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Lianjiang (postal: Limkong; Chinese: 廉江) is a county-level city in the municipal region of Zhanjiang, Guangdong. The city has an area of 2,543 square kilometers, and had a population of about 1,680,000 as of 2010. Geography Lianjiang lies in the north of the Leizhou Peninsula and faces Beibu Gulf to the southwest. The city is bordered to the east by Maoming; to the south by Wuchuan, Potou District, and Suixi County, all in Zhanjiang; to the west by Anpugang Harbour (Chinese: 安铺港, part of the Gulf of Tonkin) and Beihai, in Guangxi Province; and to the north by Yulin. Lianjiang lies 48 kilometers north of Zhanjiang's city center. Climate Administrative divisions The city is divided into 3 subdistricts and 18 towns. Lianjiang's government is located in Luozhou Subdistrict. Subdistricts Lianjiang's 3 subdistricts are Luozhou Subdistrict, Chengnan Subdistrict, and Chengbei Subdistrict. Towns Lianjiang's 18 towns are Shicheng, Xinmin, Jishui, Hechun, Shijiao, Liangdong, Hengshan, Anpu, Yingzi, Qingping, Cheban, Gaoqiao, Shiling, Yatang, Shijing, Changshan, Tangpeng, and Heliao. Education By the end of 2009 there are 577 schools, colleges and universities in Lianjiang with 312,000 students.The Guangdong Institute of Arts and Sciences is located in the city. Transportation The Litang–Zhanjiang railway and the Shenzhen–Zhanjiang high-speed railway both run through Lianjiang.National Highway 207 and National Highway 325 both run through Lianjiang, as well as a number of provincial highways. Lianjiang Government Online

P.S. commonly refers to: Postscript, writing added after the main body of a letterPS, P.S., ps, and other variants may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music PS Classics, a record label P.S. (album), a compilation album of film music by Goran Bregovic P.S. (A Toad Retrospective), a compilation album of music by Toad The Wet Sprocket "PS", 2003 song by The Books from the album The Lemon of Pink "P.S.", 1993 song by James from the album Laid Other media PlayStation, a video gaming brand owned by Sony PlayStation (console), a home video game console by Sony P.S. (film), a 2004 film P.S., a 2010 film by Yalkin Tuychiev PS (TV series), a German television series PS Publishing, based in the UK Prompt corner or prompt side, an area of a stage Ponniyin Selvan (disambiguation), Indian media franchise, abbreviated PS Language Pashto language (ISO 639 alpha-2 language code "ps") Proto Semitic, a hypothetical proto-language ancestral to historical Semitic languages of the Middle East The sound of the Greek letter psi (Greek) (ψ). Places Palau (FIPS PUB 10-4 territory code PS) State of Palestine (ISO 3166 country code PS) Politics PS – Political Science & Politics, academic journal Parti Socialiste (disambiguation), French Partido Socialista (disambiguation), Spanish and Portuguese Partito Socialista (disambiguation), Italian Polizia di Stato, Italian national police force Positive Slovenia Pradeshiya Sabha, a unit of local government in Sri Lanka Progressive Slovakia Social Democratic Party (Andorra) Partit Socialdemòcrata Socialist Party of Albania Partia Socialiste Socialist Party of Chile Partido Socialista de Chile Socialist Party of Romania Partidul Socialist [din România] Finns Party Perussuomalaiset Movement of Socialists (Pokret Socijalista), a political party in Serbia Religion Pastors, ministers in some Christian churches Psalms, a book in the Tanakh and Christian Bibles Science and technology Units of measurement Petasecond (Ps), 1015 seconds Picosecond (ps), 10−12 seconds Pferdestärke (PS), abbreviation of the German term for metric horsepower Picosiemens (pS), SI unit of electric conductance Computing Adobe Photoshop, a graphics editor and creator by Adobe MPEG program stream, an MPEG-2 container format Parametric Stereo, feature used in digital audio PostScript, a page description language .ps, filename extension for a file in PostScript format ps (Unix), an application that displays statistics on running processes .ps, the State of Palestine Internet domain extension or top-level domain (ccTLD) PS Power and Sample Size, an interactive computer program for power and sample size calculations Windows PowerShell, a command line scripting and system management shell for Microsoft Windows Medicine Panayiotopoulos syndrome, a childhood seizure disorder Progeroid syndromes, a group of rare diseases causing premature aging Pulmonary stenosis or pulmonic stenosis, obstruction of the pulmonary artery of the heart Physics and chemistry Ps or static pressure, in fluid mechanics and aviation Proton Synchrotron, a 1959 particle accelerator at CERN Chloropicrin, a highly toxic chemical compound Phosphatidylserine, a phospholipid Phosphorothioate (or thiophosphate), a family of compounds and anions with the general chemical formula PS4−xOx3− (x = 0, 1, 2, or 3) Polystyrene, a common type of plastic Ps, positronium, pseudo-chemical symbol Transportation Paddle steamer, abbreviated PS in vessel prefixes Pacific Southwest Airlines (1949-1988), IATA designator of former airline Ukraine International Airlines, IATA airline designator since 1992 Other uses iPhrothiya yeSiliva, a South African military award (Postnominal title: PS) MoMA PS1, an art institution in New York Padma Shri, an Indian civilian award Plastic Surgery, abbreviated as P.S. for simple use Police sergeant Power Stage, a World Rally Championship special stage Power Steering, a device that helps with steering vehicles Power supply Professional services, abbreviated P.S. in name suffixes State school or public school, in the US and other countries See also P.S. I Love You (disambiguation) PSS (disambiguation)

NDS may stand for: Lower Saxony (German: Niedersachsen), a federal state of Germany NDS Group, a company specializing in television technology, including digital rights management, renamed Cisco Videoscape after its acquisition NDS is also used as shorthand for VideoGuard, the encryption system created by NDS Group National Directorate of Security, the primary foreign and domestic intelligence agency of Afghanistan Nightdive Studios, a video game developer Nintendo DS, a 2004 portable game system Novell Directory Services, former name for NetIQ eDirectory, directory service software for a network New Data Seal, a block cipher encryption algorithm that was designed at IBM in 1975 News Distribution Service, operated by the UK government's Central Office of Information Nouvelle Démocratie Sociale, a political party in Burkina Faso known in English as New Social Democracy Navigation Data Standard, a format for automotive-grade navigation databases New Democratic Party (Serbian: Нова демократска странка, Nova demokratska stranka), temporarily in 2014 the name for the Serbian political party Social Democratic Party (Serbia) (Социјалдемократска странка, Socijaldemokratska stranka, SDS) Nick Dal Santo (born 1984), Australian Rules footballer NASA Docking System, a spacecraft docking and berthing mechanism being developed for future US human spaceflight vehicles National Defense Strategy of the United States Secretary of Defense Norra Djurgårdsstaden, a neighborhood in Stockholmnds may stand for: Low German (ISO 639-2 language code: nds), a West Germanic language native to Northern Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands See also NDSH NDSI (disambiguation) NDSL (disambiguation) NDSM NDSS (disambiguation) NDSU NDSV NDSW

