Middle Kingdom

Calque of Chinese 中國／中国 (Zhōngguó).

the Middle Kingdom

1. (literary) China.
   • 1669, John Nievhoff, translated by John Ogilby, An Embassy from the Eaſt-India Company of the United Provinces, to the Grand Tartar Cham Emperour of China‎, London: John Macock, →OCLC, pages 4–5:

     But though this Kingdom of China doth often change its Lord and Name, the Chineſes however have time out of mind called it by two other particular names, as Chungchoa, and Chungque ; the firſt whereof ſignifies The Middle Kingdom ; and the other, the Middle Garden.

   • 1964, Sherman E. Lee, “Urban Civilization and the Indus Valley; Neolithic and Pre-Shang China”, in A History of Far Eastern Art‎, New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 23, columns 1, 2:

     The meeting point of the plateau and the plains is just east of the first great bend of the Yellow River. Significantly, it is at the central meeting point that we have the coalescence of the three cultures which produced the developed Shang culture. This area, known to the Chinese as Chung Yuan, or central plain, has always been the heartland of the “Middle Kingdom.”

   • 1999, “Beijing”, in The Book of the World, 2nd United States edition (Atlas), Macmillan, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 367:

     Genghis Khan initiated Beijing's nearly 800-year dominance over the Middle Kingdom. The city's current population numbers ten million people, far more than lived here in 1215 A.D. when the Mongol warlord conquered the strategically significant power center of Yanying and built Khanbalik, his new residence.

   • 2017 October 26, Jennifer Saba, “Breakingviews - Viewsroom: China's leader cements his power”, in Reuters‎, archived from the original on 26 July 2022, Breakingviews:

     President Xi Jinping emerged stronger at the end of China’s Communist Party Congress. His desire to consolidate control however may not help his plans to keep the Middle Kingdom’s economic engine humming.

   • 2022 March 22, Charles Pellegrin, Claire Hopes, Agnès Le Cossec, Laura Welfringer WELFRINGER, “China sticks to zero-Covid policy: Tens of millions endure new lockdown”, in France 24‎, archived from the original on 22 March 2022:

     After first appearing in China more than two years ago, Covid-19 has returned to the Middle Kingdom. The country had largely succeeded in keeping infection and mortality rates in check.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Middle Kingdom.

Calque of German Mittleres Reich, eventually displacing Middle Empire, an older calque of the same term. Coined c. 1840 as part of a periodization of Ancient Egyptian history into Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms.

the Middle Kingdom

1. (historical) Egypt from the time of its reunification under Mentuhotep II in the 11th Dynasty (ending the First Intermediate Period) to its disintegration during the 13th Dynasty and the beginning of the Second Intermediate Period.