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yamim noraʾim (Judaism)
in Judaism, the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashana (on Tishri 1 and 2) and Yom Kippur (on Tishri 10), in September or October. Though the Bible does not link these two major festival...
Yamin al-Daula Abuʾl-Qasim Maḥmūd ibn Sebüktigin (king of Ghazna)
sultan of the kingdom of Ghazna (998–1030), originally comprising modern Afghanistan and northeastern modern Iran but, through his conquests, eventually including northwestern India and most of Iran. He transformed his capital, Ghazna, into a cultural centre rivalling Baghdad....
Yamina, Banu (people)
There have been many surprising items in the thousands of tablets found in the palace at Mari. Not only are the Ḫapiru (“Hebrews”) mentioned but so also remarkably are the Banu Yamina (“Benjaminites”). It is not that the latter are identical with the family of Benjamin, a son of Jacob, but rather that a name with such a biblical ring appears in these......
Yaminites (people)
There have been many surprising items in the thousands of tablets found in the palace at Mari. Not only are the Ḫapiru (“Hebrews”) mentioned but so also remarkably are the Banu Yamina (“Benjaminites”). It is not that the latter are identical with the family of Benjamin, a son of Jacob, but rather that a name with such a biblical ring appears in these......
Yamkhad (ancient kingdom, Syria)
...unsuccessfully) on his return journey, is known to have been located on the Euphrates above Carchemish. Rather curious in this account is the absence of any reference to the important kingdom of Yamkhad (centred at Aleppo), of which Alalakh was a vassal state. For the rest of Hattusilis’ reign, Aleppo apparently remained the principal power in North Syria, to whose armies and allies his ...
Yamm (Semitic deity)
ancient West Semitic deity who ruled the oceans, rivers, lakes, and underground springs. He also played an important role in the Baal myths recorded on tablets uncovered at Ugarit, which say that at the beginning of time Yamm was awarded the divine kingship by El, the ...
Yamnotri temple (temple, Uttarakhand, India)
Some of Hinduism’s holiest shrines and temples, which are also pilgrimage centres, are located in the mountains of Uttarakhand. The Yamnotri temple, in the western part of the Garhwal region, lies at an elevation of about 10,600 feet (3,200 metres). Its chief deity is Yamuna, the Hindu river goddess. The Yamuna River emerges from the Yamnotri glacier nearby. The shrine of Gangotri, in the.....
Yamoussoukro (Côte d’Ivoire)
town and capital (de jure), south-central Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), located about 170 miles (274 km) northwest of the country’s de facto capital, Abidjan. Although Yamoussoukro was officially named the new national capital in 1983, the transfer of government funct...
Yamoussoukro Basilica (church, Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire)
Roman Catholic basilica in Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire, that is the largest Christian church in the world. The basilica’s rapid construction in 1986–89 was ostensibly paid for by Côte d’Ivoire’s president, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, and the building is situated in his birthplace, the city of Yamoussou...
Yampa River (river, United States)
river, in the western United States, rising in the White River National Forest of northwestern Colorado, in the Rocky Mountains. Draining an area of approximately 9,500 square miles (24,600 square km) in south-central Wyoming and northwestern Colorado, the river flows north past Steamboat Springs...
yampee (plant)
...species of yams (vines of the genus Dioscorea) are grown for their edible tuberous roots, such as Chinese yam, or cinnamon vine (D. batatas); air potato (D. bulbifera); and yampee, or cush-cush (D. trifida)....
yampi (plant)
...species of yams (vines of the genus Dioscorea) are grown for their edible tuberous roots, such as Chinese yam, or cinnamon vine (D. batatas); air potato (D. bulbifera); and yampee, or cush-cush (D. trifida)....
Yampi Sound (bay, Western Australia, Australia)
portion of the Indian Ocean off the north coast of Western Australia, between King Sound and Collier Bay. It contains the four island clusters of the Buccaneer Archipela...
Yampolsky, Mariana (Mexican photographer)
American-born Mexican photographer (b. Sept. 6, 1925, Chicago, Ill.—d. May 3, 2002, Mexico City, Mex.), moved to Mexico as a young woman and spent half a century capturing idyllic, elegiac images of that country, its people, and its daily life. Her work was exhibited all over the world and included in a number of comp...
