Zhong 中 [Meet the Chinese Characters]

The Chinese character system is a vast world of characters. Self-contained, complex, yet systematic, and well-arranged. Compared with the real human world, the world created by the characters, whether measured by time or space, is more profound, vast and eternal. In such a vast world, one character has always been at its heart. “Zhong” (middle), a paramount character, marks the very origin of Chinese characters. It almost dominated the existence and operation of this world of characters. Many of the oracle bones unearthed at the Yin Dynasty Ruins have the characters “Lizhong” on them. Look at this hieroglyph. Some people say that the box in the middle represents territory, or the war drum. The character “Zhong” on this piece of oracle bone resembles a flag fluttering in the wind. Flags have had a military meaning since ancient times. During a war they were held by the kings for commanding the army. Therefore, “Zhong” symbolized power and represented authority. People in the Shang Dynasty saw the area inhabited by them as the center of the world surrounded by neighboring states. It established the earliest Chinese view of the world. Mount Song as the Middle Mountain is located in the west of He’nan Province 3000 years ago, people used the gnomon, to find this place which was neither the east nor the west, nor the south, nor the north. And it later became the center of the world in the minds of the ancient Chinese. When kings and flags gathered here the Central Plains became a place where the superpowers in the world fought for supremacy. Even the character itself had special military value. “Game of Thrones” of the Huaxia version started. Where did the word “China” come from? He zun, which was discovered by a farmer in Baoji, Shaanxi province in a soil precipice, in 1963. The inscription on it reads: After King Wu of the Zhou Dynasty conquered the Shang Dynasty, he announced to the world that he would live in “Zhong Guo” (China, central country) from then on. This is the earliest source of the origin of the word “China”. For thousands of years, the meaning of “China” had evolved from a desire to the name of a country, all because of the common perception of the people here. In all over the world, this continuity is the one and the only. “Is that OK?” “OK.” It is still a primary expression in the dialect of He’nan, a province in the Central Plains. “Zhong” means sure, certain, and affirmation. With time going by, the language may become strange. But the “China” in Chinese characters is always so confident and constant. And the words consisting of “Zhong” are becoming more brilliant. Thousands of years later, “Zhong” even became our philosophy and pursuit of life. The Chinese use “Zhongyong (Moderation)” to express their choice and principle. It means not too much, and not too little. It is like a limit value in mathematics, which can be approached unlimitedly, but can never be reached. Therefore, Confucius said: “Moderation cannot be achieved.” Even myself cannot reach it.