我国从何时起称为中国

“中国”一词虽有3000多年的文字记载历史，但它仅是一种地域观念，从夏、商、周开始直至清末，从来没有一个王朝或政权曾以“中国”作为正式国名。“中国”正式作为国名开始于1912年。

中国简介

中国是世界上人口最多的发展中国家，国土面积居世界第三位，也是世界第二大经济体。此外，中国还是世界上历史最悠久的国家之一。

中华人民共和国，简称“中国”，成立于1949年10月1日，位于亚洲东部，太平洋西岸，是一个以汉族为主体、56个民族共同组成的统一的多民族国家。

中国陆地面积约960万平方千米，东部和南部大陆海岸线1.8万多千米，内海和边海的水域面积约470多万平方千米。中国同14国接壤，与8国海上相邻。

我国从何时起称为中国人

中国在公元前都不算是个国家，凭什么被称为世界上最古老的文明？

在美版知乎Quora上，美国网友问，中国在公元前221年都不算是个国家，凭什么被称为世界上最古老的文明？我们看看各国网友们是如何解答的。

海外网友卡尔森的回答

Ahh, the Acropolis in Athens. Home to the Parthenon, the Athenian temple to Athena. Sadly, I haven’t been there, but I definitely want to visit some time in my life.

啊，这是雅典卫城。帕台农神庙的所在地，雅典的雅典娜神庙。遗憾的是，我没有去过那里，但我肯定想在我生命中的某个时候去看看。

The Theater at Delphi, with the temple to Apollo in the background. Another site that I really want to visit.

这是德尔福剧院，背景是阿波罗神庙。是我真的很想参访的另一个景点。

“But wait,” you interject, “this question is about China, not Greece.”

“但等一下，”你插话道，“这个问题是关于中国的，而不是希腊。”

Yes, you are correct, but there’s a very important reason for me to bring this up. By following your logic, there was no such thing as Greece or a Greek civilization until the early 1800s - it was declared independent of the Ottoman Empire in 1822, but wasn’t recognized until 1830. This was the very first time there was an independent, unified Greece.

是的，你是对的，但我提出这个问题有一个非常重要的原因。按照你的逻辑，直到19世纪初才有希腊或希腊文明——1822年，希腊被宣布独立于奥斯曼帝国，但直到1830年才被承认。这是希腊第一次独立、统一。

Prior to that, it was a part of the Ottoman Empire, and before that, the Byzantine Empire, and before that the Roman Empire (although technically speaking, the Byzantine and Roman Empire were the same thing), and before that the Antigonids, and before that Alexander of Makedonia, and before that, it was a series of city-states that often went to war with each other. Heck, strictly speaking, the “Greek World” in ancient times (before Alexander the Great), included what is now Western Turkey, Southern Italy, and Eastern Sicily.

在此之前，它是奥斯曼帝国的一部分，在此之前，拜占庭帝国，在此之前的罗马帝国（尽管从实质上讲，拜占庭帝国和罗马帝国是同一回事），在此之前是安提哥尼人，在此之前马克多尼亚的亚历山大，在此之前它是一片经常相互开战的城邦。严格地说，赫克是古代（亚历山大大帝之前）的“希腊世界”，包括现在的土耳其西部、意大利南部和西西里岛东部。

In fact, the closest that they ever got to a unified Greece in the ancient world was when the Persians attacked, but even then, major players, such as Epirus or Thessaly, and minor players, such as Argos or Achaea, never joined in:

事实上，在古代世界，他们最接近统一的希腊是在波斯人进攻时，但即使在那时，主要玩家，如伊庇鲁斯或色萨利，以及次要玩家，如阿尔戈斯或阿契亚，也从未加入：

Besides, almost immediately after, Athens stole the combined treasury from Delos, usurped power, and attempted to conquer the rest of the Greek World, thus sparking a huge war, with Athens versus Sparta being the main rivalry:

此外，几乎紧接着，雅典从德洛斯手中偷走了合并后的国库，篡夺了权力，并试图征服希腊世界的其他地区，从而引发了一场巨大的战争，雅典对斯巴达是主要的竞争对手：

I think anyone with even a superficial knowledge of history will agree that Greece existed in the past, even though it wasn’t unified until about 200 years ago. And that point is what brings me to China.

