How did Yinchuan get its name?

In the historical evolution of Ningxia, Yinchuan, as the capital city of the new and old Ningxia provinces, is now the capital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, one of the famous historical and cultural cities in China, and an emerging tourist city in northwest China, enjoying a high reputation at home and abroad. So how did the name "Yinchuan" come from? When was it cancelled? What does this mean?

In fact, the word "Yinchuan" is used in many ways, and its formation has a tortuous historical process. In this regard, there are about the following statements in society and academia:

Scholars miss the elegance of ancient times. Yinchuan, Ningxia today, was the site of Lingzhou, Xingzhou and Shuofang in ancient times. In history books, Xia Ling, Yin Xia, Linxia and Lin Yin are used to refer to Ningxia and northern Shaanxi today, and Ningxia has long been closely linked with the word "silver". This is because at least from the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty, the northern Shaanxi area adjacent to Ningxia today was called Lianhu in place names. Especially in the Northern Wei Dynasty, Zhou Xia was established in northern Shaanxi (now Baichengzi Township, northeast of Jingbian County, Shaanxi Province), Yinzhou was established in the Northern Zhou Dynasty (now East of Hengshan County, Shaanxi Province), and it was renamed Yinchuan County in the Tang Dynasty. In addition, during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, we also set up Xia and Sui Silver Banners in today's northern Shaanxi. In the Tang Dynasty, northern Shaanxi became the center of the separatist forces of the Tangut Qiang Tuoba Department. In Song Dynasty, northern Shaanxi was one of the main battlefields of Song Dynasty and Xixia. In 985, in the second year of Yongxi in the Northern Song Dynasty, Yinzhou City (Yinchuan County) was captured by Xixia Army. In the fifth year of Yuanfeng (1082), Song Jun rebuilt a new town in the former site of Yongle City (now northwest of Mizhi County, Shaanxi Province) and named it "Yinchuan Village" or "Yinchuan City". The military position of this city is very important, and it became a military battlefield in Song and Xia Dynasties. In the Ming Dynasty, in the works of some adults and gentlemen, in order to express nostalgia for the past and appreciate the elegance of the past, Zhou Xia was sometimes deliberately regarded as an attachment to the ancient meaning, and Yinzhou or Yinchuan was also used as a metaphor for Xingzhou and later Ningxia City (now Yinchuan City). For example, the first sentence at the beginning of Cao Lian's article "Xixia Shengxing Fu" in Ming Dynasty is "a big county in Zhouxia". Judging from the title, the so-called Zhou Xia in the article refers to the ancient Xixia and Ningxia town in the Ming Dynasty, because the words "silver" and "summer" mentioned in the poetry articles basically refer to the whole territory of Ningxia, and there is no clear meaning of place names.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Liu Minkuan, the commander-in-chief of the three sides in charge of four major military towns in northwest China, made a breakthrough for the first time in a poem he wrote. He said in "Four Poems of Yang Chupu Caressing the Great Wall in Autumn": "Terraces cover Guanshan Mountain, and there are infinite magnificent trees. Smoke clouds follow the sword and the stars sway. We must rely on camel bells to reach the river and win Yinchuan and Helan from a distance. Hangu Yumen is as good as a tripod, and Jincheng An Lan is 120 miles. " The "Yinchuan" mentioned in the poem is no longer a metaphor for Guxingzhou and Ningxia town, because the poem is written in Hetao and appears at the same time as Helan. The Great Wall or Yellow River described is like two belts, which "take" Yinchuan and "note" Helan. Therefore, judging from the poem and the whole poem, the word "Yinchuan" in the poem really refers to Yinchuan Plain or Ningxia Town. After the Qing Dynasty, people began to take a fancy to the word "Yinchuan" one after another, and gradually it was widely used in Ningxia. It was gradually contracted from Hexi Irrigation District to a specific location in Ningxia, and finally it was renamed as the ancient city and represented by it. In the Qing Dynasty, Ningxia Prefecture was under the jurisdiction of Gansu Province, and Fucheng was now Yinchuan City. In historical documents, Yinchuan was called Fucheng for the first time in the forty-seventh year of Kangxi (1708). In the poem "Rebuilding the Hidden Cave of the Han Canal" written by Wang, a water conservancy expert in Ningxia, it is said that "the river has the right to operate in the middle Tang Dynasty, and it is a hundred times more beautiful to practice dancing. Tang came to the west around the foothills of Lan Mountain, and Han extended to the east of Tang Dynasty. I once heard that Heyuan fell from the sky, and there were thousands of streams, but the fairy told me to move to Yinchuan temporarily. "

