Dictionary

Central Plain en · PROPN

Etymology

central + plain: Calque from Chinese 中原 (Mandarin 中原 (Zhōngyuán),Zhōngyuán; Cantonese 中原 (zung¹ jyun⁴)).

Meanings

1. The region on the lower reaches of the Yellow River in China which formed the cradle of Chinese civilization.
   • Within the larger sphere of eastern Asia the Chinese people as we know it today is better defined by language and culture than in anthropological terms. In general a distinction of the physical type may be observed north and south of the Yangtze river, a boundary which corresponded in early times to a cultural division between the relatively advanced civilisation of the Central Plain and the more primitive south. 1961, William Watson, “Introduction”, in China Before the Han Dynasty (Ancient Peoples and Places), New York: Frederick A. Praeger, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 11:
   • “Wow, 1200 B.C. people are doing stuff like that and we think we’re so technically evolved,” she said. “It’s kind of humbling, actually.” Although there is evidence of bronze works at that time in China’s Central Plain, some 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) away, none come close to being this elaborate. 2014 October 17, John Rogers, “Rare ancient Chinese bronzes go on display in US”, in AP News, archived from the original on 14 Jun 2022:
   • ASIATIC civilization is the product of “Mesopotamias”, of great alluvial plains where the natural fertility of the soil stimulated man’s agricultural vocation. Such was the case of Babylon in western Asia; such is the case of the “Central Plain” of China in eastern Asia.[...]In the same way that Egypt, according to Herodotus, is a “gift of the Nile”, the Central Plain is a gift of the Yellow River and its tributaries. 1952, René Grousset, “Chinese Earth”, in The Rise and Splendour of the Chinese Empire, University of California Press, published 1970, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 9:
   • 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.” 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:
   • "It is possible that when barley was introduced from western Eurasia into the Central Plain of China, it came with the knowledge that the grain was a good ingredient for beer brewing," Wang told Live Science. "So it was not only the introduction of a new crop, but also the knowledge associated with the crop." 2016 May 24, Rachel Feltman, quoting Jiajing Wang, “Surprising ancient beer recipe revealed by Chinese pottery shards”, in The Washington Post, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 25 May 2016, Science:
   • The bronzes from a tomb of the Western Zhou at Yiqi, Tunxi, also have some of their own peculiar designs, such as a gui with a weaving pattern commonly seen on bamboo-woven articles of south China, but rarely encountered in the Central Plain. 1980, Li Xueqin, 中国青铜器的奥秘 [The Wonder of Chinese Bronzes], Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, →OCLC, page 77:
   • "In fact, the settlers of today's northwest China attempted to explore every way they could. When their eastbound march was thwarted by the early Central Plain dwellers, they simply found their way to the sparsely populated southern territory [because it was] easier and less hostile." 2012 December 9, “Grain finds in Yunnan province may shed light on a Bronze Age civilisation”, in South China Morning Post, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 12 Dec 2012, Archaeology:

Forms

Relateds

Zhongyuan

Translations (4)

nl Centrale Vlakte (region) · cmn 中原 (region) · fi keskitasanko (region) · ko 중원 (region)