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THE WRITERS POST (ISSN: 1527-5467) VOLUME 9 DOUBLE ISSUE JAN 2007 JUL 2007
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REASSESSMENT OF THE ORIGIN
AND
USE OF A WESTERNIZED PLACE NAME BY VU
DINH DINH
VU DINH DINH went to the US in 1956 and
attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of
Chicago, and University of Hawaii where he obtained his Ph.D. He was
recipient of an East-West Center Grant, a National Endowment for the Humanities
Grant, and a National Science Foundation Honorable Mention Award, and having
served as Senior Heath Planner with the Houston Department of Health and
Human Services, taught at the college level, and had scientific research
works published in international journals. His publications on Vietnamese
culture include “In Search of a Tradition Code of Behavior and Cochinchina:
Reassessment of the Origin and Use of a Westernized Place Name”. In 2001, his ‘Selected Vietnamese
Poetry’ was published by R&M (Stafford, Texas: R&M, 2001). For more than
two thousand years the Vietnamese have been consistent in their unwavering
efforts to preserve their culture and maintain their identity. The task has proven to be difficult
considering Vietnam's position between two major cultural blocks, that of the
Chinese to the north and the Indian farther west. Remnants of Chinese and Indian cultural influences can still be
traced through numerous place names of Chinese and Sanskrit origins adopted
by the Vietnamese. Throughout
history the country which is now called Vietnam has been known to historians
as Xich Quy, Van Lang, Au Lac, Nam Viet, Giao Chau, Van Xuan, An Nam Do Ho
Phu, Tinh Hai, Dai Co Viet, Nan Ping, Ngan Nan, Dai Ngu, An Nam Quoc, Dai
Viet and Viet Nam 1. These
names are part of the Vietnamese language and the people can read and
pronounce them without difficulty. It
is not until the Vietnamese came into contact with the West that foreign
names such as Song koi, Faifo, Tourane, Tonkin, which respectively are French
names for Song Hong, Hoi-an, Da-nang, and Bac Ky, appeared; such terms are
unknown to most Vietnamese except for a small number who have been exposed to
Western education. The reason for the
confusion is that many of these names are corrupted transliterations of local
verbal expressions. The name Song
koi, for example, supposedly is Vietnamese; it is doubtful, however, whether
an average college student in Vietnam could identify the location of Song
koi. The name is probably derived
from Song Cai which means "Mother River." The official and more stylized form is Song Hong Ha, or Red
River. Of particular
interest to Vietnamese is the name Cochinchina, a term which for
decades has drawn the attention of many Orientalists. There have been several suggestions
regarding its etymology. The matter
seems to have been resolved with the publication of a scholarly article on
the subject by the late Director of the Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient
(Aurousseau, 1924). In fact, many specialists of Asian studies have found his
arguments convincing enough to quote without reservation (Goloubew, 1929, p.
540; Teston and Percheron, 1931, p. 21; Le, 1955, p. 285; Lach, 1977, p.491). Aurousseau
reasoned that since old Vietnam was not known in a direct manner to Portuguese
or other Europeans prior to 1515, knowledge of the country's name must have
been introduced to the West by Arabs.
He then set out to prove that the name Cochinchina was derived from
the Portuguese Quachymchyna which, in turn, was patterned after the Arab
expression "Kawci min Cin."
According to Aurousseau, "Kawci" was the Arab way of saying
"Kiao-tche,” a Chinese name for the Vietnamese whose kingdom, he said,
was known to Marco Polo as Caugigu.
The expression "min Cin" means "of China." Aurousseau
must be credited for bringing together a large amount of literary records
from western sources related to Cochinchina.
But he offered no concrete proof and surprisingly little in terms of
cartographic evidence to support his conclusion. The following discussion will focus on some salient points from
Aurousseau's article and at the same time present materials suggesting an
alternate interpretation of the origin and use of the name Cochinchina. To place the
question in a proper historical perspective it is necessary to review the
literature concerning the name Kiao-tche or Chiao-chih 2 and to
examine the circumstances under which it came into use, its meaning and
toponymic application. The first
appearance of the word Chiao-chih is found in the writings of Shu ching which
state that Emperor Yao sent his third brother to reside at Nan-chiao. Legge interprets the place as being in
present-day north Vietnam (Legge, 1960, p. 190). The authorship of Shu ching has been attributed to Confucius
who lived between 551 B.C. and 479 B.C. (Creel, 1953, pp. 25, 45). More than a century later, Mo-Tzu (c.
