Mark and dating - Name 'China' in marks

Started by peterp, Jun 05, 2021, 12:35:51

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peterp

Wrong dating based on Zhongguo Longquan mark (written left to right)

Q: I wonder how those people did come up with 19th century?

A: Ask them, but I think that not being able to read Chinese, and lack of peripheral knowledge related to China and Chinese porcelain has much to do with it.
First of all, as far as I know in porcelain marks the term "中國". "中囯" read "zhongguo" in mandarin ,(modern short name for China) did not appear before communist China existed.
In imperial times there was no notion of the country name of "China" in existence, except among foreigners. Feudal China was the Ming or Qing Empire, for example, ruled by the feudal owner, the emperor.

From 1912 the republic was probably the first to have that in its name "中華民國", the first and last characters contracted are resulting in "zhongguo", above.

The problem with the mark is, if no notion of the name "China" (zhongguo) did exist within China, how comes its name could be used in a mark?
The term 'China' was first used in marks of the 1880s, specifically required on export porcelain by the United States. This was later required to be changed to 'Made in China', all not in Chinese. So 'China' was still not a name used in China itself, neither its English or Chinese version.

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