Celestial Empire

American  

noun

1. the former Chinese Empire.

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Celestial Empire British  

noun

1. an archaic or literary name for the Chinese Empire

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Etymology

Origin of Celestial Empire

First recorded in 1815–25

Example Sentences

In a lesser-known novel, “Claudius Bombarnac,” Jules Verne describes the adventures of the titular foreign correspondent as he rides the “Grand Transasiatic Railway” from the “European frontier” to “the capital of the Celestial Empire.”

From New York Times

Having nothing to guide them in their thoughts but the world of matter around them, they have imagined that Hades is an exact counterpart of China, and that it has its emperor and great and small mandarins, and provinces and counties with exactly the same names that these have in the actual and visible lands of the Celestial Empire.

From Project Gutenberg

Equally accurate have they been in detailing the various symptoms of gout, scurvy, elephantiasis, and syphilis, which also scourges the “Celestial empire.”

From Project Gutenberg

In the article on the Celestial Empire we had made this assertion of the Chinese music: "Like their poetry, the music is of the narrowest monotony;" in place of which stands this assertion: "Like true poetry, their music is of the narrowest monotony."

From Project Gutenberg

They are finished, besotted mandarins, and their Paris is their celestial Empire.

From Project Gutenberg