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Backhill, Pekin, Peking, Beijing

Language Log 2021-10-05

Yesterday, while doing research for a paper on medieval Dunhuang popular narratives (biànwén 變文 ["transformation texts"]), I did a Google search for the Peking Library, where some of the bianwen manuscripts are kept.  Instead of the national library of China in Peking / Beijing in the PRC, I was led to the Pekin Public Library in Illinois.  That prompted me to ponder the fact that this Illinois city followed the French pronunciation, Pékin, of the Chinese capital when it took its name, rather than the English Peking.

Following the official Hanyu Pinyin Romanization of the PRC, English now transcribes 北京 ("Northern Capital") as Beijing (Běijīng [pèi.tɕíŋ]).  But until recently this was not always the case for English, much less for dozens of other languages around the world.  Thirty-one years ago, in "Backhill / Peking / Beijing" (see "Selected readings" below), Bosat Man wrote (p. 6):

We should not feel guilty for saying Peking instead of Beijing. It is not because we are uncouth  foreign devils that we pronounce the name of the Chinese capital the way we do, but because we have inherited a long tradition shared by virtually the rest of the world.  Asking around among my  friends from other countries, I find the following usages:  Pīking (Hindi), Peking (Hebrew), Pekin  (Persian), Bīkīn (Arabic), Pekin (Polish), Peking (Czech), Pechino (Italian), Peking (Swedish), Pekín (Spanish), Pekino (Greek), Pékin (French), Pekin (Russian), and Peking (German). [VHM:  Pekin ペキン (Japanese), Beijing 베이징 (Korean), Bắc Kinh (Vietnamese).]  It is obvious that  it is not simply because we are perverse that we insist on maintaining the traditional pronunciation which the northern Chinese have themselves given up [VHM:  chiefly through palatalization of the velars] during the last few centuries.

Peking has been a part of our heritage since at least the time of immortal Milton who wrote:

Of mightiest Empire from the destined Walls Of Cambalu, seat of Chathaian Can, And Samarchand by Oxus, Temir's throne, To Paquin of Sinaean Kings….  (Paradise Lost, XI.387-390)

Things may have changed in the decades since Bosat Man wrote the above, but the propensity for "Pekin(g)" over "Beijing" is still unmistakable.

 

Etymology and pronunciation

běi 北 ("north")

From Proto-Sino-Tibetan *ba (“to carry (on back), shoulder”).

The sense of “north” is derived from “back (of body)”: “back” → “to turn the back to; to retreat” → “north”.

The ancient Chinese value the southern direction and houses are traditionally oriented along a north-south axis, as evident in the fengshui theory and orientation of buildings in Chinese Neolithic sites. North is the direction the back is oriented to when the person is facing south.

  • Dialectal data
(Baxter–Sagart): /*pˤək/
(Zhengzhang): /*pɯːɡ/

(source)

jīng 京 ("hill [> capital]")

  • Dialectal data
(Baxter–Sagart): /*[k]raŋ/
(Zhengzhang): /*kraŋ/

(source)

There is a world of difference between "Pekin(g)" and "Beijing".  They may denote the same modern city which is the capital of the People's Republic of China, but their connotations — culturally, historically, and linguistically — could hardly be more different.

 

Selected readings