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Ur-Nammu

(Encyclopedia)Ur-Nammu ŭr-nämˈo͞o [key], fl. 2060 b.c., king of the ancient city of Ur, sometimes called Zur-Nammu or Ur-Engur. He founded a new Sumerian dynasty, the third dynasty of Ur, that lasted a century....

Yen, James Y. C.

(Encyclopedia)Yen, James Y. C. yĕn [key], Mandarin Yen Yang-chu, 1893–1990, Chinese educator, b. Sichuan prov., China, educated at Yale (B.A., 1918) and Princeton (M.A., 1920) universities. Yen devised a simplif...

Li Dazhao

(Encyclopedia)Li Dazhao lē dä-jou [key], 1888–1927, professor of history and librarian at Beijing Univ., cofounder of the Chinese Communist party with Chen Duxiu. He was the first important Chinese intellectual...

lychee

(Encyclopedia)lychee lēˈchē [key], Chinese tree (Litchi chinensis) of the family Sapindaceae (soapberry family), having a small, aromatic, pulpy fruit with a large seed within a thin, rough shell. It is the best...

Liu Shaoqi

(Encyclopedia)Liu Shaoqi or Liu Shao-ch'i both: lyo͞o shou-chē [key], 1898?–1969, Chinese Communist political leader. Liu joined (1920) a Comintern organization in Shanghai, where he studied Russian. While in M...

Zhang Xianliang

(Encyclopedia)Zhang Xianliang jäng shyän-lyäng [key], 1936–, Chinese writer. During the 1957 antirightist campaign, the Chinese Communists judged his poetry deviant and sentenced him to prison in Ningxia. He w...

Yin

(Encyclopedia)Yin, dynasty of China: see Shang.

Buyid

(Encyclopedia)Buyid bo͞oˈyĭd [key], Shiite Islamic dynasty of N Persian descent that controlled Iraq and Persia from c.945 to 1060; founded by the sons of Buyeh. In the 930s, Buyeh's sons (Ali, Hasan, and Ahmad)...

Amyot, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Amyot or Amiot, Joseph ämyōˈ [key], 1718–1794?, French Roman Catholic missionary in China, a Jesuit. He wrote a long treatise on the history, sciences, and customs of the Chinese (15 vol., 1776�...

Mo Yan

(Encyclopedia)Mo Yan, 1955–, Chinese novelist, pen name of Guan Moye, b. Shandong prov. Mo is one of contemporary China's most prolific and popular writers. He left school in the fifth grade and did farm and fact...