The history of modern fiction in Japan is inextricably tied to the "I-novel," an autobiographical, often confessional genre that developed early in the twentieth century as both an extension of the traditional Japanese preference for lyric...

Where the light wings of Zephyr, oppress'd with perfume, Wax faint o'er the gardens of Gul in her bloom. Let Zephyr only breathe And with her tresses play. While the wanton Zephyr sings, And in the vale perfumes his wings. Fair laughs the ...

With a length of 877 kilometers and a drainage basin of 17,100 square kilometers, the Zerafshan, or "Golden," River is one of the most important of Central Asia, providing water for irrigation to some of the region's m...

The German mathematician Georg Cantor (1845-1918) began a revolution in mathematics when invented the theory of sets in the 1870s. The parts of his theory dealing with infinite sets were the most controversial at that time. In an 1874 arti...

This article or section should be merged with King of Fighters. The Zeros are a pair of video game characters in the King of Fighters series. Original Zero "Ho, Ho, Ho. You can't beat an original." (Against the Women's Team) "Forgive me, l...

Zero discharge is the goal of eliminating discharges of pollutants by industry, government, and other agencies to air, water, and land with a view to protect both public health and the integrity of the environment. Such a goal is difficult...

Zero population growth (also called the replacement level of fertility) refers to stabilization of a population at its current level. A population growth rate of zero means that people are only replacing themselves, and that the birth and ...

A concept allied to, but less stringent than, that of zero discharge. Zero risk permits the release to air, water, and land of those pollutants that have a threshold dose below which public health and the environment remain undamaged. Such...

There is a young man involved with violence, drugs, and alcohol. He is not in any sports, and he has not joined any after school activities. Everyday at school and at home, he smokes pot. Up until now he hasn't been severely punished for ha...

Quantum physics predicts the existence of an underlying sea of zero-point energy at every spot in the universe. This is different from the cosmic microwave background and is also referred to as the electromagnetic quantum vacuum, since it ...

Zeta-function is the name given to certain functions of the complex variable s = + it that play a fundamental role in analytic number theory. The most important example is the Riemann zeta-function z(s). In the right half plane {s ∈ ...

Although contemporary critics often praised her poetry for successfully communicating powerful, unaffected emotion and thought, Iuliia Zhadovskaia's prose frequently elicited indifference or even sharp criticism from reviewers. Her briefly...

ZHANG DAOLING, semilegendary figure of the second century CE, depicted in hagiographies as a master of long life (changsheng) who put his disciples to tests, vanquished demons, and prepared the elixir of immortality. He is said to have rec...

ZHANG JUE (d. 184 CE), founder of the Yellowa Turban sect. Zhang Jue was heir to the doctrines of Yu Ji, a sorcerer and healer who preached and practiced in Shandong and who was probably the author of the Taiping qingling shu (Book of Grea...

fl. 138-114 B.C. Chinese official who journeyed to central Asia, establishing the first contact between China and other civilizations. Prior to Chang Ch'ien, the Chinese had known only of barbarians beyond their frontiers. It was to...

Chang Chih-tung (1837-1909) was a Chinese official and reformer. A brilliant Confucian scholar, he was convinced of the peerless quality of China's traditional culture. However, to preserve it, he introduced Western-type industry, educatio...

The Chinese painter Chao Meng-fu (1254-1322) was a high official under the Yüan dynasty, 1279-1369, and helped to establish the tradition of amateur scholarly painting, wen-jen-hua. Chao Meng-fu was born at Huchow in Chekiang Province...

(2001 pop. 47 million). One of the most fertile and wealthiest provinces in China, Zhejiang lies on China's southeastern coast just south of the Chang (Yangtze) river delta and China's largest city, Shanghai. It is bordered o...

The Chinese Buddhist monk Chih-i (538-597) founded one of the most popular schools of Chinese Buddhism, the T'ien-t'ai. Chih-i, also known as Chih-k'ai, was born Ch'en Wang-tao in South China in 538. He grew up in a chaotic period, during ...

Chou En-lai (1898-1976) was a Chinese Communist leader and premier of the People's Republic of China. From the 1920s on Chou was among the top leaders of the Chinese Communist party. Chou En-lai was born in Huaian, Kiangsu Province, into a...

(b. 1928), Chinese premier. Following the end of Li Peng's term as premier of the Chinese Communist Party in 1998, Zhu Rongji was named premier. Zhu was born on 20 October 1928 in Changsha, Hunan Province. While an electrical engine...

Chu Hsi (1130-1200) was one of the greatest Chinese scholars and philosophers. The system of Neo-Confucianism of which Chu Hsi is regarded as the spokesman represents a summary of doctrines of his predecessors as well as original ideas of ...

The Chinese philosopher Chuang Tzu (ca. 369-ca. 286 BC), also known as Chuang Chou, was the most brilliant of the early Taoists and the greatest prose writer of his time. Not much is known of the life of Chuang Tzu. The Shih Chi (Historica...

Zhuge Liang ( 181 - 234 ) was one of the greatest Chinese strategists of the Three Kingdoms era as well as a statesman, engineer, scholar and inventor. Zhuge is an uncommon two-character compound family name. His name (or even just his sur...

A talented author of tales, novels, and a travelogue, Mar'ia Zhukova was quite popular with general readers and highly regarded by critics in the 1830s and 1840s. She made a significant contribution to the development of Russian prose fict...