Jiro Wang (Chinese: 汪東城; born 24 August 1981) is a Taiwanese singer and actor, who started his career as a model. Wang is a member of Taiwanese Mandopop vocal quartet boy band Fahrenheit. Life Jiro Wang was born August 24, 1981, in Taiwan. He graduated from Fu Shin Trade and Arts College with a degree in Advertising Design. Wang's father died when he was 18, leaving him and his mother stranded with the family debt. To pay off the enormous debt, Wang worked three jobs at a time, which variously included flyer distribution, dressing up as a mascot for Taipei's Zoo Mall, waiting tables at a bar, a fashion retail assistant, a part-time model, and even hard labor work as a construction worker. Upon graduation from arts college, he entered the commercial and modeling industry. BMG, the label that signed him, planned to package him with Jay Chou and Jordan Chan under the "3J Plan", but when BMG's stocks crashed following 9/11, the 3J plan was scrapped. Wang then decided to continue his career in the industry via commercial modeling and working backstage in fashion design. He was approached again around 2004, launching the start of his acting career. He speaks fluent Taiwanese and Mandarin, and understands conversational English. Wang used to play with an underground band named Karma and was their lead singer. Wang also composed the lyrics to their song, "人間逃亡記" (Rénjiān táowáng jì). The band later changed its name to Dong Cheng Wei (東城衛). In 2013, between his filming commitments, Wang also held solo concerts in the cities of Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo in Japan, and Beijing and Shenzhen in China. Apart from sharing work and lifestyle photographs, Wang uses his Weibo account to advocate various charitable causes, especially those relating to aiding aged war veterans (like Wang's own father) and elderly street hawkers, and animal welfare, amongst others. His early difficult financial circumstances made him a firm believer in helping those in need and the privilege of being able to give. Though he has used his celebrity status to aid charitable organizations such as Taiwan's Syinlu Social Welfare Foundation to raise funds and awareness for those with intellectual disabilities—such as shooting the micro-film entitled Seeing and designing packaging for the sale of their handicrafts—he remains largely low-profile about his personal charitable contributions. Some of his acts of goodwill only come to light when organizations publish a list of their donors, for instance.On February 14, 2010, Wang started his own fashion label M JO <http://mjo.com.tw/index.html>. In line with its founding date on Valentine's Day, the label's slogan advocates, "Enjoy Love, Life, and Peace." As a design graduate with a passion for art, Wang personally designs the caps, clothing, and accessories, which are characterized by bold, vibrant and colorful designs. Wang, who is well known in the industry for his filial piety, credits his mother for his artistic gifts and love of design. She was a tailor / custom dressmaker and Wang learnt part of his craft from watching her work when he was young. He was partly motivated to create the fashion label as a gift to his mother. In 2014, Wang designed an exhibit for World Trade Centre (Hong Kong), in line with the 2014 FIFA World Cup, where Wang's artwork, M JO products, and his label's iconic JO robot were on display from 30 May – July 17, 2014. In 2014, Wang was invited to design the "M JO – JO Robot" series of virtual stickers/large-sized emoji for Line (application), making him the first Taiwanese celebrity to design purchasable stickers for the company. Using his fashion line M JO's iconic JO robot as his theme, he designed a series of 40 virtual stickers, which was released in LINE's sticker store on April 24, 2015.Jiro Wang jointly invests in WoMen Hair, a stylish hair salon in Taipei, with his good friends and fellow Fahrenheit (Taiwanese band) mates, Calvin Chen and Wu Chun. On May 6, 2014, they attended the opening ceremony of WoMen Hair, which is run by their longtime friend and colleague, Sam Chen.Wang's interest in art and Japanese manga includes a NT$10 million (approx. US$315,000) investment in exclusive agent rights for Chibi Maruko-chan merchandise in Taiwan. His love of the series began as a child, when he would hurry home after school to catch the television series over his meal-time. Through his friend Ivan Wang's introduction, Jiro Wang flew to Japan at the end of 2013 to meet with the manga artist, Momoko Sakura, creator of the series Chibi Maruko-chan. Momoko Sakura was impressed with Jiro Wang's gift of his personal artwork, which led to a collaboration featured in Chibi Maruko-chan's 30th anniversary publication entitled 《恭喜》, published both in Japanese and traditional Chinese. Jiro Wang and Momoko Sakura's collaboration is featured as part of the series' larger 30th anniversary exhibit, which was variously on display in Japan (August 6–20, 2014; December 27, 2014 – January 12, 2015) and Hong Kong (November 3, 2014 – January 4, 2015). In 2014, Jiro Wang and Ivan Wang established Toyu / 東友企業 (a synthesis of their Chinese names) and became exclusive agents for marketing Chibi Maruko-chan products in Taiwan. They have plans to make a Chibi Maruko-chan movie and Jiro Wang may possibly play Maruko's father or her classmate Kazuhiko Hanawa, depending on Maruko's age in the movie.In his spare time, Wang takes an avid interest in putting Gundam models together and also in cosplay—a pastime he has enjoyed since his art school days, when he used to make his own costumes—and frequently shares photos on his Instagram and/or Weibo account in various roles as manga or anime characters, or Western superheroes, including Iron Man, Wolverine, Batman, and Captain America. Career Acting career Wang is most well known as the male lead in the Taiwanese drama KO One (終極一班) (in which he plays the character Wang Da Dong, where he got his nickname, as it is quite similar to his real name, Wang Dong Cheng) and its sequel The X-Family. He is also known for roles such as Ah Jin in It Started with a Kiss, as Jin Xiu Yi in the live-action Taiwanese drama, Hana-Kimi (花樣少年少女), and Huang Tai Jing in the Taiwanese adaptation of Fabulous Boys (原來是是美男). On May 3, 2011, it was announced that Wang has replaced Wu Chun as male lead, "Night Tenjo", in a live-action adaptation of Japanese manga series Absolute Boyfriend, with Korean actress Ku Hye-sun as "Riiko Izawa".When Transformers: Age of Extinction launched an online Chinese casting contest for roles in four different categories in China during the summer of 2013, Wang emerged as the most popular contestant in the "Action Guy" category, from amongst 70,000 entrants. More than 500,000 people voted online for their favorite contenders, with Wang consistently in the lead for the "Action Guy" category, with more than 133,000 votes. Despite his popularity, Wang regretfully chose to eventually withdraw from the contest due to a conflict in KO One Re-act's filming schedule and Transformers 4's training schedule, choosing to honor his prior filming commitments in order not to hold up KO One Re-act's production team—which was still filming scenes and had already gone on-air in Taiwan and online in Mainland China. In his statement of withdrawal, published on the casting contest's website, Wang explained: "I'm immensely grateful for all the support I've received during the Transformers 4 casting contest and am truly fortunate to have emerged first in the "Action Guy" category. I've been a Transformers fan since I was little, and closely followed the first three installments of the movie. Upon learning that M1905 Movie Web was organizing a casting contest for Chinese actors, I signed up immediately, hoping to fulfill my childhood dream of going into battle alongside Bumblebee (Transformers). I was pleasantly surprised by the overwhelming wave of support and votes I received, and was overjoyed to receive notification from the organizers to begin the second round of training. Unfortunately, because I'm still in the midst of an ongoing, prior filming commitment, I have to honor those unfinished work commitments in order not to hold up the entire production team, and will thus have to regretfully give this training opportunity up." During a media interview at a promotional event for the KO One Re-act television series, Wang reiterated his thanks for fans' warm support. Though his disappointment at the missed opportunity was palpable, he called the voting process a fantastic memory to have and to hold with his fans.In 2014, Wang also became producer of the drama series The Crossing Hero (超級大英雄), in addition to his role as male lead. The series generated a buzz online prior to airtime: as of March 18, 2015, the topic #超级大英雄# (The Crossing Hero) was read more than 14 million times, with more than 39,000 people participating in the discussion on the popular Chinese micro-blogging site, Sina Weibo. The series hit 2.72 million views on its premiere episode within the first two hours, topping the "Hot Topics" list on Sina Weibo at the time. Viewership hit 4.33 million by the end of the first day on March 23, 2015.In 2016, Wang starred as the leading character Cao Yan Bing in the popular Chinese manga adaption live action series Rakshasa Street. With its airing on Youku (one of the most influential video website in China) on August 2, 2017, Rakshasa Street's viewership has reached 2.9 billion by November 22, 2017. The producer and Wang himself has also confirmed that season 2 is to be expected. Music career Wang was the first member to join Fahrenheit. He is the baritenor vocalist of the group. He is the one that usually has the rap part in most of the songs due to his fluency in the language. His publicized temperature is that of hot (热; rè) summer, at 95 Fahrenheit. Wang released his first solo album What Are You Waiting For (Chinese:你在等什麼) on his 31st birthday, August 24, 2012. Discography Wang's new MV, "Exclusive Fort" (《專屬堡壘》)--theme song to the movie, Bloody Doll—was released on February 9, 2015.Wang sings the opening theme song for his new drama series, The CrBloomsomero. ThBloomsoms entitled "The Great Hero" (《大英雄》) and an MV was released on March 15, 2015, one week before the online series goes on air on Tencent Video. Other Solos Filmography Films Security, which was filmed in Sofia, Bulgaria last November 2015, will be his first U.S. film. Television Series Awards Solo Concerts May 31, 2013 in Osaka, Japan. June 1, 2013 in Kyoto, Japan. June 2, 2013 in Tokyo, Japan. September 7, 2013 in Beijing, China. November 23, 2013 in Shenzhen, China. Television – Variety Programs (as co-host/regular guest) 2010 : Super King (综艺大國民) : premieres June 19, 2010 : CTS 2014 : Let's Sing, Kids (中國新聲代) : premieres May 31, 2014 : Hunan Broadcasting System 2015 : Wonderful Life (精彩好生活) : premieres June 14, 2015 : Zhejiang Television 2015 : Running Calorie (奔跑卡路里) : premieres June 19, 2015 : iQiyi 2015 : Flying Man (冲上云霄) : premieres July 2015 : Liaoning Television 2016: Run for Time (全员加速中第二季): premieres April 29, 2016: Hunan Broadcasting System Guest appearances Wang also performed in numerous MVs and commercials before his rise to stardom. He appeared in Fish Leong's (梁靜茹) 分手快樂 MV when he was 19. After the debut of Fahrenheit, he starred with fellow HIM International Music artists, including MVs for Tank (Taiwanese singer) and Liu Li Yang, such as Liu's Smiling Tears (眼淚笑了). Wang has appeared in numerous MVs for Tank, including "If I Was the Memory" (如果我變成回憶), "Give Me Your Love" (給我你的愛), and "KO One" (終極一班). He also features in various S.H.E MVs and Rolling Love co-star Genie Chuo's "Never Ending Rainbow" (Chinese:"永不消失的彩虹"). Wang also stars in his good friend and co-star Pets Tseng's first solo album MV, Just Lose It (不過失去了一點點), which was released on December 9, 2014, exceeding a million views within a month of its release, on both its official YouTube and YinYueTai (Chinese MV) platforms. November 27, 2006: Celebrity guest on Kangxi Lai Le to promote Hanazakarino Kimitachihe with fellow cast members Ella Chen, Wu Chun, and Danson Tang December 1, 2006: Celebrity guest on 100% Entertainment to promote Hanazakarino Kimitachihe with fellow cast members December 4, 2006: Celebrity guest on 我愛黑澀會 to promote Hanazakarino Kimitachihe with fellow cast members March 1, 2007: Celebrity guest on 100% Entertainment to promote Hanazakarino Kimitachihe with fellow cast members August 2, 2007: Celebrity guest on Kangxi Lai Le to promote The X-Family with fellow cast members August 6, 2007: Celebrity guest on 100% Entertainment to promote The X-Family with fellow cast members August 7, 2007: Celebrity guest on TVBS program, Queen (hosted by Pauline Lan) to promote The X-Family with fellow cast members August 7, 2007: Celebrity guest on 100% Entertainment to promote The X-Family with fellow cast members August 20, 2007: Celebrity guest on Gourmet Secrets of the Stars to promote The X-Family with fellow cast members May 5, 2008: Celebrity guest on 100% Entertainment with Danson Tang May 9, 2008: Celebrity guest on 100% Entertainment to promote Rolling Love with fellow cast members Genie Chuo and Danson Tang May 19, 2008: Celebrity guest on 100% Entertainment to promote Rolling Love with fellow cast members May 30, 2008: Celebrity guest on 命運好好玩 to promote Rolling Love with Genie Chuo February 10, 2009: Celebrity guest on 100% Entertainment to promote ToGetHer with fellow cast members George Hu and Rainie Yang February 20, 2009: Celebrity guest on 100% Entertainment to promote ToGetHer with fellow cast members February 23, 2009: Celebrity guest on 東風娛樂通 to promote ToGetHer with fellow cast members February 25, 2009: Celebrity guest on 命運好好玩 to promote ToGetHer with fellow cast members March 23, 2009: Celebrity guest on Kangxi Lai Le to promote ToGetHer with fellow cast members June 11, 2010: Celebrity guest on 百萬小學堂 to promote his pictorial book, Van Gogh and Me June 21, 2010: Celebrity guest on the entertainment program University to promote Van Gogh and Me July 4, 2010: Celebrity guest on 完全娛樂 to promote Van Gogh and Me July 6, 2010: Celebrity guest on 《佼個朋友吧》to promote Van Gogh and Me July 25, 2010: Celebrity guest on 《海爸王見王》(hosted by Allen Chao) to promote Van Gogh and Me August 21, 2010: Celebrity guest on Entertainment-News@Asia (hosted by Patty Hou) to promote Van Gogh and Me with Dong Cheng Wei December 16, 2010: Celebrity guest on 《我在你身邊》(hosted by He Jiong and Li Weijia) with Dylan Kuo and Danson Tang in Greece August 26, 2011: Celebrity guest on Youku to promote the film The Purple House with director Pan Heng Sheng August 27, 2011: Celebrity guest on 《范後感》to promote Van Gogh and Me August 17, 2012: Celebrity guest on 百萬小學堂 to promote his solo album What Are You Waiting For August 19, 2012: Celebrity guest on Power Sunday to promote What Are You Waiting For August 25, 2012: Celebrity guest on Take Me Out, Taiwan to promote What Are You Waiting For August 30, 2012: Celebrity guest on 十點名人堂 (hosted by Harlem Yu) to promote What Are You Waiting For August 30, 2012: Celebrity guest on Kangxi Lai Le to promote What Are You Waiting For September 7, 2012: Celebrity guest on TVBS program, Queen (hosted by Pauline Lan) to promote What Are You Waiting For September 7, 2012: Celebrity guest on 100% Entertainment to promote What Are You Waiting For September 12, 2012: Celebrity guest on 《型男大主廚》 to promote What Are You Waiting For with Dylan Kuo October 14, 2012: Celebrity guest on 《今晚80后脱口秀》 to promote What Are You Waiting For October 20, 2012: Celebrity guest on Happy Camp (variety show) with Ruby Lin to promote their new drama series, Drama Go! Go! Go! November 1, 2012: Celebrity guest on 《百变大咖秀》 with Ruby Lin to promote Drama Go! Go! Go! and What Are You Waiting For November 9, 2012: Celebrity guest on the variety program 《年代秀》 to promote What Are You Waiting For November 23, 2012: Celebrity guest on the variety program 《非常不一班》 to promote What Are You Waiting For December 25, 2012: Celebrity guest on 100% Entertainment to promote KO One Return with fellow cast members Pets Tseng and Hwang in Deok December 28, 2012: Celebrity guest on 100% Entertainment to promote KO One Return with fellow cast members January 3, 2013: Celebrity guest on 100% Entertainment to promote KO One Return with fellow cast members January 12, 2013: Celebrity guest on 100% Entertainment to promote KO One Return with fellow cast members July 13, 2013: Celebrity guest on 100% Entertainment to promote KO One Re-act with fellow cast members July 26, 2013: Celebrity guest on 100% Entertainment to promote KO One Re-act with female lead Pets Tseng October 3, 2013: Celebrity guest on Tencent program, 《幸福男女》 (hosted by Ah Ya (阿雅)) to promote his solo concert November 5, 2013: Celebrity guest on TVBS program, Queen (hosted by Pauline Lan) November 23, 2013: Celebrity guest on Happy Camp (variety show) with Nicky Wu and Lu Yi (actor) December 15, 2013: Celebrity guest on the variety program《音樂無雙》(hosted by Calvin Chen) March 8, 2014: Celebrity guest on Hunan Television's 《疯狂的麦咭》 March 22, 2014: Celebrity guest on Hunan Television's 《疯狂的麦咭》 November 6, 2014: Celebrity guest on TVBS program, Queen (hosted by Pauline Lan) December 19, 2014: Celebrity guest on Hunan Television program, Grade One December 22, 2014: Celebrity guest on Hunan Television's web-based program,《偶像萬萬碎》 January 3, 2015: Celebrity guest on Hunan Television's 《疯狂的麦咭》 January 10, 2015: Celebrity guest on Happy Camp (variety show) to promote Singles Villa January 22, 2015: Celebrity guest on Hunan Television's variety program, Laugh Out Loud to promote Singles Villa February 25, 2015: Celebrity guest on Azio TV's program, City Color (hosted by Calvin Chen and Patty Hou) February 26, 2015: Celebrity guest on Azio TV's program, City Color (hosted by Calvin Chen and Patty Hou) February 27, 2015: Celebrity guest on Hunan Television's program, 《天天向上》 April 6, 2015: Celebrity guest on Kangxi Lai Le April 16, 2015: Celebrity guest on ZheJiang Satellite TV's program, 青春练习生 (Youth Trainees) – leader of the Shenzhen station April 16, 2015: Celebrity guest on SS小燕之夜 to promote The Crossing Hero with Nikki Hsieh, Jimmy Hung, and Jeff Zhang April 17, 2015: Celebrity guest on Shenzhen Satellite TV's program, Men vs. Women (《男左女右》) April 18, 2015: Celebrity guest on 100% Entertainment to promote The Crossing Hero April 23, 2015: Celebrity guest on ZheJiang Satellite TV's program, 青春练习生 (Youth Trainees) – leader of the Shenzhen station May 1, 2015: Celebrity guest on Taiwan's Public Television Services' program, Guess Who (《誰來晚餐》) June 19, 2015: Celebrity guest on Jiangsu Television's program, The Exploration of the World – Japan stop Publications June 9, 2010 : Van Gogh And Me – All About Jiro (梵谷與我：汪東城的字‧畫‧像) – ISBN 978-986-6606-87-8. Jiro visited Amsterdam, the Netherlands for this book Other events/appearances June 11, 2011: Promoting The Purple House at the Shanghai Film and Television Festival August 17, 2011: M JO and One Piece Crossover Show (Hong Kong) September 17, 2011: Vogue (magazine) Fashion Night Out (Taiwan) March 12, 2012: Promoting KO One Return at the Hong Kong International Film and Television press conference with Pets Tseng April 14, 2012: Absolute Darling promotional activities (Singapore) April 22, 2012: Autograph session for Absolute Darling OST April 27, 2012: Absolute Darling promotional activities (Taiwan) May 2, 2012: Guest performer at Dong Cheng Wei mini-concert April 26, 2012: American Eagle Outfitters event (Hong Kong) June 14, 2012: Promoting Drama Go! Go! Go! with Ruby Lin at the Shanghai Film and Television Festival November 24, 2012: Grand opening of An Ning Jewellery (Beijing, China) November 28, 2012: Premiere for the microfilm Seeing and launch of Syinlu's 799 philanthropic program (Taiwan) December 15, 2012: Sale of M JO Christmas limited edition at Miramar Shopping Centre (Hong Kong) December 31, 2012: New Year's Eve countdown performance (Guangzhou, China) January 1, 2013: Fan meeting and autograph session for his album, What Are You Waiting For (Shenzhen, Guangdong, China) January 26, 2013: Chivas Regal event (Chengdu, China) February 16, 2013: Guest at Pets Tseng's concert March 8, 2013: Isetan Samantha Thavasa event (Shanghai, China) March 10, 2013: KO One Return fan meeting (Taiwan) March 23, 2013: SK-II event (Hangzhou, China) March 25, 2013: Media press conference for Drama Go! Go! Go! (Taiwan) March 30, 2013: Invited performer at 2013 Super Girls Festa (Live) April 18, 2013: KO One Re-act press conference (Taiwan) April 20, 2013: Lovemore event (Hong Kong) April 21, 2013: Guest appearance at the media reception for GTV's new program (Taiwan) April 27, 2013: Chivas Regal event (Chongqing, China) May 2, 2013: Radio interview for Fabulous Boys May 18, 2013: Lovemore event at Poya, Kaohsiung (Taiwan) June 8, 2013: Autograph session for Fabulous Boys OST (Taiwan) June 15, 2012: Promoting his new horror film Bloody Doll at the 16th Shanghai Film and Television Festival June 29, 2013: guest star at Rainie Yang's Genting Highlands concert (Malaysia) July 3, 2013: KO One Re-act press conference (Taiwan) July 6, 2013: Invited guest at Tiger Beer's Battle of the Bands (Changzhou, China) July 20, 2013: Chivas Regal Mix Club with Dong Cheng Wei band members, Shu and Deng (Beijing, China) August 4, 2013: Promotional activities for KO One Re-act (Taiwan) August 9, 2013: Guest performer at the Sprite Star Basketball Friendly Match 2013 with Kobe Bryant, Jay Chou, Wu Chun, and other Chinese celebrities (Shanghai, China) August 10, 2013: Wanda Mall's 1st anniversary celebrations (Jinjiang, Fujian, China) August 24, 2013: Birthday fan meeting (Taiwan) September 1, 2013: Grand opening of Luckycity (Tianjin, China) September 2, 2013: Evening Show with Dong Cheng Wei band members, Shu and Deng (Shenzhen, China) September 5, 2013: Youku interview – celebrating the online ratings success of KO One Re-act (Beijing, China) September 6, 2013: Pre-concert autograph session (Beijing, China) September 19, 2013: Mid-Autumn celebration at Wanda Mall (Dalian, China) September 27, 2013: Intime City's 4th anniversary celebrations (Zhejiang, China) October 2, 2013: Invited celebrity guest at the premiere of Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon October 26, 2013: Coca-Cola event (Wenzhou, China) November 7, 2013: Promotional activities for his film My Boyfriends (Chengdu, China) November 8, 2013: Promotional activities for his film My Boyfriends (Guangzhou, China) November 9, 2013: Promotional activities for his film My Boyfriends (Beijing, China) November 10, 2013: Pre-concert media press conference (Shenzhen, China) November 16, 2013: Promotional activities for Fabulous Boys OST (Japan) December 1, 2013: Invited guest – Freemore's Free Dance competition (Sichuan, Chengdu, China) December 3, 2013: Interview with Tencent as producer of drama series, The Crossing Hero (Shanghai, China) December 15, 2013: Clear event (Chongqing, China) December 19, 2013: Media press conference for My Broadcasting Girlfriend (Nantong, Jiangsu, China) December 22, 2013: Coca-Cola event (Zhengzhou, China) December 31, 2013: New Year's Eve countdown performance (Guangzhou, China) March 8, 2014: Taobao Shopping Fest at Central Walk Shopping Mall (Shenzhen, China) March 14, 2014: Lovemore event at Mannings (Guangzhou, China) April 15, 2014: Interview for his film My Broadcasting Girlfriend (Beijing, China) April 16, 2014: Media press conference for My Broadcasting Girlfriend (Beijing, China) April 16, 2014: Promoting My Broadcasting Girlfriend at the Beijing International Film Festival April 26, 2014: Hot Lips, Hot Music at Forum 66 (Shenyang, China) May 6, 2014: Grand opening of WoMen Hair (Taipei, Taiwan) May 14, 2014: Promotional activities for My Broadcasting Girlfriend (Fuzhou, China) May 14, 2014: Promotional activities for My Broadcasting Girlfriend (Beijing, China) May 29, 2014: World Trade Centre (Hong Kong) June 29, 2014: Coca-Cola event (Fuzhou, Xiamen, China) October 27, 2014: H.Linx (Hangzhou, China) November 4, 2014: Media reception for the drama series Singles Villa (Changsha, China) November 22, 2014: Eral fashion label (Shenyang, China) November 29, 2014: Grand opening of Xiasha Powerlong Shopping Complex (Hangzhou, China) December 6, 2014: Zhongnan City Shopping Mall's 3rd anniversary celebrations (Nantong, Jiangsu, China) December 14, 2014: Celebrity guest at motor event 《中國飄移冠軍》 (Quanzhou, China) December 21, 2014: Grand opening of Powerlong Shopping Complex (Tianjin, China) December 24, 2014: Celebrity guest at Folli Follie event (Zhangjiagang, China) December 25, 2014: Celebrity guest at La Côrde Homme's Christmas event (Ningbo, China) December 28, 2014: Media press conference for Singles Villa (Changsha, China) December 31, 2014: Countdown Show 2015 at East Point City (Hong Kong) January 1, 2015: Celebrity guest at Folli Follie event in Kaihong Mall (Zhoushan, Zhejiang, China) January 9, 2015: Celebrity guest at Happy New Nine event (Chengdu, China) January 17, 2015: Promoting the television serial, Singles Villa (Shanghai, China) February 6, 2015: Interview with Tencent Comic (Beijing, China) February 14, 2015: Celebrity guest at Wanda Movie Park's Valentine's Day event (Wuhan, China) March 7, 2015: SK-II event (Nanking, China) March 15, 2015: Press conference for Wang's new film with Jordan Chan, 《槑計劃》 (Shenzhen, China) March 20, 2015: Dragon Ball Z Special Exhibition: Science Fair (Songshan, Taipei, Taiwan) April 2, 2015: Press conference for The Crossing Hero (Taiwan) May 1, 2015: Celebrity guest at Suning Plaza's event (Chengdu, China) May 2, 2015: Celebrity guest at Suning Plaza's event (Wuxi, China) May 4, 2015: Chibi Maruko-chan's 25th Anniversary Special Exhibition in Taiwan – pre-ticketing press conference May 7, 2015: Press conference for the movie, 《槑计划》 (Foolish Plan) (Jeju Island, South Korea) May 19, 2015: Celebrity guest for Taiwan's Marvel Entertainment exhibition May 27, 2015: Press conference for Liaoning Television's new reality program, 《冲上云霄》 (Flying Man) (Beijing, China) June 18, 2015: Press conference for the launch of Chibi Maruko-chan's 25th anniversary exhibition in Taiwan (Huashan 1914 Creative Park, Taipei, Taiwan) June 19, 2015: Celebrity guest for Philips event at Super Brand Mall (Lujiazui, Shanghai, China) June 20, 2015: Presenter at the 18th Shanghai International Film Festival (Shanghai, China) (in Chinese) Jiro Wang's Weibo microblog (in Chinese) Jiro Wang's Instagram account (in Chinese) Fahrenheit@HIM International Music (in Japanese) Fahrenheit: Official Japan Site

The Rooster (simplified Chinese: 鸡; traditional Chinese: 雞/鷄) is the tenth of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. The Year of the Rooster is represented by the Earthly Branch symbol 酉. In the Tibetan zodiac and the Gurung zodiac, the bird is in place of the Rooster. Years and the five elements People born within these date ranges can be said to have been born in the "Year of the Rooster", while bearing the following elemental signs: Basic astrology elements See also Rooster Birds in Chinese mythology Fenghuang Further reading Donna Stellhorn (2017). Chinese Astrology: 2017 Year of the Fire Rooster. ETC Publishing. p. 300. ISBN 978-1-944-622-16-9. Neil Somerville (2015). The Rooster in 2016: Your Chinese Horoscope. 2017-02-22 (1st ed.). Thorsons/HarperCollins. p. 320. ISBN 9780008138165. Neil Somerville (16 June 2016). Your Chinese Horoscope 2017: What the Year of the Rooster holds in store for you. 2017-02-16. Thorsons/HarperCollins. p. 320. ISBN 9780008144531. Peter So (1 November 2016). Kaori Working House (ed.). Your Fate in 2017 - The Year of the Rooster. Translated by Jay Lowe. p. 457. ISBN 978-962-14-61-71-1. Ted E. Bear Press (2016). 2017 Year of the Rooster. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. p. 196. ISBN 9781542711012. Media related to Rooster (zodiac) at Wikimedia Commons

6521 may refer to: 6521 Pina, asteroid 6521 Project The year in the 7th millennium

The following is a partial list of minor planets, running from minor-planet number 6001 through 7000, inclusive. The primary data for this and other partial lists is based on JPL's "Small-Body Orbital Elements" and "Data Available from the Minor Planet Center". A detailed description of the table's columns and additional sources are given on the main page including a complete list of every page in this series, and a statistical break-up on the dynamical classification of minor planets. Also see the summary list of all named bodies in numerical and alphabetical order, and the corresponding naming citations for the number range of this particular list. New namings may only be added to this list after official publication, as the preannouncement of names is condemned by the Working Group for Small Bodies Nomenclature of the International Astronomical Union. 6001–6100 6101–6200 6201–6300 6301–6400 6401–6500 6501–6600 6601–6700 6701–6800 6801–6900 6901–7000 See also Meanings of minor planet names: 6001–7000 Discovery Circumstances: Numbered Minor Planets (5001)–(10000) (IAU Minor Planet Center)

