Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1900-07-20
Washingtuu Standard
GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES.

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES.
Chinese Names are Nearly Always Descriptive
of Some Attribute or Popularity.
We are reading Just now Of the many
Chinese districts, towns and rivers.
Many of these geographical names
doubtless appear repellant and nnpro-
nounccable to all except few persons
who are familiar with them. But il
we had better acquaintance with the
names and knew their meaning they
would be found to be full of interest.
They are often condensed descriptions
OF the place or feature to which they
were applied. They are far more in
stinct with life than many geograpk-
icBl names in other Countries. Sun
pose we had never heard of Shanghai,
for example, but knew the meaning OF
the two words composing the name.
We would know at once that the
City near the Sea" must apply to a
seaport. Yum no means 1.-The River
of Transportation" and we naturally
inyer that the waterway designated
must be commercially important.
Yum ho, in fact, is the Chinese name
of the Grand Canal which plays so
large part in the freight service of
east China.
However many syllables there may
be in 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 geo.
graphical name it helps to convey a
definite idea. The words Ho and
Kiang, for example, both mean "riv-
err" and when we see them on map
we know they refer to river or stream.
Many OF the names of rivers are de-
scriptive OF them: Koang Ho, for ex-
ample, 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 Kiang, or" West River"
another the Pc Kiang, or "North
River" the third is the Tung Kiang,
or east River" The names of these
rivers tell the directions from which
they form the Chu Kiang, or Pearl
River" The Chinese named their
largest river in the north the Hoang
Ho because it cuts its bed through yell
low soil, from which it derives its COL
or. The yellow flood it pours into the
sea colors that part of the ocean yell
low, and hence the Chinese call the
sea Hoang Hal, or Yellow Sea.
The Chinese unite the words in q
name so that they form one word just
as we write Newtown, Hartford or
Deerfield. Sometimes We unite the
words in 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 Pc
King. Each of these names is COM
posed of two words. Pc means" north"
and King means "the capital" or
"the Kings household" and thus
Peking means the northern capital.
Tien means heavenly" and Tsin
means "place," and thus the name Of
the largest city in northeast China
means heavenly place"-name it has
borne for many centuries. When
Marco Pelo visited the city in the
thirteenth century he translated its
name into Citta Celeste"
In some books and maps we see the
words "fu" or "hien" 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 departments
into which q province is divided; in
other words, it is the residence OF the
official at the head OF the department.
Hen signifies one of the districts into
which department is divided, and
when attached to q place name means
that the official in charge of the dis
trict resides there. It is better to
omit these merely political designa-
tions. When we have more intimate
dealings with China and better knowl-
edge of the people end their country
we shall have uniformity in the SPELL
ing OF China's place names, and know
what these names mean; and we shall
see clearly that these names show con-
siderable imaginative and descriptive
facility, and that they are really help.