The Ming dynasty is known in Chinese as the "Míng". This is written as in Chinese characters. The character is a sun () and a moon () together and means "bright". Chinese uses different words to talk about the different meanings of a Chinese "dynasty" in English: their government is called the "Míng cháo" , their country is called the "Dà Míng dìguó" ( or , and their time in Chinese history is called the "Míng dài" .