The Study Of "Zina" In The Context Of Modern Sino-Japanese Relations

It's generally believed that the vocabulary repertoire of a certain language somehow reflects its culture. From the very beginning of human history, language and social culture is closely connected with each other. To a certain extent, it could be said that language is the mirror of culture. As a historic word, filled with controversies, “Shina”, at this point, could represent many implications, both historically and culturally. “Shina”is what foreign countries call China at first. It first appeared in Buddha scripture and came into China with Buddha. However, having remained asleep for thousands of years, “Shina” achieved its revival in recent Japanese history. In the whole perceptive progress of questioning, contempting, ignoring and hating from Japanese towards China, this process also exerted humiliation and misery on Chinese people. Regarded as an epitome, “Shina” could indicate how Japanese's perception on China had changed in the past century.In order to have a thorough understanding of “Shina”, it's necessary to know what this word means exactly, and to dig out the origin of this word. In addition, the understanding of “China”, “Chunghwa” and “Sinocentrism” would also contribute to a complete comprehension of “Shina”. In the modern history,the rise of Chinese Nationalism promoted the spread and use of the word “Shina”, putting “China” into the risk of internal separation. Also, as an individual and independent people entity, “Chinese Nation” took its shape naturally and gradually in the process of Chinese fighting against big powers, especially Japan. And later, the formation of “Chinese Nation” had a positive influence on defeating Japanese invasion, and protecting the unification of China.During the period of Tokugawa Shogun reign, Japanese have started to form the thought of “Chuka”, which is an extremely contempting perception on China. From the change of usage by Japanese on China and also on themselves before and after Meiji Ishin, the rise of Japanese Nationalism and the relevant national emotions implied could be easily discovered. To have a detailed trace of how “Shina” has been used before and after Meiji Ishi, less than a century period, could deepen the understanding of how “Shina” was popularly used in the past century, which went through from being barely used, to soaring suddenly and to finally becoming a common word among the public. At the same time, it could be found that the emotional color of “Shina” also went through from neutral to negative.While being introduced again to China from Japan as a fashionable new word, the word ‘Shina' had not so much derogatory senses. The reformers and revolutionaries, for many reasons, would love to use the word ‘Shina', with quite the progressive tendencies. After the establishment of the Republic of China, the Chinese people began to realize the derogatory meanings in this word, and began to resist it decisively. The group staying in Japan, as the ones staying in the very front of the sino-Japan relations, maintained the most direct and deep emotions for the word ‘Shina'. The humiliation experience brought by the national identity of the word ‘Shina' became the scars on the hearts of those staying in Japan, and wrote the national wound memory for one generation. The arguments on the word ‘Shina' posted in the journals and newspapers in the period of the Republic of China also showed the wakeup of the people at that time and their reflections over ‘Shina'.After arranging for the several reasons why the Japanese called China as ‘Shina', it can be known that no of these reasons could be established. In current times, the word ‘Shina' has almost disappeared in Japanese and almost no one would use it except the right-wing. The derogatory meaning for this word ‘Shina' now has carved in people's hearts. The Chinese has kept a sensitive attitude for this word, which is not only a memory for that history of humiliation, but also the alertness for the reemergence of militarism. From the word ‘Shina', we may know that the gap between China and Japan would not disappear with the time pushing. There is still a long way to go for the peace and mutual-understanding between China and Japan.