Xi'an

See also: xī'àn, xian, Xian, xián, xiàn, xiān, xiǎn, Xī'ān, and xī'ān

English

Xi'an as seen from the Goose Pagoda (2011)

Alternative forms

• Xian (sometimes proscribed)
• Sian, Sianfu, Hsian, Hsi-an, Hsi-an-fu, Singan, Si-ngan, Si-ngan-fou (obsolete)

Etymology

The atonal Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 西安 (Xī'ān), usually glossed as meaning "Western Peace" but inclusive of the idea of "Western Pacification" or "Pacified Area", first adopted under the Ming Dynasty in 1369 as the city was conquered from the Yuan and protected with a new wall. The apostrophe is required in pinyin to mark the correct characters involved, distinguishing the two separate syllables of xī and ān from the monosyllabic words xiān, xián, xiǎn, and xiàn. See 隔音符號／隔音符号 (géyīn fúhào) for more.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃiˈæn/, /ˈʃiːˈɑːn/

Proper noun

Xi'an

1. The provincial capital of Shaanxi, a subprovincial city in central China famed as the former capital of numerous Chinese dynasties.
   • 1984 January, Nina Hyde, “The Queen of Textiles”, in National Geographic‎^[2], volume 165, number 1, page 30:

     THE SILK ROAD was actually a perilous network of routes. It was hazardous to monks and pilgrims carrying Buddhist teachings between India and China and even more hazardous to traders, who intended to exchange gold, wool, horses, jade, and glass for silk. The road started in what is now Xi'an, in Shaanxi Province, traversed a barren crust of earth through treacherous mountains and desert across Central Asia to Antioch and Tyre; the last lap, to Europe and Egypt, was by water to other Mediterranean ports.

   • 2005, Bill Clinton, My Life‎^[3], volume II, New York: Vintage Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 434:

     We began the trip at the ancient capital of Xi'an, where the Chinese put on an elaborate and beautiful welcoming ceremony. The next day we had the opportunity to walk among the rows of the famous terra-cotta warriors, and to have a roundtable discussion with Chinese citizens in the small village of Xiahe.

   • 2010, Walter Mondale, David Hage, The Good Fight: A Life in Liberal Politics‎^[4], Scribner, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 220:

     Then on Wednesday, after our formal talks concluded, Joan, Eleanor, and I traveled to the ancient city of Xi'an, home of the extraordinary exhibit of terra-cotta soldiers.

   • 2016 October 28, Edward Wong, Vanessa Piao, “When China Wants Better Air Readings, Cotton Does the Trick”, in The New York Times‎^[5], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 October 2016, Asia Pacific‎^[6]:

     The scheme was simple: Stuff cotton into air-monitoring equipment so that the air being read would be filtered and seem cleaner.
     The people doing this to produce better — but false — air-quality readings in Xi’an, the provincial capital of Shaanxi, got away with it for months, until inspectors noticed irregularities in the data.

   • 2023 March 31, Didi Tang, “Terracotta Army’s broken arms may solve mystery of its creation”, in The Times‎^[7], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 31 March 2023‎^[8]:

     Quite how the other 7,999 or so warriors — each about 6ft tall and weighing just over 28 stone — were made more than 2,000 years ago, however, has long been a subject of debate, with experts questioning how the intricately carved figures could have been produced on site in Xi’an, northwestern China.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Xi'an.

Synonyms

• Feng, Fengjing, Hao, Haojing, Fenghao, Zongzhou, Daxing, Chang'an, Fengyuan, Anxi, Jingzhao, Xijing (historical)

Translations

capital of Shaanxi and former capital of China — see also Chang'an

• Arabic: شِيَان f (šiyān), شِيئَان f (šīʔān)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 西安 (sai¹ on¹)

  Mandarin: 西安 (zh) (Xī'ān)

• Finnish: Xian
• French: Xi’an f
• Hungarian: Hszian (hu)
• Japanese: 西安 (せいあん, Seian)
• Korean: 시안 (ko) (Sian), 서안(西安) (ko) (Seoan)
• Latin: Singanum n, Sina f, Xian
• Lü: ᦌᦲᧈᦁᧃᧈ (sii¹ʼan¹)
• Macedonian: Сји́ан m (Sjían)
• Persian: شی‌آن (ši'ân), شیان (fa) (šiyân)
• Polish: Xi'an n
• Russian: Сиа́нь m (Siánʹ)
• Uyghur: شىئەن (shi'en)
• Vietnamese: Tây An (vi) (西安)
• Zhuang: Sih'anh

References

• Saul B. Cohen, editor (1998), “Xi'an”, in The Columbia Gazetteer of the World‎^[9], volume 3, New York: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 3501, column 1
• “Xi'an”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• Xi'an, Xian, Hsian, Hsi-an, Sian, Singan at Google Ngram Viewer
• “Xi'an”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “Xi'an” in TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2024.

Anagrams

• Axin, Naxi, axin