In the year 1111 before Christ, Ou ouang, founder of the dynasty Tcheou, nominated his brother Tchao kong prince of Yen. Yen is the ancient name of a pretty extensive country, in which Peking stands. This prince of Yen built a city there, a league and half south-west of the city King tching. This city was called Yen king, or the court of Yen. It became afterwards considerable; and the prince of Yen very powerful in the country of Petcheli and Leao tong. In the year 222 before Christ the emperor Tsin chi hoang destroyed the power of the princes of Yen, the defendants of Tchao kong, and seized their dominions. The founder of the dynasty Han destroyed the power of the family of Tsin chi hoang. In the time of the dynasty Tsin, before the Christian æra, and of the dynasty Han, the city of Yen was an important government, on account of the neighbourhood of the Tartars. Some time after the dynasty Han several Tartar princes Sien pi made themselves masters of the country of Yen. During the dynasty of Tang the city of Yen was still a considerable one. After the destruction of that dynasty the Tartars Ki tan[151] made themselves masters of Tartary, and the provinces of Chansy, Petcheli, and Leao tong. Their power was formidable to the Chinese. Their court was in the city of Yen, which they adorned and inlarged. These Tartars had, like the Chinese emperors, tribunals; one for the mathematics, and another for history[152]. They had likewise some illustrious princes, and kept some correspondence with the Caliphs.
The Tartars Nuntche destroyed the power of Leao. Their court was also at Yen; and they made it as magnificent and large a city as Peking is now. The Mogol Tartars destroyed the empire of the Nuntche or Kin. Their court was at first at Yen; but the Tartar Mogol emperor Koublay demolished that city, and built what is now called King tching: at least King tching is a good part of the city built by Koublay, which was some ly larger. The emperor’s palace was likewise larger.
This city King tching is that, which Marco Paulo calls Cambalu. Car is khan, which signifies a king; and balu is a corruption of an old Mogol word balga, or balah, which signifies a city: whence is formed the word balgasan in Mogol or Mongou, which signifies city. Khan balu, or khan balou, signifies the royal city. King tching, in the time of Marco Paulo, was the capital of the empire of China. The Persians and Arabians, from the Mongou word khan balou, or khan balgasun, or khan balga, formed the word khan balik or khan balek, which signifies also the royal city. This name was given by the eastern people to the city of Caifong fou, the capital of Honan, and to that of Nanking, the capital of Kiangnan, at the time when these cities were the court of princes. This name was also given to the cities of Tartary, when some powerful princes kept sometimes their court there. What I have remarked concerning the words khan balik, khan balek, khan balga, &c. is to be applied to the words ordo balik, ordou balik. Ordo, or ordou, or orto, signifies royal, imperial, in the Mogol or Mongou language. So ordou balik signifies a court, a royal city; and these words are in fact the names of some old cities, where the Mogol or Mongou kings kept their courts.
Remarks on Nº. 5, Fan king tchang; which is the place where the foreign classical books are kept.
Tchang signifies magazine, or large place, where any thing is contained. Fan signifies stranger or foreigner; and king signifies a classical book.
The Jews of Caifong fou, the capital of Honan, first told the Jesuit missionaries, that they conceived, that the Hebrew Bible was preserved at Peking in the place called Fan king tchang. These first missionaries neglected to make a search for it at Peking, or did not think of it. But it did not escape the attention of Father Bouvet, a French Jesuit, who went to Fan king tchang. The antient place, where the foreign books were kept, had been destroyed; and those books removed into a neighbouring miao where there were bonzes. Father Bouvet went to this miao with two other French Jesuits; but they found only the Koran, fragments of the classical books of the Indians, and the classical books of the lamas; the whole in bad condition. Father Bouvet thought, that he saw in an old coffer Chaldee, Syriac, and Hebrew characters. The bonze would not shew the place, where Father Bouvet thought that he had seen those characters, which, on returning to the miao, were not found. The emperor had ordered the bonzes to shew every thing to Father Bouvet. All the classical books were afterwards removed to the palace; the miao was demolished; and there remained nothing but the name of Fan king tchang. When I passed thro’ Caifong fou, the Jews, in the presence of Father Gozani, who served me as interpreter, assured me, that I should find the Bible in the Fan king tchang. These Jews had not been at Peking. What they said was in consequence of what they had been told by old Jews, who were deceased. When I arrived at Peking, I made inquiries myself, and caused inquiries to be made by others; but I could not find the Bible. It is not yet an hundred years since there were at Peking some Jewish families; which afterwards turned Mahometans. A Mahometan, who was a man of parts, assured me several times, that the Bible was in the possession of the Mahometans here, whose ancestors were Jews. But when, in consequence of what he said, inquiries were made, nothing was found. This Mahometan informed me likewise, that he had made inquiries; but if he had done so, his researches proved unsuccessful.
Remarks on the Ti ouang miao, Nº. 217.
1. The emperors, whose memory is honoured there, are
The emperors Tou hi, Chin Nong, Hoang ti.
The emperors Chao hao, Tchouen hiu, Ty co, Yao, Chun.