Yangtze

An irregular romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 揚子／扬子 (Yángzǐ) and 揚子江／扬子江 (Yángzǐ Jiāng), a former name for the lower stretches of the Yangtze derived from 揚子津 (Yángzǐjīn), a former ferry crossing near Yangzhou, applied by foreign visitors to the entire length of the river. The folk etymology that it means "Son of the Ocean" derives from the homophonic misnomer 洋子江 which was apparently given to Matteo Ricci, whose posthumously published journals popularized the river in Europe as Latin Iansu and Iansuchian.

That Riuer of Nanquin which I called (Yamſu or) Ianſu, the ſonne of the Sea, goeth Northward to Nanquin, and then returning ſomewhat Southward, runneth into the Sea with great force; fortie myles from which it paſſeth by Nanquin. And that from hence to Pequin there might bee paſſage by Riuers, the Kings of China haue deriued a large Channell from this to another Riuer, called the Yellow Riuer, ſuch being the colour of that troubled water. This is the other famous Riuer of that Kingdome, in greatneſſe and note, which ariſesth without the Kingdome to the Weſt, out of the Hill Cunlun, conjectured to bee the ſame whence Ganges ariſeth, or one neere to it.

1625, Samuel Purchas, Pvrchas His Pilgrimes, volume III, London, →OCLC, page 340:

You will perceive that the British and French commissioners ascend the Yangtze at pleasure, and have the steamers of their respective countries at their disposal. I was compelled, for the want of other conveyance, to come hither in a little British steamer which plies between Shanghai and Hong Kong.

1853 December 8, Humphrey Marshall, Documents Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States with Other Countries, number 37, Macao: A.O.P. Nicholson, published 1854, →OCLC, pages 323–324:

The Bishop of Shanghai desires that the bounds of his jurisdiction shall be more clearly expressed, and that therefore his title shall hereafter be, "The Bishop of Shanghai, having jurisdiction in the lower valley of Yangtze." The jurisdiction will be sufficiently large. The Yangtze River is three thousand miles in length, and the population on its borders numbers one hundred millions. As there are already three Bishops of the Church of England, with a large Missionary force of English Clergy, in that empire, Bishop Boone desires that his jurisdiction be limited to the population on the lower Yangtze, a line of eight hundred miles.

1887 [1886 October 19], G. T. Bedell, Thomas H. Vail, B. W. Morris, Geo. F. Seymour, Wm. J. Boone, “Fourteenth Day's Proceedings”, in Journal of the Proceedings of the Bishops, Clergy, and Laity of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, Chicago, page 99:

It is not till the Yangtze reaches Sha-shih that its character completely changes. The first note of change is a great embankment, thirty feet high, which protects the region from inundation. Below Sha-shih the vast river becomes mixed up with a network of lakes and rivers, connected by canals, the area of the important Tungting Lake being over 2000 square miles.

1900, Isabella L. Bird, The Yangtze Valley and Beyond, volume 1, pages 9-10:

Of the northernmost one of these folds, the writer has some faint recollection of seeing the folded strata. They form the hills to the west of Han-yung and the central ridge across the city of Wu-chang and extends further east; the west-easterly course of the Yang-tze below Yang-lo (lat. 30° 30' N.) is in all probability determined by this E-W fold.

1918, J.S. Lee, The Geology of China, University of Birmingham, →OCLC, page 320:

Aside from the Turfan depression in Hsin-chiang (Sinkiang) province, the hottest part of China lies in the middle and lower Yangtze Valley. Maximum temperatures of 43°-44°C (110°-112°F) have been recorded in Ch'ang-sha and Nan-ching.

1969, Yi-Fu Tuan, China, Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company, page 22:

Early in the summer of 1127 the emperor was located near the city of Nan-ching just south of the Yangtze River.

1974, John H. Winkelman, The Imperial Library in Southern Sung China, 1127-1279 : A Study of the Organization and Operation of the Scholarly Agencies of the Central Government, page 12:

The Chinese Communists destroyed natural resources by widening the Yangtze River, and brought natural disasters to the mainland, including the worst floods in Szechwan province and other areas.

1982 January 3, “News Stories of Year on Peiping Selected”, in Free China Weekly, volume XXIII, number 1, Taipei, page 3:

The rains swelled the Yangtze River, raising record water levels on July 19 at the Three Gorges Dam, upriver from the city of Wuhan.

2020 August 10, “Worst Rains in Decades Cause China Flooding”, in Time, volume 196, numbers 5-6, page 10:

The building, on the outskirts of Ezhou, a city on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, is hailed as the world’s biggest free-standing pig farm, with a second, identical hog high-rise opening soon.

2023 February 8, Daisuke Wakabayashi, Claire Fu, “China’s Bid to Improve Food Production? Giant Towers of Pigs.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-02-08:

The chief river of central China and the third longest river in the world, flowing a total of 6300 km.


Chengdu

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin 成都 (Chéngdū), supposedly bestowed upon it during its first founding by the ninth king of the Shu Kingdom's Kaiming dynasty when he removed his court there from nearby Pi County.

