The collection of fortifications now known as "The Great Wall of China" has historically had a number of different names in both Chinese and English.
In Chinese histories, the term "Long Wall(s)" (長城, changcheng) appears in Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian, where it referred to both the separate great walls built between and north of the Warring States and to the more unified construction of the First Emperor.[7] The Chinese character 城 is a phono-semantic compound of the "place" or "earth" radical 土 and 成, whose Old Chinese pronunciation has been reconstructed as *deŋ.[8] It originally referred to the rampart which surrounded traditional Chinese cities and was used by extension for these walls around their respective states; today, however, it is much more often simply the Chinese word for "city".[9]
The current Chinese name "Ten-Thousand-Mile Long Wall" (萬里長城, Wanli Changcheng) came from Sima …show more content…
Because of the wall's association with the First Emperor's supposed tyranny, the Chinese dynasties after Qin usually avoided referring to their own additions to the wall by the name "Long Wall".[14] Instead, various terms were used in medieval records, including "frontier(s)" (塞, sāi),[15] "rampart(s)" (垣, yuán),[15] "barrier(s)" (障, zhàng),[15] "the outer fortresses" (外堡, wàibǎo),[16] and "the border wall(s)" (t 邊牆, s 边墙, biānqiáng).[14] Poetic and informal names for the wall included "the Purple Frontier" (紫塞, Zǐsāi)[17] and "the Earth Dragon" (t 土龍, s 土龙, Tǔlóng).[18] Only during the Qing period did "Long Wall" become the catch-all term to refer to the many border walls regardless of their location or dynastic origin, equivalent to the English "Great Wall".[19]
The current English name evolved from accounts of "the Chinese wall" from early modern European travelers.[19] By the 19th century,[19] "The Great Wall of China" had become standard in English, French, and German, although other European languages continued to refer to it as "the Chinese
In Chinese histories, the term "Long Wall(s)" (長城, changcheng) appears in Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian, where it referred to both the separate great walls built between and north of the Warring States and to the more unified construction of the First Emperor.[7] The Chinese character 城 is a phono-semantic compound of the "place" or "earth" radical 土 and 成, whose Old Chinese pronunciation has been reconstructed as *deŋ.[8] It originally referred to the rampart which surrounded traditional Chinese cities and was used by extension for these walls around their respective states; today, however, it is much more often simply the Chinese word for "city".[9]
The current Chinese name "Ten-Thousand-Mile Long Wall" (萬里長城, Wanli Changcheng) came from Sima …show more content…
Because of the wall's association with the First Emperor's supposed tyranny, the Chinese dynasties after Qin usually avoided referring to their own additions to the wall by the name "Long Wall".[14] Instead, various terms were used in medieval records, including "frontier(s)" (塞, sāi),[15] "rampart(s)" (垣, yuán),[15] "barrier(s)" (障, zhàng),[15] "the outer fortresses" (外堡, wàibǎo),[16] and "the border wall(s)" (t 邊牆, s 边墙, biānqiáng).[14] Poetic and informal names for the wall included "the Purple Frontier" (紫塞, Zǐsāi)[17] and "the Earth Dragon" (t 土龍, s 土龙, Tǔlóng).[18] Only during the Qing period did "Long Wall" become the catch-all term to refer to the many border walls regardless of their location or dynastic origin, equivalent to the English "Great Wall".[19]
The current English name evolved from accounts of "the Chinese wall" from early modern European travelers.[19] By the 19th century,[19] "The Great Wall of China" had become standard in English, French, and German, although other European languages continued to refer to it as "the Chinese