我想，任何对历史有肤浅了解的人都会同意希腊过去就存在过，尽管它直到大约200年前才统一。这一点正是我用来佐证中国问题的证据。

You say that “China didn't exist as a kingdom before 221BC”. That is simply not true. In fact, there were multiple states, each led by a king (therefore, they were kingdoms). But let’s start with 221 BCE. That is the year the Qin Shi Huang unified the states/kingdoms of China, and declared himself with the title of 皇帝 -huang di, or “emperor”. Thisdiwas previously reserved for the legendary Huang Di (黄帝 or Yellow Emperor), who was the mythological progenitor of all of Chinese culture. Prior to that, rulers used that title 王 -wang, meaning “king”. In fact, before Qin Shi Huang became emperor, his full name and title was Qin Ying Zheng Wang (秦嬴政王), or “King Ying Zheng of Qin“.

你说“中国在公元前221年之前并不是一个王国”。这根本不是真的。事实上，当时有多个国家，每个国家都由一位国王领导（因此，它们是王国）。但让我们从公元前221年开始。那一年，秦始皇统一了中国的各个国家，并宣布自己拥有皇帝 - 黄帝。这个di之前是为传说中的黄帝保留的(黄帝 或黄帝），他是所有中国文化的神话鼻祖。在此之前，统治者使用这个头衔王 - wang王，意思是“国王”。事实上，在秦始皇称帝之前，他的全名和头衔都是秦始皇, 或“秦嬴政王”。

And, like I said, there were multiple kings and kingdoms during what’s known as the “Warring States Period”. Take a look at this map that shows the states when Qin Shi Huang/King Ying Zheng of Qin, took the throne of the Qin state:

而且，正如我所说，在所谓的“战国时期”，有多个国王和王国。看看这张地图，上面显示了秦始皇/秦王嬴政登基时的国家：

And then there’s this map from about a hundred years before:

然后是这张大约一百年前的地图：

And about another hundred years before that, it was a period known as the “Spring and Autumn Period”. At this time, there was only one king - the King of Zhou, however the territories outside of the Zhou state were controlled by people with the title of “Duke”, or 公 -gong. One of the things that led to the Warring States was that there was no strong central authority, and each Duke was basically independent/semi-independent (akin to the Daimyo of Japan’s Warring States period 500 years ago):

大约在那之前的一百年，这是一个被称为“春秋时期”的时期。当时，只有一个国王——周王，但周国以外的领土由拥有“公爵”头衔的人控制，或者导致战国时代的原因之一是没有强大的中央权威，每个公爵基本上都是独立/半独立的（类似于500年前日本战国时代的大名）：

The Zhou dynasty officially went from around 1046 BCE until 256 BCE. Prior to that, we have the Shang dynasty, which went from about 1600 BCE until 1046 BCE:

周朝从公元前1046年左右正式开始，一直延续到公元前256年。在此之前，我们有商朝，大约从公元前1600年到公元前1046年：

This map represents the extent of written history in China, give or take. Prior to this, although there are later written accounts and archaeological evidence, there has yet to be discovered any deciphered writing system (although writing, or proto-writing, did exist for millennia prior to this). In any case, prior to the Shang dynasty, we get the Xia dynasty (archaeological evidence, such as what can be found at Erlitou support it, but like I said, they had no writing that we can currently read), which was founded by Yu the Great in c. 2070 BCE, who took the title of “King”, and ended in c. 1600 BCE:

这张地图代表了中国有文字记载的历史的范围，无论是给予还是索取。在此之前，尽管有后来的书面记录和考古证据，但尚未发现任何破译的书写系统（尽管在此之前，书写或原始书写已经存在了数千年）。无论如何，在商朝之前，我们看到了夏朝（考古证据，比如在二里头发现的证据，支持了这一点，但正如我所说，他们目前没有我们能读到的文字），它是由禹大帝于公元前2070年建立的，他拥有“国王”的头衔，并于公元前1600年结束：

The Xia is considered to be the first “dynasty” of China, but there is a history prior to this. The legends consist of a period known as the “Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors”. They are, more or less, considered to be folk heroes today, with people such as Huang Di (the Yellow Emperor I mentioned earlier) and Shen Nong (神农 - “The Divine Farmer”), who supposedly invented Chinese medicine, tea, and farming.

