China ( ; Wade-Giles (Mandarin): Chung¹kuo²) is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia.
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China ( ; Wade-Giles (Mandarin): Chung¹kuo²) is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia.
The last Chinese Civil War (with major combat ending in 1949) has resulted in two political entities:
- People's Republic of China (PRC), commonly known as Communist China or simply China, has control over mainland China and the largely self-governing territories of Hong Kong (since 1997) and Macau (since 1999).
- Republic of China (ROC), commonly known as Taiwan or Nationalist China, has control over the islands of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu.
China has one of the world's oldest and continuous civilizations, consisting of states and cultures dating back more than six millennia. It has the world's longest continuously used written language system, and is the source of many major inventions, such as what the British scholar and biochemist Joseph Needham called the "four great inventions of Ancient China": paper, the compass, gunpowder, and printing. Historically, China's cultural sphere has extended across East Asia as a whole, with Chinese religion, customs, and writing systems being adopted to varying degrees by neighbors such as Japan, Korea and Vietnam. The first evidence of human presence in the region was found at the Zhoukoudian cave and is one of the first known specimens of Homo erectus, now commonly known as the Peking Man, estimated to have lived approximately from 300,000 to 550,000 years ago. Noticeably, it is also known that the Peking Man was able to control and use fire.
Etymology
main: Names of China
English names
The first recorded use of the word "China" is dated 1555."China", Online Etymology Dictionary It is derived from Cin, a Persian name for China popularized in Europe by Marco Polo.Wood, Francis, Did Marco Polo go to China (1995), p. 61. In early usage, "china" as a term for porcelain was spelled differently than the name of the country, the two words being derived from separate Persian words."china", The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Boston and New York, Houghton-Mifflin, 2000. Both these words are derived from the Sanskrit word for China, Cīnā (चीन). This word was first recorded in the 5th century BC in Mahābhārata,Liu, Lydia He, The clash of empires, p. 77. where it refers to a "yellow-colored" barbarian tribe from the north. This tribe is conventionally identified with Qin (秦) (778BC-207BC), the westernmost of the Chinese kingdoms at this time, but may refer to an unknown group then inhabiting Tibet. China was historically referred to as Sina (hence "Sino-"), Sinae, Cathay, or Ceres.