As the United States lashed out against the “new tyranny” of China, Beijing on Friday ordered the closure of the American consulate in Chengdu, a retaliatory move that threatens to drive the two powers into an even deeper divide.
Beijing blamed the Trump administration for the deterioration in relations, calling its own action justified after Washington told China this week to shutter its consulate in Houston and accused its diplomats of acting illegally. A Chinese official, in turn, denounced American diplomats in Chengdu, a southwestern city, for interfering in China’s affairs.

2020 July 24, Keith Bradsher, Steven Lee Myers, “China Orders U.S. to Shut Consulate in Chengdu, Retaliating for Houston”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-07-24, Asia Pacific:

A subprovincial city, the provincial capital of Sichuan, in southwestern China.


Sichuan

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 四川 (Sìchuān), a contraction of the Southern Song 四川路 (Sìchuān lù).

In Suchue, on Mount Tiexe, the ſtones that grow there being burnt in the fire, drop Iron, which is very fit for the making Swords.

[1669, John Nievhoff, translated by John Ogilby, An Embassy from the Eaſt-India Company of the United Provinces, to the Grand Tartar Cham Emperour of China, London: John Macock, →OCLC, page 242:

SUchuen, which ſignifies Four Waters, is a great Countrey, ſeparated by the River Kiang, into a Northern and Southern part ; Bordering in the Eaſt upon Huquang ; in the South-Eaſt upon Queicheu ; and hath in the North-Eaſt and North Xenſi ; in the North-Weſt, the People Koningguangi and Kiang ; or the Countreys which Paulus Venetus makes to be Preſter John's, which the Chineſes by one general Name call'd Sifan ; and in the Weſt, Tibet, and the moſt Southern part of the Province of Junnan.

[1671, Arnoldus Montanus, translated by John Ogilby, Atlas Chinensis, London: Tho. Johnson, translation of original in Dutch, →OCLC, page 512:

Such was the argument of three highly placed gentlemen of Hubei, graduates of the Japanese military academy and losers in Hubei’s internal conflicts who appeared in Changsha in early 1921. It was also the argument of Xiong Ke-wu, a former military governor of Sichuan whose June visit was concealed behind layers of lies and half truths (he said he was in Changsha to study self-government; gossips in the know said that he was secretly a spokesman for Wang Zhan-yuan).

1978, Angus W. McDonald, Jr., “Power”, in The Urban Origins of Rural Revolution: Elites and the Masses in Hunan Province, China, 1911-1927, University of California Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 50-51:

China’s agriculture ministry said on Wednesday two new African swine fever outbreaks were confirmed in Sichuan and Qinghai provinces.
The new case in the city of Bazhong in Sichuan killed 19 of 117 pigs present on a farm, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said in a statement on its website.

2018 December 12, Beijing Monitoring Desk, “China reports new African swine fever outbreaks in Sichuan, Qinghai provinces”, in Christian Schmollinger, editor, Reuters, archived from the original on 2018-12-12, Health News:

About 80 percent of wild giant pandas live in Sichuan province. The rest are in Gansu and Shaanxi.

2019 May 27, “Rare albino panda discovered in China”, in DW News, archived from the original on 2019-05-27, News:

A province in central China. Capital: Chengdu.

Anhui · Fujian · Guangdong · Gansu · Guizhou · Henan · Hubei · Hebei · Hainan · Heilongjiang · Hunan · Jilin · Jiangsu · Jiangxi · Liaoning · Qinghai · Sichuan · Shandong · Shaanxi · Shanxi · Taiwan · Yunnan · Zhejiang

Guangxi · Inner Mongolia · Ningxia · Tibet Autonomous Region · Xinjiang

Beijing · Tianjin · Shanghai · Chongqing


Yellow River

Calque of Chinese 黃河／黄河 (Huáng Hé), chiefly from the river's golden appearance as far west as Lanzhou caused by the enormous levels of silt it acquires from the Loess Plateau but also influenced by the color schema in wuxing ("Five Element") theory, which associates earth with the color 黃／黄 (huáng), usually translated as "yellow" but also inclusive of shades modern English would consider golden, orange, brown, tan, etc. The earliest Chinese sources simply describe it as 河 (hé, “The River”) but it was later distinguished as the Yellow River after 河 (hé) began to replace 水 (shuǐ) as a generic term for creeks and smaller rivers.

Firſt of all, There are in China two famous large Rivers, namely Kiang, and the Yellow River... The Yellow River, by ſtrangers ſo called from the colour of the water, occaſioned by the Yellowneſs of the ground, is named Hoang in the Chineſe Language, and ſeems at firſt to be very Mooriſh; but the ſwiftneſs and great force of its running, makes it appear the quite contrary; for with ſo incredible a ſwiftneſs does this River run, that no Ships are able to Sail up againſt its Stream, but are drawn up againſt the ſame by the main ſtrength of a great number of Track-men: which may proceed from its being contracted within ſo narrow bounds; for in ſome places it is but half a mile broad, and in others a little broader, but in a continued courſe, for in length it extends above 800 miles.

