1.
Kaei
–
Kaei was a Japanese era name after Kōka and before Ansei. This period spanned the years from February 1848 through November 1854, February 28,1848 Kaei gannen, The era name of Kaei was created to mark the beginning of the reign of the Emperor Kōmei. The era name is derived from an aphorism in the Book of Song, A wise Emperor receives much help, july 1848, Ranald MacDonald, left the whaler Plymouth in a small boat and landed on Rishiri Island. 1849, Medical practice of vaccination introduced by Dutch physician, Dr. Mohnike, july 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry, commanding the United States Navys East Indies fleet, arrives in Japanese waters with four ships. The prince was moved, and expressed his gratitude with evident feeling. The commodore next presented the other commissioners with gifts he had reserved for them. -- from American eyewitness account of the event May 2,1854, Fire broke out in the Sentō, the emperor took refuge at Shimokam and afterwards went to Shōgon-in. November 4–7,1854, Great Nankaidō earthquakes and tsunamis kill 80,000 people,1854, The era name was changed to Ansei, which was meant to herald the beginning of a peaceful period. The impetus and explanation for this change of era names was said to have been the burning of the Palace in Kyoto in the preceding summer, a History of Japan, 1582-1941, Internal and External Worlds. ISBN9780521821551, ISBN9780521529181, OCLC50694793 Hammer, Joshua, Yokohama Burning, The Deadly 1923 Earthquake and Fire that Helped Forge the Path to World War II. ISBN9780743264655, OCLC67774380 Hawks, Francis, narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan Performed in the Years 1852,1853 and 1854 under the Command of Commodore M. C. Perry, United States Navy, Washington, A. O. P, nicholson by order of Congress,1856, originally published in Senate Executive Documents, No.34 of 33rd Congress, 2nd Session. OCLC366454 Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric and Käthe Roth, ISBN 978-0-674-01753-5, OCLC48943301 Ponsonby-Fane, Richard A. B. Kyoto, The Old Capital of Japan, 794-1869, Japan 1853-1864, Or, Genji Yume Monogatari. The Logbook of the Captains Clerk, Adventures in the China Seas, Bangor, Maine, notes on the history of medical progress in Japan, Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Yokohama, R. J
Kaei
–
Shōsōin
2.
Rice
–
Rice is the seed of the grass species Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima. As a cereal grain, it is the most widely consumed staple food for a part of the worlds human population. It is the agricultural commodity with the third-highest worldwide production, after sugarcane and maize, wild rice, from which the crop was developed, may have its native range in Australia. Chinese legends attribute the domestication of rice to Shennong, the emperor of China. Genetic evidence has shown that rice originates from a single domestication 8, previously, archaeological evidence had suggested that rice was domesticated in the Yangtze River valley region in China. From East Asia, rice was spread to Southeast and South Asia, Rice was introduced to Europe through Western Asia, and to the Americas through European colonization. There are many varieties of rice and culinary preferences tend to vary regionally, in some areas such as the Far East or Spain, there is a preference for softer and stickier varieties. Rice, a monocot, is grown as an annual plant, although in tropical areas it can survive as a perennial. The rice plant can grow to 1–1.8 m tall, occasionally more depending on the variety and it has long, slender leaves 50–100 cm long and 2–2.5 cm broad. The small wind-pollinated flowers are produced in a branched arching to pendulous inflorescence 30–50 cm long, the edible seed is a grain 5–12 mm long and 2–3 mm thick. Rice cultivation is well-suited to countries and regions with low costs and high rainfall, as it is labor-intensive to cultivate. However, rice can be grown practically anywhere, even on a hill or mountain area with the use of water-controlling terrace systems. Although its parent species are native to Asia and certain parts of Africa, centuries of trade, the traditional method for cultivating rice is flooding the fields while, or after, setting the young seedlings. The name wild rice is used for species of the genera Zizania and Porteresia. The Greek word is the source of all European words, the origin of the Greek word is unclear. It is sometimes held to be from the Tamil word அரிசி, however, Krishnamurti disagrees with the notion that Old Tamil arici is the source of the Greek term, and proposes that it was borrowed from descendants of Proto-Dravidian *wariñci instead. The varieties of rice are typically classified as long-, medium-, the grains of long-grain rice tend to remain intact after cooking, medium-grain rice becomes more sticky. Medium-grain rice is used for dishes, for risotto in Italy
Rice
–
A mixture of brown, white, and red indica rice, also containing
wild rice, Zizania species
Rice
–
Oryza sativa with small
wind-pollinated flowers
Rice
–
Cooked brown rice from Bhutan
Rice
–
Rice can come in many shapes, colours and sizes. Photo by the
IRRI.
3.
History of Chinese currency
–
The history of Chinese currency spans more than 3000 years. Currency of some type has used in China since the Neolithic age which can be traced back to between 3000 and 4500 years ago. Cowry shells are believed to have been the earliest form of used in Central China. Around 210 BC, the first emperor of China Qin Shi Huang abolished all forms of local currency. Paper money was invented in China in the 9th century, copper coins were used as the chief denomination of currency in China until the introduction of the yuan in the late 19th century. Currently, the renminbi is the currency of the Peoples Republic of China. It is the tender in mainland China, but not in Hong Kong or Macau. The special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau use the Hong Kong dollar, the use of shell money is attested to in the Chinese writing system. However, copies of cowry shells made out of bone, wood, stone, lead, the Chinese may have invented the first metal coins, coins found in Anyang date to before 900 BC. At that time, the coin itself was a mock of more earlier used cowry shells, bronzed shells were found in the ruins of Yin, the old capital of the Shang Dynasty. Bronze became the currency during the succeeding Zhou Dynasty. During the Warring States period, from the 5th century BC to 221 BC, the Zhou, the Wei, the Han and the Qin all used coins shaped like a spade. The Qi used money in the shape of a knife, the Zhao and the Yan used knife money before switching over to spade money roughly halfway through the Warring States period. The Chu used money in the forms of ant nose coins, as part of the Unification of China, Qin Shi Huang introduced a uniform copper coin based on the coins previously used by Qin. All other forms of currency were abolished. The coins were round with a hole in the middle which was the common design for most Chinese copper coins until the 20th century. Due to the low value of a coin, the Chinese have traditionally strung a nominal thousand copper coins onto a piece of string. Government taxes were levied on both coins and products such as rolls of silk, salaries were paid in stones of grain during the Qin Dynasty and Han dynasties
History of Chinese currency
–
Han Dynasty cash coin
History of Chinese currency
–
History of China
History of Chinese currency
–
Silver
sycee (yuanbao) ingots
History of Chinese currency
–
Coin issued in 1938 by the Bank of Mengchiang
4.
