1. I was reading about [Wasei-kango](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasei-kango), and am bemused why Japanese-made Chinese words is translated as **和** 製漢語. Why not **日本** 製漢語?

  2. How did 和 semantically shift to mean Japan then?

  3. Isn't this semantic shift ironic? Some Chinese wouldn't regard Japan as "peaceful" or "calm". [Sino-Japanese relations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%E2%80%93Japan_relations) haven't been harmony.

[CUHK](http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-
mf/search.php?word=%E5%92%8C) doesn't exhibit
[Wiktionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%92%8C#Definitions)'s
definition 8 of "Japanese". So I screenshot
[Yellowbridge](https://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/character-
etymology.php?zi=%E5%92%8C).

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/MOuEF.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/MOuEF.jpg)
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etymology chinese
What semantic notions underlie 和 and Japan?
和 (pronounced “wa” in Japanese and “wo” in Chinese) is an old name for Japan,
older than 日本. Sometimes it was written as 倭 (which has negative connotations
when used by Chinese to refer to Japan). It is still used to refer to Japan in
number of words (和製英語、和食、和室、和式、和服、和牛). However it is not an official name for
Japan. Actually Japan doesn’t have an official name in Japanese but 日本 is the
current _de facto_ name for Japan. The name 和 for Japan is as old as the
introduction of Japanese Kanji itself so “semantic shift” doesn’t really apply
here. It was used to mean Japan (as well as Peace / Harmony) for as long as
Japanese has been a written language. Bear in mind that relations between
Japan and China have changed a lot in the 1200 or so years since.
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I'd like to address your questions directly.

>   1. I was reading about [Wasei-kango](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasei-
> kango), and am bemused why Japanese-made Chinese words is translated as
> **和** 製漢語. Why not **日本** 製漢語?
>

Stylistically speaking, there is a preference for four-character compounds.
There is a very long history of four-character compounds, deriving from
stylistic practices developed long ago in written Chinese. Five-character
compounds like 日本製漢語 look clunky, and violate aesthetic principles. As such,
if there is a synonym that can be used instead that will shorten the phrase
from five characters to four, writers will use that synonym.

>   2. How did 和 semantically shift to mean Japan then?
>

The first mention of Japan in historic texts used the [Middle Chinese term
**倭**](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%80%AD#Chinese), with a reconstructed
reading of //ʔuɑ//, pronounced something like how you might say _waw_ using an
American English pronunciation. This meant "dwarf, midget", and was used by
Chinese writers either to imply that the residents of the Japanese islands at
the time were actually physically small, or (perhaps more likely) to imply
that they were relatively insignificant from the perspective of the Chinese
Empire.

Japanese writers originally used Chinese to write, so this **倭** ("dwarf,
midget") character to mean "Japan" was also used by the first Japanese
writers. After borrowing into Japanese, this character gained the reading _wa_
, pronounced more or less the same as modern Japanese わ ( _wa_ ).

During the reign of [Empress
Genmei](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Genmei) (707–715), Japanese
writers decided that they didn't want to use the word for "dwarf, midget" to
refer to themselves anymore, so they looked around for a different word that
had the same reading. Basically, they went shopping through the dictionary to
find a nice name. :)

For more detail, see also [the Wiktionary entry for
和](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%92%8C#Japanese).

>   3. Isn't this semantic shift ironic? Some Chinese wouldn't regard Japan as
> "peaceful" or "calm". [Sino-Japanese
> relations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%E2%80%93Japan_relations)
> haven't been harmony.
>

Any irony only happens from a modern perspective. When the 和 spelling was
chosen back in the early 700s, most of [Sino-Japanese
relations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China%E2%80%93Japan_relations) hadn't
happened yet.

* * *

Please comment if the above does not address your questions, and I can edit to
update.
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