Page:History of Corea, ancient and modern; with description of manners and customs, language and geography (1879).djvu/284

 260 NUJUN. present Manchu dynasty ascended the throne of their Nujun predecessors ; the word for gold having been formerly pronounced gin (of begin), and is still so pronounced, except in Peking, Mookden, or wherever the Manchus are numerous. That short lived dynasty which preceded the Han, and which built the first Chinese great wall, was the Chin. Its reign in the latter half of the third century was styled the Jin^ sometimes written Chin or Tsin. This style the Coreans always write with that con- sonant which may be either j or da, Jin or Dsin ; to this day they use this Jm to designate Chinese writing ; and this Jin sound has always hitherto been written by westerns, OMtu It is, there- fore, much more probable that the name China^ which we now '^ aspirate,'' is the unaspirated Oh or Jot the Tsin or Chin dynasty. I feel inclined to reject the Tsin of three centuries B.C., because it existed only a few years ; and the great wall roused so universal a hatred against that dynasty that the Chinese would never call themselves by that title, as they do to this day by that of HaiL For the latter was a powerful, long-lived and popular dynasty. Though the Arabians call China Sim, and the Syrians Tsi/nd, it is absurd to derive the Sini/m of Isaiah from either Ts'in or Tsin, or Chin dynasty. For Isaiah died five centuries before Ts'in She Whang began his reign. name of Shangking was dropped, and the lands under It were placed under the pref ectoral dty of Whining, which city was probably the f oimer Foo, or district city of Whining ;— f or the Chinese and their eastern imitators have frequently only one dty, though widely Tarying jurisdictions, for the/oo and the hien. This Whining foo would stiU be regarded as in the place, though not on the site, of the first Shangking, because it had chaige of the three Men cities whidi had been originally under RhangMng ; and the term foo does not signify the dty alone, but all the pre- fecture over which the magistrate (Prefect) has authority, his head quarters being in the foo dty. Then after the Kin were firmly established in Peking, and enormous wealth poured in upon them, they bethought tiiemselves of their original home, sent men and money to build grand palaces and extensive temples,— not to the fint Shangking, which was formerly liao soil and which was now in ruins,— but to their own original home at the head waters of the Hoo and the Hwuntoong, and on the north of Changbaishan, whose grand peaks overshadowed them. And this dty would be just where stand the very extensive ruins in the vicinity of Ningnta. This is the only manner in which I can reconcile the various statements made in Iiiao, Kin, and Ming histories, and it appears to me a natural explanation ; wfaOe the name East Capital points in the same direction.