Zhili (province)
Zhili ( Chinese 直隸 / 直隶 , Pinyin Zhílì , W.-G. Chih-li ) was a Chinese province during the Ming and Qing dynasties . Towards the end of the imperial era, the (originally much larger) province roughly comprised today's Hebei province with its enclaves Beijing and Tientsin .
history
North Zhili ( 北 直隸 , Běi Zhílì , outdated transcription Pechili or Pe-Tschili ) and South Zhili ( 南 直隸 , Nán Zhílì ) were two directly ruled provinces under Emperor Yongle . In 1403 he moved the capital from Nanking ("southern capital") to Beiping, which he then renamed Beijing ("northern capital"). Both directly ruled provinces together were called Zhili ("directly ruled"). The northern part included the cities of Beijing, Tianjin, most of today's Hebei and Henan provinces, and parts of Shandong. The area around the reserve capital Nanking in the south comprised parts of the present-day provinces of Jiangsu , Anhui and the administrative district of Shanghai .
When Nanking lost its "Second Capital" status during the Qing Dynasty , South Zhili was reconstituted into a regular Jiangnan Province . The northern Zhili was renamed Zhili and its borders were moved in the 18th century. It now extended over what is now (2013) Beijing, Tientsin and the provinces of Hebei, West Liaoning , North Henan and Inner Mongolia . In 1928, the government of the Republic of China assigned parts of Zhili to its northern neighbors and renamed the reduced province Hebei .