480-390 B.C.) mentioned the name Chiao-chih in his writings. He said:
"In ancient times, when Yao was governing the empire he consolidated
Chiao Tse on the south, reached Yu Tu on the north, expanded from where the
sun rised to where the sun sets on the east and west, and none was
unsubmissive or disrespectful" (Mei, 1929, pp 120-121). Mei, who translated Mo-Tzu works, located
Chiao-chih in what he called West Indochina.
It seems that information on the area south of the Yang-tze was rather
sketchy at that time. A recent
discovery of a topographical map in a second century Han tomb (Bulling, 1978)
shows that little was known about Nan Yueh although the region is included in
the map. Nan Yueh was a southern
kingdom under Chao T'o who in 207 B.C. conquered Au Lac and for the first
time brought Vietnam into the Chinese cultural sphere. Ssu ma-Ch'ien, in his treatment of the
early Chinese dynasties, also mentioned the name Chiao-chih (Chavannes, 1967,
Tome I, p. 37). It was under
the reign of Chao T’o that Chiao-chih received official administrative
status. He is said to have assigned
two delegates in 198 B.C. to oversee the affairs of Chiao-chih and Chiu-chen,
the latter being south-west of Chiao-chih in actual Thanh Hoa province (des
Michels, 1889, pp. 23-24; Maspero, 1916, p. 54; Wiens, 1954, p. 135). After the fall of Chao T'o and following
the conquest of the kingdom of Nan Yueh, Emperor Hsiao-Wu, in 111 B.C.,
divided the territory into nine "chuns" (commanderies). They are Yu-lin, Tsang-wu, Ho-pu, Nan-hai,
Chu-yai, Tan-erh, Chiao-chih, Chiu-chen, and Jih-nan 3 (Pan Ku,
1944, Vol. II, p. 82). These
commanderies form an administrative unit called Chiao-chou, which was placed
under the jurisdiction of a governor general (Aurousseau, 1922, p. 295). There were no
historical records of major administrative rearrangements of the area until
the year 264 A.D., when Emperor Wu split the seven mainland commanderies into
two "chous," namely Quang-chou consisting of Yu-lin, Tsang-wu, and
Nan-hai in the north and Chiao-chou consisting of Ho-pu, Chiao-chih,
Chiu-chen, and Jin-nan in the south (Tran, 1951, p. 53). Except for a short period during which the
newly-created territory was renamed Van Xuan by Ly Bon who, in 544 A.D.,
claimed independence from the state of Liang, Chiao-chou (or in some cases
Chiao-chih-chun) remained the official appellation of the southernmost
provinces of China. Under the
reign of Emperor Kao Tsung of the T'ang dynasty, the administration of
Chiao-chou took a new turn; from the rank of a chou, in 679 it became the
Protectorate General of An-nam. Since
then, An-nam, Nan-ping, and Ngan-nan, which carry the same general meaning of
a "Pacified South," had been used to refer to Vietnam. Chiao-chih-chun, or Chiao-chou, began to
loose meaning as an identifiable administrative entity and the word
Chiao-chih became a vague geographical term defying precise definition. As a matter of fact, Ma Tuan-lin, in the
conclusion of his treatise on Chiao-chih, quoted a twelve century writer as
stating that Ngan-nan at the time was not the same as the old Chiao-chih (Ma,
1883, II, p. 368). It is important to
note that Chiao-chih had never been elevated to the level of a country or
"kuo" throughout the history of relations between China and
An-nam. Further evidence of the use
of the name An-nam is supported by maps of the area appearing in Chinese
atlases. A map describing Vietnam was
called An-nam T'u (map of An-nam). This
map is believed to be the earliest extant dated c. 1541 (Fuchs, 1946, P.
