Jim Crow Law Law that enforced racial segregation in the U.S. South between 1877 and the 1950s. The term, taken from a minstrel-show rou¬ tine, became a derogatory epithet for African Americans. After Reconstruc¬ tion, Southern legislatures passed laws requiring segregation of whites and “persons of colour” on public transportation. These later extended to schools, restaurants, and other public places. In 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education ; later rulings struck down other Jim Crow laws.
Jimenez \ke-'ma-nas,\ English \he-'ma-n9s\, Juan Ramon (b. Dec. 24, 1881, Moguer, Spain—d. May 29, 1958, San Juan, PR.) Spanish poet. His early poetry reflects the influence of Ruben Dario; this highly emo¬ tional style gave way to a more austere tone c. 1917. He achieved popu¬ larity in America with Platero and I (1917), a prose story of a man and his donkey. During the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), he allied himself with Republican forces; after their defeat he moved to Puerto Rico, where he spent most of the rest of his life. His poetic output was immense. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1956.
Jimenez de Quesada \ke-'ma-nas-tha-ka-'sa-tha\, Gonzalo (b. c. 1495, Cordoba or Granada, Spain—d. Feb. 16, 1579, Mariquita, New Granada) Spanish conquistador. He went to the New World as a colonial chief magistrate, then in 1536 he led an expedition of 900 men up the Magdalena River into the central plain of New Granada (modern Colom¬ bia), defeating the Chibcha Indians to win the land for Spain. In 1538 two rival conquistadores challenged his claim of conquest; the case was sub¬ mitted to the crown in Madrid and was inconclusively settled, but Jimenez became the most influential person in New Granada. In 1569 he set out in search of the mythical El Dorado with 500 men; he returned in 1571 with only 25 of his original company.
Jimmu Yjem-.miiV Legendary first emperor of Japan and founder of the imperial dynasty. He is credited with establishing his state in 660 bc on the plains of Yamato. (An actual state on the Yamato plains dates from the 3rd century ad.) Jimmu was believed to be a descendant of Ninigi, who was in turn the grandson of the sun goddess Amaterasu.
Jin Vjin\ dynasty or Chin dynasty First of two major Chinese dynasties to bear the name Jin. The dynasty had two distinct phases: the Western Jin (ad 265-317) and the Eastern Jin (ad 317^420). The latter is considered one of the Six Dynasties that ruled China between the fall of the Han (ad 220) and the establishment of the Sui (581). China was reunited under Sima Yan (Ssu-ma Yen), first of the Jin emperors, but after his death the empire rapidly crumbled. The XlONGNU nomads of the north overran the Jin capital of Luoyang and later defeated the Jin again at Chang'AN. For the next two centuries China was divided into two soci¬ eties, northern (plagued by barbarian invasions) and southern. The East¬ ern Jin, founded by another Sima prince at Nanjing, suffered revolts, court intrigues, and frontier wars, but also saw the flourishing of Buddhism in China and the birth of China’s first great painter, Gu Kaizhi (344-4067). See also Juchen dynasty.
Jina See Tirthankara
Jinan \'je-'nan\ or Chi-nan conventional Tsinan City (pop., 2003 est.: 2,345,969), capital of Shandong province, eastern China. It dates to the Zhou dynasty (c. llth-3rd century bc) and earlier and has been an admin¬ istrative centre since the 8th century bc. Nearby Mount Tai was one of China’s greatest holy mountains; many Buddhist cave temples were built in the hills south of the city in the 4th-7th centuries ad. It was made the capital of Shandong under the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). Opened to for¬ eign commerce in 1904, it developed further after becoming a railroad junction in 1912. It is now a major administrative and industrial centre and Shandong’s chief cultural centre, with agricultural, medical, and engi¬ neering colleges and a large university (1926).
jingxi or ching-hsi, also called Beijing opera or Peking opera Chinese "opera of the capital" Traditional Chinese theatre, origi¬ nally devised in 1790 as part of the Qianlong emperor’s birthday celebra¬ tion. Highly conventionalized and symbolic, it combines orchestral music, speech, song, dance, and acrobatics. The performers enact dramas based on historical epics, legend, and myth. The characters’ roles and social ranks are conveyed through elaborate costumes and stylized makeup. The actor Mei Lanfang brought its influence to the West through his tours of Russia and the U.S. in the 1930s. Jingxi traditionally employed an all¬ male cast with female impersonators, but in the late 20th century it expanded its scope to admit female actors.
jinja In the Shinto religion, a place where a god is enshrined or to which it is summoned. Originally rural sites of great natural beauty, jinja now include urban shrines. They vary in size from small roadside places of prayer to large building complexes such as the Grand Ise Shrine. There are more than 97,000 such shrines in Japan.
Jinnah, Mohammed Ali (b. Dec. 25, 1876, Karachi, India—d. Sept. 11, 1948, Karachi, Pak.) Indian Muslim politician, founder and first governor-general of Pakistan (1947-48). He was educated in Bombay (now Mumbai) and London, where he became a lawyer at age 19. After returning to India, he practiced law and was elected to India’s Imperial Legislative Council in 1910. Committed to home rule for India and to maintaining Hindu-Muslim unity, he joined the Muslim League in 1913 and worked to ensure its collaboration with the Indian National Congress. He was opposed to Mohandas K. Gandhi’s noncooperation movement and withdrew from the Congress. In the late 1920s and early ’30s, he was seen as too moderate by some Muslims but too Muslim by the Congress Party. From 1937, when the Congress Party refused to form coalition governments with the Muslim League in the provinces, Jinnah began to work for the partitioning of India and on creating a Muslim state. Paki¬ stan emerged as an independent country in 1947, and Jinnah became its first head of state. He died in 1948, revered as the father of the nation.
jinni or genie plural jinn In Arabic mythology, any of the supernatu¬ ral spirits less powerful than angels or devils. Evil spirits of air or fire, they could take animal or human form and could dwell in inanimate objects or under the earth. They had the bodily needs of human beings and could be killed but were otherwise free of physical restraints. Jinn delighted in punishing humans for any harm done to them, but people who knew the proper magical procedure could exploit them to their own advantage. The jinn were popular subjects for folklore, notably in the tale of Aladdin in The Thousand and One Nights.
Jinsha River, or Kinsha River or Chin-sha River \'jin-'sha\ River, China. The westernmost major headwater stream of the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang), it rises in western Qinghai province south of the Kun¬ lun Mountains, and flows south to form the western border of Sichuan province for some 250 mi (400 km). It then flows into Yunnan province, and swings northeast to join the Min River at Yibin and form the Yangtze.
jito Vje-to\ In feudal Japan, a land steward appointed by the central mili¬ tary government to each of the estates ( shoen ) into which the countryside was divided. The jito collected taxes and maintained the peace; he was also entitled to a portion of the taxes collected. The position, created by Minamoto Yoritomo in 1184, came to be hereditary. As time went by, the jito came to have closer ties with local leaders than with the central gov¬ ernment, which contributed to the weakening of the Kamakura shogunate (see Kamakura period).