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Diabolo
The diabolo ( ; commonly misspelled ''diablo'') is a juggling or circus skills, circus juggling prop, prop consisting of an axle () and two cone, cups (hourglass/egg timer shaped) or cylinder, discs derived from the Chinese yo-yo. This object is rotation, spun using a twine, string attached to two hand sticks ("batons" or "wands"). A large variety of tricks is possible with the diabolo, including toss (juggling), tosses, and various types of interaction with the sticks, string, and various parts of the user's body. Multiple diabolos can be spun on a single string. Like the Western yo-yo (which has an independent origin), it maintains its spinning motion through a rotating effect based on Angular momentum#Conservation of angular momentum, conservation of angular momentum. History Origin The Diabolo is derived from the Chinese yo-yo encountered by Europeans during the colonial era. However, the origin of the Chinese yo-yo is unknown. The earliest mention of the Chinese yo-yo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Circus Skills
Circus skills are a group of disciplines that have been performed as entertainment in circus, carnival, sideshow, busking, variety, vaudeville, or music hall shows. Most circus skills are still being performed today. Many are also practiced by non-performers as a hobby. Circus schools and instructors use various systems of categorization to group circus skills by type. Systems that have attempted to formally organize circus skills into pragmatic teaching groupings include the Gurevich system"The Classification of Circus Techniques" by Hovey Burgess. ''The Drama Review'': TDR, Vol. 14344425Aleeyah18, No. 1, Popular Entertainments (Mar., 1974), pp. 65-70. doi:10.2307/1144863. (the basis of the Russian Circus School's curriculum) and the Hovey Burgess system. Circus skills * Acrobalance * Acrobatics * Acro dance * Adagio * Aerial hammock * Aerial hoop * Aerial pole * Aerial silk * Aerial straps * Artistic cycling * Balancing * Banquine * Baton twirling * Buffoonery * Bu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Juggling Prop
A skill toy is an object or theatrical prop used for dexterity play or an object manipulation performance. A skill toy can be any static or inanimate object with which a person dances, manipulates, spins, tosses, or simply plays. Most skill toys are played alone, although some can be played with multiple people (such as footbag, juggling, and jump rope). Examples Common examples of skill toys include: * Balance board (rola bola, rocker, rocker-roller, wobble, sphere-and-ring, spring board, above-water and under-water balance boards) ** Bilibo ** Seesaw **Teeterboard *** Neolttwigi * Ball-in-a-maze puzzle ** Labyrinth (marble game) ** Perplexus ** Rubik's 360 * Balloon modelling (balloon twisting) * Bamboo-copter * Baton * Bicycle and related forms ** Balance bicycle *** Kickbike ** Jyrobike ** Quadracycle ** Tricycle *** Big Wheel ** Unicycle * Bolas ** Alaska yo-yo ** Astrojax ** Meteor Hammer ** Clackers ** Monkey Knuckles ** Poi * Begleri * Blip (console) * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spinning Top
A spinning top, or simply a top, is a toy with a squat body and a sharp point at the bottom, designed to be rotation, spun on its vertical Axis of rotation, axis, balancing on the tip due to the gyroscopic effect. Once set in motion, a top will usually precession, wobble for a few seconds, spin upright for a while, then start to wobble again with increasing amplitude as it loses energy, and finally tip over and roll on its side. Tops exist in many variations and materials, chiefly wood, metal, and plastic, often with a metal tip. They may be set in motion by twirling a handle with the fingers, by pulling a rope coiled around the body, or through a built-in auger (spiral plunger). Such toys have been used since Classical antiquity, antiquity in solitary or competitive games, where each player tries to keep one's top spinning for as long as possible or achieve some other goal. Some tops have faceted bodies with symbols or inscriptions, and are used like dice to inject randomness ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Language
Chinese ( or ) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and List of ethnic groups in China, many minority ethnic groups in China, as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora. Approximately 1.39 billion people, or 17% of the global population, speak a variety of Chinese as their first language. Chinese languages form the Sinitic languages, Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. The spoken varieties of Chinese are usually considered by native speakers to be dialects of a single language. However, their lack of mutual intelligibility means they are sometimes considered to be separate languages in a Language family, family. Investigation of the historical relationships among the varieties of Chinese is ongoing. Currently, most classifications posit 7 to 13 main regional groups based on phonetic developments from Middle Chinese, of which the most spoken by far is Mandarin Chinese, Mandarin with 66%, or around 800&nb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ming Dynasty
The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of China ruled by the Han people, the majority ethnic group in China. Although the primary capital of Beijing fell in 1644 to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng (who established the short-lived Shun dynasty), numerous rump state, rump regimes ruled by remnants of the House of Zhu, Ming imperial family, collectively called the Southern Ming, survived until 1662. The Ming dynasty's founder, the Hongwu Emperor (1368–1398), attempted to create a society of self-sufficient rural communities ordered in a rigid, immobile system that would guarantee and support a permanent class of soldiers for his dynasty: the empire's standing army exceeded one million troops and the naval history of China, navy's dockyards in Nanjing were the largest in the world. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wanli Emperor
