What did China mean in ancient times?

In ancient China, the country was sometimes unified and sometimes divided. The word China had different meanings in different times. Generally, the period of unification refers to the whole country, and the period of division refers to the Central Plains. With the change of the emperor's ruling territory, the scope of the word China is also different. During the period of Western Zhou Wuwang, "China" meant "a country with a central government".

According to legend, 3000 years ago, Duke Zhou measured the sun shadow in Yangcheng (now Dengfeng, Henan Province) and found that there was no sun shadow in the surrounding scenery at noon from the summer solstice, thinking it was the center of the earth, so he called the Zhou Dynasty China. Since the Han Dynasty, people often refer to the Central Plains dynasty established by the Han nationality as "China", and the Central Plains dynasty established by ethnic minorities also calls itself "China".

During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Southern Dynasty called itself "China" and the Northern Dynasty called itself "Wei Lu"; The Northern Dynasties also called themselves "China" and the Southern Dynasties also called themselves "islanders". Liao and the Northern Song Dynasty, Jin and the Southern Song Dynasty all called themselves "China" and did not recognize each other as China.

By the Qing Dynasty, all the territories under the jurisdiction of the Qing government were named after China. /kloc-After the middle of the 0/9th century, "China" only refers to the whole country and is not used for other purposes.

The word "China" has been used for 3000 years, but it has always been used as a pronoun. No dynasty explicitly used the word "China" as the direct name of its political system. The title of the Han Dynasty is "Han". The name of the Tang Dynasty was "Tang", and later dynasties were Song, Liao, Jin, Yuan and Ming. The name of the country that the Qing government signed with foreign countries was Qing.

At present, there is only one China in the world, and that is People's Republic of China (PRC). China appeared in diplomatic literature, starting with treaty of nanking in 1842.

The real use of "China" as the abbreviation of the official country name began with the founding of the Republic of China after the famous Revolution of 1911 in modern times. Since then, "China" has become an official name with national significance. Today, "China" is a country composed of Chinese people of all ethnic groups, and its full name is "People's Republic of China (PRC)".

References:

Baidu Encyclopedia-China