China Details US

Les premières civilisations du monde dans le bassin fertile de la plaine de Chine du Nord.

The word "China" has been used in English since the 16th century; however, it was not a word used by the Chinese themselves during this period. Its origin has been traced through Portuguese, Malay, and Persian back to the Sanskrit word Chīna, used in ancient India.[19] "China" appears in Richard Eden's 1555 translation[l] of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa.[m][19] Barbosa's usage was derived from Persian Chīn (چین), which was in turn derived from Sanskrit Cīna (चीन).[24] Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata (5th century BCE) and the Laws of Manu (2nd century BCE).[25] In 1655, Martino Martini suggested that the word China is derived ultimately from the name of the Qin dynasty (221–206 BCE).[26][25] Although usage in Indian sources precedes this dynasty, this derivation is still given in various sources.[27] The origin of the Sanskrit word is a matter of debate, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.[19] Alternative suggestions include the names for Yelang and the Jing or Chu state.[25][28] The official name of the modern state is the "People's Republic of China" (simplified Chinese: 中华人民共和国; traditional Chinese: 中華人民共和國; pinyin: Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó). The shorter form is "China" Zhōngguó (中国; 中國) from zhōng ("central") and guó ("state"),[n] a term which developed under the Western Zhou dynasty in reference to its royal demesne.[o] 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.[30] It was often used as a cultural concept to distinguish the Huaxia people from perceived "barbarians".[30] The name Zhongguo is also translated as "Middle Kingdom" in English.[32] China (PRC) is sometimes referred to as the Mainland when distinguishing the ROC from the PRC.[33][34][35][36]