Hong Zhang, PhD

In Chinese, there are two most common words corresponding to the English world “river”, one is Jiang （江）, the other is He （河). For example, the largest river in China is Yangtze River, or Chang Jiang. The second largest is called Yellow River, or Huang He. When you ask a Chinese what’s the difference, chance is that most of them will not be able to tell.

According to the explanation of regular dictionary, Jiang refers to the large He. It is also the common understanding for most people. However, it is unfortunately a myth. Huang He is larger than most of the Jiangs except the Yangtze Jiang, and some Jiangs such as Xin’an Jiang is smaller than many of their peers, such as Huai He. If you open a map and study the names of Chinese rivers, it doesn’t support this claim well. Indeed, it is only a rough description of rivers on southern part of China.

If you look again at the map, then you can find that almost all the rivers from the north of Yangtze River to south of Northeast of China are called He. Meanwhile, the major rivers on south are all Jiang. It points to a clue toward history. There are two major sources of Chinese civilization. One is Banpo, developed at the side of Yellow River, the other is Hemudu, nurtured by Yangtze River. In the thousands years of development, they merged and integrated, but some distinctions still left, including those in the language. Meanwhile, in the history, China has sometime divided to two or more independent states. Yangtze River is often the natural boundary between these countries. It is not a surprise that they developed many different sub-cultures and words. That is quite possible the reason that the northern people use He and the southern people use Jiang.

If you understand now, there are three more words to confuse you. They also mean river. One is Shui (水), namely water, often used in northwest of China, such as Weishui. The other is Xi (溪), namely creek, but sometime also refer to larger rivers in Fujian or Taiwan, such as Zhuoshuixi. The last one is Chuan (川), an ancient name for rivers. Chuan is not common on river names now, but on places, such as SiChuan Province, namely, four rivers. Chuan is still used in Japan though, to name the rivers.

However, there is one thing to make your life a little bit easier. For the rivers outside China (except those in Japan, Korea and Vietnan), their Chinese names are all He. For example, Mississippi River is Mixixibi He, and Seine Rive is Saina He. Why? It’s very simple. Beijing, the capital of China, is located at the northern part of China.

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