“华亭海”释义众说考辨

Textural Research on Diverse Explanations of Hua Ting Hai

"华亭海"是什么?近千年来人们一直在探索:多数旧志主张"华亭海"是"上海旧名",少数旧志主张它是"盐场"。20世纪中叶以来,曾有过激烈讨论:谭其骧先生主张"华亭海"是指华亭县的"全部海面",多位当代学者主张"华亭海"就是"沪渎"。本人考证认为,"华亭海"和"沪渎"是"一水两名",它是古代横贯上海东西的一个大海湾。华亭海开始是这个海湾的名称;后来海湾淤塞成陆,华亭海随之成为陆域名。后来它有了"上海"这个行政区划新名称,所以旧志才说上海"旧名华亭海"。

For thousands of years,people have been exploring what Hua Ting Hai(Sea) is:most local chronicles regard it as the old name of Shanghai while in others it refers to saltworks.At the end of the last century,there was once a heated discussion.Mr.Tan Qixiang proposed that Hua Ting Hai referred to the whole sea surface of Hua Ting County but many contemporary scholars argue that it means Hu Du exactly.Through textual research,the author believes that Hua Ting Hai and Hu Du are the two different names of the same bay running from the east to the west of Shanghai in the ancient times.When the bay was silted up into land,Hua Ting Hai thus became the name of the land.The land was renamed as Shanghai later and that’s why Shanghai was formerly called Hua Ting Hai in the old chronicles.