How did ancient China get its name from its first dynasties?
The Name That Escaped
How did ancient China get its name from its first dynasties?
Here's a small mystery hiding inside a word you say all the time. When you say "China," you're actually echoing the name of a dynasty that crumbled away more than two thousand years ago. The country and its people don't even call it that. So where did "China" come from? Let's follow the trail.
For most of its history, China wasn't one country at all. It was a patchwork of small kingdoms, each with its own ruler, fighting and bargaining like neighbors arguing over a fence. Then, a little over 2,200 years ago, one of those kingdoms swallowed all the others. Its name was Qin — and you say it like "chin."
