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    Thanks for the reply but, yep, you should add sources. Nope, the nitrate-laden salt in the wrong region of the country with no porcelain production definitely has nothing to do with millennia of constant porcelain production. Beyond that, it's also both unusual for Chinese names to be as prosaic as Shanghai is (they're generally poetic once things grow beyond village level) and kinda untrue that Shanghai is just On-the-Sea. It's always been 上海縣, 上海市, etc. with the level carrying some of the meaning the same way English says Kingston, Clacton, Sussex, &c. and not just King's, Clac, Sus, &c.
    – lly
    Commented Jun 23 at 11:52
  • Oh, someone upvoted the initial comment so I shouldn't just replace it. I can't edit it now either, but, in fairness, I should say that the "definitely" above really should've been "almost certainly" instead. It's pooossible there is a source out there making the connection.
    – lly
    Commented Jun 23 at 12:23
  • Sussex: Suþ Seaxe "(land of the) South Saxons" Never heard of Sussex upon Sea, presumably because it is a county, but I do know Kingston upon Thames. The suffix -ton would correspond with 镇. If you call 上海 上海市, you still have no name, neither poetic nor prosaic, just on Sea market! Where do the Chinese store all these words they save? Where is the Word Bank?
    – Pedroski
    Commented Jun 23 at 15:49
  • That & there's no landlocked Sussex to distinguish it from. Point was the second word was part of the name and translating South on its own would be bizarre and unhelpful. -ton would correspond with 邑, 州, 郡, 府, 市, 縣, 鎮, &c. at different times. Precisely my point: you're treating common names and top-line dictionary results as accurate summations of the full meanings of the full names... which, no, doesn't work. Really far in the weeds now, but Market-by-the-Sea is precisely what Shanghai was, although it got the name when it was a 鎮 (which covers counties and their seats &c.).
    – lly
    Commented Jun 23 at 16:36
  • And, as far as where the Chinese store the words they save, eh, they just consider it civilized to aim for terse eloquence. If that's really so uncomfortable, you probably wanna stay well clear of literary Chinese. The Chinese translations are always the lightest at the UN tables. Literary Chinese would fit on postcards... & sometimes did when kids were aiming to cheat on the provincial exams by cramming all of Confucius onto the inside of a shirt. There's a museum at Jiading's Confucian Temple that has some examples.
    – lly
    Commented Jun 23 at 16:43