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  • Jim Crow law (United States [1877-1954])
    in U.S. history, any of the laws that enforced racial segregation in the South between the end of the formal Reconstruction period in 1877 and the beginning of a strong civil rights movement in the 1950s. Jim Crow was the name of a minstrel routine (actually Jump Jim Crow) performed beginning in 1828 by its author, ...
  • Jim Fisk (ballad)
    ...“Lord Randal”; “Little Musgrave” is killed by Lord Barnard when he is discovered in bed with Lady Barnard, and the lady, too, is gorily dispatched. The murders of “Jim Fisk,” Johnny of “Frankie and Johnny,” and many other ballad victims are prompted by sexual jealousy. One particular variety of crime ballad, the “last goodnight...
  • “Jim Knopf und Lucas der Lokomotivführer” (work by Ende)
    ...by the Austrian Erica Lillegg, an extraordinary tale of split personality, odd, exciting, even profound. Michael Ende’s Jim Knopf und Lucas der Lokomotivführer (1961; Eng. trans., Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver, 1963) has more than a touch of Oz; and both Kästner and Krüss have made agreeable additions to the realm of fantasy....
  • Jim River (river, North Dakota-South Dakota, United States)
    river rising in Wells county, central North Dakota, U.S., and flowing in a generally south-southeasterly direction across South Dakota, to join the Missouri River about 5 miles (8 km) below Yankton after a course of 710 miles (1,140 km). Major cities along the river are Jamestown, N.D., and Huron and Mitchell, S.D. A number of dams have been constructed on the James River for recreation and water-...
  • Jim Thompson’s Thai House (museum, Bangkok, Thailand)
    ...houses prehistoric and Bronze Age art relics, as well as royal objects dating to the 6th century ad. The city also houses the National Library and the Thai National Documentation Department. Jim Thompson’s Thai House, named for a U.S. entrepreneur and devotee of Thai culture, is composed of several traditional Thai mansions; it contains the country’s largest collecti...
  • Jim Thorpe (Pennsylvania, United States)
    borough (town), seat of Carbon county, eastern Pennsylvania, U.S., on the Lehigh River, in a valley of the Pocono Mountains, 22 miles (35 km) northwest of Allentown. It was created in 1954 with the merger of the boroughs of Mauch Chunk (“Bear Mountain;” inc. 1850) and East Mauch Chunk (inc. 1854) and was named for Jim ...
  • Jim Thorpe–All American (American film)
    ...of the greatest athletes of all time, alcoholism and inability to adjust to employment outside sports reduced Thorpe to near poverty. The 1951 film biography of his life, titled Jim Thorpe—All American and starring Burt Lancaster, transformed his story into uplifting melodrama, with the fallen hero rescued by his old coach Pop Warner....
  • Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam (dam, Georgia, United States)
    ...First Seminole War (1817–18). The site was named for William Bainbridge, commander of the frigate Constitution, and developed as a lumbering town and river port. Downriver, the Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam (1957) impounds Lake Seminole, generates hydroelectricity, and controls navigation channels from the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. This navigational system made Bainbridge.....
  • Jima (Ethiopia)
    town, southwestern Ethiopia, 220 miles (353 km) by road southwest of Addis Ababa. It lies at an elevation of 5,740 feet (1,750 m) in a forested region known for its coffee plantations. Jima serves as the commercial centre for the region, handling coffee and other products. An agricultural school and an airport serve the town. Potassium and sodium nitrates are mined to the northeast. Pop. (1984 pre...
  • Jimaní (Dominican Republic)
    city, southwestern Dominican Republic. It is situated in a hilly region between the western shore of Lake Enriquillo and the Haitian border. The city is a trade centre for the coffee, fruits, and timber produced in the region. Jimaní is accessible by secondary highway from communities in both the Dominican Republic and Haiti. In 2004, flooding and mudslides devastated the...
