Under Kublai the city was once again rebuilt and on a more magnificent scale than ever before. It was named Khanbalig (Cambaluc), "city of the Great Khan," but the Chinese knew it as Ta-Tu or "great capital." Thither came Marco Polo, who described its magnificence in glow ing terms, its mint and its huge imports to feed the armies and retainers of the Great Khan. Later came the Pope's emissary, Giovanni di Monte Corvina, who was graciously received by Kublai and made archbishop of Khanbalig in 1307. Later under the Ming and early Manchu Dynasties the Jesuit Fathers were in favour at the capital, and were encouraged to practise western mathematics and astronomy. The communications of Khanbalig with the rest of China were actively developed by the construc tion of radial roads on which well-organized courier services were maintained, and by extending the Grand Canal from the Yellow River to Tientsin and connecting it by the Pai-ho and a small canal, the capital was brought into direct water-communication with the Lower Yangtze and the rich cities of Manzi.
Khanbalig continued to be the capital of China throughout the Yuan Dynasty but the city temporarily lost its imperial status when in 1368 Chu Yuan Chang headed the suc cessful revolt against the Mongols and established the native Ming Dynasty. After being under the control of foreign steppe land powers for about 450 years the region was once again under direct Chinese rule and Khanbalig, now known as Peiping-Fu (City of the North Place), served, as in the days of the Han and Tang Dynasties, the function of a border garrison town, sub ordinate to the capital city of Nanking (southern capital). This phase lasted until 1421, when the third Ming Emperor, Yung Lo, transferred his court to the North and Peiping was given the name of Peking (northern capital), by which it is known through out the world. The reason for this decisive step was undoubtedly strategic, for the Mongols were still troublesome and the Man churian tribes were becoming increasingly strong and restless. Peking was the only frontier capital which could guard both the vulnerable flanks. The menace from the north, increased by in ternal revolts, culminated in the Manchu conquest of 1644 and China once again came under Tartar domination. The new Manchu (or Ch'ing) Dynasty transferred their court from Muk den to Peking and administered their newly won Empire from a capital which, while it lay within the Chinese culture area, was in close contact with their own recruiting ground. When two and a half centuries later the rule of the decadent Manchus was ended by the Revolution of 1911 and the Imperial office was abolished, Peking continued to function as the capital of the new Republic. But the disintegrating effects of the civil war and the rise of the Nationalist movement, focussed in the South, meant that the rule of the Peking Government was increasingly ineffective and nomi nal. The final northward advance of the nationalist armies in the spring of 1928 was quickly fol lowed by the proclamation of Nanking as the capital of the new China and in autumn 1928 the northern city had lost its metropolitan status and was known once more as Peiping, the name which it bore under the early Ming Emperors. So, too,
the province, in the centre of which it lies, has reverted to the ancient name of Hopeh ("north of the River," i.e., the Hwang ho) in place of Chihli ("Direct Rule").
Political and Intellectual Centre.—Peking has not only been the political capital but also the intellectual centre of China. It has great traditions of learning and scholarship. Here under the old regime was held the highest examination in the Chinese Classics leading to the Chin shy, and much coveted Han Lin degrees, whose holders were marked out for high public office.
This brought to Peking many of the most eminent scholars. In evitably it became the chief educational centre of the country and this character it retained when the old system was abolished and education of a modern type was introduced. In the last years of the Manchu Dynasty and the early period of the Republic, before the Civil Wars arrested further progress, many schools, colleges and public educational institutions were established. These in clude the Government University, the National Teachers' College, the Customs College, the Tsing Hua (American Indemnity) Col lege, the College of Languages, the Law School, the Higher Tech nical School, the Yenching Uni versity (under missionary auspi ces) and the magnificent Medical School and Hospital equipped by the Rockefeller Trust. A few years ago the Ministry of Education estimated the num ber of students of all grades in Peking as 55,00o, of whom about 7,000 were women and girls. Many of the teachers in the higher colleges have been trained at foreign Universities and to them is mainly due the remarkable movement known as the Chinese Renaissance or New Thought Movement, which has been particularly associated with the National University. Its most practical result is the literary revolution which has replaced the classical and "dead" language (Wen-li) by the "national language," the Mandarin vernacular, as the medium of literary expression; this has given birth to a considerable mod ern literature of books, periodicals and papers dealing, often in a revolutionary way, with almost every department of intellectual and social life, and has had a profound influence on the thought of Young China. (See under CHINA.) Another circumstance which in recent times has contributed to intellectual activity in Peking is that the social cleavage between natives and foreigners is less pronounced than in most Chinese cities. Peking has never been a "Treaty Port" and, apart from the Legation Quarter with its representatives of the Diplomatic Corps and Customs service, there is no foreign quarter. But, subject to certain conditions, foreigners have been allowed to rent houses in various parts of the city and over 1,500 live outside the Legation quarter. To a greater extent than in the Treaty Port communities is there inter est in the cultural aspects of Chinese life and some measure of social intercourse and exchange of thought between representatives of Eastern and Western culture.