Britishnicknames
Thespecificmeaningandsourceofthistermarequitecontroversial.Thegenerallyagreedviewsareasfollows:
1.ReferstothethreepartsoftheBritishIslesofGreatBritain,namely:England,ScotlandandWales.ItcanbederivedfromthecorruptionoftheChinesename"TheThreeWaysofEngland"("Dao"isalargeadministrativedivisionunitinancientChina).Thisisalsothemostacceptedinterpretation.
2.ReferstotheentireterritoryoftheUnitedKingdomintheBritishIsles,namely:GreatBritainisoneisland,Irelandisoneisland(currentBritishterritoryonlyincludesthenortheasternpartoftheIsleofIreland),theIsleofManandothersmallislandsTheislandiscollectivelycalledanisland.Irelandisindependentafterthewordappears.Therefore,thereisaviewthatthetranslationas"BritishIslands"ismoreaccurate.
3.ReferstoEngland,ScotlandandNorthernIreland(allofthemendinLANDinEnglish).ThinkofWalesaspartofEngland,andtreatGreatBritainastwoconnectedislands.
4.Somepeoplealsothinkthatthe"BritishIsles"shouldoriginallyrefertothethreeterritoriesoftheBritishKings,butthelattergenerallyrefertotheUnitedKingdom.ThethreeBritishterritoriesare:Guernsey,Jersey,andMan(IsleofManisnowasemi-autonomousregionoftheCommonwealth).
Theevolutionofthename
1.MingDynastydocuments
Thename"BritishIslands"appearedinthelateMingDynasty.However,withthechangesintheterritoryandadministrativedivisionsoftheUnitedKingdom,itwillnolongerbeusedinfuturegenerations.
Thereisaparagraphinthe"ExternalRecordsoftheStaff"(publishedinthethirdyearoftheApocalypse(1623))writtenbytheItalianJesuitpriestAluri(1582-1649):Intheareatotheicyseaislands,thosewhoareextremelylargearefamiliarwithElia,andtherearehundredsofsmallislandsoutsidetheUniversityofLanzhou...Thereare30hospitalsintwoinstitutes"(Volume2"OlumbaGeneralTalk·NorthwestSeaIslands")(inwhich"Elia"is"AngliaofEngland"and"ItalianUniversity"is"IrlandIrlanda").
Accordingtotheanalysisofscholars,the"ThreeDao"in"ZhiFangWaiJi"mayrefertotheunderstandingoftheadministrativedivisionsoftheKingdomofEnglandbyotherEuropeancountriesatthattime(midandlate16thcentury),namely,EnglandandWalesAndCornwallinthreeparts.JudgingfromEuropeanhistoricaldocuments,thetheoryoftheThreeWayswasfoundbeforethe17thcentury.BythetimeEnglandandScotlandwereofficiallymergedin1707,the"ThreeIslesofEngland"hadgoneintooblivion.
Second,YongandQianliterature
DuringtheyearsofYongandQianinthecenturyafter"ZhiFangWaiJi",the"threeislands"appearedTeachingthelaw.The"HaiGuoWenJianLu"publishedintheeighthyearofYongzheng(1730)wasalsoincludedintheHistoryDepartmentof"SiKuQuanShu".ItwascompiledbyChenLunjiongbasedonhisfatherChenAngandhisownexperience,plusacollectionofcollectedmaterials.."HaiGuoWenJianLu"hasonlyafewsimplesentences:"Britain,aircraftandLebanonareonecountry,andthreeislandsareinthesea(referringtoDenmark),HuangQi(referringtoGermany),theNetherlands,andFrancis(referringtoFrance)......"(see"TheAtlantic").Thestrangethingisthatthepictureinthebookonlydrawstwoislands,butthetextsaysthattherearethreeislands.Itisunknownwhetherithasbeenaffectedbytheconceptofthe"ThreeDao".Ontheotherhand,theChinesebookswrittenbyWesterners,whetheritisAleniorGutzlaff'sbook"TheUnificationofGreatBritain"in1834,showthatthereareonlytwomainBritishislands:AllthreepartiesarefacingFrancisacrosstheseafromthesouth..."(see"TheHistoryofGreatBritain").
