Research Article | | Peer-Reviewed

Reassessing the Historical Significance of Chung-kuk/Chung-kuo(Zhongguo) 中國 in East Asian Historiography – Featuring an Analysis of Hunmin chŏng'ŭm 訓民正音

Received: 30 November 2024     Accepted: 16 December 2024     Published: 9 January 2025
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Abstract

The term chung-kuk/chung-kuo (zhongguo) 中國 was made corresponding to ‘China’ only in the (mid-)twentieth century. It was not until after the People’s Republic of China was set up in 1949 that zhongguo began to be used as a shorthand of the former, and the historicity of chung-kuk has yet to be clarified. One surviving record with its unequivocal reference to the term is Hunmin chŏng'ŭm ŏn-hae 訓民正音諺解 (Vernacular Annotation of Correct Sounds for Instructing the People) of 1459, published thirteen years after King Sejong’s 世宗 promulgation of Hunmin chŏng'ŭm. According to the Annotation, chung-kuk, as the "seat of government of the Emperor" [中듕國귁ᄋᆞᆫ皇ᅘᅪᇰ帝뎽겨신나라히니], “has been referred to in our daily expressions as "south of the River"” [우리나랏常썅談땀애江강南남이라ᄒᆞᄂᆞ니라]. The new phonetic system, Chŏng'ŭm 正音, was necessary for nationwide efficiency because the speech sounds of local dialects had all been different from those of the central district [國之語音異乎中國]. Thus chung-kuk, during King Sejong's reign, must mean the seat of central government of the Chosŏn 朝鮮 dynasty. Furthermore, the royal palaces reputedly ascribed to those of Chosŏn are north of the Han River (漢江) in the capital city of southern Korea, whereas the historical Western Capital (西京) and Eastern Capital (東京) are located south of the Yellow River (黃河) and the Wi/Wei River (渭水). Down into the early twentieth century, chung-kuk was still spoken of by Chosŏn independence activists against Japanese colonialism: in April 1932, Yun Bong Kil 尹奉吉, as a member of Han Patriotic Corps (韓人愛國團), mentioned "enemy forces invading chung-kuk" [中國을侵略하는敵]. Considering the context, chung-kuk herein referred to cannot be found anywhere in the present-day Korean peninsula, nor was it the same one as in Liang Ch'i-ch'ao’s 梁啓超 works. These issues have to be further examined to illuminate the authenticity of chung-kuk.

Published in International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 13, Issue 1)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijla.20251301.11
Page(s) 1-12
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Chung-kuk/Chung-kuo (Zhongguo) 中國, Seat of Government of the Emperor, Hunmin chŏng'ŭm 訓民正音, 江강南남 (South of the River), Standardization of Language Sounds, Central District, Local Dialects, Historicity

1. Introduction
Many scholars, both of the East and the West, have posited their hypotheses for the meaning of chung-kuk/chung-kuo/zhongguo 中國, and some have criticized the inappropriateness of the usage of the term in historiography, along with its usage in connection with the word ‘China’. But there seems to be no definite consensus as for how the term chung-kuk 中國 has to be construed or qualified in different contexts, particularly in those of historical narratives. Peter K. Bol, in his paper “Reflections on the Zhong Guo and the Yi Di with Reference to the Middle Period,” poses the question of whether it was ever contended that “the zhong guo as a cultural entity belonged to or was defined by the entire population rather than the national cultural and political elite” and yet he mixes the alleged “possession of a high culture that set the zhong guo apart,” with the claim “that China possesses a unique and moral culture that sets it apart from all others and places it beyond external criticism.” This is but one recent example of how so many authors are still mired, inadvertently or not, in ahistorical correspondence between 中國 and ‘China’, disregarding the fact that it was not until after the People’s Republic of China was set up in 1949 that zhongguo began to be used as a shorthand for the former. Early editorial pieces by Liang Ch'i-ch'ao 梁啓超 admitted that "one most embarrassing thing for us is that our polity has no name" [吾人所最慚愧者莫如我國無國名之一事] before he talked of chung-kuo or chung-hua/zhonghua 中華 in an anticipation of a broader collectivity with a new governing order in some of his early editorial pieces. Admittedly, the state chung-hua min-kuo 中華民國, which was set up in 1912, was called by its people in short min-kuo 民國, not chung-kuo 中國. The independence declaration of March 1, 1919, by Chosŏn 朝鮮 intellectuals and activists against Japanese rule, spoke of chi-na/shina/zhina ("Sina" in Latin) 支那, not /ˈtʃʌɪnə/ or chung-kuk 中國.
Historically, the polities that perched on the East Asian continent, the land of which has been occupied by the People’s Republic of China only since 1949, had not been called Chi-na/Shina/Sina 支那 nor as chung-kuk 中國 by the people thereof. Instead, it had been called by the name of the ruling dynasty that held domestic hegemony over the polity and people under it. Liang Ch'i-ch'ao said that such names as che-ha/chu-hsia諸夏, han-in/han-jen(hanren) 漢人, tang-in/t'ang-jen(tangren) 唐人 are all from the dynasties concerned, and other names like chin-tan/chen-tan 震旦, and chi-na/chih-na 支那 were not ones by which his compatriots would call themselves. Galeote Pereira found out that the people he encountered in the southern part of the continent during the mid-sixteenth century had not heard of the names ‘China’ or ‘Chins’ but would call themselves TamenjinsTa Ming Jen 大明人, ‘Great Ming person (or people)’ – as subjects of the ruling dynasty Tamen (Ta Ming 大明, ‘Great Ming’) in an admission that they had not identified themselves with a piece of territory or as belonging to an ethnic group. An official of the late Ch'ing 淸, named Chang Te-i 張德彝, complained that Westerners insisted to call chung-kuk 中國by the names Zhaina/Qina (China), Shiyin(La Chine), Zhina(Shina), knowing that chung-kuk was called Ta Ch'ing Kuo 大淸國 (Great Ch'ing State) or Chung-hua 中華 (Central Efflorescence).
