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T'ang, Chinese dynasty

(Encyclopedia)T'ang täng [key], dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907. It was founded by Li Yuan and his son Li Shih-min, with the aid of Turkish allies. The early strength of the T'ang was built directly up...

Japanese architecture

(Encyclopedia)Japanese architecture, structures created on the islands that constitute Japan. Evidence of prehistoric architecture in Japan has survived in the form of models of terra-cotta houses buried in tombs a...

Chinese architecture

(Encyclopedia)Chinese architecture, the buildings and other structures created in China from prehistoric times to the present day. Since the late 19th cent. the Chinese have adopted European architectural styles....

Khmer Empire

(Encyclopedia)Khmer Empire kəmĕrˈ [key], ancient kingdom of SE Asia. In the 6th cent. the Cambodians, or Khmers, established an empire roughly corresponding to modern Cambodia and Laos. Divided during the 8th ce...

sin, in religion

(Encyclopedia)sin, in religion, unethical act. The term implies disobedience to a personal God, as in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and is not used so often in systems such as Buddhism where there is no persona...

Mongols

(Encyclopedia)Mongols mŏngˈgəlz, –gōlz [key], Asian people, numbering about 6 million and distributed mainly in the Republic of Mongolia, the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region of China, and Kalmykia and the B...

Han, Chinese dynasty

(Encyclopedia)Han hän [key], dynasty of China that ruled from 202 b.c. to a.d. 220. Liu Pang, the first Han emperor, had been a farmer, minor village official, and guerrilla fighter under the Ch'in dynasty. During...

Chinese art

(Encyclopedia)Chinese art, works of art produced in the vast geographical region of China. It the oldest art in the world and has its origins in remote antiquity. (For the history of Chinese civilization, see China...

Southeast Asia

(Encyclopedia)Southeast Asia, region of Asia (1990 est. pop. 442,500,000), c.1,740,000 sq mi (4,506,600 sq km), bounded roughly by the Indian subcontinent on the west, China on the north, and the Pacific Ocean on t...

Japanese art

(Encyclopedia)Japanese art, works of art created in the islands that make up the nation of Japan. In the mid-19th cent. a few print designers attained distinction, but no masters appeared to equal their p...