Chinese language

The Yuan dynasty, officially the Great Yuan, was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai (Emperor Shizu or Setsen Khan), the fifth khagan-emperor of the Mongol Empire from the Borjigin clan, and lasted from 1271 to 1368. In Chinese history, the Yuan dynasty followed the Song dynasty and preceded the Ming dynasty.

Although Genghis Khan's enthronement as Khagan in 1206 was described in Chinese as the Han-style title of Emperor and the Mongol Empire had ruled territories including modern-day northern China for decades, it was not until 1271 that Kublai Khan officially proclaimed the dynasty in the traditional Han style, and the conquest was not complete until 1279 when the Southern Song dynasty was defeated in the Battle of Yamen. His realm was, by this point, isolated from the other Mongol-led khanates and controlled most of modern-day China and its surrounding areas, including modern-day Mongolia. It was the first dynasty founded by a non-Han ethnicity that ruled all of China proper. In 1368, following the defeat of the Yuan forces by the Ming dynasty, the Genghisid rulers retreated to the Mongolian Plateau and continued to rule until 1635 when they surrendered to the Later Jin dynasty (which later evolved into the Qing dynasty). The rump state is known in historiography as the Northern Yuan.

The Song dynasty (Chinese: 宋朝; pinyin: Sòng cháo; 960–1279) of China was an imperial dynasty that ruled most of China proper and southern China from the middle of the 10th century into the last quarter of the 13th century. The dynasty was established by Emperor Taizu of Song with his usurpation of the throne of Later Zhou, ending the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.

The Song is considered a high point of classical Chinese innovation in science and technology, an era that featured prominent intellectual figures such as Shen Kuo and Su Song and the revolutionary use of gunpowder weapons. However, it was also a period of political and military turmoil, with opposing and often aggressive political factions formed at court that impeded political, social, and economic progress. The frontier management policies of the Chancellor Wang Anshi exacerbated hostile conditions along the Chinese-Vietnamese border. This sparked a border war with Vietnam's Lý dynasty, which was fought to a mutual draw and concluded with a peace treaty in 1082. To the northwest the Song Empire frequently fought battles with the Tangut-led Western Xia dynasty, as well as the Khitan-led Liao dynasty to the north.

Mazu or Matsu is a sea goddess in Chinese folk religion, Chinese Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. She is also known by several other names and titles. Mazu is the deified form of Lin Moniang (Chinese: 林默娘; pinyin: Lín Mòniáng; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Lîm Be̍k-niû / Lîm Bia̍k-niû / Lîm Be̍k-niô͘), a shamaness from Fujian who is said to have lived in the late 10th century. After her death, she became revered as a tutelary deity of Chinese seafarers, including fishermen and sailors.

Her worship spread throughout China's coastal regions and overseas Chinese communities throughout Southeast Asia, where some Mazuist temples are affiliated with famous Taiwanese temples. Traditionally, Mazu was believed to roam the seas, safeguarding her devotees through miraculous interventions. She is now generally regarded by her believers as a powerful and benevolent Queen of Heaven.

Zhenren (Chinese: 真人; pinyin: zhēnrén; Wade–Giles: chen-jen; lit. 'true/ upright/ genuine person' or 'person of truth') is a Chinese term that first appeared in the Zhuangzi meaning "a Taoist spiritual master" in those writings, as in one who has mastered realization of the Tao. Religious Taoism mythologized zhenren, having them occupy various places in the celestial hierarchy sometimes synonymous with xian. Zhenren has been used in various ways depending on the sect and time period.

The Tiele (Chinese: 鐵勒; pinyin: Tiělè), also transliterated as Chile (Chinese: 敕勒), Dili (Chinese: 狄歷), Zhile (Chinese: 直勒) and Tele (Chinese: 特勒), who were also known by the Chinese exonym Gaoche (Chinese: 高車) or Gaoju, were a tribal confederation of Turkic ethnic origins living to the north of China proper and in Central Asia, emerging after the disintegration of the Xiongnu confederacy. Chinese sources associate them with the earlier Dingling.