Liang Qichao (Chinese: 梁啓超 ; Wade-Giles: Liang2 Chʻi3-chʻao1; Yale: Lèuhng Kái-chīu) (February 23, 1873 – January 19, 1929) was a Chinese politician, social and political activist, journalist, and intellectual. His thought had a significant influence on the political reformation of modern China. He inspired Chinese scholars and activists with his writings and reform movements. His translations of Western and Japanese books into Chinese further introduced new theories and ideas and inspired young activists. In his youth, Liang Qichao joined his teacher Kang Youwei in the reform movement of 1898. When the movement was defeated, he fled to Japan and promoted a constitutional monarchy and organized political opposition to the dynasty. After the revolution of 1911, he joined the Beiyang government, serving as the chief justice and the first president of the currency system bureau. He became dissatisfied with Yuan Shikai and launched a movement to oppose his ambition to be emperor. After Yuan's death, he served as the finance chief of the Duan Qirui cabinet and as supervisor of the Salt Administration. He advocated the New Culture Movement and supported cultural change but not political revolution. Biography Family Liang Qichao was born in a small village in Xinhui, Guangdong Province on February 23, 1873. Liang's father, Liang Baoying (梁寶瑛, Cantonese: Lèuhng Bóu-yīng; courtesy name Lianjian 蓮澗; Cantonese: Lìhn-gaan), was a farmer and local scholar, but had a classical background that emphasized on tradition and education for ethnic rejuvenescence allowed him to be introduced to various literary works at six years old. By the age of nine, Liang started writing thousand-word essays and became a district-school student soon after. Liang had two wives: Li Huixian (李惠仙; Cantonese: Léih Waih-sīn) and Wang Guiquan (王桂荃; Cantonese: Wòhng Gwai-chyùhn). They gave birth to nine children, all of whom became successful individuals through Liang's strict and effective education. Three of them were scientific personnel at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, including Liang Sicheng, the prominent historian of Chinese architecture. Early life Liang passed the Xiucai (秀才) degree provincial examination at the age of 11. In 1884, he undertook the arduous task of studying for the traditional governmental exams. At the age of 16, he passed the Juren (舉人) second level provincial exams and was the youngest successful candidate at that time. In 1890, Liang failed in his Jinshi (進士) degree national examinations in Beijing and never earned a higher degree. He took the exams along with Kang Youwei, a famous Chinese scholar and reformist. According to one popular narrative of Liang's failure to pass the Jinshi, the examiner was determined to flunk Kang for his heterodox challenge to existing institutions, but since the exams were all anonymous, he could only presume that the exam with the most unorthodox views was Kang's. Instead, Kang disguised himself by writing an examination eight-legged essay espousing traditionalist ideas and passed the exam while Liang's paper was assumed to be Kang's and picked out to be failed. Inspired by the book Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms by the reform Confucian scholar Wei Yuan, Liang became extremely interested in western political thought. After returning home, Liang went on to study with Kang Youwei, who was teaching at Wanmu Caotang (萬木草堂) in Guangzhou. Kang's teachings about foreign affairs fueled Liang's interest in reforming China. In 1895, Liang went to the capital Beijing again with Kang for the national examination. During the examination, he was a leader of the Gongche Shangshu movement. After failing to pass the examination for a second time, he stayed in Beijing to help Kang publish Domestic and Foreign Information. He also helped to organize the Society for National Strengthening (強學會), where Liang served as secretary. For time, he was also enlisted by the governor of Hunan, Chen Baozhen to edit reform-friendly publications, such as the Hunan Daily (Xiangbao 湘報) and the Hunan Journal (Xiang xuebao 湘學報). Reform movements As an advocate of constitutional monarchy, Liang was unhappy with the governance of the Qing Government and wanted to change the status quo in China. He organized reforms with Kang Youwei by putting their ideas on paper and sending them to the Guangxu Emperor (reigned 1875–1908) of the Qing dynasty. This movement is known as the Wuxu Reform or the Hundred Days' Reform. Their proposal asserted that China was in need of more than "self-strengthening", and called for many institutional and ideological changes such as getting rid of corruption and remodeling the state examination system. Liang thus was a major influence in the debates on democracy in China.This proposal soon ignited a frenzy of disagreement, and Liang became a wanted man by order of Empress Dowager Cixi, the leader of the political conservative faction who later took over the government as regent. Cixi strongly opposed reforms at that time and along with her supporters, condemned the "Hundred Days' Reform" as being too radical. In 1898, the Conservative Coup ended all reforms, and Liang fled to Japan, where he stayed for the next 14 years. While in Tokyo he befriended the influential politician and future Japanese Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi. In Japan, he continued to actively advocate the democratic cause by using his writings to raise support for the reformers’ cause among overseas Chinese and foreign governments. He continued to emphasize the importance of individualism, and to support the concept of a constitutional monarchy as opposed to the radical republicanism supported by the Tokyo-based Tongmeng Hui (the forerunner of the Kuomintang). During his time in Japan, Liang also served as a benefactor and colleague to Phan Boi Chau, one of Vietnam's most important anticolonial revolutionaries.In 1899, Liang went to Canada, where he met Dr. Sun Yat-Sen among others, then to Honolulu in Hawaii. During the Boxer Rebellion, Liang was back in Canada, where he formed the "Chinese Empire Reform Association" (保皇會). This organization later became the Constitutionalist Party which advocated constitutional monarchy. While Sun promoted revolution, Liang preached incremental reform. In 1900–1901, Liang visited Australia on a six-month tour that aimed at raising support for a campaign to reform the Chinese empire and thus modernize China through adopting the best of Western technology, industry and government systems. He also gave public lectures to both Chinese and Western audiences around the country. This visit coincided with the Federation of the six British colonies into the new nation of Australia in 1901. He felt this model of integration might be an excellent model for the diverse regions of China. He was feted by politicians, and met the first Prime Minister of Australia, Edmund Barton. He returned to Japan later that year. In 1903, Liang embarked on an eight-month lecture tour throughout the United States, which included a meeting with President Theodore Roosevelt in Washington, DC, before returning to Japan via Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The descendant of Confucius Duke Yansheng was proposed as a replacement for the Qing dynasty as Emperor by Liang Qichao. Politician In the Hundred Days' Reform, Liang Qichao had the idea of nationalism, and he advocated reformation and constitutional monarchy to change the social situation of the Qing dynasty. For the construction of the modernization, Liang Qichao focused on two relative questions in politics. The first one was the ways that transformed people became citizen for modernization, and Liang Qichao thought Chinese needed to improve civic ethos to build the nation-state in the Qing dynasty, and the second one was the question of the citizenship, and Liang Qichao thought both of them were important to support the reformation in the Qing dynasty.With the overthrow of the Qing dynasty, constitutional monarchy became an increasingly irrelevant topic. Liang merged his renamed Democratic Party with the Republicans to form the new Progressive Party. He was very critical of Sun Yatsen's attempts to undermine President Yuan Shikai. Though usually supportive of the government, he opposed the expulsion of the Nationalists from parliament. Liang Qichao's thought was impacted by the West, and he learned the new political thought and regime of the Western countries, and he learned these from the Japanese translation books, and he learned the Western thought through Meiji Japan to analyze the knowledge of the West.In 1915, he opposed Yuan's attempt to make himself emperor. He convinced his disciple Cai E, the military governor of Yunnan, to rebel. Progressive party branches agitated for the overthrow of Yuan and more provinces declared their independence. The revolutionary activity that he had frowned upon was utilized successfully. Besides Duan Qirui, Liang was the biggest advocate of entering World War I on the Allied side. He felt it would boost China's status and also ameliorate foreign debts. He condemned his mentor, Kang Youwei, for assisting in the failed attempt to restore the Qing in July 1917. After failing to turn Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang into responsible statesmen, he gave up and left politics. Despite the failures of his reforms, Liang Qichao’s idea of Chinese nationalism based on the civic idea of Five Races Under One Nation inspired Sun Yat-sen and the Kuomintang’s nationalism, as well as the nationalist rhetoric of the CCP. Contributions to journalism As a journalist Lin Yutang (林語堂) once called Liang "the greatest personality in the history of Chinese journalism," while Joseph Levenson, author of Liang Ch'i-ch'ao and the Mind of Modern China, described Liang as "a brilliant scholar, journalist, and political figure." Liang Qichao was the "most influential turn-of-the-century scholar-journalist," according to Levenson. Liang showed that newspapers and magazines could serve as an effective medium for communicating political ideas. Liang, as a historian and a journalist, believed that both careers must have the same purpose and "moral commitment," as he proclaimed, "by examining the past and revealing the future, I will show the path of progress to the people of the nation." Thus, he founded his first newspaper, called the Qing Yi Bao (淸議報), named after a student movement of the Han dynasty. Liang's exile to Japan allowed him to speak freely and exercise his intellectual autonomy. During his career in journalism, he edited two premier newspapers, Zhongwai Gongbao (中外公報) and Shiwu Bao (時務報). He also published his moral and political ideals in Qing Yi Bao (淸議報) and New Citizen (新民叢報). In addition, he used his literary works to further spread his views on republicanism both in China and across the world. Accordingly, he had become an influential journalist in terms of political and cultural aspects by writing new forms of periodical journals. He published his articles in the magazine New Youth to expand the thought of science and democracy in 1910s. Furthermore, journalism paved the way for him to express his patriotism. New Citizen Journal Liang produced a widely read biweekly journal called New Citizen (Xinmin Congbao 新民叢報), first published in Yokohama, Japan on February 8, 1902. The journal covered many different topics, including politics, religion, law, economics, business, geography and current and international affairs. In the journal, Liang coined many Chinese equivalents for never-before-heard theories or expressions and used the journal to help communicate public opinion in China to faraway readers. Through news analyses and essays, Liang hoped that the New Citizen would be able to start a "new stage in Chinese newspaper history." A year later, Liang and his co-workers saw a change in the newspaper industry and remarked, "Since the inauguration of our journal last year, there have come into being almost ten separate journals with the same style and design." Liang spread his notions about democracy as chief editor of the New Citizen Journal. The journal was published without hindrance for five years but eventually ceased in 1907 after 96 issues. Its readership was estimated to be 200,000. Role of the newspaper As one of the pioneers of Chinese journalism of his time, Liang believed in the "power" of newspaper, especially its influence over government policies. Using newspapers and magazines to communicate political ideas: Liang realised the importance of journalism's social role and supported the idea of a strong relationship between politics and journalism before the May Fourth Movement, (also known as the New Culture Movement). He believed that newspapers and magazines should serve as an essential and effective tool in communicating political ideas. The magazine New Youth became an important way to show his thought in the New Culture Movement, and his articles spread the ideas to the youth in that period. He believed that newspapers did not only act as a historical record, but was also a means to "shape the course of history." Press as a weapon in revolution: Liang also thought that the press was an "effective weapon in the service of a nationalist uprising". In Liang's words, the newspaper is a “revolution of ink, not a revolution of blood.” He wrote, "so a newspaper regards the government the way a father or elder brother regards a son or younger brother — teaching him when he does not understand, and reprimanding him when he gets something wrong." Undoubtedly, his attempt to unify and dominate a fast-growing and highly competitive press market has set the tone for the first generation of newspaper historians of the May Fourth Movement. Newspaper as an educational program: Liang was well aware that the newspaper could serve as an "educational program", and said, "the newspaper gathers virtually all the thoughts and expressions of the nation and systematically introduces them to the citizenry, it being irrelevant whether they are important or not, concise or not, radical or not. The press, therefore, can contain, reject, produce, as well as destroy, everything." For example, Liang wrote a well known essay during his most radical period titled "The Young China" and published it in his newspaper Qing Yi Bao (淸議報) on February 2, 1900. The essay established the concept of the nation-state and argued that the young revolutionaries were the holders of the future of China. This essay was influential on the Chinese political culture during the May Fourth Movement in the 1920s. Weak press: However, Liang thought that the press in China at that time was quite weak, not only due to lack of financial resources and to conventional social prejudices, but also because "the social atmosphere was not free enough to encourage more readers and there was a lack of roads and highways that made it hard to distribute newspapers". Liang felt that the prevalent newspapers of the time were "no more than a mass commodity". He criticized that those newspapers "failed to have the slightest influence upon the nation as a society". Literary career Liang Qichao was both a traditional Confucian scholar and a reformist. Liang Qichao contributed to the reform in late Qing by writing various articles interpreting non-Chinese ideas of history and government, with the intent of stimulating Chinese citizens' minds to build a new China. In his writings, he argued that China should protect the ancient teachings of Confucianism, but also learn from the successes of Western political life and not just Western technology. Therefore, he was regarded as the pioneer of political fiction. Liang shaped the ideas of democracy in China, using his writings as a medium to combine Western scientific methods with traditional Chinese historical studies. Liang's works were strongly influenced by the Japanese political scholar Katō Hiroyuki, who used methods of social Darwinism to promote the statist ideology in Japanese society. Liang drew from much of his work and subsequently influenced Korean nationalists in the 1900s. Historiographical thought Liang Qichao's historiographical thought represents the beginning of modern Chinese historiography and reveals some important directions of Chinese historiography in the twentieth century. For Liang, the major flaw of "old historians" (舊史家) was their failure to foster the national awareness necessary for a strong and modern nation. Liang's call for new history not only pointed to a new orientation for historical writing in China, but also indicated the rise of modern historical consciousness among Chinese intellectuals. He advocated the Great Man theory in his 1899 piece, "Heroes and the Times" (英雄與時勢, Yīngxióng yǔ Shíshì), and he also wrote biographies of European state-builders such as Otto von Bismarck, Horatio Nelson, Oliver Cromwell, Lajos Kossuth, Giuseppe Mazzini, and Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour; as well as Chinese men including Zheng He, Tan Sitong, and Wang Anshi.During this period of Japan's challenge in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–95), Liang was involved in protests in Beijing pushing for an increased participation in the governance by the Chinese people. It was the first protest of its kind in modern Chinese history. This changing outlook on tradition was shown in the historiographical revolution (史學革命) launched by Liang Qichao in the early twentieth century. Frustrated by his failure at political reform, Liang embarked upon cultural reform. In 1902, while in exile in Japan, Liang wrote "The New Historiography" (新史學), which called on Chinese to study world history to understand China rather than just Chinese history. The article also attacked old historiographical methods, which he lamented focused on dynasty over state; the individual over the group; the past but not the present; and facts, rather than ideals. Translator Liang was head of the Translation Bureau and oversaw the training of students who were learning to translate Western works into Chinese. He believed that this task was "the most essential of all essential undertakings to accomplish" because he believed Westerners were successful - politically, technologically and economically. Philosophical Works: After escaping Beijing and the government crackdown on anti-Qing protesters, Liang studied the works of Western philosophers of the Enlightenment period, namely Hobbes, Rousseau, Locke, Hume and Bentham, translating them and introducing his own interpretation of their works. His essays were published in a number of journals, drawing interest among Chinese intellectuals who had been taken aback by the dismemberment of China's formidable empire at the hands of foreign powers. Western Social and Political Theories: In the early 20th century, Liang Qichao played a significant role in introducing Western social and political theories into Korea such as Social Darwinism and international law. Liang wrote in his well-known manifesto, New People (新民說): “Freedom means Freedom for the Group, not Freedom for the Individual. (…) Men must not be slaves to other men, but they must be slaves to their group. For, if they are not slaves to their own group, they will assuredly become slaves to some other.” Poet and novelist Liang advocated reform in both the genres of poem and novel. The Collected Works from the Ice-Drinker's Studio (飲冰室合集) is his representative works in literature compiled into 148 volumes. Liang gained his idea of calling his work as Collected Works of Yinbingshi from a passage of Zhuangzi (《莊子•人間世》). It states that "Every morning, I receive the mandate [for action], every evening I drink the ice [of disillusion], but I remain ardent in my inner mind" (吾朝受命而夕飲冰，我其內熱與). As a result, Liang called his workplace as "The Ice-drinker's studio" (Yinbingshi), and addressed himself as Yinbingshi Zhuren (飲冰室主人), literally Host of the Ice-drinker's studio, in order to present his idea that he was worrying about all the political matters, so he would still try his best to reform the society by the effort of writings. Liang also wrote fiction and scholarly essays on fiction, which included Fleeing to Japan after failure of Hundred Days' Reform (1898) and the essay On the Relationship Between Fiction and the Government of the People (論小說與群治之關係, 1902). These novels emphasized modernization in the West and the call for reform. Educator In the early 1920s, Liang retired from politics and taught at the Tung-nan University in Shanghai and Tsinghua University Research Institute in Peking. He founded the Jiangxue she (Chinese Lecture Association) and brought important intellectual figures to China, including Driesch and Rabindranath Tagore. Academically he was a renowned scholar of his time, introducing Western learning and ideology, and making extensive studies of ancient Chinese culture. He was impacted by a social-Darwinian perspective to researched approaches to combine the western thought and Chinese learning.As an educator, Liang Qichao thought children were the future of the development of China, and he thought the education was significant for children's growth, and the traditional education approaches needed to be changed, and the educational reformation was important in Modern China. He thought children needed to cultivate creative thinking and improve the ability of understanding, and the new school became important to instruct children in the new approaches in the education. During this last decade of his life, published studies of Chinese cultural history, Chinese literary history and historiography. Liang reexamined the works of Mozi, and authored, amongst other works, The Political Thought of the Pre-Qing Period, and Intellectual Trends in the Qing Period. He also had a strong interest in Buddhism and wrote historical and political articles on its influence in China. Liang influenced many of his students in producing their own literary works. They included Xu Zhimo, renowned modern poet, and Wang Li, an accomplished poet and founder of Chinese linguistics as a modern discipline. Publications Introduction to the Learning of the Qing Dynasty (1920) The Learning of Mohism (1921) Chinese Academic History of the Recent 300 Years (1924) History of Chinese Culture (1927) The Construction of New China The Philosophy of Lao Tzu The History of Buddhism in China Collected Works of Yinbingshi, Zhonghua Book Co, Shanghai 1936, republished in Beijing, 2003, ISBN 7-101-00475-X /K.210 Family Paternal grandfather Liang Weiqing (梁維淸) (1815 - 1892), pseudonym Jingquan (鏡泉) Paternal grandmother Lady Li (黎氏) (1817 - 1873), daughter of Guangxi admiral Li Diguang (黎第光) Father Liang Baoying (梁寶瑛) (1849 - 1916), courtesy name Lianjian (蓮澗) Mother Lady Zhao (趙氏) (1852 - 1887) First wife Li Huixian (李蕙仙), married Liang Qichao in 1891, died of illness on 13 September 1924 Second wife Wang Guiquan (王桂荃), initially Li Huixian's handmaiden before becoming Liang Qichao's concubine in 1903 Issue and descendants Eldest daughter: Liang Sishun (梁思順) (14 April 1893 – 1966), became an accomplished poet, married Zhou Xizhe (周希哲) in 1925 Zhou Nianci (周念慈) Zhou Tongshi (周同軾) Zhou Youfei (周有斐) Zhou Jiaping (周嘉平) Eldest son: Liang Sicheng (梁思成) (20 April 1901 - 9 January 1972), became a famous architect and teacher, married Lin Huiyin (10 June 1904 - 1 April 1955) in 1928 Son: Liang Congjie (梁從誡) (4 August 1932 - 28 October 2010), prominent environmental activist, married firstly Zhou Rumei (周如枚), married secondly Fang Jing (方晶) Son: Liang Jian (梁鑑), son of Zhou Rumei Daughter: Liang Fan (梁帆), daughter of Fang Jing Daughter: Liang Zaibing (梁再冰) 2nd son: Liang Siyong (梁思永) (24 July 1904 - 2 April 1954), married Li Fuman (李福曼) Daughter: Liang Baiyou (梁柏有) 3rd son: Liang Sizhong (梁思忠) (6 August 1907 – 1932) 2nd daughter: Liang Sizhuang (梁思莊) (1908 - 20 May 1986), married Wu Luqiang (-hant吳魯強) in 1933 Daughter: Wu Liming (吳荔明) Son: Yang Nianqun (楊念羣) (20 January 1964-), male-line great-grandson late-Ch'ing era personage Yang Du 4th son: Liang Sida (梁思達) (16 December 1912 – 2001), married Yu Xuezhen (俞雪臻) Daughter: Liang Yibing (梁憶冰) 1st son: Liang Renyou (梁任又) 2nd son: Liang Renkan (梁任堪) 3rd daughter: Liang Siyi (梁思懿) (13 December 1914 – 1988), married Zhang Weixun (張偉遜) 1st daughter: Zhang Yuwen (張郁文) 2nd son: Zhang Anwen (張安文) 4th daughter: Liang Sining (梁思寧) (30 October 1916 – 2006), married Zhang Ke (章柯) Zhang Antai (章安泰) Zhang Anqiu (章安秋) Zhang Anjian (章安建) Zhang Hui (章惠) Zhang Anning (章安寧) 5th son: Liang Sili (梁思禮) (24 August 1924 – 14 April 2016), married Mai Xiuqiong (麥秀瓊) Liang Zuojun (梁左軍) Liang Hong (梁紅) Liang Xuan (梁旋)Liang Sishun, Liang Sicheng, and Liang Sizhuang were borne by Li Huixian. Liang Siyong, Liang Sizhong, Liang Sida, Liang Siyi, Liang Sining, and Liang Sili were borne by Wang Guiquan. Legacy Liang's pedigree book was once lost with only one page left. The family members recreated the naming method by giving sixteen characters in a sequence, each generation following one. Liang didn't follow it by using ‘思’ to his children. See also Gongche Shangshu movement Bai, Limin (2001). "Children and the Survival of China: Liang Qichao on Education Before the 1898 Reform". Late Imperial China. 22 (2): 124–155. doi:10.1353/late.2001.0005. ISSN 1086-3257. PMID 18546607. S2CID 31206872. Chang, Hao. Liang Ch'i-Ch'ao and Intellectual Transition in China. London: Oxford University Press, 1971. Huang, Philip: Liang Ch’i-ch’ao and Modern Chinese Liberalism (1972). Seattle and London: University of Washington Press. Kovach, Bill and Rosenstiel, Tom. The Elements of Journalism. New York: Random House, 2001. Levenson, Joseph. Liang Ch'i-Ch'ao and the Mind of Modern China. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1970. Li Xiaodong [李曉東]: Kindai Chūgoku no rikken kōsō – Gen Puku, Yō Do, Ryō Keichō to Meiji keimō shisō [近代中国の立憲構想－厳復・楊度・梁啓超と明治啓蒙思想] (2005). Tokio: Hōsei daigaku shuppankyoku. Li Xisuo [李喜所] (ed.): Liang Qichao yu jindai zhongguo shehui wenhua [梁启超与近代中国社会文化] (2005). Tianjin: Tianjin guji chubanshe. Tang, Xiaobing. Global space and the Nationalist Discourse of Modernity" the Historical Thinking of Liang Qichao. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996. Wang, Xunmin. Liang Qichao zhuan. Beijing: Tuan jie chu ban she, 1998. Wu, Qichang. Liang Qichao zhuan. Beijing: Tuan jie chu ban she, 2004. Xiao, Xiaoxui. China encounters Western ideas (1895 - 1905): a rhetorical analysis of Yan Fu, Tan Sitong and Liang Qichao. Ann Arbor: UMI dissertation services, 1992. Yang Gang [杨钢] and Wang Xiangyi [王相宜] (ed.): Liang Qichao quanji [梁启超全集] (1999). Beijing: Beijing chubanshe. (dates of letter before mid 1912 messed up). Xiao, Yang (2002). "Liang Qichao's Political and Social Philosophy" (PDF). In Cheng, Chung-ying; Bunnin, Nicholas (eds.). Contemporary Chinese Philosophy. Malden: Blackwell. pp. 17–36. Hsu, Immanuel. The Rise of Modern China: Sixth Edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Further reading Lee, Soonyi. "In Revolt against Positivism, the Discovery of Culture: The Liang Qichao Group's Cultural Conservatism in China after the First World War." Twentieth-Century China 44.3 (2019): 288–304. online Li, Yi. "Echoes of tradition: Liang Qichao’s reflections on the Italian Risorgimento and the construction of Chinese nationalism." Journal of Modern Chinese History 8.1 (2014): 25–42. Liang Chi-chao (Liang Qichao) 梁啓超 from Biographies of Prominent Chinese .1925. Pankaj Mishra (2012). "Liang Qichao's China and the Fate of Asia". From the Ruins of Empire:The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0374249595. Shiqiao, Li. "Writing a Modern Chinese Architectural History: Liang Sicheng and Liang Qichao." Journal of Architectural Education 56.1 (2002): 35–45. Vittinghoff, Natascha. "Unity vs. uniformity: Liang Qichao and the invention of a 'new journalism' for China." Late Imperial China 23.1 (2002): 91-143, sharply critical. Wang, Ban. "Geopolitics, Moral Reform, and Poetic Internationalism: Liang Qichao's The Future of New China." Frontiers of Literary Studies in China 6.1 (2012): 2-18. Yu, Dan Smyer. "Ensouling the Nation through Fiction: Liang Qichao’s Applied Buddhism." Review of Religion and Chinese Society 2.1 (2015): 5-20. online Zarrow, Peter. "Old Myth into New History: The Building Blocks of Liang Qichao's 'New History'." Historiography East and West 1.2 (2003): 204–241. CCTV article on the Chinese Revolution Book Review: Liang Ch’i-ch’ao and the Mind of Modern China Liang's former residence in Xinhui, Guangdong province (Photo) Archived September 16, 2005, at the Wayback Machine Democracy in China Kang Youwei-Liang's teacher Memorial hall for Liang Qichao at his former residence in north China's Tianjin City (Photo)

