Yān

Yān culture belongs to the old Yan lands around present-day Beijing, from Jizhou towns to the Bohai coast. Yan, northernmost of the Warring States, kept its capital Ji on Beijing's site; its people were frontier fighters, generals including Qin Kai fought the Donghu and Gojoseon, and Yan's wall and five commanderies guarded lands where knife money passed between farmers and nomads.

Tang Youzhou was where An Lushan rebelled in 755 and proclaimed a rebel Yan. Khitan Liao made the city of Ji southern capital Nanjing in 938, Jurchen Jin central capital Zhongdu in 1153; after Mongols razed Zhongdu in 1215, Kublai built nearby Dadu in 1264–1293 as Yuan capital. In 1337 Yan people were Yuan subjects, linked to the Yangzi delta by the Grand Canal.

The Ming took Dadu in 1368 and renamed it Beiping; the Yongle Emperor, once Prince of Yan, rebuilt it as Beijing and moved the capital there in 1420; the Qing kept it after 1644, banner garrisons by the old townspeople.