45). An undated map cited by Toynbee
(Toynbee, 1973, p. 191) was named An-nam Kuo T'u (map of An-nam country). What does
Chiao-chih mean? According to
Chavannes, the name Chiao-chih has been written in Chinese either as Since Chiao-chih had never been used officially to
denote a country, nor does it have a well-defined meaning in Chinese
parlance, it seems farfetched for Aurousseau to associate Marco Polo's
Caugigu with Chiao-chih-kuo. Even if
the Venetian traveler had learned of the name Chiao-chih during his service
with the Yuan Court and coined the term Chiao-chih-kuo for his own use, he
certainly observed an entirely different Chiao-chih from the Chiao-chih of
An-nam. Marco Polo's Caugigu, as he described
it, was a province located "such a long way from the sea," whose
king had "at least 300 wives," and whose people "live on
milk" (Yule, 1903, pp. 116-117).
Neither of these descriptions fit the geography or culture of Vietnam,
which is more Sinicized than Indianized. At this point
we can turn to cartographic sources for clues to the origin of the name
Cochinchina. The understanding of the
geography of Asia by the West did not improve much after the appearance of
the sensational story of the "kingdoms and marvels of the East" by
Marco Polo. What was learned from him
and other medieval travelers was that China was substantially larger than was
previously believed in the West and that there were also Cipango (Japan) and
other islands beyond (Thomson, 1948, p. 338). Following Marco Polo, the southern coast was visited again
early in the fourteenth century by Odoric of Pordenone who traveled to
Canton. No new information was
reported, however, from this journey (Lach, 1965, Vol. I, p. 561). As the age of
European discoveries dawned, a period of secrecy unfortunately was imposed by
the Portuguese authority because of fear of competition in the spice
trade. The diffusion of information
concerning the Oriental trade route all but ceased. The situation prevailed until well into mid-sixteenth century
and partially accounts for the paucity of written information on Southeast
Asia during the period in question.
In the case of Vietnam, there was little interest in the country as it
was engaging in a struggle for independence from the Ming dynasty. The war lasted for ten years from 1418 to
1427. No sooner had the country
recovered from the effects of war that a usurper by the name of Mac dang Dung
took over the throne, causing dissension in the rank of the ruling
class. Following his death was a long
era of turmoil during which time the country was run by two separate ruling
families, the Trinh in the North and the Nguyen in the South, with the Gianh
River becoming the historical dividing line. In the
absence of written documents, maps offer the best source of information on
place names. Precise recordings of
data include the location of place, its size and shape, the way it was
labelled, and the approximate date its name was in use. Of great importance to cultural-historical
studies are the changes of these details as they appear on new maps of
similar locations. For this reason I
have searched out and examined all maps, in both original and facsimile form
in Chicago' Regenstein and Newberry libraries, which depict Asia in general
and Vietnam in particular prior to the arrival of the missionaries. Table I presents summary descriptions of
and references to these maps. Thirty-seven
maps and charts were found to contain the name Cochinchina or variations
thereof. The materials cover a period
of some 150 years, from the beginning of the sixteenth century to Alexandre
de Rhodes' first detailed map of Vietnam which was produced in 1653. The existence of so many cartographic
works is impressive, however information about the area presented in these maps
is not always original. The copying
of other authors' works was commonplace.
Nevertheless, it is possible to trace the development chronologically
and establish a time frame as to when the name Cochinchina comes into use and
what it represents, e.g., a river, a bay, or a region. Based on
scanty written sources, Aurousseau claims that from 1502 to 1615 the term
Cochinchina represents the entire kingdom of Dai Viet, which was the official
name for Vietnam at that time. His
contention is not supported by cartographic evidence. Early map makers, including Cantino,
Caneiro, de Maiollo, Rodrigues, Waldseemuller, Ribeiro, and others, seemed to
be more concerned with the location of the waterway which they named variously
as Chanocochim, Cochim da China, or Cauchechina, and its bay Enseada de
Cauchin or Enseada de Caochim (See Figs. 1
and 2).
The waterway is the Red River, which discharges into the Tonkin Gulf
via many distributaries. It was not
until the year 1561 that we find indication of the first application of the
name to a land area; Jacopo Gastaldi
employed the term Regno de Guachin in a map of a large region south of
China. The area farther south was
called Regno de Campaa. The
appearance of Regno de Gauchin came about as a result of direct contacts by
the Portuguese with Dai Viet after 1535, the date when Antonio de Faris
arrived in Faifo (Le, 1951, p. 285).