Dreams (夢, Yume) is a 1990 magical realist anthology film of eight vignettes written and directed by Akira Kurosawa, starring Akira Terao, Martin Scorsese, Chishū Ryū, Mieko Harada and Mitsuko Baisho. It was inspired by actual recurring dreams that Kurosawa said he had repeatedly. It was his first film in 45 years in which he was the sole author of the screenplay. An international co-production of Japan and the United States, Dreams was made five years after Ran, with assistance from George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, and funded by Warner Bros. The film was screened out of competition at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival, and has consistently received positive reviews. Dreams addresses themes such as childhood, spirituality, art, death, and mistakes and transgressions made by humans against nature. Plot The film does not have a single narrative, but is rather episodic in nature, following the adventures of a "surrogate Kurosawa" (often recognizable by his wearing Kurosawa's trademark hat) through eight different segments, or "dreams", each one titled. "Sunshine Through the Rain" A young boy's mother tells him to stay at home during a day when the sun is shining through the rain, warning him that kitsune (foxes) have their weddings during such weather, and do not like to be seen. He defies her wishes, wandering into a forest where he witnesses the slow wedding procession of the kitsune. He is spotted by them and runs home. His mother meets him at the front door, barring the way, and says that an angry fox had come by the house, leaving behind a tantō knife. The mother gives the knife to the boy and tells him that he must go and beg forgiveness from the foxes, refusing to let him return home unless he does so. She warns that if he does not secure their forgiveness, he must take his own life. Taking the knife, the boy sets off into the mountains, towards the place under the rainbow where the kitsune's home is said to be. "The Peach Orchard" On the spring day of Hinamatsuri (the Doll Festival), a boy spots a small girl dressed in pink in his house. He follows her outside to where his family's peach orchard once was. Living dolls appear before him on the orchard's slopes, and reveal themselves to be the spirits of the peach trees. Because the boy's family chopped down the trees of the orchard, the dolls berate him. However, after realizing that the boy loved the blossoms and did not want the trees to be felled, they agree to give him one last look at the orchard as it once was. They perform a dance to Etenraku that causes the blossoming trees to re-appear. The boy sees the mysterious girl walking among the blooming trees and runs after her, but she and the trees suddenly vanish. He walks sadly through the thicket of stumps where the trees had been, until he sees a single young peach tree, in full bloom, sprouting in her place... "The Blizzard" A group of four mountaineers struggle up a mountain path during a horrendous blizzard. It has been snowing for three days and the men are dispirited and ready to give up. One by one they stop walking, giving in to the snow and sure death. The leader endeavors to push on, but he too, stops in the snow. A strange woman (the Yuki-onna of Japanese folklore) appears out of nowhere and attempts to lure the last conscious man into giving in to his death. He resists, shaking off his stupor and her entreaties, to discover that the storm has abated, and that their camp is only a few feet away. "The Tunnel" A discharged Japanese company commander is walking down a deserted road at dusk, on his way back home from fighting in the Second World War. He comes to a large concrete pedestrian tunnel, from which a barking and snarling anti-tank dog emerges. The commander walks through the dark tunnel and comes out on the other side. He is followed by the yūrei (ghost) of one of his soldiers, Private Noguchi, who had died of severe wounds in the commander's arms. Noguchi's face appears blue with blackened eyes. Noguchi seems not to believe that he is dead. Noguchi points to a light emanating from a house on a nearby mountainside, which he identifies as being his parents' home. He is heartbroken, knowing he cannot see them again, even while he remains respectful to the commander. Following the commander's wish that he accept his fate, Noguchi returns into the tunnel. The commander's entire third platoon, led by a young lieutenant brandishing an officer's sword, then marches out of the tunnel. They come to a halt and present arms, saluting the commander. Their faces too are colored blue. The commander struggles to tell them that they are dead, having all been killed in combat, and says that he himself is to blame for sending them into a futile battle. They stand mute in reply. The commander orders them to turn about face, and salutes them in a farewell as they march back into the tunnel. Collapsing in grief, the commander is quickly brought back to his feet by the reappearance of the anti-tank dog. "Crows" An art student finds himself inside the world of Van Gogh's artwork, where he meets the artist in a field and converses with him. Van Gogh relates that his left ear gave him problems during a self portrait, so he cut it off. The student loses track of the artist, and travels through a number of Van Gogh's works trying to find him, concluding with Van Gogh's Wheat Field with Crows. "Mount Fuji in Red" A large nuclear power plant near Mount Fuji has begun to melt down. The sky is filled with red fumes and millions of Japanese citizens flee in terror towards the ocean. Eventually, two men, a woman, and her two small children are seen alone at the edge of the sea. The older man, who is dressed in a business suit, explains to the younger man that the rest of the population have drowned themselves in the ocean. He then says that the different colors of the clouds billowing across the rubbish-strewn landscape signify different radioactive isotopes. According to him, red indicates plutonium-239, which can cause cancer; yellow indicates strontium-90, which causes leukemia; and purple indicates cesium-137, which causes birth defects. He then remarks about the foolish futility of color-coding such dangerous gases. The woman, hearing these descriptions, recoils in horror before angrily cursing those responsible and the pre-disaster assurances of safety they had given. The suited man displays contrition, suggesting that he is in part responsible for the disaster. The other man, dressed casually, watches the multicolored radioactive clouds advance upon them. When he turns back towards the others at the shore, he sees the woman weeping: the suit-clad man has leaped to his death. A cloud of red dust reaches them, causing the mother to shrink back in terror. The remaining man attempts to shield the mother and her children by using his jacket to feebly fan away the radioactive billows. "The Weeping Demon" A man finds himself wandering around a misty, bleak mountainous terrain. He meets an oni-like man, who is actually a mutated human with a single horn on his head. The "demon" explains that there had been a nuclear holocaust which resulted in the loss of nature and animals, towering dandelions taller than humans, and humans sprouting horns. He elaborates that, by dusk, the horns cause them to feel excruciating pain; however, they cannot die, so they simply howl in agony during the night. Many of the "demons" were former millionaires and government officials, who are now (in Buddhist style) suffering through a hell befitting for their sins. The "demon" warns the man to flee, when the man asks where he should go to, the "demon" asks if he too wants to become a demon. The horrified man then runs away from the scene with the "demon" in pursuit. "Village of the Watermills" A man enters a peaceful, stream-laden village, where he sees children laying flowers on a large stone. He meets an elderly, wise man who is fixing a broken watermill wheel. The elder informs the younger man that residents of the village simply refer to it as "the village", and that outsiders call it "the village of the watermills". When the younger man inquires about the lack of electricity in the village, the elder explains that the people of his village decided long ago to forsake modern technology, and laments the notion of modern convenience and the pollution of nature. The younger man asks the elder about the stone which children were placing flowers on. The elder tells him that, long ago, an ailing traveler died on that spot. The villagers buried him there and placed the rock there as a headstone. Ever since, it has become customary in the village to offer flowers there. The younger man and the elder hear the sounds of a funeral procession for an old woman nearby. Rather than mourning her death, the people in the procession celebrate joyfully the peaceful end of her long life. The elder goes to join the procession, and the younger man leaves flowers on the stone before departing the village. Cast Akira Terao as I (The Dreamer) Mitsunori Isaki as I (The Young Dreamer) Mitsuko Baisho as The Dreamer's Mother Martin Scorsese as Vincent van Gogh Chishū Ryū as Old Man Mieko Harada as The Snow Spirit Yoshitaka Zushi as Private Noguchi Toshie Negishi as Woman with Child Hisashi Igawa as Man at the Nuclear Power Plant Chosuke Ikariya as The Demon Sachio Sakai Noriko Honma Production For the "Sunshine Through the Rain" segment, writer-director Akira Kurosawa built a near-exact replica of his childhood home; the nameplate on the gate even reads "Kurosawa". During production, Kurosawa showed the actress playing the mother a photo of his own mother, and gave her tips on how to act as her.The setting of the segment "The Blizzard" may have been inspired by Kurosawa's personal life, since he confessed to being "a devotee of mountain climbing".In "Crows", Vincent van Gogh is portrayed by American filmmaker Martin Scorsese. The segment features Prelude No. 15 in D-flat major ("Raindrop") by Chopin. The visual effects for this segment were provided by George Lucas and his special effects group Industrial Light & Magic. Additionally, it is the only segment in the film wherein the characters do not speak Japanese, but instead English and French. The "Village of the Watermills" segment was filmed at the Daio Wasabi farm in the Nagano Prefecture. The segment, and the film as a whole, ends with an excerpt from "In the Village", part of the Caucasian Sketches, Suite No. 1 by the Russian composer Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov. The colorful costumes worn by the villagers during a funeral procession are based on unusual clothes that Kurosawa saw in a remote northern village in his childhood. The idea of the stone in this segment, on which passersby lay flowers, was possibly inspired by a similar stone from Kurosawa's father's home village in Akita prefecture: Near the main thoroughfare of the village stood a huge rock, and there were always cut flowers on top of it. All the children who passed by it picked wild flowers and laid them atop the stone. When I wondered why they did this and asked, the children said they didn't know. I found out later by asking one of the old men in the village. In the Battle of Boshin, a hundred years ago, someone died at that spot. Feeling sorry for him, the villagers buried him, put the stone over the grave and laid flowers on it. The flowers became a custom of the village, which the children maintained without ever knowing why. Critical reception Vincent Canby of The New York Times gave the film a mostly positive review, writing: "It's something altogether new for Kurosawa, a collection of short, sometimes fragmentary films that are less like dreams than fairy tales of past, present and future. The magical and mysterious are mixed with the practical, funny and polemical."The Encyclopedia of International Film praised Kurosawa in relation to Dreams as having "long been a master of complex narrative. Now he wants to tell what he does." It praised the editing and staging in the film as "hypnotically [serene]", and called Dreams "one of the most lucid dreamworks ever placed on film."Donald Richie and Joan Mellen wrote of the film and of Kurosawa: "Beyond himself, he is beautiful because the beauty is in the attitude of the director. This is evident not only in the didactic approach, but also in the whole slowness, in the quantity of respect and in the enormous, insolent security of the work. That a director in 1990 could be so strong, so serious, so moral and so hopeful, is already beautiful."On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 67% based on 30 reviews, with an average rating of 6.50/10. The site's critics' consensus reads: "This late-career anthology by Akira Kurosawa often confirms that Dreams are more interesting to the dreamer than their audience, but the directorial master still delivers opulent visions with a generous dose of heart." Home media Dreams was released on DVD by Warner Home Video on two occasions: one on March 18, 2003, and the other on August 30, 2011 as part of the Warner Archive Collection.The Criterion Collection released special editions of the film on Blu-ray and DVD on November 15, 2016 in the US. Both editions feature a new 4K restoration, headed by Lee Kline, technical director of the Criterion Collection, and supervised by one of the film's cinematographers, Shoji Ueda. Also included in the release is an on-set making-of documentary directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi called Making of "Dreams", which was filmed during its production, and Catherine Cadou's 2011 French documentary Kurosawa's Way. The Criterion edition was released in 4K Blu-ray with HDR in August 2023. Bibliography Kurosawa, Akira (1983). Something Like an Autobiography. Vintage Books. ISBN 0-394-71439-3. Dreams at IMDb Dreams at the Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese) Dreams at AllMovie Dreams at Box Office Mojo Dreams at Rotten Tomatoes Akira Kurosawa's Dreams: Quiet Devastation an essay by Bilge Ebiri at the Criterion Collection