Yamskaya (Russia)
city, Moscow oblast (region), western Russia, on the Klyazma River east of Moscow. Originally Yamskaya village, it became the town of Bogorodsk in 1781 and was renamed Noginsk in 1930. It is one of the largest Russian textile centres; cotton forms most of its production. Pop. (2006 est.) 116,277....
Yamunā (Hindu deity)
...Hinduism, Varuṇa plays a lesser role. He is guardian of the west and is particularly associated with oceans and waters. Thus he is often attended by the river goddesses Gaṅgā and Yamunā. He corresponds closely to the Zoroastrian god Ahura Mazdā. ...
Yamuna River (river, India)
major river of northern India, primarily in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh states. One of the country’s most sacred rivers, it rises on the slopes of the Banderpunch massif in the Great Himalayas near Yamnotri (Jamnotri), Uttarakhand. It flows in a southerly direction through the Himalayan foothills and, exiting Utta...
Yamunacarya (Indian philosopher)
...and later in the Vijayanagara kingdom (which, along with Mithila in the north, remained strongholds of Hinduism until the middle of the 16th century), Vaishnavism flourished. The philosopher Yamunacharya (flourished 1050 ce) taught the path of prapatti, or complete surrender to God. The philosophers Ramanuja (11th century), Madhva, and Nimbark...
Yamzho Yun (lake, China)
Tibet’s three largest lakes are centrally located, northwest of Lhasa: Lakes Dangre Yong (Tibetan: Tangra Yum), Nam, and Siling. South of Lhasa lie two other large lakes, Yamzho Yun (Yangzho Yong) and Puma Yung (Pumo). In western Tibet two adjoining lakes are located near the Nepal border—Lake Mapam, sacred to both Buddhists and Hindus, and Lake La’nga....
Yan (ancient kingdom, China)
...near the site where the city now stands. During the Zhanguo (Warring States) period (475–256 bc) of the Zhou dynasty (1046–256 bc), one of the powerful feudal states, the kingdom of Yan, established its capital, named Ji, near the present city of Beijing; this was the first capital city to be associated with the site. The city was destroyed by the troop...
yan (bronze vessel)
type of ancient Chinese bronze steamer, or cooking vessel, used particularly for grain. It consisted of a deep upper bowl with a pierced bottom, which was placed upon or attached to a lower, legged vessel similar in shape to the li. It was produced during the Shang, or Yin (18th–12th century ...
Yan Fu (Chinese scholar)
Chinese scholar who translated into Chinese works by T.H. Huxley, John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer, Adam Smith, and others in an attempt to show that the secret to Western wealt...
Yan Liben (Chinese painter)
one of the most famous Chinese figure painters in the early years of the Tang dynasty (618–907)....
Yan Lide (Chinese painter)
...are original; the first six were copies of earlier works). Yan Liben has imbued them with subtly defined characters through a tightly controlled line and limited use of colour. His brother, Yan Lide, was also a famous official and painter....
Yan Mountains (mountains, China)
...the North China Plain and the northern ranges, plains, and plateaus, and routes running across the great plain naturally converge on the city. In addition, since the dawn of Chinese history, the Yan range has constituted a formidable barrier between the North China Plain to the south, the Mongolian Plateau to the north, and the Liao River Plain in the southern region of the Northeast......
Yan Qingshu (Chinese author)
...mainly popular romances that catered to a mostly female audience. In science fiction, Ni Kuang (Ni Yiming), brother of Yi Shu, was a productive author whose works were imaginative and entertaining. Tang Ren (Yan Qingshu), a pro-communist writer, was famous for historical novels such as Jinling chunmeng (“Spring Dream of Nanjing”), a work about Chiang Kai-shek. Some of...
Yan Ruoju (Chinese scholar)
great Chinese scholar from the early period of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911/12) who proved that 25 chapters of the Shujing, or Shangshu, one of the Five Classics of Confucianism, upon which the government modeled ...
