2023-06-25 04:01:00
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What is the relationship between Cathay Pacific and the word “Cathay Pacific”? This is an old problem that has plagued human apprentices who have traveled to and from Taiwan and Hong Kong by air for more than ten years. The Pacific is the Pacific Ocean, which is easy to understand, so what is Cathay?
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What is the relationship between Cathay Pacific and the word “Cathay Pacific”? This is an old problem that has plagued human apprentices who have traveled to and from Taiwan and Hong Kong by air for more than ten years.
The Pacific is the Pacific Ocean, which is easy to understand, so what is Cathay?
Cathay Pacific was first founded in 1946 by entrepreneurs from the United States and Australia. At first, they developed in Shanghai under the name of “Aohua Import and Export Company”, and later moved to Hong Kong because of the protectionism of the Chiang Kai-shek government.
When the fledgling Air China left Shanghai for Hong Kong to continue its business, the directors of the company decided to change the name of the new company. They all expressed that they did not want to be called “Air Hong Kong”, “Hong Kong Airlines” and other vulgar names (years later, Hong Kong is still Another Chinese-funded airline named Hong Kong Airline was born).
The founders themselves especially like “Cathay”, which is a very “Oriental Classic” term in the eyes of foreigners, and their dream is to hope that one day they can establish an aviation kingdom that can cross the United States on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. Therefore, they finally decided on the name of the new company “Cathay Pacific Airways”.
Several versions of the Chinese name appeared from its establishment in 1946 to the early 1950s, including “British Pacific Airways”, “Hong Kong Pacific Airways”, “Cathay Pacific Airways”, etc… until five or six With the increase of Chinese customers in the 1900s, the Chinese name was unified as “Cathay Pacific Airways”.
So what does this “Oriental Classic” Cathay mean?
In fact, Cathay is Khitan, that is, the Liao Kingdom that wiped out the Northern Song Dynasty in our history textbooks.
In 1124 AD, under the pincer attack of the Jin-Song coalition forces, the Liao Kingdom established by the Khitan people perished. Yelu Dashi, a general of the Liao Kingdom, led the Khitan people to become king in the northwest border of the Liao Kingdom, and changed the Yuan Dynasty to Yanqing. Historians generally regard this as the beginning of the Western Liao regime.
Although the Khitans could not defeat the more barbaric Jurchens Jin Kingdom regime in East Asia, they were invincible in Central Asia. They gradually defeated various tribal countries in Central Asia and established their capital in today’s Kyrgyzstan. The farthest border It borders the Seljuk Turkish Empire, which was feared in the history of medieval Europe.
The Western Liao Empire defeated the allied forces of the Seljuk Empire in the Battle of Cathay in 1141, conquered the Hezhong area and Khwarazm, and became the overlord of Central Asia since then, and the reputation of Cathay (Khitan) spread far and wide to Europe.
A hundred years later, during the second Mongolian Western Expedition in 1235 AD, the horseshoes of Mongolian cavalry stepped on the banks of the Volga River in Eastern Europe. The Europeans once again faced the “yellow peril” that came from thousands of miles east to attack, burn, kill and loot.
Image credit: Fra Mauro map made in 1459. “Chataio” in the upper right corner of the map of Mauro, which means “Khitan” in Portuguese
Europeans called the invading Mongols Tatars. According to Marco Polo’s “Oriental Insights”, he called the north of the East Asian continent Catai and the south Manji. And the mysterious oriental lands have a hazy impression on Europeans.
From then on, the peoples from Central Asia to Europe called the continent in the far east at that time “Khitan”. On the ancient Chinese maps handed down to this day, you can still see Khitan written on the northern territory of the Tatar Empire.
Image source: The territory of the Tatars drawn in 1570 The territory of the Tatars drawn in 1570 (red line on the left) is collectively called CATAIO Khitan in the center of the East Asian continent, which is different from CHINA (the residence of the Han people) in the lower right corner.
The current languages that can use Khitan to refer to China include:
Mongolian: Хятад (Khyatad/Kitad) Uyghur: خىتاي (Xitay/Hitay) Kazakh: قىتاي, Қытай, Qıtay Tatar: Кытай (Qıtay) Russian: Китай (Kitay) Ukrainian: Китай (Kytay) Uzbek: Xitoy (Хитой) Bulgarian: Китай (Kitay) Polish: Kitaj Slovenian: Kitajska Medieval Latin: Cataya, Kitai Italian: Catai Spanish: Catay Portuguese: Cataio, Catai French, English, German, Dutch, North Germanic: Cathay Image source: 2022 Russia Announces Sanctions List of Unfriendly Countries 2022 Russia Announces Sanctions List of Unfriendly Countries
After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Taiwan joined the ranks of trade restrictions imposed by Europe and the United States against Russia. In the penultimate line of Russia’s anti-announcement list of unfriendly countries, the news translation includes Taiwan (China), and the literal translation of the Russian Китай in brackets is “Khitan”,pronounce it here。
In conclusion, the super literal translation of Cathay Pacific should be Khitan-Pacific Airlines. Or, called “China Pacific” Airlines. Its Chinese name is also very cleverly intercepting the two characters in the middle. It is called “Guotai” (国太). I have to say that the level of Sinology and the art of playing with Chinese characters of these foreigners were really high!
Similarly, Cathay Life Insurance Company, Ltd. in Taiwan is actually China (Khitan) Life Insurance.
This article by “square grid“Authorized to reprint, original textposted here
Original label: Why is Cathay Pacific the “Cathay Pacific” airline?
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