Learn one Chinese Character a day - "中"

China is called "中国" in Chinese. "中" is the Chinese character we will learn today. "国" means Country. After you understand the meaning of "中", you will see that our Chinese never think our country as a place produces china.

Let us see the evolution history of "中" as usual. (image get from http://www.vividict.com)

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "中"

 Early stage of Oracle script , we can see that it is composed of two army flags , with an indicator symbol  at middle of the two flags (we will seeas indicator in lots of Chinese characters.). It means "the middle place between two armies". Chinese ancestors added another two dotsbesides the indicator symbolto mean that these two armies are confronting each other. As you can see that the original meaning of  is "the middle place between two confronting armies", or we can consider it as "demilitarized zone between  two confronting armies".
Another Oracle script  , is to represent a flag  to be erected at the center of a town . Normally town built in China is square shape (口). is the outlook of a town with flag seen from a distance.

Later stage of Oracle script,  is simplified to  with a flagpoleto replace flag .


 is very close to what we are using now. "中".

During Bronze script period, there were still three ways of writing of "中". Thanks to Qin Shihuang, who unified the Chinese writing, starting from Seal script and Official script, there is only one way of writing - .

When "中" is a noun, it is to mean Center, Interior, or Middle.
Since "中" has the meaning of Middle or Center, it is extended to mean Average or Middle as adj.
And when "中" is used as verb, it is also to mean Achieve (follow) or Hit the Mark (follow ).

"中国" is then to mean a country at the center of the world.

Now let us enjoy a Chinese calligraphy with "中" inside:

Learn one Chinese Character a day - "中"