Modern city names do not have the charm and artistic conception of ancient city names. This is not an isolated phenomenon. Nothing in modern times has more charm and artistic conception than ancient names. This thing is the result of the continuous development of history and the continuous renewal of society. History is always progressing, showing a spiral result. The popular elements in each stage are similar to those in the previous moment, but there are some social characteristics at that time and the names are the same. From urban planning and architecture to individuals in the city, the whole social outlook is constantly updated with the development of the times. The development of language also changes with the pace of society. In ancient times, people's language tended to be archaic, classical and meaningful. Naturally, they will choose this language when naming cities, and rulers are often named, which can better represent the characteristics and cultural representation of an era.
In modern times, people's language tends to be plain, concise and easy to understand, so the naming in urban planning will be simple and plain, full of modern language characteristics. In fact, people's language development has changed greatly in recent years. Let's look at the news broadcast at the beginning of liberation. The host's putonghua pronunciation and words are very different from now, which makes people feel contemporary. The meanings of words and sentences people use every day are also changing. For example, parents 20 years ago can't understand their children's online language now. So modern people can almost infer when a person was born by looking at his name. In ancient times, people often chose a kind of words with profound and beautiful meanings in ancient culture to take names, while in modern times, people tend to choose the names of popular stars and celebrities.
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Rick, Pan Weiyong, Historical Questioner 05-29 23:27
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On this issue, I will give two examples.
One is my hometown, and my hometown is Taizhou (pregnant). Zhejiang people are basically right, but nine times out of ten people outside Zhejiang will be wrong. I also saw comments on the internet some time ago. Many people are clamoring to change the polyphonic words or mispronounced place names like Taizhou, or to pronounce them uniformly. For the convenience of more people, Taizhou should be pronounced as Tiaozhou.
But let me introduce the origin of Taizhou first. Taizhou, named after Tiantai Mountain, was formally established in Tang Dynasty. The origin of the name Tiantai Mountain is because the ancients thought it just corresponds to the Tiantai star in the sky. So there are many places in China called Tiantai Mountain, but only one can read Tiantai Mountain.
In traditional Chinese characters, Taiwanese character is the original word of fetus, which means fetus. Looking at the pictogram, we can know that there is a nose above and a mouth below, which symbolizes the nose and mouth when people are just formed. Now the traditional Chinese character in Taiwan Province is Taiwan Province, which was completely two characters in ancient times. Therefore, if the pronunciation should be lowered as most people wish, Taizhou will completely lose its cultural heritage.
The second example is Huangshan City, Anhui Province. Huangshan Mountain in Anhui was called Xin 'an, Zhangzhou and Huizhou in ancient times. Not to mention him in the first two names, but Huizhou is of great significance in history. Anhui Province is a micro-merger of Anhe and Huizhou under the jurisdiction of Anqing Prefecture. In this land, famous Huizhou culture and famous Huizhou merchants have emerged.
However, in 1987, in order to develop tourism and economic development, the local government launched the business card Huangshan and resolutely changed its name to Huizhou Huangshan. Later, the tourism of Huangshan Mountain came up, but the local customs immediately came down, and it is extremely difficult to promote Huizhou culture now.
In fact, even the name of a mountain and a river in ancient China has its allusions, and the ancient name contains the culture of this place. Now many places are easy to remember, easy to read and simple, but they have lost their original cultural heritage.
I think if we can understand the above two examples, we can know why many place names have lost their original charm and artistic conception.