夏朝被认为是中国的第一个“王朝”，但在此之前就有历史。这些传说包括一个被称为“三皇五帝”的时期。他们或多或少被认为是今天的民间英雄，比如黄帝（我前面提到的黄帝）和神农(神农 - “神圣的农夫”），据说他发明了中医、茶和农业。

In any case, we have archaeological evidence of what existed prior to the Xia, with Neolithic sites such as Banpo (located in an eastern suburb of the modern city of Xi’an, and representative of the Yangshao culture - 5000 BCE - 3000 BCE), which had a complex society, complete with industries, rudimentary farming, and standardized burial practices:

无论如何，中国有夏朝之前存在的考古证据，新石器时代遗址，如半坡（位于现代西安市东郊，代表仰韶文化-公元前5000年-公元前3000年），其社会复杂，有完整的工业、基本的农业和标准化的埋葬做法：

In the same way that “Greece” the civilization existed for thousands of years prior to “Greece” the country, “China” the civilization existed for thousands of years before the first emperor of China.

就像“希腊”文明在“希腊”国家之前存在了数千年一样，“中国”文明在中国第一任皇帝之前存在了几千年。

---

海外网友Nick Ng的回答

Well, first of all I have to question your notion that China did not exist as a kingdom pre-221 BC.

首先，我必须质疑你的观点，即中国在公元前221年之前并不是一个王国。

The predecessors to the Qin Dynasty who united China into an empire in 221 BC were named collectively the Zhou Dynasty (surnamed 姬) and ruled their kingdom for over 700 years. The Zhou kings were essentially the high kings of China at this time - although they did not assume this title - as they ruled over numerous smaller states which had their own individual rulers under the authority of the central Zhou king.

公元前221年，秦朝的前身将中国统一为一个帝国，统称为周朝（姓姬) 统治了他们的王国700多年。周王基本上是当时中国的高级国王，尽管他们没有获得这个头衔，因为他们统治着许多较小的国家，这些国家在中央周王的统治下有自己的个人统治者。

From the foundation of this dynasty in 1046 BC until 771 BC the Zhou kings maintained - from their capital Fenghao - their grasp on power over the many fiefdoms that constituted the greater kingdom. In the later Eastern Zhou period (771–256 BC) however, central power was clearly on the decline such that by the latter half of the dynasty, also known as the Warring States Period (475–221 BC), all semblance of a strong central power in the hands of the Zhou kings now based in Luoyang had been lost as various fiefdoms devolved into conflict.

从公元前1046年这个王朝建立到公元前771年，周王从他们的首都丰镐一直保持着对构成大王国的许多封地的控制。然而，在东周后期（公元前771年至公元前256年），中央权力显然在衰落，以至于到了王朝的后半期，也就是战国时期（公元前475-221年），随着各个封地陷入冲突，现在以洛阳为基地的周王手中强大的中央权力的所有表象都已经消失了。

This is perhaps where you have made the mistake of believing that China “did not exist as a kingdom,” before 221 BC because of the fragmentary nature of the kingdom at this time. However, it must be stated that the kingdom remained united nominally until the death of King Nan, the final Zhou ‘Son of Heaven’ in 256 BC which sparked the last phases of Qin’s unification efforts.

这也许是你犯了一个错误，认为中国在公元前221年之前“不是作为一个王国存在的”，因为当时这个王国是支离破碎的。然而，必须指出的是，直到公元前256年最后一个周“人子”南王去世，秦国名义上一直保持统一，这引发了秦国统一努力的最后阶段。

Now, all this about the Zhou Dynasty is very fascinating, especially given that the Eastern Zhou period (comprising the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods) is renowned as the golden age of Chinese philosophy, the zenith of Chinese bronze casting, and indeed for the developments of written script. As well, poetry truly began to flourish in this era as demonstrated by the compilation of the 诗经, or Classic of Poetry.

现在，关于周朝的所有这些都非常引人入胜，尤其是考虑到东周时期（包括春秋战国时期）被誉为中国哲学的黄金时代、中国青铜铸造的顶峰，以及书写文字的发展。同样，诗歌在这个时代真正开始蓬勃发展，正如《诗经》。

However, even preceding the Zhou are the infamous Shang Dynasty (c.1600–1046 BC) who were the first rulers of China whose existence is not contested in modern historiography. The kingdom they ruled over was certainly smaller than that of the Zhou who came later, albeit still recognisable as the foundation of the later kingdom and then empire which came to be known as China. In addition, this period is well-known for the first known emergence of the Chinese script which can be related directly to the modern writing system in the form of the Oracle Bones.

