Names for China - history?

[Zhende ma?]

What is the origin and history for the names of China? (I'm assuming they don't predate the Qin dynasty?)

e.g.

中国

中华

神州

[Claw]

This wikipedia article has some explanations.

[marcopolo79]

According to what I've learned, the term 中國 is derived from the fact that the earliest centers of Chinese civilization were on the lower reaches of the Yellow River. As the culture gradually spread away from the locus of the original 夏,商,and 周 dynasties, the states occupying the this central area (i.e.魯,齊,宋,周,魏)initially used the term 中國 to refer to their position relative to the states on the extremity of the Chinese world (such as 秦,燕, and 楚) as well as to bolster their claims to achieving hegemony over the other states. Eventually this term included all of those lands which contained Chinese civilization.

The term was in use, according to what I remember, from the beginning of the 春秋時代 (better check a 辭海 or other comprehensive dictionary to be sure), I don't know why you would assume that these terms appeared only after the unification of China, the notion of a unified state had been a goal of every major actor that appeared on the scene since the decline of the 周. Even though there was no single polity which could be called 中國 the term was already extant. Additionally, I think the succession of dynasties that proceeded the 秦 always referred to themselves and the land they controlled by the dynastic name (i.e. 大明 ,大清, etc.)

[holyman]

中国 means capital city in the beginning. ancient ppl have no idea of what a 'country' is like. names are more geographical than political. during spring and fall era they used 夏夷 to differentiate btw the ppl around the yellow river from the nomads