Yan Ruoqu (Chinese scholar)
great Chinese scholar from the early period of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911/12) who proved that 25 chapters of the Shujing, or Shangshu, one of the Five Classics of Confucianism, upon which the government modeled ...
Yan Song (Chinese official)
...Ming rulers. The former was an adventure-loving carouser, the latter a lavish patron of Daoist alchemists. For one period of 20 years, during the regime of an unpopular grand secretary named Yan Song, the Jiajing emperor withdrew almost entirely from governmental cares. Both emperors cruelly humiliated and punished hundreds of officials for their temerity in remonstrating....
Yan Xijai (Chinese philosopher)
Chinese founder of a pragmatic empirical school of Confucianism opposed to the speculative neo-Confucian philosophy that had dominated China since the 11th century....
Yan Xishan (Chinese warlord)
After the overthrow of the Qing dynasty in 1911/12, the Shanxi warlord Yan Xishan (1883–1960) ruled as an absolute dictator until the end of the Sino-Japanese War (1937–45). Yan was instrumental in establishing the nucleus of a heavy industrial base and in opening the southern section of the Tongpu railway in 1935....
Yan Yuan (Chinese philosopher)
Chinese founder of a pragmatic empirical school of Confucianism opposed to the speculative neo-Confucian philosophy that had dominated China since the 11th century....
Yan-Li school (Chinese philosophical movement)
...to history and the Confucian Classics. Yan’s writings, together with those of his most eminent student, Li Gong (1659–1733), became the major works of a new philosophical movement known as the Yan-Li school. A short-lived society to study and disseminate its doctrines was formed in 1920 in Beijing. Yan’s major works were reprinted in the late 19th century as the Yan-Li y...
yana (Buddhism)
In early Buddhism, the various yanas, or ways of enlightenment, included the way of the disciple (shravakayana) and the way of the self-enlightened buddha (pratyeka-buddhayana). The latter concept was retained only in the Theravada tradition. By contrast, Mahayana Buddhists......
Yana (people)
Hokan-speaking North American Indians formerly living along the eastern tributaries of the upper Sacramento River, from the Pit River to southwest of Lassen Peak, in what is now ...
Yana language
...the process has gone beyond agglutination and is called polysynthesis, a process characteristic of many American Indian languages. Some Hokan languages are extremely polysynthetic, among them the Yana language of northern California. The Yana word yābanaumawildjigummaha’nigi means “let us, each one [of us], move indeed to the west across [the creek].” It is co...
Yana-Indigirka (lowlands, Asia)
...the Asian mainland, particularly the vast West Siberian and Turan plains of the interior. The remaining lowlands are distributed either in the maritime regions—such as the North Siberian and Yana-Indigirka lowlands and the North China Plain—or in the piedmont depressions of Mesopotamia, the Indo-Gangetic Plain, and mainland Southeast Asia. These plains have monotonously level......
Yanagi Sōetsu (Japanese artist)
In addition to the continuation of various traditional lineages, the most significant development in ceramics of the modern period was the return to folk tastes. Yanagi Sōetsu espoused anonymity, functionality, and simplicity as a corrective to the industrialism and self-aggrandizement characteristic of the age. In league with potters such as the British artist Bernard Leach, Hamada......
Yanagimachi, Ryuzo (American scientist)
Japanese-born American scientist whose team cloned the second live mammal, a mouse, and was the first to produce successive generations of clones....
Yanam (India)
town, Puducherry union territory, southern India. It constitutes an enclave within northeastern Andhra Pradesh state, on the main mouth of the Godavari River. Formerly part of the Chola empire, the area came under Muslim occupation in the 16th centur...
Yan’an (China)
city, northern Shaanxi sheng (province), north-central China. It became famous as the wartime stronghold of the Chinese communists from the mid-1930s to 1949. Yan’an is on the heavily dissected Loess Plateau, which consists of loess (windblown soil) that is deeply etched by gullies. The city sta...
Yan’an period (Chinese history)
...odyssey, which was to be characterized by a renewed united front with the Nationalists against Japan and by the rise of Mao to unchallenged supremacy in the party. This phase is often called the Yan’an period (for the town in Shaanxi where the communists were based), although Mao did not move to Yan’an until December 1936. In August 1935 the Comintern at its Seventh Congress in Mo...