PTU may refer to: Science and medicine Paroxysmal tonic upgaze, ophthalmological disorder Phenylthiourea, an organosulfur thiourea Power transfer unit, for aircraft hydraulic systems Propylthiouracil, a hyperthyroidism drug Universities Puducherry Technological University, Pondicherry, India Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar, India Pyay Technological University, Burma Organizations Australian Rail Tram and Bus Industry Union or Public Transport Union Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union Paratroop Training Unit RAAF, during WWII Plumbing Trades Union, UK Other uses PTU (film), Hong Kong, 2003 Platinum Airport, Alaska, US, IATA code Police Tactical Units (PTUs) Professional technical school (Russian: Professionalno-tehnicheskoye uchilische) in the Soviet Union Podatek od towarów i usług, value-added tax in Poland All pages with titles beginning with PTU All pages with titles containing PTU Police tactical unit (disambiguation)

Michael Tse Tin-wah (born 15 July 1967) is a Hong Kong actor and singer. Background Michael Tse graduated from TVB's Dance Training Class and worked with TVB as a dancer for five years. He then left TVB and formed a boy band group called 風火海 (Wind Fire Sea) with Jordan Chan and Jason Chu. Two CDs were then released in 1994 and 1995 accordingly by the boy band group. In 1996's Young and Dangerous(古惑仔), Tse acted as a character called "Tai Tin Yee" in the triad genre. The film was a huge success, which led to nine sequels and spinoffs before the series concluded in 2000. The boy band group was dismissed later then. Tse participated Hong Kong's first modern musical Snow.Wolf.Lake (雪狼湖) in 1997. In 1998, Tse participated in the TV series A Kindred Spirit and officially becoming a TVB artist/ television actor. He was featured as the important supporting actor in many TV dramas like Detective Investigation Files (1999), Virtues of Harmony (2001–2003, 2003–2005) and Legal Entanglement (2002). Breakout role His breakout role was that of Man King-leung in the TVB drama series La Femme Desperado (2006), which gained him his popularity with the audience. In 2007, he was cast as the leading role of Ho Yee in the TV series Best Bet. Also in 2007, he participated in the joint partnership production between TVB and Henan TV spinoff of BBC's Strictly Come Dancing (舞動奇跡), and was the winner. Other TVB participants included Joe Ma (馬德鐘), Carlo Ng (吳家樂), Mandy Cho (曹敏莉), Sharon Chan (陳敏之), Sonija Kwok (郭羨妮), Shirley Yeung(楊思琦), and others totaling a group of 5 females and 5 males competing against the 5 females and 5 males from the Henan TV side. Laughing Gor His performance as undercover cop "Laughing Gor" in E.U. became a breakout character. His Role "Laughing Gor" became very popular with netizens and audiences of E.U.. Due to his popularity, a prequel/spin-off film of E.U. featuring "Laughing Gor", entitled Turning Point, was produced. Continuing popularity enabled the production of a 30-episode sequel series, Lives of Omission, in 2011 and a film sequel titled Turning Point 2 began filming in October 2011 and was released on 29 December 2011. Lives of Omission also won the TVB Anniversary Award for Best Drama at the 2011 TVB Anniversary Awards. Departing TVB for a second time After the arrival of rival broadcasters Hong Kong Television Network, many TVB stars went on to join HKTV. After months of speculation whether Michael was going to join his former celebrities, he decided to not to renew his contract with TVB which expired on 30 June. Michael insists talks were amicable and will continue his working relationship with TVB as there will be more opportunities in the future. Since announcing his departure with TVB, Michael has openly expressed his disappointment in not winning the TVB Best Actor award in 2011 with his breakout role, Laughing Gor, which led many to believe the main reason why Michael did not extend his contract. Rumors speculated that he would join either Eric Tsang or Ricky Wong promotional company but instead Michael set up his own company, The Laughing Workshop, to focus on more the Mainland market. Call Me By Fire In 2021, he joined the cast of Call Me By Fire as a contestant. Controversy In December 2008, Michael Tse was involved in a car accident in the West Harbour Crossing and was arrested for drunk driving after an alcohol content examination. On 11 March 2009, he was found guilty at Eastern Magistracy and is sentenced to six weeks imprisonment with one year probation and fined $9500. His driving license was also suspended for eighteen months. Filmography TV series Film Film and TV series theme songs I'm the Boss (我話事), theme song for Young and Dangerous (1996) Blade Light Sword Shadow (刀光劍影) with Ekin Cheng, sub theme song for Young and Dangerous (1996) 100% Girl (百分之百的女孩), sub theme song for Young and Dangerous (1996) Confidant Myself (知己 自己) with Ekin Cheng, theme song for Young and Dangerous 2 (1996) Cunning (古古惑惑) with Jason Chu and Jerry Lamb, sub theme song for Young and Dangerous 2 (1996) Love Today Went Through (愛情今天經過), sub theme song for Growing Up (1996) The Era of Eating and Drinking (吃喝時代), theme song for God of Cookery (1999) Black and White Rhythm (黑白變奏) with Ron Ng and Sammul Chan, theme song for E.U. (2009). Savour (細味), theme song for The Season of Fate (2010). A Man's Diary (大丈夫日記) with Michael Miu, theme song for My Better Half (2010). I Will Wait For You (我等你) with Kate Tsui, sub theme song for Relic of an Emissary (2011). Walk Alone (獨行), theme song for Lives of Omission (2011) Center Point (中心點) with Niki Chow, theme song for Sergeant Tabloid (2012) Return Heart (還心) with Ma Zihan, theme song for Hero (2012) Seemingly Imaginary Life (疑幻人生) with Sammy Leung, theme song for Friendly Fire (2012) Life of Attack (狙擊人生), theme song for Sniper Standoff (2013) Bro (一起衝一起闖), with Ekin Cheng, Jordan Chan, Chin Ka-lok and Jerry Lamb, theme song for Golden Job (2018) Michael Tse at IMDb Michael Tse Tin-Wah at the Hong Kong Movie Database

Wuzhou (Chinese: 梧州; pinyin: Wúzhōu; Jyutping: Ng⁴zau¹, postal: Wuchow; Zhuang: Ngouzcouh / Ŋouƨcouƅ), formerly Ngchow, is a prefecture-level city in the east of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China. Geography and climate Wuzhou is located in eastern Guangxi bordering Guangdong province. It is at the confluence of the Gui River and the Xun River where they form the Xi River; 85% of all water in Guangxi flows through Wuzhou. The total area of Wuzhou is 12,588 km2 (4,860 sq mi). The Tropic of Cancer bisects the city. Despite its latitude, Wuzhou has a monsoon-influenced humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa), with short, mild winters, and long, very hot and humid summers. Winter begins dry but becomes progressively wetter and cloudier. Spring is generally overcast and often rainy, while summer continues to be rainy though is the sunniest time of year. Autumn is sunny and dry. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from 12.2 °C (54.0 °F) in January to 28.2 °C (82.8 °F) in July, and the annual mean is 21.24 °C (70.2 °F). The annual rainfall is just above 1,450 mm (57 in), and is delivered in bulk (~47%) from April to June, when the plum rains occur and often create the risk of flooding. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 17% in March to 55% in July, the city receives 1,738 hours of bright sunshine annually. Demographics According to the 2020 Chinese census, its total population was 2,820,977 inhabitants of whom 859,815 lived in its built-up (or metro) area made of 3 urban districts. The average annual population decrease for the period 2010-2020 was -0.21% while the overall decrease rate is -2.12%.The dominant ethnic group in the prefecture-level city is Han Chinese but there are also Zhuang, Yao and others. Wuzhou traditionally belongs to the Cantonese cultural and linguistic region, so most people speak the Wuzhou dialect of Cantonese and Mandarin as a result of the Central Government's Mandarin promotion. Administration Wuzhou has 3 counties, 1 county-level city and 3 districts. Dieshan District was abolished on 2013 Delicacies Amongst the agricultural products produced in the region of Wuzhou, one of the most favoured snacks is Wuzhou honey date (梧州蜜枣). Guilinggao jelly is also described as a "Wuzhou delicacy". Bingquan Soy Milk (冰泉豆浆) is also welcomed by people and is in the list of premium choices for breakfast. Trade Wuzhou has become a hub of the synthetic gemstone trade, particularly specializing in corundum, spinel and cubic zirconia. Transportation High Speed Railway Nanning–Guangzhou high-speed railwayRailway Luozhan RailwayExpressway Nanwu ExpresswayHighway China National Highway 207China National Highway 321 Air Wuzhou Xijiang Airport

AK and A.K. (but not Ak) may refer to: Arts and entertainment A.K. (film), a 1985 film directed by Chris Marker AK (radio program), a weekly program produced by Alaska Public Radio Network from 2003 to 2008, later a segment on Alaska News Nightly AK (rapper), also known as AK the Razorman, American rapper from Atlanta, Georgia, member of hip hop group P$C AK-47 (rapper), American rapper from Chicago, Illinois, member of hip hop group Do or Die AK the Savior, American rapper from Brooklyn, New York, member of The Underachievers Arknights, the Chinese mobile game developed by Hypergryph Ajith Kumar, Indian actor, commonly referred to as AK Businesses and organizations AK Press, a collectively owned and operated independent publisher and book distributor that specializes in radical and anarchist literature AK Steel Holding Company, a US-based S&P 500 (NYSE:AKS) Steel Manufacturer Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, the Turkish Justice and Development Party Arbeiterkammer, the Austrian Chamber of Labour Armia Krajowa (Home Army), underground resistance in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II Ajnad al-Kavkaz, a Chechen-led militia in the Syrian Civil War Science AK, the herbarium code for Auckland War Memorial Museum Patient AK, a 16-year-old female patient who laughed when her brain was stimulated with electric current during treatment for epilepsy Actinic keratosis, a skin condition Applied kinesiology, a method using manual muscle testing that purportedly gives feedback on the functional status of the body Places Alaska, a state in the US whose postal abbreviation is "AK" Azad Kashmir, a region of Pakistan. Transport AirAsia (IATA code AK), a Malaysia-based airline Cargo ships (US Navy hull classification symbol AK) New Zealand AK class carriage passenger carriages used by KiwiRail on their Great Railway Journeys of New Zealand Other uses Akan language (ISO 639-1 code alpha-2 ak) Kalashnikov rifle (Avtomat Kalashnikova) an originally Soviet/Russian series of rifles, e.g. AK-47, AKM, AK-74, AK-101, AK-103, etc. AK-47, shortened to "AK" Knight of the Order of Australia, awarded from 1976 to 1986, and 2014 to 2015 Aktuaalne kaamera, a TV program of the Eesti Televisioon Armia Krajowa, the primary resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II See also Ak (disambiguation)

Lei Feng (18 December 1940 – 15 August 1962) was a soldier in the People's Liberation Army who was the object of several major propaganda campaigns in China. The most well-known of these campaigns in 1963 promoted the slogan, "Follow the examples of Comrade Lei Feng." Lei was portrayed as a model citizen, and the masses were encouraged to emulate his selflessness, modesty, and devotion to Mao Zedong. After Mao's death, state media continued to promote Lei Feng as a model of earnestness and service, and his image still appears in popular forms such as on T-shirts and memorabilia.The biographic details of Lei Feng's life, and especially his diary, supposedly discovered after his death, are generally believed to be propaganda creations; even the historicity of Lei Feng himself is sometimes questioned. The continuing use of Lei in government propaganda has become a source of cynicism and even derision amongst segments of the Chinese population. Nevertheless, Lei's function as a propaganda icon has survived decades of political change in China. Life The current biography of Lei Feng as given in China's state media says that he was born in Wangcheng (near the town of Leifeng, Changsha, Hunan, named in his honour). According to CNTV, Lei lost all of his family before the establishment of the People's Republic, becoming an orphan. His father died when he was just five (killed by the invading Japanese Army), his elder brother, who was exploited as a child labourer, died a year later, and his younger brother passed soon afterward. Finally, his mother committed suicide after being "dishonored by a landlord." He became a member of the Communist youth corps when he was young and joined a transportation unit of the People's Liberation Army at the age of twenty. According to his official biography, Lei died in 1962 at the age of 21 (22 by East Asian age reckoning, by which a newborn is age 1 at birth), when a telephone pole, struck by an army truck, hit him as he was directing the truck in backing up. Popular image Lei Feng was not widely known until after his death. In 1963, Lei Feng's Diary was first presented to the public by Lin Biao in the first of many "Learn from Lei Feng" campaigns. The diary was full of accounts of Lei's admiration for Mao Zedong, his selfless deeds, and his desire to foment revolutionary spirit. Famously, he pledged that his only ambition was "to be a rustless screw" in the revolutionary cause. Lin's use of Lei's diary was part of a larger effort to improve Mao's image, which had suffered after the Great Leap Forward. Scholars generally believe that the diary was forged by Party officials under Lin's direction.The diary contains about 200,000 words describing selfless thoughts with enthusiastic comments on Mao and the inspiring nature of the Party. The campaign began at a time when the Chinese economy was recovering from the Great Leap Forward campaign. In 1964 the Lei Feng campaign shifted gradually from doing good deeds to a cult of Mao. When Lei Feng died in the line of duty, he was only 22, but his short life gives concentrated expression to the noble ideals of a new people, nurtured with the communist spirit, and also to the noble moral integrity and values of the Chinese people in the new period. These are firm faith in communist ideals, political warmheartedness for the party and the socialist cause, the revolutionary will to work arduously for self-improvement, the moral quality and self-cultivation of showing fraternal unity and taking pleasure in assisting others, the heroic spirit of being ready to take up cudgels for a just cause without caring for one's safety, the attitude of seeking advancement and studying hard, and the genuine spirit of matching words with deeds and enthusiastically carrying out one's duties. Chinese leaders have praised Lei Feng as the personification of altruism. Leaders who have written about Lei Feng include Deng Xiaoping, Zhou Enlai, and Jiang Zemin. His cultural importance is still reproduced and reinforced by the media and cultural apparatus of the Chinese party-state, including emphasizing the importance of moral character during Mao's era. Lei Feng's prominence in school textbooks has since declined, although he remains part of the national curriculum. The phrase huó Léi Fēng (活雷锋; lit. "living Lei Feng") has become a noun (or adjective) for anyone who is seen as selfless, or anyone who goes out of their way to help others.The CCP's construction of Lei Feng as a celebrity soldier is unique to the PRC and differs from the more typical creation of military heroes by governments during times of war. In the PRC, Lei Feng was part of continuing public promotion of soldiers as exemplary models, and evidence of the People's Liberation Army's role as social and political support to the Communist government. Historicity Details of Lei Feng's life have been subject to dispute. While someone named Lei Feng may have existed, scholars generally believe the person depicted in the campaign was almost certainly a fabrication. Some observers noted, for instance, that the campaign presented a collection of twelve photographs of Lei Feng performing good deeds. The photographs were of exceptionally high professional quality, and depicted Lei—supposedly an obscure and unknown young man—engaging in mundane tasks.The lauded details of Lei Feng's life according to official documents led him to become a subject of derision and cynicism among segments of the Chinese populace. As John Fraser recalled, "Any Chinese I ever spoke to outside of official occasions always snorted about Lei Feng."A 2008 Xinhua survey noted that a large number of elementary school students have vague knowledge of Lei Feng's life, and that 32 percent of the surveyed have read Lei's diary. Contemporary cultural importance 5 March has become the official "Learn from Lei Feng Day" (Chinese: 学雷锋日; pinyin: Xué Léi Fēng Rì). This day involves various community and school events where people go to clean up parks, schools, and other community locations. Local news on that day usually has footage from these events.Lei Feng is especially honoured in Changsha, Hunan, and in Fushun, Liaoning. The Lei Feng Memorial Hall (in his birthplace, now named for him, Leifeng) and Lei Feng statue are located in Changsha. The local hospital carries his name. There is also a Lei Feng Memorial Hall, with a museum, in Fushun. Lei Feng's military unit was based in Fushun, where he died. His tomb is located on the memorial grounds. To commemorate Lei Feng, the city of Fushun named several landmarks in honor of him. There is a Lei Feng Road, a Lei Feng Elementary School, a Lei Feng Middle School and a Leifeng bank office.There is a common misconception that Lei Feng was well known in the US and honored at West Point. The myth has been traced to a 1981 April Fool's Day article that Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Zhurun mistook for a real article. Li issued a retraction in 2015.Lei Feng's story continues to be referenced in popular culture. A popular song by Jilin singer Xue Cun (雪村) is called "All Northeasterners are Living Lei Fengs" (Chinese: 东北人都是活雷锋; pinyin: Dōngběi Rén Dōu Shì Huó Léifēng). A 1995 release, originally notable only for its use of Northeastern Mandarin, it shot to nationwide fame when it was combined with kitsch animations on the Internet in 2001. In March 2006, a Chinese organization released an online game titled Learn from Lei Feng Online (学雷锋) in which the player has to do good deeds, fight spies, and collect parts of Mao Zedong's collection. If the player wins, he or she gets to meet Chairman Mao in the game. In the 21st century his image has been used to sell items including, in one case, condom packaging.By the 2010s, interest in Lei Feng had devolved into kitsch, with his face still commonly appearing on t-shirts, stickers, and posters, but interest in his life story and diary minimal, as ticket sales to feature-length biographical films, Young Lei Feng, Lei Feng’s Smile and Lei Feng 1959, released on Learn from Lei Feng Day, failed to produce any takers at all in some cities. Reportedly, party cadres in rural areas have been charged by the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television with organizing group viewings. See also Comrade Ogilvy Dong Cunrui Wang Jinxi Former Residence of Lei Feng List of campaigns of the Chinese Communist Party Zhang Side Pavlik Morozov Alexey Stakhanov Further reading Edwards, L. (2010). "Military Celebrity in China: The Evolution of 'Heroic and Model Servicemen'". In Jeffreys, Elaine & Edwards, Louise (eds.), Celebrity in China, Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong pp. 21–44. ISBN 962-209-088-5. Lei Feng Museum Website in Fushun, Liaoning (Chinese) Propaganda posters of Lei Feng from Dutch academic collections