  • Jiménez (Costa Rica)
    ...The generally low-lying terrain, rising to an elevation of 2,566 feet (782 metres) at Tigre Hill, is used for livestock raising. The principal town on the peninsula is the port of Jiménez, on the Gulf of Dulce. No major highways or railways lead onto Osa. The peninsula contains a complex of national parks and refuges; Corcovado National Park, the largest and most......
  • Jiménez de Cisneros, Francisco, Cardenal (Spanish cardinal)
    prelate, religious reformer, and twice regent of Spain (1506, 1516–17). In 1507 he became both a cardinal and the grand inquisitor of Spain, and during his public life he sought the forced conversion of the Spanish Moors and promoted crusades to conquer North Africa....
  • Jiménez de Quesada, Gonzalo (Spanish conquistador)
    Spanish conquistador who led the expedition that won the region of New Granada (Colombia) for Spain....
  • Jiménez de Rada, Rodrigo (archbishop of Toledo)
    Immobilized for several years by his crushing defeat at Alarcos (1195) at the hands of the Almohads, King Alfonso VIII of Castile and Leon gained the sympathy of the archbishop of Toledo, Rodrigo Jiménez de Rada, who proceeded to stir up religious indignation at the Muslim victory over Christians. A proclamation of a crusade was obtained from Pope Innocent III, which elicited further......
  • Jiménez, Francisco (Spanish priest)
    The original book was discovered at the beginning of the 18th century by Francisco Jiménez (or Ximénez), parish priest of Chichicastenango in highland Guatemala. He both copied the original Quiché text (now lost) and translated it into Spanish. His work is now in the Newberry Library, Chicago....
  • Jiménez, Juan Ramón (Spanish poet)
    Spanish poet awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1956....
  • Jiménez Lozano, José (Spanish author)
    ...novel, science fiction, adventure novels, and the thriller. Despite this proliferation of modes, many novelists continued producing what might be considered “traditional” narrative. José Jiménez Lozano investigates Inquisitorial repression, recondite religious issues, and esoteric historical themes drawn from a variety of cultures in such novels as Historia......
  • Jiménez, Luis Alfonso, Jr. (American sculptor)
    American Chicano sculptor (b. July 30, 1940, El Paso, Texas—d. June 13, 2006, Hondo, N.M.), created large-scale works in metal and fibreglass that he spray-painted in electric colours. Considered an important Hispanic artist, Jiménez usually chose as subjects icons from his home and ancestral regions, such as Indian and Mexican dancers, cowboys, and horses. His work was sometimes att...
  • Jiménez, Marcos Pérez (president of Venezuela)
    professional soldier and president (1952–58) of Venezuela whose regime was marked by extravagance, corruption, police oppression, and mounting unemployment....
  • Jimeta (Nigeria)
    town, Adamawa state, eastern Nigeria. It lies on the south bank of the Benue River, and on the highway between Zing and Girei. Merged with Yola in 1935 by the Fulani administration, Jimeta regained independent town status with its own council in 1955. With the construction of a spur road to Yola (5.5 miles [9 km] south-southeast), the town became a river port for Yola, gradually...
  • Jimi Hendrix Experience (American-British rock group)
    By November his band, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, had their first Top Ten single, “Hey Joe.” Two more hits, “Purple Haze” and “The Wind Cries Mary,” followed before their first album, Are You Experienced?, was released in the summer of 1967, when it was second in impact only to the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely He...
  • Jímma (Ethiopia)
    town, southwestern Ethiopia, 220 miles (353 km) by road southwest of Addis Ababa. It lies at an elevation of 5,740 feet (1,750 m) in a forested region known for its coffee plantations. Jima serves as the commercial centre for the region, handling coffee and other products. An agricultural school and an airport serve the town. Potassium and sodium nitrates are mined to the northeast. Pop. (1984 pre...
  • Jimmu (legendary emperor of Japan)
    legendary first emperor of Japan and founder of the imperial dynasty....
  • Jimmu Tennō (legendary emperor of Japan)
    legendary first emperor of Japan and founder of the imperial dynasty....
  • Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth (work by Ware)
    Chris Ware’s ironically titled Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth (2000), a long, drawn-out, formally innovative, eerily desperate autobiographical mosaic, is designed in a haunting rhythm of differently sized and related panel clusters, with Proustian memorial parentheses. It presents a bleak vision of childhood suffering, the pain of which the rigidly calligraphic draw...
  • Jimmy the Greek (American television personality)
    ("JIMMY THE GREEK"; DIMETRIOS GEORGOS SYNODINOS), U.S. gambling oddsmaker and television personality whose success as a betting analyst won him an $800,000-a-year stint on the CBS sports show "NFL Today" that ended in 1988 because he made an ethnic slur (b. 1918--d. April 21, 1996)....
  • Jimson weed (plant)
    annual, herbaceous, tropical plant (Datura stramonium) of the potato family (Solanaceae) that has become an introduced weed throughout much of the Northern Hemisphere. The plant was used by Algonquin Indians in eastern North America as a hallucinogen and intoxicant. The leaves contain potent alkaloids (hyoscamine and hyoscine), and the plant has been used to develop a drug (stramon...
  • jimsonweed (plant)
    annual, herbaceous, tropical plant (Datura stramonium) of the potato family (Solanaceae) that has become an introduced weed throughout much of the Northern Hemisphere. The plant was used by Algonquin Indians in eastern North America as a hallucinogen and intoxicant. The leaves contain potent alkaloids (hyoscamine and hyoscine), and the plant has been used to develop a drug (stramon...
  • Jimyō Temple (temple, Kyōto, Japan)
    ...from the military. The occasion was provided by the question of the imperial succession. In the mid-13th century two competing lines for the succession emerged—the senior line centred on the Jimyō Temple in Kyōto and the junior line centred on the Daikaku Temple on the western edge of the city. In the last half of the century, each side sought to win the support of the......
  • Jin dynasty (China-Mongolia [1115-1234])
    (1115–1234), dynasty that ruled an empire formed by the Tungus Juchen (or Jurchen) tribes of Manchuria. The empire covered much of Inner Asia and all of present-day North China....
  • Jin dynasty (China, AD 265-316/317, AD 317-420)
    Chinese dynasty that comprises two distinct phases—the Xi (Western) Jin, ruling China from ad 265 to 316/317, and the Dong (Eastern) Jin, which ruled China from ad 317 to 420. The Dong Jin is considered one of the Six Dynasties....
  • Jin Fu (Chinese official)
    ...that commanded Kangxi’s attention. Long neglected, the river repeatedly flooded the land near where it joined the Huai River, causing great damage to northern Jiangsu. In 1677 Kangxi appointed Jin Fu superintendent of riparian works; in 1683 Jin finished embanking and dredging to stabilize the flow of the river. At the same time, the Grand Canal, the important arterial waterway that......
  • Jin, Ha (Chinese-American author)
    Chinese American writer Ha Jin won the PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction in 2000 for his novel Waiting. When, a year earlier, the novel had won the 1999 National Book Award, critics noted that in certain respects the choice was an unusual one. Jin’s first language was not English, and Waiting was his first full-length novel. Further, it was a story not about assimilation into Ame...
  • Jin River (river, China)
    Fukien’s rivers are still in use for transportation. The headwaters of the Chin River, a tributary of the Fu-t’un River, are navigable for small boats right up to the Wu-i Mountains, despite the river’s rocky channel and many rapids; boats bring downstream the tea grown on the slopes of the mountains. Below Chien-ning, larger boats of special construction are employed for the ...
  • Jin Shizu (emperor of Jin dynasty)
    posthumous name (shi) of the founder and first emperor (265–290) of the Xi (Western) Jin dynasty (265–316/317), which briefly reunited China during the turbulent period following the dissolution of the Han dynasty (206 bc–ad 220)....
  • Jina (Jainism)
    (“Victor”), in Jainism (a religion of India), a saviour who has succeeded in crossing over life’s stream of rebirths and has made a path for others to follow. Mahāvīra (6th century bc) was the last Tirthankara to appear. His predecessor, Pārśvanātha, lived about 250 years earlier; the other...