The Göktürks (Old Turkic: 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰜:𐰉𐰆𐰑𐰣, romanized: Türük Bodun; Chinese: 突厥; pinyin: Tūjué; Wade–Giles: T'u-chüeh), also known as Türks, Celestial Turks or Blue Turks, were a Turkic people in medieval Inner Asia. The Göktürks, under the leadership of Bumin Qaghan (d. 552) and his sons, succeeded the Rouran Khaganate as the main power in the region and established the First Turkic Khaganate, one of several nomadic dynasties that would shape the future geolocation, culture, and dominant beliefs of Turkic peoples.

Oirats (/ˈɔɪræt/; Mongolian: Ойрад [ˈɞe̯ɾə̆t]) or Oirds (Mongolian: Ойрд [ˈɞe̯ɾə̆t]; Kalmyk: Өөрд [ˈøːɾə̆t]), formerly known as Eluts and Eleuths (/ɪˈluːt/ or /ɪˈljuːθ/; Chinese: 厄魯特, Èlǔtè) are the westernmost group of Mongols, whose ancestral home is in the Altai region of Siberia, Xinjiang and western Mongolia.

The first documented reference to Elut and Yelut was in the Onginsk "rune" inscriptions dated in the sixth century. The dating of the Oirats to the 13th century is based on the text of the Secret History of the Mongols. Historically, the Oirats were composed of four major tribes: Dzungar (Choros or Olots), Torghut, Dörbet and Khoshut.

Manichaeism (/ˌmænɪˈkiːɪzəm/; in Persian: آئین مانی, romanized: Āʾīn-i Mānī; Chinese: 摩尼教; pinyin: Móníjiào) was a major world religion founded in the third century CE by the Parthian Iranian prophet Mani (C.E. 216–274) in the Sasanian Empire. Variably described as a Christian heresy and a Gnostic movement, Manichaeism was an organized and doctrinal religious tradition in its own right. It taught an elaborate dualistic cosmology describing the struggle between a good spiritual world of light, and an evil material world of darkness. Through an ongoing process that takes place in human history, light is gradually removed from the world of matter and returned to the world of the divine.

Mani's teachings were intended to integrate, succeed, and surpass the "partial truths" of various prior faiths and belief systems, including Platonism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Marcionism, Hellenistic and Rabbinic Judaism, Gnostic movements, Ancient Greek religion, Babylonian and other Mesopotamian religions, and mystery cults. Some forms of Manichaeism see Mani as the final prophet after Zoroaster, the Buddha, and Jesus. The Manichaean scriptural canon includes seven works attributed to Mani, written originally in Syriac. Manichaean sacramental rites included prayers, almsgiving, and fasting. Communal life centered on confession and the singing of hymns.

Miao is a word used in modern China to designate a category of ethnic groups living in southern China and Mainland Southeast Asia. The Miao are the largest ethnic minority group in China without an autonomous region. The Miao live primarily in the mountains of southern China encompassing the provinces of Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, Hubei, Hunan, Guangxi, Guangdong, and Hainan. Some sub-groups of the Miao, most notably the Hmong people, migrated out of China into Southeast Asia (Myanmar, Northern Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand). Following the communist takeover of Laos in 1975, a large group of Hmong refugees resettled in several Western nations, mainly in the United States, France, and Australia.

Miao is a Chinese term referring to many groups that have their own autonyms such as Hmong, Hmu, Xong (Qo-Xiong), and A-Hmao. These people (except those in Hainan) speak Hmongic languages, a subfamily of the Hmong–Mien languages (Miao-Yao) including many mutually unintelligible languages such as the mother tongues of the four primary groups that make up the Miao: Hmong, Hmub, Xong and A-Hmao.

The Bouyei (also spelled Puyi, Buyei and Buyi; Bouyei: Buxqyaix, [puʔjai] or "Puzhong", "Burao", "Puman"; Chinese: 布依族; pinyin: Bùyīzú; Vietnamese: người Bố Y) are an ethnic group living in Southern Mainland China. Numbering 3.5 million, they are the 10th largest of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. Some 3,000 Bouyei also live in Northern Vietnam, where they are one of that nation's 54 officially recognized ethnic groups.