1. In "Ci Hai": "Hua" means gorgeous, bright and gorgeous; "Xia" and "Zhu Xia" are also called "Hua" or "Zhu Hua", and Xia means grandness; both The two words together have a beautiful meaning;
Documentary source notes: The word "Huaxia" was first seen in "Shangshu·Zhou·Wucheng" of the Zhou Dynasty, "Huaxia is barbaric and will not lead others".< /p>
1.1 "Zuo Zhuan·Ding Gong Ten Years" says: "China is called Xia because of its great etiquette, and it is called Hua because of its beauty."
1.2 "Shu Jing" says. : "The official dress is called Hua, and the great country is called Xia."
1.3 "Shang Shu Zhengyi" notes: "The official dress is called Hua, and the great country is called Xia."
2. "Huaxia" refers to the people of the princes of the Central Plains, and is also the name used for the ancestors of the Han nationality before the Han Dynasty. It can also refer to the Han nationality,
For example: Ming Dynasty·Ye Sheng's "Shuidong Diary·Happy News and Brave" ": "Buddha is a native of the Yi people, and he is a god. If there are people involved who do not know the ritual of hanging sacrifices, then it is different from the Chinese. "Yu Dafu's poem "Manjianghong·Inscription on the Wall of Qi Jiguang Temple in Minyu Mountain": "For three hundred years, our Chinese power has never rested.
3. The term "Huaxia" first refers to the Huaxia people.
The ancestors of the Han nationality who lived in the Central Plains in ancient times distinguished the four barbarians (Eastern Yi, Nanman, Xirong, Beidi) also known as Zhonghua. Hua and Xia used to be interchangeable, and "Zhonghua" was also called "Zhongxia". Confucius regarded "Xia" and "Hua" as synonyms. In oracle bone inscriptions, the character "hua" has a very high status.
During the Han Dynasty, this was also referred to as "Han nationality". The Huaxia people are the earliest inhabitants of the Yellow River Basin. The history of civilization can be traced back to the Dadiwan Civilization and Peiligang Civilization in the Yellow River Basin 8,000 years ago. Their civilization inheritance line is: Dadiwan Civilization and Peiligan Civilization - Yangshao Civilization - Longshan Civilization - Erlitou civilization. After the Han Dynasty, this ethnic group was also called Han people, but the name Huaxia did not disappear because of this, but continues to this day.
The ancestors of the Huaxia tribe are the Huangdi tribe and the Yandi tribe who lived in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River. Later, the alliance of these two tribes entered the Central Plains after defeating Chi You. The Huaxia tribe established their rule in the Central Plains. Then came the Xia Dynasty, the first dynasty in Chinese history. China is called "Xia" for short. At the end of the Shang Dynasty, the Zhou people joined forces with the exiled Xia people, the Jiang clans of the Yan Emperor system (whose representative was Jiang Taigong), and the Chu people who had migrated to the south. Then they overthrew the rule of the Shang Dynasty and established the Zhou Dynasty. The Zhou people called themselves "Hua Xia", and later called the vassal states they enfeoffed as "Zhu Xia" or "Zhu Hua".
From about the Spring and Autumn Period, "Hua" and "Xia" began to be used together in ancient Chinese books, collectively called the "Huaxia" clan. In Zuo Zhuan, in the 26th year of Duke Xiang, there is a saying that "Chu lost China". This is the earliest record of the word "China".
After the wars between princes during the Spring and Autumn Period, the annexation of weak ones by strong states during the Warring States Period, and the unification of the Central Plains by Qin Shihuang, the Huaxia ethnic group was finally completely unified for the first time. After the powerful Han Dynasty, the clan name Huaxia changed to Han, and the Huaxia people became Han people.
The most commonly used title before the 20th century was "Chinese". For example, the Han Dynasty mostly regarded itself as "Chinese". The Ming Dynasty regarded itself as both Han and Huaxia, and the two terms were synonymous. In short, Han and Huaxia as a whole are the most common ethnic names since the Han Dynasty to the present.
In ancient times, when the Han people immigrated overseas, they called themselves Chinese, hence the term "Chinese". The term "Chinese" originally referred to the Han people. However, as Chinese civilization expanded to all parts of the country, the concept of "Chinese" gradually expanded from referring only to the Han people to the ethnic minorities affected by Chinese civilization in China, and became a synonym for the entire Chinese nation. .