From heaven, like the previous ones. Why is China called "China" and "under heaven". The meaning of the Temple of Heaven in China

Today we will try to answer the question, Why is China called the Celestial Empire?? I would like to note right away that the Chinese themselves call their country a term, one of the free translations of which means middle earth中國 (Zhōngguó). Whereas the term Celestial is widespread in Russia and some other countries. In order to understand how this term was formed and why China began to be called the Celestial Empire, we must delve into the history of the country.

Answer in Chinese history

Over 2000 years ago Emperor of China was the seventh emperor of the Western Han Empire - Woo-dee(漢武帝). It is believed that Wu's reign was one of the most productive in the history of China. The territory of the state at that time was significantly expanded, and Confucianism also acquired official status. The main and most close adviser Wu-di was a philosopher Dong Zhongshu(董仲舒). It was with his direct assistance that the emperor abandoned other ideologies and the main doctrine of the Han kingdom became Confucianism.

In his writings, Dong Zhongshu describes the Emperor of the Celestial Empire as intermediary between heaven and man. For Dong Zhongshu, the emperor was heaven's messenger on earth and heaven, in his opinion, should guide the emperor on the right path. If the ruler of the Celestial Empire made mistakes in government, the sky pointed it out to him, causing floods, earthquakes and other cataclysms. Accordingly, the advisers, led by Dong Zhongshu, had to correctly interpret the messages of heaven and explain to the emperor what to do in a given situation.

The Activities of Dong Zhongshu and the Meaning of Chinese Philosophy

Dong Zhongshu should also be credited with the desire to create a single whole between ideas Confucianism and with dialectic Yin Yang which has its roots in the deeper past. The main idea was that the emperor, as the messenger of heaven on earth, must achieve harmony between positive masculine and negative feminine. Between yang and yin, respectively.

So, we found out that the emperor, in the view of the Chinese people, was an intermediary between heaven and man. From this stemmed the belief that the entire under-heavenly world, without exception, belongs to the Chinese emperor. And his court and those close to him is the center of the whole world. In this model, the emperor was surrounded, one by one, in concentric circles by all the other people. Consistently went officials (from the highest to the lowest), ordinary inhabitants of the Celestial Empire, after which the kingdoms subject to the emperor and the barbarians.

The Chinese rulers were convinced that all the territories and kingdoms that were known at that time were under the rule of the Chinese emperor. After all, only he alone, according to their deep convictions, could be called the ruler of the world.

For many centuries, in the philosophical teachings of the Chinese empire, it was noted that the term Celestial shows the true place of the people of China on earth. There is a popular saying of the famous Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-tsen: "Everything under the sky belongs to the people." Considering that Sun Yatsen was still alive 100 years ago, one can understand how important the sky is in Chinese culture to this day.

The meaning of the Temple of Heaven in China

It would not be superfluous to mention that in the capital of China of those times, the main sanctuary was called Sky Temple. Today, without any problems, you can see with your own eyes the temple of heaven in the Celestial Empire, once in the capital of China, Beijing. This temple, or rather the temple and monastery complex, is located near the imperial palace. The complex was built during the reign of the Ming Dynasty in the 15th century.

Starting from the time of the construction of the temple and for almost five centuries, every year, once a year, the current emperor of the Middle Kingdom, after a short fast, had to bring gifts to heaven. This was considered a guarantee of a good harvest and prosperity of the Chinese empire. I would like to believe that the question Why is China called the Celestial Empire? we now know the answer.

In many ways, the definition of China as a Celestial country came from its location. Ancient China was isolated from the rest of the world by natural barriers - mountains in the west, seas in the east and southeast. And only from the north the land was opened to countless hordes of nomads, who constantly tormented the civilian population.

Gradually, the people formed the belief that the earth is a huge square, covered with a celestial disk. But the corners of the square go beyond the boundaries of the vault of heaven, and therefore these lands are inhabited by evil people who do not know the mercy of the gods. The earth, above which the celestial disk was visible, began to be called the Celestial Empire (Tian Xia) - chosen and guarded by the gods.