Ideogram
–
An ideogram or ideograph is a graphic symbol that represents an idea or concept, independent of any particular language, and specific words or phrases. In proto-writing, used for inventories and the like, physical objects are represented by stylized or conventionalized pictures, for example, the pictorial Dongba symbols without Geba annotation cannot represent the Naxi language, but are used as a mnemonic for reciting oral literature. Some systems also use ideograms, symbols denoting abstract concepts, the term ideogram is often used to describe symbols of writing systems such as Egyptian hieroglyphs, Sumerian cuneiform and Chinese characters. However, these symbols are logograms, representing words or morphemes of a language rather than objects or concepts. In these writing systems, a variety of strategies were employed in the design of logographic symbols, pictographic symbols depict the object referred to by the word, such as an icon of a bull denoting the Semitic word ʾālep ox. Some words denoting abstract concepts may be represented iconically, but most other words are represented using the rebus principle, many signs in hieroglyphic as well as in cuneiform writing could be used either logographically or phonetically. Semantic compounds are semantic combinations of characters, such as 明 míng bright, composed of 日 rì sun and 月 yuè moon, or 休 xiū rest, composed of 人 rén person and 木 mù tree. An example of ideograms is the collection of 50 signs developed in the 1970s by the American Institute of Graphic Arts at the request of the US Department of Transportation, the system was initially used to mark airports and gradually got more widespread. An early proposal was An Essay towards a Real Character, a recent example is the system of Blissymbols, which was proposed by Charles K. Bliss in 1949 and currently includes over 2,000 symbols, emoji Heterogram Icon Lexigram List of symbols List of writing systems Logotype Therblig Traffic sign The Ideographic Myth Extract from DeFrancis book. American Heritage Dictionary definition Merriam-Webster OnLine definition
Ideogram
–
Ideogram in the
Church of the Visitation, Jerusalem
Ideogram
–
"No Dogs!" sign in Spain. The dog illustration is a
pictogram. The red circle and bar is an ideogram representing the idea of "no" or "not allowed".
Ideogram
–
Writing systems
5.
Seashell
–
A seashell or sea shell, also known simply as a shell, is a hard, protective outer layer created by an animal that lives in the sea. The shell is part of the body of the animal, empty seashells are often found washed up on beaches by beachcombers. The shells are empty because the animal has died and the parts have been eaten by another animal or have rotted out. The term seashell usually refers to the exoskeleton of an invertebrate, most shells that are found on beaches are the shells of marine mollusks, partly because many of these shells endure better than other seashells. Apart from mollusk shells, other shells that can be found on beaches are those of barnacles, horseshoe crabs, marine annelid worms in the family Serpulidae create shells which are tubes made of calcium carbonate that are cemented onto other surfaces. The shells of sea urchins are called tests, and the shells of crabs. While most seashells are external, some cephalopods have internal shells, Seashells have been used by humans for many different purposes throughout history and pre-history. However, seashells are not the kind of shells, in various habitats, there are shells from freshwater animals such as freshwater mussels and freshwater snails. When the word refers only to the shells of marine mollusks. The study of the entire molluscan animal is known as malacology, Seashells are commonly found in beach drift, which is natural detritus deposited along strandlines on beaches by the waves and the tides. Shells are very often washed up onto an empty and clean. Empty seashells are often picked up by beachcombers, however, the majority of seashells which are offered for sale commercially have been collected alive and then killed and cleaned, specifically for the commercial trade. This type of large-scale exploitation can sometimes have a negative impact on local ecosystems. The word seashell is often used to only the shell of a marine mollusk. These shells are often the most commonly encountered, both in the wild, and for sale as decorative objects. Marine species of gastropods and bivalves are more numerous land and freshwater species. The shells of species also often have more sculpture and more color. Although there are a number of species of shelled mollusks that are large, there are vast numbers of extremely small species too
Seashell
–
Seashells washed up on the beach in
Valencia, Spain; nearly all are single valves of
bivalve mollusks, mostly of
Mactra corallina
Seashell
–
Hand-picked molluscan seashells (
bivalves and
gastropods) from the beach at
Clacton on Sea in England
Seashell
–
A group of seashells
6.
Shell money
–
Shell money is a medium of exchange similar to money that was once commonly used in many parts of the world. Shell money usually consisted either of sea shells or pieces of them. The use of shells in trade began as direct commodity exchange, the distinction between beads as commodities and beads as money has been the subject of debate among economic anthropologists. Some form of shell money appears to have found on almost every continent, America, Asia, Africa. The shell most widely used worldwide as currency was the shell of Cypraea moneta, cowry shell money was important at one time or another in the trade networks of Africa, South Asia, and East Asia. In western Africa, shell money was legal tender up until the mid 19th century. Before the abolition of the trade, large shipments of cowry shells were sent to some of the English ports for reshipment to the slave coast. It was also common in West Central Africa as the currency of the Kingdom of Kongo called locally nzimbu, as the value of the cowry was much greater in West Africa than in the regions from which the supply was obtained, the trade was extremely lucrative. In some cases the gains are said to have been 500%, the use of the cowry currency gradually spread inland in Africa. By about 1850 the German explorer Heinrich Barth found it widespread in Kano, Kuka, Gando. The shells were used in the parts of Africa until the early 20th century. The shell of the land snail, Achatina monetaria, cut into circles with an open center was also used as coin in Benguella. In China, cowries were so important that many characters relating to money or trade contain the character for cowry, starting over three thousand years ago, cowry shells, or copies of the shells, were used as Chinese currency. The Classical Chinese character for money/currency, 貝, originated as a pictograph of a cowrie shell, cowries were formerly used as means of exchange in India. In Bengal, where it required 3840 to make a rupee, in Southeast Asia, when the value of the Siamese tical was about half a troy ounce of silver, the value of the cowrie was fixed at 1⁄6400 Baht. In modern Thailand, it refers to interest paid for the use of borrowed or deposited. In Orissa, India, cowry the currency was used till 1805 which was replaced by the British East India company which was one of the causes of Paik rebellion in 1817. In northern Australia, different shells were used by different tribes, in the islands north of New Guinea the shells were broken into flakes
Shell money
–
1742 drawing of shells of the money cowry,
Cypraea moneta
Shell money
–
A print from 1845 shows
cowry shells being used as money by an Arab trader
Shell money
–
Chinese shell money, 16-8th century BCE
Shell money
–
Papua New Guinea Shell Money.
7.
Commodity money
–
Commodity money is money whose value comes from a commodity of which it is made. Commodity money consists of objects that have value in themselves as well as value in their use as money and these items were sometimes used in a metric of perceived value in conjunction to one another, in various commodity valuation or price system economies. A key feature of commodity money is that the value is perceived by the users of this money. That is, the effect of holding a token for a barrel of oil must be the same economically as actually having the barrel at hand. Since payment by commodity generally provides a good, commodity money is similar to barter. Described the establishment of commodity money in P. O. W camps, people left their surplus clothing, toilet requisites and food there until they were sold at a fixed price in cigarettes. Thus the cigarette attained its fullest currency status, and the market was almost completely unified, radford documented the way that this cigarette currency was subject to Greshams law, inflation, and especially deflation. These may be exchanged for many services in prisons where personal possession of currency is prohibited, in doing so, the government will often impose a fee which is known as seigniorage. The role of a mint and of coin differs between commodity money and fiat money, in situations where there is commodity money, the coin retains its value if it is melted and physically altered, while in a fiat money it does not. In India, for example fiat Rupees disappeared from the market after 2007 when their content of stainless steel became larger than the fiat or face value of the coins. In the US, the metal in pennies and nickels has a close to, and sometimes exceeding. Commodities often come into being in situations where other forms of money are not available or not trusted, various commodities were used in pre-Revolutionary America including wampum, maize, iron nails, beaver pelts, and tobacco. Thus, beaver fur and wampum were used as money in the north for exchanges with the Indians, rice was used as money in South Carolina, and the most widespread use of commodity money was tobacco, which served as money in Virginia. The pound-of-tobacco was the unit in Virginia, with warehouse receipts in tobacco circulating as money backed 100 percent by the tobacco in the warehouse. In Canada, where the Hudsons Bay Company and other fur trading companies controlled most of the country, fur traders quickly realized that gold and they wanted goods such as metal knives and axes. The Fort Knox gold repository long maintained by the United States, between 1933 and 1970, one U. S. dollar was technically worth exactly 1/35 of a troy ounce of gold. Cigarettes and gasoline were used as a form of commodity money in some parts of Europe, including Germany, France and Belgium, cigarettes are still used as a form of commodity money in U. S. prisons. Gold or other metals are used in a price system as a store of perceived value that does not break down due to environmental deterioration
Commodity money
–
Axe-like grzywnas (commodity money) from Kostkowice, Poland, 9th to mid-10th century AD
Commodity money
–
An okpoho or
manilla, the traditional commodity money in
West Africa until the 1940s.