Other likely sources of information came from scholars such as Barros
who collected Chinese books of Cosmography and had them translated by a
native speaker of the language (Boxer, 1948, p. 9). Even when the
name Regno de Gauchin was used, it was not used in reference to the entire
Dai Viet kingdom because the term Tunguin (Tonkin) already appeared in the
work attributed to Diogo Homem in c. 1558, indicating that a great deal was
known about the geography of the northern part of Vietnam. As has been noted
previously, Dai Viet was experiencing internal difficulties during the early
sixteenth century; the conflict results in the change of political control
from the reigning Le to the Mac usurper.
Nguyen Kim, who was another powerful official of the Le's Court and
unhappy with the new ruling order, fled to Laos where he set up a
government-in-exile on behalf of the dethroned Le. His forces returned to Vietnam in 1543 and were able to
exercise control of the territory up
to present-day Thanh Hoa. The event
marked the beginning of a long period of more than two centuries of power
struggle between the warring lords and in effect divided the country
permanently into two regions, North and South. This new political division is
reflected in the works of Plancius and Henrius Hondius who presented Dai Viet
as consisting of Cauchinchina (Cochinchina) to the west and of Quacii
(Chiao-chih) to the east (Figs. 3 and 4). During this long period of internal strife, there had been little
interaction between the ruling lords and the Portuguese seafarers. However, while western traders failed to
make permanent inroads in Vietnam early missionaries, who included
Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and ultimately French, never relinquished their
evangelical efforts. By nature of
their work the missionaries often travelled far and wide with immunity in
both regions and were most knowledgeable of the customs and geography of the
country. As Aurousseau
correctly pointed out, it was the missionaries who gave the term Cochinchina
a definite geographical boundary.
According to Alexandre de Rhodes, who spent some ten years carrying
out evangelical work in both north and south Vietnam, Cocinchine
comprises 9 provinces, namely Thinhoa, Nghe an, Bochinh, Quambin, Thoanoa,
Ciam, Quam ghia, Quinhin or Pulo cambi, and Ranran whereas Tumkin consists of
Kebac (northern region), Kedom (eastern region), Ketay (western region), and
Kenam (southern region). Both
Cocinchine and Tumkin belong to the Kingdom of Annan. By 1867 Cochinchina was extended southward
to cover the territory which was then under French occupation. The final step of colonization was
completed in 1884, when the Court of Hue signed an agreement accepting
Cochinchina as a colony of France.
Annam, which now took the geographical position of 17th century
Cochinchina, and Tonkin became two Protectorates. How did the name Cochinchina come into use? It is customary to give one single answer to this question as
did Aurousseau and others (Balfour, 1885, p. 758; Yule, 1903, pp.
226-227). However, because of
repeated historical changes of the name we need to trace its usage via
revised place names on maps brought about by new knowledge of ertswhile
unfamiliar lands. There has
been general agreement that the name is made of two elements: Cochin
and China. The latter is used
as qualifier to indicate affinity with a better-known place. This practice appears to have been
conceived in 1502 when Cantino named the northern river Chanocochim and the
southern area Champocachim. Except
for a few instances when Cauchim, Caochim, or Cauchy were used singly, the
combined form was consistently followed.
It is the word Cochin that has given rise to various interpretations. Since there
is striking similarity between the spelling of Chanocochim and the name of a
place on the Malabar Coast of India which was known to the Portuguese of the
late fifteenth century as Colchi, Cocym, or Cochin, it is reasonable to
believe that Western cartographers borrowed the Malabar Coast toponym as
heard from traders to label a place which had a somewhat similar sounding
name. Direct contacts between
Westerners and Vietnamese later led to change in appellation of the
name. In Ribeiro's map of 1529,
attempt is made to translate the Vietnamese name Cuu-chan into a western
language. He labelled the Gulf of
Tonkin "Cauchechina."
Cuu-chan is one of the nine commanderies instituted by Emperor
Hsiao-Wu in 111 B.C. In Cantonese the
word is pronounced "cau-chan."
The boundaries of Cuu-chan underwent changes through time but the name
was not completely replaced until 1407 (Aurousseau, 1922, p. 147). It is the only name of a major
administrative division in Vietnam that has been known historically for more
than fifteen centuries. Cuu-chan is
also known as birthplace of many of the country's heroes and heroines in the
struggle against foreign domination.
