Names of Beijing

"Beijing" is the atonal pinyin romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of the Chinese characters 北京, the Chinese name of the capital of China.

This article is about the name of the city that is currently the capital of the People's Republic of China. For other uses, see Beijing (disambiguation).
A 1584 map of China by Abraham Ortelius (based on a manuscript map by Luiz Jorge de Barbuda (Ludovicus Georgius), with Beijing marked as C[ivitas] Paquin

The spelling Beijing was adopted for use within the People's Republic of China upon the approval of Hanyu Pinyin on February 11, 1958, during the Fifth Session of the 1st National People's Congress. It became obligatory for all foreign publications issued by the People's Republic on 1 January 1979. It was gradually adopted by various news organizations, governments, and international agencies over the next decade.[1]

Etymology

The Chinese characters 北 ("north") and 京 ("capital") together mean the "Northern Capital". The name was first used during the reign of the Ming dynasty's Yongle Emperor, who made his northern fief a second capital, along with Nanjing (南京, the "Southern Capital"), in 1403 after successfully dethroning his nephew during the Jingnan Campaign. The name was restored in 1949 at the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Peking

"Peking" is a romanization created by 17th- and 18th-century French missionaries. In De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas (1615), Matteo Ricci calls the city Pechinum.[2] (The English translation gives Pequin.[3]) "Peking" appears in A Description of the Empire of China (1735) by Jean-Baptiste Du Halde.[4][5] These early spellings may represent pronunciation in the Nanjing dialect, which was used as a lingua franca at this time,[6][7] or the various other southern Chinese languages (e.g., Cantonese, Hokkien and Hakka) used by the traders of the port cities visited by early European traders. Peking was the English name of the city until the adoption of pinyin. However, it is still employed adjectivally in terms such as "Pekingese", "Peking duck", "Peking Man" and various others. The name is retained at Peking University as well. The name remains in common and official use in many other languages.

Historical names of Beijing
Historical Names of Beijing
Year City Name Dynasty Notes
c. 1045
BC		 City of Ji 薊城 Zhou,
Warring States		 [Note 1]
221 BC Qin [Note 2]
106 BC -
318 AD		 City of Ji
Youzhou 幽州		 Han, Wei, Western Jin (晉) [Note 3]
319 Later Zhao [Note 4]
350 Eastern Jin (晉) [Note 5]
352–57 Former Yan [Note 6]
370 Former Qin [Note 7]
385 Later Yan [Note 8]
397 Northern Dynasties [Note 9]
607 Zhuojun 涿郡 Sui [Note 10]
616 Youzhou Tang [Note 11]
742 Fanyang 范阳
759 Yanjing 燕京
765 Youzhou
907 Later Liang
911-13 Yan (Five Dynasties)
913 Later Liang
923 Later Tang
936 Later Jin
938 Nanjing 南京 Liao [Note 12]
1122 Northern Liao
Yanjing Jin (金)
1122
1123 Yanshan 燕山 Song
1125 Yanjing Jin (金)
1151 Zhongdu 中都 [Note 13]
1215 Yanjing Yuan
1271 Dadu 大都
1368 Beiping 北平 Ming [Note 14]
1403 Beijing 北京
1420
1644 Qing
1912 Republic of China
1928 Beiping
1937–40 Beijing [Note 15]
1945 Beiping
1949–
present		 Beijing People's Republic of China
     Capital of regional dynasty or kingdom
     Capital of China
Entrance to the Beiping Municipal Government office, 1935

The city has had many other names. The chronological list below sets out both the names of the city itself, and, in earlier times, the names of the administrative entities covering the city today.

Abbreviation

In Chinese, the abbreviation of Beijing is its second character 京 ("Capital"). This is employed, for example, as the prefix on all Beijing-issued license plates.

In the Latin alphabet, the official abbreviation are the two initials of the region's characters: BJ.[22]

Beijing Capital International Airport's IATA code is PEK, based on the previous romanization, Peking.

Similarly named cities

In addition to Nanjing, several other East Asian and Southeast Asian cities have similar names in Chinese characters despite appearing dissimilar in English transliteration. The most prominent is Tokyo, Japan, whose Han script name is written 東京 (Dongjing, or "Eastern Capital"). 東京 was also a former name of Hanoi (as Đông Kinh or "Tonkin") in Vietnam during the Later Lê Dynasty. A former name of Seoul in South Korea was Gyeongseong, written in Han script as 京城 or "Capital City". Kyoto in Japan still bears the similar-meaning characters 京都: the character "都", du in Chinese, can also mean "capital".