Guilin (Standard Zhuang: Gveilinz; alternatively romanized as Kweilin) is a prefecture-level city in the northeast of China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It is situated on the west bank of the Li River and borders Hunan to the north. Its name means "forest of sweet osmanthus", owing to the large number of fragrant sweet osmanthus trees located in the region. The city has long been renowned for its scenery of karst topography. Guilin is one of China's most popular tourist destinations, and the epithet "By water, by mountains, most lovely, Guilin" (山水甲天下) is often associated with the city. The State Council of China has designated Guilin a National Famous Historical and Cultural City, doing so in the first edition of the list. History Before the Qin dynasty, the Guilin region was settled by the Baiyue people. In 314 BC, a small settlement was established along the banks of the Li River.During the Qin dynasty's (221–206 BC) campaigns against the state of Nanyue, the first administration was set up in the area around Guilin. The modern city was located within the Guilin Commandery, which is the origin of the modern name "Guilin". In 111 BC, during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty, Shi'an County (simplified Chinese: 始安县; traditional Chinese: 始安縣) was established, which could be regarded as the beginning of the city. In AD 507, the town was renamed Guizhou (Gui Prefecture, 桂州).In 634, Lingui County was established at the modern site of Guilin, under Gui Prefecture. In 868, Pang Xun rebelled against the Tang from Gui Prefecture.Guilin prospered in the Tang and Song dynasties but remained a county. The city was also a nexus between the central government and the southwest border, and it was where regular armies were placed to guard that border. Canals were built through the city so that food supplies could be directly transported from the food-productive Yangtze plain to the farthest southwestern point of the empire. In 997, Guangnan West Circuit, the predecessor of modern Guangxi, was established, with Guizhou as the capital. In 1133, Guizhou was renamed Jingjiang Prefecture (simplified Chinese: 静江路; traditional Chinese: 靜江路). In 1367, the name was changed to Guilin Prefecture (桂林府).In 1921, Guilin became one of the headquarters of the Northern Expeditionary Army led by Sun Yat-sen. In 1940, Guilin City was established. Guilin was the provincial capital of Guangxi before 1912 and from 1936 to 1949. Guilin became one of the most important military, transport, and cultural centers of China during World War II. The city drastically expanded as refugees from all over China poured in, and by 1944 its population had grown from 70,000 pre-war to more than 500,000. It hosted intellectuals and artists including Guo Moruo, Mao Dun, Ba Jin, Tian Han, Xu Beihong, Feng Zikai and many others.In 1950, the provincial capital of Guangxi was moved from Guilin to Nanning. In 1981, Guilin was listed by the State Council as one of the four cities (the other three being Beijing, Hangzhou, and Suzhou) where the protection of historical and cultural heritage, as well as natural scenery, should be treated as a priority project. Administrative divisions Guilin administers seventeen county-level divisions, including 6 districts, 8 counties, 2 autonomous counties, and 1 county-level city. District: Xiufeng District (秀峰区) Xiangshan District (象山区) Diecai District (叠彩区) Qixing District (七星区) Yanshan District (雁山区) Lingui District (临桂区) County-level city: Lipu city (荔浦市) County: Yangshuo County (阳朔县) Lingchuan County (灵川县) Xing'an County (兴安县) Quanzhou County (全州县) Yongfu County (永福县) Ziyuan County (资源县) Guanyang County (灌阳县) Pingle County (平乐县) Autonomous county: Gongcheng Yao Autonomous County (恭城瑶族自治县) Longsheng Various Nationalities Autonomous County (龙胜各族自治县) Geography Guilin is located in northern Guangxi, bordering Liuzhou to the west, Laibin to the southwest, Wuzhou to the south, Hezhou to the southeast, and within neighbouring Hunan, Huaihua to the northwest, Shaoyang to the north, and Yongzhou to the east. It has a total area of 27,809 square kilometres (10,737 sq mi). The topography of the area is marked by karst formations. The karsts surrounding Guilin are made of Triassic period limestone and dolomite rocks. The Li River flows through the city. Hills and mountains: Diecai Hill (叠彩山), Elephant Trunk Hill, Wave-Subduing Hill (伏波山), Lipu Mountains, Kitten Mountain, the highest peak of Guangxi, and Yao Hill (尧山) Caves: Reed Flute Cave, Seven-star Cave Climate Guilin has a monsoon-influenced humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa, bordering on Cwa), with short, mild winters, and long, hot, humid summers. Winter begins dry but becomes progressively wetter and cloudier. Spring is generally overcast and often rainy, while summer continues to be rainy though is the sunniest time of year. Autumn is sunny and dry. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from 8.1 °C (46.6 °F) in January to 28.2 °C (82.8 °F) in July, and the annual mean is 19.12 °C (66.4 °F). The annual rainfall is just under 1,890 mm (74 in) and is delivered in bulk (~50%) from April to June, when the plum rains occur and often create the risk of flooding. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 14% in March to 53% in September, the city receives 1,487 hours of bright sunshine annually. Demographics According to the 2020 Chinese census its population was 4,931,137 inhabitants and 2,148,641 lived in the built-up (or metro) area made of 6 urban Districts plus Lingchuan County now being conurbated. According to the 2010 Chinese census, the largest ethnic group in the prefecture-level city was Han Chinese, accounting for 84.53% of the total population. This was followed by Yao at 7.79% and Zhuang at 4.81%. Citizens of Guilin's urban area speak a dialect of Mandarin, while Pinghua is predominantly spoken in suburbs and surrounding areas. Economy The GDP per capita was ¥41891 (ca. US$6569) in 2020, ranked no. 134 among 659 Chinese cities. Local industries: condoms, pharmaceutical goods, tires, machinery, fertilizer, silk, perfume, wine, tea, cinnamon, herbal medicine Local agricultural products: Shatian Pomelo, summer orange, Fructus Momordicae, ginkgo, moon persimmon, Lipu Taro, Sanhua Alcohol, pepper sauce, fermented bean curd, Guilin Rice Noodle, water chestnut, grain, fish and dried bean milk cream in tight rollsUntil 1949 only a thermal power plant, a cement works, and some small textile mills existed as signs of industrialization in Guilin. However, since the 1950s Guilin has added electronics, engineering, and agricultural equipment, medicine, rubber, buses, textile, and cotton yarn factories. Food processing, including the processing of local agricultural produce, remains the most important industry. More recent and modern industry features high technology, and the tertiary industry is characterized by tourism trading and service. Transportation Air The airport is Guilin Liangjiang International Airport(ICAO:ZGKL, IATA:KWL). Airlines that fly to the airport are: China Eastern Asiana Airlines China Southern Air China Hainan Airlines Shanghai Airlines Shandong Airlines Xiamen Airlines Tianjin Airlines EVA Air Air Asia Beijing Capital Airlines Hebei Airlines Rail Guilin has several high-speed rail stations, Guilin North, Guilin West, Guilin, and a new station in the Lingui District. Guilin station and Guilin North station are on the Hunan–Guangxi railway, Hengyang–Liuzhou intercity railway and Guiyang–Guangzhou high-speed railway, the main railways connecting Guangxi with central and southern China. Arriving at North Station, high-speed trains between Guilin and Changsha and Beijing came into operation in December 2013. In December 2014, high-speed operations began connecting Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Guiyang, and Shanghai. This made it more convenient for people to come to Guilin. It takes only about 2 or 3 hours from Guangzhou to Guilin, 9 hours from Shanghai to Guilin, and 13 hours from Beijing to Guilin. Trains traveling between Kunming South and West Kowloon stations (for example) stop at Guilin West railway station. Urban The city's public transportation includes bus routes and taxis. Guilin is the leading city in Mainland China operating double-decker buses regularly on major routes; in its main street, the double-deckers run one by one almost every minute. Sightseeing boats also run on the city's canals and lakes. A Guilin Metro is planned for 7 lines by 2040 with 117 stations and a total length of 273.2 kilometres. Line 1 is planned to have been opened by 2025, and it will be 29.23 km with 13 stations. Public colleges and universities Guilin University of Technology Guilin Medical University Guilin University of Electronic Technology Guangxi Normal University Guilin University of Aerospace Technology (桂林航天工业学院) Guilin UniversityNote: Institutions without full-time bachelor programs are not listed. Scenic spots Scenic spots around Guilin include: Jingjiang Princes City, a royal complex dating from the Ming dynasty that lies near the center of modern Guilin Reed Flute Cave Silver Cave Li River Yangshuo Seven-star Cave and Seven Star Park (七星公园) Camel Mountain (骆驼山) and Elephant Trunk Hill Piled Festoon Hill (堆花彩山) Crescent Hill (月牙山) Fubo Hill (伏波山) Nanxi Hill (南溪山) Erlang Gorge (二郎山峡谷) Huangbu (Yellow Cloth) Beach (黄埔滩) Moon Hill Longsheng Rice Terrace Daxu Ancient Town (大圩古市镇) Xingping Ancient Town (兴坪古镇) Duxiu, Solitary Beauty Peak (独秀峰) Liusanjie Landscape Garden (刘三姐景观园) Yao Hill (尧山) Sun and Moon Pagodas (日月双塔) Cuisine Guilin cuisine is a mixture of Cantonese cuisine and Zhuang cuisine. It is known for its snacks and the use of spices, especially chili. Guilin chili sauce (桂林辣椒酱), used widely in cooking by locals, is made of fresh chili, garlic, and fermented soybeans, and is considered one of the city's Three Treasures (桂林三宝). The other two of the Three Treasures are Guilin Sanhua Jiu (桂林三花酒), a variety of rice baijiu, or liquor distilled from rice; and Guilin pickled tofu. Guilin rice noodles have been the local breakfast staple since the Qin dynasty and are renowned for their delicate taste. Legend has it that when Qin troops suffering from diarrhea entered this region, a cook created the Guilin rice noodles for the army because they had trouble eating the local food. Specifically, the local specialty is noodles with horse meat, but this dish can also be ordered without the horse meat. Zongzi, a dumpling made from glutinous rice and mung bean paste wrapped in a bamboo or banana leaf is another popular delicacy in Guilin. Quotes "I often sent pictures of the hills of Guilin which I painted to friends back home, but few believed what they saw." - Fan Chengda (Chinese Song dynasty scholar) "Guilin's scenery is best among all under heaven." (Chinese: 桂林山水甲天下; pinyin: Guìlín shānshuǐ jiǎ tiānxià) - popular Chinese saying International relations Twin towns—Sister cities Guilin is twinned with: – Nishikatsura, Yamanashi, Japan – Lingchuan County – Kumamoto City, Japan – Guilin – Toride City, Japan – Guilin – Miho, Ibaraki, Japan – Lingui – Jeju, South Korea – Hastings, New Zealand – Toruń, Poland – Orlando, United States – Tlaxcoapan, Hidalgo, Mexico – Langkawi, MalaysiaThe Guilin relationship with the New Zealand city Hastings started in 1977, after a research scientist, Stuart Falconer, identified several common areas of interest between the two cities, including horticulture and their rural-urban mix. In 1997 Guilin commenced an exchange relationship with Ōta, Gunma, Japan. Notable residents Daniel Weihs (born 1942), Israeli Aeronautical Engineering professor at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology Ou Hongyi (born 2002), climate activist Pai Hsien-yung (born 1937), writer Ouyang Xiadan, news anchor for China Central Television See also Bai Chongxi Alcoholic drinks in China Li Zongren Further reading "Guilin (China")—Britannica Online Encyclopedia Guilin Government Official website (in Chinese)

