震旦
Meanings
CC-CEDICT
- 1.ancient Indian name for China
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Wiktionary
- 1.The name for China in ancient Indian records and some Chinese Buddhist texts.
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Etymology
First attested in the 3ʳᵈ–4ᵗʰ centuries CE. Borrowed from Sanskrit चीनस्थान (cīnasthāna), or a name etymologically related; compare Sogdian [script needed] (cynstʾn /*čīnastan/), Persian چینستان, Armenian Չինաստան (Čʻinastan), Ancient Greek Τζίνιστα (Tzínista). Folk etymology interprets the this word orthographically, as a compound of 震 (zhèn, “one of the Eight Trigrams; the East”) + 旦 (dàn, “dawn; the direction of sunrise”), in reference to China's eastward position relative to India. For example, the Buddhist reference work Collection of Meanings and Terms in Translation (翻譯名義集) [12th century CE] has the following passage on the origin of this term: : More discussion on the etymology of Zhèndàn can be found in Notes on Marco Polo (Vol. 1).
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Stroke order
Components
Components from cjk-decomp · MIT
Characters
More examples & usage (AI)
Synonyms
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