As we all know, everyone knows that the continent is made up of 56 ethnic groups. So how did nations come about? Why is the mainland called Huaxia? This dates back to the Zhou Dynasty.
The origin of the name "Huaxia", which is now more recognized, is to distinguish people, tribes and countries by "the greatness of etiquette" and "the beauty of clothing". The criterion for distinguishing between the law of honor and etiquette, the Chinese who wear Chinese clothes, and the others are barbarians. The area inhabited by the Chinese people is "China", which is surrounded by Dongyi, Nanman, Xirong and Beidi.
At that time, there was no concept of so-called "nation", except for the Chinese great alliance when they were close to each other, referring to the Chinese, Xia, and Zhuxia, most of them were referred to by the names of countries or tribes, such as the Zhou people, the Jin people, the Qiang people, the Yiqu people, the Xiongnu people, and so on. This is actually a complex group based on national and cultural identity. The so-called barbarians are other races or ethnic groups other than the Chinese.
Before the unification of the Qin Dynasty, the Huaxia people were cognate and heterogeneous due to the isolation of national boundaries, and there were dialects in various countries, which were almost one country and one ethnic group, but they all thought they were "Huaxia" in terms of national identity. During the Qin Dynasty, the writings of various countries were unified, the original national boundaries were broken, and the reality of one country and one nation was gradually washed away by the new situation.
The two Han Dynasties ruled China for more than 400 years, and foreign peoples have long called the Chinese "Han people", and the Chinese people have also habitually called themselves "Han People". During the Han Dynasty, a large number of ordinary people became officials, and then officials became aristocrats, and in the process, the word "Han" may be brought into the written language, and over time", "Huaxia" and "Han" became the names of the main ethnic groups in China.
The twenty-four histories of the Northern History, the Book of Tang, the History of Liao, etc. have repeatedly appeared the word "Han people", and the Western concept of nationality was introduced during the Republic of China, and the written language was changed from "Han people" and "Han people" to "Han people."
In modern times, the concept of "nation" was introduced to China, the "national" consciousness began to awaken, and the "Han people" have since had the title of "Han nationality". After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, including Han, Mongolian, Manchu, Hui, Tibetan and other ethnic groups, there was a collective name for the "Chinese nation", which formed our current concept of nationality