I believe that most people know that the title of "Han" is related to the historical Han Dynasty. During the Han Dynasty, everyone's national consciousness was already very strong, to give a well-known example. During the reign of Emperor Yuan of Han, there was a famous general named Chen Tang, who guarded the frontier and was very dissatisfied with the atrocities of the Xiongnu Zhi Shan Yu, so he wrote to Emperor Yuan of Han:
“...... It is advisable to hang the head of the barbarian mansion on the street to show the miles. Those who commit crimes against the strong will be punished from afar! This record comes from the "Hanshu Fu Chang ZhengGan Chen Duan Biography", from which it can be seen that the Han people at that time had advantages in both spiritual and material culture, and after they had advantages, they would have the concept of promoting the prestige of the Great Han to the four seas and showing their inviolability.
Today, the Han chinese still have an advantage in terms of population, and as of 2009, the Han population is close to 1.3 billion, which is the most populous ethnic group in the world. In fact, it was not until the modern period that the concept of "nation" was introduced to China, and then there was the name of "Han", until then the name of the ethnic group had always been "Han".
So, what exactly does this "Han" word mean? There was the Han Dynasty first, and then there were the Han people, so what kind of words did our ancestors use as the name of the group before the Han Dynasty? First of all, the original meaning of the word "Han" refers to Han Shui, and the ancients regarded the Milky Way in the sky as the Han Shui in the sky, so the words "Silver Han" and "Star Han" were born.
The character "Han", like the word "Jiang", was originally used as the name of the river, which is verified by the Shang Shu's record of "Jiang Han Dynasty Emperor Yu Hai". Before the Han Dynasty, the Central Plains experienced a long period of division, and after the Spring and Autumn Warring States (770 BC to 221 BC), the Qin Dynasty unified the world.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, because there were too many princely states, everyone was distinguished by their respective country names, the Lu state was called Lu ren, the Qin state was called Qin people, and the Qi state was called Qi people (the famous allusion "Qi Renfu" was produced in this period). For example, due to its remote location in the south, the Chu state was often despised as "Chu Yi" by the Central Plains states.
Further on, during the Zhou Dynasty, the clans who followed the Zhou rites and understood the etiquette were called "Xia People" and "Xia People", collectively known as Zhu Xia. It is not difficult to understand that the Xia Dynasty was the first hereditary dynasty in Chinese history and had a profound impact on the spiritual culture of ancient China. In the ancient texts, "Xia" means the Central Plains, which is distinguished from the four sides of "Barbarian Rongdi".
Before the title "Han" became popular, the ancient ancestors of the Han nationality used "Huaxia" as the name of the ethnic group. But few people know that the former "Hua" and "Xia" are the same meaning, and even the pronunciation is the same, which can be used by each other. The name Huaxia is very domineering, why? We have to start with the literal meaning.
When "Huaxia" is combined, it can refer to China. In ancient times, the Xia Dynasty was a large country, and people referred to the highly cultured area as "Xia". However, it was not until the Zhou Dynasty that the words "Hua" and "Xia" were used together, and the Spring and Autumn Left Transmission of Justice records: "China has a great ceremony, so it is called Xia; there is the beauty of the clothing chapter, which is called Hua." ”
This means that China is a country of etiquette, the costumes of Chinese are very beautiful, and China belongs to an elegant country with a highly developed civilization. Because the word "Hua" in ancient books is quite holy, noble, noble and prominent, when "Huaxia" is integrated, what is displayed is the style of a big country, Yang Yang Huaxia.
The history of the Civilization of the Huaxia people can be traced back to the Dadiwan Civilization in the Yellow River Basin 8,000 years ago. It is said that China has been five thousand years, in fact, seriously calculated, five thousand years is far from enough, after all, before the Three Emperors and Five Emperors, our ancestors have created a brilliant and splendid civilization, even if the word "Han" appeared, the word "Huaxia" did not disappear, but is still used today.