Whenever the eastern capital (Dong Kinh) was threatened, the strategy
would be to move the government seat to the western capital (Tay Do) in
Cuu-chan. From 1529 the
appellation Cauchechina began to appear more frequently. It is found in maps by Gastaldi, Ortolio,
Homem, and Luis under the form of Gauchi, Cauchy, or Cauchim. In 1565 there was sign of return to the
early spelling when Berteli used Cochinchina for his map. For many decades these two names appeared with
comparable frequency, often times side-by-side in the same map. It was not until the mid-seventeenth
century that Cochinchina gained favor in use over Cauchinchina. What evidence
exists in support of rejecting Aurousseau's argument that Cochin comes from
the word Chiao-chih (Kiao-tche)?
Chiao-chih, as has been noted, fell into disuse as a place name early
in the history of the country; Cuu-chan (Chiu-chen), however, remained in
popular use until the Westerners' time of arrival. Furthermore, the later spelling of the name does suggest a connection
between Cuu-chan and Cauchinchina.
Yet, the strongest evidence lies in the fact that both names were
known to cartographers. Proof of this
is found in the works of Petrus Plancius and Joannes Blaeu. Fig. 5
shows a portion of Plancius' map of 1592.
Despite the damage done to the manuscript it is still possible to
discern the names Cauchinchina or Cuu-chan of China (left arrow) and Quacii
or Chiao-chih (right arrow) next to each other. Farther north is Quancii of present-day Quangsi province of
China. The Latin abbreviation L.S.,
which stands for Locus Sigillus and means the place of the seal,
following the name Quacii indicates the official status of the place. There is no doubt that the author tried to
label the area around Hanoi as Chiao-chih.
Since the Chinese pronunciations of Chiao-chih and Chiu-chen are so
close to foreign listeners and because of the proximity of the two regions
they became undistinguishable from each other. This caused Joannes Blaeu in 1648 to label the southern part of
Vietnam Kiaochi sive (or) Couchinchina.
Apparently he was aware of both names, but assumed that they referred
to the same location. In summary,
cartographic evidence and an understanding of the historical geography of
Vietnam permit a different interpretation of the origin and use of the name
Cochinchina. Its earliest form,
Chancocochim, is a combination of two names -- China and Cochin. It refers to an area in Vietnam which
resembles a place on the Malabar Coast but whose people share Chinese cultural
characteristics. As later direct
contacts were established between the west and Vietnam a transliteration of
the local place name Cuu-chan was introduced. Usage of this new appellation, Cauchinchina, continued well
into the first half of the seventeenth century. Ultimately, it was replaced by Cochinchina, a name preferred by
the missionaries, and was finally adopted by the French authority to identify
the twenty southernmost provinces of Vietnam. FOOTNOTES
2. Kiao-tche is the French transliteration
of 3. These commanderies are named in Vietnmese
respectively Uất Lâm, Thương- ngô,
Hợp-phố, Nam-hải, Châu-nhai, Đàm-nhĩ,
Giao-chỉ, Cửu-chân, and Nhật Nam. For an approximate
delineation of these commanderies see Harold J. Wiens, China’s March Toward the Tropics, Map 20, Connecticut: The
Shoe String Press, 1954. REFERENCES Aurousseau,
Leùonard (1922), “Comments on Pelliots’
‘Meou-tseu ou les Doutes Leveùes’”, BEFEO, Tome XXII, pp. 276-298. Aurousseau,
Leùonard (1924), “Sur le Nom de
Cochinchine”, BEFEO, Tome XXIV, pp. 563-379. Balfour,
Edward (1885), The Cyclopedia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia,
Vol. 1, 3rd edition, London: Bernard Quaritch. Boxer, C.R.
(1948), Three Historians of Portugese Asia (Barros, Couto and Bocarro),
Macao: Imprensa Nacional. Bulling, A.
Gutkind (1978), “Ancient Chinese Maps”,
Expedition, Vol. XX, No. 2, pp. 16-26. Chavannes,
Edouard (1967), Les Mémoires Historiques de Se-Ma Ts’ien, Paris:
Librairie d’Amérique et d’Orient. Ch’en,
Ching-ho (1952) “Chiao-chih Ming-ch’eng
K’ao (A Study of the Name “Chiao-chih”)”, Bulletin of the College of
Arts, National Taiwan University, No. 4, pp 79-130. Creel, H.G.
