Original Yougu Editorial Department
What is "China"?
Did you know that we don't have just one "China".
"China" here does not refer to a geographical concept, but to a well-known word.
The meaning of "China" has evolved with different historical periods, and it has also taken 5,000 years to become what we understand today.
This time, let's talk about how "China" came to be.
What is "Medium"
If we want to talk about "China", we must first start with "China".
Four thousand years ago, the rulers of Tao Temple had the concept of "Zhong". They used a delicate ruler to measure the heavens and the earth, and established the initial form of "Zhong".
△ Kei Shaku Toji
After that, the Shang people formed the concept of the orientation of "Zhong". The Shang Dynasty once unearthed an oracle bone inscription with the inscription "Zhongshang", which means Shang in the center.
At the same time, the Shang people also formed a concept corresponding to "Zhong" - the four positives, that is, east, south, west, and north. Among so many directions, the Shang king is located in the "middle", so the "middle" is the most noble. In this way, the Shang people, who also settled in the center, were also stained and became masters.
△ "Chinese business" order
And those who are located in the southeast, north, west, and west directions are not so lucky. They are called "Dongyi, Nanban, Xirong, and Beidi", which means that you are all barbarians. These different names are only used to represent the different degrees of barbarism, and have no other special meanings (it is said that the most barbaric is the Nanban).
In the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Zhou people inherited this set of central theories of the merchants. After King Wu conquered Shang, an important political task was to move the base camp of the Zhou Dynasty from the original west to the center.
What's more, the earliest "China" appeared during this period. On the inscription at the bottom of the bronze He Zun, the words "Zhaizi China" are impressively written.
It's just that the "China" here is not "China" in the modern sense, it only shows that Zhou Tianzi governed the central area, which is today's Luoyang.
△ Bronze He Zun
The main purpose of establishing the center is still to distinguish between civilization and barbarism, and to maintain hierarchical order. However, unlike the Shang Dynasty, the Zhou people provided these so-called recalcitrant people with a chance to change their lives.
As long as you are willing to recognize Zhou Tianzi and accept the rule of the Zhou royal family, you can become civilized and noble "Chinese".
During the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, which was full of wars, thanks to this ethnic policy, some vassal states that were not originally part of "China", such as Chu and Wu, shouted the slogan of "respecting the king and conquering the emperor" to help the Zhou royal family drive out the tribes that were geographically farther away than them, and in this way, they got rid of their barbarian status and became part of "China".
How has "China" evolved?
After talking about the birth of "China", let's talk about the evolution of "China".
During the Qin and Han dynasties, the Great Unification Dynasty, which laid the foundation for the 2,000-year reign of later generations, was established, and "China" gradually evolved from the original concept of orientation to a synonym for "orthodoxy".
△ Terracotta Warriors of the Qin Dynasty
By orthodoxy, it means that all the people under the world should listen to you and live according to the laws and decrees you have issued. And why can the people of your family always be emperors and rule over the people of the world?
"China" provides an answer to this. Since we occupy the center of the world, we are naturally the political, economic, and cultural center.
But in the Tang Dynasty, all this changed subtly. As we all know, the Tang Dynasty was a culturally prosperous dynasty. It can be said that its cultural openness is in a certain sense praised as a typical example of openness and inclusiveness in ancient China.
△ Tang Dynasty Pottery Warrior
And all of this is closely related to the supreme ruler of the Tang Dynasty consciously "abandoning" this set of central theories. The capital of the Tang Dynasty was still established within the boundaries of "China", but they did not emphasize themselves as cultural centers, but rather emphasized the need to be inclusive of the cultures of other races.
Because the Li Tang royal family itself has Hu blood, this is their unspeakable secret. If "China" is emphasized as it has been in the past, I am afraid that the foundation of the Tang Dynasty's rule will be shaken, and the legitimacy of the Li family's governance of the world will be impossible.
△ Statue of the Li Tang Imperial Family (partial)
They rode horses, exercised and were in good health, participated in public activities, and no longer adhered to the women's morals emphasized by Confucianism, and were no longer confined to the palace walls and deep gardens, and lived the same "showy" life as men.
However, this is all about the noble women of the court, and ordinary women are still firmly bound to the life of husbands and children.
△ Tang Dynasty murals
Straight to the point. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the dynasty in the south of the Yangtze River had no intention or ability to go on a northern expedition, and the geographical scope of its actual rule was not within "China". The north, which could not be returned, became a major problem for the rulers of the Southern Song Dynasty on how to establish orthodoxy.
Since I can't follow "China", let "China" come to me. Thus, the scope of "China" was expanded. It extends from the original Yellow River basin to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
Before that, although part of the Jiangnan region had become part of the empire, because the center of the dynasty was still in the north, the southerners were still looked down upon by the northerners in the traditional Central Plains, especially the Lingnan region.
△ The literati who "despise" the southerners
During the Qing Dynasty, China, which once boasted of being the Celestial Empire, was opened by the bombardment of Western ships. For the first time, people of insight discovered that the outside world, such as Japan, already had a concept of the modern state.
Perhaps in order to keep pace with the times in name, the Qing Dynasty for the first time signed "China" as an equivalent concept of a modern state on an unequal treaty.
However, with a strong sense of fate, the Qing rulers, who were extremely concerned about their origins, were fiercely attacked by the revolutionaries because they were unable to cope with the country's internal and external troubles.
△ Treaty of Nanking
They say that the Qing emperor had Manchu genes and was still Manchu in his bones, not Chinese (that is, expelling the Tatars and prisoners of the Tatars).
How can a barbarian Yidi be qualified to rule dignified China? As a result, the people at the bottom rose up and overthrew the Qing Dynasty, which had existed for more than 300 years.
All in all, the meaning of the word "China" has evolved a long time from the original concept of orientation to today's modern state.