Yanaon (India)
town, Puducherry union territory, southern India. It constitutes an enclave within northeastern Andhra Pradesh state, on the main mouth of the Godavari River. Formerly part of the Chola empire, the area came under Muslim occupation in the 16th centur...
Yanayev, Gennadi I. (Soviet politician)
Aug. 26, 1937Perevoz, Russia, U.S.S.R.Sept. 24, 2010Moscow, RussiaSoviet bureaucrat who was one of eight hard-line coup leaders, or “putschists,” who in August 1991 tried to oust Soviet Pres. Mikhail Gorbachev and take over the government with Yanayev, then vice president, as ...
Yanbuʿ (Saudi Arabia)
town, western Saudi Arabia, on the Red Sea north of Jiddah. It serves as the country’s second Red Sea port, after Jiddah, and is the main port for Medina, 100 miles (160 km) to the east. The economy of Yanbuʿ was traditionally based on the pilgrim trade and the export of agricultural products...
Yancey, James Edward (American musician)
American blues pianist who established the boogie-woogie style with slow, steady, simple left-hand bass patterns. These became more rapid in the work of his students Albert Ammons and Meade “Lux” Lewis, who popularized the “Yancey Special.”...
Yancey, Jimmy (American musician)
American blues pianist who established the boogie-woogie style with slow, steady, simple left-hand bass patterns. These became more rapid in the work of his students Albert Ammons and Meade “Lux” Lewis, who popularized the “Yancey Special.”...
Yancey, Mama (American musician)
...George V of England in 1913. Returning to Chicago, Yancey performed at small taverns and informal gatherings. He played baseball in the Negro leagues until 1919, the year he married Estella Harris (Mama Yancey), who sang with him at house parties throughout the 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s. They had three recording sessions together and performed on network radio in 1939 and at Carnegie ...
Yancey, William Lowndes (American politician)
American southern political leader and “fire-eater” who, in his later years, consistently urged the South to secede in response to Northern antislavery agitation....
Yancheng (China)
city, north-central Jiangsu sheng (province), eastern China, in the province’s eastern coastal district....
Yancheng National Nature Reserve (nature reserve, China)
Yancheng National Nature Reserve (established 1983) and the smaller Dafeng Milu National Nature Reserve (1986) encompass much of Jiangsu’s Yellow Sea coastline north and south of Yancheng. They protect salt marsh and mudflat habitats and are home to large populations of fish and aquatic birds and such endangered species as the red-crowned crane (Grus japonensis) and (at Dafe...
Yandabo, Treaty of (Myanmar-United Kingdom [1826])
...capital failed as Burmese resistance stiffened. In 1825 the British Indian forces advanced northward. In a skirmish south of Ava, the Burmese general Bandula was killed and his armies routed. The Treaty of Yandabo (February 1826) formally ended the First Anglo-Burmese War. The British victory had been achieved mainly because India’s superior resources had made possible a sustained campai...
Yandi (Chinese mythological emperor)
in Chinese mythology, second of the mythical emperors, said to have been born in the 28th century bce with the head of a bull and the body of a man. By inventing the cart and plow, by taming the ox and yoking the horse, and by teaching his people to clear the land with fire, Shennong reputedly established a stable agricultural society in China. His catalog of 365 species of ...
Yáñez, Agustín (Mexican writer and statesman)
Mexican novelist, short-story writer, and active political figure whose novels, explorations of their protagonists’ social realities, established a major current in 20th-century Mexican fiction....
Yáñez, Fernando (Spanish artist)
During the first decade of the 16th century, Fernando Yáñez, who may have assisted Leonardo da Vinci on the “Battle of Anghiari” in 1505, executed works showing a good knowledge of Italian Renaissance developments. Further Italianate tendencies emerged strongly in the Valencian works of Juan de Macip and his son Juan de Juanes. Full-fledged Mannerism made its......
