PEKING or Pekin, in hut. 39° 54' N., long. 116° 32' E., lies north-west from the entrance of the Pei-lio river, about 114 or 120 miles inward. Pekin means court of the north, and Nankin court of the south, both of them large towns.
Pekin is the present capital of China. It bore the name of Yc w-chau, from the Ilun dynasty ti.c. 202 to the Wu-tae A.D. 950, through five kingdoms or princedoms. During the LLAu„ dynasty, s.n. 1000, it was called Nan-king, because the northern capital was beyond the great wall ; but the Hun dynasty called it Pe-king, or northern place, and the Ming dynasty called; it Hung-wu. In B.C.
Wan-wang of the Chau dynasty gave his brother the title of Prince of Yen, who built a city called Yen-king, and the ornamental marblework of this old city forms the foundation-stones of the western portion of the walls of the present city of Peking. About A.D. 1200, Chengiz Khan took Yen-king, and after him his son Oktai put an end to the Kin dynasty. In 1267, Kachilai Khan, nephew of Oktai, and grandson of Chengiz Khan, destroyed Yen-king, and a little to the north-east of its site built another city, called Tatu, or King ching, or Shun-teen-fu, now called Peking. This is the Kambalu, the city of the Kablai Khan of Marco Polo. The Mongol dynasty subsequently ruled from Peking from A.D. 1280 to 1368, but in 1369 was succeeded by Hung-wu of the King dynasty, who removed the court to Nan-king, where it remained till Yung-lo, the third of the Ming, embellished Peking, and in A.D. 1410 made it his capital, since which time it has continued to be the capital, the centre of all the administrations.
Peking resembles an immense village. It is situated in a large plain, but, from the peculiar formation of the land, it is not to be seen from a distance. The wall is of a considerable height, 35 to 40 feet, and surrounded by a canal which communicates with the Pei-ho, so that a portion of the supplies intended for the capital can reach Peking in very light boats. Peking consists of two cities, separated by a wall, — the Manchu city, Zein-tchau, and the Chinese city, Wai-lo tchau. In the centre of the former, surrounded by a wall, is the Imperial quarter, Nouan-chau, composed exclusively of buildings set apart for the emperor and his suite, whose roofs, covered with yellow tiles, glitter in the sun's rays like burnished gold. All these edifices, kiosks, and temples are surrounded by gardens, ornamented with lakes and artificial rockwork. In the Man elm city, not far from the Imperial quaiter, are the different departments of government for the Manchu employees. To the east of the Manchu city is the hall of examination, similar to the one at Canton, but more spacious. The Chinese city consists mostly of shops. The temples of Heaven and Agriculture are at the south of the city. These are large establishments (surrounded by walls), comprising several buildings in them selves.
The most remarkable spot near Peking is the Hai Dian, the residence of the Bagdochan, his majesty the emperor, situated about seven miles west of the 'city. The emperor only appears in the capital on )ecasions of great festivals or sacri fices. The grounds around the palace are laid out in vast gardens. Still farther to the west lie a range of mountains whose summits are crowned with temples more or less picturesque.
At Peking, the temple of the Great Dragon, a circular pyramid, and a Buddhist monastery, the pagoda, and a pavilion in the summer palace, and the Tung Chen pagoda, all merit notice.
The Tartar city, officially Nei-chhing or Inner town, encloses a second, called Hoang-chhing or Imperial (yellow) town, which no doubt repre sents the outer palace of Odoric's day, and that includes a third, called Fseu-kin-chhing or Red City, which is the actual residence. The Green Mount, to which Kablai caused remarkable trees of every bulk to be transferred, still stands con spicuous within the palace walls. It is called by the Chinese King-shan, Court Motrntain, Wan-su shan, Ten thousand years Mount or Meishan, Coal Hill, the last from the material of which it is traditionally said to be composed, as a reserve store in case of siege. It rises 160 feet above the natural soil, and on it the last Ming emperor met a miserable end. The lake also (called Thai-i-chi) still exists as a swampy hollow, and the Beautiful Bridge is there in decay. In the Peking or court pronunciation, the Sheng differ materially from those in the Canton and Fu-chien dialects. In the court pronunciation, only four Sheng are heard ; in the Nankin, five ; and in the Canton and Fu-chien, seven or eight. The Sheng are produced solely by the sinking, rising, or non-alternation of the sound.. The Peking dialect holds the same place in China that the Loudon English, as spoken by the educated classes, does in Britain. When the missionaries of the Society of Jesus made their way in the 17th century to Peking, and startled the wise men of the Celestial Empire by their superior knowledge, they found in the eastern part of the city, on the rampart or wall surround ing it, an astronomical observatory, furnished with several old instruments. Father Verbiest so gained the confidence of the Emperor, by repeatedly calculating beforehand the exact length of the shadow which a gnomon would throw at noon, that he was authorized to have six new large instruments made. An account of these he published in 1687. To the old instruments, which had to be removed to make room for his own, he seems to have paid little attention. These instru ments, as well as those erected by Verbiest, are, however, even still in existence. Verbiest's instruments, sextant, quadrant, azimuth circle, zodiacal armillary sphere, etc., were copies of the astronomical instruments devised and constructed by Tycho Brahe ; but besides these were the two large instruments which had been made during the Yuen dynasty, and four large instruments are said to have been constructed A.D. 1279. In this year, Kablai Khan, the great Mongol monarch, finished the conquest of China, and moved his residence to the new city Taydo, now Peking. This monarch favoured the arts and sciences, and he supported and protected the astronomer Ko Show-King. There are found, thus, in the 13th century, the equatorial armillm of Tycho Brahe, and an equatorial instrument quite like those with which Tycho observed the comet of 1585. These instruments of Ko Show-King were ex amined in one of the first years of the 17th century by the Jesuit Matteo Ricci ; and in Colonel Yule's translation of The Book of Ser Marco Polo, they are described at length. By them it is proved that the Chinese astronomers anticipated some of the ideas of the great Danish astronomer some three centuries before his time. —Swinhoe, N. China Campaign ; Polo, i. p. 10 ; Ea:ped. de Chine, par P. Varin, 1862 ; Davis, ii. p. 75 ; Timkowski, ii. p. 154 ; Panthier, Chine Moderne, p. 19, quoted iu Yule, Cathay; Meadows' Desultory Notes.