NANKING

WadeGiles romanization Nan-ching, Pinyin Nanjing city, capital of Kiangsu sheng (province), east-central China. Nanking, whose name means southern capital, is a port on the Yangtze River and a major industrial and communications centre. It served as the capital of regional empires, the seat of revolutionary governments, and the site of a puppet regime under the Japanese, and it was twice the capital of China. Nanking is situated on the southeastern bank of the Yangtze, about 160 miles (260 km) northwest of Shanghai. In addition to the city proper, which occupies the area enclosed by ancient city walls and adjacent suburbs, the municipality of Nanking includes both urban and rural territory. Nanking's climate is characterized by four clearly distinguishable seasons, with mild winters and hot summers, and an average annual rainfall of 39 inches (990 mm). The substantial rural population within Nanking municipality cultivates grains (rice and wheat), legumes (beans and peanuts [groundnuts]), and fruits (watermelon, peaches, and pears). Other important products include tea, rice, cotton, lily bulbs, water chestnuts, eggs, and poultry. Pressed Nanking duck is a regional specialty. For centuries Nanking was noted for its satins, pongees (home-woven silks), velvets, brocades, porcelain ware, paper, and ink sticks. Modern industry, first promoted by the Nationalist government between 1928 and 1937, developed further after the 1950s; of prime importance are the manufacture of iron and steel, machines, farm equipment, motor vehicles, chemicals and related products, and weaponry. Textile production remains important, as does food processing, oil refining, coal mining, and the manufacture of various consumer goods. The city's imports consist primarily of industrial equipment; exports include manufactured goods and agricultural products. The layout of Nanking resembles a gourd, with its tip pointing northwest. This scenic city of tiled gates, greenery, lotus blossoms, and tea pavilions is composed of four major districts. The north district is traversed by Chung-shan Avenue and contains the Pei-chi (North Pole) Pavilion and the Chi-ming (Cockcrow) Temple. The central district, surrounding the Hsin Chieh-k'ou (New Crossroads), is the business centre. To the south is the populous and lively old city, and in the east district is the former Ming palace. Nanking's immediate outskirts contain many monuments, notably the mausoleums of Sun Yat-sen and of the Ming emperor Hung-wu and the Ling-ko Ssu (Temple of the Valley of Spirits). Paramount among educational centres of the city are Nanking University and Nanking Institute of Technology. The city also has many other technical institutes, research agencies, and scientific societies. The Nanking Museum, the Museum of the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace, and the Kiangsu Provincial Museum are noteworthy. Most of Nanking's commerce centres on the Yangtze River, though several rail lines connect the city with Shanghai and other cities. Major highways fan out from the east and south, and to the northwest the Yangtze bridge (1968) provides for both rail and highway traffic. Nanking lies on major air routes within China. Area municipality, 2,516 square miles (6,516 square km). Pop. (1993 est.) city, 2,490,000; municipality, 5,150,000. Wade-Giles Nan-ching, Pinyin Nanjing, city, capital of Kiangsu sheng (province) in east-central China. It is a port on the Yangtze River and a major industrial and communications centre. Rich in history, it served seven times as the capital of regional empires, twice as the seat of revolutionary governments, once (during World War II) as the site of a puppet regime, and twice as the capital of a united China (the second time from 1928 to 1937). The name Nanking (Southern Capital) was introduced in 1421 during the Ming dynasty. Additional reading Comprehensive general references are Fredric Kaplan, Julian Sobin, and Arne De Keijzer, The China Guidebook, 6th ed. (1985); and Nagel Publishers, China, English version by Anne L. Destenay, 4th ed. (1982). More detailed information is contained in China Travel and Tourism Press, Nanjing (1983); Caroline Courtauld, Nanjing, Suzhou and Wuxi (1981); and Fifteen Cities in China, published by China Reconstructs Magazine. For geography, see George Babcock Cressey, China's Geographic Foundations: A Survey of the Land and Its People (1934); and for an economic geography, see T.R. Tregear, China, A Geographical Survey (1980). Frederica M. Bunge and Rinn-Sup Shinn (eds.), China, a Country Study, 3rd ed. (1981), discusses several aspects of Nanking's industry, trade, and transportation. Chi Tsui, A Short History of Chinese Civilization (1942, reissued 1945); and Immanual C.Y. Hs, The Rise of Modern China, 3rd ed. (1983), contain general references to Nanking's history. For accounts of specific epochs, see Augustus F. Lindley, Ti-ping Tien-kwoh: The History of the Ti-ping Revolution, 2 vol. (1866, reprinted in 1 vol., 1970); Yu-Wen Jen (Yu-Wen Chien), The Taiping Revolutionary Movement (1973); Paul M.A. Linebarger, The China of Chiang K'ai-shek (1941, reprinted 1973); and Harold J. Timperley (ed.), The Japanese Terror in China (1938, reprinted 1969; U.K. title, What War Means: The Japanese Terror in China). Language, culture, and food in Nanking are discussed in Leo J. Moser, The Chinese Mosaic: The Peoples and Provinces of China (1985). Ping-chia Kuo Zeng Zungu History The early empires Nanking's recorded history dates to the Spring and Autumn (770476 BC) and the Warring States (475221 BC) periods, when a castle near Y-hua T'ai was constructed by the Yeh state in 472 BC. After the Yeh territory was taken over by the Ch'u state, another castle under the name of Chin-ling was built on Chin-liang Shan to control the traffic between the Yangtze and the Ch'in-huai. Under the Ch'in (221206 BC) and Han (206 BCAD 220) dynasties, Nanking was successively under the jurisdiction of Mo-ling County (hsien) and Tan-yan County. Nankingunder the name of Chien-yehemerged as the political and cultural centre of Southeast China during the period of the Three Kingdoms, when Sun Chien and his son Sun Ch'an made it the capital of the kingdom of Wu from 229 to 280. In 317 the Eastern Chin dynasty (317420), fleeing foreign invaders in North China, again chose the city as a capital. Renamed Chien-k'ang, Nanking became a haven for northern families in exile. After the fall of the Eastern Chin, Nanking, under four successive dynastiesLiu-Sung (420479); Southern Ch'i (479502); Southern Liang (502557); and Southern Ch'en (557589)was the seat of government of the regional empires south of the Yangtze. These regimes were dominated by military men whose rivalries weakened the government. But in Nanking progress was made in areas other than politics, and its population grew to 1,000,000 during the Southern Liang. Bountiful harvests, coupled with tea, silk, papermaking, and pottery industries, supported a booming economy. Culturally, the Six Dynastiesas the dynasties that ruled from 220 to 589 are calledproduced a galaxy of scholars, poets, artists, and philosophers. The works of Wang Hsi-chih and Ku K'ai-chih set the canons of calligraphy and painting, respectively. The publication of Wen hsan (Literary Selections) and of Wen-hsin tiao-lung (a classic in literary criticism), the evolution of what has come to be known as the Six Dynasties essay style (a blending of poetry and prose), and the invention by Shen-yeh (a 6th-century courtier) of the system of determining the four tones of the Chinese language were achievements of this period. In philosophy, the so-called ch'ing-t'an (pure discourse) movement, spiritually akin to a form of Taoism, found many adherents who held themselves aloof from politics. Hundreds of Buddhist temples were built. Voluminous Buddhist scriptures were edited and transcribed, and thousands, including the emperor Wu Ti, founder of the Southern Liang dynasty, took monastic vows. From 581 to 1368, under the successive unified empires of the Sui, T'ang, Sung, and Yan dynasties, Nanking reverted to the status of a prefectural city. Various names were given the city: Chiang-chou and Tan-yang under the Sui; Chiang-chou, Chin-ling, and Pai-hsia in early T'ang; Sheng-chou in late T'ang; and Chin-ling again under the Five Dynasties in the 10th century; Chien-k'ang under the Sung; and Chi-ch'ing under the Yan. When the Southern T'ang briefly maintained a regional regime in the city from 937 to 975, Nanking enjoyed much intellectual creativity (the ruler Hou-chu himself being a poet of consummate skill) and was the scene of new construction, notably, the octagonal stone pagoda of the Ch'i-hsia Temple and the crosstown channel of the Ch'in-huai Ho. Another period of prominence occurred during the Southern Sung dynasty (11271279), when Yeh Fei used the city as his base for resistance against the Juchen in North China. In 1368 the emperor Hung-wu, founder of the Ming