震旦

Chinese

shake; shock; sign in trigram
 
dawn; morning; day-break; day
simp. and trad.
(震旦)
variant forms 震丹
真丹
真旦
振旦
神丹

Etymology

First attested in the 3rd–4th centuries CE.

Borrowed from Sanskrit चीनस्थान (cīnasthāna), or a name etymologically related; compare Sogdian [script needed] (cynstn), Persian چینستان, Armenian Չինաստան (Čʿinastan), Ancient Greek Τζίνιστα (Tzínista).

Folk etymology interprets the this word orthographically, as a compound of (zhèn, “one of the Eight Trigrams; the East”) + (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:

東方日出震旦 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
东方日出震旦 [Classical Chinese, simp.]
Dōngfāng shǔ zhèn, shì rìchū zhī fāng, gù yún Zhèndàn. [Pinyin]
The direction of east belongs to the trigram of Zhèn, and is the direction of sunrise, thus (China) is called Zhèndàn.

More discussion on the etymology of Zhèndàn can be found in Notes on Marco Polo (Vol. 1).

Pronunciation



Rime
Character
Reading # 1/1 1/1
Initial () (23) (5)
Final () (43) (61)
Tone (調) Departing (H) Departing (H)
Openness (開合) Open Open
Division () III I
Fanqie
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang
/t͡ɕiɪnH/ /tɑnH/
Pan
Wuyun
/t͡ɕinH/ /tɑnH/
Shao
Rongfen
/t͡ɕjenH/ /tɑnH/
Edwin
Pulleyblank
/cinH/ /tanH/
Li
Rong
/t͡ɕiĕnH/ /tɑnH/
Wang
Li
/t͡ɕĭĕnH/ /tɑnH/
Bernard
Karlgren
/t͡ɕi̯ĕnH/ /tɑnH/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex
zhèn dàn

Proper noun

震旦

  1. (obsolete, religion) The name for China in ancient Indian records and some Chinese Buddhist texts.
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