Commodity money
–
Japanese commodity money before the 8th century AD:
arrowheads,
rice grains and
gold powder. This is the earliest form of
Japanese currency.
8.
Barter
–
Barter is a system of exchange where goods or services are directly exchanged for other goods or services without using a medium of exchange, such as money. It is distinguishable from gift economies in many ways, one of them is that the exchange is immediate. It is usually bilateral, but may be multilateral and, in most developed countries, usually only exists parallel to monetary systems to a very limited extent. Barter, as a replacement for money as the method of exchange, is used in times of monetary crisis, examples include the Owenite socialists, the Cincinnati Time store, and more recently Ithaca HOURS and the LETS system. Adam Smith, the father of economics, sought to demonstrate that markets pre-existed the state. He argued that money was not the creation of governments, markets emerged, in his view, out of the division of labour, by which individuals began to specialize in specific crafts and hence had to depend on others for subsistence goods. These goods were first exchanged by barter, specialization depended on trade, but was hindered by the double coincidence of wants which barter requires, i. e. for the exchange to occur, each participant must want what the other has. To complete this hypothetical history, craftsmen would stockpile one particular good, be it salt or metal and this is the origin of money according to Smith. Money, as a universally desired medium of exchange, allows each half of the transaction to be separated, Barter is characterized in Adam Smiths The Wealth of Nations by a disparaging vocabulary, higgling, haggling, swapping, dickering. It has also characterized as negative reciprocity, or selfish profiteering. Anthropologists have argued, in contrast, that something resembling barter does occur in stateless societies it is almost always between strangers. Barter occurred between strangers, not fellow villagers, and hence cannot be used to explain the origin of money without the state. Since most people engaged in trade knew each other, exchange was fostered through the extension of credit, everyday exchange relations in such societies are characterized by generalized reciprocity, or a non-calculative familial communism where each takes according to their needs, and gives as they have. Barter is an option to those who cannot afford to store their small supply of wealth in money, the limitations of barter are often explained in terms of its inefficiencies in facilitating exchange in comparison to money. It is said that barter is inefficient because, There needs to be a coincidence of wants For barter to occur between two parties, both parties need to have what the other wants. Difficulty in storing wealth If a society relies exclusively on perishable goods, however, some barter economies rely on durable goods like pigs or cattle for this purpose. Other anthropologists have questioned whether barter is typically between total strangers, a form of known as silent trade. Silent trade, also called silent barter, dumb barter, or depot trade, is a method by which traders who cannot speak each language can trade without talking
Barter
–
An 1874 newspaper illustration from
Harper's Weekly, showing a man engaging in barter: offering chickens in exchange for his yearly newspaper subscription.
Barter
–
Scandinavian and Russian traders bartering their wares.
Olaus Magnus, 1555
Barter
–
White traders bartering with the Indians c. 1820
Barter
–
A 19th-century example of barter: A sample labor for labor note for the
Cincinnati Time Store. Scanned from Equitable Commerce by
Josiah Warren (1846)
9.
Arrowheads
–
An arrowhead is a tip, usually sharpened, added to an arrow to make it more deadly or to fulfill some special purpose. The earliest arrowheads were made of stone and of organic materials, Arrowheads are important archaeological artifacts, they are a subclass of projectile points. Modern enthusiasts still produce over one million brand-new spear and arrow points per year, in the Stone Age, people used sharpened bone, flintknapped stones, flakes, and chips of rock as weapons and tools. Such items remained in use throughout human civilization, with new materials used as time passed, such artifacts can be found all over the world in various locations. Those that have survived are usually made of stone, primarily consisting of flint, in many excavations, bone, wooden and metal arrowheads have also been found. Stone projectile points dating back 64,000 years were excavated from layers of ancient sediment in Sibudu Cave, examinations found traces of blood and bone residues, and glue made from a plant-based resin that was used to fasten them on to a wooden shaft. This indicated cognitively demanding behavior required to manufacture glue and these hafted points might have been launched from bows. This is an argument for the use of traps, perhaps including snares, if snares were used, the use of cords and knots which would also have been adequate for the production of bows is implied. The employment of snares also demonstrates an understanding of the latent energy stored in bent branches. Cords and knots are implied by use-wear facets on perforated shell beads around 72,000 years old from Blombos, archeologists in Louisiana have discovered that early Native Americans used Alligator gar scales as arrow heads. Hunting with a bow and arrow requires intricate multi-staged planning, material collection and tool preparation and implies a range of innovative social and communication skills. Arrowheads are attached to shafts to be shot from a bow, similar types of projectile points may be attached to a spear. The arrowhead or projectile point is the functional part of the arrow. Some arrows may simply use a tip of the solid shaft. Arrowheads may be attached to the shaft with a cap, a tang, or inserted into a split in the shaft. Points attached with caps are simply slid snugly over the end of the shaft, split-shaft construction involves splitting the arrow shaft lengthwise, inserting the arrowhead, and securing it using ferrule, sinew, rope, or wire. Modern arrowheads used for hunting come in a variety of classes and styles, many traditionalist archers choose heads made of modern high carbon steel that closely resemble traditional stone heads. Other classes of broadheads referred to as mechanical and hybrid are gaining popularity, often, these heads rely on force created by passing through an animal to expand or open
Arrowheads
–
Chert arrowhead, Late
Neolithic (Rhodézien) (3300-2400 BCE), France
Arrowheads
–
Arrowheads made of bone and antler found in
Nydam Mose (3rd - 5th century)
Arrowheads
–
Ancient Greek bronze leaf-shaped, trefoil and triangular arrowheads.
Arrowheads
–
Some arrowheads made of
Quartz
10.