dynasty, made Nanking the capital of a united China. Naming the city Ying-t'ien-fu (Responding to Heaven), he built a grand Imperial palace and the city wall. In addition, earth ramparts were prepared to form the basis for a larger outer wall. In 1421, however, Hung-wu's son, the Yung-lo emperor, moved the capital to Peking. The city became a subsidiary capital and was renamed Nanking. The growth of trade and industry, however, brought new wealth to Nanking, especially to Hsia-kuan. Weaving, pottery, printing, and brocade making were the leading industries. Oceangoing vessels used by Cheng Ho in his famous 15th-century expeditions to the South Seas were built in the shipyards to the northwest of the city. An Imperial collegethe Kuo-tzu chienattracted students from all over the empire, as well as from Japan, Korea, Okinawa, and Thailand. The scholars of this college helped compile the Yung-lo ta-tien (The Great Canon of the Yung-lo Era); its printing plant issued fine editions of many classics, as well as such works as Pen-ts'ao kang-mu (Great Pharmacopoeia) by Li Shih-chen and Yan-shih (History of the Yan Dynasty) by Sung Lien. In the Ch'ing (Manchu) dynasty (16441911/12), Nanking, renamed Chiang-ning, became the government seat of the viceroy of Kiang-nan (who governed the provinces of Kiangsu, Kiangsi, and Anhwei). In 1842 the treaty ending the Opium War was signed there. A decade later, in 1853, the city was taken by the Taiping revolutionary forces under the leadership of Hung Hsiu-ch'an. As the capital of T'ai-p'ing T'ien-kuo (Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace), Nanking became a commune practicing universal brotherhood, equality of the sexes, and communal ownership of property. Numerous palaces for Hung and his lieutenants were built. When the Taipings were overthrown in 1864, there was widespread destruction of public buildings, of temples, and of the city wall by Ch'ing troops, and the city was left nearly prostrate. The modern city Recovery took decades. Although it was sanctioned by the treaties of Tientsin concluded with France in 1858, foreign trade did not begin until 1899. By that time, modern industry and communication had reached the city. In 1908 the ShanghaiNanking railroad was opened, followed four years later by a railroad from the port city of Tientsin in Hopeh Province to P'u-k'ou. Such economic growth, however, was overshadowed by the revolution of 1911. After the uprising had begun upstream at Wu-ch'ang in Hupeh Province, the revolutionary leaders proclaimed Nanking the seat of the provisional government of the Republic of China, and the democratic constitution of 1912 was adopted there before the first president, Yan Shih-k'ai, moved the capital to Peking. Under the infant Republic of China, Nanking was governed by warlords for more than a decade. Sun Yat-sen, leader of the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party), embittered by politicians' intrigues centred in Peking, vowed to make Nanking the Nationalist capital. Accordingly, when his follower Chiang Kai-shek achieved unified control of the country in 1928, the Nationalist government made Nanking once more the capital of a united China. Progress was made in developing communications, industries, and natural resources. Physically, too, the city acquired a new look; modern boulevards and government buildings were constructed; new railroad stations and airfields were built; and the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum was erected. Such achievements were, however, cut short by the war against Japan. Nanking fell in 1937. In the sack of the city that followed, between 40,000 and 300,000 civilians were slaughtered. The city was then ruled by puppet governments until Japan's defeat in 1945. From 1946 to 1949 Nanking resumed its status as the capital of Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government, but Chinese Communist forces took the city in 1949. When the People's Republic of China was proclaimed on Oct. 1, 1949, Nanking was once again abandoned in favour of Peking as the national capital. In 1952 it was made the provincial capital of Kiangsu. Nanking was transformed into a modern industrialized city. Despite the hardships suffered during the Great Leap Forward (195860) and the Cultural Revolution (196676)especially during the latter, when many cultural and historical relics were damagedthe city has generally prospered during the Communist period and has remained a major tourist destination.