Fen River

English

Etymology

Partial calque of Mandarin 汾河 (Fén Hé).

Proper noun

Fen River

1. A river in central Shanxi, China.
   • 1921, Marshall Broomhall, In Quest of God: the Life Story of Pastors Chang & Ch'ü, Buddhist Priest & Chinese Scholar‎^[1], Religious Tract Society, →OCLC, →OL, page 23:

     The cities west of the Fen River, where Taning is situated, were visited by him in 1869, but it is hardly possible that the copy of the Gospel which ultimately fell into the hands of Chang the Buddhist priest was one of those sold on that occasion, for the stamp upon the cover with the address at Taiyuanfu points to a later date when a station had been opened.

   • 1950 August [1937 July], W. C. White, H. E. Fernald, “Chinese Frescoes from the Royal Ontario Museum Toronto”, in Bulletin of the Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology‎^[2], Revised edition, number 12, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 6:

     This painting, which is the large central one in the Chinese Fresco Gallery on the ground floor of the Museum, is 38 feet, 2 inches long, and 18 feet, 11 inches high. It is known to have come from the Hsing Hua Ssŭ, "Monastery of Joyful Conversion", which is about ten miles south east of Chi-shan in South Shansi (Lat. 35°35ʹ, Long. 111°01ʹ). The monastery is located in the Chi Mountains, a range which forms part of the southern watershed of the Fen River, on which the town of Chi-shan is situated. In the Chi-shan Hsien Chih the official gazetteer of Chi-shan county, the location of Hsing Hua Monastery is recorded and the date of its founding is given as A.D. 592, in the Sui Dynasty.

   • 1977, F. Clark Howell, “Introduction”, in Paleoanthropology in the People's Republic of China‎^[3], →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 3:

     A prehistoric site of late Pleistocene age, which was especially prepared for our visit, was seen at Ting-ts'un, above the Fen River (Shansi).

   • [1983, William Hinton, “Introduction: Shansi, Land of the Oxhide Lanterns”, in Shenfan‎^[4], New York: Vintage Books, published 1984, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page xxxiv:

     Taiyuan, the capital of the province, lies on the upper reaches of the Fen surrounded by irrigated ricelands, orchards and vineyards on the mountain slopes, with enormous seams of coal underground. In Shansi all roads lead to Taiyuan, but the roads that radiate out of Taiyuan in every direction lead nowhere.]

   • 2008 August 10, Aric Chen, “Bridging Generations on China’s High Plateau”, in The New York Times‎^[5], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 10 February 2018, Travel‎^[6]:

     About three hours in, the land leveled off and the horizon gave way to a jumbled skyline, broken by the Fen River. This was not how I had pictured Taiyuan: expecting history and poignancy, I would instead find Prada and Paul Smith.

   • 2021 October 11, “China floods: bus falls into river as heavy rains destroy homes”, in The Guardian‎^[7], archived from the original on 12 October 2021:

     According to state media, 59 national meteorological stations reported the highest ever recorded daily rainfall, and 63 their highest accumulative total over the period. The Fen River reached its highest level in four years, they said.
     Torrential rains fell for several days last week across the province. In 12 hours overnight to Thursday morning, Shanxi, which ordinarily has an average of 31.3mm for the month, had an average 119.5mm across the province.

Translations

river in the centre of Shanxi province

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 汾河 (zh) (Fén Hé)

• Finnish: Fen-joki
• Russian: please add this translation if you can

Further reading

• Saul B. Cohen, editor (2008), “Fen”, in The Columbia Gazetteer of the World‎^[8], 2nd edition, volume 1, New York: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 1215, column 1
• “Fen”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.