Names

Main article: Names of China

China

"China" in Simplified (top) and Traditional (bottom)

Chinese characters
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Hanyu Pinyin Zhōngguó
Literal meaning Middle or Central State[31]

Transcriptions
People's Republic of China

"People's Republic of China" in Simplified (top) and

Traditional (bottom) Chinese characters
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Zhōnghuá Rénmín
Hanyu Pinyin
Gònghéguó

Transcriptions
Tibetan name
ཀྲུང་ཧྭ་མི་དམངས་སི
Tibetan
མཐུན་རྒྱལ་ཁབ
Transcriptions
 Zhuang name
Cunghvaz Yinzminz
Zhuang
Gunghozgoz
Mongolian name
Mongolian
Cyrillic

Transcriptions
Uyghur name
Uyghur ‫جۇڭخۇا خەلق جۇمھۇرىيىتى‬
Transcriptions

The English word "China" is first attested in Richard Eden's 1555 translation[l] of the 1516
journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa.[m][36] The demonym, that is, the name for the
people, and adjectival form "Chinese" developed later on the model of Portuguese chinês and
French chinois.[37][n] Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn (‫)چين‬, which may
be traced further back to Sanskrit Cīna (चीन).[39] Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture,
including the Mahābhārata (5th century BCE) and the Laws of Manu (2nd century BCE).[40] In
1655, Martino Martini suggested that the word China is derived ultimately from the name of the
Qin dynasty (221–206 BC),[41] a proposal supported by many later scholars,[42][43][44] although
there are also a number of alternative suggestions.[40][45]

The official name of the modern state is the "People's Republic of China" (Chinese:
; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó). The shorter form is "China" Zhōngguó ( ),
from zhōng ("central") and guó ("state"), a term which developed under the Western Zhou
[o]

dynasty in reference to its royal demesne.[p] It was then applied to the area around Luoyi
(present-day Luoyang) during the Eastern Zhou and then to China's Central Plain before being
used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing.[47] It was often used as a cultural
concept to distinguish the Huaxia people from perceived "barbarians".[47] The name Zhongguo is
also translated as "Middle Kingdom" in English.[49]

A more literary or inclusive name, alluding to the "land of Chinese civilization", is Zhōnghuá (
).[50] It developed during the Wei and Jin dynasties as a contraction of "the central state of the
Huaxia".[47] Before the PRC's establishment, the proposed name of the country was the People's
Democratic Republic of China (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese:
; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Rénmín Mínzhǔ Gònghéguó) during the first CPPCC
[51][52]
held on 15 June 1949. During the 1950s and 1960s, after the defeat of the Kuomintang in
the Chinese Civil War, it was also referred to as "Communist China" or "Red China", to be
differentiated from "Nationalist China" or "Free China".[53]