Peking to Beijing

The Chinese names

Under the Mongol Yuan dynasty a new capital, Dadu, was built in 1267. The first Ming emperors ruled from Nanjing and renamed the old Mongol capital Beiping, “Northern Peace”; the third Ming emperor made it the imperial seat again and called it Beijing, “Northern Capital”.^[1]

It has stayed the capital ever since, except from 1928 to 1949, when the Nationalist government moved the capital to Nanjing and the city was Beiping again. It became the capital of the People’s Republic in 1949.^[1]

Where Peking came from

Peking reflects an older pronunciation. Over the last few centuries the northern Chinese have softened the k sound before i into something like j, a change that spread south from the north-east, while the old spellings kept the k.^[4] Peking is a spelling of the 19th century, and in English it seems to have become standard only when the imperial postal romanization chose it in the 1890s.^[3][4]

Other systems followed. Wade–Giles, devised around 1860 by Thomas Wade and applied by Herbert Giles, gave spellings like Mao Tse-tung.^[3]

Pinyin

The People’s Republic created its own romanization, pinyin, as part of its language reforms of the 1950s; it was adopted in 1956 and modified in 1958.^[2] From 1 January 1979 China’s State Council prescribed pinyin for all its translated diplomatic and foreign-language publications in English-speaking countries.^[2] Newspapers and governments abroad gradually switched: Peking became Beijing, Canton Guangzhou and Nanking Nanjing.^[3] Taiwan kept preferring Wade–Giles.^[2]

“the place name Peking, which evolved in the 19th century, becomes Beijing, meaning “northern capital.””^[3]