  • Jinādiriyyah, Al- (Saudi Arabian festival)
    Al-Jinādiriyyah, a national heritage and culture festival, is a major event held annually near Riyadh. One of the largest cultural festivals of its kind in the Arab world, Al-Jinādiriyyah hosts Arab, Muslim, and international celebrities participating in panel discussions, intellectual forums, and poetry sessions. In addition, Al-Jinādiriyyah offers exhibitions, shopping,......
  • Jinan (China)
    city and capital, Shandong sheng (province), China. It lies in the northern foothills of the Mount Tai massif, on the high ground just south of the Huang He (Yellow River), which provides the major route along the north side of the Shandong Hills. Pop. (2002 est.) city, 2,345,969; (2007 est.) urban agg...
  • Jinān, al- (Syrian journal)
    ...set during the 7th-century Islamic conquest of Syria, by Salīm al-Bustānī. The latter work appeared in serial form in the Bustānī family’s journal, Al-Jinān, and this publication mode established a pattern that was to be followed by writers of Arabic fiction for many subsequent decades. Premodern history also came to be f...
  • Jinasena (Jaina monk)
    ...and poems, which were written in Prakrit, Kannada, and Sanskrit. A number of kings provided patronage for this literary activity, and some wrote various works of literature themselves. The monk Jinasena, for example, wrote Sanskrit philosophical treatises and poetry with the support of the Rashtrakuta king Amoghavarsha I. An author in Kannada and Sanskrit, Amoghavarsha apparently renounced......
  • jinbi shanshui (Chinese art)
    style of Chinese landscape painting during the Sui (581–618) and Tang (618–907) dynasties....
  • Jinchang (China)
    ...direct supervision of the provincial government—Lan-chou itself; Chia-yü-kuan, at the western terminus of the Great Wall (which runs from northwest to southeast through the province); and Chin-ch’ang in the central sector of Kansu. Intermediate administrative divisions include eight prefectures (ti-ch’ü) and two autonomous prefectures (tzu-chih-chou...
  • Jind (India)
    city, central Haryāna state, northwestern India, on road and rail routes to Delhi, 70 miles (110 km) southeast. Another rail line connects it eastward to Pānīpat. Jīnd is said to have been founded by the Pāṇḍavas of the Mahābhārata epic, who built a temple, around which the town of Jaintapuri (Jīnd) gre...
  • Jindřich of Lípa (Bohemian noble)
    ...Archbishop Petr of Aspelt, followed John to Prague and tried to uphold the royal authority. In the resulting conflict, a powerful aristocratic faction scored a decisive victory in 1318. Its leader, Jindřich of Lípa, virtually ruled over Bohemia until his death in 1329. John found satisfaction in tournaments and military expeditions, and he attached to Bohemia some adjacent......
  • Jindyworobak movement (Australian literature)
    brief nationalistic Australian literary movement of the 1930s to mid-1940s that sought to promote native ideas and traditions, especially in literature. ...
  • Jing Hao (Chinese artist)
    important landscape painter and essayist of the Five Dynasties (907–960) period....
  • Jing He (river, China)
    river in north-central China, the largest tributary of the Wei River. It rises in the Liupan Mountains of the Hui Autonomous Region of Ningxia and flows about 280 miles (450 km) through Gansu province to central Shaanxi where it empties into the Wei....
  • Jing River (river, China)
    river in north-central China, the largest tributary of the Wei River. It rises in the Liupan Mountains of the Hui Autonomous Region of Ningxia and flows about 280 miles (450 km) through Gansu province to central Shaanxi where it empties into the Wei....
  • Jing-Hang Yunhe (canal, China)
    series of waterways in eastern and northern China that link Hangzhou in Zhejiang province with Beijing. Some 1,085 miles (1,747 km) in length, it is the world’s longest man-made waterway, though, strictly speaking, not all of it is a canal. It was built to enable successive Chinese regimes to transport surplus grain...