3.Post-OpiumWarDocuments
TheChinesebooksanddocumentsofanothercenturyafter"HaiGuoWenJianLu"unanimouslycallBritaintheThreeIslands.Atthattime,Irelandofficiallybecamepartofthe"UnitedKingdomofGreatBritainandIreland"in1801.AftertheOpiumWar,thereweretwoChinesebooksthatintroducedwesternthings:
(1)LiangTingzhan,whoworkedattheGuangdongCustomsinthe24thyearofDaoguang(1844),"readsthegiftofhomeandlearnsfromthepast.""Writtenas"TheFourNarrativesoftheSeaCountry",thereisthisdescription:"ThecountryiscalledEngland...alsocalledEngland...Thethreeislandsarehangingtogether...allthefifty-threebooksareallEnglandTheoldlandisalso...Inaddition,therearerenewalofthetwoplaces.TheyareonthesameislandasLanlun,andtheonewithHongKongiscalledSkullen(referringtoScotland),andtheonewhoseparatesfromtheislandiscalledEllen(referringtoIreland).Intheoldcountry,thebranchofficeisjustlikethehomecountry...AccordingtotheBritishcommentarywrittenbythepeopleofNewJiapo,thetwoislandsofYunlundunandSuzhouarenamedastheEnglishextensionof261,000squaremiles,ErlanIsland.Ninety-sixthousandsquaremiles..."LanlunOccasion:VolumeTwo"English...ThreeislandsarelonelyintheAtlanticOcean,andthetwoislandsareconnectedtoeachotherintheeastandcalledEngland,andthenorthiscalledSkylan......TheWestIslandistheErlan..."LanLunOuShuo·VolumeFour""
Thetheoryof"BritishIsles"emerges."Lanlun"inthetextreferstoLondon,andreferstothecountryasthecapital."Fifty-three"refersto39countiesinEnglandplus13countiesinWales.LiangTingzhanmistakenlyincludedtheIsleofManasthe"oldlandofallEngland".Inaddition,ScotlandandIrelandareaddedtoformtheso-called"ThreeIslands".(2)Inthetwenty-eighthyearofDaoguang(1848),XuJishe's"YinghuanZhilue"becameareferencebookforofficialsfromthelateQingDynastywhentheywentabroad,anditwasquiteinfluentialinthatera.XuJishewrote:"English,thepowerfulcountryofEuropa,isbasedonthethreeislandslonelyintheAtlanticOcean.Thetwoislandsareconnectedtotheeast,EnglandinthesouthandScotlandinthenorth.Thetwoislandsareabouttwothousandnorthandsouth.Li...TheWestIslandiscalledArland..."
LiangTingzhanandXuJishebothsaidthatScotlandandEnglandare"connected".Thiskindofunfoundedstatementisunknownwhetheritisintendedtoexplainthecontradictionbetweenthethreeislandsinnameandtheactualtwoislands?OrdoyoumisunderstandthepoliticalunionofEnglandandScotlandasconnectingthetwo"islands"?
Note:ItisnotwithoutanybasisthatthetwoislandsofScotlandandEnglandareconnected.ThereisaTyneRiverbetweenScotlandandEngland,whichbasicallyrunsthroughtheBritishIslesfromwesttoeast.TothenorthoftheriverisHadrian’sWallbuiltbytheRomanEmpire,whichwasthedividinglinebetweenScotlandandEnglandinancienttimes.Therefore,itisnotnecessarytosaythatEnglandandScotlandareconnectedbytwoislands.
Four.OfficialDocumentsoftheLateQingDynasty
OfficialdocumentsoftheLateQingDynastyandtherecordsofoverseasofficials,theyalltalkedaboutthethreeislands.AnothernameforBritain.