Numerous commentators so far described chung-kuk 中國 as ‘Middle Kingdom’ , ‘Central Kingdoms’ , ‘central states’ or even ‘central country’ but all these phrases are off the mark at least for the period since the fourteenth century until the nineteenth century, while ‘central states’ might be a valid description as an earlier usage for the collection of states during the Spring and Autumn (春秋) period. Chung-kuk 中國 had always connoted “the primacy of a culturally distinct core area,” being often applied to “the area directly administered by the imperial state.” But chung-kuk 中國 did not exist as any territorial entity per se or a country in any modern sense. If the character 國 is to be construed as dynastic government, given the example kuk-mal/kuo-mo 國末 – which may be translated as "the final period of the dynastic government’s rule" – used by Ch'oe Nam-sŏn 崔南善 , it would be appropriate to render 中國 as the Central Dynasty or Central Government, with the capital letters to emphasize its contemporary uniqueness and hegemony.
This study, as a revisionist re-examination of the meaning of chung-kuk 中國 that defies any presentism, seeks to contribute both to rectifying an East Asian historiography and a historiography in general that tend to, knowingly or not, conflate chung-kuk and ‘China’ into a single construct, and to more accurately contextualizing the concept of chung-kuk. Challenging existing assumptions, it draws on a textual analysis of part of Hunmin chŏng'ŭm 訓民正音 (Correct Sounds for Instructing the People), historical texts spanning several centuries, and related cultural studies to examine the term’s signification by tracing its historical, linguistic, and political dimensions anew. In this critical reconsideration of how the term should be carefully construed in each case to be faithful as much as possible to what the texts and interlocutors have to say, one central argument is that it would be rational to regard chung-kuk in the words of King Sejong 世宗 in Hunmin chŏng'ŭm as the seat of the Chosŏn emperor’s court from which language standardization policy would emanate.
2. Chung-kuk 中國 as Reflected in Hunmin chŏng'ŭm 訓民正音
The historicity of chung-kuk/chung-kuo 中國 has yet to be clarified. One of the surviving records with its unequivocal reference to the term is Hunmin chŏng'ŭm ŏn-hae 訓民正音諺解 (Vernacular Annotation of Correct Sounds for Instructing the People) published as part of wŏl-in-sŏk-po 月印釋譜 in 1459, thirteen years after King Sejong’s promulgation of Hunmin chŏng'ŭm. According to the Annotation, chung-kuk, as the "seat of government of the Emperor" [中듕國귁ᄋᆞᆫ皇ᅘᅪᆼ帝뎽겨신나라히니], “has been referred to in our daily expressions as "south of the River"” [우리나랏常썅談땀애江강南남이라ᄒᆞᄂᆞ니라] (See Figure 1 below).
Figure 1. Hunmin chŏng'ŭm ŏn-hae 訓民正音諺解 (the first two pages with the term 中國 and the commentary on it: 中듕國귁ᄋᆞᆫ皇ᅘᅪᆼ帝뎽겨신나라히니우리나랏常썅談땀애江강南남이라ᄒᆞᄂᆞ니라 [highlighting by author]) (Source: Sogang University Loyola Library, https://mms.hangeul.go.kr/koreanHeritage/3).
2.1. A Linguistic Analysis of the First Part of Hunmin chŏng'ŭm ŏn-hae with the Phrases on Chung-kuk 中國
To put this in a proper context, the first part of Hunmin chŏng'ŭm ŏn-hae containing these phrases has to be analyzed.
The first phrases of the Annotation, which succinctly proclaims the rationale of why King Sejong and his aides decided to come up with the new system based on the old seal scripts (古篆) and combining phonemes of the language in syllabic units, before getting into the explanations on each phoneme in the new writing system to be called Chŏng'ŭm 正音 (literally, "Correct Sounds"), read as following:
ᅌᅥᆼᅙᅳᆷ이 (Language sounds of each region, called kuk 國, are)
나·랏:말ᄊᆞ·미
ᅘᅩᆼ듀ᇰᄒᆞ야 (different from that of the central region, chung-kuk 中國)
·귁·에달·아
ᄍᆞᆼ로不부ᇙ샤ᇰ류ᇢ토ᇰᄒᆞᆯᄊᆡ (such that they are not compatible with the written language, muncha 文字)
·ᄍᆞᆼ·와·로서르ᄉᆞᄆᆞᆺ·디아·니ᄒᆞᆯ·ᄊᆡ
로愚ᅌᅮᆼ이有ᅌᅮᇢᅌᅥᆫᄒᆞ야도 (for this reason, even when the ordinary people want to say something)
이런젼·ᄎᆞ·로어·린百·ᄇᆡᆨ·셩·이니르·고·져· 호ᇙ·배이·셔·도
ᅀᅵᆼ쥬ᇰ부ᇙ쪄ᇰㅣ多ᅌᅴᆼ라 (many of them end up not being able to express their thoughts and feeling in words.)
ᄆᆞ·ᄎᆞᆷ:내제·ᄠᅳ·들시·러펴·디:몯ᄒᆞᇙ·노·미하·니·라
ㅣ爲ᄎᆞᆼᅀᅧᆫᄒᆞ야 (Out of compassion for them, I [King Sejong])
내·이·ᄅᆞᆯ爲·윙·ᄒᆞ·야:어엿·비너·겨
ᅀᅵᆼ바ᇙᄍᆞᆼᄒᆞ노니 (have newly come up with 28 characters)
새·로·스·믈여·듧字·ᄍᆞᆼ·ᄅᆞᆯᄆᆡᆼ·ᄀᆞ노·니
使ᄉᆞᆼᅀᅵᆫᅀᅵᆫᄋᆞ로易ᄒᆞ야便ᅙᅥᆼᅀᅵᇙ요ᇰᅀᅵᆼ니라 (to make it easy for everyone to learn and use them every day.)