  • Jinga (African queen)
    ...century, it was loosely under the orbit of the Kongo kingdom until about 1550. The Matamba kingdom was noteworthy in that it was frequently ruled by females. In 1630–32 it was conquered by Njinga Mbande (often referred to simply as Njinga, also spelled Nzinga, Jinga, or Ginga; also known by her Christian name, Ana de Sousa), ruler of the neighbouring Ndongo kingdom, when she was......
  • Jingaweit (Sudanese militia)
    ...was the Sudanese government’s disregard for the western region and its non-Arab population. The government in Khartoum responded by creating an Arab militia force—which came to be known as Janjaweed (also Jingaweit or Janjawid)—that began attacking the sedentary groups in Darfur. Within a year, tens of thousands of people (primarily Fur and other agriculturalists) had been....
  • Jingdezhen (China)
    city, northeastern Jiangxi sheng (province), southeastern China. Situated on the south bank of the Chang River, it was originally a market town called Changnanzhen and received its present name in 1004, the first year of the Jingde era during the Song dynasty (960–1279). Throughout the centuries it was administrat...
  • Jingdi (emperor of Qing dynasty)
    reign name (nianhao) of the ninth emperor (reigned 1874/75–1908) of the Qing dynasty, during whose reign the empress dowager Cixi (1835–1908) totally dominated the government and thereby prevented the young emperor from modernizing and reforming the deteriorating imperial system....
  • Jingdi (emperor of Han dynasty)
    posthumous name (shi) of the fifth emperor of the Han dynasty, during whose reign (157–141 bc) an attempt was made to limit the power of the great feudal princes, who had been enfeoffed in separate kingdoms during the tolerant rule of Jingdi’s father, the Wendi emperor (reigned 180–157 ...
  • Jinggang Mountains (mountain range, China)
    ...from Hunan. Mao was largely responsible for encouraging the peasants and miners to make the abortive Autumn Harvest Uprising of 1927. He subsequently held the Communist forces together in the Ching-kang Mountains, where they withstood repeated attacks by the forces of Chiang Kai-shek, the Chinese Nationalist leader. In 1934 Mao set out from the Hunan–Kiangsi border region, leading......
  • Jinghis Khan (Mongolian emperor)
    Mongolian warrior-ruler, one of the most famous conquerors of history, who consolidated tribes into a unified Mongolia and then extended his empire across Asia to the Adriatic Sea....
  • Jinghong (China)
    city, southern Yunnan sheng (province), southwestern China. It is situated in a rich basin on the west bank of the Mekong (Lancang) River, near the borders of Myanmar (Burma) and Laos. A military-civilian administration of Cheli Region was set up there during the Yuan dynasty (1206–1368). During...
  • Jinghpaw language
    ...in the widest sense of the word) comprises a number of dialects and languages spoken in Tibet and the Himalayas. Burmic (Burmese in its widest application) includes Yi (Lolo), Hani, Lahu, Lisu, Kachin (Jingpo), Kuki-Chin, the obsolete Xixia (Tangut), and other languages. The Tibetan writing system (which dates from the 7th century) and the Burmese (dating from the 11th century) are derived......
  • jinghu (musical instrument)
    Chinese two-stringed fiddle that is the principal melodic instrument in jingxi (Peking opera) ensembles. The smallest (and therefore highest-pitched) of the Chinese spike fiddles (huqin), the jinghu is about 50 cm (20 inche...
  • Jingikan (Japanese history)
    ...government was headed by twin agencies—the Council of State (Dajōkan), which combined within its functions the various practical aspects of administration, and the Office of Deities (Jingikan), a parallel bureaucracy for the worship of the deities. Prospective bureaucrats were required to study at a central college and to pass prescribed examinations; during their term of office.....
  • jingji tequ (Chinese economics)
    any of several localities in which foreign and domestic trade and investment are conducted without the authorization of the Chinese central government in Beijing. Special economic zones are intended to function as zones of rapid economic growth by using tax and business incentives to attract foreign investment and technology....
