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Notes For The Granddaughters
I'm still in my "China phase." Absolutely fascinating.
From wiki, two items.
First:
Zhōngguó is the most common sinitic name for China in modern times.
The first appearance of 中國 on an artifact was in the Western Zhou on a ritual vessel known as He zun.
It is formed by combining the characters zhōng (中) meaning "central" or "middle", and guó (國/国), representing "state" or "states"; in contemporary usage, "nation".
Prior to the Qin unification of China "Zhongguo" referred to the "Central States"; the connotation was the primacy of a culturally distinct core area, centered on the Yellow River valley, as distinguished from the tribal periphery.
In later periods, however, "Zhongguo" was not used in this sense.
Dynastic names were used for the state in Imperial China and concepts of the state aside from the ruling dynasty were little understood.
Rather, the country was called by the name of the dynasty, such as "Han dynasty" (Hanchao 漢朝), "Tang dynasty" (Tangchao 唐朝), "The Great Ming" (Daming 大明), "The Great Qing" (Daqing 大清), as the case might be. Until the 19th century when the international system came to require a common legal language, there was no need for a fixed or unique name.Second:
The English translation of "Zhongguo" as the "Middle Kingdom" entered European languages through the Portuguese in the 16th century and became popular in the mid 19th century.
By the mid 20th century the term was thoroughly entrenched in the English language to reflect the Western view of China as the inwards looking Middle Kingdom, or more accurately the Central Kingdom.
Endymion Wilkinson points out that the Chinese were not unique in thinking of their country as central, although China was the only culture to use the concept for their name.
The term Zhongguo was also not commonly used as a name for China until quite recently, nor did it mean the "Middle Kingdom" to the Chinese, or even have the same meaning throughout the course of history.For our marine biologist, from wiki:
A polynya is an area of open water surrounded by sea ice.
It is now used as geographical term for an area of unfrozen sea within the ice pack.
It is a loanword from Russian: полынья (polynya) Russian pronunciation: [pəɫɨˈnʲja], which refers to a natural ice hole, and was adopted in the 19th century by polar explorers to describe navigable portions of the sea.
In past decades, for example, some polynyas, such as the Weddell Polynya, have lasted over multiple winters (1974–1976).
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Remembering People's Names
There are various tricks for remembering people's names. Of course, the first "trick" is to determine immediately if someone/someone's name is "worth" remembering.
I was reminded of that yesterday. I ran into an individual I met for the first time some weeks ago while standing in line at some Texas bar-be-cue. I really enjoyed the conversation. I don't recall if we exchanged names, probably thinking this a chance meeting, unique, that would not happen again.
Well, it did. I happened to see him at the same bar-be-cue yesterday. Groundhog day, I guess. I had a great time talking about my quick trip to Tucson. We exchanged names. This time I won't forget. Pro-fat. Prophet. Eli.
More than 20 years ago I met an Air Force officer that I thought might someday be important for me to know/remember -- someone who might affect my Air Force career. I've never forgotten his name. His name: Colonel Waddell. My "reminder"? Duck. I even, to this day, remember where I met him. Our paths never crossed again after that.
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