Additional information about 邦
說文解字:
- Criteria
- CHINA
睡虎地秦墓竹簡 1978: 226 臣邦人不安秦主而欲去夏者, 勿許. 何謂夏 ? 欲去親屬是謂夏.
The words for China have this in common that they do NOT designate any one state. 中國 "the central states" is implicitly plural when it does not refer to the capital city. 諸夏 the various Xià (states)" is explicitly plural. The standard Imperium Romanum has no counterpart in Chinese until very late, unless one admits 天下 "all under Heaven" as a designation for the empire. But 天下 does not define any bounded empire. It remains to be seen exactly when a standard term for China was took shape. Compare the problems of finding a term for the Chinese language.
Based on 顧頡剛 & 王樹民, “ 夏 ” 和 “ 中國 ”— 祖國古代的稱號, Zhongguo lishi dili luncong, Vol. 1 (Xi'an, 1981), 6-22).
In the Shu and Shi sections relating to the early Zhou, 區夏 (= 夏區 ), 有夏 and 時夏 (= 是夏 ) refers to the place in which the Zhou established their capital after their conquest of Shang, in contradistinction to Zhou 掇 homeland in the West ( 西土 ) and the close Zhou allies ( 一二邦 ). The Zhou referred to their own domain as 烠 he central city-state � ( 中國 ). Since 中國 in this usage refers to the territory directly governed by the Zhou, it is singular and used in exchange with 京師 and in contradistinction with 四方 and 四國. Other states also referred to their capital regions as 啎什縕 (thus Wu in GY 19.09.01/618); a (perhaps late) variant of this word is 啎尹塹 (Yugong).
After becoming strong, the states enfeoffed by Zhou asserted the community with the 周 by commencing to refer to themselves as 堔 L �, leading to the plural designation 埣悎 L �, used in contrast with designations like 啈 i 狄�. The distinction between the two groups was viewed as cultural, and its precise reference shifted over time, originally excluding states (like 楚 ) from the community of 諸夏 but later including them, or including them in the beginning, whilst later excluding them (like 秦 ). Some of the non- 諸夏 states were viewed as subservient to 諸夏 states, others as their enemies. The membership of 楚 to the 諸夏 circle was always insecure; it was, so to speak, was"always on probation.
The 東夏 made up a subdivision of the 諸夏, including states such a 齊 and 魯.
In parallel with the 堔 L � appellations arose the 埽寊 appellations, 埽寊 on its own and 埣捄寊, and, the two words may well be cognate, the common 埽堮 L �.
In the Warring States period the cultural distinction gave way to a geographical distinction, and the 中國 states were now the state occupying the Central Plain
- TERRITORY
1. The current general term for an area is fāng 方.
2. Dì 地 refers to a well-defined bounded piece of territory.
3. Qū 區 typically refers to what is regarded as a subdivision of some territory, according to some criterion.
4. Yǔ 宇 typically refers to what is construed as a comprehensive unbounded area.
5. Yù 域 refers to a bounded large area under someone's political control, or belonging to someone as a habitat.
6. Bāng 邦 (primarily "state") can be used to refer in a dignified way to large tracts of land in so far as these are under the political control from some centre or capital. and occasionally the word is expanded to bāng yù 邦域 "territory".
7. Fēng 封 is an archaic word used to refer in a dignified way to large tracts of land in so far as these are under the political control from some centre or captial, and the special emphasis is on the bounded nature of this territory.
8. Jī 畿 refers to the metropolitan area or a central territory under the direct control of a ruler.
9. Tián 田 can be used to refer to bounded pieces of land belonging to someone.
- STATE
1. The dominant word is guó 國, and the word naturally focusses on the capital which defines the identity of the state, but from Warring States times the word does refer to the whole of the territory, as the term guó xiāo 國削 "the state was truncated" shows.
2. Bāng 邦 is an area-orientated old word referring to an extended state (see the early 大邦 ) without emphasising the leading role of a capital in that state, and the word was increasingly replaced by guó 國 even before taboo rules related to the name of Liú Bāng had their impact.
3. Tǔ 土 refers to territory as such, and occasionally comes to refer to the territory of a certain state, including one's own.
4. Fāng 方 refers to a region other than one's own state, and note particularly the old phrase 方國.
5. Tiān xià 天下 refers to the inhabited earth construed as dominated by the emperor or Son of Heaven, but by extension the expression also refers collectively to the the central states governed by the zhū hóu 諸侯. (NOTE THAT THE EMPIRE OF CHINA WAS NOT REGARDED AS A STATE.)
6. Guó jiā 國家 refers to the nation as a social institution dominated by a certain clan. See NATION.
7. Yì 邑 "capital" occasionally comes to refer to the state dominated by a certain city, its capital.
- NATION
1. The current standard word for the nation as represented by the leading families, and opposed to the state as mere territory and inhabitants, is guó jiā 國家.
2. Shè jì 社稷 refers to the altars of the land and grain as symbols of the nation.
3. Bāng guó 邦國 is an ancient general territorially focussed designation for a nation which continues in nostalgic use.
4. Zōng miào 宗廟 "ancestral temples" is the very common metonymic designation for the nation as a primarily ritual and perhaps even religious entity, and it is important that the symbolic reference to the buildings often remains relevant to the abstract meaning of the term.
- Word relations
- Contrast: (STATE)國/STATE
The dominant word is guó 國, and the word naturally focusses on the capital which defines the identity of the state, but from Warring States times the word does refer to the whole of the territory, as the term guó xiāo 國削 "the state was truncated" shows. - Contrast: (STATE)國家/NATION
The current standard word for the nation as represented by the leading families, and opposed to the state as mere territory and inhabitants, is guó jiā 國家. - Synon: (STATE)國/STATE
The dominant word is guó 國, and the word naturally focusses on the capital which defines the identity of the state, but from Warring States times the word does refer to the whole of the territory, as the term guó xiāo 國削 "the state was truncated" shows. - Oppos: (STATE)身/SELF
Shēn 身 typically refers to the subject in a contrastive way, and the word is often hard to distinguish from the nominal concept of a person. Adverbially, the word is different from PERSONALLY in that it does not connote distinction in the agent. - Oppos: (STATE)天下/WORLD
The current term for the inhabited earth is tiān xià 天下 "All under Heaven", the Greek oikoumenē. - Oppos: (STATE)鄉/REGION