  • jingle shell (bivalve)
    any of several marine invertebrates of the class Bivalvia belonging to the family Anomiidae. In most species of these oysterlike bivalves, one valve (i.e., half) of the shell is closely appressed to a rock surface and has a large hole or embayment in its wall through which a calcified byssus (tuft of horny threads) attaches to the rock and thus anchors the animal. The shell’s upper v...
  • jingling Johnny (musical instrument)
    musical instrument consisting of a pole ornamented with a canopy (pavillon), a crescent, and other shapes hung with bells and metal jingling objects, and often surmounted by horsetails. It possibly originated as the staff of a Central Asian shaman, and it was part of the Turkish military Janissary band that stimulated the late 18th-century European vogue for Turkish music...
  • Jingō (empress of Japan)
    semilegendary empress-regent of Japan who is said to have established Japanese hegemony over Korea....
  • jingoism (nationalism)
    an attitude of belligerent nationalism, the English equivalent of the term chauvinism. The term apparently originated in England during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 when the British Mediterranean squadron was sent to Gallipoli to restrain Russia and war fever was aroused. Supporters of the British government’s policy toward Russia came to be called jingoes as a result of the phr...
  • Jingoki (Japanese mathematics)
    Although not the first mathematical book written in Japan, Jingoki (“Inalterable Treatise”), published in 1627 by Yoshida Mitsuyoshi, seems to be the first book that played an important role in the emerging Japanese tradition. Inspired by the Chinese text “Systematic Treatise on Mathematics,” whose importance is stressed above, it described in Japanese the....
  • Jingozaemon (Japanese military strategist)
    military strategist and Confucian philosopher who set forth the first systematic exposition of the missions and obligations of the samurai (warrior) class and who made major contributions to Japanese military science. Yamaga’s thought became the central core of what later came to be known as Bushido (Code of Warriors), which was the guiding ethos of Japan’s military throughout the To...
  • Jingpo language
    ...in the widest sense of the word) comprises a number of dialects and languages spoken in Tibet and the Himalayas. Burmic (Burmese in its widest application) includes Yi (Lolo), Hani, Lahu, Lisu, Kachin (Jingpo), Kuki-Chin, the obsolete Xixia (Tangut), and other languages. The Tibetan writing system (which dates from the 7th century) and the Burmese (dating from the 11th century) are derived......
  • Jingshan Park (park, Beijing, China)
    Jingshan (Prospect Hill) Park, also known as Meishan (Coal Hill) Park, is a man-made hill, more than a mile (1.6 km) in circumference, located north of the Forbidden City. The hill, offering a spectacular panorama of Beijing from its summit, has five ridges, with a pavilion on each. The hill was the scene of a historical tragedy when in 1644, at the end of the Ming dynasty, the defeated Ming......
  • Jingshi dadian (Chinese history)
    ...(shilu) and other governmental compendiums. The major achievement of official historiography was the compilation (1329–33) of the Jingshi dadian, a repository of 800 juan (chapters) of official documents and laws; the text is now lost. Private historiography, especially works on......
  • Jingtai (emperor of Ming dynasty)
    reign name (nianhao) of the seventh emperor (reigned 1449–57) of the Ming dynasty. He ascended to the throne after his brother, the Zhengtong emperor, was captured while leading the imperial forces against the Oryat (western Mongol) leader Esen Taiji in 1449. When Esen tried to take advantage of...
  • jingtian (Chinese history)
    the communal land organization supposedly in effect throughout China early in the Zhou dynasty (c. 1046–256 bce). The well-field system was first mentioned in the literature of the late Zhou dynasty (c. 4th century bce), especially in the writings of the famous Confucian philosopher Mencius, who advocated it as ...
  • Jingū (empress of Japan)
    semilegendary empress-regent of Japan who is said to have established Japanese hegemony over Korea....
  • Jingū Kōgō (empress of Japan)
    semilegendary empress-regent of Japan who is said to have established Japanese hegemony over Korea....
