Someone always asks in Xiaohongshu that the English name of the British Museum is very clear, it is British Museum, which translates to British Museum, or British Museum, why do we call it the British Museum in Chinese?
Is it because they are arrogant, or are we groveling?
This may seem like a funny question, but it's actually complicated. Because it is based on three cases;The first is how ancient China called itself. The second is how ancient Britain called itself. The third is how the two will call each other after they collide.
Let's start with China. The name of the state is different between the present and the people of the time. Contemporary people mainly call dynasty names, such as Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. But at that time, people were called country names, such as Da Liao, Da Jin, Da Yuan, Da Ming, and Da Qing. Although we have the names of Great Qin, Great Han, Great Tang, and Great Song today, this is not the official country name, the country name of Tang is Tang, and the country name of Song is Song. **The enlarged characters in front of the dynasty country name are from the Yuan Dynasty.
The reason why the Yuan Dynasty increased the number of characters is not very clear, but the dynasties established by foreign tribes generally like to call themselves big. For example, the Daxia of the Dangxiang people, the Daliao of the Khitan people, and the Dajin of the Jurchens. My guess is that maybe during the tribal period, they often called the Central Plains Dynasty like this, so when they founded the country, they also added big characters, such as the Great Qing Kingdom.
The National Book of the Great Qing Dynasty].
China has made it clear, let's talk about the UK.
Britain's official name today is the United Kingdom, and there is one point in particular importance in the complex process of union, the year 1707. From this year, the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England united to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, also known as the Kingdom of the greatest Britian. The reason for this name is very simple, the area where Britain and Ireland are located today is called the British Isles, and the earliest meaning of the word Britain is a group of islands with their own names, and the largest of them is called Great Britain. Because Scotland and England basically occupied the island after the merger, the island name was used to refer to the name of the country. It has nothing to do with colonial history or arrogance.
Act of Union of 1707].
But whether it is the Kingdom of England, the Kingdom of Scotland, or later the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United Kingdom. The British never named themselves England, or Great Britain. So how did the British come about, this has to start from the Ming Dynasty.
The first time the Chinese emperor learned about England was in 1601, when the Italian missionary Matteo Ricci presented the "Map of Mountains and Seas" to the Myojin Sect. The map was later renamed "Kunyu Wanguo Quantu". When Ricci drew the drawing, England and Scotland had not yet been merged, so Ricci translated England as Elia and Scottish as Scotland. It was also translated as Hibamuda in Ireland and Bolinri in Wales.
Matteo Ricci's drawings were transmitted to Japan after coloring
Kunyu Wanguo Quantu].
Twenty years later, in 1623, the Italian missionary Julius wrote the Outer Chronicles of the Ministry in Chinese, in which Matteo Ricci's translation was still used. Later, there were more and more British merchants, and the Qing Dynasty gradually figured out the difference between the British and the Dutch. Began to use the Ying Gui Li, the Ying Ji Li,