Why is the Chinese language called Hanyu?

1. A century-old dynasty and one water system - Talking about the origin of "Han"

Since ancient times, the reproduction and development of human beings have been closely related to water. The Yangtze River and the Yellow River, the two largest water systems in China, have nurtured thousands of years of Chinese culture and history. In Ningqiang County in southwestern Shaanxi, a similarly ancient river flows. It passes through Shaanxi and Hubei provinces, and flows into the Yangtze River in Wuhan City. Her name is "Han", and it was called "Han River" in history. . In 202 BC, Xiang Yu was surrounded by Liu Bang's army in Gaixia. Seeing that the situation was over, Xiang Yu drew his sword and committed suicide. As soon as Xiang Yu died, Liu Bang conquered the world, officially proclaimed himself emperor, established the Han Dynasty, and made its capital Chang'an, which is today's Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, and the source of the Han River.

This is the famous Han Dynasty in Chinese history. It went through the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Western Han Dynasty, from 206 BC to 220 AD, and experienced twenty-four emperors for 406 years. The famous Tang Dynasty in Chinese history was only 290 years old. It can be seen that the influence of "Han" in Chinese history is extraordinary. And all of this happened in this river basin called "Hanshui".

As for why this water is called "Han", it needs to be verified in another article.

2. Thousand-year culture was formed from the "Han Wu" - talk about the culture of "Han"

China's thousands of years of culture has the widest influence and the longest origin. It belongs to Confucian doctrine and thought. To this day, we can still feel the breath of Confucianism everywhere. To trace the spread and development of Confucianism in Chinese history, we have to start with the Qin Dynasty. After Qin Shihuang destroyed the six kingdoms and unified China, he did something that shocked history: he burned books and harassed Confucians. This can be said to be a catastrophic disaster for Chinese culture. As Sima Qian analyzed in "The Biography of Scholars", during the Qin Dynasty, "Poems" and "Books" were burned, and wooden scholars were killed, and the six arts were lacking from then on. The Qin Dynasty, which was thought to be able to achieve long-term peace and stability, soon perished in only fifteen years. Let’s look at the Han Dynasty, which flourished for more than 400 years. After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty came to power, he also did an earth-shattering thing: "Depose hundreds of schools of thought and only respect Confucianism." Although both of them stood from the perspective of strengthening centralization, history made completely different choices for them. As a result, Confucianism flourished and developed and became the core content of Han culture.

We can say that a culture continues the development of a dynasty, and we can also say that a prosperous dynasty drives and develops a culture. With the development and strength of the Han Dynasty, Han culture also spread widely, and eventually spread all over the country. When the Han Dynasty became the most powerful period in ancient Chinese history, Han culture also became an "indestructible" culture. History has proven this to be true: after the Han Dynasty, Chinese history went through the Tang, Song, Yuan, and The Ming and Qing Dynasties, including the Yuan and Qing Dynasties, were invaded by foreign nations. Although they occupied territory and changed the name of the country, they were still quickly submerged in the vast Han culture and eventually lost themselves. There is a very interesting detail that cannot be ignored, that is, after the Yuan Dynasty established its political power in China, it ranked the Han people in the fourth class, with distinct classes and ethnic exclusion. As a result, the Yuan Dynasty disappeared in less than a hundred years. Later, the Qing Dynasty accepted this lesson and no longer rejected the nation. The Han and Manchus enjoyed political power, which meant that they accepted Han culture, so the Manchu Qing Dynasty became very powerful later on. Mr. Qi Gong, a famous calligrapher and painter in my country, is a descendant of Aisin Gioro. However, when someone wrote in a letter to him that "Aisin Gioro Qi Gong received it", Mr. Qi Gong humorously added "No such person has been found". Went back.

At this point, it is not difficult for us to understand what Han nationality is, what are Chinese characters, and what is Chinese. In fact, these are all cultural phenomena, but this culture developed strongly in the powerful Han Dynasty, and after hundreds of years of consolidation, there was no king in any period who "burned books and harassed Confucians". Either destroyed or changed her. We can say that although China has gone through several dynasties since the Han Dynasty, it has always inherited and developed one culture - Han culture.

3. Looking at the present day with far-reaching influence - Examples of "Han" cultural phenomena

Through the vast history, Han culture is like a poem, in its origin, inheritance, transfer and integration. It continues and grows, and its influence is extraordinary today, thousands of years later, both in China and abroad. Now, I will try to list some common cultural phenomena in life to give a simple explanation and explanation.

Han

I believe that many Chinese people will use this term when filling out their resumes. The definition of the word Han in the dictionary is "one of the Chinese ethnic groups", but in fact, this is one of the phenomena that continues the Han culture. As early as the Han Dynasty thousands of years ago, the Han nationality refers to the main population of the Han Dynasty. With the continuous prosperity of the Han Dynasty, the Han culture has been recognized and accepted by more people with the expansion of politics. The term "Han nationality" The meaning of the word has also changed from the original simple regional meaning to a cultural meaning. As more and more people accept the Chinese culture, they inevitably integrate into this group. We can also see many such cultural phenomena in our lives, such as "hanzi", "hero", "traitor", etc. These words no longer have obvious regional and group characteristics in today's life. Hanzi no longer only refers to men of the Han nationality, but those who betray the country, no matter what ethnic group they are from, should be regarded as "traitors"...

Sinicization

I think the word "sinicization" is a term that only appeared in modern times, but the appearance of sinicization has been around for a long time. There is a cosmetic called Revlon in the United States, which is cleverly translated as "Revlon". The word "Revlon" is taken from one of the famous poems "Three Chapters of Qingping Tiao" by the Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai describing Yang Guifei's flowery appearance and moonlight appearance: "The clouds think of clothes and flowers think of her face, and the spring breeze blows the threshold of Revlon. If I hadn't seen it at the top of the jade mountain, I would have gone to Yaotai "We meet under the moon." This can be called domestication, a translation that takes into account both sound and meaning. It is the best of both worlds and reflects the unique sinicization function of Chinese in absorbing foreign words. Nowadays, the phenomenon of Chineseization can be seen everywhere, such as superman, superstar, supermarket, nano-technology, millennium bug, hot line, cold war ( cold war), green card, emotional quotient, etc. At present, the most popular Chineseization phenomenon is the Chineseization of English software. Related terms include "Chinese software", "Chinese package", etc.

As for the phenomenon of Sinicization, some experts have also put forward opposing opinions. Taiwan's Central Research Institute has a special article discussing the "flat development theory" of culture, arguing that various cultures should develop flatly. The phenomenon of Sinicization is too centered on Chinese culture, assimilating and synthesizing other cultures, resulting in the development of other cultures. The “cultural destruction” of culture. As for the rights and wrongs of its theory, everyone can study and discuss it together.