:사ᄅᆞᆷ:마·다:ᄒᆡ·ᅇᅧ:수·ᄫᅵ니·겨·날·로·ᄡᅮ·메便ᅙᅡᆫ·킈ᄒᆞ·고·져ᄒᆞᇙᄯᆞᄅᆞ·미니·라
According to these phrases, the primary purpose of devising the new phonetic system, consisting of 28 vernacular characters with which to transcribe hanmun 漢文 texts and hancha 漢字 characters, Chŏng'ŭm (Correct Sounds), was to standardize many different local variants in language. A standard system of language sounds compatible with the written language, hanmun composed of hancha, would serve as the official and common basis in national language life on a daily basis in facilitating communication and societal development: for anyone wishing to express their thoughts and feelings to easily learn the system and use it for daily needs [欲使ᄉᆞᆼᅀᅵᆫᅀᅵᆫᄋᆞ로易ᄒᆞ야便ᅙᅥᆼᅀᅵᇙ요ᇰᅀᅵᆼ 니라].
The first three lines describe how the local language variants had caused problems in national life. Language sounds of the numerous constituent polities within Chosŏn – called kuk/kuo(guo) 國, technically singular but actually representing multiple provinces, (semi-)autonomous regions – were all different from the language sound of the "central government" – chung-kuk 中國, as a singular – such that the dialects could not correspond to the written language, muncha 文字. Consequently, the new system aimed at accurate transliteration of the sounds of the written language and unifying as much as possible the pronunciation of dialects into the standard of chung-kuk. Here, chung-kuk has to be construed as the political/cultural center of the Chosŏn territory from which the standard of national language should come into existence. There should be no reason for the king to devise a phonetic system that corresponds to that of a foreign entity when designing one for daily usage throughout the provinces and regions of Chosŏn.
2.2. Chung-kuk 中國Reified by the Name ‘China’ Is a Fiction, Historically
The promulgation of Hunmin chŏng'ŭm in 1446 falls into the period when the so-called ‘Ming China’ is said to have existed on the East Asian continent. Although many writers would use the term ‘Ming China’ as if it were a "country" that allegedly covered a vast territory between 1368 and 1644, it is clearly a misnomer underpinning a teleological distortion of history and should be avoided (along with ‘Qing China’). Some commentators even translate the first two lines as “The sounds of the nation’s language are different from those of China…” but this is a grave misrepresentation. First, ‘China’ is a perennial red herring. The Western term ‘China’ has only become equated with a modern ‘nation-state’ in the early twentieth century. ‘China’ or ‘Chinese’, until the twentieth century, “did not have native equivalents.” As aptly observed by Lydia Lyu, “the English terms "China" and "the Chinese" do not translate the indigenous terms hua, xia, han, or even zhongguo now or at any given point in history.” As mentioned above, ‘China’ did not exist at all as a country before the early years of the twentieth century, and as modern nation-states were invented, it was invented as one, “in the context of establishing the equality of the country in international relations and creating a Western-style nation-state, a "China" to which the "Chinese" could be loyal.” Second, the term Myŏng/Ming 明, as used in the terms 明朝 or 明國, was not a name of any country or nation in its modern sense. It was a specific example of dynastic government, not a territorial entity. In a copy of Ch'ŏn-ha-che-pŏn-sik-kong-to/t'ien-hsia-chu-fan- shih-kung-t'u 天下諸番識貢圖 (World Map of Tribute-bearing Polities), the part of the East Asian continent which the People’s Republic of China now occupies is marked as 皇朝聖土 (Imperial Dynasty’s Sacred Land) : dynasty (朝) could command the people on land (土) but dynasty cannot be equated with any land.
The character 國 was used to generically refer to dynastic states, that is, dynastic governments that had jurisdiction – not necessarily exclusive – over some regions, and cannot and must not be construed as something of a territorial entity. That kuk/kuo(guo) 國 cannot be a territorial entity is shown in such examples as kuk-mal 國末, as mentioned above, and kuk-ch'o-si/kuo-ch'u-shih 國初時 (at the beginning of the dynastic government’s rule). Thus it becomes clear that the conception of chung-kuk 中國 as a nation-state reified by the name ‘China’ based on a Western invention is a fiction and that chung-kuk 中國 cannot be a name of any country, nation, or territorial entity itself.
2.3. Further Deliberation on Chung-kuk 中國
While there existed no dynasty or government that went by the name chung-kuk 中國 during the reign of King Sejong, the meaning of chung-kuk is unequivocally given in the Annotation as follows, marked in red on Figure 1 above: 中듀ᇰ國귁ᄋᆞᆫ皇ᅘᅪᇰ帝뎽겨신나라히니우리나랏常쌰ᇰ談땀애江강南남이라ᄒᆞᄂᆞ니라 [中듀ᇰ國귁(chung-kuk) is the place where the Emperor governs and resides, which has been called "South of River" in our everyday discourse]. This explanation has two elements in it: first, chung-kuk is the place where the Emperor governs and resides (“中듀ᇰ國귁ᄋᆞᆫ皇ᅘᅪᇰ帝뎽겨신나라히니”); second, it has been called "South of River" in everyday vernacular at the time.
The first phrase, 中듀ᇰ國귁ᄋᆞᆫ皇ᅘᅪᇰ帝뎽겨신나라히니, indicates that chung-kuk had never meant a state associated with modern territoriality or a territorially delimited country with a government and the people governed by it. That chung-kuk is the seat of imperial government implies the existence of regions which are not so and the latter is referred to as kuk/kuo 國, which did not mean a territorial country either, as explained above, and is to be understood in contradistinction to chung-kuk. On the other hand, there are innumerable references to Tong-I/Tung-I 東夷 or, for that matter, to Sa-I/Ssu-I 四夷 – regardless of the fact that these terms now often carry derogatory connotations – in historical records, and if the East Asian continent were all to be designated by chung-kuk, the referents of Tong-I or Sa-I could not have been located anywhere in the continent. Rather, in the above-mentioned phrase, chung-kuk was used as a sui generis symbol in so far as the Emperor, as not plural, commands a unique authority over all the spheres where such an authority would be accepted in one form or another, though in varying degrees.
Given the Emperor (皇ᅘᅪᇰ帝뎽) signifies the ruler with the highest authority and mandate, the place where he governs and resides should be the "central" location – denoted by 中듀ᇰ國귁 – of the entire domain over which his authority extends. But it may not necessarily be a geographical area. It could refer to a political realm in an abstract sense, apart from a geographical or territorial one. Again, it is irrational to construe the Emperor in question as a foreign ruler. If there was no reason for a phonetic system in Chosŏn to be formulated to conform to that of a foreign polity, no foreign ruler would have to be invoked. Therefore the Emperor should imply the emperors of Chosŏn and chung-kuk 中듀ᇰ國귁 in the phrase should be the central location, either as a political symbol or in a geographical sense or both, of Chosŏn, not one of any foreign polity: chung-kuk in and of Chosŏn as the inmost domain of the Chosŏn emperors.
