Ta, symbol for the element tantalum.

Pa-ta-shan-jen: see Chu Ta.

Lü-ta: see Lüda, China.

Li Ta-chao: see Li Dazhao.

Göta älv, river, 56 mi (90 km) long, SW Sweden, draining Vänern lake into the Kattegat. It is part of the Göta Canal, a 240-mi (386-km) system of rivers, lakes, and canals, which crosses S Sweden from Göteborg to Arkosund on the Baltic Sea and to Stockholm by way of the sea. The canals, which account for one half of the waterway's length, were opened in 1832 and ascend and descend c.300 ft (90 m) by means of 58 locks. The section that passes around the rapids at Trollhättan was modernized in 1916 to accommodate small oceangoing vessels.

Chu Ta or Zhu Da, c.1626-c.1705, Chinese painter and calligrapher, also known as Pa-ta-shan-jen or Bada Shanren. Said to have been a descendant of the imperial Ming family, he was a child prodigy, a poet at 7 and a painter by his teens. Becoming a monk after the fall of the dynasty, in 1678 he apparently suffered a nervous breakdown, was unable to speak for a number of years, and became known for his fits of madness and eccentric behavior. He left the monastary and, despite his afflictions, became a founder of the school of painting known as Ch'ing. Most of his works are small-scale spontaneous studies of nature. His brushstrokes, which seem free and careless at first glance, are filled with vitality and descriptive power. His works may be seen at the British Museum; Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Metallic chemical element, one of the transition elements, chemical symbol Ta, atomic number 73. It is a dense, hard, unreactive, silvery gray metal with an extremely high melting point (5,425 °F [2,996 °C]). Relatively rare, it occurs native in a few places. It is difficult to separate from niobium, the element above it in the periodic table, with which it shares many properties. The most important uses are in electrolytic capacitors, corrosion-resistant chemical equipment, dental and surgical instruments, tools, catalysts, components of electron tubes, rectifiers, and prostheses. Its compounds are relatively unimportant commercially; tantalum carbide is used in machine tools and dies.

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or Li Ta-chao

(born Oct. 6, 1888, Hebei province, China—died April 28, 1927, Beijing) One of the founders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Chief librarian and professor of history at Beijing University, Li became inspired by the success of the Russian Revolution and began to study and lecture on Marxism. In 1921 the study groups Li had created formally became the CCP. Li helped the new party carry out the policy of the Communist International (see Comintern) and cooperated with the Nationalist Party of Sun Yat-sen. His career was cut short when he was seized and hanged by the warlord Zhang Zuolin, but his ideas of a revolution of the impoverished peasantry were brought to fruition by Mao Zedong.

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