The result of place name migration. The reason why the place name "Yinchuan" can be moved from other places to Ningxia is closely related to the establishment of the Tangut Qiang nationality in Ningxia. The Tangut Qiang people, the ruling class of Xixia Kingdom, came from Sichuan, Tibet, Qinghai and Gansu areas on the snowy plateau. This nation has revered the snow-capped mountains and admired white for generations, so the Tangut of Xixia Kingdom is actually called "Bai Gaoguo" or "Bai Guoshang" within the clan. "Silver" and "white" are often closely related and called "silvery white". Like gold, silver is a symbol of nobility and wealth. Therefore, the place name "Yinchuan" appeared as early as their ancestral home (later called Yinchuan). After the Tang Dynasty, the Tuoba family separated Xia and Yin dynasties, so Xia and Yin became the clan's world residence and new hometown. Moreover, Li, the founder of Xia State and Xixia State, was born in Yin State (Yinchuan County), and several generations of his family inherited the status of military orders, namely Xia State, Yin State (Yinchuan County), Sui State and Yi State. At the beginning of the rebellion against Song Dynasty, Yinzhou was his first stronghold. In this city, he fought many bloody battles with Song Jun, and finally gained a foothold by defeating Song Jun. It can be said that Yinzhou is the birthplace of the Tangut people to seize power. Therefore, when Xixia was founded, it was called Xingzhou Zhongjing, Lingzhou Xiping House Xijing, Yinzhou and Yinchuan City Tokyo. In the view of place name migration, there is another view, that is, Yinchuan place names are recognized as moving from northern Shaanxi to Ningxia, but Yinchuan place names are not recognized as originally moving from the snowy plateau where the Tangut ancestors lived to northern Shaanxi. They believe that the place names of Yinchuan began to appear in northern Shaanxi because the Tangut Qiang people were entrenched in northern Shaanxi and their central residence was in the ancient water area, a tributary of the Wuding River. There was Yang County in the Han Dynasty, which was named after the city in Shui Ying. Therefore, a precious Ma Cong produced here is called "begging for silver" (transliteration of dialect), so the water here is named "Yin Yin". The city built by Xixia people in this water area is called Yinchuan (meaning that Sichuan is also water).

The theory of intersection arising from the characteristics of geographical environment. Because later generations don't understand the meaning of the ancients, and hearsay is very important for the authenticity of the place name Yinchuan.

The true connotation and beautiful implication are gradually forgotten and misinterpreted, and some romantic collateral legends gradually appear among the people. Ningxia, located in Hetaowo District, has been known as "Jiangnan" since ancient times, and is also known as "the Yellow River is rich in all evils" and "Ningxia in the world". Ningxia Yellow River Diversion Irrigation District is indeed a land of plenty in the north of Saipan, with rivers and canals forming a network, clouds falling in Yun Qi and rainy canals. Therefore, according to the concept that people regard gold and silver as rich things and the habit of often calling the rich land the hometown of gold and silver, later generations call this rich land the area of gold and silver. Ningxia belongs to a government in Gansu province, which has long been known as "Zhangye in gold and Wuwei in silver" and Jinchuan. Therefore, it is natural to praise this fertile land from the aspect of place names, and the name "Yinchuan" in this city is appropriate. In addition, there is another saying, which is probably another "version" compiled according to the natural environment and geomorphological characteristics around the ancient city. Because the ancient city is close to the west bank of the Yellow River and located in the alluvial fan plain of Helan Mountain, the terrain is flat and the river is gentle, and the Yellow River often swings at will, resulting in the so-called situation of "thirty years to the east and thirty years to the west". In addition, the floods and springs in Helan Mountain Valley have gradually formed many lakes and swamps on the land of Hexi, and there are people around the ancient city who call it the so-called "Seventy-two Lianhu". They are scattered on the land around the ancient city. Among them, the famous lakes near the city are Gao Tai Miao Lake, which is recorded as "the great lakes are vast and the scenery is suddenly visible", as well as the streamers around the city such as Nantang, Jinbo Lake, Yuehu Lake and Hequan Lake. There are gardens and waterscapes in the city, such as Paradise, Yongchun Garden, Amusement Park, Fangshang Garden, Houyuan Garden and Xiyuan Garden, which make the ancient city present a wonderful landscape of plateau lake city with a city in the lake and a lake in the city. Therefore, since ancient times, this ancient city has also been called "Water Holding City". It is precisely because of the rivers and canals outside Yinchuan, lakes and marshes, and the beautiful Jiangnan in urban and rural areas. Looking up, it is a crystal palace, with rippling blue waves, shining silver and water and sky. In addition, due to the flat terrain on both sides of the Yellow River, high groundwater level, poor drainage and serious salinization of the land, there are many white salinities on the land of Yinchuan Plain, except lakes and wetlands, forming a vast white field wrapped in silver, and a world of colored glasses is presented to people. Therefore, in May 1936, Fan Changjiang, a famous reporter of Shanghai Ta Kung Pao, wrote in a report when interviewing Ningxia: "Ningxia has the heaviest soil and the ground is often white, so Ningxia was called Yinchuan in ancient times. In this gourd-shaped area, it is often like a piece of silver. " Although the above two theories of geographical features are romantic and misleading, they are quite common among non-researchers, especially in civil society.

(Author: Ningxia Academy of Social Sciences)