Toponymic studies in Jiangxi
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The introduction of this article introduces the cultural attributes of geographical names and the important position of Henan in China's history, which leads to the research purpose of this paper; the main text further explores the cultural connotations contained in henan geographical names through the study of the naming rules of Henan geographical names; finally, briefly introduces the current situation of international and domestic geographical name culture research and protection, and explains that the current study of the cultural connotation of Henan geographical names is of great significance for promoting national culture.
keyword
Henan; place names; naming conventions; cultural connotations;
The term "place name" first appeared in the Zhou Li, which reads: "Master Qi, the name of the place in charge of the four directions." "As the name that people give to geographical entities, administrative regions or settlements in society, place names have had two attributes since their inception: on the one hand, it refers to the symbol of a certain geographical location, which has a function; on the other hand, it truly reflects the changes in national history, geography, society and language, and also reflects the psychology and living habits of the nation, with far-reaching cultural connotations.
The Zhou Li Zhi Fang (周礼·職方) cloud "Henan Yue Yu Zhou", which may be the earliest source of the word "Henan". In the long-term historical development of China, the term "Henan" refers to different regions from time to time, but basically refers to the Central Plains region, which is dominated by the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. As one of the main birthplaces of the Chinese nation and an important carrier of national cultural inheritance, Henan has a special position in history, so the place names of various parts of Henan have also left a strong mark in China's history. This paper analyzes the naming rules of Henan geographical names and the cultural connotations they contain, in order to have a deeper understanding of the research and protection of geographical names culture.
First, the naming rules of geographical names in various parts of Henan
The generation of any geographical name has its own internal laws, and it is not a figment of the imagination. In the early days, the naming of place names was generally "close to the body, far away from the things", with the development of society and the progress of people's understanding, the naming law of place names also showed more social, epochal, regional and other characteristics. Specifically, the naming rules of Henan place names are roughly divided into the following categories:
(1) Reflect the characteristics of the geographical environment
01 Place names named after mountains and water
Mountains and water generally do not change their location, and mountains and water are important places for human beings to obtain the means of subsistence. Therefore, naming place names after mountains and water is in line with people's psychological habits, and many place names have been preserved to this day. Fangcheng County, "Ben Han blocked Yangdi also, Sui changed to Fangcheng County, took Fangcheng Mountain as the name also". Tongbai County, "In the eighteenth year of the Sui Kai Emperor, the township was changed to Tongbai, and the name of Tongbai Mountain was also taken" In addition, Lushan County is named after Gulu Mountain, Huangchuan County is named after Huangshui, Ruzhou City is named after Rushui, Qi County is named after Qishui, Huaibin County is named after the shore of Huaishui, and Qishan County is named after the mountain in the county.
02 Place names formed by physical geographical features, etc
With the expansion of the scope of activities of the ancestors and the improvement of their cognitive ability, people's understanding of the geographical environment in which they live is also more profound, and many geographical names are produced by the geographical characteristics of the terrain and landforms of the regions in which they are located. Gongyi, formerly Gong County, Erya: "Gong, Guye." On all sides are rivers and mountains of Guye. "It is named because it is closed on all sides and the terrain is dangerous. Sanmenxia, "Yu chiseled the bottom pillar, the two stones are seen in the water, if the pillar is like." At this point, the river is divided into three factions, flowing out of them, so it is also called the three gates", hence the name. Xiping, "Notes on the Water Classics", reads: "Xiping of the Han Dynasty, with its Xiling Pavilion of Xilu Ruins, Xiling Pingyi, hence the name Xiping". Xia Yi, because of its depression name Xia Yi, Jin changed to Xia Yi.
03 Geographical names formed by geographical orientation
Since the Yin Shang era, China has formed the concept of east, west, south and north, such as the oracle bones have such as Dongdan, Xiyi, Nanmen, Beitao and other place names information. At the same time, based on the understanding of cold, warm, dry and wet, our people have long formed the concept of yin and yang, "Gu Liang Biography" summed up the "water north is yang, shannan is yang" place name naming rules, the Eastern Han Dynasty Fu Qian added "water south is yin", and finally produced this important principle that affects the naming of place names in China. Luoyang, because "in the north of Luoshui, so it is called Luoyang". Tang Yin, "Tang Reading Day Dang", Han Placed Dang Yin County, the county has a dangshui, because of the name also. Xihua, "Han name, Wei Zhaoyue: Huaguo name, in the west." Hence the name Xihua. "In addition, there is Yiyang, which is named after its location north of the Yihe River, Runan, which is named after the south of Rushui, and Biyang, which is named after the sun of The Water.