1.ThememorialofLiHongzhangatthebeginningofGuangxu:
......ThefoundingoftheUnitedKingdominthethreeislandsintheseaisveryrichinproducts,"Zhijingopened"Minerals"
2.InthethirdyearofGuangxu(1877),thePrimeMinister’sYamenrespondedtoGuoSongtao’smanuscriptsandsaid:
......BritainIIIThereisnoChinesebusinessontheisland,andthereisnowaytosetupaconsulate."TosetupaconsulateinSingapore"
3.XueFuchengwroteinthe17thyearofGuangxu(1892):
......TheBritishMinistryofHouseholdsaccountedforatotalof35trillionand246,000fivehundredpeopleonthethreeislands.
TheBritishIsles(5photos)
Inmodernlanguage,therearemorethan35,246,500people.NowitispossibletousefigurestoverifywhatisincludedinXueFucheng's"ThreeIslands".ExaminetheofficialcensusdataoftheBritishVictorianEra:35,026,108in1881;37,880,764in1891.XueFucheng's"BritishDepartmentofHouseholdAccounting"seemstobeanestimatebetweenthetwocensusyearsof1881and1891.SincethepopulationofIrelandwasabout5millionatthattime,XueFucheng'snumbermustincludeIreland.Therefore,thethreeislandsdescribedbytheenvoyofthelateQingDynastyarealltheislandsofGreatBritainandIreland.Five.Widespreaduse
Factshavebeen"BritishIsles"asthenicknameofBritainsincethelateQingDynasty.FromthearticlesofKangYouwei,LiangQichao,SunYat-sen,ZhangAiling,ZhuZiqing,XiaoQianandothers,theterm"BritishThreeIslands"canbeseen.SometimestheWestern"Britishthreeislands"areonparwiththeEastern"Japanesethreeislands".AsearlyasinChenLunjiong's"HearingsontheSea",IhaveseentheteachingsofMishimaofJapan.HuangZunxianwenttoJapanwiththechiefofficialin1877,andwrote"TheHistoryofJapan",saying:ThecountryofthethreeislandsofJapanseemstobeBritish..."Bingzhi".
WhenSunYat-sentalkedaboutthe"ThreePrinciplesofthePeople"in1924,the"threeislands"oftheEastandtheWestwerejuxtaposed:
......TheterritoryoccupiedwasnothingbuttheThreeGreatBritainIslands,likeEngland,ScotlandandIreland.ThepositionofthethreeislandsintheAtlanticislikeJapaninthePacific."Nationalism·FourthLecture"
......TheBritishtreatsterritories,andtheymakegooduseofconcessionstocomplywiththetrendofcivilrights..Forexample,IrelandisthelandofthethreeBritishislands.Inthebeginning,theUnitedKingdomusedforcetooppressthe"CivilRightsFourthLecture".Thefoodproducedisonlyenoughforthreemonths...TheJapanesecountryofthethreeislandsintheeastdoesnothaveenoughfoodeveryyear."People'sLivelihood·ThirdLecture"
"Mishima"undoubtedlyreferstoAcombinationofEngland,Scotland,andIreland.EventheBritishflagismadebyoverlappingtheflagsofthethreeplaces.Itseemsthatinthepastitwasbecausetheydidn'tunderstandEuropeangeography,soIassumeditwasmistakenforthe"threeislands".Later,XiFeichengbecamethesame,andeventheeasternandwestern"threeislands"wereonthesamelevel.Theso-calledislandherenolongermeansisland.
IntroductiontotheTerritory
TheterritoryoftheUnitedKingdomismainlycomposedofthenortheasternpartofIrelandandtheentireGreatBritainIslandandsurroundingislands.Itisdividedintofourregions:Scotland,Wales,NorthernIreland,andEngland.Amongthem,NorthernIrelandislocatedontheislandofIreland,andtheotherthreeregionsarelocatedonthemainlandofGreatBritain.