kiang

plural kiangs · alternative kiyang · alternative kyang

1. A large wild ass, Equus kiang, native to the Tibetan Plateau.

1. obsoleteObsolete form of Jiang.
2. obsoleteSynonym of Yangtze, the chief river of central China.

   The series of these great events began in the year 1333, fifteen years before the plague broke out in Europe: they first appeared in China. Here a parching drought, accompanied by famine, commenced in the tract of country watered by the rivers Kiang and Hoai.

   1888, J. F. C. Hecker, “Causes.-Spread.”, in B. G. Babington, transl., The Black Death and the Dancing Mania, →OCLC, page 24

   3 more examples

   All China was formerly divided by the Chineſe Emperour Xunus into 12 Provinces; afterwards the Emperour Yua, who took upon him the Government after the death of Xunus, about 260 years before the Incarnation of our Saviour, reduced all China into Nine Provinces, which only at that time comprehended the Northern Parts of China, and had for their Confines the River Kiang. But after that they had Conquered the Southern parts by degrees, and had ſomewhat civilized the Inhabitants, the whole Kingdom of China was divided into 15 Provinces : Amongſt theſe alſo they reckon the Province of Leaotung, which is ſituated on the Weſt of Peking, where the great Wall begins, and the Hanging Iſland of Corea; both which pay Tribute to the Emperour.

   1669 [1665], John Nievhoff, translated by John Ogilby, An Embassy from the Eaſt-India Company of the United Provinces, to the Grand Tartar Cham Emperour of China, London: John Macock, translation of original in Dutch, →OCLC, page 6

   The cult center of this vast playground for water spirits and connoisseurs of water was on the mainland in a region on the east shore of the lake that came to be known as Pa-ling. Its official name in T’ang times was sometimes Yüeh-yang and sometimes Yüeh-chou. This is where the waters of the lake merged with those of the Hsiang and the Kiang—but then their shores were certainly contoured differently than now. This worshipful place was at the northern limit of the goddess's domain; still it remained the most ancient and venerable heart of that domain. It had been a sacred center in the distant past, belonging to the marshes of Yün-meng "Cloud Dream," extending north and south on both sides of the Kiang,⁴¹ in the kingdom of Ch’u:

   1973, Edward H. Schafer, “The Medieval Cult of the Great Water Goddesses”, in The Divine Woman: Dragon Ladies and Rain Maidens in T’ang Literature, University of California Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 58

   There the word Singui refers both to a province in eastern Asia and a city within the province. The province was described as economically important because of its vast production of salt, as well as fine rhubarb and ginger. The city itself, whose name Polo says means “City of the Earth,” is situated near the river Kiang (Yangtze), “which is the largest river in the world,” and was described as having a river port that made it a place of great commerce.

   2002, James Robert Enterline, “Foundations of European Misunderstandings”, in Erikson, Eskimos & Columbus: Medieval European Knowledge of America (Cartography), Johns Hopkins University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 153

   Synonyms: Yangtze

plural Kiangs

1. A surname from Chinese.