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An Historical Geography of Peiping

  • Book
  • © 2014

Overview

Authors:
  1. Renzhi Hou

    1. Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China

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  • Traces the historical rise to eminence of Peiping from ca. 1122 B.C. until A.D. 1911
  • Details topographical features and geographical relations of the city of Peiping, a natural focus of long distance land communications
  • Reveals the historical role of rivers and mountain passes in China, including the famous Shan-hai Kwan guarding the eastern end of the Great Wall
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Part of the book series: China Academic Library (CHINALIBR)

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxxi
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  3. The Transitional Phase: A National Centre in the Making

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 51-51
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    2. Nan-ching (938–1122) of the Liao Dynasty (916–1125)

      • Renzhi Hou
      Pages 53-59

    3. Chung-tu (1151–1215) of the Chin Dynasty (1115–1234)

      • Renzhi Hou
      Pages 61-72

  5. Back Matter

    Pages 127-165
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Keywords

About this book

This book is about the city of Peiping in China, also known as Beijing and Peking, and a city of great historical significance. Divided into three parts, this work explores Peiping first as a frontier city at a time when the Great Wall was established, from the Chou dynasty (ca.1122—220 B.C.) until the T’ang Dynasties up to the Khitan Occupation (A.D. 590—937). The second part explores Peiping as it becomes a national centre, through the Liao Dynasty and the Chin Dynasty, until 1234, and the third part explores how it became the capital of the Chinese empire, until 1911. This work is a historical geography and the introduction details topographical features and geographical relations of the city, describing the way in which the mountains rise from the plain creating concave arms to enclose Peiping, leading to the name, the ‘Bay of Peiping’. We learn that the mountains frequently reach over 3000ft and have practically no foot-hills, whilst the bay itself is filled with sediments of gravel, sand, loam and loess which have been deposited in horizontal strata, to a great depth. Numerous illustrations and figures are included, and readers will see how the city sits between two rivers, the Hun (浑河 or Muddy River) and the Pai (白河 or White River). These chapters reveal how each river has made its contribution to the material development of the city and its environs, including through irrigation and as the Hun River shifted its course. Owing to the geography of the region, almost all roads leading from the northern lands of Mongolia and Manchuria to the great plain of North China in the south are bound to converge at Peiping. The historical consequences of this, as well as local climate conditions and other aspects of geography are explored in this book, which traces the historical rise to eminence of Peiping.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Renzhi Hou

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: An Historical Geography of Peiping

  • Authors: Renzhi Hou

  • Series Title: China Academic Library

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-55321-9

  • Publisher: Springer Berlin, Heidelberg

  • eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Publishing Co., Ltd and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-642-55320-2Published: 29 July 2014

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-662-51537-2Published: 17 September 2016

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-642-55321-9Published: 07 July 2014

  • Series ISSN: 2195-1853

  • Series E-ISSN: 2195-1861

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXXI, 165

  • Number of Illustrations: 5 b/w illustrations, 55 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Human Geography

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