明朝喺對外官方文件上面都有以中國自稱，如明太祖賜日本國書與萬曆皇帝畀豐臣秀吉嘅詔書中，就使用「中國」自居。明朝鄭和下西洋嘅過程中，先後有隨行人員寫咗去見聞錄，如馬歡《瀛涯勝覽》描述中，對外多次以中國自稱。活躍於明朝萬曆年間嘅西洋傳教士利瑪竇喺其著作《中國札記》中亦寫道：「今日我哋通常稱呼呢個國家爲Ciumquo（中國）或者Ciumhoa（中華），第一個字表示王國，另一個字表示花園，兩個字擺喺埋一齊就畀翻譯爲‘位於中央’。我聽講之所以叫做呢個名系因爲中國人認爲天圓地方，而中國就位於呢塊平原嘅中央」 至於在國體意義上以「中國」的稱號做為實行現代主權國家嘅權利，就係直至1689年9月7日中俄《尼布楚條約》簽訂後首次出現於正式條約上。1909年，清朝喺中國第一部成文國籍法《大清國籍條例》中明確地以法律形式自稱為「中國」。
The Ming Dynasty referred to itself as China in official documents to the outside world, such as the letter given by Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty to Japan and the edict of Emperor Wanli to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, which used "China" to refer to itself. In the process of Zheng He's voyage to the West in the Ming Dynasty, some of his entourage wrote a record of his experiences, such as Ma Huan's description of "Yingya Shenglan", which repeatedly referred to himself as China. Matteo Ricci, a Western missionary active in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, also wrote in his book "Notes on China": "Today we usually call this country Ciumquo (China) or Ciumhoa (China), the first word means kingdom and the other word means garden, and the two words together are translated as uranium in the center. I heard that the name is called because the Chinese believe that the sky is round and China is located in the center of this plain" As for the right to use the title of "China" as a modern sovereign state in the sense of the national system, it was not until September 7, 1689 that the Sino-Russian Treaty of Nebuchu first appeared in a formal treaty. In 1909, the Qing Dynasty explicitly referred to itself as "China" in legal form in China's first written nationality law, the Great Qing Nationality Regulations.