TIL how Běijīng ("North Capital") could previously (well, one of the previous times) have been Zhōngdū ("Middle Capital"). Sounds obvious, there must have been some other capitals in at least two directions, but I never looked up what those cities were.
The summer capital of Shàngdū (Xanadu! Yes! That one!) ("Upper Capital") was north of it, in today's Inner Mongolia.
In contrast to my assumption above though, there doesn't seem to have been a Lower Capital at the time. There was a Xiàdū during the Yan dynasty in the Warring States Period, but that's over 1000 years earlier, so that must have been lower than something else.
*looks it up*
Xiàdū was below Ji, which was the main capital of the Yan kingdom. That was *also* yet another name for Beijing. Beijing must be a *really* good place for a Chinese capital, huh.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhongdu (中都)
So to sum it up and to skip a bunch of dynasties and capitals that are no fun for the purposes of this summary, there was the capital of Ji (not of a unified China, just of Yan).
Then there was a Lower Capital, because it was "below" Ji.
Much later Yuan renamed Ji to Middle Capital because it was between Lower Capital and a new (secondary) Upper Capital.
Next up, Ming had a capital, but moved to old Ji again, and now it was North Capital because it was north of the old one. And the old one was renamed South Capital (Nánjīng) because it was south of the new one.
Two hundred years later out in the Pacific, Japan renames their capital East Capital (Tōkyō), not for any Chinese reasons, but because it too is east of an old capital Kyōto.
Still, it feels nice and consistent to know there's an East Capital east of North Capital and South Capital. There is no West Capital today, but Xi'an has from time to time been named that (Xījīng) and it is indeed west of the others.
Beijing has been a capital multiple times not mentioned above, and had a few other names too. Same for Nanjing. They have both been capitals on and off for the last two thousand years, so they must both be good places for it.
It makes sense. If you look at the day map they're both in the big green blobs where the food is, and if you look at the night map they're both in the big blobs of light where the people are.
Jì City (Jìchéng, 薊城) -> Zhūo Commandery (Zhūojùn, 涿郡) -> Yōu Prefecture (Yōuzhōu, 幽州) -> Fanyang (范阳) -> Yān Capital (Yānjīng, 燕京) -> Youzhou -> South Capital (!) (Nánjīng, 南京) -> Yānjīng -> Yān Hill (Yānshān, 燕山) -> Yānjīng -> Middle Capital (Zhōngdū, 中都) -> Yānjīng -> Big Capital (Dādū, 大都) -> North Peace (Běipíng, 北平) -> North Capital (Běijīng, 北京) -> Běipíng -> Běijīng -> Běipíng -> Běijīng
The South Capital thing is interesting, I had no idea.
During the en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liao_dyn… or Khitan Empire, Beijing ("Nanjing")[0] was really in the far south of that empire, which covered Korea, Manchuria, the area around Beijing, most or all of Mongolia and maybe a third of Siberia.
It seems Beijing was never part of the Song Dynasty, I never realized that. After the Tang everything was a bit fractured until the Mongols unified most of Eurasia.
[0] ... or was it "Xijin" ... and Nanjing was the province? It's not clear on Wikipedia, the articles contradict the maps, or the maps and/or articles are unclear
@clacke
Even after renaming the city, “Peking University” remains the name of the famous institution, though I do not know why.
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泰平の
眠りを覚ます
上喜撰
たった四杯で
夜も眠れず
As it's been explained to me, it can be interpreted as talking about drinking just a few cups of tea, or of just a few steam ships, and then keeping you awake at night. Such duality of meaning is common.
For a culture with a poetic culture like that it's tough for me not to notice the resemblance and wonder if there was some intentionality in naming the new capital the opposite of the old capital on the other side of the island.
That being said, the two names are etymologically different and I'm not aware of any evidence that it's true. I'm just demonstrating maximum weebosity