Beiping

Entrance to the Beiping Municipal Government office in 1935.

Beiping or Peip'ing (Chinese: 北平; pinyin: Běipíng; Wade–Giles: Pei³p'ing²), meaning "Northern Peace" in Chinese, is a former name of Beijing, which means "Northern Capital". The city was called Beiping from 1368 to 1403 and from 1928 to 1949, when the Chinese capital was at Nanjing, or "Southern Capital".^[1] In 1403 and again in 1949, the city's name was changed from Beiping to Beijing or Northern Capital. From 1937 to 1945, the city under Japanese occupation served as the capital of a puppet regime and was renamed Beijing but most Chinese histories use the name Beiping for the city during that time period.^[1]

Street sign for Beiping West Road in Taipei, where the city of Beijing was called Beiping for decades before 1949.

For decades after 1949, the Republic of China on Taiwan, which does not officially recognize the establishment of the People's Republic of China on the mainland, continued to identify the city as Beiping.

Other uses

Beiping can also refer to historical names of other places in Chinese history, including:

• Youbeiping or Right Beiping Commandery, a commandery of the State of Yan of the Warring States period, Qin Dynasty during which it was ruled from Wuzhong County (modern-day Ji County of Tianjin), and the Han Dynasty during which it was ruled from Pinggang County (modern-day Lingyuan in Liaoning Province). In the Western Jin Dynasty, the commandery was renamed Beiping.^[1]
• Beiping Commandery of the Sui Dynasty, which was administered from modern-day Lulong County and covered an area in Hebei Province between Qianxi and Tangshan in the west and Funing and Changli in the east. Beiping Commandery was named Pingzhou under the Tang Dynasty in 619 but was renamed Beiping Commandery in 742 only to revert to Pingzhou in 758.

See also

• History of Beijing

References