The second part, 우리나랏常쌰ᇰ談땀애江강南남이라 ᄒᆞᄂᆞ니라, helps further determine the meaning: geographically speaking, it is located south of river. The referent of chung-kuk explained in the Annotation served as the political locus of control, and certainly was the capital region south of river. If we assume the capital area to be of the present-day Seoul, the capital city of the Republic of Korea, an objection is raised: the royal palaces that remain today in Seoul are all located north of the Han River (漢江).
If we turn to the East Asian continent that the People’s Republic of China currently occupies, the potential location of the chung-kuk clarified as such will be the area along the Wei River (渭水) and the Yellow River (黃河) valleys that includes Chang-an/Ch'ang-an 長安 (today Hsi-an/Xi'an 西安), the historical Western Capital (西京), and Lak-yang/ Lo-yang(Luoyang) 洛陽, the historical Eastern Capital (東京), both of which are located on the southern side of the rivers. The dictionary Han-ŏ-tae-sa-chŏn/han-yü-ta-tz'u-tien 漢語大辭典 says that chung-kuk had been associated with the Yellow River basin and would later refer to the ‘Central Plains’ (中原) area. The second and third meanings given in the dictionary are the ‘imperial court’ (朝廷) and the ‘capital area’ (京師), respectively. The area that includes both the Western and Eastern capitals south of the Wei River and the Yellow River fits with these three meanings. Then we can come to a provisional conclusion that chung-kuk mentioned in the Annotation could not be on the Korean peninsula and that, as a corollary, Chosŏn with such a chung-kuk could not be of, or at least confined to, the peninsula.
Therefore, turning back to the first two lines of the Annotation, 國ᅌᅥᆼᅙᅳᆷ이 異ᅘᅩᆼ듀ᇰᄒᆞ야 (Language sounds of each region, called kuk 國, are different from that of the central region, chung-kuk 中國), we should take this to mean that the different language sounds of each region (國) differed also from that of chung-kuk 中國 – the ruling dynasty in the Central Plains area of Chosŏn. It did not say ‘different from the language sound of the Myŏng/Ming state (異乎明國)’ but instead spoke of ‘different from that of chung-kuk’ (異乎中國) because chung-kuk was the central area of Chosŏn according to which the standardization of language sounds, through the newly devised phonetic system called Chŏng'ŭm 正音, was to be achieved.
3. A Brief Tracing of the Meaning of Chung-kuk/Chung-kuo(Zhongguo) 中國
It would now be in order to consider some usages of the term chung-kuk, apart from the one in Hunmin chŏng'ŭm ŏn-hae, that appeared before the twentieth century, together with a few instances in the early twentieth century, to put in perspective the historical references of the term.
3.1. Some Notable Pre-twentieth Century Uses of the Term in Its Evolution over Time
In Maengcha/Meng-tzu(Mengzi)《孟子》(Mencius), the supreme ambition of King Sŏn/Hsüan of Che/Ch'i 齊宣王 is said to be "extending his territory, getting the states of Chin/Ch'in 秦 and Ch'o/Ch'u 楚 to pay homage to him, and ruling over “the Central Kingdoms and to bring peace” to the outlying tribes on the four quarters" [然則王之所大欲可知已欲辟土地朝秦楚莅中國而撫四夷也]. Here the ‘Central Kingdoms’, in D. C. Lau’s translation of chung-kuk, may also be described as the “chief States of the Centre” which felt themselves connected by “a certain community of civilization.” In Mencius’ words, on the other hand, the character kuk/kuo 國, without chung/zhong 中 in front, denotes the rulership of a feudal lord, juxtaposed with the term for feudal lords, 諸侯: 諸侯失國而後託於 諸侯禮也 (“According to the rites, only a feudal lord who has lost his state places himself under the protection of another” ). An annotation by Yang Bo-jun 楊伯峻 puts in proper perspective this association between a lesser lord whose status is lower than that of a King or an Emperor and the character kuk 國. He explained that chung-kuk 中國 in the phrase 我欲中國而授孟子室 (“I wish to give Mencius a house in the most central part of my capital” ) indicates "in the middle of the capital" [在國都之中], where kuk 國 refers to the capital of the state of Che/Ch'i 齊 – the castle of Lim-ch'i/Lin-tzu (臨淄城). In other words, during the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States (戰國) period, kuk 國 would signify either the rulership or the capital corresponding to such a rulership of the feudal lords, and chung-kuk would indicate the central states/governments bound in a common conception of civilization. Neither meant any territorial entity with clearly delimited borders.
In biographies of Mencius and Sun-kyŏng/Hsün- ch'ing(荀卿) (Sun-cha/Hsün-tzu(荀子)) [孟子荀卿列傳] of Sa-ki/Shih-chi 史記 (Records of the Scribe), it says that "chung-kuk may be called chŏk-hyŏn-shin-chu/ch'ih-hsien- shen-chou" (中國名曰赤縣神州). The term chŏk-hyŏn/ ch'ih-hsien 赤縣, literally meaning ‘district adorned in red’, is said to represent the district Flame Emperor (炎帝) directly ruled over, and can be said to have come from the custom of attributing highness to the color of red. Shin-chu/Shen-chou 神州, ‘sacred prefecture’, stands for the district that was directly ruled by Yellow Emperor (黃帝), and can be taken to mean the region where the King or Son of Heaven (天子) is located.
