China iswestern worldByHan nationalityIt is the name of the core area of China with a large population and a dominant Han culture.
The scope is similar to the Han inhabited areas in the territory of the nearest Han Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, that is, the 13 provinces in the two capitals (also known as the 18 provinces within the Shanhaiguan Pass18 inland provincesAnd so on).This area includesLiaodong Dusi, that is, the Liaoning region in the contemporary northeast.
Chinese name
China
Foreign name
China native
Pinyin
zhōng guó běn tǔ
Equivalent vocabulary
China Proper
Earliest occurrence time
1827
Literally
Strict, Essence, Pure China
Scope
Eighteen provinces in the Han Dynasty, Northeast China
The headquarters of China is also called "China proper", and the English equivalent is "China proper", but the origin of both Chinese and English concepts needs to be verified.Some people said that it used to refer to the 18 provinces in the mainland (namely, the 13 provinces in the two capitals in the Han ruled areas in the late Ming Dynasty). The Qing Dynasty divided the territory into the 18 provinces in the mainland and five parts in the northeast, Mongolia, Xinjiang and Tibet in the periphery.At the end of the Qing Dynasty, some Chinese called the 18 inland provinces "the headquarters of China", which meant the heart of China in history, or compared with the constantly changingChina's peripheryBorder areas (includingInland AsiaAnd elsewhere).The appearance of the name has political implications,Revolution of 1911The former revolutionaries also took the 18 provinces of China as their scope of "expelling the Tartars and restoring China".However, with the development of the times, the residential areas of the Han nationality are also changing. Because a large number of Han people migrated to the northeast in the late Qing Dynasty, the northeast is also regarded as part of the Chinese headquarters, such as the Chinese headquarters in the Resolution of the Second Congress of the Communist Party of China, which includesThree Eastern Provinces。With the establishment of the Republic of China and the unification of the whole country, the restrictions on the living area of Han people have been gradually lifted, the living area of Han people has expanded, and the need of politicians to assimilate and unify the nation, the concept of Chinese mainland has been rarely mentioned.
Origin of address
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"China proper" and "China proper" are equivalent words, but their relationship, especially whether "China proper" is translated by "China proper", still needs further research.However, the initial use of the English concept and noun "China Property" is difficult to verify.According to American Chinese expertsHe HanliThe term was used as early as 1827.But the BritishWilliam WinterbaumIntroduced in 1795Qing EmpireThe concept of "China Property" has been put forward in the book of China under the rule.WinterbautamIntroduce the territory of the fifteen provinces in the Ming Dynasty into the concept of China Proper.
The literal meaning of "China Property" in English is "strict, pure, essential, China in its own sense".Some people believe that the concept of "China Headquarters" does not necessarily come from the English "China Property", but directly from"18 provinces”。18 inland provincesIt refers to the 18 provinces set up by the Qing Dynasty in which Huguang, one of the fifteen envoys of the former Ming Dynasty, was divided into Hubei and Hunan, Nanzhili (first renamed Jiangnan Province) was divided into Jiangsu and Anhui, and Gansu was separated from Shaanxi.
Others translated "China Property" into "China itself".This kind of address is easy to be similar to the concept of "home country" or "home country" in Britain and France in the colonial era;However, there were many differences between the territorial expansion of the Qing Dynasty and the colonial expansion of Britain and France, and China's new territory was not simply regarded as the colony of China's headquarters in foreign countries.At the same time, some people also interpret the word "Chinese mainland" literally as China's own territory, that is, "China's territory", which is quite different from the original meaning of "China Proper".
Chinese perspective
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The "eighteen provinces" of the Qing Dynasty, as the political structure of Manchuria's centralized rule over Han areas, already existed.In the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China,Revolutionary partyPeople and Communists have also accepted and used the concept of "China's headquarters"Zou RongOf《Revolutionary army》Chapter IV "Revolution must clarify the race",Sun WenOf《industrial and commercial project》, the Declaration of the Second National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the "Resolution on 'International Imperialism and China and the Communist Party of China'",Cypress poplarOf《Outline of Chinese History》Chapter I "Historical Stage", andXu ZhuoyunAnd others.
Chinese mainland in the late Ming Dynasty
Later, due to the expansion of the concept of the Chinese nation and the development of the Republic of China and later the People's Republic of China, the term "Chinese Headquarters" was boycotted.In the 1950s, Qian Mu《The political gains and losses of Chinese dynasties》Fourth, in the Ming Dynasty, the accusation of "the Chinese headquarters" was "a pretext made by foreigners to deliberately confuse right and wrong for aggression".In modern times, the use of English has been quite limited, mainly for historical or geographical research;Chinese is rarely used and is not familiar to most contemporary Chinese.
Related disputes
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The scope of the 18 provinces in the heart region of China during the Qing Dynasty was related to the ethnic distribution;Revolution of 1911The former revolutionaries also took the 18 provinces as their scope of "expelling the Tartars and restoring China".However, over the past century, China's ethnic distribution and administrative divisions have changed considerably. "China's heart region" no longer corresponds to race, demography, or the administrative boundaries within China.
One explanation is that the words "China Proper" or "China Headquarters", "China mainland" and so on are used to distinguish countries such as Britain and France from their colonial empires in the same structure, however, regions other than "China Proper" are different fromBritain and FranceThis statement usually makes the Chinese people interpret it as an affront, or even an insult to the People's Republic of China;However, users may not have such intention.The second way is to refer to the use of "Han inhabited areas" or "Han areas". However, since the Han people have recovered from the ancient history and become the main ethnic group in most parts of Northeast China and Inner Mongolia, and have settled in Xinjiang and Tibet, this statement is not accurate.Another statement that can be used is“central plains”In ancient books, when Mongolian or Manchu people become masters of "Central Plains", it means they occupy "China Property", but modern "Central Plains" mainly refers toNorth China Plain, or simplyHenan, so the word is too narrow.The last possible name is "eighteen provinces" or "eighteen provinces", which is roughly equal to the eighteen provinces in the heart of China under the rule of the Qing Dynasty.However, the term "18 provinces" is relatively new to modern Chinese, because the People's Republic of China currently governs 34 provincial administrative units, including 23 provinces.
Administrative changes
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After the founding of the People's Republic of Chinathe Republic of China eraThe concept has changed again because of the changes and adjustments made to the administrative divisions of.Hebei Province has obtainedZhangbei areaandChengdeRegion.Xikang The east was reclassified into Sichuan Province.Guangdong ProvinceAn honest and clean areaWas classified into Guangxi, on the contrary, GuangxiHuaiji DistrictHowever, it is included in Guangdong, and will belong to Guangdong Province (two Guangdong)Hainan IslandThe establishment of a province has changed the status of Guangdong, which was originally bordered by Vietnam, and Guangxi, which is not a coastal province.
The border between Jiangsu and Anhui has also been fine tuned for many times, the largest one being for Jiangsu ProvinceDangshan County、Xiaoxian CountyExchange Anhui ProvinceXuyi County、Sihong County, andtianchang Some villages and towns.The border between Hebei, Shandong and Henan has also been slightly adjusted.
