PEKIN 



PELARGONIUM 



mammal of the family Muslelidae, 

 allied to the pine-marten and the 

 sable. It is the largest of the 

 martens, the head and body mea- 

 suring 2 to 2 ft. and the tail 14 

 to 18 ins. It has a distinctly fox- 

 like appearance, and is blackish 

 brown in colour, the lower parts 

 darker than the upper. Formerly 

 plentiful throughout the U.S.A., 

 it is now all but exterminated E. 

 of the Mississippi. 



Pekin. City of Illinois, U.S.A., 

 the co. seat of Tazewell co. It 

 stands on the Illinois river, 10 m. 

 S.S.W. of Peoria, and is served by 

 the Illinois Central and other rlys. 

 It has a considerable trade in grain, 

 and manufactures agricultural im- 

 plements, foundry products, bricks, 

 etc. Pekin was settled in 1829 and 

 incorporated in 1850. Pop. 12,100. 



Peking. Capital of China. 

 Situated about 100 m. from the 

 Gulf of Chih-li, 120 ft. alt., its 

 pop. is estimated at 700,000. The 

 ancient capital of Yen, Peking 

 became the capital of the Chinese 

 empire in 1264, under Kublai 

 Khan. The town was then known 

 as Yenking or Chungtu, and occu- 

 pied a site to the S.W. of the 

 present Tartar City, coinciding 

 with part of the Chinese city. 

 After the conquest of China, Kub- 

 lai Khan built a new town on the 

 site of the present Tartar city. To 

 this was given the name of Taitu 

 (great residence), but to the 

 Mongols it was known as Khan 

 Baligh (imperial city), the Cam- 

 baluc of Marco Polo. In 1368 the 

 first emperor of the Ming dynasty 

 transferred his capital to Nanking 

 (S. capital), and Taitu, no longer 

 the Great Residence, became in 

 contradistinction Peking (Pei- 

 ching), the N. capital. In 1403 

 Peking again became the capital 

 of the empire, and has maintained 

 its status ever since. 



The present walls of the Tartar 

 city were built in 1421, and those 

 of the Chinese city in 1544. The 

 two cities are rectangular in shape. 

 The circuit of the outer walls is 24J 

 m., enclosing many fields and 

 woods ; the wall of the Tartar city 

 is 14 m. long, about 41 ft. high, 

 50 ft. wide at the top and 62 ft. 

 at the base. It is pierced by nine 

 gates, three of which lead to the 

 Chinese city, which has seven ad- 

 ditional gates. Inside the Tartar 

 city is the imperial city, also con- 

 tained within separate walls, 6 m. 

 in length, while a moat and a brick 

 wall in the centre of the imperial 

 city mark off the so-called for- 

 bidden city, in which are situated 

 the imperial palaces and the 

 pleasure grounds (including three 

 lakes) of the whiter palace. In the 

 Tartar city are to be found the 



Pekin?, China. Plan showing the different cities of which the capital is composed 



government offices, as well as the 

 legation quarter, since 1900 re- 

 served for foreign residents. 



Among the buildings of interest 

 in Peking are the observatory, 

 dating from the 13th century, the 

 Lama temple, the temple of Con- 

 fucius, and the Hall of the Classics. 

 The Chinese city is the commercial 

 section of Peking. It also contains 

 the temple of Heaven, A.D. 1421, 

 and the temple of Agriculture. 

 Peking is connected by rly. with 

 Hankow, on the Yangtse, with 

 Manchuria by the Peking-Mukden 

 rly., via Tientsin, while a third line 

 runs N.W. to Kalgan and towards 

 Kueihuacheng. See Confucianism. 



Pelagic Animals. Natural 

 history term indicating those ma- 

 rine animals that swim or float 

 freely in the surface waters or lower 

 depths without being attached to 

 weeds or rocks. It is chiefly used in 

 connexion with the small, teeming, 

 often transparent creatures that 

 form the food of larval fishes. 

 These include the arrow-like sa- 

 gitta, the smaller jelly-fishes, cope- 

 pods and larval forms of tunicates, 

 molluscs, worms, and Crustacea. 

 Some of these are temporarily and 

 some permanently pelagic. See 

 Crustacea ; Mollusc ; Plankton. 



Pelagius (c. 360-420). Lntish 

 theologian. He was born in Ireland, 

 Wales, or England, and when first 



heard of was living as a studious 

 recluse at Rome. A great traveller, 

 he visited Palestine and Africa 

 also. An earnest student of earlier 

 literature, Greek and Latin, pagan 

 and Christian, he gradually came 

 to hold views which brought him 

 into conflict with some of the 

 greatest writers of the day, like 

 Augustine and Jerome, and he 

 was in the end excommunicated by 

 Pope Innocent I. 



His view was that sin was not 

 transmitted from Adam down 

 through the human race, but that 

 each child born into the world was 

 morally clean ; that if he sinned, he 

 did it by the force of example ; that 

 it was possible for him not to sin ; 

 and that for all his good deeds he 

 accumulated merit with God. His 

 views were first (about A.D. 409) 

 embodied in a brief commentary 

 on the Epistles of S. Paul in Latin, 

 the original form of which was dis- 

 covered in 1906. This is the oldest 

 surviving book by a British author. 

 Another work of his is a letter to 

 a virgin Demetrias. His style is 

 pure and simple. See Sin. 



Pelargonium. Genus of flower- 

 ing and omamental-foliaged plants, 

 including half - hardy succulent 

 and shrubby perennials of the 

 natural order Geraniaceae. A 

 notable section of the Pelargonium 

 family is miscalled Geranium (q.v.) 



