diff --git a/lib/jekyll/configuration.rb b/lib/jekyll/configuration.rb
index 75230bb8..43244b47 100644
--- a/lib/jekyll/configuration.rb
+++ b/lib/jekyll/configuration.rb
@@ -11,10 +11,11 @@ module Jekyll
       'plugins'       => '_plugins',
       'layouts'       => '_layouts',
       'keep_files'    => ['.git','.svn'],
-      'encoding'      => nil,
 
       'timezone'      => nil,           # use the local timezone
 
+      'encoding'      => nil,           # use the system encoding
+
       'safe'          => false,
       'detach'        => false,          # default to not detaching the server
       'show_drafts'   => nil,
diff --git a/site/docs/configuration.md b/site/docs/configuration.md
index fa92c6d1..79d4a3cf 100644
--- a/site/docs/configuration.md
+++ b/site/docs/configuration.md
@@ -99,6 +99,18 @@ class="flag">flags</code> (specified on the command-line) that control them.
         <p><code class="option">timezone: TIMEZONE</code></p>
       </td>
     </tr>
+    <tr class='setting'>
+      <td>
+        <p class='name'><strong>Encoding</strong></p>
+        <p class="description">
+            Set the encoding of files. The default is the system encoding,
+            which determined by LANG environment variable.
+        </p>
+      </td>
+      <td class='align-center'>
+        <p><code class="option">encoding: ENCODING</code></p>
+      </td>
+    </tr>
   </tbody>
 </table>
 </div>
@@ -266,6 +278,7 @@ include:     ['.htaccess']
 exclude:     []
 keep_files:  ['.git','.svn']
 timezone:    nil
+encoding:    nil
 
 future:      true
 show_drafts: nil