Is Saigon a place… with lots of cottonwood?

Truong Vinh Ky commented: "The name Saigon... First, we should find out where the name we gave to the city today came from."

The 1788 map shows the line "R. de Saigon" (Saigon River).

Photo: National Library of France

Saigon is the old name given to the city now inhabited by the Chinese community. According to the Gia Dinh Thong Chi (Chronicle of Gia Dinh), "Sai" is borrowed from the Chinese character 柴, meaning firewood (for burning); "gon" is a Southern Vietnamese word referring to cotton or the cotton tree (lighter and more fluffy than regular cotton). It is said that the name originated from the fact that many cotton trees were planted by the Cambodians around their former forts, traces of which can still be found at Cay Mai Pagoda and surrounding areas.

The French called the city Saigon because they saw that name on Western geographical maps. Here, people call the city by a common, colloquial name; in the past, that name referred to the entire Gia Dinh province."

The author of this article has not found that name recorded in any old maps, only that Manguin recorded the place name Chagan or Chaquão (on the 1568 Durado map) near what would later become Saigon, and that Manguin wrote Saigo as derived from Chagan or Chaquão . Explaining the Sino-Vietnamese spelling of the two words SÀI GÒN , Trương Vĩnh Ký offered two hypotheses: a) "People say" because many cotton trees were grown there. b) "In my opinion" (Trương Vĩnh Ký's opinion) it was a name given to the locality, or to the entire Gia Định province, by some Cambodian person – the origin of which is yet to be found – and later transformed into SÀI GÒN to name the city specifically.

To date, most researchers studying the origins of the place name Saigon usually mention three hypotheses: firstly, Saigon - De Ngan (pronounced Tai Ngon by the Chinese), which is completely inaccurate. The latter two hypotheses, which are more noteworthy, were both put forward by Truong Vinh Ky.

WHERE IS THE " COTTON FOREST"?

This is merely "what people say," not a hypothesis of Truong Vinh Ky himself. For some reason, many other Western researchers and Malleret have omitted the "what people say" (dit-on) clause and attributed this hypothesis to Truong Vinh Ky, writing: "According to Petrus Ky, who claims to have discovered the explanation, in Trinh Hoai Duc's work, the two words Saigon mean ' cotton wood ,' thus implying that this land, in the past, apparently, had many cotton trees." Vuong Hong Sen also followed this and attributed it to Truong Vinh Ky: "In his collection Souvenirs historiques, Mr. Truong Vinh Ky asserted that the Khmer people planted cotton around the Cay Mai fort, and that he himself saw some of these ancient trees in that area in 1885."

In fact, Trinh Hoai Duc's work contains no explanation or commentary on the two words "Saigon." Truong Vinh Ky only interpreted them as "cottonwood" based on the Sino-Vietnamese writing style. The hypothesis that "Saigon came from cottonwood" is based on what people say, because at the time of Truong Vinh Ky (1885), there were no more "ancient cottonwood trees" left "at Cay Mai Pagoda and surrounding areas." Truong Vinh Ky only stated, seemingly affirming, that "traces (of the old Khmer fortifications) still remain at Cay Mai Pagoda - and surrounding areas" (1885).

The Courrier de Saigon newspaper, dated January 20, 1868, hypothesized that the name Saigon was derived from "Kai gon" (cotton tree), not "cotton firewood," to be closer to Saigon! The newspaper wrote: "As people say, the name Saigon probably evolved from the word Kai gon. These words refer to the type of tree that produces cotton (cotton). Cotton trees, very common in Southern Vietnam, are often used as hedges. The ancient Cambodians sometimes planted them along defensive ramparts, the cotton trees growing close together, forming green hedges. During the period when the Southerners occupied this land, they had a fortified outpost with that characteristic: hence the name Saigon."

While Truong Vinh Ky's hypothesis about the "cottonwood" was based on hearsay, Le Van Phat asserted: On the vast, desolate plains of the old city lay an endless cottonwood forest. The Khmer called the cottonwood forest Prei kor . The Siamese word Cai ngon also means cottonwood forest. The Laotians still use that word with the same meaning. Perhaps Cai ngon became SAIGON . Le Van Phat's "cottonwood forest" hypothesis is criticized for its lack of basis: Kor doesn't mean cottonwood tree but cow ; the "endless cottonwood forest" of the past on the desolate plains (Plaine des Tombeaux, now found throughout Districts 3 and 10) is merely an unfounded speculation.

In short, the terms "cottonwood firewood," "cotton tree," or "cotton forest" used for "Saigon" are not very reliable, both linguistically and geographically. In poetry, folk songs, and local proverbs, including the "Ancient Gia Dinh Landscape" written in vernacular poetry nearly a hundred years before Truong Vinh Ky, there is no mention or idea of ​​"cottonwood firewood" or "cotton forest." (to be continued)

(Excerpt from *Notes on Vietnamese History and Geography* by the late scholar Nguyen Dinh Dau, published by Tre Publishing House)

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/sai-gon-la-noi-co-nhieu-cui-gon-185240930224427515.htm