Genghis Khan (born Temüjin; c. 1162 – 25 August 1227), also known as Chinggis Khan, was the founder and first khagan of the Mongol Empire, which later became the largest contiguous land empire in history. Having spent the majority of his life uniting the Mongol tribes, he launched a series of military campaigns that conquered large parts of China and Central Asia. Born between 1155 and 1167 and given the name Temüjin, he was the oldest child of Yesugei, a Mongol chieftain of the Borjigin clan, and his wife Hoelun of the Olkhonud clan. Yesugei died when Temüjin was eight, and his family was abandoned by their tribe in the Mongol steppe. Temüjin gradually built up a small following and allied with Jamukha and Toghrul, two other Mongol chieftains, in campaigns against other Mongol tribes. Due to the erratic nature of the sources, this period of Temüjin's life is uncertain; he may have spent this time as a servant of the Jin dynasty. The alliances with Jamukha and Toghrul failed completely in the early 13th century, but Temüjin was able to defeat both individuals and claim sole rulership over the Mongol tribes. He formally adopted the title "Genghis Khan" at a kurultai in 1206. With the tribes fully united, Genghis set out on a campaign of conquest. Having vassalised the Western Xia state by 1211, he then invaded the Jin dynasty in northern China, forcing the Jin emperor Xuanzong to abandon the northern half of his realm in 1214. In 1218, Qara Khitai, a Central Asian khanate, was annexed by Mongol forces, allowing Genghis to lead an invasion of the neighbouring Khwarazmian Empire in the following year. The invading Mongols toppled the Khwarazmian state and devastated the regions of Transoxiana and Khorasan, while another expedition penetrated as far as Georgia and Kievan Rus'. In 1227, Genghis died while besieging the rebellious Western Xia; his third son and heir Ögedei succeeded him to the throne two years later. The Mongol military campaigns begun by Genghis saw widespread destruction and millions of deaths across Asia and Eastern Europe. The Mongol army that he built was renowned for flexibility, discipline, and organisation, while his empire established itself upon meritocratic principles. He is revered and honoured in present-day Mongolia as a symbol of national identity and a central figure of Mongolian culture. Name and title There is no universally adopted system of transliterating original Mongolian names into English; many different systems and standards continue to be in use today, resulting in modern spellings that often differ considerably from the original pronunciation. Ultimately, the honorific most commonly spelt Genghis derives from the autochthonous Mongolian ᠴᠢᠩᠭᠢᠰ ᠬᠠᠭᠠᠨ (Mongolian pronunciation: [t͡ʃʰiŋɡɪs xaːŋ]), which can be transliterated in English as Činggis. From this origin derived the Chinese 成吉思汗; Chéngjísī Hán and the Persian: چنگیز خان; Čəngīz H̱ān. As Arabic lacks a sound similar to "č", writers using the language transliterated the name to J̌ingiz, while Syriac writers used Šīngīz. In modern English, common spellings include Chinggis, Chingis, Jinghis, and Jengiz, in addition to the dominant Genghis, which was introduced into English by 18th-century scholars who misread Persian sources. His birth name ᠲᠡᠮᠦᠵᠢᠨ (Chinese: 鐵木真; Mongolian pronunciation: [tʰemut͡ʃiŋ]) is most commonly spelt Temüjin in English, although Temuchin is also sometimes used.When Genghis' grandson Kublai Khan established the Yuan dynasty in 1271, he bestowed the temple name Taizu (太祖, meaning "Supreme Progenitor") and the posthumous name Shengwu huangdi (Chinese: 聖武皇帝, meaning "Holy-Martial Emperor") upon his grandfather. Kublai's great-grandson Külüg Khan later expanded this title into Fatian Qiyun Shengwu Huangdi (法天啟運聖武皇帝, meaning "Interpreter of the Heavenly Law, Initiator of the Good Fortune, Holy-Martial Emperor"). Modern historians have found it difficult to fully compile and understand early sources describing the life of Genghis Khan, on account of their great geographic and linguistic dispersion. All accounts of his adolescence and rise to power under the name Temüjin derive from two Mongolian sources—The Secret History of the Mongols, and the Altan Debter ("Golden Book"). The latter, now lost, served as inspiration for two Chinese chronicles—the 14th-century Yuan Shi (元史; lit. 'History of the Yuan') and the Shengwu qinzheng lu (聖武親征錄; lit. 'Campaigns of Genghis Khan'). The poorly edited Yuan Shi provides a large amount of extra detail on individual campaigns and biographies; the Shengwu is more disciplined in terms of chronology but does not criticise Genghis Khan and occasionally deteriorates in quality. The Secret History survived through translation into Chinese script in the 14th and 15th centuries. The reliability of the Secret History as a historical source has been disputed: while the sinologist Arthur Waley saw it as near-useless from a historical standpoint and valued it only as a literary work, recent historians have increasingly used it to explore Genghis Khan's early life. Although it is clear that the chronology of the work is suspect and that some passages were removed or modified for better narration, the Secret History is valued more highly because the author is often critical of Genghis Khan. In addition to presenting him as indecisive and cynophobic, the Secret History also recounts taboo events such as the murder of his half-brother Behter and the abduction of his wife Börte.Multiple chronicles in Persian have also survived, which display a mix of positive and negative attitudes towards Genghis Khan and the Mongols. Both the Tabaqat-i Nasiri of Minhaj-i Siraj Juzjani and the Tarikh-i Jahangushay of Ata-Malik Juvayni were completed in 1260. Juzjani was an eyewitness to the brutality of the Mongol conquests, and the hostility of his chronicle reflects his experiences. His contemporary Juvayni, who had travelled twice to Mongolia and attained a high position in the Ilkhanate administration, was more sympathetic; his account is the most reliable for Genghis Khan's western campaigns. The most important Persian source was the Jami' al-tawarikh, compiled by Rashid al-Din on the order of Ilkhan Ghazan in the early 14th century. al-Din was allowed privileged access to both confidential Mongol sources such as the Altan Debter and to experts on the Mongol oral tradition, including Kublai Khan's ambassador Bolad Chingsang and Ghazan himself. As he was writing an official chronicle, he censored inconvenient or taboo details.There are many other contemporary histories which include more information on the Mongols, although their neutrality and reliability are often suspect. Additional Chinese sources include the Jin Shi and the Song shi, chronicles of the two major Chinese dynasties conquered by the Mongols. Persian sources include Ibn al-Athir's Al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh, and a biography of Jalal al-Din by his companion al-Nasawi. There are also several Christian chronicles, including the Georgian Chronicles, the Nikon Chronicle, and works by Europeans such as Carpini. Birth and early life The year of Temüjin's birth is disputed, as historians favour different dates: 1155, 1162 or 1167. Some traditions place his birth in the Year of the Pig, which was either 1155 or 1167. While a dating to 1155 is supported by the writings of both Rashid al-Din and the Chinese diplomat Zhao Hong, other major sources such as the Yuan Shi and the Shengwu favour the year 1162. The 1167 dating, favoured by Paul Pelliot, is derived from a minor source—a text of the Yuan artist Yang Weizhen—but is far more compatible with the events of Genghis Khan's life. For example, an 1155 placement implies that he did not have children until after the age of thirty and continued actively campaigning into his seventh decade. Pelliot was nevertheless uncertain of the accuracy of his theory, which remains controversial; the historian Paul Ratchnevsky notes that Temüjin himself may not have known the truth. The location of Temüjin's birth is similarly debated: the Secret History records his birthplace as Delüün Boldog on the Onon River, but this has been placed at either Dadal in Khentii Province or in southern Agin-Buryat Okrug, Russia. Temüjin was born into the Borjigin clan to Yesügei, a chieftain descended from the revered warlord Bodonchar Munkhag, and his principal wife Hoelun, originally of the Olkhonud clan, whom Yesügei had abducted from her Merkit bridegroom Chiledu. The origin of his birth-name is contested: the earliest traditions hold that his father had just returned from a successful expedition against the Tatars with a captive named Temüchin-uge, after whom he named the newborn in celebration of his victory, while later traditions highlight the root temür (meaning iron), also present in the names of two of his siblings, and connect to theories that Temüjin means "blacksmith". Several legends surround Temüjin's birth. The most prominent is that of a blood clot he clutched in his hand as he was born, an Asian folklorish motif which indicated the child would be a warrior. Others claimed that Hoelun was impregnated by a ray of light which announced the child's destiny, a legend which echoed that of the mythical ancestor Alan Gua. Yesügei and Hoelun had three younger sons after Temüjin: Qasar, Hachiun, and Temüge, as well as one daughter, Temülen. Temüjin also had two half-brothers, Behter and Belgutei, from Yesügei's second wife Sochigel, whose identity is uncertain. The siblings grew up at Yesugei's main camp on the banks of the Onon, where they learned how to ride a horse and shoot a bow. When Temüjin was eight years old, Yesügei decided to betroth him to a suitable girl; he took his heir to the pastures of the prestigious Onggirat tribe, which Hoelun had been born into, and arranged a marriage between Temüjin and Börte, the daughter of an Onggirat chieftain named Dei Sechen. As the betrothal meant Yesügei would gain a powerful ally, and as Börte commanded a high bride price, Dei Sechen held the stronger negotiating position, and demanded that Temüjin remain in his household to work off his future bride's dowry. Accepting this condition, Yesügei requested a meal from a band of Tatars he encountered while riding homewards alone, relying on the steppe tradition of hospitality to strangers. However, the Tatars recognised their old enemy, and slipped poison into his food. Yesügei gradually sickened but managed to return home; close to death, he requested a trusted retainer called Münglig to retrieve Temüjin from the Onggirat. He died soon after. Adolescence Yesügei's death shattered the unity of his people. As Temüjin was only around ten, and Behter around two years older, neither was considered old enough to rule. Led by the widows of Ambaghai, a previous Mongol khan, a Tayichiud faction excluded Hoelun from the ancestor worship ceremonies which followed a ruler's death and soon abandoned the camp. The Secret History relates that the entire Borjigin clan followed, despite Hoelun's attempts to shame them into staying with her family. Rashid al-Din and the Shengwu qinzheng lu however imply that Yesügei's brothers stood by the widow. It is possible that Hoelun may have refused to join in levirate marriage with one, or that the author of the Secret History dramatised the situation. All the sources agree that most of Yesügei's people renounced his family in favour of the Tayichiuds and that Hoelun's family were reduced to a much harsher life. Taking up a traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle, they collected roots and nuts, hunted for small animals, and caught fish.Tensions developed as the children grew older. Both Temüjin and Behter had claims to be their father's heir: although Temüjin was the child of Yesügei's chief wife, Behter was at least two years his senior. There was even the possibility that, as permitted under levirate law, Behter could marry Hoelun upon attaining his majority and become Temüjin's stepfather. As the friction, excarbated by regular disputes over the division of hunting spoils, intensified, Temüjin and his younger brother Qasar ambushed and killed Behter. This taboo act was omitted from the official chronicles but not from the Secret History, which recounts that Hoelun angrily reprimanded her sons. Behter's younger full-brother Belgutei did not seek vengeance, and became one of Temüjin's highest-ranking followers alongside Qasar. Around this time, Temüjin developed a close friendship with Jamukha, another boy of aristocratic descent; the Secret History notes that they exchanged knucklebones and arrows as gifts and swore the anda pact—the traditional oath of Mongol blood brothers–at the age of eleven.As the family lacked allies, Temüjin was likely taken prisoner on multiple occasions. The Secret History relates one such occasion when he was captured by the Tayichiuds who had abandoned him after his father's death. Escaping during a Tayichiud feast, he hid first in the River Onon and then in the tent of Sorkan-Shira, a man who had seen him in the river and not raised the alarm; Sorkan-Shira sheltered Temüjin for three days at great personal risk before allowing him to escape. Temüjin was assisted on another occasion by an adolescent named Bo'orchu who aided him in retrieving stolen horses. Soon afterwards, Bo'orchu joined Temüjin's camp as his first nökor (personal companion; PL nökod). These incidents are indicative of the emphasis the author of Secret History put on personal charisma. Rise to power Early campaigns Accompanied by Belgutei, Temüjin returned to Dei Sechen to marry Börte when he became an adult at fifteen. The Onggirat chieftain, delighted to see the son-in-law he feared had been lost, immediately consented to the marriage, and accompanied the newlyweds back to Temüjin's camp; his wife Čotan presented Hoelun with a black sable cloak, a sign of great wealth. Seeking a patron, he then chose to approach Toghrul, khan of the Kerait tribe, who had fought alongside Yesügei and sworn the anda pact with him. Toghrul ruled hundreds of miles and commanded up to 20,000 warriors, but he was suspicious of the loyalty of his chief followers and, after being presented with the sable cloak, he welcomed Temüjin into his protection. The two grew close, and Temüjin began to build a following, as nökod such as Jelme entered into his service.Soon afterwards, seeking revenge for Yesügei's abduction of Hoelun, around 300 Merkits raided Temüjin's camp. While Temüjin and his brothers were able to hide on Burkhan Khaldun, Börte and Sochigel were abducted. In accordance with levirate law, Börte was given to Chilger, younger brother of Chiledu. Temüjin appealed for aid from Toghrul and his childhood anda Jamukha, who had risen to become chief of the Jadaran tribe. Both chiefs were willing to field armies of 20,000 warriors, and with Jamukha in command, the campaign was soon won. A now-pregnant Börte was recovered successfully and soon gave birth to a son, Jochi; although Temüjin raised him as his own, questions over his true paternity followed Jochi throughout his life. This is narrated in the Secret History and contrasts with Rashid al-Din's account, which protects the family's reputation by removing any hint of illegitimacy.Temüjin and Jamukha camped together for a year and a half, during which, according to the Secret History, they reforged their anda pact, even sleeping together under one blanket. Traditionally seen as a bond solely of friendship, as presented in the source, Ratchnevsky has questioned if Temüjin was actually serving as Jamukha's nökor, in return for the assistance with the Merkits. Tensions arose and the two leaders parted, ostensibly on account of a cryptic remark made by Jamukha on the subject of camping; scholarly analysis has focused on the active role of Börte in this separation, and whether her ambitions may have outweighed Temüjin's own. In any case, the major tribal rulers remained with Jamukha, but forty-one named leaders joined Temüjin along with many commoners: these included Subutai and others of the Uriankhai, the Barulas, the Olkhonuds, and many more. Temüjin was soon acclaimed by his close followers as khan of the Mongols. Toghrul was pleased at his vassal's elevation but Jamukha was resentful. Tensions escalated into open hostility, and in around 1187 the two leaders clashed in battle at Dalan Baljut: the two forces were evenly matched but Temüjin suffered a clear defeat. Later chroniclers including Rashid al-Din instead state that he was victorious but their accounts contradict themselves and each other.Modern historians such as Ratchnevsky and Timothy May consider it very likely that Temüjin spent a large portion of the decade following the clash at Dalan Baljut as a servant of the Jurchen Jin dynasty. Zhao Hong, a 1221 ambassador from the Song dynasty, recorded that the future Genghis Khan spent several years as a slave of the Jin. Traditionally seen as an expression of Song arrogance, the statement is now thought to be based in fact, especially as no other source convincingly explains Temüjin's activities between Dalan Baljut and c. 1195. Taking refuge across the border was a common practice both for disaffected steppe leaders and disgraced Chinese officials. Temüjin's reemergence c. 1195 having retained significant power indicates that he probably profited in the service of the Jin. As he would later go on to overthrow that state, such an episode, detrimental to Mongol prestige, was omitted from all their sources. Zhao Hong was bound by no such taboos. Defeating rivals The sources do not agree on the events of Temüjin's return to the steppe. In early summer 1196, he participated in a joint campaign with the Jin against the Tatars, who had begun to exert their power. As a reward, the Jin awarded him the honorific cha-ut kuri. At around the same time, he assisted Toghrul with reclaiming the lordship of the Kereit, which had been taken by a family member with the support of the powerful Naiman tribe. Toghrul was given the title of Ong Khan by the Jin, traditionally as a reward for his support during the Tatar campaign. In fact, Toghrul may not have participated in the warfare, and the title was only thus given as a pacificatory gesture. In all versions of events, the actions of 1196 fundamentally changed Temüjin's position in the steppe—he was now Toghrul's equal ally, rather than his junior vassal.Jamukha had behaved poorly following his victory at Dalan Baljut, allegedly beheading enemy leaders and humiliating their corpses, or boiling seventy prisoners alive. A number of disaffected followers, including Yesügei's nökor Münglig and his sons, defected to Temüjin as a consequence. Temüjin was able to subdue the disobedient Jurkin tribe that had previously offended him at a feast and refused to participate in the Tatar campaign. After eliminating their leaders, he had Belgutei symbolically break a leading Jurkin's back in a staged wrestling match in retribution. This latter incident, which contravened Mongol customs of justice, was only noted by the author of the Secret History, who openly disapproved. These events occurred c. 1197. During the following years, Temüjin and Toghrul campaigned separately and together against the Merkits, the Naimans, and the Tatars. In around 1201, a collection of dissatisfied tribes including the Onggirat, the Tayichiud, and the Tatars, swore to break the domination of the Borjigin-Kereit alliance, electing Jamukha as gurkhan and their leader. After some initial successes, this loose confederation was routed at Yedi Qunan, and Jamukha was forced to beg for Toghrul's clemency. Desiring complete supremacy in eastern Mongolia, Temüjin defeated first the Tayichiud and then, in 1202, the Tatars; after both campaigns, he executed the clan leaders and took the remaining warriors into his service. These included Sorkan-Shira, who had come to his aid previously, and a young warrior named Jebe, who, by killing Temüjin's horse and refusing to hide that fact, had displayed military skill and personal courage.The absorption of the Tatars left three military powers in the steppe: the Naimans in the west, the Mongols in the east, and the Kereit in between. Seeking to cement his position, Temüjin proposed that his son Jochi marry one of Toghrul's daughters. Led by Toghrul's son Senggum, the Kereit elite believed the proposal to be an attempt to gain control over their tribe, while the doubts over Jochi's parentage would have offended them further. In addition, Jamukha drew attention to the threat Temüjin posed to the traditional steppe aristocracy. Yielding eventually to these demands, Toghrul attempted to lure his vassal into an ambush, but his plans were overheard by two herdsmen. Temüjin was able to gather some of his forces, but was soundly defeated at the Battle of Qalaqaljid Sands. Temüjin retreated southeast to Baljuna, an unidentified lake or river, where he waited for his scattered forces to regroup: Bo'orchu had lost his horse and was forced to flee on foot, while Temüjin's badly wounded son Ögedei had been transported and tended to by Borokhula, a leading warrior. He called in every possible ally and swore a famous oath of loyalty, later known as the Baljuna Covenant, to his faithful followers, which would later grant them exclusivity and prestige. The oath-takers of Baljuna were a very heterogenous group—men from nine different tribes, who included Christians, Muslims, and Buddhists united only by loyalty to Temüjin and to each other; this group became a model for the later empire, being termed a "proto-government of a proto-nation" by historian John Man. The Baljuna Covenant was omitted from the Secret History—as the group was predominantly non-Mongol, the author presumably wished to downplay the role of other tribes.A ruse de guerre involving Qasar allowed the Mongols to catch the Kereit unawares at the Jej'er Heights, but though the ensuing battle still lasted three days, it ended in a decisive victory for Temüjin. Toghrul and Senggum were both forced to flee, and while the latter escaped to Tibet, Toghrul was killed by a Naiman who did not recognise him. Temüjin sealed his victory by absorbing the Kereit elite into his own tribe: he took the princess Ibaqa to be his own wife, and gave her sister Sorghaghtani and niece Doquz to his youngest son Tolui. The ranks of the Naimans had swelled due to the arrival of Jamukha and others defeated by the Mongols, and they soon prepared for war. Temüjin was informed of these events by Alaqush, the sympathetic ruler of the Ongud tribe. In the Battle of Chakirmaut, which occurred in May 1204 in the Altai Mountains, the Naimans were decisively defeated: their leader Tayang Khan was killed, and his son Kuchlug was forced to flee west. The Merkits were decimated later that year, while Jamukha, who had abandoned the Naimans at Chakirmaut, was betrayed to Temüjin by companions who were executed for their lack of loyalty. According to the Secret History, Jamukha convinced his childhood anda to execute him honourably; other accounts state that he was killed by dismemberment. Early reign: reforms and Chinese campaigns (1206—1215) Kurultai of 1206 and reforms Now sole ruler in the steppe, Temüjin held a kurultai at the source of the Onon River in 1206. Here, he formally adopted the title Genghis Khan, the etymology and meaning of which has been much debated. Some commentators hold that the title had no meaning, simply representing Temüjin's eschewment of the traditional "gurkhan" title, which had been accorded to Jamukha and was thus of lesser worth. Another theory suggests that the word "Genghis" bears connotations of strength, firmness, hardness, or righteousness. A third hypothesis proposes that the title is related to the Turkic "tängiz", meaning "sea" or "ocean"; the title "Genghis Khan" would mean "master of the ocean", and as the ocean was believed to surround the earth, the title ultimately implied "Universal Ruler".Having attained control over one million people and over fifteen million animals, Genghis Khan began what May has termed a "social revolution". As traditional tribal systems had primarily evolved to benefit small clans and families, they were unsuitable as the foundations for larger states and had been the downfall of previous steppe confederations. Aware that a different organisational structure was required for the functioning of his new nation, Genghis began a series of administrative reforms designed to suppress the power of tribal loyalties and to replace them with unconditional loyalty to the khan and the ruling family. As most of the traditional tribal leaders had been killed during his rise to power, Genghis was able to reconstruct the Mongol social hierarchy in his favour. The highest tier was occupied solely by the families of the Khan and his brothers, who became known as the altan uruq (lit. "Golden Family") or chaghan yasun (lit. "white bone"); underneath them