the context that translates into the meaning of China is very clear.
The Japanese monk Kukai accompanied the Tang envoy to the Tang Dynasty in 804 to study Buddhist scriptures. Therefore, it can be inferred that the word "China" in his book was learned from the Chinese translation of the classics. Later, some people in the Buddhist community began to use the word "China" to refer to China in order to show their erudition and piety. However, during the Meiji Restoration, Yamaga Soyuki and others felt that the dispute over the name of the country could serve their political opinions. They believed that the opposite of China was the barbarians, so they wrote a book "Records of China and North Korea" to fight for the title of "China and North Korea". name. Then Fukuzawa Yukichi and others proposed the idea of ??leaving Asia and joining Europe. After the Qing government failed in the Sino-Japanese War of 1884-1894, the Japanese, who had long regarded China as a superior country, were shocked and intoxicated. From then on, the word "China" in Japan began to take on the connotation of contempt for the losers by the victors. In 1913, based on the proposal of the Minister to China, it was agreed that the Japanese government would refer to China as "China" from now on. This aroused the anger of many Chinese people. In "The Journey to the East" published in China in 1919 by students studying in Japan, in addition to continuing to use the word "Japanese" in a tactic of fighting fire with fire, the word "Japan" in English originated from lacquerware. Moreover, if Japan wants to leave Asia and join Europe, it uses its transliteration and calls it: "pretend". Derived from the Sanskrit word "silk" in Tianzhu
According to the world map drawn in the "Geographical Guide" by the ancient Greek geographer Ptolemy, a place called "Sinae" was marked in the east of ancient India. ” and a country called “Serica”. The name "Sinae" is the ancient Indian pronunciation of "silk".
From the perspective of the history of the evolution of Western languages ??and the history of exchanges between Chinese and Western civilizations, it is believed that the word "CHINA" comes from silk. The connection between silk and the word "CHINA" is explained according to the evolution history of European languages. During the Greek civilization period, Chinese silk had reached Europe through the "Silk Road", so the word "silk" also appeared in Greek. The pronunciation of "silk" in Greek is similar to that in Chinese. Later, in Latin, the pronunciation of "Si" was basically similar to the later pronunciation of "CHINA". In French, the spelling of "Si" was "CHINE", which was very close to the pronunciation and spelling of "CHINA" in English. Then officially "transitioned" from French to the word "CHINA". "Serica" ??means the country of silk, and later the English word China may have evolved from it.
In the English translation of the "Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War", China is translated as "SINO", which is closer to "Si" in Latin, while in Sanskrit, "China" is called for "Cina". Although Sanskrit calls China silk "Serica", it would be too far-fetched to say that Serica is the ancestor of china, as the pronunciation is still different. What's more, India is not the only way for communication between the West and the East. There is no need for the West to borrow words from India, and china in English and Latin does not necessarily evolve from Sanskrit.
II
At the beginning of the 20th century, the origin of the word China was discussed in academic circles, with different opinions and no consensus. The literary monk Su Manshu (1884-1918) was proficient in English, French, Japanese and Sanskrit, and once wrote the "Sanskrit Dictionary". He believes that China originated from the ancient Sanskrit word "China", which was originally written as Cina and was used to refer to China. He studied the ancient Indian epics "Mahabharata" and "Ramayana" three thousand years ago, and found that the word "China" was first seen in these two works, and its original meaning is "wisdom and skill". He believed that this was a good name given to the country governed by the Shang Dynasty in the Yellow River Basin during the Bharata Dynasty in India 3,400 years ago. The connotation of "Zhiqiao" is slightly different from the "thinking" mentioned by Huiyuan. The meaning of "Zhiqiao" has evolved due to the times.
Foreign countries used to call China Cina, then Tabac (Northern Wei Dynasty), and finally Kitai (Liao Dynasty), and today it is China (after the Qing Dynasty). In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the Portuguese sold porcelain to Europe and called their products Chinaware. If transliterated in reverse, it would be "Chinaware". Ceramic products were called pottery in ancient times. Here ware is the transliteration of tile. Chinese porcelain is Chinese porcelain. China is placed before "ware", which shows that China, as a country name, did not have the meaning of "porcelain" at first. Later, the word "ware" was omitted and its prefix was lower-case, and the word "porcelain" was shortened to "china". It was only in the late Qing Dynasty that the meaning of "porcelain" was obtained. There are different opinions on the origin of the etym
So far, there has never been definite evidence for the etymology of "China", and it is all inference; even the ancient documents cited, the author inferred that "China" originated from a certain country based on Chinese history. kind of transliteration. (Foreigners only know that "Qin" was the first feudal dynasty after learning about Chinese history. The author of "Global History" is a historian born in 1913. He only made inferences based on Chinese history)
< p>However, one thing is certain. The word "China" is by no means derived from English. It must be a transliteration of some iconic noun in Chinese history. As for which transliteration it originated from, it is based on the laws of literature and history until there is definite evidence. Logical reasoning.China has a long history and a vast territory. Historically, there have been trade, cultural, political exchanges, and even military conflicts with neighboring countries.
Therefore, the names must be eclectic and varied, such as: Cina, Chin, serica, chine, sino, tabac (Tuoba), kitai (Khitan), etc. Tsarist Russia in the north and Tianzhu in the southwest have obvious contrasts in their names for China. To this day, Russians still call China: Китай (Khitan). It can be seen that each ethnic group in China has instilled its own culture into neighboring countries, but neighboring countries regard all ethnic groups in China as Chinese. Therefore, it is not surprising that the origins of various Chinese words are different; it would be a big mistake to think that the origins of words in these countries are the same. The origin of the word "China" needs to be discussed on a case-by-case basis, and there is no need to stick to the cultural influences of neighboring India, Tsarist Russia, and Persia.