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ORIGIN AND MEANING OF THE NAME "DAYU AN" ("DAVAN").
Usmonaliev Isroiljon Ibrokhimjon ugli
Teacher of Namangan state university
Email: usmonaliyevisroiljon@gmail.com
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12663743
Annotation:
This article provides detailed information on the history of
the origin of the Davan toponym, the explanation of the toponyms of the ancient
Fargona Valley and the countries there in Chinese sources written after the 5th
century AD, and a comparative analysis of its meanings in the scientific works of
European scientists.
Keywords:
society, source, center, city, term, tradition, culture, tradition,
dynasty, history, literature, civilization.
Aннотация:
Мазкур мақолада даван топонимининг келиб чиқиш
тарихи, милодий V асрдан кейин ёзилган хитой манбаларида қадимги
Фаргона водийси ва бу ердаги давлатларнинг топонимларининг изохи ва
унинг Европа олимларининг илмий асарларидаги маъноларининг қиёсий
таҳлили ҳақида батафсил маълумот берилган.
Калит сўзлар:
жамият, манба, марказ, шахар, атама, даван, маданият,
анъана, сулола, тарих, адабиёт, цивилизация.
Аннотация:
В данной статье представлены подробные сведения об
истории происхождения топонима Давань, объяснение топонимов
древней Фергонской долины и находящихся там стран в китайских
источниках, написанных после V века нашей эры, а также сравнительный
анализ его значений в научные труды европейских учёных.
Ключевые слова:
общество, исток, центр, город, термин, традиция,
культура, традиция, династия, история, литература, цивилизация.
It is not for nothing that Arnold Toynbee, one of the geniuses of human
society, described the valley as “Ancient Farghana - one of the important centers
of world civilization”. Ancient Farghane was considered one of the major
historical and cultural regions of Turonzamin, like Bakhtria, Sughd, and
Khorezm, and entered the world history under the name “Farghana civilization”
due to its worthy contribution to the culture of civilization. In the territory of the
valley, especially in its eastern part, the places of farming and urban
development (II millennium BC, first half of the 1st millennium AD) were
discovered and well studied by archaeologists, but this information is limited
and incomplete.[1] The reason is that there is almost no information about
Farghana Valley in written sources, especially in ancient authors. But some
information is recorded in Chinese annals.
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Should local terms be used in the writing of historical works or given by
other peoples and preserved in sources in foreign languages. It is better to use
local terms. But in some cases we use foreign terms. One such term is “Dayuan”
(“Davan” in modern reading, in Russian transcription, and its origin is unknown.
This is the case in the translation and interpretation given in N.V. Kuener’s work
entitled “Chinese messages about the peoples of South Siberia, Central Asia and
the Far East” The origin and meaning of the term Dayyuan (Davan) in the
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (ShUAR) was also not determined. [2]
For example, in 1756-1758, the French scientist M. Degin mentioned that
the origin of the term Davan is related to the Fargona toponym. However, he did
not comment on how this connection happened. Taking into account the
circumstances mentioned above, in this chapter of our book, we found it
necessary to express some of our thoughts and opinions on the issue of the
origin of the term “Dayuan” (“Davan”) in Chinese sources. In carrying out this
work, we tried to make extensive use of dictionaries and historical literature
published in the People’s Republic of China in recent years. The Daiyuan
toponym appears for the first time in Shiji (“Historical Memoirs”) written by
Sima Qian (Russian: Sima Qian). This source was written in 104-91 BC.
Information about Fargona in “Shiji” appeared in Chinese sources with the
report of Zhang Qian, the ambassador of the First Han Dynasty, who was sent to
Turkestan in 138 BC and returned to his homeland after 13 years.[3] For
example, according to the 126th chapter of this source entitled “Daiyuan
lezhuan” (“Fergana Tazkiras”), “Daiyuan appeared in the information of Zhang
Qian”. It is said that the hieroglyph “wan” was read as “yuan” in the commentary
given in this source where the toponym Daiyuan was used for the first time.
Hanzi guying shoutse (Manual of Ancient Chinese Hieroglyphics) states that this
hieroglyph was pronounced as “shap” in ancient times. Therefore, we found it
appropriate to use the ancient reading of the term in our research. In Chinese
sources written after the 5th century AD, the ancient Fargona valley and the
name of the state here were called Poluona, Fakhanna. For example, in “Weishu”
written by Wei Shou (506-572) and “Beishi” written in the first half of the 7th
century, the name of the Fargona valley is “Luona”, and in the travel book “Du
Huan jingshing ji” it is written as “Fakhanna”. Another important information is
found in “Weishu” and “Beishi”.
