The literal English translation of the name “Zhong Guo” (China) is “middle kingdom” but through the course of history, the name has taken on many different meanings and has been the source of great conflict.

The name “Zhong Guo” was first used by the ancient Zhou dynasty, who believed themselves to be the center of civilization. Later, it came to be the name for the empire founded in the Yellow River Drainage areas and other empires set up by other ethnic groups in the Han Dynasty.

During the period of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the name “Zhong Guo” became a propaganda weapon as the Southern Dynasty honored itself by calling itself “Zhong Guo” and besmirched the Northern Dynasty by calling it “Wei Lu”. Likewise, the Northern Dynasty also addressed itself as “Zhong Guo” whilst calling the Southern Dynasty the “Dao Yi”.

This wrangling continued into later times when dynasties such as the Liao, Northern Song Dynasty, Jin and the Southern Song Dynasty named themselves “Zhong Guo” whilst refusing to acknowledge the other empires as part of China. However, none of these dynasties, or any before them, actually changed their state name to “Zhong Guo”, but retained their original names instead.

It was not until after the revolution of 1911 that “Zhong Guo” was officially used as the abbreviated name for The Republic of China and later, in 1949, for The People’s Republic of China, which of course remains to this day the only “Zhong Guo” (China) in the world.

Source: www.chinatravel.com