1669, John Nievhoff, translated by John Ogilby, An Embassy from the Eaſt-India Company of the United Provinces, to the Grand Tartar Cham Emperour of China, London: John Macock, →OCLC, pages 235–236:

After passing a short stage, through low lands with very different prospects, a succession of good towns and villages, numerous vessels, and crowds of people, indicated the vicinity of the Yellow River, into which the canal falls with a gentle force.
November 2d, the yachts came to the spot where the canal joins the Yellow River.
The Yellow River runs at this place with such rapidity that the Chinese sailors deemed it necessary to offer a sacrifice to its Guardian Spirit for a safe passage.

1798, Complete View of the Chinese Empire, London, page 400:

As we rode slowly over the Lunghai Line toward Sianfu, across the brown sun-baked plains of Northern Honan, soon to be flooded when the Chinese breached the Yellow River dikes to stop the advancing Yellow Horde, we passed many troop trains en-route to the front.

1941, Edgar Snow, The Battle for Asia, New York: Random House, page 26:

China's Yellow River, or Huang he, is named for the yellow, sandy silt it carries in its water. This silt, called loess, is almost as fine as flour. Over thousands of years, the northwestern wind blowing from the Gobi Desert has deposited hundreds of feet of loess over northern China. As the Yellow River flows through China, it sweeps away the fine, yellow silt and carries it downriver.

2001, Kim Dramer, The Yellow River, Franklin Watts, →ISBN, page 7:

FOR MORE THAN 2,000 years, a branch of the Silk Road — the 600-mile-long Hexi Corridor — has angled southeast from the Taklamakan and Gobi deserts to the Yellow River loess plains.

2020 May 11, Anna Sherman, “A Poetic Journey Through Western China”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-05-11:

Central China, where multiple tributaries of the Yellow River crisscross and monsoon rains are exceptionally heavy, has long been subject to flooding.

2021 July 22, Pei Lin Wu, Rebecca Tan, “Death toll in China floods climbs to 33 as rains spread and more cities call for help”, in The Washington Post, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-07-22, Asia:

The chief river of the North China Plain, the second-longest river in China and sixth-longest river system on Earth, historically prone to massive floods which repeatedly drastically changed its course.

Kunlun

Source of the Yellow River in trad. Chinese mythology


Sichuanese

en-adj

Sichuanese (comparative more Sichuanese, superlative most Sichuanese)

more Sichuanese (comparative)
most Sichuanese (superlative)

Of or relating to the province of Sichuan in China.


Kiang

A romanization of various Mandarin words rendered jiāng, jiáng, jiǎng, or jiàng in pinyin and particularly used for Chinese 江 (Jiāng, “The River”), frequently used in Chinese in specific reference to the Yangtze.

All China was formerly divided by the Chineſe Emperour Xunus into 12 Provinces; afterwards the Emperour Yua, who took upon him the Government after the death of Xunus, about 260 years before the Incarnation of our Saviour, reduced all China into Nine Provinces, which only at that time comprehended the Northern Parts of China, and had for their Confines the River Kiang. But after that they had Conquered the Southern parts by degrees, and had ſomewhat civilized the Inhabitants, the whole Kingdom of China was divided into 15 Provinces : Amongſt theſe alſo they reckon the Province of Leaotung, which is ſituated on the Weſt of Peking, where the great Wall begins, and the Hanging Iſland of Corea; both which pay Tribute to the Emperour.

1669 [1665], John Nievhoff, translated by John Ogilby, An Embassy from the Eaſt-India Company of the United Provinces, to the Grand Tartar Cham Emperour of China, London: John Macock, translation of original in Dutch, →OCLC, page 6:

The series of these great events began in the year 1333, fifteen years before the plague broke out in Europe: they first appeared in China. Here a parching drought, accompanied by famine, commenced in the tract of country watered by the rivers Kiang and Hoai.

1888, J. F. C. Hecker, “Causes.-Spread.”, in B. G. Babington, transl., The Black Death and the Dancing Mania, →OCLC, page 24:

The cult center of this vast playground for water spirits and connoisseurs of water was on the mainland in a region on the east shore of the lake that came to be known as Pa-ling. Its official name in T’ang times was sometimes Yüeh-yang and sometimes Yüeh-chou. This is where the waters of the lake merged with those of the Hsiang and the Kiang—but then their shores were certainly contoured differently than now. This worshipful place was at the northern limit of the goddess's domain; still it remained the most ancient and venerable heart of that domain. It had been a sacred center in the distant past, belonging to the marshes of Yün-meng "Cloud Dream," extending north and south on both sides of the Kiang,⁴¹ in the kingdom of Ch’u:

1973, Edward H. Schafer, “The Medieval Cult of the Great Water Goddesses”, in The Divine Woman: Dragon Ladies and Rain Maidens in T’ang Literature, University of California Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 58:

(obsolete) Synonym of Yangtze, the chief river of central China.


Jialing

Translingual: Chialingosaurus

A left tributary of the Yangtze in Sichuan, China