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History of China

China, the empire in the center and east of continental Asia, was called by the western Mongols, Cathay. The name Cathay holds a great place in geographical history from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century. It appears to have been introduced into Europe by Jean Plan Carpin, and by the Brabantine monk, Rubruquis, or Ruisbrock (1253), who attributed it to ancient China of which it was the Mongol name. According to Yule, Khitai was the appellation of a Tartar people who conquered the north-east of China in the Eleventh Century, and founded there an Empire that was long prosperous. The Mongol invasions of the Thirteenth Century put an end to this Empire ; but the name Khitai, corrupted into Cathay, stuck to China.

By the Manchu Tartars it was called Nikan Kourn; and by the Chinese Tchoung-koue, the last term meaning the Central Kingdom (Duhalde, Hist, of China, p. 1), also Tchoung-kuo, the Empire of the Centre. According to M. Hue (i. pp. 349-350), the Chinese also name it Tchoung-hoa, or Flower of the Centre; alao Tien-hia, the Beneath the Heavens, or the world, as the Romans called their dominions Orbis. The name most in use is Tchoung-koue. It is also, however, called Tang-shan, the Hills of Tang (the name of one of their most celebrated dynasties). The present reiguing family has given it the name of Tat-sing-kouo, the Empire of Great Purity; and in government proclamations, especially in those addressed to BarbarianB, it is often caUed Tien-chao, the Celestial Empire. Other figurative appellations are Tchoung-thang and Tien-chao, Heaven's Empire. The natives call themselves Chung-kuo - teih - jin, men of the middle kingdom; also Han-jin and Tang-jin, men of Han or of Tang (from the dynasties of those names).

The country more generally is called China, presumably on account of the Ts'in dynasty, under which it became better known to the nations of the West. This name underwent various tranformations such as: Jin, Chin, Sinu, China. The Romans called it Serica or the silk-producing land. In the Middle-Ages, it received the name of Cathay. It is also known as the Flowery Kingdom (Hwa-kwoh) and the Celestial Kindgom. The Chinese are often called Hanjen, men of Han, this being the name of a celebrated dynasty, and in times past as the Celestials.

Chinese historians living in later periods were accustomed to the notion of one dynasty succeeding another, but the actual political situation in early China is known to have been much more complicated. Hence, as some scholars of China suggest, the Xia and the Shang can possibly refer to political entities that existed concurrently, just as the early Zhou, is known to have existed at the same time as the Shang.