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| Middle Kingdom | |
|---|---|
| Name | Middle Kingdom |
| Period | Various |
| Region | Global |
Middle Kingdom
The term "Middle Kingdom" appears across multiple historical and cultural traditions as a designation for central polities, eras, or conceptual centers. It has been applied to dynastic epochs, national self-identifications, regional states, and literary or ideological constructs, each invoking different figures, institutions, and events. Uses range from the pharaonic chronology of Abydos and Thebes to the Sinocentric concept centered on Xi'an and Luoyang; it also appears in medieval, imperial, and modern contexts tied to rulers, treaties, and cultural artifacts.
"Middle Kingdom" is a translation of terms from multiple languages, notably the Ancient Egyptian phrase often rendered as "Kemet" contexts and the Chinese term Zhongguo (中國). Etymologies invoke capitals and cosmologies: in Ancient Egyptian records connected to Mentuhotep II and Amenemhat I the designation aligns with funerary inscriptions found in Deir el-Bahari and administrative texts unearthed at Cairo Museum collections, while in Chinese sources the term appears in texts associated with Confucius, Sima Qian, and later Ming dynasty and Qing dynasty chronicles that emphasize a central cultural realm centered on Chang'an and Kaifeng. Linguistic transmission into European languages involved scholars such as Jean-François Champollion and James Legge who linked original characters or hieroglyphs to classical translations used by diplomats at Treaty of Nanking negotiations and in 19th-century sinological studies.
Historians use the phrase to classify temporal phases like the Egyptian Middle Kingdom (pairing dynasties and monarchs) and to characterize a worldview in East Asia where Zhou dynasty texts situated a civilized core against neighboring polities like Xiongnu or Nanzhao. Medieval European chroniclers occasionally applied equivalent locutions to polities such as Byzantium or Holy Roman Empire contexts when contrasting centers like Constantinople and Rome. Colonial-era administrators in British India and diplomats in Ottoman Empire archives sometimes borrowed translated formulations when mapping spheres of influence, as seen in correspondences involving Lord Curzon and T.E. Lawrence. Literary and historiographical traditions from Ibn Khaldun to Edward Gibbon likewise repurposed comparable idioms to discuss imperial middles.
The Egyptian application designates a flowering of statecraft associated with rulers including Mentuhotep II, Amenemhat I, and Senusret III. Archaeological campaigns by teams from British Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and French missions at Dendera and Abydos revealed administrative papyri, stelae, and tomb complexes that illustrate reforms in land tenure, taxation, and military expeditions against groups recorded in inscriptions referencing Nubia and Asiatic peoples. Literary works such as texts from Coffin Texts and wisdom literature attributed in part to scribal schools at Coptos and Ihnasya show theological developments later commented on by Egyptologists like Flinders Petrie. Monumental installations including pyramid complexes at Lisht and mortuary temples in Dahshur reflect architectural continuities with Old Kingdom precedents and innovations adopted during contacts with Near Eastern polities attested in treaties paralleling later documents like Amarna letters.
The Chinese concept centralizes on the term used in classical and imperial sources, invoked by elites from Zhou dynasty ritualists through Han dynasty scribes and later appropriated by officials in Sui dynasty and Tang dynasty administrations. Centers such as Xianyang, Chang'an, and Luoyang functioned as political and cultural cores, linked to literati networks around figures like Confucius, Mencius, Han Feizi, and historians such as Sima Qian. Frontier interactions with polities including Xiongnu, Khitans, and Jurchen influenced military and diplomatic practices discussed in chronicles like Zizhi Tongjian and in imperial edicts issued by rulers from Emperor Wu of Han to Kangxi Emperor. Missionary and commercial contacts documented by visitors such as Marco Polo and by Jesuit scholars like Matteo Ricci show how the label informed foreign perceptions and treaties including negotiations similar in impact to Treaty of Nerchinsk.
Comparable usages appear in Mesoamerican scholarship describing central polities around Teotihuacan and in South Asian historiography describing transitional eras in Magadha and Pataliputra linked to figures like Chandragupta Maurya and Ashoka. African historiography sometimes employs analogous notions for central Yoruba states around Ifẹ̀ and Oyo Empire or for Central African kingdoms such as Kongo encountered by Diogo Cão. European medieval chroniclers applied related metaphors to Byzantine Empire centers, while modern nationalist discourses in nations like France and Germany used centralizing rhetoric in works by thinkers such as Jules Michelet and Heinrich von Treitschke.
As a label, the term signals claims of civilizational centrality advanced by courts, intellectuals, and bureaucracies. In Egypt it legitimized royal restoration projects under pharaohs exemplified by Amenemhat I; in China it functioned as an ideological anchor for Confucian elites advising emperors from Han Gaozu to Qianlong Emperor. The designation framed diplomatic exchanges with neighbors like Persian Empire, Sassanian Empire, and nomadic confederations, shaping ritualized tributary systems and ceremonial protocols recorded in envoys' memoirs and court annals. Artistic and literary production tied to the label—such as stela inscriptions, court histories, and poetic canons compiled under patrons like Li Bai and Du Fu—reinforced assertions of cultural primacy.
Modern scholarship rehabilitates and reinterprets the term across disciplines represented in journals from Journal of Egyptian Archaeology to T'oung Pao and at conferences hosted by institutions like SOAS and Collège de France. Nationalist movements and cultural heritage policies in states including Egypt and People's Republic of China have reactivated the label in museum narratives and educational curricula, intersecting with debates involving UNESCO designations similar to those for Ancient Thebes or Silk Road sites. Comparative historians continue to trace its evolution through sources compiled by editors such as Herodotus and Ibn al-Athir, and through modern syntheses by scholars like Kenneth Pomeranz and Yehuda L. Ne'eman that situate the term within global histories of state formation.
Category:Historical eras