Evolution of the name of kariz
1 min readKariz was called qanat in lran, madazcha in Irag and kariz in Xinjiang with different pronunciations obviously. In China, the word kariz appeared as early as in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period.
In Zhuang Zi-Qiushuthere was a sentence”Don’t you hear the story of the frog in an abandoned kariz well”? In the writs of the Western Regions of Tang there was record of “well channels”. In the 3’d year of the Wanli Reign (1575), Shi Maohua had the record of “Yakaner(meaning kariz)”in the article of the On Turfan Coming to Express Gratitude and Paying Tribute to the Ming Government. During theyears of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty(1736-1795), it was called “kajing (meaning kariz)”.
From this point, we know that the name of kariz originated from China.The process of evolution can be concluded to be jing(Zhou)→kanjing(Warring States to Han)→jingqu(Tang and Yuan)→Kajing(Qing)→kariz(modern times).