Yáñez Pinzón, Vicente (Spanish shipowner and navigator)
brothers from a family of Spanish shipowners and navigators who took part in Christopher Columbus’s first voyage to America....
yang (Eastern philosophy)
in Eastern thought, the two complementary forces that make up all aspects and phenomena of life. Yin is a symbol of earth, femaleness, darkness, passivity, and absorption. It is present in even numbers, in valleys and streams, and is represented by the tiger, the colour orange, and a broken line. Yang is conceived of as heaven, maleness, light...
Yang, Chen Ning (American physicist)
Chinese-born American theoretical physicist whose research with Tsung-Dao Lee showed that parity—the symmetry between physical phenomena occurring in right-handed and left-handed coordinate systems—is violated when certain elementary particles...
Yang Cheng (Chinese judge)
Yang Cheng (or Yang Xiji), who served the Wudi emperor (reigned 502–549 ce) as a criminal judge in Hunan province, was deeply disturbed that the ruler was destroying the normal family life of dwarfs by pressing them into service as personal servants and court entertainers. Yang admonished the emperor, pointing out that these unfortunate people were subjects, not slaves. The em...
Yang Chu (Chinese philosopher)
Chinese philosopher traditionally associated with extreme egoism but better understood as an advocate of naturalism. He may also have been the first Chinese philospher to discuss human nature (xing; literally “natural tenden...
Yang Chuan-kwang (Taiwanese athlete)
With its 10 grueling events over two days, the decathlon pushes track-and-field athletes to new levels of achievement. The duel between Rafer Johnson and Yang Chuan-kwang at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome exemplified this in dramatic fashion. The two came from very different backgrounds—Rafer Johnson was a young African American from California, while Yang Chuan-kwang was from......
Yang Dechang (Taiwanese film director)
Sept. 24, 1947Shanghai, ChinaJune 29, 2007Beverly Hills, Calif.Taiwanese film directorwho was in the vanguard of the Taiwanese New Wave, a 1980s movement that brought international attention to the island state with films that probed political, economic, and social issues in Taiwan’...
Yang Dezhi (Chinese military official)
Chinese military official (b. 1911, Zhuzhou (Chu-chou), Hunan province, China--d. Oct. 25, 1994, Beijing (Peking), China), joined the communist People’s Liberation Army (PLA) at its creation and went on to serve in virtually every major Chinese military conflict for the next 50 years, eventually becoming the army...
Yang di-Pertuan Agong (Malaysian monarch)
Malaysia is a federal constitutional monarchy with a ceremonial head of state—a monarch—who bears the title Yang di-Pertuan Agong (“paramount ruler”) and who is elected from among nine hereditary state rulers for a five-year term. The Malaysian constitution, drafted in 1957 following the declaration of independence (from the British...
Yang, Edward (Taiwanese film director)
Sept. 24, 1947Shanghai, ChinaJune 29, 2007Beverly Hills, Calif.Taiwanese film directorwho was in the vanguard of the Taiwanese New Wave, a 1980s movement that brought international attention to the island state with films that probed political, economic, and social issues in Taiwan’...
Yang, Frank (American physicist)
Chinese-born American theoretical physicist whose research with Tsung-Dao Lee showed that parity—the symmetry between physical phenomena occurring in right-handed and left-handed coordinate systems—is violated when certain elementary particles...
Yang Guang (emperor of Sui dynasty)
posthumous name (shi) of the second and penultimate emperor (604–617/618) of the Sui dynasty (581–618). Under the Yangdi emperor canals were built and great palaces erected....
Yang Guifei (Chinese concubine)
notorious beauty and concubine of the great Tang emperor Xuanzong (reigned 712–756). Because of her the emperor is said to have neglected his duties, and the Tang dynasty (618–907) was greatly weakened by a rebellion that ensued. Her story has been the subject of many outstanding Chinese poem...
Yang Guozhong (Chinese minister)
...An Lushan had accumulated three frontier provinces under his command and was the most powerful general in the empire. After the dictator’s demise an intense struggle developed between An Lushan and Yang Guozhong, the cousin of Yang Guifei, who attempted to take over Li Linfu’s position. Though Yang Guozhong could attack and destroy An Lushan’s supporters at court, he was un...
