82 NAMES AND NICKNAMES OF THE 



ities. Doctors differ. When that is the case the open 

 mind is as useful as the "open door" in China. We meet 

 with an example at the very threshold of our subject. We' 

 are to examine certain names and nicknames in Shanghai. 

 But what of the name "Shanghai" itself. It is beautifully 

 simple. There are but two syllables, but, as t)r. Giles gives 

 quite a dozen meanings for them separately, it is easy to see 

 that there is room for varied views of their combined signifi- 

 cation. Is Shanghai "on the sea," "by the sea," or "above 

 the sea" as a sort of Super-mare : or is it "the upper sea? ' 

 All these meanings have been given to it, but local evidence 

 seems to support the last, for besides the "Shanghai" of 

 this district, there is a "Hsia-hai," or "Au-hai," pointing 

 to an "upper" and a "lower" position. There is a Hsia-hai 

 Miao to this day in the neighbourhood of the Kwenming 

 Road. Maclellan connects the Yangtzepoo (tl? %$ jjfi) district 

 with this name. It may be so. In any case it should be re- 

 membered that the "Yangtze" in that name has nothing to 

 do with the Yangtze Eiver, but is very suggestive of the 

 physiography of the neighbourhood in early times when it- 

 not only meant but was "The Bank or Beach of the Willow 

 Trees." 



Dr. Parker in the 1916 journal of this Society has a. 

 most interesting and instructive article on the History and 

 Folklore of Old Shanghai. To it those interested mav be 

 safely directed. For our present purpose we will merely 

 mention what is perhaps the very oldest of our Shanghai 

 names — Hu-tu — where "Hu" means the stakes used by 

 fishermen to hold their nets, and "Tu" means the river. 

 A later and more poetic title, "The City of Reeds" is dis- 

 tinctive not of Shanghai alone, but of every other place that 

 has grown up on the thousands of alluvial sites presented to 

 us by the Yangtze. 



There is, however, no doubt regarding the first native- 

 name for the foreign settlements. It was a nickname but 

 it was the most natural that could have come into use. It 

 was, indeed, a translation of our own term — the "Foreign 

 Area." But, as was all too common in the early days, the 

 native of China did what the native of every other land has 

 done; he injected as much of his natural suspicion of the 

 foreigner, his engrained distrust, and his not unnatural fear 

 as he could into it. So he called our site the "I-chang," not 

 the "I-chang" that we know above Hankow, but another 

 "I-chang," for the "I" in which the official scribe had a 

 choice. He might have used an "I" (H) which meant 

 simply foreign, and nothing worse. But he chose to use 

 an "I" (5S) which besides meaning foreign, meant also 