04 Geographical names formed by human geographical characteristics such as transportation and distance
In Henan geographical names, there are many place names named after humanistic characteristics such as distance and shape in the process of people's understanding, and such place names are also more common throughout the country. Tongxu, "in the third year of the Northern Song Dynasty (962 AD), the town was established, and the land was adjacent to The Tokyo (present-day Kaifeng) through Xuchang Avenue, hence the name Tongxu". There are also many place names such as Wulizhuang, Shilipu, Cross Road, Sanchakou and many other place names that contain more clear and prominent human and geographical information.
(2) Characteristics that reflect historical deeds
01 Place names formed by historical events
Henan has always been an important activity area for the ancestors of the Chinese nation, and many major historical events have occurred in this ancient and magical land, which has also produced many place names. For example, there are many place names that are named only by "Wu Wang Fa Lu": Xiu Wu, "Shang for Ningyi, Zhou Wu Wang Fa Lu, Le Bing Yu Ning, because of Xiu Wu"; Wu Zhi County, according to the Ming Wanli Nineteenth Year "Wu Zhi Zhi": "Wu Zhi County, Zhou Wu Wang MuYe's division, Xingzi Tu, hence the name"; Yanshi City, "Zhou Wu Wang Cut Silk, Hui Shi Shi Rong, because of the name Yan Shi". There is also the town of Waiting for Wang in Macun District of Jiaozuo City, which is named after "the people eat pot pulp to welcome the king's master" and so on.
02 Place names formed by ancient countries, old towns, and ancient towns
Henan has a long history of culture and many historical sites, and such place names are innumerable. Fengqiu County, "the land of ancient feudal states". Qixian County, "Former Yongqiu, Ancient Yongguo." Later, it was the Kingdom of Qi, that is, here also". Chen Liuzhen, "Taiping Huanyu Chronicle" contains: "The Records of history Yun: 'Zheng Huan Gongyou, with the decline of Zhou, migrated to Yuliu'. Later, it was merged by Chen Suo, so it was known as Chen Liu. "Dengzhou," "During the Spring and Autumn Period, the State of Denghou was changed to Deng Prefecture in the early Sui Dynasty, with the name of the state." Chencheng County is named after the ancient state of Yizi, Xincai County and Shangcai County are named after cai guo, Luyi is named after the ancient city of Lucheng, Yancheng is named after Guchanyi, and Xinxiang is named after the ancient town of Xinzhongxiang.
03 Place names formed from the names of historical figures
In the history of our country, Henan has long been the political and cultural center of our country, thus becoming the main place of activities of many political figures, which has also produced many place names formed by the names of historical figures. For example, Jia County, "Xinzhong Township of Benji County." In the sixth year of Han Wu Yuanding, the eastern tour came here, and it was appropriate to destroy Lü Jiashou in South Vietnam, because of the establishment of the county." Qingfeng County, "with the county boundary having a filial piety Zhang Qingfeng Gate Que, Weizhou Tian Chengsi please as the name of the county."
(3) Reflect regional cultural characteristics
01 Place names formed by military tuns and military passes
Henan is located in the hinterland of the Central Plains and the terrain is dangerous, since ancient times it has been a place where soldiers must fight, the geographical location is extremely important, and the rulers of successive dynasties have also placed heavy troops to defend here. Western Henan, northern Henan, and southern Henan are mountainous, and the terrain is easy to defend and difficult to attack, so the defense method is mostly based on The Pass, forming many such place names as Hangu Guanzhen and Jingziguan Town. The eastern Henan region is a vast plain, there is no danger to rely on, so most of them are guarded in the form of military tuns, and in this process, many place names with "camp" and "tun" as common names have been produced, such as Zhaoying, Renying, Gebotun and so on.
02 Place names formed by the concentration of people
In the past, people with the same surname and ethnic group often lived together and gradually formed one village and township after another, which were generally named by the clan surnames that lived together. Such as Dingzhuang, Lizhuang, Xiezhuang, Xuezhuang, Suzhuang, Zhuzhuang and so on.
