I have a question to ask ,why China refer as 中国 and not 中 蘭 or 中 坦 ?

and why some nations refer as 国

Example

US -美國
France-法国
Germany-德国
Thailand-泰国
South Korea -韓國

some nation refer as 蘭

Example
Holland-荷兰
Poland-波蘭
Ireland-爱尔兰

some nation refer as 坦

Example
Turkmenistan-土库曼斯坦
Pakistan -巴基斯坦

And why Thailand refer as 泰国 and not 泰兰?

Why Afghanistan know as 阿富汗 without the 坦 word ?

Thanks.

guo 国 - state/nation
lan 兰 - transliteration for "land"
sitan 斯坦 - transliteration for 'stan".

If I'm not wrong, chinese names for countries which are considered to be 'more important' to China or have greater influence in the world will inherit the title "guo 国 ". These refer to mostly western nations, which have short form.

The western nations also have more 'beautiful' chinese names, because during the 19th century, the chinese had to indicate to these powers that these countries are not 'barbarian nations', but proper nations.

I think, for historical reasons, the chinese treated different countries differently. Those that China had to pay respect to will inherit good names and will have the title "Guo 国". Those that China despise or look down upon or treat them as enemies often will have bad names using derogatory names such as "slaves - nu 奴" (e.g. Xiongnu 匈奴）, "bandits - Kou 寇 " (e.g. wokou 倭寇). Those that were neutral to China will simply use transliteration.

For instance,

America 美利坚和众国 (美国）- literally means "beautiful nation"
England 英格兰 (英国） - literally means "outstanding nation"
Germany （Deutschland 德意志联邦共和国 - 德国） - literally means "moral nation"
France 法兰西 (法国） - literally means "lawful nation"

sitan 斯坦 - transliteration for 'stan"， usually used for central asian countries

'Stan' is the Persian word for 'place of', so it is usually found in regions which speak Indo-Iranian languages, including Iran, Central Asia, and Pakistan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/-stan

In fact, the ancient Sogdian traders of Central Asia, who spoke an Indo-Iranian language, referred to China as 'Cinastan'. This term was later recorded in Chinese sources as Zhendan 震旦, and is now used as one of the more literary alternative names for China.

Technically speaking, Afghanistan should be called 阿富汗尼斯坦. But for some reason the shorter version 阿富汗 is used.

Actually, Thailand 泰国 is one of two exceptions when it comes to Chinese versions of country names ending with 'land'. The other is 'Iceland', 冰島.

All the others, as far as I know, are transliterated in Chinese as X-蘭.

The reasons why China is 中国 and not 支那蘭 or 支那斯坦 are obvious. First, China has never called itself or been called Chinaland or Zhongland, so the use of 蘭 is irrelevant. Second, China never called itself Cinastan, even though Central Asians called it that. Third, the transliteration of 'China' as Zhina 支那 became unacceptable after the second Sino-Japanese War, because the Japanese used it during their imperialist expansion into China. Fourth, the Ming and Qing empires referred to themselves as 中国, so it is not a new term unlike the Chinese translations/transliterations of the names of most other countries in the world.



I don't think those are valid examples. 匈奴 is a transliteration of the Xiongnu's name for themselves, and was probably pronounced 'Huna' in the Han period. An early Chinese name for the Japanese state, 倭奴, may also be a transliteration of its own name, possibly 'Wana'. In the Tang period, the Japanese apparently realized that 奴 meant 'slave', so they requested that the Tang government call their state 日本 instead. But I don't think any derogatory meaning was intended when the transliteration 倭奴 was first adopted.

倭寇 was never used to refer to the whole Japanese state until probably during the second Sino-Japanese War, when the Chinese used it for anti-Japanese propaganda. In Ming times, when the original 倭寇 were active in raiding the Chinese and Korean coasts, the term was used only for the pirates, and never to refer to the Japanese government. The Ming government addressed the Japanese government as 日本國.

英格兰 is England but 英国 is United Kingdom.

The full name of the United Kingdom in Chinese is actually 大不列顛及北愛爾蘭聯合王國. It is also commonly called Britain (which would be 不列顛 in Chinese).

英格兰, England, is just a part of the UK though it is the politically dominant part. But I guess the Chinese prefer 英国 to 不列顛 or 不国 because it just sounds better.

i heard china was called 中国 because ancient people believed china is at the centre of the world/middle earth..

There was indeed such a belief later on, for example in late Western Han, Yang Xiong 揚雄 wrote that 中国 was 中于天地者 ('at the center of heaven and earth'). But we have no evidence that such a belief existed when the phrase 中国 was first used to refer to a geographical region, which is possibly in the early Western Zhou period or earlier. So it seems to be more of a later rationalization of the origins of the name. It seems that in early Western Zhou, 中国 referred only to the capital city of the kingdom.