(1953), Chinese Thought from Confucius to Mao Tse-Tung, Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press. Fuchs, Walter
(1946), The “Mongol Atlas” of China by Chu Ssu-Pen and the Kuang-yu-t’u,
Peiping: Fu Jen University. Goloubew, V.
(1930), “Léonard-Eugène Aurousseau”,
BEFEO, Tome XXIX, pp. 535-541. Lach, Donald
F. (1965), Asia in the Making of Europe, I. The Century of Discovery,
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Lach, Donald
F. (19770, Asia in the Making of Europe, II, Chicago: The University
of Chicago Press. Lê, Thanh Khôi
(1955), Le Vietnam: Histoire et Civilisation, Paris: Editions de
Minuit. Legge, James
(1960), The Chinese Classics, Vol. III. The Shoo King, 2nd
edition, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Ma, Touan-lin
(1889), Ethnographie des Peuples Etrangers à la Chine, translated by
d’Hervey de Saint-Denys, Paris: Ernest Leroux. Maspero, Henri
(1916) “Etudes d’Histoire d’Annam, III.
La Commanderie de Siang”, BEFEO, Tome XVI, 1, pp. 49-55. Mei, Yi-Pao
(1929), The Ethical and Political Works of Motse, London: Authur
Probsthain. Des Michels,
Abel (1889). Les Annales Impériales de l’Annam, Paris: La Société Asiatique
de l’Ecole des Langues Orientales Vivantes. Nguyễn,
Trần Huân (1971), “Comptes-Rendus: Nord Vietnam”, BEFEO, Tome
1958, pp. 330-336. Pan Ku (1944),
The History of the Former Han Dynasty: A Critical Translation with Annotations
by Homer H. Dubs, USA: The American Council of Learned Societies. Schreinder,
Alfred (1900), Les Institutions Annamites, Tome I, Saigon: Claude
& Cie. Teston,
Eugeøne and Percheron, Maurice
(1931), L’Indochine Moderne, Paris: Librairie de France. Thomson, J.
Oliver (1948), History of Ancient Geography: Cambridge University
Press. Toynbee,
Arnold (ed.) (1973), Half the World, New York: Holt, Rinehart &
Wilson. Trần,
Trọng Kim (1951), Việt Nam Sử Lược (Short
History of Vietnam), 4th edition, Saigon: Tân Việt. Wiens, Harold
J. (1954), China’s March Toward the Tropics, Connecticut: The Shoe
String Press. Yule, Henry
(1903), The Book of Sir Marco Polo the Venetian Concerning the Kingdoms
and Marvels of the East, revised throughout by Henry Cordier. Yule, Henry
and Bernell, A.C. (1903), Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial
Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological,
Historical, Geographical, and Discursive, new edition edited by
William Croke, London: John Murray. TABLE I SUMMARY
DESCRIPTIONS OF MAPS AND CHARTS SHOWING
COCHINCHINA FROM 1502 TO 1653 1502
(Cantino) Planisphere
describing general coastline of South China Sea; name CHANOCOCHIM shown along
a river and CHINACOCHIM at river entrance; CHAMPOCACHIM for southern part (A.
Cortesao and A. Teixeira da Mota, Portugaliae Monumenta Cartographica, Liboa, 1960-1962, Pl.
