The city of Beijing has a long and rich history that dates back over 3,000 years. Prior to the unification of China by the First Emperor in 221 BC, Beijing was for centuries the capital of the ancient states of Ji and Yan. During the first millennia of imperial rule, Beijing was a provincial city in northern China. Its stature grew in the 10th to the 13th centuries when the nomadic Khitan and Jurchen peoples from the steppes expanded southward, and made the city a capital of their dynasties, the Liao and Jin. When Kublai Khan made Dadu the capital of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty (1279–1368), all of China was ruled from Beijing for the first time. From this time onward, with the exception of two interludes from 1368 to 1421 and 1928 to 1949, Beijing would remain as China's capital, serving as the seat of power for the Ming Dynasty (1421–1644), the Manchu-led Qing Dynasty (1644–1912), the early Republic of China (1912–1928) and now the People's Republic of China (1949–present).
PrehistoryUNESCO World Heritage Site of Beijing
The Upper Cave on Dragon Bone Hill in Zhoukoudian where remains of the Peking Man were found.The earliest remains of hominid habitation in Beijing Municipality were found in the caves of Dragon Bone Hill near the village of Zhoukoudian in Fangshan District, where the Homo erectus Peking Man (Sinanthropus pekinensis) lived from 770,000 to 230,000 years ago.Paleolithic homo sapiens also lived in the caves from about 27,000 to 10,000 years ago.
In 1996, over 2,000 Stone Age tools and bone fragments were discovered at a construction site at Wangfujing in the heart of downtown Beijing in Dongcheng District. The artifacts date to 24,000 to 25,000 years ago and are preserved in the Wangfujing Paleolithic Museum in the lower level of the New Oriental Plaza.
Archaeologists have found Neolithic settlements throughout the plains of Beijing from Xiaoniantou and Shangzhai Village in Pinggu County in the east to Xueshan Village in Changping District in the north, and Zhenjiangying in Fangshan District in the southwest. These sites indicate that farming was widespread in the area 6,000 to 7,000 years ago.
Pre-Imperial HistoryBeijing is first mentioned in history in the chronicles of the Zhou Dynasty's conquest of the Shang Dynasty in the 11th century BC. According to Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian, King Wu of Zhou, in the 11th year of his reign, deposed the last Shang king and conferred titles to nobles within his domain, including the rulers of the city states Ji (蓟/薊) and Yan (燕). The walled City of Ji or Jicheng (蓟城/薊城) was located in the southwestern part of present-day Beijing, just south of Guang'anmen in Xicheng and Fengtai Districts. According to Confucius, the rulers of Ji were descendants of the Yellow Emperor. Some time during the late Western Zhou or early Eastern Zhou Dynasty, Ji was absorbed by neighboring Yan, which made the City of Ji, its capital.
For several centuries before the unification of China in 221 B.C., Beijing was the capital of the State of Yan. Bronze Yan helmet (above), sword-shaped Yan coins (right), and the Gefujia yun (far right), all from the Capital Museum.
This bronze vessel used for steaming was unearthed from the Liulihe site in Fangshan District.Yan's capital was previously based to the south of Ji, in the village of Dongjialin in Liulihe Township of Fangshan District, where a large walled settlement and over 200 tombs of nobility have been unearthed. Among the most significant artifacts from the Liulihe Site is a bronze ding with inscriptions that recount the journey of the eldest son of the Duke of Yan who delivered offerings to the King of Zhou in present-day Xi'an, and was awarded a position in the king's court.Both Yan and Ji were located along an important north-south trade route along the eastern flank of the Taihang Mountains from the Central Plain to the northern steppes. Ji, located just north of the Yongding River, was a convenient resting stop for trade caravans. Here, the route to the northwest through the mountain passes diverged from the road to the Northeast. Ji also had a steady water supply from the nearby Lotus Pond, which still exists south of the Beijing West Railway Station. Yan's old capital relied on the more seasonal flow of the Liuli River. Perhaps for these reasons, Yan chose to move its capital to Ji, which remains to be known as Jicheng or the City of Ji. Due to its historical association with the State of Yan, the city of Beijing is also called Yanjing (燕京) or "Yan Capital".
The State of Yan would continue to expand until it became one of the seven major powers during the Warring States Period (473-221 BC). It stretched from the Yellow River to the Yalu. Historical records show that the Yan capital was a wealthy city with at least two palaces. In 284 BC, the victorious Yan general Yue Yi, having conquered 70 cities of neighboring Qi, wrote to Duke of Yan to report that he had enough booty to fill two palaces and planned to bring home a new tree species to plant on the Hill of Ji, north of the city. The hill mentioned in the letter is believed to be the mound at the White Cloud Abbey, outside Xibianmen in Xicheng District. Like subsequent rulers of Beijing, the Yan also faced the threat of invasions by steppe nomads, and built walled fortifications across its northern frontier. Remnants of the Yan walls in Changping County date to 283 BC. They predate Beijing's better known Ming Great Wall by more than 1,500 years.
In 226 BC, the City of Ji fell to the invading State of Qin and the State of Yan was forced to move its capital to Liaodong. The Qin eventually ended Yan in 222 BC. The following year, the ruler of Qin, having conquered all the other states, declared himself to be the First Emperor.
