Why are the Chinese people called Han Chinese？ Why not Ming Chinese or Song Chinese？
Anthony To， Fanatic of Chinese History
Answered Sep 20
Firstly， Han Chinese people refer to themselves by all sorts of different names， not just Han like you might think； in fact， throughout history and even today， there are Chinese who call themselves as 唐人 “Tang people” or even “Ming people” in the case of Ming dynasty loyalists in history. Let me explain：
The Han dynasty was the first dynasty to occupy all of China proper， well aside from the short-lived Qin dynasty that only ruled for a meager 15 years and only had two emperors， while the Han dynasty’s rule spanned the course of nearly four centuries， making it the longest lasting Chinese dynasty during the Imperial Era (the Shang dynasty did last longer， but was much smaller and is considered as part of the Ancient era). The Han dynasty was also the first dynasty in which China began to exert significant influence over its neighbors； China’s military campaigns against the nomadic Xiongnu led to the Chinese territory to stretch all the way to the Tarim Basin in Central Asia， located in the southern part of modern day Xinjiang (新疆)， where it was administered under the Han as the “Protectorate of the Western Regions”， and would later help create part of a trade network known as the “Silk Road”， a trade route that reached as far as the Mediterranean world：
Han dynasty in 2 AD， the light blue colored region is the Tarim Basin， forming a crucial part of China’s historic Silk Road
The Han dynasty was also the first Chinese dynasty where the Chinese civilization began to spread into nearby regions， such as from the Han conquest of Nanyue (111 BC)， which allowed Chinese influence to spread all the way to present day Northern Vietnam， and the Han conquest of Gojoseon (109 - 108 BC)， which brought Han influence onto parts of the Korean peninsula. As such， the Han dynasty was the first Chinese dynasty to spread out of the area known as “China proper”， and began to exert its influence into other regions， which would later lead to many countries later adapting and following its culture， particularly the countries in the “East Asian Cultural Sphere”， though most of this cultural adoption would take place in the later Tang dynasty. Still， the Han established the groundwork for this， and was by far the largest Chinese dynasty by territory by that time， and was referred to as the first “golden age” of China， so many Chinese are very respect and proud of this dynasty， hence why the majority of ethnic Chinese people still refer to themselves as 汉人 “Han people” even today.
Aside from calling themselves as the “Han people” 汉人， some Chinese also refer to themselves as Tang people 唐人 in reference to the Tang dynasty， which was another golden age for China that re-established the Silk Road that was created during the Han dynasty. Often the people who refer to themselves as Tang people are the ones who live in the southern regions of China； why is that you ask？ Because unlike the Tang dynasty where the southern regions was entire assimilated into what is now China proper， during the early years of the Han dynasty， from the 2nd-1st Century BC， southern China was occupied by people known as the “Bai Yue” 百越， or the Hundred Yue Tribes.