Since the Celestial country was located in the very middle of the square, its other name was the Middle State (Zhong Guo).

Son of Heaven

The center of the world was at the court of the Chinese emperor, and from it, like from a stone thrown into the water, circles dispersed - the servants of the emperor, the common people, vassal principalities and, finally, in the corners of the world - the barbarians. All the barbarian rulers of the outlying lands were considered nothing more than vassals of the Chinese emperor.

As close to the gods as possible

The same age as the Forbidden City - the majestic Temple of Heaven is still the main shrine of the Chinese people. Here, in a particularly difficult time for the country, the emperor could retire for a meeting with the gods. Such ceremonies lasted for two weeks and were accompanied by magnificent processions of up to a hundred people, horses and war elephants. The Temple of Heaven hosted the coronations of emperors until the 20th century.

At the time of its vassal dependence on China, Japan adopted from Chinese culture the divine choice of the supreme ruler. In the Japanese state, the emperor began to be called the Son of the Sun, since by that time the name “Land of the Rising Sun” had stuck to the small island country.

In the modern People's Republic of China, the term "Celestial Empire" means the whole world, but in Russia it is still associated only with China.

Why China was called "China" and "Celestial Empire".

When we have time to think, we begin to look for answers to seemingly simple questions. For example, why is China called "China" and not something else? One fifth of our entire planet lives in this densely populated state. There are several very interesting theories about why this country is so named, each of which may well turn out to be true.

historical theory

Previously, modern China was divided into two parts: northern and southern. In its northern part there was a state founded by the Kitami tribes, and it was called "Liao". The southern part at that time belonged to the Mongols. Where the indigenous Liao tribes came from is not known for certain to this day. According to individual sources, they also owe their origin to the Mongols. But there is other information that they originated from the Tungus-Manchurian tribes. In the future, residents of nearby states began to call the northern territories - "China". In principle, this theory could be the answer to the question of why China was called "China". But how did this name come to us in Slavic speech? After all, the name of this country in different dialects sounded different: Catai, Hetai, Khitan and China.

Etymological theory

In English, the name "China" appeared in the twelfth century and it was written like this: "Cathay" (now it is written differently - "China"). There is an interesting judgment that China began to be called "China" after the Qin dynasty arose. And this word got into the Russian dictionary in the fifteenth century in the form that it is now.

But it is worth recalling that only a small part of its territory was called "China", and the name came down to us after the Qin dynasty collapsed. In fact, not even all Chinese know why China is called "China". So, we can confidently say that this word has no specific meaning, this is sometimes found in the history of names and names.

Why is China called "under heaven"

The country with the largest population in the world actually has several names. The Chinese themselves call their country "Celestial", and citizens of other countries call it "China" or "China". If we consider the word "Celestial Empire" itself, then in Chinese it consists of two hieroglyphs - "Tian" and "Xia". The first in translation means "day", "sky", and the second is translated as "foot", "bottom". So something like "Celestial" comes out. The Chinese have long worshiped the sky and firmly believe that it protects only their country. And the rest of the people have no sky.

China also has another name - "Zhong Guo" - "the path of the earth." Such a philosophy is quite understandable, because no one particularly invaded China, did not seek to conquer it. Therefore, it is understandable why the Chinese consider their country to be the middle of the world. And so, while we are pondering why China was called "China", the inhabitants of this country are rapidly developing and occupying niches in international trade markets. So maybe they really are the main inhabitants of the Earth, despite the fact that civilization has reached them, infecting them with opium and the communist system?

The Celestial Empire - this is how poets call China, the Middle Kingdom - this is how China was called in ancient times, the country of socialism under construction - they called this country in the 70s of the last century, the country of great prospects and hardworking people - this is how they call China now!