  • Jingu qiguan (Chinese anthology)
    ...of them became a fad of the last Ming century. The master writer and editor in this realm was Feng Menglong, whose creations and influence dominate the best-known anthology, Jingu qiguan (“Wonders Old and New”), published in Suzhou in 1624....
  • jingxi (Chinese theatre)
    popular Chinese theatrical form that developed in the mid-19th century. It incorporated elements of huidiao from Anhui, dandiao from Hubei, and kunqu, the traditional opera that had predominated since the 14th century. Sung in Mandarin, the dial...
  • Jingzhong (Chinese inventor)
    Chinese court official who is traditionally credited with the invention of paper....
  • Jingzhou (China)
    city and river port, southern Hubei sheng (province), south-central China. It is located on the north bank of the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) near Lake Chang. The city was established in 1994 by combining what was then the city of Shashi with Jiangling county and the former Jingzhou prefecture; the name was changed to Ji...
  • Jingzong (emperor of Xi Xia)
    leader of the Tangut (Chinese: Dangxiang) tribes, a people who inhabited the northwestern region of China in what are now parts of Gansu and Shaanxi provinces and the Ningxia Hui and Inner Mongolia autonomous regions. Li founded the Xia (or Daxia) dynasty (1038–1227), usually referred to as the Xi (Western) Xia....
  • Jinhua (China)
    city, central Zhejiang sheng (province), China. Jinhua is the natural centre of the eastern half of the Jin-Qu (Jinhua-Quzhou) Basin, being situated at the junction of two of the tributaries of the Wu (Jinhua) River—the Dongyang River and the Wuyi River. It is also a junction on the railway from Hangzhou to Nanchang in Jiangxi ...
  • Jining (former city, Inner Mongolia, China)
    former city, south-central Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China. In 2003 it became part of the large and newly formed Ulanqab municipality....
  • Jining (Shandong, China)
    city, southwestern Shandong sheng (province), China. In early times the seat of the state of Ren, it later became a part of the state of Qi, which flourished in the Zhou period (1046–256 bce). It underwent many changes of name and administrative status. The present name, Jining, first appeared under ...
  • Jinja (Uganda)
    town, southeastern Uganda, eastern Africa, where the Nile flows out of Lake Victoria, at 3,740 feet (1,140 metres) above sea level. The second largest town in Uganda, it was founded in 1901 as a British administrative centre. When construction on the Owen Falls Dam (now the Nalubaale Dam), 3 miles (5 km) downstream, was completed in 1954, the hydroele...
  • jinja (Japanese religious architecture)
    in the Shintō religion of Japan, the place where the spirit of a deity is enshrined or to which it is summoned. Historically, jinja were located in places of great natural beauty; in modern times, however, urban shrines have become common. Though they may vary from large complexes of buildings to small, obscure roadside places of prayer, they generally consist of three units: (1) th...
  • Jinja Honchō (religious organization, Japan)
    ...revenue from tourism and local services such as kindergartens. Many priests work at second jobs to maintain themselves and their families. Most of the more than 97,000 shrines in Japan belong to the Jinja Honchō (Association of Shintō Shrines); its membership includes the majority of Japan’s 107,000,000 Shintō worshipers. Each shrine is managed by its own shrine comm...
  • Jinja Shintō (Japanese religion)
    form of the Shintō religion of Japan that focusses on worship in public shrines, in contrast to folk and sectarian practices (see Kyōha Shintō); the successor to State Shintō, the nationalistic cult disbanded by decree of the Allied occupation forces at the end of World War II and subsequently in the Japanese constitution. Mo...
  • Jinjī (fortress, India)
    site of an almost inaccessible fortress constructed by the Hindu rulers of the Vijayanagar Empire (c. 1347–1642). It is located about 80 miles (130 km) southwest of Madras in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu....
  • jink (cards)
    If anyone wins the first three tricks straight off, that player may sweep the pool without further play. Alternatively, that player may lead to the fourth trick (“jink”), thereby undertaking to win all five. If he then loses a trick, he loses his stake. Jinking is now often omitted from the standard game....