The history of China since the Tang dynasty has also been full of secondary capitals with directional names. Under the Tang, these were Beidu ("north capital", at Taiyuan in Shanxi); Nandu ("south capital", first, Chengdu in Sichuan and, later, Jiangling in Hubei); Dongdu ("east capital", Luoyang in Henan); and Xidu ("west capital", Fengxiang in Shaanxi).[23]

There were two previous Beijings: one, the northern capital of the Northern Song at modern Daming in Hebei;[24] the other, the northern capital of the Jurchen Jin located at Ningcheng in Inner Mongolia.[25]

The Nanjing of the Northern Song was located at Shangqiu in Henan.[24] The Jurchen Jin located theirs at Kaifeng,[25]) which had been the Northern Song's "Dongjing".[24] The Jurchen Jin also had a Dongjing ("Eastern Capital"), which was, however, located at Liaoyang in Liaoning.[25] Apart from these, there were two Xijings (西京, "Western Capital"): one was the "Western Capital" of the Northern Song dynasty, located at Luoyang;[24] the other was held by the Liao[26] and Jurchen Jin[25] at Datong. Liaoyang was the Zhongjing (中京, "Central Capital") of the Liao dynasty[26] and, finally, another Zhongdu ("Central Capital") was planned but never completed. It was the proposed capital of the Ming Dynasty mooted by the Hongwu Emperor in the 14th century, to be located on the site of his destroyed childhood village of Zhongli (鍾離), now Fengyang in Anhui.[27]

