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Zhonghua minzu (w=Chung1-hua2 min2-tsu2) is a political term in modern Chinese nationalism related to the concepts of nation-building, ethnicity, and race in the Chinese nationality. Collectively, the term refers to the 56 ethnic groups of China, but being a part of the Zhonghua minzu does not mean one must have Chinese nationality (p=Zhōngguó guójí) and thus have an obligation to be loyal to the People's Republic of China (PRC).
Zhonghua minzu was established during the early Beiyang (1912–1927) periods to include Han Chinese people and four major non-Han ethnic groups: the Manchu people, Mongols, Hui people, and Tibetan people, under the notion of a republic of five races (). Conversely, Sun Yat-sen and the Kuomintang (KMT) envisioned it as a unified composite of Han and non-Han people. It differs from the word Hanzu (), a word is only used to refer to the Han Chinese.
Zhonghua minzu was initially rejected in the People's Republic of China (PRC) but resurrected after the death of Mao Zedong to include Han Chinese alongside 55 other ethnic groups as a collective Chinese family. Since the late 1980s, the most fundamental change of the PRC's nationalities and minorities policies is the renaming from to , signalling a shift away from a multinational communist people's statehood of China to one multi-ethnic Chinese nation state with one single Chinese national identity.
Dulimbai gurun () is the Manchu name for China. It has the same meaning as the Chinese name . Hauer 2007 , p. 117. Dvořák 1895 , p. 80. Wu 1995 , p. 102. The Qing identified their state as "China" (Zhongguo), and referred to it as Dulimbai Gurun in Manchu. The Qing equated the lands of the Qing state, including present day Manchuria, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Tibet and other areas as "China" in both the Chinese and Manchu languages, defining China as a multi ethnic state, rejecting the idea that China only meant Han areas, proclaiming that both Han and non-Han peoples were part of China, using "China" to refer to the Qing in official documents, international treaties, and foreign affairs, and the 'Chinese language' ( Dulimbai gurun i bithe) referred to Chinese, Manchu, and Mongol languages, and the term Zhongguo zhi ren (中國之人; Dulimbai gurun-i niyalma 'Chinese people') referred to all Han, Manchu, and Mongol subjects of the Qing.
When the Qing conquered Dzungaria in 1759, they proclaimed that the new land was absorbed into China ( Dulimbai gurun) in a Manchu language memorial. Dunnell 2004 , p. 77. Dunnell 2004 , p. 83. Elliott 2001 , p. 503. The Qing expounded on their ideology that they were bringing together the "outer" non-Han like the Mongols and Tibetans, together with the "inner" Han Chinese, into "one family" united in the Qing state, showing that the diverse subjects of the Qing were all part of one family, the Qing used the phrase or , to convey the idea of a unification of the different peoples. Dunnell 2004 , pp. 76–77. A Manchu language version of a treaty with the Russian Empire concerning criminal jurisdiction over bandits called people from the Qing as "people of the central kingdom ( Dulimbai gurun)". Cassel 2011 , p. 205. Cassel 2012 , p. 205. Cassel 2011 , p. 44. Cassel 2012 , p. 44. In the Manchu official Tulisen's Manchu language account of his meeting with the Torghut Mongol leader Ayuka Khan, it was mentioned that while the Torghuts were unlike the Russians, the "people of the Central Kingdom" ( dulimba-i gurun) were like the Torghut Mongols, and the "people of the Central Kingdom" referred to the Manchus. Perdue 2009 , p. 218.
Before the rise of nationalism people were generally loyal to the city-state, the feudal fief and its lord or, in the case of China, to a dynastic state. While Qing rulers adopted the Han Chinese imperial model and considered their state as Zhongguo (w=Chung1-kuo2, the term for China in Standard Chinese), and the name "China" was commonly used in international communications and treaties such as the Treaty of Nanking, some Han nationalism such as Sun Yat-sen initially described the Manchus as "foreign invaders" to be expelled, and planned to establish a Han nation-state modelled closely after Germany and Japan. Fearing that this restrictive view of the ethnic nation-state would result in the loss of large parts of imperial territory, Chinese nationalists discarded this concept. The abdication of the Qing emperor inevitably led to controversy about the status of territories in Tibet and Mongolia. While the emperor formally bequeathed all the Qing territories to the new republic, it was the position of Mongols and Tibetans that their allegiance had been to the Qing monarch; with the abdication of the Qing, they owed no allegiance to the new Chinese state. This was rejected by the Republic of China and subsequently the People's Republic of China.
This development in Chinese thinking was mirrored in the expansion of the meaning of the term Zhonghua minzu. Originally coined by the late Qing philologist Liang Qichao, Zhonghua minzu initially referred only to the Han Chinese. It was then expanded to include the Five Races Under One Union, based on the ethnic categories of the Qing.
The concept of Zhonghua minzu was first publicly espoused by President Yuan Shikai in 1912, shortly after the overthrow of the Qing dynasty and the founding of the Republic of China. Facing the imminent independence of Outer Mongolia from China, Yuan Shikai stated, "Outer Mongolia is part of Zhonghua minzu the and has been of one family for centuries" ().
Sun Yat-sen further elaborated the concept, as expressed, for example, in a 1920 speech:
After the founding of the PRC, the concept of Zhonghua minzu became influenced by Soviet nationalities policy. Officially, the PRC is a unitary state composed of 56 ethnic groups, of which the Han are by far the largest. The concept of Zhonghua minzu is seen as an all-encompassing category consisting of people within the borders of the PRC.
This term has continued to be invoked and remains a powerful concept in China into the 21st century. In mainland China, it continues to hold use as the leaders of China need to unify into one political entity a highly diverse set of ethnic and social groups as well as to mobilize the support of overseas Chinese in developing China. The term is included in article 22 of the Regulations on United Front Work of the Chinese Communist Party: "...promote national unity and progress, and enhance the identification of the masses of all ethnic groups with the great motherland, the Chinese nation ( Zhonghua minzu), Chinese culture, the Communist Party of China, and socialism with Chinese characteristics." Zhonghua minzu is also one of the five identifications.
In Taiwan, it has been invoked by former President Ma Ying-jeou as a unifying concept that includes the people of both Taiwan and mainland China without a possible interpretation that Taiwan is part the People's Republic of China, whereas terms such as "Chinese people" can be, given that the PRC is commonly known as "China".
The concept of Zhonghua minzu nevertheless also leads to the reassessment of the role of many traditional hero figures. Heroes such as Yue Fei and Zheng Chenggong, who were originally often considered to have fought for China against barbarian incursions, have been re-characterized by some as minzu yingxiong ('ethnic heroes') who fought not against barbarians but against other members of the Zhonghua minzu—the Jurchens and Manchus respectively. At the same time, China exemplified heroes such as Genghis Khan, who became a national hero as a member of the Zhonghua minzu.
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