What Does Hutong Actually Mean?
The moment you set foot on Beijing soil you will hear about the hutongs. It is as if these narrow, grey lanes of the capital encapsulate the very soul of the city. However, Qing dynasty residents of Beijing would propably scratch their heads if they saw how the dusty back alleys of the capital have been awarded this glorifying status of representing the “real” Beijing. The hutongs were very much looked down upon under the dynasties. High officials travelling through the muddy lanes required people to walk in front of their sedan chairs burning incense just to make the stench of the streets somewhat tolerable.
Robert Swallow writes in his excellent 1927 book Sidelights on Peking Life that the “Hu” in Hutong can be translated as Mongolian, and that the original meaning of hutong is “place where mongols live.” This theory is supported by the fact that the oldest hutong alleyways in Beijing were actually made by the Mongolian Yuan dynasty when they built their version of Beijing more than 800 years ago.
Qianmen Xi Heyan by Jens Schott Knudsen
The writer Caoersi agrees with the Mongolian origin of hutong, but according to him it is more likely that hutong derives from the word “Hottog”, which means “well.” Water has been the ultimate challenge facing the city of Beijing for thousands of years, just as it is today, so it makes sense that the grid of roads would be planned so that they led to water. This leads Caoersi to believe that the word for well was naturally used to define the lanes, thus creating the name “Hutong.”
Qianmen Xi Heyan by Jens Schott Knudsen
The 700 year-old writings of Xiong Mengxiang offers yet another explanation. In his book 《析津志辑佚》Scattered Writings of the Jin Era, the standard width of roads in Beijing is defined, and the narrowest roads are called “huo xiang” a term that can be translated as “fire road”. The name refers to the safety precautions taken when roads were constructed, maintaining a certain width so that fire could not easily spread. This theory simply argues that “Huoxiang” is another word for Hutong. There is no doubt that fire hazards were something to be taken very seriously in the early days of the city - just as today, when making the hutongs fireproof is one of the great challenges when it comes to preserving their original architecture.
No matter what is ultimately correct, the mere fact that that scholars have continued to fight over the origin of a word describing the filthy back alleys of the capital proves how important the grey hutongs have become to Beijing’s sense of self-identity over time.