The suburban citizen., 1900-07-28

However many syllables there may
be in a Chinese place name it is com
| posed Of as many words as there are
syllables, for all Chinese words are
monosyllabic. If we know the mean
ing of even one of the words in a geo.
! graphical name it helps to convey a
| definite idea. The words Ho and
Kiang, for example, both mean river"
and when we see them on a map we
know they refer to a river or stream.
! Many of the names Of rivers are de-
| scriptive of them: Hoang no, for exam
! Die, means yellow River;' Tsin kiang
means "Clear River" Observe how
definite is the idea expressed in the
name of each of the three rivers which
converge upon Canton. One of them is
the 81 liang, or "West River" another
the Pc kiang, or North River" the
third is the Tung kiang, or East Riv-
| er." The names of these rivers tells
the direction from which they come.
They help to simplify the study of the
| geography of that part of China. When
they unite they form the Chu kiang, or
Pearl River" The Chinese named
| their largest river in the north of the
| HOang no because it cuts its bed
through yellow soil from which it de-
rives its color. The yellow flood it
pours into the sea colors that part of
the ocean yellow, and hence the Chi
nese call the sea Hoang hal, or Yellow
! Sea.
The Chinese unite the words in a
name so that they form one word just
as we write Newtown, Hartford or
| Deerfeld. Sometimes we unite the
words in a Chinese name and some
| times we separate them, but there is
no reason, for example, why we should
! write Tien-Tsin when we do not write
Pe-kin. Each of these names is COM
posed of two words. Pc means north"
and Kin means "the capital" or "the
kings household" and thus Pekin
means the northern capital Tien
I means heavenly" and Tsin means
place" and thus the name of the
largest city in Northeast China means
heavenly place"-a name it has borne
for many centuries. When Marco Polo
visited the city in the thirteenth cen
fury he translated its name into "Citta
| Celeste"
Many Chinese names we see in the
| newspapers and do not even attempt
TO pronounce would give us as much
information if we could translate
them, as a long sentence might do.
Hankow, for example, is the name of
very important city on the Yang tse
kiang, There are only six letters in
the name, and yet any Chinese boy
would know from the two short words
composing 1t that 1t is the name Of the
town standing at the "kow" or mouth
of river named Han. The Han is the
greatest tributary of the Yang tse
kiang, and plays a most important part
| " the commercial life of that teemlng
valley, and the city built cn the spot
where the Han mingles its waters with
the Yang tse is Hankow, j. e., the town
at the mouth Of the Han.
The word Yang means ocean" tse
means "son," and the name Yang tse
kiang which the Chinese applied ages
ago TO their greatest river shows that
they did not mean 10 depreciate its M
portance. Some writers say that the
early Chinese believed their largest
river contributed more water TO the
making Of the ocean than any other
stream IN the world, and so IN the
name Of the river they conveyed the
idea that the ocean was IFS son. The
name is often erroneously translated
the Blue River.
Pekin has not always been the capi-
tai of the empire, but Nonllin, a city
far to the south, was long the seat of
government, and, as the name Pekin
means northern capital" so the name
Nankn means southern capital"
white River" is the meaning Of Pei
no. near whose mouth are the forts
just seized by the Powers.
In some books and maps we see the
words "fu" or "hieu' added to the
names Of many towns. These words
are not part Of the names, and some
Of the best aliases omit them. for they
lengthen the name and make it more
formidable TO the foreigner Flu
means the capital Of one of the depart.
ments into which province is divided:
in other words, Il is the residence OF
the official at the head Of the
department Hiep signifies one Of ;he
districts into which a department is
divided, and when attached 10 a place
name means that the official in charge
Of the district resides ;bere II is bet.
ter TO omit these merely political desig.
nation. When we have more intimate
daalings nth China aud better knowl-
edge Of The people and their country