[Nhcoll-l] Fwd: Tsaulian

Tue Jan 6 19:00:00 EST 2026

Agreed, this is an interesting case for sure!

Details in a book for the popular press published by Adams in 1870<https://www.google.com/books/edition/Travels_of_a_Naturalist_in_Japan_and_Man/2a8aAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA138&printsec=frontcover> (relevant discussion on pp. 127, 144-148) and reports from the Japanese government of Tsushima<https://samurai-archives.com/wiki/HMS_Actaeon#> seem to confirm that the Korean port town Adams visited while he was on HMS Actaeon in 1859 was Busan, not Ulsan.

Reading both the British and Japanese perspectives of the same event is quite interesting. The visit caused a stir politically among Japanese officials in Tsushima, as the HMS Actaeon's crew (with Adams in tow) apparently forced their way into Busan's local waegwan (a type of Japanese government outpost in Korea).

Whether Adams was right or wrong to call Busan "Tsaulian", it seems the harbor of Busan is the location of those collections he labeled as coming from Tsaulian while aboard HMS Actaeon.
-N

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From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> on behalf of Haas, Carola <cahaas at vt.edu>
Date: Tuesday, January 6, 2026 at 3:53 PM
To: Sei, Makiri <seim at arcadia.edu>, Douglas Yanega <dyanega at gmail.com>
Cc: nhcoll <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Fwd: Tsaulian

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Fascinating discussion!  Thanks for including the characters and the Chinese pronunciation.  I got curious and started looking around and found some publications by an emeritus (but apparently still active) Professor Kimiaki Takahashi who works on maritime history in East Asia (https://researchmap.jp/Map10docu-ment05?lang=en<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://researchmap.jp/Map10docu-ment05?lang=en__;!!KGKeukY!wDJj--cgMS6-KfCBgUom9mk-nAqZcI70TjZGnrWzzFWp84TMOn_SSCgaF5TtOKV700iRXvWplYlqiik$>), and had several pubs with maps of Tsushima Island, but without knowing the characters was impossible to search for anything.  Interesting to know it’s actually on the Korean Peninsula, but given that according to Prof Takahashi’s work Tsushima Island has been considered part of Japan for many centuries, that makes sense with the language about actually being in Korea.

Takahashi, K., 2006. Tsushima Island as a Boundary Area. 国際基督教大学学報 3-A, アジア文化研究, (32), pp.27-43.

https://icu.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=2796&file_id=22&file_no=1<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://icu.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=2796&file_id=22&file_no=1__;!!KGKeukY!wDJj--cgMS6-KfCBgUom9mk-nAqZcI70TjZGnrWzzFWp84TMOn_SSCgaF5TtOKV700iRXvWpp_ZRP4c$>

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From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> on behalf of Sei, Makiri <seim at arcadia.edu>
Date: Tuesday, January 6, 2026 at 2:42 PM
To: Douglas Yanega <dyanega at gmail.com>
Cc: nhcoll <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] Fwd: Tsaulian

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Very interesting!

"Tsaulian" is based on the Chinese pronunciation of 草梁. In Pinying, it would be written as cǎoliáng.

Makiri Sei

On Tue, Jan 6, 2026 at 1:33 PM Douglas Yanega <dyanega at gmail.com<mailto:dyanega at gmail.com>> wrote:

Well, this seems reasonably definitive, though it is on the Korean mainland opposite Tsushima Island, according to the map on P. 31 of this paper:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309885364_A_Study_on_the_Evolution_of_Korean_Place_Names_Marked_in_Modern_European_Mapsd<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309885364_A_Study_on_the_Evolution_of_Korean_Place_Names_Marked_in_Modern_European_Mapsd__;!!KGKeukY!wDJj--cgMS6-KfCBgUom9mk-nAqZcI70TjZGnrWzzFWp84TMOn_SSCgaF5TtOKV700iRXvWpRHDWdY0$>

It is therefore evidently NOT one of the harbors on Tsushima Island.

Thanks to Quentin for passing this along.

-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject:
Tsaulian
Date:
Tue, 6 Jan 2026 18:19:54 +0000
From:
Cronk, Quentin Charles <quentin.cronk at ubc.ca><mailto:quentin.cronk at ubc.ca>
To:
Douglas Yanega <dyanega at gmail.com><mailto:dyanega at gmail.com>

Tsaulian Harbour is the historical name for Chosan Harbor (Tsaulian is an old British romanization of Chosan 草梁).

The best modern Korean name is Ulsan Hang (Port of Ulsan) or specifically the area near Jangsaengpo, coordinates: approximately 35∘ 31′N,129∘ 22′E (Ulsan Bay, or specifically the northern inner harbor known as Ulsan Hang). Today, the area is one of the most industrialized harbors in the world, home to the Hyundai Heavy Industries shipyard. The "mud in 7 fathoms" is now part of a massive commercial shipping and industrial hub.
See 6.12 of:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsWC8phKG60&t=12s<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsWC8phKG60&t=12s__;!!KGKeukY!wDJj--cgMS6-KfCBgUom9mk-nAqZcI70TjZGnrWzzFWp84TMOn_SSCgaF5TtOKV700iRXvWpm-7Jvgk$>

Quentin Cronk
UBC
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