“中國”的英文直譯，Middle Kingdom 還是Central Country？

英語文獻中，中國當然是China，但是有時為了表達“中國”的含義，一般都是用Middle Kingdom來翻譯，幾乎很少看到用Central Kingdom（Country）來翻的。

在Conflict in the Far East，《遠東衝突》一書中（副標題是1928年到1933年美國在中國的外交。作者是James William Christopher，由E. J. Brill 1950年出版），作者說，（p11）This nation, which many Westerners have been wont to dismiss with a shrug or with some statement about its queerness and backwardness, has indeed been accustomed in the past to consider itself the hub of the universe, as is shown by the standard Chinese name for their own land--Chung Kuo, the Central Country 。他說中國翻譯成英文用Central Country。
這本書比較老，1950年的。近來陳兼教授（康奈爾的胡適教授席位擁有者）也說過同樣的話，見他在Origin of the Cold War， an International History second edition  冷戰起源（Melvyn P. Leffler 和 David S. Painter 編輯， Routledge 出版社 1994年出版）一書中的一篇文章--Mao and Sino-American Relations 毛澤東和中美關係--中說（p294的第二條注中）: I believe that "Central Kingdom" is a more accurate translation for "Zhong Guo"(China) than "Middle Kingdom." The term "Middle Kingdom" does not imply that China is superior to other peoples and nations around it--China just happens to be located in the middle geographically; the term "Central Kingdom", however, implies that China is superior to any other people and nation "under the heaven" and that it thus occupies a "central" position in the known unverse.   Middle僅僅是個地理上的概念，而Central則表達了中國高於其他人民和國家的思想。

另一本，《愛恨中國》（Love and Hate in China）作者是Hans Koningsberger，McGrow-Hill Book Company 1966年出版。裏麵第4頁，也談到這個問題，...China--both called, and both considered, by their inhabitants Zung Ghuo, the Central Country or Middle Kingdom as it used to be translated into English.  

還有一本書是《冷戰起源》（Origin of the Cold War：an International History，作者是Melvyn P. Leffler and David S. Painter，2nd edition，出版社是Routledge，於2005年出版。），這是本論文集，裏麵陳兼的論文裏也談到這個問題，第285頁上，說中國在曆史上稱為Central Kingdom，然後在第294頁上的注釋2裏說，作者認為“中國”的翻譯，Central Kingdom比通用的Middle Kingdom更準確：‘The term ”Middle Kingdom“ does not imply that China is superior to other peoples and nations around it--China just happens to be located in the middle geographically; the term "Central Kingdom," however, implies that China is superior to any other people and nation "under the heaven" and that it thus occupies a "central" position in the known universe.'  跟上麵陳兼的說法是一樣的。

20190202補：David Mulroney於2009年至2012年任加拿大駐中國大使，在他的書Middle Power，Middle Kingdom：What Canadians need to know about China in the 21th Century( Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Canada Books Inc, 2015,也把中國稱為Middle Kingdom，寫在了書名裏。