Yang Hsien-chih (Chinese author)
Among prose masters of the 6th century, two northerners deserve special mention: Yang Hsien-chih, author of Lo-yang Chia-lan chi (“Record of Buddhist Temples in Lo-yang”), and Li Tao-yüan, author of Shui Ching chu (“Commentary on the Water Classic”). Although both of these works seem to have been planned to serve a practical, utilitarian purpose, th...
Yang Hsiu-ch’ing (Chinese rebel leader)
organizer and commander in chief of the Taiping Rebellion, the political-religious uprising that occupied most of South China between 1850 and 1864....
Yang Hsiung (Chinese poet and philosopher)
Chinese poet and philosopher best known for his poetry written in the form known as fu....
Yang Hu-ch’eng (Chinese general)
Chiang was determined, however, to press on with his extermination campaign. He ordered the Manchurian army under Zhang Xueliang, now based in Xi’an (Sian), and the Northwestern army under Yang Hucheng (Yang Hu-ch’eng) to attack the communist forces in northern Shaanxi. Many officers in those armies sympathized with the communist slogan “Chinese don’t fight Chinese...
Yang Hucheng (Chinese general)
Chiang was determined, however, to press on with his extermination campaign. He ordered the Manchurian army under Zhang Xueliang, now based in Xi’an (Sian), and the Northwestern army under Yang Hucheng (Yang Hu-ch’eng) to attack the communist forces in northern Shaanxi. Many officers in those armies sympathized with the communist slogan “Chinese don’t fight Chinese...
Yang Hui (Chinese mathematician)
mathematician active in the great flowering of Chinese mathematics during the Southern Song dynasty....
Yang Hui suanfa (work by Yang Hui)
...of the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Procedures”) in a handwritten copy of an imperial Ming dynasty encyclopaedia, and he later discovered in Suzhou a Song dynasty edition of Yang Hui suanfa (1275; “Yang Hui’s Mathematical Methods”). The latter contains three treatises, Chengchu tongbian benmo (1274; “Fundament and......
Yang, Jerry (American businessman)
...of the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Procedures”) in a handwritten copy of an imperial Ming dynasty encyclopaedia, and he later discovered in Suzhou a Song dynasty edition of Yang Hui suanfa (1275; “Yang Hui’s Mathematical Methods”). The latter contains three treatises, Chengchu tongbian benmo (1274; “Fundament and.......
Yang, Jerry (American reproductive biologist)
July 31, 1959Weixian, Hebei province, ChinaFeb. 5, 2009Boston, Mass.Chinese-born American reproductive biologist who was a pioneer in cloning research who in 1999 succeeded in producing the first cloned farm animal in the U.S.—a Holstein calf named Amy. He was able to show that clone...
Yang Jian (emperor of Sui dynasty)
posthumous name (shi) of the emperor (reigned 581–604) who reunified and reorganized China after 300 years of instability, founding the Sui dynasty (581–618). He conquered southern China, which long had been divided into numerous small kingdoms, and he broke the power of the Turks in the northern part of the country....
Yang Kuei-fei (Chinese concubine)
notorious beauty and concubine of the great Tang emperor Xuanzong (reigned 712–756). Because of her the emperor is said to have neglected his duties, and the Tang dynasty (618–907) was greatly weakened by a rebellion that ensued. Her story has been the subject of many outstanding Chinese poem...
Yang Lan (Chinese businesswoman and journalist)
Chinese businesswoman and television journalist known for her focus on social and cultural issues....
Yang Liwei (Chinese astronaut)
Chinese astronaut and the first person sent into space by the Chinese space program....
Yang Meizi (Chinese emperor)
...leave a body of his own writings and he did not earn a biography in the dynastic history. He seems, however, to have been in high favour at court, particularly under Ningzong, who, with his empress, Yang Meizi, wrote poems or short inscriptions inspired by a number of his paintings....
Yang Qianguang (Chinese mathematician)
mathematician active in the great flowering of Chinese mathematics during the Southern Song dynasty....
Yang Quyun (Chinese leader)
...where he founded an anti-Manchu fraternity called the Revive China Society (Xingzhonghui). Returning to Hong Kong, he and some friends set up a similar society under the leadership of his associate Yang Quyun. Sun participated in an abortive attempt to capture Guangzhou in 1895, after which he sailed for England and then went to Japan in 1897, where he found much support. Tokyo became the......
