Cultural Analysis on the Name Origin of 'Sichuan'

This paper first analyzes the name origins of 'Sichuan' on three aspects: as a cultural geographical term, as a term of an economic administrative region, and as a short name for four rivers. Then it proposes that Sichuan, as a term of an economic administrative region, is irrelative to four rivers, but related to the names of 'Shu Chuan' and 'Si Chuan', 'Liang Chuan'. With regard to the abbreviation, 'Shu Chuan' was short for Jiannan Dao in Tang Dynasty; 'Si Chuan' and 'Liang Chuan' were short for four roads linking Sichuan and Shanxi provinces in Song Dynasty.