Gold
–
Gold is a chemical element with symbol Au and atomic number 79. In its purest form, it is a bright, slightly yellow, dense, soft, malleable. Chemically, gold is a metal and a group 11 element. It is one of the least reactive chemical elements and is solid under standard conditions, Gold often occurs in free elemental form, as nuggets or grains, in rocks, in veins, and in alluvial deposits. It occurs in a solid solution series with the element silver and also naturally alloyed with copper. Less commonly, it occurs in minerals as gold compounds, often with tellurium, golds atomic number of 79 makes it one of the higher numbered, naturally occurring elements. It is thought to have produced in supernova nucleosynthesis, from the collision of neutron stars. Because the Earth was molten when it was formed, almost all of the present in the early Earth probably sank into the planetary core. Gold is resistant to most acids, though it does dissolve in aqua regia, a mixture of acid and hydrochloric acid. Gold also dissolves in solutions of cyanide, which are used in mining and electroplating. Gold dissolves in mercury, forming amalgam alloys, but this is not a chemical reaction, as a precious metal, gold has been used for coinage, jewelry, and other arts throughout recorded history. A total of 186,700 tonnes of gold is in existence above ground, the world consumption of new gold produced is about 50% in jewelry, 40% in investments, and 10% in industry. Gold is also used in infrared shielding, colored-glass production, gold leafing, certain gold salts are still used as anti-inflammatories in medicine. As of 2014, the worlds largest gold producer by far was China with 450 tonnes, Gold is cognate with similar words in many Germanic languages, deriving via Proto-Germanic *gulþą from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃-. The symbol Au is from the Latin, aurum, the Latin word for gold, the Proto-Indo-European ancestor of aurum was *h₂é-h₂us-o-, meaning glow. This word is derived from the root as *h₂éu̯sōs, the ancestor of the Latin word Aurora. This etymological relationship is presumably behind the frequent claim in scientific publications that aurum meant shining dawn, Gold is the most malleable of all metals, a single gram can be beaten into a sheet of 1 square meter, and an avoirdupois ounce into 300 square feet. Gold leaf can be thin enough to become semi-transparent
Gold
–
Gold, 79 Au
Gold
–
Moche gold necklace depicting feline heads.
Larco Museum Collection. Lima-Peru
Gold
–
Mirror for the future
James Webb Space Telescope coated in gold to reflect infrared light
Gold
–
The
world's largest gold bar has a mass of 250 kg.
Toi museum,
Japan.
11.
Hemp
–
A nuclear electromagnetic pulse is a characteristic burst of electromagnetic radiation created by nuclear explosions. The resulting rapidly changing electric and magnetic fields may couple with electrical and electronic systems to produce damaging current, the specific characteristics of any particular nuclear EMP event vary according to a number of factors, the most important of which is the altitude of the detonation. The term electromagnetic pulse generally excludes optical and ionizing ranges, in military terminology, a nuclear warhead detonated hundreds of kilometers above the Earths surface is known as a high-altitude electromagnetic pulse device. The fact that a pulse is produced by a nuclear explosion was known in the earliest days of nuclear weapons testing. The magnitude of the EMP and the significance of its effects, during the first United States nuclear test on 16 July 1945, electronic equipment was shielded because Enrico Fermi expected the electromagnetic pulse. The official technical history for that first nuclear test states, All signal lines were completely shielded, in spite of this many records were lost because of spurious pickup at the time of the explosion that paralyzed the recording equipment. During British nuclear testing in 1952–1953 instrumentation failures were attributed to radioflash, the first openly reported observation of the unique aspects of high-altitude nuclear EMP occurred during the helium balloon lofted Yucca nuclear test of the Hardtack I series on 28 April 1958. In that test, the field measurements from the 1.7 kiloton weapon went off the scale of the test instruments and was estimated to be about 5 times the oscilloscope limits. The Yucca EMP was initially positive-going whereas low-altitude bursts were negative pulses, also, the polarization of the Yucca EMP signal was horizontal, whereas low-altitude nuclear EMP was vertically polarized. In spite of many differences, the unique EMP results were dismissed as a possible wave propagation anomaly. The larger scientific community aware of the significance of the EMP problem after a three-article series on nuclear EMP was published in 1981 by William J. Broad in Science. In July 1962, the US carried out the Starfish Prime test and this demonstrated that the effects of a high-altitude nuclear explosion were much larger than had been previously calculated. Starfish Prime was the first success in the series of United States high-altitude nuclear tests in 1962 known as Operation Fishbowl, subsequent tests gathered more data on the high-altitude EMP phenomenon. The EMP damage of the Starfish Prime test was quickly repaired because of the ruggedness of Hawaiis electrical and these calculations, combined with the accelerating reliance on EMP-sensitive microelectronics, heightened awareness that EMP could be a significant problem. In 1962, the Soviet Union also performed three EMP-producing nuclear tests in space over Kazakhstan, the last in the Soviet Project K nuclear tests. The geomagnetic storm–like E3 pulse from Test 184 induced a current surge in an underground power line that caused a fire in the power plant in the city of Karaganda. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the level of damage was communicated informally to U. S. scientists. After the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, there was a period of a few years of cooperation between United States and Russian scientists on the HEMP phenomenon
Hemp
12.
China
–
China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
China
–
Yinxu, ruins of an ancient
palace dating from the
Shang Dynasty (14th century BCE)
China
–
Flag
China
–
Some of the thousands of life-size
Terracotta Warriors of the
Qin Dynasty, c. 210 BCE
China
–
The
Great Wall of China was built by several dynasties over two thousand years to protect the sedentary agricultural regions of the
Chinese interior from incursions by
nomadic pastoralists of the northern
steppes.
13.
Ideograms
–
An ideogram or ideograph is a graphic symbol that represents an idea or concept, independent of any particular language, and specific words or phrases. In proto-writing, used for inventories and the like, physical objects are represented by stylized or conventionalized pictures, for example, the pictorial Dongba symbols without Geba annotation cannot represent the Naxi language, but are used as a mnemonic for reciting oral literature. Some systems also use ideograms, symbols denoting abstract concepts, the term ideogram is often used to describe symbols of writing systems such as Egyptian hieroglyphs, Sumerian cuneiform and Chinese characters. However, these symbols are logograms, representing words or morphemes of a language rather than objects or concepts. In these writing systems, a variety of strategies were employed in the design of logographic symbols, pictographic symbols depict the object referred to by the word, such as an icon of a bull denoting the Semitic word ʾālep ox. Some words denoting abstract concepts may be represented iconically, but most other words are represented using the rebus principle, many signs in hieroglyphic as well as in cuneiform writing could be used either logographically or phonetically. Semantic compounds are semantic combinations of characters, such as 明 míng bright, composed of 日 rì sun and 月 yuè moon, or 休 xiū rest, composed of 人 rén person and 木 mù tree. An example of ideograms is the collection of 50 signs developed in the 1970s by the American Institute of Graphic Arts at the request of the US Department of Transportation, the system was initially used to mark airports and gradually got more widespread. An early proposal was An Essay towards a Real Character, a recent example is the system of Blissymbols, which was proposed by Charles K. Bliss in 1949 and currently includes over 2,000 symbols, emoji Heterogram Icon Lexigram List of symbols List of writing systems Logotype Therblig Traffic sign The Ideographic Myth Extract from DeFrancis book. American Heritage Dictionary definition Merriam-Webster OnLine definition
Ideograms
–
Ideogram in the
Church of the Visitation, Jerusalem
Ideograms
–
"No Dogs!" sign in Spain. The dog illustration is a
pictogram. The red circle and bar is an ideogram representing the idea of "no" or "not allowed".
Ideograms
–
Writing systems
14.