03 Place names formed by religion
Religion has always had a deep folk soil in China, and religious beliefs have affected all aspects of people's lives. Henan has famous religious shrines such as white horse temple, Shaolin temple, Guanlin temple, and Zhongyue temple, and there are also many place names formed by religious buildings and religious figures. However, in general, such place names are more common in townships, villages or streets and other institutions with low administrative establishments, such as Erlangping Town, Guanwangmiao Town, Mituo Temple Township, Baogong Temple, Shimiao Township, Shisi Town, Shifo Village, etc.
(4) Reflect the characteristics of the times
01 Place names formed by avoidance
In feudal society, avoidance is a law that society obeys, and this rule is naturally fully reflected in many historical place names. If some place names are the same or the same as the names of the rulers or their ancestors at that time, they should be avoided and renamed. Neixiang, "Han for analysis county, Western Wei changed to Zhongxiang County, Sui Zhenzhong, changed to Neixiang County". Shangcheng County, "Han Dynasty Si County, Sui Chu changed to Yincheng County, Song Jianlong Chu, to Xuan Zu Zhen, changed to Shangcheng County". Zhengyang , formerly Shenyang , was renamed Zhengyang by the Yongzheng Emperor. Xinyang, originally Yiyang, was changed to Xinyang by Emperor Taizong of Song.
02 Place names formed by the characteristics of the social era
Any social period has its own characteristics, and some of them are reflected in place names. During the Republic of China period, General Feng Yuxiang was in charge of Henan, and he used to name place names with words with the characteristics of the times such as "civil rights, fraternity, and freedom", and later changed to Yichuan County, and the two counties of civil rights and fraternity are still used to this day. At the beginning of the founding of New China, many place names with the names of victory and liberation appeared in Henan, and during the Cultural Revolution, many place names such as Red Light, Red Guard, Red Star, and Red Specialty appeared throughout the country.
(5) Reflect the characteristics of people's will
01 A place name made of good expectations
In ancient times, rulers expected political progress and peace in the world, and this idea was reflected in many place names. Xin'an County, according to the "Interpretation of the Names of Counties and Counties", Xin'an County was placed in Qin, and had the meaning of "new public order". Luoning County, Sui Yining in the second year of Yonggu County, Yongning County, according to the "Luoning County Chronicle" recorded: "The county is known as Yongning, showing the intention of the strike soldiers Goan Jingli. Later, the name of luohe was changed to Luoning. Baofeng, "Han County, Tang Zhengsheng initially divided the two counties of Wuxing County, Shenlong Was initially changed to Zhongxing, and The Rotation was changed to Longxing." In the second year of Song Xuanhe's reign, the county had a smelting and casting plant and named it Baofeng." Kaifeng, formerly known as Kaifeng, Spring and Autumn Zhengdi, the ancient city of Zhengzhuang Gongzhu, with the meaning of Opening the territory, was changed to Kaifeng after avoiding the Han Jing Emperor.
(6) Others
01 Place names formed by phonetic falsification or harmony
Yima, (Shi Weile Dictionary of Chinese Historical Place Names) used to be a village, qing name Yima, and later falsely known as Yima. Sheqi, in 1965, analyzed the four counties of Nanyang, Fangcheng, Tanghe and Biyang, and took the harmonic sound of the credit flag of the town where it was stationed as the social flag, which means "the meaning of the socialist banner".
02 Geographical names formed by administrative functions
Weishi County, the Taiping Huanyu Chronicle contains "This Spring and Autumn Zheng Da lost Wei Shi Zhiyi, that is, the prison officer Also, in the second year of the Qin Dynasty, weimin County".
03 Geographical names formed by production and life
Jiaozuo, according to Teacher Sun Xianghua in his article "The Cultural Meaning of Jiaozuo Place Names": "In the sixth year of the Yuan Dynasty (1284), it was called Jiaojiazuo, which was said to be the location of the workshop of the Jiaojia family, later referred to as Jiaozuo. "There are many other place names such as zuo, shop, kiln and other places that have developed, such as Shangbaizuo, Sujiazuo, Zhumadian, Wadian, Lijiadian, Guojiayao and so on.