  • Jinken shinsetsu (work by Katō Hiroyuki)
    ...the Prussian, not the British or French, model. The Meiji constitution also held that human rights were not inalienable but a privilege granted by the state, a position taken by Katō in his Jinken shinsetsu (1882; “New Theory on Human Rights”)....
  • Jinling Bajia (Chinese artists)
    group of Chinese artists who lived and worked during the late 17th century in Nanjing (known as Jinling during the early Tang dynasty, c. 7th century). Although their group identity derives largely from the locale in which they worked, certain aesthetic similarities are discernible: their paintings, usually landscapes, are often uneven in quality and rather rustic....
  • Jinmen Dao (island, Taiwan)
    island under the jurisdiction of Taiwan in the Taiwan Strait at the mouth of mainland China’s Xiamen (Amoy) Bay and about 170 miles (275 km) northwest of Kao-hsiung, Taiwan. Quemoy is the principal island of a group of 12, the Quemoy (Chin-men) Islands, which constitute Chin-men hsien (county). While most of the s...
  • jinn (Arabian mythology)
    in Arabic mythology, a supernatural spirit below the level of angels and devils. Ghūl (treacherous spirits of changing shape), ʿifrīt (diabolic, evil spirits), and siʿlā (treacherous spirits of invariable form) constitute classes of jinn. Jinn are beings of flame or air who are capable of assuming human o...
  • Jinnah Barrage (hydrology project, Pakistan)
    ...Most of the Sind Sagar Doab, the most western of the doabs of Punjab, was an unproductive wasteland (known as the Thal Desert) before the construction of the Jinnah Barrage on the Indus River near Kalabagh in 1946. The Thal canal system, which draws water from the barrage, has turned parts of the desert into fertile cultivated land....
  • Jinnah, Mohammed Ali (Pakistani governor-general)
    Indian Muslim politician, founder and first governor-general (1947–48) of Pakistan....
  • jinni (Arabian mythology)
    in Arabic mythology, a supernatural spirit below the level of angels and devils. Ghūl (treacherous spirits of changing shape), ʿifrīt (diabolic, evil spirits), and siʿlā (treacherous spirits of invariable form) constitute classes of jinn. Jinn are beings of flame or air who are capable of assuming human o...
  • jinnī (Arabian mythology)
    in Arabic mythology, a supernatural spirit below the level of angels and devils. Ghūl (treacherous spirits of changing shape), ʿifrīt (diabolic, evil spirits), and siʿlā (treacherous spirits of invariable form) constitute classes of jinn. Jinn are beings of flame or air who are capable of assuming human o...
  • Jinno shotoki (work by Kitabatake)
    Japanese warrior, statesman, and author of the influential politico-historical treatise Jinnō shōtōki (“Record of the Legitimate Succession of the Divine Emperors”), which set forth the mystic and nationalist doctrine that Japan had a unique superiority among nations because of its unbroken succession of divine rulers....
  • Jinotega (Nicaragua)
    city, north-central Nicaragua. It lies in the central highlands just south of Lake Apanás. The city was a site of rebel incursions during the Contra war, mainly in the Jinotega mountains. The surrounding area is rugged, but its fertile soils produce coffee, tobacco, corn (maize), beans, potatoes, other vegetables, fruits, and wheat. Jinotega’s industrial activitie...
  • Jinotepe (Nicaragua)
    city, southwestern Nicaragua. It is situated in the Diriamba Highlands at an elevation of 1,867 feet (569 m) above sea level. Given city status in 1883, it was a scene of heavy fighting in 1979 between Sandinista guerrillas and government troops. Jinotepe is a major commercial and manufacturing centre. The hinterland is known primarily for its coffee, but rice, sugarcane, and se...
  • Jinpingmei (Chinese literature)
    the first realistic social novel to appear in China. It is the work of an unknown author of the Ming dynasty, and its earliest extant version is dated 1617. Two English versions were published in 1939 under the titles The Golden Lotus and Chin P’ing Mei: The Adventurous History of Hsi Men and His Six Wives; the first two volumes of a later translation, The Pl...
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