The burgeoning corpus of archaeological findings offers valuable insights into the historical genesis of the conceptualization of “China” during the pre-Qin era (prior to 221 BC). The etymology of the character “中” (zhōng, middle) is intricately linked with geographical paradigms such as “the central ground,”“the midpoint of the cardinal directions,” and “the center of the world.” The sustained amalgamation and advancement of the Huaxia ethnic groups throughout the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC-771 BC) and the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC-476 BC) established a robust groundwork for the eventual crystallization of the notion of “China” during the late Warring States Period (476 BC-221 BC). Since its conceptualization, the fundamental essence of the notion of “China” has encompassed the elevation of “Huaxia” culture as the shared cultural benchmark, the recognition of “Yuji” (lands where the sage-emperor Yu left his traces) and “Jiuzhou” (Nine Provinces, an ancient administrative division of China) as communal activity domains, and the affirmation of the descendants of the Yellow Emperor as a collective lineage identity.