Empress Genmei
–
Empress Genmei, also known as Empress Genmyō, was the 43rd monarch of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Genmeis reign spanned the years 707 through 715 CE, in the history of Japan, Genmei was the fourth of eight women to take on the role of empress regnant. The three female monarchs before Genmei were Suiko, Kōgyoku/Saimei, and Jitō, the four women sovereigns reigning after Genmei were Genshō, Kōken/Shōtoku, Meishō, and Go-Sakuramachi. Before her ascension to the Chrysanthemum Throne, her name was Abe-hime. Empress Genmei was the daughter of Emperor Tenji, and she was a younger sister of Empress Jitō by a different mother. Her mother, Mei-no-Iratsume, was a daughter of Udaijin Soga-no-Kura-no-Yamada-no-Ishikawa-no-Maro, Genmei became the consort of Crown Prince Kusakabe no Miko, who was the son of Emperor Tenmu and Empress Jitō. After the death of their son Emperor Monmu in 707, she acceded to the throne. July 18,707, In the 11th year of Mommu-tennō s reign, the emperor died, and the succession was received by the emperors mother, shortly thereafter, Empress Genmei is said to have acceded to the throne. The Japanese word for copper is dō, and since this was indigenous copper, may 5,708, A sample of the newly discovered Musashi copper from was presented in Genmeis Court where it was formally acknowledged as Japanese copper, and a mint was established in Ōmi Province. 708, Fuijwara no Fuhito was named Minister of the Right, isonokami no Maro was Minister of the Left. 709, There was an uprising against governmental authority in Mutsu Province, troops were promptly dispatched to subdue the revolt. 709, Ambassadors arrived from Silla, bringing an offer of tribute and he visited Fujiwara no Fuhito to prepare the way for further visits. 710, Empress Genmei established her residence in Nara. In the last years of the Mommus reign, the preparations for this projected move had begun. Shortly after the nengō was changed to Wadō, an Imperial Rescript was issued concerning the establishment of a new capital at the Heijō-kyō at Nara in Yamato Province and it had been customary since ancient times for the capital to be moved with the beginning of each new reign. However, Emperor Mommu decided not to move the capital, preferring instead to stay at the Fujiwara Palace which had established by Empress Jitō. Empress Genmeis palace was named Nara-no-miya,711, The Kojiki was published in three volumes. This work presented a history of Japan from a period of god-rulers up through the 28th day of the 1st month of the fifth year of Empress Suikos reign
Empress Genmei
–
Gemmei
Empress Genmei
–
Wadōkaichin monument in Saitama
15.
Tang period
–
The Tang dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. It is generally regarded as a point in Chinese civilization. Its territory, acquired through the campaigns of its early rulers, rivaled that of the Han dynasty. The dynasty was founded by the Lǐ family, who seized power during the decline, the dynasty was briefly interrupted when Empress Wu Zetian seized the throne, proclaiming the Second Zhou dynasty and becoming the only Chinese empress regnant. In two censuses of the 7th and 8th centuries, the Tang records estimated the population by number of registered households at about 50 million people. Various kingdoms and states paid tribute to the Tang court, while the Tang also conquered or subdued several regions which it controlled through a protectorate system. Besides political hegemony, the Tang also exerted a powerful influence over neighboring states such as those in Korea, Japan. Like the previous Sui dynasty, the Tang dynasty maintained a service system by recruiting scholar-officials through standardized examinations and recommendations to office. This civil order was undermined by the rise of military governors known as jiedushi during the 9th century. Chinese culture flourished and further matured during the Tang era, it is considered the greatest age for Chinese poetry. Two of Chinas most famous poets, Li Bai and Du Fu, belonged to this age, as did many famous painters such as Han Gan, Zhang Xuan, there was a rich variety of historical literature compiled by scholars, as well as encyclopedias and geographical works. The adoption of the title Tängri Qaghan by the Tang Emperor Taizong in addition to his title as emperor was eastern Asias first simultaneous kingship, there were many notable innovations during the Tang, including the development of woodblock printing. Buddhism became an influence in Chinese culture, with native Chinese sects gaining prominence. However, Buddhism would later be persecuted by the state, subsequently declining in influence, although the dynasty and central government were in decline by the 9th century, art and culture continued to flourish. This family was known as the Longxi Li lineage, which includes the Tang poet Li Bai, the Tang Emperors also had Xianbei maternal ancestry, from Emperor Gaozu of Tangs Xianbei mother Duchess Dugu. He had prestige and military experience, and was a first cousin of Emperor Yang of Sui, Li Yuan rose in rebellion in 617, along with his son and his equally militant daughter Princess Pingyang, who raised and commanded her own troops. In winter 617, Li Yuan occupied Changan, relegated Emperor Yang to the position of Taishang Huang or retired emperor, and acted as regent to the puppet child-emperor, Emperor Gong of Sui. On the news of Emperor Yangs murder by General Yuwen Huaji on June 18,618, Li Yuan declared himself the emperor of a new dynasty, the Tang
Tang period
–
History of China
Tang period
–
Tang dynasty circa 700
Tang period
–
Portrait painting of
Emperor Yang of Sui, commissioned in 643 by
Taizong, painted by
Yan Liben (600–673)
Tang period
–
Emperor Taizong (r. 626–649) receives
Gar Tongtsen Yülsung, ambassador of
Tibet, at his court; painted in 641 AD by
Yan Liben (600–673)
16.
Nara Prefecture
–
Nara Prefecture is a prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan. The capital is the city of Nara, Nara Prefecture has the distinction of having more UNESCO World Heritage Listings than any other prefecture. Nara Prefecture region is considered one of the oldest regions in Japan spanning thousands of years, the present-day Nara Prefecture as it exists now officially was created in 1887, making it independent of Osaka Prefecture. Historically, Nara Prefecture was also known as Yamato-no-kuni or Yamato Province, at the dawn of history, Yamato was clearly the political center of Japan. Ancient capitals of Japan were built on the land of Nara, the capital cities of Fujiwara and Heijō are believed to have been modeled after Chinese capitals at the time, incorporating grid layout patterns. The royal court also established relations with Sui and then Tang Dynasty China, by 7th century, Nara accepted the many immigrants including refugees of Baekje who had escaped from war disturbances of the southern part of the Korean peninsula. The first high civilization with royal patronage of Buddhism flourished in todays Nara city, in 784, Emperor Kanmu decided to relocate the capital to Nagaoka-kyō in Yamashiro Province, followed by another move in 794 to Heian-kyō, marking the start of the Heian period. The temples in Nara remained powerful beyond the move of capital, thus giving Nara a synonym of Nanto as opposed to Heian-kyō. The movement led to a collision between the Taira and the Nara temples in 1180 and this clash eventually led to Kōfuku-ji and Tōdai-ji being set on fire, resulting in vast destruction of architectural heritage. At the rise of the Minamoto to its seat and the opening of Kamakura shogunate. Kōfuku-ji, being the temple to the Fujiwara since its foundation, not only regained the power it had before. With the reconstruction of Kōfuku-ji and Tōdai-ji, a town was growing again near the two temples, the Nanboku-chō period, starting in 1336, brought more instability to Nara. As Emperor Go-Daigo chose Yoshino as his base, a struggle arose in Kōfuku-ji with a group supporting the South. Likewise, local clans were split into two, later the whole province of Yamato got drawn into the confusion of the Sengoku period. With industry and commerce developing in the 18th century, the economy of the province was incorporated into prosperous Osaka, the economic dependency to Osaka even characterizes todays Nara Prefecture, for many inhabitants commute to Osaka to work or study there. Nara Prefecture is part of the Kansai, or Kinki, region of Japan and it is bordered to the west by Wakayama Prefecture and Osaka Prefecture, on the north by Kyoto Prefecture and on the east by Mie Prefecture. Nara Prefecture is 78.5 km from East to West and 103.6 km from North to South, most of the prefecture is covered by mountains and forests, leaving an inhabitable area of only 851 km². The ratio of area to total area is 23%, ranked 43rd among the 47 prefectures in Japan
Nara Prefecture
–
Kōfuku-ji
Nara Prefecture
–
Nara Prefecture 奈良県
Nara Prefecture
–
The red autumn leaves in Yoshino
Nara Prefecture
–
The restored turret of
Kōriyama Castle
17.