Yang Shangkun (president of China)
Chinese revolutionary figure and politician who was a veteran of Mao Zedong’s Long March in 1934-35, in 1966 became a victim of Mao’s Cultural Revolution and was sent to prison for 12 years, and then regained power, serving as president from 1988 to 1993; in 1989, under instruction from national leader ...
Yang Shen (Chinese writer)
One of the great all-around literati of Ming times, representative in many ways of the dynamic and wide-ranging activities of the Ming scholar-official at his best, was Yang Shen. Yang won first place in the metropolitan examination of 1511, remonstrated vigorously against the caprices of the Zhengde and Jiajing emperors, and was finally beaten, imprisoned, removed from his post in the Hanlin......
Yang Shui (river, Shaanxi and Hubei provinces, China)
one of the most important tributaries of the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) of China. It has a total length of about 950 miles (1,530 km). The Han River rises in the Shenqiong Mountains, part of the Micang Mountains in the extreme southwestern part of Shaanxi province. It...
Yang Te-chih (Chinese military official)
Chinese military official (b. 1911, Zhuzhou (Chu-chou), Hunan province, China--d. Oct. 25, 1994, Beijing (Peking), China), joined the communist People’s Liberation Army (PLA) at its creation and went on to serve in virtually every major Chinese military conflict for the next 50 years, eventually becoming the army...
yang ts’ai (Chinese art)
...Chinese porcelain wares characterized by decoration painted in opaque overglaze rose colours, chiefly shades of pink and carmine. These colours were known to the Chinese as yangcai (“foreign colours”) because they were first introduced from Europe (about 1685). By the time of the reign of Yongzheng (1722–35) in the Qing dynasty......
Yang Wei (Chinese gymnast)
China’s Yang Wei defended his 2007 world all-around title by winning the Olympic all-around gold; he was followed by Japan’s Kohei Uchimura in second place and France’s Benoit Caranobe in third. Gymnasts from China won five of the six individual events for men as Zou claimed the gold in both the floor competition and the horizontal bar, Li won the parallel bars, Xiao defended ...
Yang Xi (Chinese Daoist)
...that had arisen in the north and west during the Dong Han. In that context, new priestly cults arose in the south. Their teachings were connected with a series of revelations, the first through Yang Xi, which led to the formation first of the Shangqing sect and later to the rival Lingbao sect. By the end of the period of division, Daoism had its own canons of scriptural writings, much......
Yang Xianyi (Chinese translator and intellectual)
Jan. 10, 1915Tianjin, ChinaNov. 23, 2009Beijing, ChinaChinese translator and intellectual who together with his wife, Gladys (d. 1999)—the daughter of a British missionary to China—made a number of classical and modern Chinese works available in English. He also translated the...
Yang Xiji (Chinese judge)
Yang Cheng (or Yang Xiji), who served the Wudi emperor (reigned 502–549 ce) as a criminal judge in Hunan province, was deeply disturbed that the ruler was destroying the normal family life of dwarfs by pressing them into service as personal servants and court entertainers. Yang admonished the emperor, pointing out that these unfortunate people were subjects, not slaves. The em...
Yang Xiong (Chinese poet and philosopher)
Chinese poet and philosopher best known for his poetry written in the form known as fu....
Yang Xiuqing (Chinese rebel leader)
organizer and commander in chief of the Taiping Rebellion, the political-religious uprising that occupied most of South China between 1850 and 1864....
Yang Yan (Chinese minister)
minister to the Tang emperor Dezong (reigned 779–805)....
Yang Yang (Chinese skater)
renowned Chinese short-track speed skater who at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, won China’s first-ever Winter Olympic gold medals and was the first short-track speed skater from any country to win multiple gold medals at one ...
Yang Yang (A) (Chinese skater)
renowned Chinese short-track speed skater who at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, won China’s first-ever Winter Olympic gold medals and was the first short-track speed skater from any country to win multiple gold medals at one ...
Yang Yen (Chinese minister)
minister to the Tang emperor Dezong (reigned 779–805)....