The present dynasty calls the empire _Ta Tsing Kwoh_, or ‘Great Pure Kingdom;’ but the people themselves have refused the corresponding term of _Tsing-jin_, or ‘Men of Tsing.’ The empire is also sometimes termed _Tsing Chau_, _i.e._, ‘[land of the] Pure Dynasty,’ by metonymy for the family that rules it. The term now frequently heard in western countries--the Celestial Empire--is derived from _Tien Chau_, _i.e._, ‘Heavenly Dynasty,’ meaning the kingdom which the dynasty appointed by heaven rules over; but the term _Celestials_, for the people of that kingdom, is entirely of foreign manufacture, and their language could with difficulty be made to express such a patronymic. The phrase _Lí Min_, or ‘Black-haired Race,’ is a common appellation; the expressions _Hwa Yen_, the ‘Flowery Language,’ and _Chung Hwa Kwoh_, the ‘Middle Flowery Kingdom,’ are also frequently used for the written language of the country, because the Chinese consider themselves to be among the most polished and civilized of all nations--which is the sense of _hwa_ in these phrases. The phrase _Nui Tí_, or ‘Inner Land,’ is often employed to distinguish it from countries beyond their borders, regarded as the desolate and barbarous regions of the earth. _Hwa Hia_ (the Glorious Hia) is an ancient term for China, the Hia dynasty being the first of the series; _Tung Tu_, or “Land of the East,” is a name used in Mohammedan writings alone. The present ruling dynasty has extended the limits of the empire far beyond what they were under the Ming princes, and nearly to their extent in the reign of Kublai, A.D. 1290. In 1840, its borders were well defined, reaching from Sagalien I. on the north-east, in lat. 48° 10′ N. and long. 144° 50′ E., to Hainan I. in the China Sea, on the south, in lat. 18° 10′ N., and westward to the Belur-tag, in long. 74° E., inclosing a continuous area, estimated, after the most careful valuation by McCulloch, at 5,300,000 square miles. The longest line which could be drawn in this vast region, from the south-western part of Ílí, bordering on Kokand, north-easterly to the sea of Okhotsk, is 3,350 miles; its greatest breadth is 2,100 miles, from the Outer Hing-an or Stanovoi Mountains to the peninsula of Luichau in Kwangtung:--the first measuring 71 degrees of longitude, and the last over 34 of latitude. Since that year the process of disintegration has been going on, and the cession of Hongkong to the British has been followed by greater partitions to Russia, which have altogether reduced it more than half a million of square miles on the north-east and west. Its limits on the western frontiers are still somewhat undefined. The greatest breadth is from Albazin on the Amur, nearly south to Hainan, 2,150 miles; and the longest line which can be drawn in it runs from Sartokh in Tibet, north-east to the junction of the Usuri River with the Amur.