Nihon Shoki
–
The Nihon Shoki, sometimes translated as The Chronicles of Japan, is the second oldest book of classical Japanese history. The book is called the Nihongi. The Nihon Shoki was finished in 720 under the supervision of Prince Toneri. It is believed to record accurately the latter reigns of Emperor Tenji, Emperor Tenmu, the Nihon Shoki focuses on the merits of the virtuous rulers as well as the errors of the bad rulers. It describes episodes from mythological eras and diplomatic contacts with other countries, the Nihon Shoki was written in classical Chinese, as was common for official documents at that time. The Kojiki, on the hand, is written in a combination of Chinese. The Nihon Shoki also contains numerous transliteration notes telling the reader how words were pronounced in Japanese, collectively, the stories in this book and the Kojiki are referred to as the Kiki stories. The tale of Urashima Tarō is developed from the mention in Nihon Shoki that a certain child of Urashima visited Horaisan. The later tale has plainly incorporated elements from the famous anecdote of Luck of the Sea, the later developed Urashima tale contains the Rip Van Winkle motif, so some may consider it an early example of fictional time travel. Chapter 01, Kami no Yo no Kami no maki, Chapter 02, Kami no Yo no Shimo no maki. Chapter 03, Kanyamato Iwarebiko no Sumeramikoto, Chapter 04, Kamu Nunakawamimi no Sumeramikoto. Yamato Tarashihiko Kuni Oshihito no Sumeramikoto, Chapter 05, Mimaki Iribiko Iniye no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 06, Ikume Iribiko Isachi no Sumeramikoto, Chapter 07, Ōtarashihiko Oshirowake no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 08, Tarashi Nakatsuhiko no Sumeramikoto, Chapter 09, Okinaga Tarashihime no Mikoto. Chapter 13, Oasazuma Wakugo no Sukune no Sumeramikoto, Chapter 14, Ōhatsuse no Waka Takeru no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 15, Shiraka no Take Hirokuni Oshi Waka Yamato Neko no Sumeramikoto, Chapter 16, Ohatsuse no Waka Sasagi no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 18, Hirokuni Oshi Take Kanahi no Sumeramikoto, Take Ohirokuni Oshi Tate no Sumeramikoto. Chapter 19, Amekuni Oshiharaki Hironiwa no Sumeramikoto, Chapter 20, Nunakakura no Futo Tamashiki no Sumeramikoto
Nihon Shoki
–
Page from a copy of the Nihon Shoki, early
Heian period
Nihon Shoki
–
The Nihon Shoki entry of 15 April 683 CE (
Tenmu 12th year), when an edict was issued mandating the use of copper coins rather than silver coins, an early mention of
Japanese currency. Excerpt of the 11th century edition.
Nihon Shoki
–
Mythic texts
18.
Copper
–
Copper is a chemical element with symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of copper has a reddish-orange color. Copper is one of the few metals that occur in nature in directly usable metallic form as opposed to needing extraction from an ore and this led to very early human use, from c.8000 BC. Copper used in buildings, usually for roofing, oxidizes to form a green verdigris, Copper is sometimes used in decorative art, both in its elemental metal form and in compounds as pigments. Copper compounds are used as agents, fungicides, and wood preservatives. Copper is essential to all living organisms as a trace dietary mineral because it is a key constituent of the enzyme complex cytochrome c oxidase. In molluscs and crustaceans, copper is a constituent of the blood pigment hemocyanin, replaced by the hemoglobin in fish. In humans, copper is found mainly in the liver, muscle, the adult body contains between 1.4 and 2.1 mg of copper per kilogram of body weight. The filled d-shells in these elements contribute little to interatomic interactions, unlike metals with incomplete d-shells, metallic bonds in copper are lacking a covalent character and are relatively weak. This observation explains the low hardness and high ductility of single crystals of copper, at the macroscopic scale, introduction of extended defects to the crystal lattice, such as grain boundaries, hinders flow of the material under applied stress, thereby increasing its hardness. For this reason, copper is supplied in a fine-grained polycrystalline form. The softness of copper partly explains its high conductivity and high thermal conductivity. The maximum permissible current density of copper in open air is approximately 3. 1×106 A/m2 of cross-sectional area, Copper is one of a few metallic elements with a natural color other than gray or silver. Pure copper is orange-red and acquires a reddish tarnish when exposed to air, as with other metals, if copper is put in contact with another metal, galvanic corrosion will occur. A green layer of verdigris can often be seen on old structures, such as the roofing of many older buildings. Copper tarnishes when exposed to sulfur compounds, with which it reacts to form various copper sulfides. There are 29 isotopes of copper, 63Cu and 65Cu are stable, with 63Cu comprising approximately 69% of naturally occurring copper, both have a spin of 3⁄2
Copper
–
Native copper (~4 cm in size)
Copper
–
A copper disc (99.95% pure) made by
continuous casting;
etched to reveal
crystallites.
Copper
–
Copper just above its melting point keeps its pink luster color when enough light outshines the orange
incandescence color.
Copper
–
Unoxidized copper wire (left) and oxidized copper wire (right).
19.
Antimony
–
Antimony is a chemical element with symbol Sb and atomic number 51. A lustrous gray metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite, Antimony compounds have been known since ancient times and were powdered for use as medicine and cosmetics, often known by the Arabic name, kohl. Metallic antimony was known, but it was erroneously identified as lead upon its discovery. In the West, it was first isolated by Vannoccio Biringuccio, for some time, China has been the largest producer of antimony and its compounds, with most production coming from the Xikuangshan Mine in Hunan. The industrial methods for refining antimony are roasting and reduction with carbon or direct reduction of stibnite with iron, the largest applications for metallic antimony is an alloy with lead and tin and the lead antimony plates in lead–acid batteries. Alloys of lead and tin with antimony have improved properties for solders, bullets, Antimony compounds are prominent additives for chlorine and bromine-containing fire retardants found in many commercial and domestic products. An emerging application is the use of antimony in microelectronics, Antimony is in a pnictogen and has an electronegativity of 2.05. In accordance with periodic trends, it is more electronegative than tin or bismuth, Antimony is stable in air at room temperature, but reacts with oxygen if heated to produce antimony trioxide, Sb2O3. Antimony is resistant to attack by acids, four allotropes of antimony are known, a stable metallic form and three metastable forms. Elemental antimony is a brittle, silver-white shiny metalloid, when slowly cooled, molten antimony crystallizes in a trigonal cell, isomorphic with the gray allotrope of arsenic. A rare explosive form of antimony can be formed from the electrolysis of antimony trichloride, when scratched with a sharp implement, an exothermic reaction occurs and white fumes are given off as metallic antimony forms, when rubbed with a pestle in a mortar, a strong detonation occurs. Black antimony is formed upon cooling of antimony vapor. It has the crystal structure as red phosphorus and black arsenic, it oxidizes in air. At 100 °C, it transforms into the stable form. The yellow allotrope of antimony is the most unstable and it has only been generated by oxidation of stibine at −90 °C. Above this temperature and in ambient light, this metastable allotrope transforms into the more stable black allotrope, elemental antimony adopts a layered structure in which layers consist of fused, ruffled, six-membered rings. The nearest and next-nearest neighbors form an octahedral complex, with the three atoms in each double layer slightly closer than the three atoms in the next. This relatively close packing leads to a density of 6.697 g/cm3
Antimony
–
Antimony, 51 Sb
Antimony
–
Native antimony with
oxidation products
Antimony
–
Stibnite
Antimony
–
The Italian metallurgist Vannoccio Biringuccio described the first procedure of how to isolate antimony.