5). c.1502 (Canerio) Coastline
of South China Sea similar to that in Cantino's map; CHANOCOCHIM
shown along a river; north of this is
India Superior
and farther north is Cattaio (E.L. Stevenson, Marine World
Chart of Nicolo Canerio Januensi (c. 1502), Nova Iorque, 1908). 1508 (de
Maiollo) Portolan chart showing
coastline of South China Sea; CHINACOCHIN
along a river; CAMPOCHACHIN for southern
part (E.L. Stevenson (ed.) Atlas of Portolan Charts, New York: The Hispanic
Society of America, 1911, XXI, Fol. 11a). c.1513
(Rodrigues) Nautical chart showing Tonkin Gulf and Ainao Island; mouth of river
emptying into the gulf is labelled COCHIM DA CHINA (P.M.C,
Pl. 35, Chart XI). 1516
(Waldseemuller) World map showing a distorted
view of the Malacca peninsular compared
to a much reduced Indochina. Fig. 1 reproduces the Indochinese
portion of map. River labeled
CHANOCOCIM; Fulicandora covering Cham
territory (J. Fischer and F.V. Wieser, The World Maps of Waldseemuller
(Ilacomilius), Innsbruck: Verlag der
Wagner's Chen Universitats - Buchhandlung, 1903). 1929 (Ribeiro) Map
showing greater improvement over Waldseemuller's map; Indochinese
peninsular labelled Regno de Ansian; a large gulf called
CAUCHECHINA separating Regno de
Ansian and
China (P.M.C., Pl. 39). c.1545 (Anonymous)
Planisphere
showing general coastline with entrance of river labelled CAUCHIMCHINA (P.M.C.,
Pl.79). c.1558 (Anonymous) Attributed to Diogo Homem, this map shows
a large river entrance
or bay named Enseada de CAUCHIN; upstream is a place
called Tunguin (Tonkin). See Fig. 2 for reproduction of Indochinese
portion of map (Gabriel Marcel, Notice Sur Quelques
Cartes Relatives au Royaume de Siam, Paris: Ernest Leroux,
1894, Pl. IV). c.1560 (Anonymous) Similar to Diogo Homem's map labelling
river entrance as Enseada de
CAOCHIM (P.M.C., Pl. 95/B). 1561 (Gastaldi) First
map showing a large area corresponding to present-day north
Vietnam called Regno de GAUCHIN CHINA; south of this area is Regno de Campaa
(Manuscript entitled Il Disegno Della Terza
Parte Dell' Asia by Giacopo di Gastaldi is kept at Newberry Library,
Chicago). 1561
(Ortelio) Similar to
Gastaldi's map with north Vietnam labelled GAUCHINCHINA;
Cachu being the name for Hanoi (Robert Almagia, Monumenta
Cartographica Vaticana, Rome, 1944, Vol. II,
Table XVIII). 1561
(Homem) Map showing mouth of
river labelled Enseada deCAUCHY (P.M.C.,
Pl. 124, Fol. 9). 1563 (Luis) Similar
to Homem's map showing Enseada de CAUCHIM
(P.M.C., Pl. 217). c.1565 (Anonymous) Attributed
to Diogo Homem, map showing Enseada de CAUCHI (P.M.C., Pl. 177, Fol.
9). 1565
(Berteli) Map showing
COCHINCHINA along a river and also the name COCHINCHINA
for a town (Manuscript entitled Terza Ostro Tavola
by Ferando Berteli is kept at Newberry Library,Chicago). 1568 (Homem) Similar
to his 1561 map with Endeada de CAUCHY (M.P.C., Pl. 139,
Fol.14/A). 1570 (Dourado) Map
showing Enseada de COCHI south of river (P.M.C., Pl. 270). 1571 (Dourado) Enseada
de COCHI CHINA (P.M.C., Pl. 284). 1575 (Dourado) Enseada
de QUOCHIM (P.M.C., Pl. 306). c.1575 (Giorgio) This
map of China published in the 1584 edition of Abraham Ortelius'
Theatrum Orbis Terrarum shows
CAUCHINCHINA
for the area of north Vietnam and COCHINCHINA for the river
(P.M.C., Pl. 239A). c.1576 (Anonymous) Enseada de COUCHI (P.M.C., Pl.
340). 1580 (Dourado) Enseada de QOCHI (P.M.C., Pl. 324). 1587 (Mercator) Map
having the name CACHUCHINA (A.E. Nordenskiold, Facsimile-
Atlas, Stockholm, 1889, Pl.
