The Origin Story of Henan's Abbreviation Name

The Origin Story of Henan's Abbreviation Name

“象”北来豫吧 一个曾有野象的地方

 

Marching slowly towards the north, the wild elephants reached a place about 70 kilometers away from the downtown area of Kunming, capital of Southwest China's Yunnan province on June 1. Yunnan province sees the harmony between human and elephants. For Henan natives, elephants have a special meaning, not only because of the ivory products and elephant bones unearthed at the Yin Ruins in Anyang city of Central China's Henan province, but also the Chinese character "豫" ("Yu"), abbreviation of "河南" ("Henan"). Therefore, Henan natives also have a special emotion on elephants in Yunnan.

它们呼扇着大耳朵，迈着悠闲的步伐结伴而行，一路北上一路逛吃，截至6月1日已经到达距离昆明市区大约70公里的地方……人象和谐相处的画面正在云南上演。对咱河南人来说，曾在安阳殷墟发掘出大量象牙制品和大象尸骨，加上河南简称是个“豫”字，大象在河南民众心里似乎总有一种特别的意味，它们的一举一动也同样牵动着大家的心。

Henan, a place where wild elephants once lived. [Photo provided to Dahe Daily]

What's the relationship between Henan and elephants?

那么，河南与大象到底有着怎样的关系呢？

 

"河南" ("Henan") is abbreviated as "豫" ("Yu"), which contains a hieroglyph "象" ("elephant"). The dense forest and wild elephants in Henan in ancient times pushed forward the origin of the hieroglyph "豫" ("Yu"). Since Henan was also called the state of "豫" ("Yu") in history, "豫" ("Yu") becomes its abbreviation.

河南的简称“豫”，里面就有象字。豫字的来源是由于远古时期河南森林茂密，野象众多，河南被古人描述为人牵象之地，后来衍生出象形字“豫”，之后称为豫州，河南的简称“豫”也由此得来。（中文来源/大河报 翻译/魏蔚 审校/焦丹）