20.
Nara period
–
The Nara period of the history of Japan covers the years from AD710 to 794. Empress Genmei established the capital of Heijō-kyō, most of Japanese society during this period was agricultural in nature and centered on villages. Most of the villagers followed a religion based on the worship of natural and ancestral spirits called kami, the capital at Nara was modeled after Changan, the capital city of Tang China. In many other ways, the Japanese upper classes patterned themselves after the Chinese, including adopting Chinese written system, fashion, concentrated efforts by the imperial court to record and document its history produced the first works of Japanese literature during the Nara period. Works such as the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki were political in nature, used to record and therefore justify, with the spread of written language, the writing of Japanese poetry, known in Japanese as waka, began. Over time, personal collections were referenced to establish the first large collection of Japanese poetry known as Manyōshū sometime after 759, Chinese characters were used to express sounds of Japanese until kana were invented. The Chinese characters used to express the sounds of Japanese are known as manyōgana, before the Taihō Code was established, the capital was customarily moved after the death of an emperor because of the ancient belief that a place of death was polluted. Reforms and bureaucratization of government led to the establishment of a permanent imperial capital at Heijō-kyō, or Nara, in AD710. It is to be noted that the capital was moved shortly to Kuni-kyō in 740–744, to Naniwa-kyō in 744–745, to Shigarakinomiya in 745, Nara was Japans first truly urban center. It soon had a population of 200,000 and some 10,000 people worked in government jobs, economic and administrative activity increased during the Nara period. Roads linked Nara to provincial capitals, and taxes were collected more efficiently and routinely, coins were minted, if not widely used. Outside the Nara area, however, there was little commercial activity, by the mid-eighth century, shōen, one of the most important economic institutions in medieval Japan, began to rise as a result of the search for a more manageable form of landholding. Some of these formerly public people were employed by large landholders. Factional fighting at the court continued throughout the Nara period. Imperial family members, leading families, such as the Fujiwara. Earlier this period, Prince Nagaya seized power at the court after the death of Fujiwara no Fuhito, Fuhito was succeeded by four sons, Muchimaro, Umakai, Fusasaki, and Maro. They put Emperor Shōmu, the prince by Fuhitos daughter, on the throne, in 729, they arrested Nagaya and regained control. However, as the first outbreak of smallpox spread from Kyūshū in 735 and it is without doubt that the Emperor was heavily shocked about this disaster, and he moved the palace three times in only five years since 740, until he eventually returned to Nara
Nara period
–
Shōsōin
Nara period
–
The primary building, i.e. the Daigoku-den at the
Heijō Palace (At the photograph's center; this is a modern version built for the 1300th anniversary of Nara becoming Japan's capital).
Tōdai-ji 's Daibutsuden and Wakakusayama can be seen in the rear (January, 2010).
Nara period
–
The Great
Buddha at Nara (
Tōdai-ji), 752 CE.
21.
Vietnam
–
Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. With an estimated 92.7 million inhabitants as of 2016, it is the worlds 14th-most-populous country, and its capital city has been Hanoi since the reunification of North and South Vietnam in 1976, with Ho Chi Minh City as a historical city as well. The northern part of Vietnam was part of Imperial China for over a millennium, an independent Vietnamese state was formed in 939, following a Vietnamese victory in the Battle of Bạch Đằng River. Following a Japanese occupation in the 1940s, the Vietnamese fought French rule in the First Indochina War, thereafter, Vietnam was divided politically into two rival states, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam. Conflict between the two sides intensified in what is known as the Vietnam War, the war ended with a North Vietnamese victory in 1975. Vietnam was then unified under a communist government but remained impoverished, in 1986, the government initiated a series of economic and political reforms which began Vietnams path towards integration into the world economy. By 2000, it had established relations with all nations. Since 2000, Vietnams economic growth rate has been among the highest in the world and its successful economic reforms resulted in its joining the World Trade Organization in 2007. It is also a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, Vietnam remains one of the worlds four remaining one-party socialist states officially espousing communism. The name Việt Nam is a variation of Nam Việt, a name that can be traced back to the Triệu Dynasty of the 2nd century BC. The word Việt originated as a form of Bách Việt. The form Vietnam is first recorded in the 16th-century oracular poem Sấm Trạng Trình, the name has also been found on 12 steles carved in the 16th and 17th centuries, including one at Bao Lam Pagoda in Haiphong that dates to 1558. Then, as recorded, rewarded Yuenan/Vietnam as their nations name, to also show that they are below the region of Baiyue/Bach Viet. Between 1804 and 1813, the name was used officially by Emperor Gia Long and it was revived in the early 20th century by Phan Bội Châus History of the Loss of Vietnam, and later by the Vietnamese Nationalist Party. The country was usually called Annam until 1945, when both the government in Huế and the Viet Minh government in Hanoi adopted Việt Nam. Archaeological excavations have revealed the existence of humans in what is now Vietnam as early as the Paleolithic age, Homo erectus fossils dating to around 500,000 BC have been found in caves in Lạng Sơn and Nghệ An provinces in northern Vietnam. The oldest Homo sapiens fossils from mainland Southeast Asia are of Middle Pleistocene provenance, teeth attributed to Homo sapiens from the Late Pleistocene have also been found at Dong Can, and from the Early Holocene at Mai Da Dieu, Lang Gao and Lang Cuom. The Hồng Bàng dynasty of the Hùng kings is considered the first Vietnamese state, in 257 BC, the last Hùng king was defeated by Thục Phán, who consolidated the Lạc Việt and Âu Việt tribes to form the Âu Lạc, proclaiming himself An Dương Vương
Vietnam
–
A
Đông Sơn bronze drum, c.800 BC.
Vietnam
–
Flag
Vietnam
–
The
Imperial City in
Huế.
Vietnam
–
French Indochina in 1913.
22.