然而，即使在周之前，也有臭名昭著的商朝（约公元前1600年至公元前1046年），他们是中国的第一位统治者，其存在在现代史学中没有争议。他们统治的王国肯定比后来的周朝更小，尽管仍然被认为是后来王国和帝国的基础，后来被称为中国。此外，这一时期是众所周知的第一个已知的汉字出现，它可以以甲骨文的形式与现代书写系统直接相关。

While traditional Chinese historiography and some extant records dictate that a dynasty preceded even the Shang; this was named the Xia Dynasty and is traditionally dated between 2070–1600 BC. Artefacts have been discovered in archaeological sites linked to the Xia, such as at Erlitou in the Yellow River Valley. However their existence verges between legend and historical fact and is thus still contested by some scholars.

而中国传统史学和一些现存记录表明，一个王朝甚至早于商代；这被命名为夏朝，传统上的年代是公元前2070年至公元前1600年。在与夏有关的考古遗址中发现了艺术品，比如黄河流域的二里头。然而，它们的存在介于传说和历史事实之间，因此仍受到一些学者的质疑。

Now that you have learned that what is now recognisably China did in fact exist before the foundation of the Chinese empire in 221 BC, all that remains is to state that China is quite fairly labelled as one of the oldest continuing and extant civilisations in the world because of its unbroken line of succession from latest 1600 BC up to the present day - with earliest estimates being from 2070 BC.

现在你已经了解到，现在公认的中国实际上在公元前221年中华帝国建立之前就已经存在了，剩下的就是要说，中国被相当公平地称为世界上最古老、持续存在的文明之一，因为从公元前1600年到今天，中国的连续性是不间断的，最早的估计是从公元前2070年开始。

---

外国网友亚历山大•谭的回答

This is actually much more complex than you imagine.

这实际上比你想象的要复杂得多。

Firstly, as we now know, China is a "nation state" that was not formed until 1911 when we overthrew the previous dynasty and established the Republic of China. The concept of 'nation state' itself is actually relatively new and was created around the 19th century.

首先，我们现在所知道的中国是一个“民族国家”，直到1911年我们推翻了上一个王朝并建立了中华民国之后才形成的。“民族国家“的概念本身实际上是相对较新的，是在19世纪左右创造的。

Secondly, ancient China did not know or acknowledge the existence of others. For a long time, we believed that we were the only country in the world (which was important). After all, "under the sky of Pu, there is no royal land; by the shore of the land, there is no royal minister" (everything under the sky is the land of the king; every person on these lands is the prince and people of the country). When there is no concept of 'others', defining' oneself 'is meaningless. When there is no 'other country' where you need equal communication, there is no need to give yourself a name so that 'others' can address you.

其次，古代中国并不知道或承认其他人的存在。在很长一段时间里，我们相信我们是世界上唯一的国家（这很重要）。毕竟“溥天之下，莫非王土；率土之滨，莫非王臣” （天空下的一切都是国王的土地；这些土地上的每一个人都是国王子民）。当没有“他人”的概念时，定义“自我”就没有意义。当没有你需要平等交流的“其他国家”时，就没有必要给自己起个名字，让“他人”可以称呼你。

All commonly mentioned Chinese names are the names of dynasties. Sometimes, they can be used as the name of China as a country, but in most cases, they are not the name of China as a country. This is like calling Great Britain the "Tudor Kingdom" and then the "Windsor Kingdom".

所有通常提到的中国名字都是王朝的名字。有时，它们可以用作中国作为一个国家的名称，但在大多数情况下，它们不是中国作为一种国家的名称。这就像把大不列颠称为“都铎王朝国家”，然后又称为“温莎国家”。

It wasn't until a long time later, when we started dealing with foreigners, that China truly had a unified, officially recognized and confirmed name. For example, we know that Manchu emperors used the "Qing Dynasty" (Qing Empire) to face foreigners.

直到很久以后，当我们开始与外国人打交道时，中国才真正有一个统一的、官方承认和确认的名字。例如，我们知道满族皇帝使用“大清国” （大清帝国）面对外国人时。

But before that, only some people used the term 'China', some of which have been widely accepted for centuries. Name, such as Chixian Shenzhou (a devout country in the red country); Zhonghua (Zhong Hua); Or Huaxia or Kyushu (nine states).

但在此之前，只有一些人用来称呼中国的提法，有些提法在几个世纪以来都被人们普遍接受。姓名如，赤县神州 （红色国家虔诚的国家）；中华 （钟华）；或华夏 或九州 （九个州）。

These are not official. This is more like a poetic nickname, like calling Ireland "Emerald Island".

这些都不是官方的。这更像是诗意的昵称，就像把爱尔兰称为“翡翠岛”。