![]() was the “land of gold” (mostly because of the California gold rush of 1849, among other events), probably helped cement the U.S.’s reputation as a “land of beauty” in Chinese eyes. Tall tales trickling back from these Chinese emigrants, that the U.S. was the #1 destination for Chinese emigrants seeking to leave China throughout the mid-19th century. ![]() This may stem from the fact that the U.S. ![]() = Meiguo (which echoes “America” in Mandarin), which means “beautiful land”. This may stem from the fact that the most famous European philosophers of the 19th century were mostly German, and maybe some Chinese scholars were so impressed by the philosophical inquiries emanating from Germany at that time that they decided to name the whole land “moral land”. The character for “de” means “morality” in Mandarin, hence why Germany is “moral land”. Germany = Deguo (which echoes “Deutschland” in Mandarin). The origins of the civil system come from France, hence why France became the “land of law” in Chinese eyes. The civil law system privileges law codes over judges, so that’s why China chose that system. This is due to Chinese preference for law codes, which were prevalent throughout the historical dynasties, and traditional Chinese distrust of judges and litigation (which tend to play a more influential role in the common law system). France was known as “law land” since China opted to go with the civil law system instead of the common law system prevalent in England and the U.S. On the other hand, France = Faguo (which sounds a lot like “France” in Mandarin). This may stem from the fact that England was the source of all modern inventions back in the 19th century and was the nation that was “brave” enough to open up China to the West, and modernity. Hence, England = Yingguo (which sounds a lot like “England” in Mandarin), which literally means “brave land” or “hero land” (and in some contexts, “flower land”). As a result, when the Chinese were modernizing the Mandarin language wholesale sometime in the early 20th century, they were less concerned with phonetic spelling and more with double-meaning when naming these powerful nations they badly sought to emulate (or so that’s my take on why the names came out as they did). The inconsistencies you pointed out are due to the fact that the countries mentioned–England, Germany and France (along with the U.S., by the way)–were the nations that almost split up China during the height of European imperialism in the late 19th century.
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