Pei hai, Peiping (Peking)

Pieter Irwin Brown

A moonlit Chinese temple gate graces the left half of this composition, with a winding stone wall stretching up and around a grand pine tree. Stars are visible in the a patch of azure sky, and the scene appears quiet and restful.

An interesting history of the Chinese city of Beijing lies in the title of this work, which Brown has spelled "Pei hai, Peiping". He is referring to what we now call Beijing, with "Peiping" being the romanized spelling of "Beiping", the name given to the city in 1420. With the onset of the 20th century, a flurry of political upheaval led to numerous name changes, beginning in 1918 when it was renamed "Jingdu" by the Beiyang government. It was restored to Beiping/Peiping in 1928 by the Republic of China after the Northern Expedition, and remained such for a decade, during which time Pieter Irwin Brown captured this image of a temple gate nestled among pine trees. ("Pei hai" is the romanized spelling of "Beihai", referring to Beihai Park.)

In 1938 occupying Japanese forces renamed the city "Peking", the romanized version of Beijing. After their surrender, it was restored to Beiping/Peiping; and yet again renamed "Peking"/"Beijing" by the Chinese Communist Party during the Chinese Civil War, at which point it was made the capitol of the newly found People's Republic of China. The name "Beijing" wasn't widely in the international community until the late 1970s.