Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
reasserted Ji as the capital city of Youzhou. There was another problem, however. Another
prefecture had been created to the east, laying the foundation for what would one day be
known as Tianjin. It was called Jizhou, and it soon took the name Ji for its county seat. The
original city of Ji then simply took up the name of Youzhou.
Thankfully, a major identity crisis in Youzhou was averted and this name somehow stuck
for roughly the next 500 years until almost the end of the Tang dynasty. The Tang dynasty
did dabble with another name change, though. They had broken up the country into smaller
pieces to help administer it more easily. Instead of prefectures, there were now 300 com-
mandaries, so in 742 Youzhou became Fanyang commandary. This lasted for about 16 years
before it reverted once again back to its former name of Youzhou.
While many of China's early dynasties favored the west over Youzhou for their capital,
to the nomads from the north it was a valuable entry point into the fertile land south beyond
the mountains, and worth squabbling over. The northern nomadic Liao dynasty (also known
as the Khitan empire) took over northern China in around 936 and made Beijing a second-
ary capital. They called their new city Nanjing (
南点，
, Southern Capital).
The Song dynasty, which was ruling China in the south, wasn't too happy about the
northern competition, so they asked the Jin dynasty (or the Jurchen people), another group
of nomads from the north, to help them oust the Liao dynasty. The Song didn't expect that
these northern wanderers would be strong enough to pose any threat to them in this agree-
ment. The Jin, however, were powerful. They convincingly annihilated the Liao, then took
Nanjing for the Song and renamed it Yanjing. They were on a roll, however, and set them-
selves on a southward course to defeat the Song. A 10-year struggle ensued, and finally the
Song were brought to their knees. In a desperate move to secure peace, they conceded all
of northern China to the Jin. The Jin dynasty then decided to move its capital, which had
been up in Huining Fu in northern Manchuria (south of today's Harbin), down to Beijing.
So doing they gave the city yet another name, Zhongdu (
中都
, Central Capital). This was
situated in the southwestern area of Beijing, around what is now Xuanwumen and Beijing
West Railway Station. The Niu Jie Mosque, built by the Liao and situated on Niu Jie (
牛街
,
Ox Street), is one of the relics from this period and is still worshipped in today.
The problem that seemed to face all these northern conquerors was that once they made
it down into the plains of northern China, they settled in, they sinicized, they became
Chinese. No longer needing to maintain the vigilance of a nomadic life but enjoying the
southern lifestyle, they became sedentary and, like those before them, became vulnerable to
new encroachers from the north.