Looking at a dictionary on the Records of the Scribe (史記辭典), we again see that chung-kuk does not denote a totalized territory. Rather, the term’s first meaning is given as kyŏng-sa/ching-shih 京師. Kyŏng-sa 京師 refers to the capital district in which "the court" (朝廷) or "the central government" (中央政府) of the polity in question is located. The explanation of the term in the dictionary draws from the phrase in the Annals of the Five Emperors (五帝本紀) which says "the place which the Emperor and/or the King designates as the capital is given its centrality, chung 中, and hence it is called chung-kuk 中國" [帝王所都爲中故曰 中國]: the capital where the supreme ruler resides is at the center, either in an abstract sense or geographically or both, of the polity and thus to be called chung-kuk. It also denotes the regions along the Yellow River valley in the provinces of Sŏm-sŏ/Shan-hsi 陝西 and Ha-nam/Ho-nan 河南 which the polities in antiquity would tend to gravitate toward, and was sometimes written also as chung-t'o/chung-t'u 中土, chung-wŏn/chung-yüan 中原, chung-chu/chung-chou 中州, chung-hwa/chung-hua 中華, or chung-pang 中邦. Beyond a mere geographical signifier, these terms would connote political centrality and attendant cultural superiority.
According to Wang Er-min, in a total of 178 instances in twenty-five books of the pre-Ch'in (先秦) era in which chung-kuk 中國 appears, the overwhelmingly predominant usage of the term (145 instances) is with the sense of the sphere (jurisdiction) of various polities that together constituted Ha/Hsia 夏, thus called Che-ha/Chu-hsia 諸夏, while the usage in the sense of the capital district, kyŏng-sa/ching-shih 京師, takes a much smaller percentage. Wang speaks of Chu-hsia-chih-lieh-pang 諸夏之列邦, several polities that together formed Chu-hsia, but hsia 夏 herein signifies civilized, not a territorial entity. Chung-kuk 中國 in this context may be dubbed as the “central overlordships” or ‘central kingdoms’, but still not in the sense of a territorial country with clearly delimited borders or a nation state occupying the vast land of the continent. Among the other categories, in Wang’s analysis, were kuk-chung/kuo-chung 國中, which does not need much additional explanation because chung 中functions as a prepositional particle herein, and kyŏng-sa/ching-shih 京師 as mentioned above.
The connotation of chung-kuk expanded in later periods. A couple of entries, one in the Annals of the Chosŏn dynasty and the other in the Records of Daily Reflections (日省錄), would help elucidate how the term should be contextualized in later usages. An entry in the Annals of King Sejong (世宗實錄) dated close to the creation/compilation of Hunmin chŏng'ŭm in late 1443 could be particularly revealing. Just a few months after the compilation, some conservative officials petitioned against the use of the new script based on the Correct Sounds, somewhat disparagingly labelled Ŏnmun 諺文, writing that "since ancient times, within the Nine Provinces, although the customs are different, no separate script has been formulated because of regional dialects, and only the Mongols (蒙古), Western Ha/Hsia (西夏), Jurchens (女眞), Japan (日本), and some western tribes (西蕃) had scripts of their own, but there is not much to say about it because they were all outlying/uncivilized peoples" [自古九州之內風土雖異未有因方言而別爲文字者唯蒙古 西夏女眞日本西蕃之類各有其字是皆夷狄事耳無足道者]. They went on to say, "Introducing this new script would now amount to renouncing chung-kuk and voluntarily assimilating with the outlying tribes… Would not it be a great detraction from Civilization" [今別作諺文捨中國而自同於夷狄…豈 非文明之大累哉]? Chung-kuk in this utterance is attributed with a sense of sacrosanctity as the locus of civilization with the original written language system.
In 1778, more than three thousand Confucian scholars in several provinces of Chosŏn, through a joint petition recorded in the Records of Daily Reflections, deplored the discrimination against "sons of concubines" (庶類) in appointment to government positions as well as in social treatment. "Such discrimination had not been legalized, in terms of chung-kuk, during the dynasties of Yo/Yao 堯, Sun/Shun 舜, Han 漢, Tang/T'ang 唐, Song/Sung 宋, Myŏng/Ming 明, and it had not been a law, in terms of Tongbang 東方 (The Eastern), during the times of Tan'gun 檀君 and Ki-Sŏng 箕聖 (Sage Ki) or in the early period of our (dynastic) government, either" [以中國言之 則旣非漢唐唐虞宋明之法也 以東方言之 則亦非檀君箕聖我國初之法]. Here chung-kuk is an overarching symbol of legitimate political authority presumably ascribed to the dynasties.
3.2. An Ambitious Overhaul and What Might Be Retained of the Term Chung-kuk in the Early Twentieth Century
Around the turn of the twentieth century, reformist intellectuals in the Ch'ing dynasty (淸朝) attempted new forms of national identification, and chung-kuk now started to be used as a signifier in their nationalistic conception. Liang Ch'i-ch'ao, while in exile in Japan away from the Ch'ing court’s persecution, would at first mix Chi-na/Shina/Sina 支那 and chung-kuk referring to a place with the people and a history to bind them together. This parallel usage of Chi-na 支那 and chung-kuk 中國 can be an indirect evidence that chung-kuk did not refer to and was not equal to a nation state or a territorial country because when he spoke of chung-kuk, it was due to the lack of proper terms by which to name the polity he belonged to, as he himself confessed in embarrassment later. In an introductory essay on new historiography published in 1901, accompanied by such a confession, he proposed using chung-kuk/chung-kuo (zhongguo) 中國 to represent a social totality, dismissing Chi-na/Shina 支那 as a foreign borrowing (as a Japanese term ) and therefore unfit for the political community he would write of. This may be called a moment of “the birth of the imagined community of the nation” with chung-kuk serving as a totalizing signifier to connote the polity as a whole with its people, territory, and history, in order for it to ostensibly qualify as a modern nation-state. It was not Liang describing an already existing nation, but him “actually creating one writing its history” with his prime motivation being to justify the Ch'ing state’s territorial realm as the blueprint for the new nation-state’s territory , in contrast to Chang Ping-lin’s 章炳麟 to limit the new polity’s domain to the counties and prefectures of the Han 漢 dynasty.
