Jiaozhi - The Name's Meaning

The Name's Meaning

Jiāozhǐ is also used for the ancient Vietnamese. Jiāo (交) meaning mix, intersect, communicate, or combine. However, the meaning of Zhǐ has not been clarified yet.

Zhǐ in the books Sima Qian's Shiji, Hanshu,... is written with the fù set (阯). However, in the Hou Hanshu, Cíyuán, and Cíhǎi, it is written with the zú set (趾).

The book Cíhǎi and the historian Nguyễn Văn Tố claim that both of the Zhǐ letters are correct. According to Cíhǎi, the zhǐ 趾 has four meanings:

1. synonymous with "jiǎo" (leg)
2. means "jiǎozhǐ" (toe)
3. synonymous with "zōngjī", means "original", "vestige", "trace",...
4. phonetic loan characters zhǐ have tǔ set (址), means base, basis, foundation (jīzhǐ, zhùzhǐ)

Thus Zhǐ is translated in several ways, as is Jiāozhǐ. Scholar Du You wrote in the book Tongdian: "Jiāozhǐ are the Southern People; the big toe points to the outside of the foot, so if the man stands up straight, the two big toes point to each other, so people call them Jiāozhǐ (Zhǐ means big toe).". This idea is accepted by many Chinese and Vietnamese scholars.

The book Cíyuán (volume Tý, page 141) offers another interpretation. It explains that "The meaning of the words Jiāozhǐ cannot be understood literally, but the ancient Greek method of "opposite pillar" and "connecting pillar" to label humans on earth – where "opposite pillar" stood for the South side and its logical opposite the North side, whilst "connecting pillar" stood for the East side with the West side connected to it – could provide a suggested origin. If Jiāozhǐ was intended to characterise "opposite pillar" because this was what people of the Northern directions called the people of the Southern directions, then the feet of the North side "chân phía Bắc" and feet of the South side "chân phía Nam" must oppose each other, therefore rendering it impossible for the feet of a person to cross or intersect each other "không phải thực là chân người "giao" nhau"."

"Theo nghĩa cũ bảo hai ngón chân cái giao nhau là Giao Chỉ, nhưng xét đời cổ bên Hy Lạp, có tiếng "đối trụ", có tiếng "lân trụ" để gọi loài người trên thế giới. "Đối trụ" là phía Nam, phía Bắc đối nhau, "lân trụ" là phía Đông, phía Tây liền nhau. Sở dĩ có tên Giao Chỉ là hợp vào nghĩa "đối trụ", vì dân tộc phương Bắc gọi dân tộc phương Nam, cũng như một chân phía Bắc, một chân phía Nam đối nhau, không phải thực là chân người giao nhau."

Vietnamese historians and scholars Nguyễn Văn Siêu, Đặng Xuân Bảng, Trần Trọng Kim, Đào Duy Anh, and others all agree with the second explanation.

In 1868 Dr. Thorel, in the exploring group of Doudart de Lagrée, commented that the left and right big toes pointing to each other is "a characteristic of Annam people". Many later French scholars made the same comment.

Nonetheless, the "Jiāozhǐ" phenomenon occurs not only in the people of Indochina but also in the Malaysian, Siam, Chinese, Arabic people, Melanesian and Negroid as well, though the level varies from race to race. The phenomenon is very rare in the European people. It is not a pathological sign but can be considered as a "variation atavique", because the bones do not grow as straight as usual.

Jiāozhǐ, pronounced Kuchi in the Malay, became the "Cochin-China" of the Portuguese traders circa 1516, who so named it to distinguish it from the city and princely state of Cochin in India, their first headquarters in the Malabar Coast. It was subsequently called "Cochinchina".