Second, the cultural connotation of Henan geographical names is analyzed
China has a long history, a thick culture, the number of place names is even more vast, and the history of ancient place names is long, the stock is large, and the rich cultural connotation is the largest in the world. After the strict investigation and demonstration of historians and paleogeographers and the review and confirmation of the China Institute of Geographical Names, there are more than 800 ancient counties (which do not include many townships and villages) that have existed for more than a thousand years, of which 74 are in Henan, and Shandong ranks first. Judging from the study of place names in Henan, it contains the following cultural connotations:
(1) Positive
Because China is located in the northern hemisphere, the south side of the mountain is a sunny slope, the illumination is more abundant, and the north side of the mountain is the opposite; and because china's terrain is high in the northwest and low in the southeast, the flow direction of the river tends to the southeast, forming a dry and wet situation in the north of the river bank. Our ancestors discovered these laws very early on, and summed up the naming rules of place names that "the north of the mountains and the waters are yang, and the north of the mountains and the south of the waters is yin". There are 10 place names with the word "Yang" in the county-level names of Henan City (except for Anyang and Puyang, which have the same names at the county and city levels), while only 1 has the word "Yin", which is also more common in the country.
(2) Water tendency
Both mountains and water are important places for human beings to obtain resources, but the ancestors were more dependent on water than mountains. Water is not only an important part of life, but also the source of life, and to this day, water is still closely related to our production, life, and even survival. In ancient societies, the ability of humans to use and transform nature was extremely low, so whether there was sufficient water source was the primary factor for people to consider in site selection. Moreover, Henan is located in the four major river basins of Haihe, Yellow River, Huaihe River and Yangtze River, and there are many large and small rivers in the territory, which also provides good conditions for the survival of the ancestors and lays a certain foundation for the development of early civilization here. According to statistics, among the place names at the county level in Henan City alone, there are 29 related to water, and 9 are related to mountains. The abundant water source solved the problem of the survival of the ancestors and became one of the main sources of local place names.
(3) Regionality
Henan has a complex topography, with high terrain in the west and low in the east. The mountains and rivers in western Henan and northern Henan are longitudinal, so there are many place names with topographic features such as streams, yu, gorges, ridges, and pings, such as magnetic streams, streams, streams, heyu, Luoling, Miping, And so on. Eastern Henan is mostly plain, and is more influenced by the Yellow River and HuaiHe, so there are many place names with topographic features such as depressions, ditches, gangs, beaches, hills, etc., such as Rengang, Ligang, Dingwa, Yongqiu, etc. There are Dabie Mountains in southern Henan, and there are many rivers, so there are more place names such as Chong, Fa, Wan, and Weir, such as Li Jiachong, Lin Chong, Yao Chong, Yang Fa, Balifa, Liu Wan, etc. Due to the factors of physical geography and cultural differences, on the one hand, the distribution of geographical names in various parts of Henan shows certain regional characteristics, and on the other hand, it also shows the differences in regional culture. For example, southern Henan is influenced by southern culture, calling the flat land in the valley chong, while northern Henan is called Yu.
(4) Clan nature
Henan is one of the main birthplaces of the Huaxia ethnic group, but also china's "Chinese surnames traced back to the roots" holy land, according to statistics, China's hundreds of family names have a source or part of the source in Henan, it can be seen that surnames and place names in Henan village and town level has an extremely wide presence. Mr. Gao Geyuan has done a sample survey of county gazetteers in several provinces, and he concluded: "Chinese surnames and place names account for different proportions in different regions, the highest 80%, the lowest 15%, generally between about 30% and 50%. "It can be seen that surnames and place names are an important connotation in China's toponymic culture, and it is also a unique landscape in the world.
The cultural connotations contained in place names profoundly reflect some of the historical and cultural characteristics of the ancestors, such as psychology and living habits, which are extremely important for us to better understand the historical imprint of our own nation.
3. After-effect
The excavation, research and protection of geographical name culture have long attracted widespread attention in the international community. In August 2007, the Ninth United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names recognized the intangible cultural heritage of geographical names. In recent years, with the increasing attention paid to the protection and development of historical and cultural resources, the awareness of geographical name protection in all walks of life has been improved, and the research on geographical name culture has also been carried out more vigorously, and the "China Geographical Names Cultural Heritage Protection Project" has been implemented throughout the country.
Henan and the Central Plains culture it represents are an important part of China's culture, and Henan's place names are a wonderful flower in China's national cultural heritage, which is not only a witness to the five-thousand-year civilization history of the Chinese nation, but also a fossil of China's excellent traditional culture. The study of Henan's geographical names and their cultural connotations is undoubtedly of great benefit to the promotion of national culture.
Author: Li Huang Liu Zishen
Source: Heilongjiang Chronicle, No. 3, 2011
Draft: Geng Yao
Editor: Yisi Zou
Proofreader: Sun Xinyi
Editor-in-charge: Zhang Chunyu
(Due to the limited layout, please refer to the original article for the content of the comments)
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