Place names are one of the essences of history. Although it is a simple name, it tells the various relationships between land and people, land and things, and land and things. The place names in China reflect the concepts of ethnic integration, territorial changes and traditional culture in China's history, and are an important part of China's history and culture. Place names range from the names of provinces, autonomous regions, cities and counties to the names of towns, villages, streets and bridges, and there are a large number of nicknames, abbreviations and nicknames. Some place names have remained unchanged for thousands of years, while others have been changed many times. There is a story behind every place name, and there is another string of place names behind every place name. The origin, naming principles and implications of place names all contain the inheritance of history and the essence of traditional culture. Place names are historical fragments; A place name is a amorous feelings painting. The seemingly messy place names actually contain many anecdotes and carry the humanistic heritage of the city.

Place names are a common phenomenon in national languages. As a language symbol, place names are closely related to society, culture and history, besides the geographical locations of cities, villages, rivers, mountains, roads and streets. Its meaning often reflects not only people's specific understanding of topography, features and geographical location, but also the historical and cultural changes of this place. These are all expressed through the phonetic features and semantic features of place names. Therefore, place names in Chinese are also carriers of social, historical and cultural information in China.

It is no accident that primitive people are similar to place names. Place names should be the product of human beings entering the stage of civilization. The earliest place names are probably borrowed from totems, which can be inferred from the place names of some ethnic minorities in China. For example, the Yi people in Yunnan once took the tiger as a totem, the Yi village in Ailaoshan was named "Rama" (the mother tiger) and the hill was named "Rona" (Hei Hu), which means the village and hill where the mother tiger and Hei Hu lived (see Niu Ruchen's "China Place Name Culture"). There is also a crane extension in Yunnan. According to Mr. Zhang Liao's textual research, its origin is related to the crane totem worship of Bai ancestors. The historical place names of the Han nationality also left traces of totems. For example, the people of Fenhe, Shanxi, got it because of a tribe that once settled here, worshiping the totem of wind birds (Wang Kelin's explanation of Fenhe), and "wind", "ancient" and "wind" can also be read as "fen" and "fen". But because the times have changed, it is more difficult to verify. The vocabulary of modern Chinese is mainly disyllabic in number, but it has experienced a development process from monosyllabic to disyllabic in history. The development of Chinese locative words is no exception. Most of the place names in Shang and Zhou Dynasties were monosyllabic. For example, in the Seven Movements of Shang Dynasty, the names of the seven capitals were monosyllabic: Hao, Tao, Xiang, Xing, Pi, Xuan and Yin. The place names in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period are still monosyllabic. But in the Han Dynasty, monosyllabic place names were rare. Place names in modern Chinese are generally composed of proper names and generic names, so they are at least disyllabic (except for some abbreviations in written language, such as Shanghai, Tianjin and Beijing), and there are even many polysyllabic place names, such as Shijiazhuang, Yangchangzigou, Daguan Di Zi Mountain and 135 Food.

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It shows that the phonetic evolution of place nouns is consistent with the development of modern Chinese vocabulary.

Place names in China are generally composed of proper names and generic names, with proper names in the front and generic names in the back. For example, "province" and "city" in Jiangsu Province and Nanjing City are common names, and they are placed at the end; Jiangsu and Nanjing are proper nouns. Because place names are neutral words and do not contain emotional prefixes such as "old", "small" and "a", there is no need to use function words to overlap words. Generic names and proper names are generally notional words with specific meanings.

First, the naming of place names in China can be roughly divided into three categories according to their nature:

1) The general name of natural geographical environment, such as mountains, peaks, ridges, hills, tombs, plateaus, mountains, etc. Water, river, river, lake, berth, stream, pond, pool, ditch, pond and sea; Islands, seaports, bays, continents and the Horn of Africa.

2) The general name of residential buildings, such as: settlement types: township, village, village, town, lane, street, road, lane, hutong, square mouth, long street and new village; Architecture: buildings, platforms, pavilions, pavilions and cities; Temples, temples, palaces, landscapes, shops, shops, markets, markets, cities and shops.

The above building names, such as "Temple" and "Temple", belong to various religions. Due to the prosperity of religious belief in history, it is often used as a general term for place names. "Tao" and "Road" used to be the general names of administrative divisions in ancient times, but in modern times they have evolved into street names.

3) The general term for the division of national administrative regions.

In the long history, great changes have taken place in China's administrative divisions. First of all, the princes of the Qin Dynasty stood on the scales. After Qin Shihuang unified China, the county system was implemented. Ancient China was divided into sixteen counties, with counties under them. This is the earliest unified administrative region in China. In the Tang Dynasty, the whole country was divided into fifteen roads, and "Tao" became the largest administrative domain. In the Song Dynasty, Tao changed to Tao. In ancient China, due to the change of dynasties, place names often changed, so the same administrative region often had several names, which brought a lot of trouble. The administrative division of "Province" was founded in the Qing Dynasty and used by China people. After the founding of New China, it was adjusted and changed, and it was defined as: province, autonomous region, special zone, autonomous prefecture, city, county, district, street, town and profit.