The Wanli Emperor (4 September 1563 – 18 August 1620), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Shenzong of Ming, personal name Zhu Yijun, art name Yuzhai, was the 14th List of emperors of the Ming dynasty, emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1572 to 1620. He succeeded his father, the Longqing Emperor. His reign of 48 years was the longest among all the Ming dynasty emperors. The Wanli Emperor ascended the throne at the age of nine. During the first ten years of his reign, the young emperor was assisted and effectively led by Grand Secretary Zhang Juzheng, a skilled administrator. With the support of the emperor's mother, Empress Dowager Xiaoding, Lady Li, and the imperial eunuchs led by Feng Bao, the country experienced economic and military prosperity, reaching a level of power not seen since the early 15th century. The emperor held great respect and appreciation for Zhang Juzheng. However, as time passed, various factions within the government openly opposed Zhang, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dijing Jingwulue
The ''Dijing Jingwulue'' () is a 17th-century Chinese prose classic written by Liu Tong, an official with a Jinshi degree and member of the Jingling school of Chinese prose literature. Yu Yizheng () and Zhou Sun (), two scholars outside of official circles were Liu's assistants who helped in compiling the book. The preface reveals Liu as the actual author, while Yu was a compiler with Zhou acting as something of an assistant to the other two. However, Yu was a native of Beijing, capital of Ming dynasty China, and a scholar of local traditions. Liu may have just polished the prose, but gained most of the prestige. Liu dates the preface as 1635, the same year Yu died in Nanjing, three years before troops of the new dynasty attacked Beijing. A celebration of a city's ambiance that would disappear behind the secluded walls of a conquered city, the work features descriptions of multiple gardens and estates that would soon vanish forever. Ming dynasty Beijing, in contrast with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liu Tong
Liu Tong (, c. 1593–1637) was a Chinese politician and writer from Macheng in Huanggang. He was a figure in the Ming Dynasty's Jingling school () of Chinese prose literature in contrast to the Gongan school () and the well known Yuan Hongdao and his brothers. He is credited with the '' Dijing Jingwulue''. His Dijing Jingwulue (帝京景物略), or ''Resume of Sights and Goods of the Imperial Capital'' is thought to have been a travel guide to the historical and geographical attractions of Beijing. The work mentions the Catholic cathedral and the tomb of the Jesuit Matteo Ricci. Its anecdotes and unusual details make it an invaluable study of Beijing in the early 17th century. In 1630, Liu became a member of the National University and passed his Jinshi examination in 1634. He became a magistrate of Suzhou, but died en route in 1637. References *Biography by Lienche Tu Fang in Goodrich and Fang, ''Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368-1644'', New York, 1976, vol. 1, pp. 968� ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney
:''George Macartney should not be confused with Sir George Macartney, a later British statesman.'' George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney, (14 May 1737 – 31 May 1806) was a British diplomat, politician and colonial administrator who served as the governor of Grenada, Madras and the Cape Colony. He is often remembered for his observation following Britain's victory in the Seven Years' War and subsequent territorial expansion at the Treaty of Paris that Britain now controlled " a vast Empire, on which the sun never sets". Early years He was born in 1737 as the only son of George Macartney, High Sheriff of Antrim and Elizabeth Winder. Macartney descended from a Scottish family with origins in Ireland, who were granted land in Scotland for serving under Edward Bruce, brother of Robert the Bruce. The Macartneys of Auchenleck, Kirkcudbrightshire settled in Lissanoure County Antrim, Ireland, where he was born. After graduating from Trinity College Dublin, in 1759, he became a st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean Joseph Marie Amiot
Jean Joseph Marie Amiot (; February 8, 1718October 8, 1793) was a French Jesuit priest who worked in Qing China, during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor. Born in Toulon, Amiot entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at the age of 19. After he was ordained in 1746, he aspired to serve in an overseas mission. Eventually, he was assigned a mission in China and left France in 1749. He arrived at Beijing in 1751 and remained there for the rest of his life. Amiot served as an intermediary between the academics of Europe and China. His correspondence provided insight on the culture of China to the Europeans. He translated Chinese works into French. Most notably, his translation of Sun Tzu's ''The Art of War'' is the first rendition of the work into a Western language. Early life Amiot was born in Toulon on February 8, 1718 to Louis Amiot, the royal notary of Toulon, and Marie-Anne Serre. He was the eldest of ten children: five boys and five girls. His brother Pierre-Jules-R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Three Kingdoms
The Three Kingdoms of Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu dominated China from AD 220 to 280 following the end of the Han dynasty. This period was preceded by the Eastern Han dynasty and followed by the Jin dynasty (266–420), Western Jin dynasty. Academically, the periodisation begins with the establishment of Cao Wei in 220 and ends with the conquest of Wu by Jin in 280. The period immediately preceding the Three Kingdoms, from 184 to 220, was marked by chaotic infighting among warlords across China as Han authority collapsed. The period from 220 to 263 was marked by a comparatively stable arrangement between Cao Wei, Shu Han, and Eastern Wu. This stability broke down with the conquest of Shu by Wei in 263, followed by the usurpation of Cao Wei by Jin in 266 and ultimately the conquest of Wu by Jin in 280. The Three Kingdoms period including the collapse of the Han was one of the most dangerous in Chinese history due to multiple plagues, widespread famines, and civil war. A n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