Joseph Levenson pointed out a radical discontinuity between earlier forms of collective identity and a nationalistic identity that came to the Ch'ing-dynasty intellectuals and activists who were reformists or revolutionaries at the turn of the last century. Prasenjit Duara considers this observation of Levenson as mistaken “in distinguishing culturalism as a radically different mode of identification from ethnic or national identification.” However, what Levenson apparently emphasized is not a collective conviction of cultural superiority putatively attributable to the previous periods, as Liang Ch'i-ch'ao sought to conjure up for a narrative of continuity with the Han 漢 people centered at the nationalist history which would include other significant ethnicities along with their territories, but the chasm between the Confucian Empire – dubbed as ch'ŏn-ha/t'ien-hsia 天下 – of old, on the one side, and the kuk/kuo 國 which was to be completely refurbished from its old status as subordinate to ch'ŏn-ha/t'ien-hsia to become raised as the object of loyalty by the "nation" – rendered by Liang as kukmin/kuomin 國民 – as the proper unit of comparison to achieve the equivalence with the West, on the other. If “culture stood with t'ien-hsia,” that same “culture changed in kuo,” as nationalism took precedence. But in the process of transformation, there were numerous inconsistencies in claiming historical continuity and cultural superiority of the Han and in downplaying the differences among the ethnicities. Accordingly, as an ingenious remedy to it, Liang went on to totally overhaul the meaning of the traditional term chung-kuk as for the name of the new nation-state.
Figure 2. Yun Bong Kil taking his oath (Source: National Institute of Korean History, https://db.history.go.kr/modern/level.do?levelId=ij_ 044_0060_00070).
During the Republican period between 1912 and 1949, the newly instated polity in the East Asian continent was dubbed as minkuk/min-kuo 民國. Although chung-kuo 中國 was promoted by Liang Ch'i-chao for the name of the new nation-state in his scheme, it did not take root to the same extent among the population. In a seemingly surprising turn of events, the term chung-kuk appears in an oath made by Chosŏn/Korean independence activist in April 1932. Three days before throwing the bomb at Hongkew Park (虹口公園), Shanghai, towards the Japanese personages who gathered for the birthday celebration of the Emperor of Japan, Yun Bong Kil 尹奉吉 (1908-1932), then as a member of Han-in ae-kuk-tan 韓人愛國團 (Han Patriotic Corps), vowed in earnest that, in order to restore the independence and freedom of the homeland, he would go on to kill the enemy officers invading chung-kuk 中國 (Figures 2, 3, 4).
Figure 3. Oath by Yun Bong Kil (April 26, 1932) [highlighting by the author] (Source: National Museum of Korea, https://www.mseum.go.kr/site/main/relic/treaure/view?relicId=2090).
Figure 4. Yun Bong Kil. “The Alleged True Story of the Hongkew Park Bombing” [highlighting by the author] (Source: The China Weekly Review (1923-1950), Shanghai: Millard Publishing Co., May 14, 1932, pp. 351-352. https://www.proquest.com/historical -newspapers/alleged-true-story-hongkew-park-bombing/docview/13248957 38/se-2).
The entry on Yun in The China Weekly Review of May 14, 1932, translates chung-kuk as ‘China’ (Figure 4) but this should be an incorrect rendition. If we think of the current territorial state named in English as ‘China’ (as short for the “People’s Republic of China”) for the phrase "the enemy officers invading chung-kuk 中國" (中國을侵略하는敵의 將校), it would be an unintelligible explanation if chung-kuk were a stand-alone nation-state called ‘China’ because there would be no reason why Yun, fully expecting arrest and execution, would want to remove such Japanese officers invading ‘China’ which he, as a Han-in 韓人 (or a ‘Korean’), did not belong to. If he meant that chung-kuk was a nation state and that his home country and such a chung-kuk shared the common fate against the (Japanese) enemy, it might make sense. But the latter scenario seems unlikely.
Chung-kuk in Yun Bong Kil’s oath would have to be construed in a similar context in which the term was used in Ch'oe Che-u’s 崔濟愚 (1824-1864) vernacular-language text of Tonghak 東學. In a part of exhortative verse written by Ch'oe, it speaks of "treacherous enemy of the West encroaching upon chung-kuk 中國 as had been said of them in 1860" [ᄒᆞ원갑경신년의젼ᄒᆡ오ᄂᆞᆫ세상말이요망ᄒᆞᆫ 셔양젹이듕국을침범ᄒᆞ셔]. The year 1860 was when the British-French forces defeated the Ch'ing army in their joint expedition into Peking. Then chung-kuk in Ch'oe’s wording should be taken to represent the central government authority of the Ch'ing dynasty as “the protector of the Confucian civilization” in the East Asian world. Seventy-two years later, with the Ch'ing dynasty long gone, Confucian civilizational identity or perspectives may have been weakened, but chung-kuk might still signify the authority of Central Government in the East Asian world by which Chosŏn, though now under Japanese colonial control, should be entitled to maintain its autonomous political existence.
4. Putting It All in Perspective
Since the pre-Ch'in era, chung-kuk had signified the combined sphere of various polities that constituted Ha/Hsia 夏, the capital district of the imperial court, or the location of the central government of the polity in question. The term underwent an expansion in its connotation over time. In mid-fifteenth century Chosŏn, just a few months after the new script Chŏng'ŭm 正音 was devised, a group of officials opposed its possible widespread use supposedly because that would be like renouncing chung-kuk and assimilating with uncivilized outlying tribes. Here chung-kuk meant the locus of civilization in which the original written language, mun(cha) 文(字), as the common written language system of the East Asian world, had been used as it is, without any phonetic characters with which to pronounce it, as in the case of Chosŏn Chŏng'ŭm, or any subsidiary phonetic symbols taken from parts of hancha 漢字 characters as ideograms, as in the case of Japanese kana (仮名). Furthermore, King Sejong speaking of muncha 文字 in the phrase 與ᄍᆞᆼ로不부ᇙ샤ᇰ류ᇢ토ᇰᄒᆞᆯᄊᆡ (language sounds of each kuk 國 are not congruent with the written language, muncha 文字), which refers to the characters (cha 字) of the original written language (mun 文) , does not specify the source of muncha. If the king did not feel the need to specify the source of the prototypical written language, muncha 文字, because it was inherently endogenous to Chosŏn and its predecessor dynasties, then this may suggest that the ancient ancestors of the Chosŏn people had created the primordial script that later came to be called hancha 漢字, which are now often erroneously called ‘Chinese characters’. The fact that spoken language sounds in each locality, labelled as kuk 國, were neither unified nor compatible with those in chung-kuk (to the degree that it would hurt the administrative efficiency in Chosŏn) was the rationale why the king and like-minded scholar-officials came up with Chŏng'ŭm. The Vernacular Annotation of Correct Sounds tells us that chung-kuk denotes the seat of government of the Emperor (中듕國귁ᄋᆞᆫ皇ᅘᅪᇰ帝뎽겨신나라). This in turn implies that chung-kuk, at least at the time of King Sejong and during immediately preceding period to which such reference applies, was the region where Chosŏn emperors would reside and their courts would be located.
