Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Manchu

(Encyclopedia)Manchu mănˈcho͞o [key], people who lived in Manchuria for many centuries and who ruled China from 1644 until 1912. These people, related to the Tungus, were descended from the Jurchen, a tribe know...

Emei

(Encyclopedia)Emeiŭˈmāˈ or Omei ōˈmāˈ, ŭˈ– [key], peak, c.10,000 ft (3,050 m) high, SW Sichuan prov., central China. With many Buddhist images and temples and monasteries, it is one of China's sacred pe...

Needham, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Needham, Joseph nēdˈəm [key], 1900–1995, British biochemist, historian of science, and sinologist, b. London. He had a lifelong association with Cambridge, where he was educated (Ph.D. 1924), tau...

macramé

(Encyclopedia)macramé măkˈrəmāˌ [key], a technique of decorative knotting employing simple basic knots to create a multitude of patterns. The term derives from an Arabic word for braided fringe. Its first kno...

Wells

(Encyclopedia)Wells, town (1991 pop. 9,252), Somerset, SW England. Primarily a cathedral town, it has changed little since medieval times, although shopping and tourism have become important. The first church was e...

Chinese literature

(Encyclopedia)Chinese literature, the literature of ancient and modern China. Fiction during the first years after the 1949 Communist revolution depicted the great social transformations taking place. Party leade...

bacteriophage

(Encyclopedia)bacteriophage băktērˈēəfājˌ [key], virus that infects bacteria and sometimes destroys them by lysis, or dissolution of the cell. Bacteriophages, or phages, have a head composed of protein, an i...

Romanesque architecture and art

(Encyclopedia)Romanesque architecture and art, the artistic style that prevailed throughout Europe from the 10th to the mid-12th cent., although it persisted until considerably later in certain areas. The term Roma...

Changzhou

(Encyclopedia)Changzhou or Changchow both: chängˈjōˈ [key], city, S Jiangsu prov., E central China,...

Min

(Encyclopedia)Min mĭn [key]. 1 Chief river of Fujian prov., SE China, c.350 mi (560 km) long, rising in Wuyi shan and flowing SE to the South China Sea near Fuzhou; it receives several tributaries near Nanping. Fu...