First of all, this is due to the ancient religion, in which Heaven was considered the highest deity. In Beijing there is an ancient temple of heaven, where the emperor consulted with Heaven only in exceptionally difficult state situations. It was a chic ceremony - it lasted two weeks, with the participation of many priests, officials and troops, more than 100 thousand people, not counting horses and war elephants.
Well, the whole vast country, led by Heaven, naturally, was called the Celestial Empire.
The greatest power of Asia has changed many names in its long history. The Chinese usually called their cultural universe Tianxia - Celestial Empire, sometimes Sihai - "(countries between) the four seas". The state was named after the reigning dynasty, whose name was chosen according to some ancient kingdom chosen as a model (Tang - in honor of the inheritance of the mythical wise ruler Yao, Song - in honor of one of the most cultural kingdoms), or with a special meaning: Yuan - Home, Ming - Light, Qing - Pure. If it was about China as a country, unlike all other countries and regardless of who reigns, then they said: Zhongguo is the Middle Country, Zhonghua is the Middle Blooming, Huaxia is the Blooming Xia (one of the oldest dynasties). The Chinese call themselves Zhongzhen - people of the Middle State, or Hanzhen - Hans, according to the most famous dynasty of antiquity.

China is a distinctive country with a rich original history and traditions dating back several thousand years. With the name of the country that we have long called China, not everything is so simple and unambiguous. The main nonsense is that there is no official state with the name China at all. In order to understand Why is China called the Celestial Empire? , it is necessary to return to its history.

China is located in Central and East Asia. The country is the third largest in the world by area. From the east, China is washed by four seas. From the west, China is closed by impregnable mountains. Such an arrangement of the country assumed the deaf isolation of Chinese civilization from the rest of the world. The isolation of ancient China was reinforced by the fact that wild nomadic peoples lived in the north at that time - the Manchus, the Jurchens, the Kidans.

From the nomads, Chinese civilization has experienced a lot of raids, robberies and territorial encroachments. They smashed the Chinese kingdoms, destroyed the emperors. The conquerors often put their own people on the imperial throne. The new henchmen themselves found themselves surrounded by Chinese traditions, gradually assimilated and eventually became the same as all their surroundings.
For a long time, China did not know other wars, except for wars with nomadic tribes.

For more than one and a half thousand years, China did not know contacts with other powerful and developed civilizations. The civilization of China developed outside the historical processes by which the European states lived. The development of China has passed the change of eras, geographical discoveries, conquests, and decline. Hence, the ancient Chinese developed the idea that Chinese civilization is the central civilization on earth. Outside the country live only wild barbarians.

It was believed that there are five cardinal directions in the world - North, South, West, East and Center (Zhong). The center is located directly under the entrance to the sky.
Based on the lack of contact with other civilizations, the ancient Chinese believed that their country was in the middle of the world. Therefore, the Chinese themselves called their country the Middle State (Zhong Guo). 中国 is the name of China. The first character 中 "zhong" means the middle, or center. The second hieroglyph 国 "go" denotes the concept - a country, or a state. Name Zhong Guo not used continuously throughout China's development. The cultural and political meaning of its meaning has changed.

The middle state, the Celestial China, was located directly under the entrance to the sky. The Great Sky, even before the birth of Confucius, was especially revered and symbolized the Divine, pure, sacred principle on which faith, rituals and traditions are based. The country, located in the center of the earth at the entrance to the sky, had a direct spiritual and physical connection with the sky. In the 3rd century BC, a united empire was created.

The sky was of tremendous importance in the spiritual and cultural life of China. The temple of heaven has been preserved in Beijing. In exceptionally difficult political state situations, the ceremony of the emperor's council with heaven took place. The ceremony lasted two weeks. In the temple, the emperor conducted a ceremony in which more than a hundred thousand people participated - officials, military leaders, priests.