XLVII). 1590 (Lasso) Map
showing Enseada CAHOCHICHINA and the same for area south of the bay (P.M.C.,
Pl. 375). 1592 (Plancius) World
map showing for the first time detailed information of north
Vietnam and the coastal islands that include Ainan and Pracel;
CAUCHINCHINA is located to the west and QUACII
to the east. See Fig. 5 for
reproduction (F.C. Wieder (ed.),
Monumenta Cartographica, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1925-
1933, Pl. 34). 1592-1594 Attributed to Plancius,map showing Enseada de COCHINCHINA and CAUCHIN al. (Anonymous) COCHINCHINA with boundary
separating the area from China;Tunquan for a town (P.M.C., Pl. 383/A). 1593 (Judaeis) Circumpolar
projection of the world showing CAUCHUCHINA Facsimile-Atlas,
Pl. XLVIII). 1596 (van Langren) Similar to 1592-1594 Plancius' map using three different
spellings:
CAUCHINCHINA for north-west area of north Viet-nam;
COCHINCHINA for a town; and Enseada de CANCHINCHINA (P.M.C.,
Pl. 385/B). c.1598-1600 (A.
Langren) Planisphere showing COCHINCHINA south of river
and Enseada de TERRA COCHINCHINA (Monumenta Cartographica, Pl.
40 bis). 1599 (v. Linschoten) Map showing CAUCHINCHINA for north-west of river; COCHINCHINA
for a town and Enseada de
CANCHINCHINA (A.E.
Nordenskiold, Periplus,
Stockholm,
1897, Pl. LX). 1613 (Hondius) Three maps in Mercator Atlas using different
names: COCHIN-
CHINA for area south of river; COCHINCHINA for a town; Enseada de CHINCHINA; and CAUCHIN al.
CAUCHIN-
CHINA. See Fig. 4 for
reproduction (Henrius Hondius, Mercator
Atlas, Amsterdam: Latin Edition, 1613). 1630,
1643 (Teixeira I) Three maps showing
CAUCHINCHINA or CAUCHIM CHINA
for 1649 area (P.M.C., Pl. 463, Pl. 505, Pl. 514). 1641 (Sanches) Map showing CAUCHINCHINA for area (P.M.C., Pl.
532). 1648 (Blaeu) World
map showing Tungking for north Vietnam; COCHIN- CHINA
and Tonquin for towns; Enseada COCHINCHINA for Tonkin Gulf; and KIAOCHI sive
COUCHINCHINA for central Vietnam
(Monumenta Cartographica, Pl. 61). c.1645-1655 Detailed map of
Annan consisting of two kingdoms of Tumkin and
COCINCHINE. The (de Rhodes) latter covers 9 provinces from Thinhoa (Thanh Hoa) to
Ranran (Phan Rang) (Alexandre de Rhodes,
Divers Voyages et Missions du P. Alexandre de Rhodes en la
Chine, et Autres Royaumes de l'Orient, Paris: Sebastien Cramoisy
et Gabriel Cramoisy, 1653).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Research for this
paper was completed more than thirty years ago at the University of Chicago
under a grant from The National Endowment for the Humanities. Results were published and distributed to
a limited circle. At that time I
believed that as Vietnam underwent modernization and more Vietnamese were
able to travel to the outside world, we would have a better idea of our
origin and identity. However, I have
since witnessed frequent misuse by writers and scholars at home and abroad of
the name Giao Chỉ to refer to a race and the country that we now call
Vietnam. It is hoped that with the
publication of this article in The Writers Post the newly discovered
information will be brought to a larger audience. Availing myself of this opportunity, I wish to express
my gratitude to The National Endowment for the Humanities for the Summer
Grant that enabled me to conduct research at Regenstein and Newberry libraries
in Chicago. I am also deeply grateful
to the late Dr. Ping-ti Ho, James Westfall Thompson Professor of History at
the University of Chicago, for his diligent guidance during my internship. For editorial help and advice I am
indebted to Dr. Dennis Johnson, former Professor of Geography at the
University of Houston, who spent hours reading and correcting the
manuscript. Finally, I would like to
register my most sincere thanks to the staff of Regenstein and Newberry
libraries for their professional and courteous assistance throughout many
months of my research. VU DINH DINH The Writers Post & literature-in-translation, founded 1999, based in the US. VOLUME
9 DOUBLE ISSUE JAN
2007 & JUL 2007 Editorial note: Works published in this issue are simultaneously published in the printed Wordbridge magazine (ISSN: 1540-1723). Copyright © 2007 Vu Dinh Dinh Nothing in this magazine may be downloaded, distributed, or reproduced without the permission of the author/ translator/ artist/ The Writers Post/ and Wordbridge magazine. Creating links to place The Writers Post or any of its pages within other framesets or in other documents is copyright violation, and is not permitted. |