The Yue people， also referred to as the “Southern Barbarians” at the time due to being culturally different than the Han were indigenous non-Chinese people who initially inhabited a wide range of China， such as far north as the coastal regions of Shandong， and as far west as the Sichuan basin. By the time of the Han dynasty however， these many “non-sinicized” tribes were mostly located in southern China， and the Han dynasty， during the 2nd century BC were still fighting against the Yue states in the south and the Xiongnu in the north， as depicted by this map：
A map illustrating the Han dynasty’s military operations during 2nd century BC. As you can see， many offensive military campaigns to the north against the Xiongnu， and man...(more)
中国历史的狂热者
回答9月20
首先，汉族人用各种不同的名字来称呼自己，而不仅仅是你可能认为的汉族人；事实上，纵观历史，即使在今天，还有中国自称唐人“唐人”甚至“明朝人”在明代历史上的支持者。
让我来解释一下：
汉代是第一个王朝占领全中国，除了短暂的秦朝，它只统治了短短的15年，只有两个皇帝，而汉代的统治了近四个世纪的过程中，使其持续时间最长的中国王朝帝国时期(商朝并持续时间更长，但小得多，被认为是远古时代的一部分)。汉朝也是中国第一个开始对邻国施加重大影响的朝代；中国对抗游牧的匈奴采取了军事行动，导致了中国领土延伸到现代新疆南部(新疆)中亚塔里木盆地，在那里管理下的汉族作为西部地区的“保护国”，和后来帮助创建一个贸易网络的一部分被称为“丝绸之路”，这条贸易路线一直延伸到到地中海世界：
公元2年的汉代，淡蓝色的区域是塔里木盆地，是中国历史丝绸之路的重要组成部分
汉代是中华文明开始蔓延到附近地区的中国第一个王朝，比如汉人征服南越(公元前111年)，这使得中国的影响力传播到今天越南北部，和汉人征服古代朝鲜(公元前109 - 108年)，这使得汉族影响到朝鲜半岛的部分地区。
因此，汉朝是中国第一个走出“中国本土”的王朝，并开始影响到其他地区，导致许多国家后来适应其文化，特别是“东亚文化领域”的国家，尽管大多数这种文化的同化发生在唐朝后期。汉族奠定了基础，并且是迄今为止中国领土最大的王朝，并被称为中国的第一个“黄金时代”，所以很多中国人很尊重和自豪的，因此为什么大多数华人人仍然称自己为汉人“汉人”即使在今天。
除了自称为“汉人”，有些中国人也把自己称为“唐人”，唐朝是中国重汉代的丝绸之路的另一个黄金时代，。通常自称唐人的人是住在中国南方的人；你为什么这么问？因为不像唐朝的南部地区是整个融入现在的中国，在汉代初期，从公元前2世纪到1世纪，中国南方被人们称为“百越”，或百越部落。
越人，也称为“南蛮人”。因文化和汉人不同，他们最初居住在中国大部分地区，如北至山东的沿海地区和四川盆地的最西边。然而，到了汉代，这些“非汉化”的部落大多分布在中国南方，而汉朝，在公元前2世纪仍在与南方的越国和北方的匈奴作战，如图所示：
公元前2世纪汉朝军事行动的地图。
如你所见，许多进攻的军事行动都是针对北方的匈奴的，对南越、闽越和滇国也进行了多次战役。
Anry Young， Carpe Diem.
Answered Dec 10， 2016
Eh， first of all， I need to correct you that Han Chinese is just one of the 56 ethnic groups in China， you cannot just say Chinese are equal to Han Chinese. Second， for you question， I guess you may mean what does the name “Han” come from， obviously it is from Han Dynasty， which is the first prosperous dynasty in China’s history because Han dynasty defeated Hun and controlled most part of Serindia which built solid foundations for China being a unified big country in the following two thousand years. In addition， since Han Dynasty brought so many glories to Chinese at that time， during the hundreds years’ disintegration， nationwide disorder after Han Dynasty perished， Chinese people at that time yearned Han Dynasty and were eager to reconstruct it， so they still called themselves Han people as an important identity especially when facing the ？massive invasion of the northern barbarian tribes. Moreover， during Tan dynasty， many poets use Han to allude Tang in their poems massively， these poems are still popular in China and many Chinese can recite a lot of Tang poems from childhood. So due to the historical and cultural factors， the main ethnic group of Chinese people tend to identify themselves Han people. But Han dynasty is just the history memory for Han people not all Chinese， so the remaining 55 ethnic groups are not called Han Chinese but like Manchu Chinese， Mongolia Chinese， Hui Chinese， Uigur Chinese or Tibetan Chinese and so on.
嗯，首先，我需要纠正你，汉族人只是中国56个民族中的一个，你不能仅仅说中国人和汉族人一样。
第二，对你的问题，我猜你可能是弄明白“汉”这个名字是什么意思，很明显它来自汉朝。
汉朝是第一个繁荣的王朝在中国历史上，因为汉朝击败了匈奴并控制了西域大部分地区，为中国在接下来的2000年里成为一个统一大国建立坚实的基础。
此外，汉朝给当时的中国带来如此多的辉煌，汉朝灭亡后的几百年，百姓日子民不聊生，导致当时的中国人民向往汉朝，急于重建它，所以他们仍然自称“汉人”作为一种重要的身份。尤其是面对北方蛮族部落大规模入侵时。
此外，在唐代，许多诗人大量使用汉来暗指唐朝，这些诗在中国仍然很受欢迎，许多中国人从小就能背诵很多唐诗。因此，由于受历史文化因素的影响，中国主要的民族群体倾向于认同自己的汉人。但汉朝只是汉人的历史记忆，不是所有的中国人都是汉人，剩下的55个民族不叫汉人，而是满族、蒙古族、回族、维吾尔族或藏族等等。
本文来源：https://www.quora.com
