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THE  CHINESE  EMPIRE
various  courses  followed  during  the  centuries  by  the  erratic
Yellow  River,  where  man  is  at  a  peculiar  disadvantage  from
the  friable  nature  of  the  soil,  the  aggressive  character  of
the  water  when  in  flood,  and  the  fact  that  at  such  times
the  level  of  the  waters  is  higher  than  that  of  the  land.
One  grand  scheme  of  reclamation  is  recorded  in  the  time
of  Yung-cheng,  a.d.  1723-1735,  when  120,000  acres  of  marsh
were  converted  into  good  arable  land,  and  the  canals,
weirs,  and  bridges  by  which  this  work  was  carried  out  can
be  shown  to-day  after  175  years  ;  but  in  recent  times  little
has  been  done  on  any  extensive  scale.  The  products  of
Chihli  are  those  of  the  farm  and  farm-yard,  the  usual  crops
being  millet,  durra,  and  wheat.  The  treaty  ports  opened
in  the  province  are  two  in  number,  Tientsin  and  Chinwang'
tao  ;  but  the  exceptional  position  of  Peking  calls  for  a
description  of  that  city.
Peking  (39 0  54'  N.,  116 0  27'  E.).  The  capital  of  the
Empire  was  first  established  at  Peking  (the  Northern  Capital)
by  Kublai  Khan,  when  he  initiated  the  Yuan  Dynasty,
a.d.  1260  ;  the  first  Ming  Emperor,  a.d.  1368,  established
himself  at  Nanking  (the  Southern  Capital),  but  the  third
of  that  line  transferred  the  capital  in  1421  to  Peking,  which
has  remained  the  seat  of  government  continuously  since
then.  Peking  is  a  quite  unofficial  and  quasi-foreign  designation, ­
  the  Imperial  name  being  King-shih  (The  Capital)  and
its  name,  as  a  unit  of  the  provincial  administration,  being
Shuntien.  In  the  same  way  it  may  be  observed  that  the
Empire  has  no  name  ;  it  is  designated  as  “  The  Empire
or  “  (All  within)  The  Four  Seas,”  or  “  (All  beneath)  The
Canopy  of  Heaven,”  or,  quite  unofficially,  “  The  Middle
Kingdom  ”  ;  but  the  name  “  China  ”  is  an  old  Buddhist
name  which  has  dropped  out  of  use  in  the  country  which
is  designated  by  it,  and  is  to-day,  of  all  the  countries  using
the  Chinese  ideograms,  employed  only  by  the  Japanese.
■  e  Ä*  a  cam P’  with  the  headquarters  of  the  commanderm
  c  ie  in  the  middle,  and  the  army  encamped  around  ,
len  to  the  south,  outside  the  walls  but  protected  by  their
own  walls,  are  the  camp  sutlers—the  Chinese  traders  pnr-