![Charleston peak2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Charleston_peak2.jpg)
Mount Xiao or Mount Yao () is a range of mountains in western
Henan
Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...
,
China north of the
Luo River and south of
Sanmenxia
Sanmenxia (; postal: Sanmenhsia) is a prefecture-level city in the west of Henan Province, China. The westernmost prefecture-level city in Henan, Sanmenxia borders Luoyang to the east, Nanyang to the southeast, Shaanxi Province to the west and S ...
. Major peaks include Qīnggǎngfēng (青崗峰; 1903 m) and Guānyúnshān (冠雲山; 1666 m).
The range is part of the Xiáo () historical region on the border of Hénán and
Shānxī
Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level ...
provinces in China. The area between Yáo and the strategic
Hángǔ Pass
Hangu Pass or Hanguguan is a pass separating the upper Yellow River and Wei valleys—the cradle of Chinese civilization and seat of its longtime capital Xi'an—from the fertile North China Plain. It lies on the south bank of the Yellow River ...
was called Xiáohán ().
Name
The place is also famous because there is a dispute over the
pronunciation
Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken. This may refer to generally agreed-upon sequences of sounds used in speaking a given word or language in a specific dialect ("correct pronunciation") or simply the way a particular ...
of its name. According to one of the most authoritative
Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language ...
dictionaries, the ''
Cihai
The ''Cihai'' is a large-scale dictionary and encyclopedia of Standard Mandarin Chinese. The Zhonghua Book Company published the first ''Cihai'' edition in 1938, and the Shanghai Lexicographical Publishing House revised editions in 1979, 1989, ...
'' (), ''xiáo'' should be ''yáo'' according to ancient pronunciation. However, other dictionaries such as ''
Ciyuan
The ''Ciyuan'' or ''Tz'u-yüan'' was the first major Chinese dictionary linguistically structured around words (''ci'' ) instead of individual characters (''zi'' ) used to write them. The Commercial Press published the first edition ''Ciyuan'' ...
'' (), ''
Xīnhuá Zìdiǎn
The ''Xinhua Zidian'' (), or ''Xinhua Dictionary'', is a Chinese language dictionary published by the Commercial Press. It is the best-selling Chinese dictionary and the world's most popular reference work. In 2016, Guinness World Records offic ...
'', ''
Hànyǔ Dà Cídiǎn'', and ''
Xiàndài Hànyǔ Cídiǎn'' use the pronunciation of ''xiáo''.
新編高中語文課本指誤(論壇精華帖)-溫州教學文摘
References
Landforms of Henan
Mountain ranges of China
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