During the ceremony, the army took part in full combat ammunition and with the presence of horses and war elephants. The emperor of the great united country himself was considered the son of heaven and the ruler of the Celestial Empire - an empire led by heaven. The sky was in the shape of a circle. The earth is under the sky and has the shape of a square. Where the circle is projected onto a square (in the center of the square), there and China is located. It was believed that the sky, which led the empire, had only the Middle Country under its care. The barbarians surrounding China had no sky.

The name of the country is the Celestial Empire ( Tian Xia- 天下) - emphasized the majesty of the state and the enormous size of the territory - the whole earth, located under the sky. The expression TIAN meant day, sky. Xia - the bottom, the foot of something. Tian-Xia is the foot of the sky.
Why is China called the Celestial Empire?? Celestial Country - Chinese name. It meant the territory under the rule of the Chinese emperor. In China, the concept of a country under heaven has fallen into disuse, and is used in the world. At present, the name Celestial has been preserved in poetry. The use of such a name emphasizes an outside view of the culture and traditions of China, which have a deep and original thousand-year history.

The Celestial Empire has changed many names throughout its existence. In addition to "Celestial", the Chinese called their state "Syhai" - a country lying between four seas. "Zhonghua" - Middle blooming, "Huaxia" - blooming Xia (dynasty ruling in the 16th century BC). The name of the state was chosen based on the name of the ancient kingdom, taken as a model. The name Sunn was given in honor of one of the most cultured kingdoms. In the course were the names Yuan - Home, Qing - clean.

Since the 7th century AD, the Chinese have referred to themselves as Han. The name has survived to our time. The Chinese language is called Han Yu 汉语.
The inhabitants of China call themselves "Zhongozhen" citizens of the middle state, or Hanzhen (Russian consonant with Hanci) - a population named after the most famous ancient dynasty of China. The name of the middle state has been used in China throughout the entire period of its history. The name of the middle empire was reflected in the name of the country given when Mao Zedong came to power in 1949.

The literal translation of the name sounded like "the middle flourishing people's republic."
But the name China was never used by the Chinese themselves. The names of China among other peoples have developed for various historical reasons, often associated with literary errors, typos, and difficulties in understanding the Chinese language. For example, the name of the capital of China - Beijing by the Chinese themselves sounds like Beijing - the northern capital.

The name China came to the Russian language after the transformation of its sound through the transmission of words from various nationalities. In different languages, the word China sounded like Hitai, Hetai. In the 10th century, in the north of China, there was a state of Liao, founded by a tribe of Kitans, they were also called Kidane. Other naods, faced with this tribe, began to call the land where the Kidans lived in the same way. Tribes living in southern China called it "Hina".

The path of this name until it came to the Russian language has several hundred years. The Mongols began using the word "China" in the early 13th century. By this time, the Liao state no longer existed.
In Europe, the name China, derived from the name of the Qing dynasty, was fixed. After the Europeans began to explore China, from the middle of the 19th century, this name was finally fixed.
The name China in Russia was first used by Afanasy Nikitin in "Journeys Beyond the Three Seas" in 1470. Moreover, the name of the country China was derived from the name of China's most massive export product - porcelain. The name porcelain is written in Latin letters as China.

The middle state (Zhong Guo) says that the Chinese still consider themselves the center of the earth and are very proud of it. This fact of pride in their country they experience for a reason. China owns the most significant inventions - paper, book printing, compass, gunpowder. Since ancient times, deep knowledge has been accumulated in medicine, mathematics, astronomy and much more. The beginnings of the civilizations of Korea and Japan are copied from China. At present, the growth of China's power is observed in all sectors of the economy. China's products enter and dominate many global markets. And to the status of the middle state of the world, China has to go quite a bit.

China is an ancient country that has a very rich and interesting history, as well as traditions that are more than several thousand years old. With this country, not everything is as simple as it seems at first glance. A big surprise for many citizens is that officially such a state as China does not exist at all. Moreover, a large number of people call China - the Middle Kingdom, in order to understand where such a name came from, you need to delve into the history of this country.

