Definition of "Min"

The Lamyet (or Nanjeih) islands are situated to the northeastward of Chinchew bay, the nearest distant about forty miles. The mainland, leaving its usual northeastern direction, runs out due east for above thirty miles, and the first of the Lamyet islands lies off the easternmost point of it. From hence there is an almost uninterrupted series of islands and islets, up to the mouth of the Yangtsze keäng. The Lamyet islands are opposite to the entrance of a deep bay, at the bottom of which is the city of Hinghwa foo, the capital of the most fertile portion of Fuhkeën. This bay, however, has not yet been visited by foreigners. The outermost of the Lamyet islands, named by Ross Ocksou, was found, when passed by the ships of Lord Amherst’s embassy, to be in lat .24° 59' 15" north, lon. 119° 34' 30" east. About thirty miles further to the northward, we pass between an island of peculiar form and the main. This island is named Haetan, the altar of the sea ; in shape it is semicircular, and of nearly equal breadth throughout. A few miles above this island we reach the mouth of the river Min.

1837 May, “Coast of China: the division of it into four portions ; brief description of the principal places on the southeastern, eastern, and northeastern portions.”, in The Chinese Repository‎, volume VI, number 1, Canton, pages 12–13

We traveled down the Min River from Nanping in a small sampan, flying the American flag for protection against bandits and soldiers. Those were the days when the Stars and Stripes still afforded some protection.

1953, John C. Caldwell, China Coast Family‎, Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, page 96

Matsu is about 200 miles north of Quemoy and flanks the mouth of the Min River. The mainland city of Foochow, famed for its lacquer craftsmanship, is a short distance up the Min.

1973 November 4, “Matsu is strong, prosperous”, in Free China Weekly‎, volume XIV, number 43, Taipei, page 2

We left Foochow after an early breakfast, and after half an hour on a boat ferry that took us from the city environs across the Min River and up a tributary, we landed in Minhou county, and took the highway that led across Yungtai county to Tehua.

1975, Rewi Alley, “Some Fukien Pottery Kilns, Ancient and Modern”, in Eastern Horizon‎, volume XIV, number 3, Hong Kong: Eastern Horizon Press, page 26, column 2

Foochow was a picturesque city of considerable size and consequence before its designation in 1842 as one of the five original treaty ports. It was the headquarters of Manchu civil and military offcialdom in Fukien Province. Its location on the Min River, which flowed through a major tea-producing district, and its excellent harbor gave the city additional importance as a port.

1978, Burton F. Beers, China in Old Photographs 1860-1910‎, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 111

In a small store in Tingjiang, across the Min River in Lianjiang County, questions about smuggling people into America prompted a lively discussion.

2003 September 7, David W. Chen, “For Many Chinese, America's Allure Is Fading”, in The New York Times‎, archived from the original on 27 May 2015, World‎

[…] . They were started by people from Min [Fujian]. Now as a result, the profit is similar to that of Min.”

1998, Sucheta Mazumdar, Sugar and Society in China: Peasants, Technology and the World Market, Harvard University Asia Center, page 301

In the early 1900s, because of the joining of regional cuisines of Zhe (Zhejiang), Min (Fujian), Xiang (Hunan) and Hui (Anhui) Cuisines, […]

2007, 钟离图美, Food in China, 五洲传播出版社, pages 18–19

[…] ; merchant ships from Min province (Fujian) are called “bird ships” […]

2013, Angela Schottenhammer, The East Asian “Mediterranean”: A Medium of Flourishing Exchange Relations and Interaction in the East Asian World in 2013, Peter N. Miller, The Sea: Thalassography and Historiography, University of Michigan, page 114

The founder of the Min dynasty (A. D. 1368) declares of him, "He descended repeatedly from heaven to be the imperial teacher; generation after generation he ceased not, but men knew him not. History, which has recorded every thing which could be of interest about Confucius, even to the minutest details of his daily life, failed to hand down the daily acts of a man who, for character and grasp of thought, far transcends his contemporary, Confucius."

1884, Virgil C. Hart, “Taoism”, in John Morrison Reid, editor, Doomed Religions‎, New York: Phillips & Hunt, page 298