Notes
  1. The City of Ji was the capital of the States of Ji and Yan.
  2. During the Qin dynasty, the City of Ji served as the regional capital of the Guangyang Commandery (广阳郡).[8][9]
  3. During the Eastern Han dynasty, Youzhou, as one of 12 prefectures, contained a dozen subordinate commanderies, including the Guangyang Commandery. In 24 AD, Liu Xiu moved Youzhou's prefectural seat from Ji County (in modern-day Tianjin) to the City of Ji (in modern-day Beijing). In 96 AD, the City of Ji served as the seat of both the Guangyang Commandery and Youzhou.[10] The Wei Kingdom reorganized and decentralized the governance of commanderies under Youzhou. Guangyang Commandery became the State of Yan (燕国), which had four counties: Ji County, Changping, Jundu and Guangyang County, and was governed from the City of Ji. Fanyang Commandery was governed from Zhuo County. Yuyang Commandery was governed from Yuyuang (in modern-day Huairou District of Beijing), Shanggu Commandery was governed from Juyong (in modern-day Yanqing County of Beijing).[11]
  4. In 319, Shi Le captured Youzhou from Duan Pidi
  5. In 350, Murong Jun captured Youzhou in the name of restoring northern China to Jin rule.
  6. From 352 to 357, the Former Yan made the city of Ji its capital.[12]
  7. In 319, Shi Le captured Youzhou from Duan Pidi
  8. In the second lunar month of 385, Murong Chui seized Youzhou from Former Qin.[13]
  9. In 397 AD, the Northern Wei captured Ji from the Later Yan and went on to establish the first of the Northern Dynasties.[14]
  10. During the Sui dynasty, Youzhou became Zhuojun or Zhuo Commandery.[15]
  11. During the Tang dynasty, the seat of the government of Youzhou remained in place but took on slightly different names. In 616, the government was called Youzhou Zongguanfu (幽州总管府); in 622, Youzhou Dazongguanfu (幽州大总管府); in 624, Youzhou Dadudufu (幽州大都督府) and in 626, Youzhou Dudufu (幽州都督府). From 710, the head of the government in Youzhou became a jiedushi, a military regional commander. In 742, Youzhou was renamed Fanyang Commandery (范阳郡). In 759, during the An-Shi Rebellion, Shi Siming declared himself emperor of the Great Yan dynasty and made Fanyang, Yanjing or "the Yan Capital." After the rebellion was suppressed, the seat of government became Youzhou Lulong Dudufu (幽州卢龙都督府).[16]
  12. The seat of government in Nanjing was known as Youdufu (幽都府) until 1012, when the name was changed to Xijinfu (析津府).
  13. After 1151, the capital of the Jin dynasty from Shangjing to Yanjing, which was renamed Zhongdu. Zhongdu refers to the Zhongdulu (中都路), an administrative unit which governed about 12 surrounding prefectures and 39 counties. The governing seat of Zhongdulu was Daxingfu (大兴府).[17]
  14. The seat of government in Beiping, later Beijing, was called Shuntianfu (顺天府).
  15. From 1937 to 1940, the city was renamed Beijing by the Provisional Government of the Republic of China, a puppet regime backed by the Japanese occupation. The city's name reverted to Beiping after the defeat of Japan in World War II.
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References
  1. Lost Laowai. "From Peking to Beijing: A Long and Bumpy Trip". Accessed 21 October 2012.
  2. De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas, pp. x, 321, 378
    • A discourse of the Kingdome of China, taken out of Ricius and Trigautius, containing the countrey, people, government, religion, rites, sects, characters, studies, arts, acts; and a Map of China added, drawne out of one there made with Annotations for the understanding thereof, and A continuation of the Jesuites Acts and observations in China till Ricius his death and some yeers after. Of Hanceu or Quinsay. (excerpts from De Christiana expeditione, in English translation) in Purchas his Pilgrimes, Volume XII (1625), Chapters VII and VIII. The two preceding chapters, V and VI, also contain related Jesuit accounts. Can be found in the full text of "Hakluytus posthumus" on archive.org.
  4. Du Halde, Jean-Baptiste, Description of the Empire of China (1735)
  5. Lane Harris, "A 'Lasting Boon to All': A Note on the Postal Romanization of Place Names, 1896–1949". Twentieth Century China 34.1 (2008): 99
  6. Coblin, W. South (2000a), "A brief history of Mandarin", Journal of the American Oriental Society, 120 (4): 537–552, doi:10.2307/606615, JSTOR 606615.
  7. Liberman, Mark (18 August 2008). "How they say "Beijing" in Beijing". Language Log. Retrieved 10 May 2011.
  8. "Ji, a Northern City of Military Importance in the Qin Dynasty" Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage Archived 2012-08-25 at the Wayback Machine 2006-07-19
  9. (Chinese)"北方军事重镇-汉唐经略东北的基地-秦王朝北方的燕蓟重镇" Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage Accessed 2012-12-17
  10. (Chinese)"北方军事重镇-汉唐经略东北的基地-东汉时期的幽州蓟城" Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage 2005-09-01
  11. (Chinese)"北方军事重镇-汉唐经略东北的基地-民族大融合的魏晋十六国北朝时期" Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage 2005-09-01
  12. (Chinese) "北京城市行政区划述略" 《北京地方志》 Accessed 2012-12-19
  13. (Chinese) [郗志群, 歷史北京 https://books.google.com/books?id=Q8F9DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA36] p. 36
  14. (Chinese) 北魏太和造像 2009-01-11
  15. (Chinese)"北方军事重镇-汉唐经略东北的基地-隋朝统治下的北京" Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage 2005-09-01
  16. (Chinese) 试论北京唐代墓志的地方特色" Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage 2005-09-01
  17. (Chinese) "北半部中国的政治中心-金中都的建立" Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage 2005-09-01
  18. Li, Dray-Novey & Kong 2007, p. 7
  19. Denis Twitchett, Herbert Franke, John K. Fairbank, in The Cambridge History of China: Volume 6, Alien Regimes and Border States (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p 454.
  20. "Beijing". The Columbia Encyclopedia (6th ed.). 2008.
  21. Hucker, Charles O. "Governmental Organization of The Ming Dynasty", p. 5–6. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 21 (December 1958). Harvard-Yenching Institute. Accessed 20 October 2012.
  22. Standardization Administration of China (SAC). "GB/T-2260: Codes for the administrative divisions of the People's Republic of China".
  23. Theobald, Ulrich. China Knowledge. "Chinese History - Tang Dynasty 唐 (618-907): Map and Geography". Accessed 19 October 2012.
  24. Theobald, Ulrich. China Knowledge. "Chinese History - Song Dynasty 宋 (960-1279): Map and Geography". Accessed 19 October 2012.
  25. Theobald, Ulrich. China Knowledge. "Chinese History - Jin dynasty 金 (1115–1234): Map and Geography". Accessed 19 October 2012.
  26. Theobald, Ulrich. China Knowledge. "Chinese History - Liao Dynasty 遼 (907-1125): Map and Geography". Accessed 19 October 2012.
  27. Eric N. Danielson, "The Ming Ancestor Tomb Archived 2013-09-27 at the Wayback Machine". China Heritage Quarterly, No. 16, December 2008.
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