The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-07-05
CHINESE NAMES.
New York SrnN


We are reading just now of many Chi
nese districts. towns and rivers. Many
| Of these geographical names doubtless
appear repellant and unpronounceabIe to
all except few persons who are familiar
with them But If we had a better ac-
1uaIntanCe with these names and knew
their meaning they would be found TO he
full Of interest. They are often condensed
descriptions OF the place or feature 70
| which they are applied. They are far
more instinct with life than many geo.
graphical 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
Ito means The River of Transportation. -
and we naturally infer that the waterway
thus designated must be commercially i'm
portant Yum 40, in fact, is the Chinese
name OF the Grand Canal which PLAYS so
large a part IN the freight service of east
China.
However many syllables there may be
IN a Chinese place name, it is COMPOSED
OF as many words as there are syIlables
for all Chinese words are nnonosvIla bic
II we know the meaning of even one OF
the words in geographical name il helps
TO convey a definite idea. The words Eio
and kiang, for example both mean s'riv-
er, and when we see them on a man we
KNOW they refer TO a river or stream
Many OF the names of rivers are descriD-
tive OF them; Hoang no. for example
means yellow River TSin kiaug means
Clear River" Observe how definite is
the idea expressed in the name of each of
the three rivers Wnlcn cow srge upon an
ton. One of them is the 81 kiang. or the
west River another the Pc lliane or
North River the third is the Tune XII
ana. or East River 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
{ Aharr II.
Chu kiang. or Pearl River" The Chi
nese named their largest river in the
north the HOang no bNaSuse il cuts its
5 5eI tarog i c5 yellow So from which il
pours into the sea colors that part of the
ocean yellow. and hence the Chinese call
the sea HoanS hal. or Yellow Sea.
Inc chinese unite the words in a name
50 that they form one word. just as we
write NewtOwn, Hartford or Deerfield.
sometimes we unite the words in a Chi
nese name and sometimes we separate
them, but there is no reason, for exam
pie, why We should write Tien-Tsin when
we do not write Pe-Kin. Each of these
names is composed of two words Pc
means north and Kin means THE can
TIA or the kings household" and thus
Pekln 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 "a name it has borne for many
SSAllAAAto- " ieu marco EOlO visited the
city in the thirteenth century he translate
ed its name into "Citta Celeste"
Many Chinese names we see in the
newspapers and do not even attempt to
would give us as much infor-
nation, II we could translate them as
long sentence might do Hankow. for
example, Is the name of a very important
city on the Yang tse kiang There are
only six letters in the name and Vet any
Chinese boy would know from the two
short words composing il that il is the
mouth OF a river named Han The Han
Is the greatest tributary OF the Yang tse
kiang and plays most important part in
the commercial life of that teemine val
ley; and the city built on the SPOT where
the Han mingles its waters with the Yang
tse is Hankow. /. e., the town at the
mouth of the Han.
The word Yang means ocean, tse
means son, and the name Yang tse
liang, which the Chinese applied ages ago
to their greatest river. shows that they
I'D not mean 20 depreciate its Importance
Some writer's say the early Chinese be-
lieved their largest river contributed more
water 10 the making OF the ocean than
any other stream in the world and so in
the name Of the river they conveyed the
dea that the ocean was its son The
name is often errQneously translated the
Blue River.
Pekin has not always been the capita1
II the empire. but Nanlin. a city far to