Gutian

See also: Gu Tian

English

Etymology 1

from Sumerian: Gu-tu-umki or Gu-ti-umki, of unknown meaning [script needed]

Noun

Gutian (plural Gutians)

1. (antiquity) A member of the Guti or Quti people, an ancient nomadic people of the Zagros Mountains, on the border of modern Iran and Iraq.

Related terms

• Gutium

Proper noun

Gutian

1. The language of these people.

Etymology 2

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin Chinese pronunciation for 古田 (Gǔtián).

Alternative forms

• (Pinyin form) Gǔtián, Gu-Tian, Gu-tian, Gu Tian (Hanyu Pinyin)
• (Wade-Giles form) Ku-t'ien, Kutien, Ku-tien, Ku-Tien, Ku-T'ien, Ku Tien, Ku T'ien (Wade–Giles)
• (Foochow Romanization form) Kŭ-chèng, Ku-cheng, Ku-Cheng, Ku Cheng, Kucheng (from Fuzhou dialect via Foochow Romanization)

Proper noun

Gutian

1. A county of Ningde, Fujian, China.

   Synonym: (dated) Kucheng

   • 1983 August 30 [1983 June 29], “Conditions Said Ripe to Begin Construction of Shuikou Hydropower Project”, in China Report, Economic Affairs‎^[1], number 377, →OCLC, page 25‎^[2]:

     At Shuikou, on the border between Minqing and Gutian, on the mainstream of the Min Jiang, Fujian Province will build the largest hydroelectric power station in the East China region.

   • 2010, Zhengping (李争平) Li, translated by 译谷 [Shanghai Ego], 中国酒: 英文 [Chinese Wine: Universe in a Bottle]‎^[3], Beijing: China Intercontinental Press (五洲传播出版社), →ISBN, →OCLC, page 29:

     Red ferment is one in which red mould grows on polished round rice, and is a specialty of the area round Gutian and Pingnan in Fujian province.

   • 2018 [1895 December 14], Lane J. Harris, The Peking Gazette: A Reader in Nineteenth-Century Chinese History‎^[4], Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 264:

     [Bian Baoquan] denounces Wang Yuchang, district magistrate of Gutian, Fujian, for incompetency, cowardice and avarice, and possessing a decidedly bad reputation amongst his colleagues. On account of his memorialist has already deposed the said magistrate from his post at Gutian, but he thinks that this man deserves further punishment for failing at the beginning to report a rioting of the "Vegetarians" in his district, preferring to buy peace by asking certain persons to promise concessions to the demands of the secret society men in order to keep them quiet.

2. A town in Shanghang, Longyan, Fujian, China.
   • 1983, Victor Nee, “Post-Mao Changes in a South China Production Brigade”, in Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, editor, China from Mao to Deng: The Politics and Economics of Socialist Development, Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 63, column 2:

     Survivors of the peasant movement recall seeing Mao Zedong at Gutian, a day’s walk from the village, during the Gutian Conference in December 1929.

   • 2001, Xie Bingying, translated by Lily Chia Brissman and Barry Brissman, A Woman Soldier's Own Story: The Autobiography of Xie Bingying, New York: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, pages 244–245:

     A place about thirteen miles west of Longyan called Gutian produced an unusual person. […] All visitors to western Fujian Province knew that an earth emperor was living in Gutian, and all were curious to meet him and to admire his style. Quite unexpectedly I had an opportunity to go to Gutian: Wugou and Shanshan, tired of life in Shanghai, came to visit me in the ancient farming village of Longyan, and I took time out to roam with them through all the scenic places close by.

   • 2005, Jung Chang, Jon Halliday, Mao: The Unknown Story, New York: Anchor Books, →ISBN, page 73:

     At Gutian, Mao made much of introducing a resolution to abolish the practice. This move was tremendously popular with the soldiers. But a few months later, when the Gutian resolutions were circulated, this item was not among them.

Translations

county in northeastern Fujian

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 古田 (gu² tin⁴)

  Eastern Min: 古田 (Kŭ-chèng)

  Hokkien: 古田 (Kó͘-chhân)

  Mandarin: 古田 (zh) (Gǔtián)

town in southwestern Fujian

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 古田 (gu² tin⁴)

  Mandarin: 古田 (zh) (Gǔtián)

Further reading

• Saul B. Cohen, editor (2008), “Gutian”, in The Columbia Gazetteer of the World‎^[5], 2nd edition, volume 1, New York: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 1477, column 1

Anagrams

• Giunta, Guinta, giaunt