Yeheidie'erding (, ? – 1312), also known as Amir al-Din ( ar, أمير الدين, ''Amīr al-Dīn''), was a Muslim architect who helped design and led the construction of the capital of the

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fift ...

, Khanbaliq, located in present-day

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, the current capital of the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. According to Cary Y. Liu interpretation of the ''Ma-ho-ma-sha Stele'' inscription, either Amir al-Din's ancestors came from the

Western Regions The Western Regions or Xiyu (Hsi-yü; ) was a historical name specified in the Chinese chronicles between the 3rd century BC to the 8th century AD that referred to the regions west of Yumen Pass, most often Central Asia or sometimes more sp ...

, although originating from

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plat ...

, or that he directly came from Arabia.

Construction of Khanbaliq

Yeheidie'erding learned from Han architecture. In 1264, in preparation to establish the

, Kublai Khan decided to rebuild the city which was then known as Zhongdu (中都, "central capital", pinyin: Zhōngdū) as his new capital. Liu Bingzhong was the planner and the original architect and was appointed as the supervisor of its construction, while Yeheidie'erding help designed and led the construction. The construction of the walls of the city began in the same year, while the imperial palace was built from 1274 onwards. The design of the city followed the

Confucianism Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or a ...

classic ''

Zhouli The ''Rites of Zhou'' (), originally known as "Officers of Zhou" () is a work on bureaucracy and organizational theory. It was renamed by Liu Xin to differentiate it from a chapter in the ''Book of History'' by the same name. To replace a lost ...

'' (周禮, "rites of Zhou"), in that the rules of “9 vertical axis, 9 horizontal axis”, “palaces in the front, markets in the rear”, “left ancestral worship, right god worship” were taken into consideration. It was broad in scale, strict in planning and execution, complete in equipment. After the establishment of the

in 1271, Kublai Khan renamed the city from Zhongdu to Khanbaliq (大都, "great capital",

pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally writte ...

: Dàdū) in 1272, and it officially became the capital of the Yuan dynasty, though some constructions in the city were not completed until 1293. It would last until 1368 when Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peo ...

and future Hongwu Emperor, made his imperial ambitions known by sending an army toward the Yuan capital.Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. The Cambridge Illustrated History of China''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. The last Yuan emperor fled north to

Shangdu Shangdu (, ), also known as Xanadu (; Mongolian: ''Šandu''), was the summer capital of the Yuan dynasty of China before Kublai decided to move his throne to the former Jin dynasty capital of Zhōngdū () which was renamed Khanbaliq ( pre ...

and Zhu declared the founding of the Ming dynasty after razing the Yuan palaces in Khanbaliq to the ground,Ta-tu – Britannica Online Encyclopedia
/ref> and the city was renamed Beiping (北平,

: Běipíng) by the

in the same year. After the enthronement of the

Yongle Emperor The Yongle Emperor (; pronounced ; 2 May 1360 – 12 August 1424), personal name Zhu Di (), was the third Emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1402 to 1424. Zhu Di was the fourth son of the Hongwu Emperor, the founder of the Ming dyn ...

, the third Ming emperor, the city was renamed to Beijing (北京,

: Běijīng) and became the capital of the Ming dynasty.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yeheidieerding Islam in China Yuan dynasty people 1312 deaths Chinese Muslims Year of birth unknown 13th-century architects

Construction of Khanbaliq

See also

References