Yuan Dynasty in the context of "Kublai"

A vase (/veɪs/, /veɪz/, or /vɑːz/) is an open container. It can be made from a number of materials, such as ceramics, glass, non-rusting metals, such as aluminium, brass, bronze, or stainless steel. Even wood has been used to make vases, either by using tree species that naturally resist rot, such as teak, or by applying a protective coating to conventional wood or plastic. Vases are often decorated, and they are often used to hold cut flowers. Vases come in different sizes to support whatever flower is being held or kept in place.

Vases generally share a similar shape. The foot or the base may be bulbous, flat, carinate, or another shape. The body forms the main portion of the piece. Some vases have a shoulder, where the body curves inward, a neck, which gives height, and a lip, where the vase flares back out at the top. Some vases are also given handles.

River engineering is a discipline of civil engineering which studies human intervention in the course, characteristics, or flow of a river with the intention of producing some defined benefit. People have intervened in the natural course and behaviour of rivers since before recorded history—to manage the water resources, to protect against flooding, or to make passage along or across rivers easier. Since the Yuan Dynasty and Ancient Roman times, rivers have been used as a source of hydropower.

From the late 20th century onward, the practice of river engineering has responded to environmental concerns broader than immediate human benefit. Some river engineering projects have focused exclusively on the restoration or protection of natural characteristics and habitats.

Longquan celadon (Chinese: 龙泉青瓷) is a type of green-glazed Chinese ceramic, known in the West as celadon or greenware, produced from about 950 to 1550. The kilns were mostly in Lishui prefecture in southwestern Zhejiang Province in the south of China, and the north of Fujian Province. Overall a total of some 500 kilns have been discovered, making the Longquan celadon production area one of the largest historical ceramic producing areas in China. "Longquan-type" is increasingly preferred as a term, in recognition of this diversity, or simply "southern celadon", as there was also a large number of kilns in north China producing Yaozhou ware or other Northern Celadon wares. These are similar in many respects, but with significant differences to Longquan-type celadon, and their production rose and declined somewhat earlier.

Celadon production had a long history at Longquan and related sites, but it was not until the Northern Song (960–1127) period that large-scale production began, and the move of the capital to Hangzhou, close to Longquan, after the start of the Southern Song (1127–1279), was probably important in the great expansion of both quality and production there. Both continued at high levels in the Yuan (1271–1368) and the early part of the Ming (1368–1644) periods. Longquan celadons were an important part of China's export economy for over five hundred years, and were widely imitated in other countries, especially Korea and Japan. Their demise came after they were overtaken in their markets by blue and white porcelain from Jingdezhen.

Shaannan (simplified Chinese: 陕南; traditional Chinese: 陝南; pinyin: Shǎnnán) or Southern Shaanxi refers to the portion of China's Shaanxi province south of the Qinling Mountains. Its name derives from the province's abbreviation "Shaan" (陕) combined with the word "Nan" (南, lit. "south"), its geographical location within the province.

In the Yuan Dynasty, the area began to be merged with what is the Guanzhong Plain to form Shaanxi province. The Qinling Mountains, as a geographic barrier, has also created major differences in climate, cultural traditions and dialects between Shaannan and the other parts of Shaanxi, and thus there is some similarity between Shaannan and Sichuan.

Khong Tayiji (Mongolian: ᠬᠤᠩ
ᠲᠠᠶᠢᠵᠢ, хун тайж; simplified Chinese: 浑台吉; traditional Chinese: 渾台吉; pinyin: Húntáijí), also spelled Qong Tayiji, was a title of the Mongols, derived from the Chinese term Huangtaizi (皇太子; "crown prince").

At first it also meant crown prince in the Mongolian language. It was originally given only to descendants of Genghis Khan. In the Mongol tradition, a khan was unable to appoint the successor, instead the successor was elected in the kurultai after the khan's death. However, Kublai Khan (who founded the Yuan Dynasty) broke this tradition and installed his second son Zhenjin (Chingem) as Crown Prince. After Chingem died in 1286, the seal of Crown prince was passed to Chingem's third son Temür in 1293. However, Temür was never formally appointed as the Crown Prince and still not the definite successor. He was only confirmed as successor in a kurultai held after Kublai's death.

The Wei or Wey River is a river in northern Henan, southern Hebei, and western Shandong in China.

Beginning in the southern foothills of the Taihang Mountains in Xinxiang County in Henan, the river's former course extended past Dezhou to the Bohai Sea but these lower reaches were fully incorporated into the Grand Canal under the Yuan. The Wei now serves as a tributary to the canal, joining it at Linqing, Shandong. As such, its watershed forms part of the South-North Water Diversion Project.

Huochong (simplified Chinese: 火铳; traditional Chinese: 火銃) is a Chinese name for firearms. In pre-modern China, the terms chong and pao were used interchangeably at times without clearly distinguishing between a gun and cannon. By the early Ming dynasty (1368–1644), it could refer to both cannons or hand cannons. The term chong has been applied to numerous types of firearm weapons in China, including the hand cannons (shou chong), bowl-mouth cannons (wankou chong), double edged gun (liangtou chong), and big 100-bullet gun (da chong baizi). The Koreans and Vietnamese (sung and phao) also used the same terms to describe early firearms.

The oldest confirmed huochong, also the earliest cannon with a date of production, is a bronze bowl-mouth gun (wankou chong) bearing an inscription dating it to 1298 (see Xanadu Gun).