After the Chosŏn court was subjugated in 1637 by the Jurchen Chin 女眞金 forces led by the Ch'ing founding emperor Huang T'ai-chi 皇太極, chung-kuk would no longer be designated as the seat of Chosŏn rulers’ authority. The status of chung-kuk, Central Government authority over the East Asian world, would now be assumed by the Imperial Ch'ing (皇淸) court. Meanwhile, as seen in the petition to King Chŏngjo 正祖 in 1778 demanding the abolishment of a strict separation between legitimate and illegitimate lines of descent, chung-kuk was still used as an encompassing representation of the imperial governments’ jurisdictional overreach, taking on a more culturally-charged connotation than Ta Ch'ing Kuo 大淸國 – which was sometimes referred to by chung-kuk 中國 in nineteen-century official documents – would do. Through the ascent and fall of the Ch'ing dynasty, chung-kuk seems to have somehow retained, until the early twentieth century, the implication of the Central Government that would guarantee the political autonomy of Chosŏn against any hostile foreign powers. Yun Bong Kil’s oath with chung-kuk marked as an entity, either tangible or intangible, to be safeguarded in the face of Japanese invasion can be one such example unless this is a defective interpretation to be refuted by counterarguments.
The prominent intellectual in exile, Liang Ch'i-ch'ao, in his perceived need to evoke continuity over discontinuity in the public’s conception of history, prescribed the name Chung-kuo 中國, not as recycling an existing concept but as taking a frequent signifier of the premodern dynastic state’s political hegemony and redefining it into an unprecedented modern nation-state – thus an intentional invention in his nationalist historiography. Although Liang’s ideas about the nation, kuomin 國民, and the new state that would have to belong to the "new people" would go on to greatly influence his successors, his feat cannot gloss over the historical fact that chung-kuk 中國 before and except his redefinition had been employed in totally different ways – to signify the location where the Chosŏn emperors would have their courts, as shown in Hunmin chŏng'ŭm ŏn-hae, among other meanings.
5. Conclusion
Highlighting the evolution of the usage of chung-kuk from its political-cultural symbolism for the civilizational core in the traditional East Asian world to contemporary reinterpretations centered around the new nation-state imagined in the early twentieth century, this article provides a nuanced exploration of the term’s significantly different shades in meaning in order for it not to be misappropriated or misconstrued in historiographical interpretations and other accounts. In so doing, this study calls for and facilitates both a broadening of perspective in critically re-examining the historically conditioned macro-political configurations in East Asia and enhanced sensitivity to the historicity of the term and related ones such as ch'ŏn-ha/t'ien-hsia 天下, kuk/kuo 國, and kukka/kuo-chia 國家, the roots of the latter “stretched back to the Confucian classics” to refer to “the dynastic government, even to the monarchy itself.” This can inform relevant debates on nationalism as present-day East Asian countries try to manipulate their past to suit their current agendas.
John K. Fairbank, in his article “A Preliminary Framework,” observed that “in strategic terms” in “the great continental "Empire of East Asia," stretching from the Pamirs to Pusan,” the “tribesmen of Inner Asia came more and more to supply the striking force that constituted the decisive military component of government.” This may apply to the Ch'ing imperial state as well, in terms of Chosŏn’s relations to chung-kuk, whose status was transferred to the Ch'ing court in the first half of the seventeenth century. Before it happened, the supreme rulers of the Chosŏn dynasty seem to have been associated with chung-kuk, as made clear in the Vernacular Annotation of Correct Sounds for Instructing the People.
Before the twentieth century, chung-kuk had mostly indicated a central civilizational/cultural realm, and in cases where it had a geographical connotation it was of secondary meaning stemming from the cultural signification and not of a primary or original one. From the early years of the twentieth century, reformist/revolutionary thinkers like Liang Ch'i-ch'ao and Chang Ping-lin put forward chung-kuo as if it were a unique name befitting a nation-state potentially embracing different ethnicities, with the amorphous Han 漢 people at the center, in their fervently nationalist orientation when it is not. On the other hand, such exogenous terms as Sina, Chine, or China had not been used by the rulers or subjects in the East Asian world. As a result, the English word ‘China’ has no precise endogenous counterpart at all. For the ‘modern China’, the semantic correspondence between it and chung-kuo seems uneasy, at best. Yet, many historians and commentators, no matter where they are from, still end up relying on the term ‘China’ discussing it as if it were a single continuous entity with some thousand years of history, for the sake of expediency or whatever, resulting in various ahistorical interpretations. This leads not just to slipping into the nationalistic teleology, but also to letting the authors themselves and their readers distort historicity and damage the relevant historiography as a whole.
Jettisoning the term ‘China’ altogether and using the name of the dynastic state when speaking of a political entity or employing specific natural features when talking about geographic spaces can be one solution. In the meantime, reminding ourselves of 中듀ᇰ國귁ᄋᆞᆫ皇ᅘᅪᇰ帝뎽겨신나라 히니우리나랏常쌰ᇰ談땀애江강南남이라ᄒᆞᄂᆞ니라 as in Hunmin chŏng'ŭm ŏn-hae may serve as an antidote to chronic poisoning of East Asian historiography with the onslaught of both the so-called ‘China’ as an appellation and the People’s Republic of China government’s history manipulation of various kinds.
Author Contributions
Chun Jihoon is the sole author. The author read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflicts of Interest
The author declares no conflicts of interest.