It clearly states that “Luona State is the Ancient Dayyuan State”. It should
be noted here that “Puo” is omitted in the toponym “Luona” in “Weishu”. This
can be learned from the information in Shin Tngshu, which was written in 941-
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945 by Liu Hu, the chief historian group of the Tang Dynasty court, and edited
and supplemented by Ou Yangtyu and Sung Tzu in 1044-1060. For example, in
the history of this dynasty, Ningyuan is actually described as Fahanna or
Puohan, Puoluona during the Wei period. The historical events mentioned in
“Weishu” and “Beishi” were related to the dynasties of Turkic origin. Therefore,
in these dynastic histories, many terms, especially toponyms belonging to
countries outside of China, were used as Chinese transcriptions of local place
names. Du Juan, the author of the aforementioned travelogue, was captured in
751 in a battle between the Arabs and Chinese troops on the banks of the Talas
(Taraz) river, and was imprisoned for many years. After returning to China, he
used local toponyms and ethnonyms in writing his memoirs. Based on the given
information, the toponym of Lona in “Weishu” is a shortened form of Puoluona;
The toponyms Puoluona and Fakhanna are Chinese transcriptions of the terms
Parkona and Fergana; It can be concluded that the term Fakhanna has been used
since the 7th century. However, there is no clear information about how the
term Parkona became Daiyuan (Dawan). We can only be sure that it is a
translation of the word Great Parkona, paying attention to the meaning of the
term Daiyuan based on logical analysis. The following information can be cited
as proof of this. First of all, in the analyzed “Dayyuan lezhuan”, in addition to the
term Dayyuan, the toponyms Yuan, Yuan-cheng are also found. It is clear that
Yuan hieroglyphs are based on these. In the Han History (Xashpu) there is a
place name xdm called “Shiao-yuan”. It can be seen that the main word in these
terms is Yuan. The words “dai” (da - big, big), “cheng” (walled city) and “xiao”
(small) in them are adjectives. In ancient times, the Chinese surrounded the
hieroglyph “yuan” used to refer to a cup-shaped place surrounded by hills or
mountains. In terms of geophysical structure, the Fergana Valley is surrounded
by mountains. This feature of this valley was also noticed by the Chinese traveler
of later times. For example, in 629-646, the Chinese Buddhist monk Xuan Zang
(Xuan Tsang - 602-664 in Russian transcription) who traveled to India from the
cities of Turkestan, means “a place that is closed and only one side is open”. After
the arrival of the Arabs, according to the features of their language, the sound
“p” changed to “f”, and the toponym “Parghana” began to be pronounced
“Ferghana”.[4]
Based on the opinions of the mentioned scientists, it can be said that
“Parkon” and “Pargana” in ancient Sugdiyana and Pamir languages and “Yuan” in
Chinese had the same meaning. Of course, this is not a coincidence. Besides, as
mentioned above, the toponym “Yuan” was used for the first time in the report
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of the first Chinese ambassador, Zhang Qian, who came to Farghana in 128-127
BC. Later, it was also used by historians in the palaces of Chinese rulers. Based
on them, when the Chinese ambassador Zhang Qian came to Ferghana, he
struggled to transcribe the name of this country with hieroglyphs and translated
its meaning into Chinese. Because in order to correctly transcribe the name of
this country, it was necessary to use at least 4 hieroglyphs words. This was a
difficult issue for the Chinese of that time, because it was customary for them to
write the names of cities and countries with one or at most two hieroglyphs. In
addition, the presence of the word (hieroglyph) of the word “yuan” which
represents the meaning of the word “Pargona” (“Parkon”) in the Chinese
language of the ambassador’s time helped to do this. In the modern Chinese
language, this hieroglyph is used in the sense of “bowl” from which one drinks
for a meal. Another remarkable custom of the Chinese is to give names to places
in foreign lands in their own language and script. Accordingly, they often
translated the names of places in other countries into Chinese. For example, they
named Tangritog as “Tian-shan”, Issikkul as “Rekhai” and as “Chinghai”. The two
hieroglyphs used to write the first Chinese toponym mean “high mountain, sky
mountain”, the first hieroglyph used to write the second place name means
“hot”, and the first hieroglyph used to express the third toponym means “green”
or “blue”. The hieroglyph “hai” in the third and third toponyms means only sea.
If the toponym Tangritog were to be transcribed completely and accurately with
Chinese hieroglyphs, it would be necessary to use at least 5 hieroglyphs. To do
so was considered an extraordinary and complicated task for the Chinese in BC.
Indeed, another noteworthy information in Shiji is that another place name
formed on the basis of the toponym “Yuan” which is a translation of the word
“Parkona” is mentioned many times.[5] This is “Yuan-cheng” (Wancheng in
Russian transcription, Van-chen). As we said above, “cheng” (Oy) in this
toponym means “city surrounded by high walls”. On this basis, “Yuan-cheng” can
be understood as “Parkona city”. Because in the past, the word “cheng” was not
added to the names of cities that were not surrounded by walls. Based on the
above information, the following conclusions can be made:
1 The Chinese term “Yuan” is the Chinese translation of the local vernacular
name Parkona.
2. When Zhang Qian, the ambassador of the Han Dynasty, came to Ferghana, he
encountered the same country and city names. In order to separate these two
concepts from each other, he added the word “Day” in front of “Yu an” to express
the name of the country called Parkona, and called it “Day-yuan” (“Great
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Parkona”). The city of Parkona, which is translated as “Yu an”, was distinguished
from the name of the country by adding the word “cheng” meaning “city
surrounded by high walls” behind it.
3. The term “Davan”, which is established in our literature, entered the official
history of China for the first time in the second half of the second century BC. It
cannot be considered as the name of the ancient state of Ferghana.
References:
1.Историа
государсвенности
Узбекистана (авторая половина
2
тисячелетия до нашей эри - III века нашей эри».Ташкент, 2009. С.185.
2.ХЎЖАЕВ A Фaрғона тaрихига онд маълумотлар: Қадимий ва илв ўрта аср
Хитой манбаларидан таржималари ва уларга шарҳлар. Фаргона: «Фарғона»
нашриёти, 2013. - 124 б
3.Кюнер Н.В. Китайские известия о народах Южной Сибири, Центральной
Азии и Дальнего Востока. Москва, 1961. С 101-102
4. Караев С.К. Топонимия Узбекистана. Ташкент, 1991. С 90
5. Мурзаев Э.М. География в названиях. Москва, 1982. С. 128