China is a fairly large country and ranks third in the world in terms of its area. This state is located in the central and eastern part of Asia. In the west of this vast country, impregnable mountains are located, thanks to which China had a deaf isolation from the rest of the world. On the northern side lived wild nomadic peoples.

It was from the nomads that China received a whole host of problems. They raided, smashed and plundered the territories of the Celestial Empire. Quite often, the Chinese kingdoms were defeated, and people close to the nomads sat on the imperial throne. When the newly-appeared emperors came to power, they immersed themselves in the local culture and traditions, gradually adapted to the environment and were exactly the same as the entire population of the country. By and large, for a very long period of time, this state did not know any wars, except for the fight against nomads.

It so happened historically that the Chinese people had no contact with other powerful civilizations for 1.5 thousand years. Therefore, the local people developed outside the whole world. Various discoveries, times of conquest and decline simply passed by all the inhabitants of the country. Such isolation from the outside world has contributed to the fact that the Chinese consider their civilization to be central to the earth, and everything beyond it is just wild barbarians.

For many years, the inhabitants of this state were completely sure that there were five cardinal directions: west, east, north, south and center (Zhong Guo). According to the concepts of local residents, the center is located directly under the entrance to the sky. Since there was no communication with other people, all the inhabitants of this country were sincerely sure that their country was the center of the world. Therefore, they called their state Zhong Guo. Zhong means center and Guo means state.

The citizens of China were sure that their country is located in the center of the planet, where the entrance to the sky is located, which is why such a name as the Celestial Empire appeared. The Great Sky has always been an object of worship for the locals. Even to this day, the sky is an object of adoration and worship among the people of China.

For all the citizens of this country, the sky had a special spiritual and cultural significance. In the capital of China, even the temple of heaven has been preserved. When very difficult political situations took place in the country, then in this case the emperor's council with heaven was appointed. This ceremony continued for two weeks. The emperor, who also had the functions of a priest, conducted a special ceremony, more than 100,000 people participated in it, including officials and military leaders.

When this act took place, all the soldiers were in full uniform, horses and war elephants were also present. According to the beliefs of the population of that time, the earth had the shape of a square, and the sky was round. And where the circle was projected onto the square (its center), the Celestial Empire was located. All the inhabitants of this powerful state were sure that only they had the sky. All other territories that were not part of the empire did not have the sky above their heads, such beliefs existed for a very long period of time. The name of the Celestial Empire sounded like Tian Xia. Tian - day, Xia - the foot of something.

Due to the fact that this name has been preserved in poetry and many historical documents, many people still call this country under heaven to this day. Thus, one can understand how strong the culture and traditions of China were.

Why China is called China

It is worth noting that for the entire time of the existence of this state, it has changed many names. This country was called at different times:

• Celestial;
• Syhai (a state that is located between 4 seas);
• Zhonghua (blooming middle).

Starting from the 7th century, the Chinese people began to call themselves Han, this name is also used in the modern world, and the language is called Han Yu. The locals have never used such a word as China in their vocabulary. This name came about due to various factors, mainly due to spelling errors and linguistic features. Moreover, many citizens call the capital of this state - Beijing, however, in fact, the locals call it Beijing (the northern capital).

Such a word as China came into the Russian language through the transmission of this word from various nationalities. Often this country was called Khitai or Hetai, also called Kidan. The tribes that lived in the south of the country called her Hina. Therefore, in Russian this state is called China. In Europe, the name China began to be used. This name of the state is the most common throughout the world.

The inhabitants of the Celestial Empire call their country as Zhong Guo. This is a vivid example of the fact that they are very proud of their history and still consider themselves the center of the earth. This fact of pride is not groundless, because it was in this empire that paper and printing of books, gunpowder, a compass and many other inventions significant for mankind were first created. The rise of civilizations such as Japan and Korea is copied from China.