Korea
–
Korea is a historical state in East Asia, since 1945 divided into two distinct sovereign states, North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by China to the northwest and it is separated from Japan to the east by the Korea Strait and the Sea of Japan. Korea emerged as a political entity after centuries of conflict among the Three Kingdoms of Korea. Later Silla divided into three states during the Later Three Kingdoms period. Goryeo, which had succeeded Goguryeo, defeated the two states and united the Korean Peninsula. Around the same time, Balhae collapsed and its last crown prince fled south to Goryeo, Goryeo, whose name developed into the modern exonym Korea, was a highly cultured state that created the worlds first metal movable type in 1234. However, multiple invasions by the Mongol Yuan Dynasty during the 13th century greatly weakened the nation, following the Yuan Dynastys collapse, severe political strife followed, and Goryeo eventually fell to a coup led by General Yi Seong-gye, who established Joseon in 1388. The first 200 years of Joseon were marked by peace and saw the creation of the Korean alphabet by Sejong the Great in the 14th century. During the later part of the dynasty, however, Koreas isolationist policy earned it the Western nickname of the Hermit Kingdom, by the late 19th century, the country became the object of imperial design by the Empire of Japan. Despite attempts at modernization by the Korean Empire, in 1910 Korea was annexed by Japan and these circumstances soon became the basis for the division of Korea by the two superpowers, exacerbated by their incapability to agree on the terms of Korean independence. To date, both continue to compete with each other as the sole legitimate government of all of Korea. Korea is the spelling of Corea, a name attested in English as early as 1614. It is a derived from Cauli, Marco Polos transcription of the Chinese 高麗. This was the Hanja for the Korean kingdom of Goryeo or Koryŏ, Goryeos name was a continuation of the earlier Goguryeo or Koguryŏ, the northernmost of the Samguk, which was officially known by the shortened form Goryeo after the 5th-century reign of King Jangsu. The original name was a combination of the go with the name of a local Yemaek tribe. The name Korea is now used in English contexts by both North and South Korea. In South Korea, Korea as a whole is referred to as Hanguk, the name references the Samhan—Ma, Jin, and Byeon—who preceded the Three Kingdoms in the southern and central end of the peninsula during the 1st centuries BC and AD. It has been linked with the title khan used by the nomads of Manchuria
Korea
Korea
–
Anapji (Anap Pond) in
Gyeongju Historic Areas.
Korea
–
The
Gyeongbokgung Palace
23.
Ming era
–
The Ming dynasty was the ruling dynasty of China – then known as the Empire of the Great Ming – for 276 years following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming, described by some as one of the greatest eras of orderly government, although the primary capital of Beijing fell in 1644 to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng, regimes loyal to the Ming throne – collectively called the Southern Ming – survived until 1683. He rewarded his supporters and employed them as a counterweight against the Confucian scholar-bureaucrats. One, Zheng He, led seven enormous voyages of exploration into the Indian Ocean as far as Arabia, the rise of new emperors and new factions diminished such extravagances, the capture of the Zhengtong Emperor during the 1449 Tumu Crisis ended them completely. The imperial navy was allowed to fall into disrepair while forced labor constructed the Liaodong palisade, haijin laws intended to protect the coasts from Japanese pirates instead turned many into smugglers and pirates themselves. The growth of Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch trade created new demand for Chinese products and produced an influx of Japanese. This abundance of specie remonetized the Ming economy, whose money had suffered repeated hyperinflation and was no longer trusted. While traditional Confucians opposed such a prominent role for commerce and the newly rich it created, combined with crop failure, floods, and epidemic, the dynasty collapsed before the rebel leader Li Zicheng, who was defeated by the Manchu-led Eight Banner armies who founded the Qing dynasty. The Mongol-led Yuan dynasty ruled before the establishment of the Ming dynasty, consequently, agriculture and the economy were in shambles, and rebellion broke out among the hundreds of thousands of peasants called upon to work on repairing the dykes of the Yellow River. A number of Han Chinese groups revolted, including the Red Turbans in 1351, the Red Turbans were affiliated with the White Lotus, a Buddhist secret society. Zhu Yuanzhang was a peasant and Buddhist monk who joined the Red Turbans in 1352. In 1356, Zhus rebel force captured the city of Nanjing, with the Yuan dynasty crumbling, competing rebel groups began fighting for control of the country and thus the right to establish a new dynasty. In 1363, Zhu Yuanzhang eliminated his archrival and leader of the rebel Han faction, Chen Youliang, in the Battle of Lake Poyang, arguably the largest naval battle in history. Known for its ambitious use of ships, Zhus force of 200,000 Ming sailors were able to defeat a Han rebel force over triple their size, claimed to be 650. The victory destroyed the last opposing rebel faction, leaving Zhu Yuanzhang in uncontested control of the bountiful Yangtze River Valley, Zhu Yuanzhang took Hongwu, or Vastly Martial, as his era name. Hongwu made an effort to rebuild state infrastructure. He built a 48 km long wall around Nanjing, as well as new palaces, Hongwu organized a military system known as the weisuo, which was similar to the fubing system of the Tang dynasty. With a growing suspicion of his ministers and subjects, Hongwu established the Jinyiwei, some 100,000 people were executed in a series of purges during his rule
Ming era
–
History of China
Ming era
–
Ming China around 1580
Ming era
–
A
cannon from the
Huolongjing, compiled by
Jiao Yu and
Liu Bowen before the latter's death in 1375.
Ming era
–
Portrait of the
Hongwu Emperor (ruled in 1368–98)
24.
Edo period
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The Edo period or Tokugawa period is the period between 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when Japanese society was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the countrys 300 regional daimyō. The period was characterized by growth, strict social order, isolationist foreign policies. The shogunate was established in Edo on March 24,1603. The period came to an end with the Meiji Restoration on May 3,1868, instrumental in the rise of the new bakufu was Tokugawa Ieyasu, the main beneficiary of the achievements of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Already powerful, Ieyasu profited by his transfer to the rich Kantō area, after Hideyoshis death, Ieyasu moved quickly to seize control from the Toyotomi family. Ieyasus victory over the western daimyōs at the Battle of Sekigahara gave him control of all Japan. He rapidly abolished numerous enemy daimyō houses, reduced others, such as that of the Toyotomi, Ieyasu still failed to achieve complete control of the western daimyōs, but his assumption of the title of shogun helped consolidate the alliance system. After further strengthening his base, Ieyasu installed his son Hidetada as shogun. The Toyotomi were still a significant threat, and Ieyasu devoted the next decade to their eradication, in 1615, the Tokugawa army destroyed the Toyotomi stronghold at Osaka. The Tokugawa period brought 250 years of stability to Japan, the political system evolved into what historians call bakuhan, a combination of the terms bakufu and han to describe the government and society of the period. In the bakuhan, the shogun had national authority and the daimyōs had regional authority and this represented a new unity in the feudal structure, which featured an increasingly large bureaucracy to administer the mixture of centralized and decentralized authorities. The feudal hierarchy was completed by the classes of daimyō. Closest to the Tokugawa house were the shinpan, or related houses and they were twenty-three daimyōs on the borders of Tokugawa lands, all directly related to Ieyasu. The shinpan held mostly honorary titles and advisory posts in the bakufu, the second class of the hierarchy were the fudai, or house daimyōs, rewarded with lands close to the Tokugawa holdings for their faithful service. By the 18th century,145 fudai controlled such smaller han, members of the fudai class staffed most of the major bakufu offices. Ninety-seven han formed the group, the tozama, former opponents or new allies. The tozama were located mostly on the peripheries of the archipelago, because the tozama were least trusted of the daimyō, they were the most cautiously managed and generously treated, although they were excluded from central government positions. The Tokugawa not only consolidated their control over a reunified Japan, they also had unprecedented power over the emperor, the court, all daimyōs and the religious orders
Edo period
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Nikkō Tōshō-gū
Edo period
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Tokugawa Ieyasu, first
shogun of the
Tokugawa shogunate
Edo period
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The
San Juan Bautista is represented in
Claude Deruet 's painting of
Hasekura Tsunenaga in Rome in 1617, as a galleon with Hasekura's flag (red swastika on orange background) on the top mast.
Edo period
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Itinerary and dates of the travels of Hasekura Tsunenaga
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