Han
Language: English
Part of speech: name
Pronunciation: ipa: /hæn/
ipa: /hɑn/
enpr: hän
rhymes: -æn
rhymes: -ɑn
Forms: form: Hàn
Etymology: An early romanization of the Mandarin 漢 /汉 (Hàn), later reinforced by Wade-Giles and pinyin. Originally a river within present-day Shaanxi and Hubei. As a Chinese dynasty, from the founder Liu Bang's short-lived realm in Sichuan and Shaanxi among China's Eighteen Kingdoms, named for the Qin Empire's Hanzhong Commandery, headquartered in a city which also became known as Hanzhong, named for its placement along the middle reaches of the river.
The usage for the Chinese ethnicity first appeared during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, claiming the Han dynasty as one of the golden ages of Chinese history.
Senses: examples: text: According to the hair-dress it is probably that of a woman. There are some 102 slight traces of polychromy on the white slip. Other heads possessing similar qualities were dug up from early Han tombs in Pao-chi district, Shensi Province.
ref: 1950, Lubor Hájek, Chinese Art, Czechoslovakia: Spring Books, →OCLC, page 41:
text: The eclectism of political thought during the Han is reflected in Liu Hsiang's evaluation of Shang Yang.
ref: 1977, Li Yu-ning, Shang Yang's Reforms and State Control in China, M. E. Sharpe, page xxxiii:
text: Ai quickly became renowned for provocative works, which included smashing a million-dollar Han Dynasty Urn in 1995.
ref: 2021 November 26, Elizabeth Grenier, “Ai Weiwei on surviving captivity”, in Deutsche Welle, archived from the original on 26 Nov 2021, Arts:
glosses: An imperial Chinese dynasty, ruling (with interruptions) from 206 BC to AD 220, marked by the expansion of the Yellow River's Huaxia culture to the recent conquests of the Qin and a flowering of economic, literary, and scientific development
examples: text: Trade was the major economic link between Tibet and other regions in China. Special economic systems (estate, serfdom) made it impossible for Han immigrants to engage in agriculture and animal husbandry in Tibet. The geographic features of the plateau (high elevation, rarefied air, mountains, etc.) limited the volume of trade and migration between Tibet and other regions.
ref: 1995, Rong Ma, edited by Calvin Goldscheider, Economic Patterns, Migration, and Ethnic Relationships in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China (Population, Ethnicity, and Nation-Building), Westview Press, →ISBN, page 50:
text: According to the 2000 census, the Han make up 92 percent of China's population; the minority groups combine for about 8 percent (about 106 million people).
ref: 2006, Sheila Hollihan-Elliot, Muslims in China, Mason Crest Publishers, →ISBN, page 55:
text: “The people of both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to the Chinese nation, are children of Yandi and the Yellow Emperor,” he told a group of Chinese and Taiwanese reporters who had been allowed to follow him on the trip, referring to mythical emperors revered as founders of China’s dominant Han ethnicity.
ref: 2023 March 29, Han Guan Ng, Huizhong Wu, Olivia Zhang, “Former Taiwan leader Ma views Sun Yat-sen tomb in China tour”, in AP News, archived from the original on 28 Mar 2023:
glosses: The Chinese ethnicity, when distinguished from other peoples of the Chinese state
examples: text: Hankow, China, is located 600 miles from the coast, on the north bank of the Yang-tse-Kiang River, at its junction with the Han River.
ref: 1902 January 5, L. S. Wilcox, “Conditions in Hankow.; American Trade on the Pacific and the far East”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 18 Sep 2023, ANNUAL, page 23:
text: “By transferring such a significant volume of water away from the Han River Basin, the project is depriving the area of the most basic input it will need to develop in the years and decades to come,” said Britt Crow-Miller, a research assistant professor at Portland State University.[…]
The Danjiangkou reservoir gets its water from the Han River, a tributary of the Yangtze River which feeds several major cities in central China such as Wuhan, an economic power house in Hubei province sporting a $144 billion GDP.
ref: 2014 September 9, Stian Reklev, Kathy Chen, “Quenching Beijing's thirst may stunt regional growth”, in Michael Perry, editor, Reuters, archived from the original on 27 May 2022, Industry, Materials and Utilities:
glosses: A river in central China.
Synonyms: english: ethnicity
translation: ethnicity
word: Han Chinese
Derived terms: Han character
Han dynasty
Han ideograph
Han letter
Han logograph
Han radical
Han syllable
Related terms: hanzi
hanja
kanji
Hán tự
Chinese character
Chinese ideograph
Chinese letter
Chinese logogram
Chinese radical
Chinese syllable