Hu Nan

A form of Hunan — A province of China, located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and south of Lake Dongting. Capital: Changsha.

Meanings

proper noun
  1. alternativeAlternative form of Hunan.

    It is said at Hankau that boats can travel up stream 4000 li by three different routes—the Yangtse Chiang, the Yuan river in Hu Nan, and the Han river.

    1898 September, W. R. Carles, “THE YANGTSE CHIANG”, in The Geographical Journal, volume XII, number 3, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 236
    5 more examples

    The thousand or so of men newly arrived from Hu Nan were at once sent by K'ISHEN to the front. The Cantonese fled the moment the engagement began; but the Hu Nan men fought as they retreated, and half of them were drowned, together with their Commander SIANGFUH.

    1888, E. H. Parker, Chinese Account of the Opium War, →OCLC, →OL, page 27

    From Kong Wa, a district in the Southern Hu Nan Province, the names of ten men have been sent to Lien Chow as inquirers and applicants for baptism. During the year four men from Hu Nan, one a literary graduate, have been baptized and received into the Lien Chow church, all bearing testimony to the spirit of inquiry that is spreading among the people in that district.

    1889, Nineteenth Annual Report of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, New York: Presbyterian House, →OCLC, page 136

    We passed the walled district city of I-tu, situated upon a small affluent called the Ching Chiang, or Clear River, which takes its rise in the province of Hu-Nan to the south.

    [1898, Archibald John Little, “Shanghai to Ichang”, in Through the Yang-tse Gorges, 3rd edition, Sampson Low, Marston & Company, →OCLC, page 33

    The family that had brought Hop Toy to the United States as a little boy were from the Hu Nan province, whose food was reputed to be hot, spicy, and wholesome. But they eschewed nothing edible, so far as Stanley could tell; any kind of vegetable, fish, fowl or meat, the Hu Nan kitchen could countenance it, and prepare it well.

    1997, Jim Nisbet, Prelude to a Scream, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 99

    It was then that Mao Tse-tung, who had his roots in rural central China, proclaimed that Chinese Communism must be based on the peasantry. Quite independent of Moscow, he built a new Communist movement in rural Hu Nan Province in central China.

    2007, Leonard C. Meeker, Philosophy and Politics, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 255

Origin

Borrowed from Mandarin 湖南 (Hú Nán).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

Hu Nan. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Hu%20Nan

MLA

“Hu Nan.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Hu%20Nan. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Hu Nan,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Hu%20Nan.

Source: Hu Nan on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.