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    Jihoon, C. (2025). Reassessing the Historical Significance of Chung-kuk/Chung-kuo(Zhongguo) 中國 in East Asian Historiography – Featuring an Analysis of Hunmin chŏng'ŭm 訓民正音. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 13(1), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20251301.11

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    Jihoon, C. Reassessing the Historical Significance of Chung-kuk/Chung-kuo(Zhongguo) 中國 in East Asian Historiography – Featuring an Analysis of Hunmin chŏng'ŭm 訓民正音. Int. J. Lit. Arts 2025, 13(1), 1-12. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20251301.11

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    Jihoon C. Reassessing the Historical Significance of Chung-kuk/Chung-kuo(Zhongguo) 中國 in East Asian Historiography – Featuring an Analysis of Hunmin chŏng'ŭm 訓民正音. Int J Lit Arts. 2025;13(1):1-12. doi: 10.11648/j.ijla.20251301.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijla.20251301.11,
      author = {Chun Jihoon},
      title = {Reassessing the Historical Significance of Chung-kuk/Chung-kuo(Zhongguo) 中國 in East Asian Historiography – Featuring an Analysis of Hunmin chŏng'ŭm 訓民正音
    },
      journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
      volume = {13},
      number = {1},
      pages = {1-12},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20251301.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20251301.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20251301.11},
      abstract = {The term chung-kuk/chung-kuo (zhongguo) 中國 was made corresponding to ‘China’ only in the (mid-)twentieth century. It was not until after the People’s Republic of China was set up in 1949 that zhongguo began to be used as a shorthand of the former, and the historicity of chung-kuk has yet to be clarified. One surviving record with its unequivocal reference to the term is Hunmin chŏng'ŭm ŏn-hae 訓民正音諺解 (Vernacular Annotation of Correct Sounds for Instructing the People) of 1459, published thirteen years after King Sejong’s 世宗 promulgation of Hunmin chŏng'ŭm. According to the Annotation, chung-kuk, as the "seat of government of the Emperor" [中듕國귁ᄋᆞᆫ皇ᅘᅪᇰ帝뎽겨신나라히니], “has been referred to in our daily expressions as "south of the River"” [우리나랏常썅談땀애江강南남이라ᄒᆞᄂᆞ니라]. The new phonetic system, Chŏng'ŭm 正音, was necessary for nationwide efficiency because the speech sounds of local dialects had all been different from those of the central district [國之語音異乎中國]. Thus chung-kuk, during King Sejong's reign, must mean the seat of central government of the Chosŏn 朝鮮 dynasty. Furthermore, the royal palaces reputedly ascribed to those of Chosŏn are north of the Han River (漢江) in the capital city of southern Korea, whereas the historical Western Capital (西京) and Eastern Capital (東京) are located south of the Yellow River (黃河) and the Wi/Wei River (渭水). Down into the early twentieth century, chung-kuk was still spoken of by Chosŏn independence activists against Japanese colonialism: in April 1932, Yun Bong Kil 尹奉吉, as a member of Han Patriotic Corps (韓人愛國團), mentioned "enemy forces invading chung-kuk" [中國을侵略하는敵]. Considering the context, chung-kuk herein referred to cannot be found anywhere in the present-day Korean peninsula, nor was it the same one as in Liang Ch'i-ch'ao’s 梁啓超 works. These issues have to be further examined to illuminate the authenticity of chung-kuk.
    },
     year = {2025}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Reassessing the Historical Significance of Chung-kuk/Chung-kuo(Zhongguo) 中國 in East Asian Historiography – Featuring an Analysis of Hunmin chŏng'ŭm 訓民正音
    
    AU  - Chun Jihoon
    Y1  - 2025/01/09
    PY  - 2025
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20251301.11
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ijla.20251301.11
    T2  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
    JF  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
    JO  - International Journal of Literature and Arts
    SP  - 1
    EP  - 12
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2331-057X
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20251301.11
    AB  - The term chung-kuk/chung-kuo (zhongguo) 中國 was made corresponding to ‘China’ only in the (mid-)twentieth century. It was not until after the People’s Republic of China was set up in 1949 that zhongguo began to be used as a shorthand of the former, and the historicity of chung-kuk has yet to be clarified. One surviving record with its unequivocal reference to the term is Hunmin chŏng'ŭm ŏn-hae 訓民正音諺解 (Vernacular Annotation of Correct Sounds for Instructing the People) of 1459, published thirteen years after King Sejong’s 世宗 promulgation of Hunmin chŏng'ŭm. According to the Annotation, chung-kuk, as the "seat of government of the Emperor" [中듕國귁ᄋᆞᆫ皇ᅘᅪᇰ帝뎽겨신나라히니], “has been referred to in our daily expressions as "south of the River"” [우리나랏常썅談땀애江강南남이라ᄒᆞᄂᆞ니라]. The new phonetic system, Chŏng'ŭm 正音, was necessary for nationwide efficiency because the speech sounds of local dialects had all been different from those of the central district [國之語音異乎中國]. Thus chung-kuk, during King Sejong's reign, must mean the seat of central government of the Chosŏn 朝鮮 dynasty. Furthermore, the royal palaces reputedly ascribed to those of Chosŏn are north of the Han River (漢江) in the capital city of southern Korea, whereas the historical Western Capital (西京) and Eastern Capital (東京) are located south of the Yellow River (黃河) and the Wi/Wei River (渭水). Down into the early twentieth century, chung-kuk was still spoken of by Chosŏn independence activists against Japanese colonialism: in April 1932, Yun Bong Kil 尹奉吉, as a member of Han Patriotic Corps (韓人愛國團), mentioned "enemy forces invading chung-kuk" [中國을侵略하는敵]. Considering the context, chung-kuk herein referred to cannot be found anywhere in the present-day Korean peninsula, nor was it the same one as in Liang Ch'i-ch'ao’s 梁啓超 works. These issues have to be further examined to illuminate the authenticity of chung-kuk.
    
    VL  - 13
    IS  - 1
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Faculty of East Asian Studies, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, Germany

    Research Fields: East Asian History, Hunmin chŏng'ŭm訓民正音, Fifteenth-century Korean language, Early twentieth-century historiography, Premodern East Asian interpolity relations, East Asian philology