From "Flower Leopard" to "Yellow Flower Pear" — The Flow of Sound and Meaning in Classical Naming Culture huanghuali-and-the-art-of-naming_en

 

The Art of Naming: How Hainan Huanghuali Got Its Many Names

"On Hainan Island, there is a precious wood known in the Qing Dynasty as 'hua li' (flower leopard) because its grain resembles the spots of a leopard; some also called it 'hua li' (flower Li), referring to the Li people's use of this wood; later came 'hua li' (flower pear) and 'huang hua li' (yellow flower pear), among other names." A research article on Hainan huanghuali traces the history of this precious wood's name changes — the same object had very different names across different periods and groups of people. This cultural phenomenon of "one object, many names" is termed the "debate on name and reality" in classical Chinese philology.

Xunzi begins his chapter "On the Correct Use of Names" by saying: "Names have no inherent appropriateness; they are agreed upon by convention. What is established by convention and custom is called appropriate; what deviates from the convention is called inappropriate." Xunzi profoundly pointed out that names are not naturally correct — it is human agreement that grants them legitimacy. The evolution of huanghuali from "hua li" (flower leopard) to "hua li" (flower Li) to "hua li" (flower pear) to "huang hua li" (yellow flower pear) is an excellent example of "convention establishing appropriateness" — each group of namers had their own logic: some named by visual resemblance (flower leopard), some by ethnic association (flower Li), some by phonetic borrowing (flower pear), and some by color and fragrance association (yellow flower pear). The Erya dictionary, as China's earliest lexicon, had as its core task recording and explaining this phenomenon of "one object, many names" and "ancient and modern variations."

Xu Shen, in his Explaining Graphs and Analyzing Characters, established the analytical system of "form glossing," "sound glossing," and "meaning glossing," providing methodology for later generations to understand the relationship between "name" and "reality." The naming journey of Hainan huanghuali — from craftsmen's colloquial "huanghuali ge" (where "ge" in Hainanese refers to the hard part of wood), to literati's "hua li" (flower Li / flower pear), to modern merchants' promoted "Hainan huanghuali" — each name is a layer of cultural code. The character "ge" records a dialect pronunciation, "hua li" (flower leopard) is a visual analogy, and "huang hua li" is an overlay of value imagination. The evolution of names is a direct projection of cultural stratification.

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