came the qara yasun (lit. "black bone"; sometimes qarachu), composed of the surviving pre-empire aristocracy and the most important of the new families.To break any concept of tribal loyalty, the entirety of Mongol society was reorganised into a decimal system of military organisation. Every man between the age of fifteen and seventy was conscripted into a minqan (PL minkad), a unit of a thousand soldiers, which was further subdivided into units of hundreds (jaghun, PL jaghat) and tens (arban, PL arbat). The units also encompassed each man's household, meaning that each military minqan was supported by a minqan of households in a defined military–industrial complex. Each minqan operated as both political and social units, while the warriors of defeated tribes were dispersed to different minqad so that they could not rebel as a single body. This was intended to ensure the disappearance of old tribal identities, replacing them with loyalty to the Yeke Mongol Ulus (lit. "Great Mongol State") and to commanders who had gained their rank through meritocratic skill and loyalty to the khan. This particular reformation proved extremely effective—even after the division of the Mongol Empire, fragmentation never happened along tribal lines. Instead, the Borjigin Genghisids continued to reign unchallenged, in some cases until as late as the 1700s, and even powerful non-imperial dynasts such as Timur and Edigu were compelled to rule from behind a Genghisid puppet ruler. Genghis' senior nökod were appointed to the highest ranks and received the greatest honours. Bo'orchu and Muqali were each given ten thousand men (tumen, PL tumed) to lead as commanders of the right and left wings of the army respectively. The other nökod were given commands of one of the ninety-five minkad. Many of these men were born to low social status: Ratchnevsky cites Jelme and Subutai, the sons of blacksmiths, in addition to a carpenter, a shepherd, and even the two herdsmen who had warned Temüjin of Toghrul's plans in 1203. As a special privilege, Genghis allowed certain loyal commanders to retain the tribal identities of their units. Alakush of the Ongud was allowed to retain five thousand warriors of his tribe because his son had married Genghis' daughter Alakhai Bekhi, while Chigu and Alchi of the Onggirat, as husband to Genghis' sister Temülen and brother to Börte respectively, were granted three minkad each. These large exemptions were bestowed because of existing quda (lit. "marriage alliance") pacts.A key tool which underpinned these reforms was the expansion of the keshig (lit. "bodyguard"). After Temüjin's defeat of Toghrul in 1203, he had appropriated this Kereit institution in a minor form, but at the 1206 kurultai its numbers were greatly expanded, from 1,150 to 10,000 men. The keshig was not only the khan's bodyguard, but his household staff, a military academy, a guarantor of loyalty, and the basis of governmental administration. All the warriors in this elite corps, divided into an 8,000-strong day guard and two minqad of night guards and quiver bearers, were brothers or sons of military commanders, and were essentially hostages. The keshigten (lit. "keshig members") nevertheless received special privileges and direct access to the khan, whom they would serve in all respects during both peace and war, and who in return would evaluate their capabilities and their potential to govern or command. Consolidation of power (1206–1210) From 1206 to 1209, Genghis Khan was predominantly focused on consolidating and maintaining his new nation. He faced a challenge from Kokechu, the son of Münglig, the trusted retainer of Yesügei to whom Genghis had given his mother Hoelun in marriage. Kokechu was the shaman who had proclaimed Temüjin as Genghis Khan and taken the Tengrist title "Teb Tenggeri" (lit. "Wholly Heavenly") on account of his sorcery. He was very influential among the Mongol commoners and sought to divide the imperial family. Genghis' oldest sibling Qasar was the first of Kokechu's targets—always distrusted by his brother, he was humiliated and almost imprisoned on false charges before Hoelun intervened by publicly reprimanding her eldest son. Nevertheless, Kokechu's power steadily increased. When Genghis' youngest brother Temüge attempted to intervene he too was publicly shamed. Börte saw the threat Kokechu posed and warned Genghis, who still superstitiously revered the shaman; relenting, he allowed Temüge to assassinate Kokechu and usurped the shaman's position as the Mongols' highest spiritual authority.During these years, the Mongols imposed their control on surrounding areas. Genghis dispatched Jochi northwards in 1207 to subjugate the Hoi-yin Irgen, a collection of tribes on the edge of the Siberian taiga, and, having secured a marriage alliance with the Oirats and defeated the Yenisei Kyrgyz, took control of the region's grain trade, fur trade, and gold mines. Mongol armies also rode westwards, defeating the Naiman-Merkit alliance on the River Irtysh in late 1208. Their khan was killed and Kuchlug fled into Central Asia. Led by Barchuk, the Uyghurs freed themselves from the suzerainty of the Qara-Khitai and pledged themselves to Genghis in 1211 as the first sedentary society to submit to the Mongols. The Mongols had started raiding the border settlements of the Tangut-led Western Xia kingdom in 1205, ostensibly in retaliation for allowing Senggum, Toghrul's son, refuge; more prosaic explanations include rejuvenating the depleted Mongol economy with an influx of fresh goods and livestock, or simply subjugating a semi-hostile state to protect the nascent nation. Most Xia troops were stationed along the southern and western borders of the kingdom to guard against attacks from the Song and Jin dynasties respectively, while its northern border relied only on the Gobi desert for protection, unlike the Jin's which was strongly fortified. After a raid in 1207 sacked the fortress of Wulahai, Genghis decided to personally lead a full-scale invasion in 1209.Wulahai was captured again in May and the Mongols advanced on the capital Zhongxing (modern-day Yinchuan) but suffered a reverse against a Xia army. After a two-month stalemate, Genghis broke the deadlock with a successfully-executed feigned retreat. Although Zhongxing was now mostly undefended, lacking any siege equipment better than crude battering rams, the Mongols were unable to progress the siege. Genghis' innovative attempt to redirect the Yellow River into the city with a dam initially worked, but the poorly-constructed earthworks broke—possibly breached by the Xia—in January 1210 and the Mongol camp was flooded, forcing them to retreat. A peace treaty was soon formalized: the Xia emperor Xiangzong submitted and handed over tribute, including his daughter Chaka, in exchange for the Mongol withdrawal. Campaign against the Jin (1211–1215) Wanyan Yongji usurped the Jin throne in 1209. He had previously served on the steppe frontier and Genghis greatly disliked him; he also declined to aid the Xia against the Mongols. When asked to submit and pay the annual tribute to Yongji in 1210, Genghis instead mocked the emperor, spat, and rode away from the Jin envoy—a challenge which meant war. He had made preparations for an invasion of Jin, despite the possibility of being outnumbered eight-to-one by 600,000 Jin soldiers, since learning of their internal instabilities in 1206. Genghis had two aims: to take vengeance for past wrongs committed by the Jin, foremost among which was the death of Ambaghai Khan in the mid-12th century, and to win the vast amounts of plunder his troops and vassals expected.After calling for a kurultai in March 1211, Genghis launched his invasion of Jin China in May, reaching the outer Jin defense ring the following month. These border fortifications were guarded by the Ongud tribe, who were friendly to the Mongols—through his daughter Alakhai Beki, Genghis held a quda alliance with their leader Alaqush—and allowed them to pass without difficulty. The three-pronged chevauchée aimed both to plunder and burn a vast area of Jin territory to deprive them of supplies and popular legitimacy, and to secure the mountain passes which allowed access to the North China Plain. The Jin lost numerous towns and were hindered by a series of defections, the most prominent of which was Khitan Shimo Ming'an, whose betrayal led directly to Muqali's victory at the Battle of Huan'erzhui in autumn 1211. The campaign was halted in 1212 when Genghis was wounded by an arrow during the siege of Xijing (modern Datong). Following the failure at Xijing, Genghis set up a corps of siege engineers, which recruited 500 Jin experts over the next two years.The defenses of Juyong Pass had been strongly reinforced by the time the conflict resumed in 1213, but a Mongol detachment led by Jebe managed to infiltrate the pass and surprise the elite Jin defenders, opening the road to the Jin capital Zhongdu (modern-day Beijing). The Jin administration began to disintegrate: after the Khitans entered open rebellion, Hushahu, the commander of the forces at Xijing, abandoned his post and staged a coup in Zhongdu, killing Yongji and installing his own puppet ruler, Xuanzong. This governmental breakdown was fortunate for Genghis' forces—emboldened by their victories, they had seriously overreached and lost their initiative. Unable to do more than sit before Zhongdu's fortifications while his army suffered from an epidemic and famine. The Mongols are reported to have resorted to cannibalism. Genghis opened peace negotiations despite his commanders' militarism. He secured tribute, including 3,000 horses, 500 slaves, a Jin princess, and massive amounts of gold and silk, before breaking the siege in spring 1214 and setting off homewards in May 1214.With the northern Jin lands ravaged by plague and the Mongols, Xuanzong decided to move the capital and imperial court 600 kilometres (370 mi) southwards to Kaifeng. Genghis saw this move as a betrayal of the peace treaty and immediately prepared to return, even though he had been away from home for three years. According to Christopher Atwood, it was only at this juncture that Genghis decided to fully conquer northern China. Muqali captured numerous towns in Liaodong during winter 1214–15, and although the inhabitants of Zhongdu surrendered to Genghis on 31 May 1215, the city was sacked and looted. When Genghis returned to Mongolia in early 1216, Muqali was left in command in China. He waged a brutal but effective campaign against the unstable Jin until his death in 1223. Later reign: western expansion and return to China (1216–1227) Defeating rebellions and Qara Khitai (1216–1218) In 1207, Genghis had appointed a man named Qorchi as governor of the subdued Hoi-yin Irgen tribes. Appointed not for his talents but for prior services rendered, Qorchi was a poor choice, and his habit of taking too many concubines for his harem led the tribes to rebel and take him prisoner in early 1216. Boroqul, one of Genghis' highest-ranking nökod, was ambushed and killed the following year. The khan was livid at the loss of his close friend and prepared to personally lead a retaliatory campaign; eventually dissuaded from this course, he dispatched his eldest son Jochi and a Dörbet commander. They managed to surprise and defeat the rebels, securing control over this economically important region.Kuchlug, the Naiman prince who had been defeated in 1204, had usurped the throne of the Central Asian Qara Khitai dynasty between 1211 and 1213. He was a greedy and arbitrary ruler who probably earned the enmity of the native Islamic populace whom he attempted to forcibly convert to Buddhism. Genghis sensed that Kuchlug might be a potential threat to his empire, and Jebe was sent with an army of 20,000 cavalry to Kashgar; he undermined Kuchlug's rule by emphasising the Mongol policies of religious tolerance and gained the loyalty of the local elite. Kuchlug was forced to flee southwards to the Pamir Mountains, but was captured by local hunters. Decapitated by the Mongols, his corpse was paraded through Qara Khitai, and Jebe proclaimed the end of religious persecution in the region. Invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire (1219–1221) Genghis had now attained complete control of the eastern portion of the Silk Road, and his territory bordered that of the Khwarazmian Empire, which ruled over much of Central Asia, Persia and Afghanistan. Merchants from both sides were eager to restart trading, which had halted during Kuchlug's rule—the Khwarazmian ruler Muhammad II dispatched an envoy shortly after the Mongol capture of Zhongdu, while Genghis instructed the ortoq, the Mongol trading partners, to obtain the high-quality textiles and steel of Central and Western Asia. Many members of the altan uruq invested in one particular caravan of 450 merchants which set off to Khwarazmia in 1218 with a massive quantity of goods. Muhammad had however grown suspicious of Genghis' intentions, and when Inalchuq, the governor of the Khwarazmian border town of Otrar, decided to halt the caravan, massacre the merchants on grounds of espionage, and seize the goods, the Khwarazmshah either supported Inalchuq or turned a blind eye. A Mongol ambassador was sent with two companions to avert war, but he was killed and his companions humiliated. The killing of an envoy infuriated Genghis, who resolved to leave Muqali with a small force in North China and invade Khwarazmia with most of his army.Muhammad's empire was large but disunited: he ruled alongside his mother Terken Khatun in what Peter Golden termed "an uneasy diarchy", while the Khwarazmian nobility and populace were discontented with his warring and centralization of government. For these reasons and others he declined to meet the Mongols in the field, instead garrisoning his unruly troops in his major cities. This allowed the lightly armoured, highly mobile Mongol armies uncontested superiority outside city walls. Otrar was besieged in autumn 1219—the siege dragged on for five months, but in February 1220 the city fell and Inalchuq was executed. Genghis had meanwhile divided his forces. Leaving his sons Chagatai and Ogedei besieging the city, he had sent Jochi northwards down the Syr Darya river and another force southwards into central Transoxiana, while he and Tolui took the main Mongol army across the Kyzylkum Desert, surprising the garrison of Bukhara in a pincer movement. Bukhara's citadel was captured in February 1220 and Genghis moved against Muhammad's residence Samarkand, which fell the following month. Bewildered by the speed of the Mongol conquests, Muhammad fled from Balkh, closely followed by Jebe and Subutai; the two generals pursued the Khwarazmshah until his death from dysentry on a Caspian Sea island in winter 1220/21. Before his death, he nominated his eldest son Jalal al-Din as his successor. Jebe and Subutai then set out on a massive 7,500 kilometres (4,700 mi) expedition around the Caspian Sea. Later called the Great Raid, this lasted four years and saw the Mongols come into contact with medieval Europe for the first time. Meanwhile, the Khwarazmian capital of Gurganj was being besieged by Genghis' three eldest sons; a long siege ended in spring 1221 amid brutal urban conflict. Jalal al-Din moved southwards to Afghanistan, gathering forces on the way and defeating a Mongol unit under the command of Shigi Qutuqu, Genghis' adopted son, in the Battle of Parwan. Jalal was weakened by arguments among his commanders, and losing decisively at the Battle of the Indus in November 1221, he was compelled to swim across the river into India.Genghis' youngest son Tolui was concurrently conducting a brutal campaign in the regions of Khorasan. Every city that resisted was destroyed in a programme of concentrated devastation—Nishapur, Merv and Herat, three of the largest and wealthiest cities in the world, were all annihilated. This campaign established Genghis' lasting image as a ruthless, inhumane conqueror. Persian historians placed the death toll from the three sieges alone at over 5.7 million—numbers regarded as grossly exaggerated by modern scholarship. Nevertheless, even a total death toll of 1.25 million for the entire campaign, as estimated by John Man, would have been a demographic catastrophe. Return to China and final campaign (1222–1227) Genghis abruptly halted his Central Asian campaigns in 1221. Initially aiming to return via India, Genghis realised that the heat and humidity of the South Asian climate impeded his army's skills, while the omens were additionally unfavourable. Although the Mongols spent much of 1222 repeatedly overcoming rebellions in Khorasan, they withdrew completely from the region to avoid overextending themselves, setting their new frontier on the Amu Darya river. During his lengthy return journey, Genghis prepared a new administrative division which would govern the conquered territories, appointing darughachi (commissioners, lit. "those who press the seal") and basqaq (local officials) to manage the region back to normalcy. He also summoned and spoke with the Daoist patriarch Changchun in the Hindu Kush. The khan listened attentively to Changchun's teachings and granted his followers numerous privileges, including tax exemptions and authority over all monks throughout the empire—a grant which the Daoists would later use to try to gain superiority over Buddhism.The usual reason given for the halting of the campaign is that the Western Xia, having declined to provide auxiliaries for the 1219 invasion, had additionally disobeyed Muqali in his campaign against the remaining Jin in Shaanxi province. May has disputed this, arguing that the Xia fought in concert with Muqali until his death in 1223, when, frustrated by Mongol control and sensing an opportunity with Genghis in Central Asia, they ceased fighting. In either case, Genghis initially attempted to resolve the situation diplomatically, but when the Xia elite failed to come to an agreement on the hostages they were to send to the Mongols, he lost patience. Returning to Mongolia in early 1225, he spent the year in preparation for the campaign, which began in the first months of 1226 with the capture of Khara-Khoto on the Xia's western border.The invasion proceeded apace. Genghis ordered that the cities of the Gansu Corridor be sacked one by one, granting clemency only to a few. Having crossed the Yellow River in autumn, the Mongols besieged present-day Lingwu, located just 30 kilometres (19 mi) south of the Xia capital Zhongxing in November. On 4 December, Genghis decisively defeated a Xia relief army; the khan left the siege of the defenceless capital to his generals and moved southwards with Subutai to plunder and secure Jin territories. Death and succession Genghis, who had suffered a fall from his horse while hunting in the winter, became increasingly ill during the following months. This slowed the siege's progress, as his sons and commanders urged him to end the campaign and return to Mongolia to recover, arguing that the urban-bound Xia would still be there another year. Incensed by insults from Xia's leading commander, Genghis insisted that the siege be continued. He died in August 1227, but his death was kept a closely guarded secret and Zhongxing, unaware, fell the following month. The city was put to the sword and its population was treated with extreme savagery—the Xia civilisation was essentially extinguished in what Man described as "very successful ethnocide". The exact nature of the khan's death has been the subject of intense speculation. Rashid al-Din and the Yuán Shǐ mention he suffered from an illness—possibly malaria, typhus, or bubonic plague. Marco Polo attests that he was shot by an arrow during a siege, while Carpini reports that Genghis was struck by lightning. Legends sprang up around the event—the most famous recounts how the beautiful Gurbelchin, formerly wife to the Xia emperor, castrated Genghis with a concealed dagger during sexual intercourse.After his death, Genghis was transported back to Mongolia and buried on or near the sacred Burkhan Khaldun peak in the Khentii Mountains, on a site he had personally chosen years before. Specific details of the funeral procession and burial were not made public knowledge; the mountain, declared ikh khorig (lit. "Great Taboo"; i.e. prohibited zone), was off-limits to all but its Uriankhai guard. When Ogedei acceded to the throne in 1229, the grave was honoured with three days of offerings and the sacrifice of thirty maidens. Ratchnevsky theorises that the Mongols, who had no knowledge of embalming techniques, may have buried the khan in the Ordos to avoid his body decomposing in the summer heat; Atwood emphatically rejects this hypothesis. Succession The tribes of the Mongol steppe had no fixed succession system, but often defaulted to some form of ultimogeniture—succession of the youngest son—on the grounds that unlike his older brothers, the youngest son would not have had time to gain a following for himself and needed the help of his father's inheritance. However, it has been noticed that this inheritance applied only to property, not to titles. Through the Mongol appanage system, Genghis allocated lands and populations as property to each member of his close family. His brothers Qasar, Hachiun, Temüge, and Belgutei were given lands along the Greater Khingan mountains in the east, and the lands of his three elder sons were located in the west: for Jochi, along the Irtysh river, extending into Siberia and the territory of the Kipchaks; for Chagatai, the former Qara Khitai territories surrounding Almaligh in Turkestan; for Ogedei, lands in Dzungaria; and for Tolui the Mongolian fatherland near the Altai Mountains, as per tradition.The Secret History records that he chose his successor at the behest of his wife Yisui while preparing for the Khwarazmian campaigns in 1219; Rashid al-Din, on the other hand, states that the decision came before Genghis' final campaign against the Xia. Regardless of the date, there were five possible candidates: Genghis' four sons and his youngest brother Temüge, who had the weakest claim and who was never seriously considered. Even though there was a strong possibility Jochi was illegitimate Genghis was not particularly concerned by this; nevertheless, he and Jochi became increasingly estranged over time. This was due to Jochi's preference for remaining in and growing his own appanage; his actions during the Siege of Gurganj, where his reluctance to destroy a wealthy city that would become part of his territory eventually led to his failure to give Genghis the khan's share of the booty, exacerbated the tensions. Genghis was angered by Jochi's refusal to return to him in 1223, allegedly because of his love for hunting, and was considering sending Ogedei and Chagatai to bring him back to heel when news came that Jochi had prematurely died from a serious illness.Chagatai's attitude towards Jochi's possible succession—he had termed his elder brother "a Merkit bastard" and had brawled with him in front of their father—led Genghis to view him as uncompromising, arrogant, and narrow-minded, despite his great knowledge of Mongol legal customs. His elimination left Ogedei and Tolui as the two primary candidates. Tolui was unquestionably superior in military terms—his campaign in Khorasan had broken the Khwarazmian Empire, while his elder brother was far less able as a commander. Ogedei was also known to drink excessively even by Mongol standards—it was eventually the cause of his death in 1241. However, he possessed talents all his brothers lacked—he was generous and courteous, well-liked by all in the nation. Aware of his own lack of military skill, he was able to trust his capable subordinates, and unlike his elder brothers, compromise on issues; he was also more likely to preserve Mongol traditions than Tolui, whose wife Sorghaghtani, herself a Nestorian Christian, was a patron of many religions including Islam.Serving as regent after Genghis' death, Tolui established a precedent for the customary traditions after khan's death. These included: the halting of all offensive military actions involving Mongol troops, the establishment of a lengthy mourning period, which the regent would oversee, and the holding of a kurultai which would nominate successors and select them. For Tolui, this presented an opportunity. He was still a viable candidate for succession and had the support of the family of Jochi. Any general kurultai, attended by the commanders Genghis had promoted and honoured, would however observe their former ruler's desires without question and appoint Ogedei as ruler. It has been suggested that Tolui's reluctance to hold the kurultai was driven by the knowledge of the threat it posed to his ambitions. In the end, Tolui had to be convinced by Yelu Chucai to hold the kurultai; in 1229, it crowned Ogedei as khan, with Tolui in attendance. Legacy Medieval depictions and assessment Genghis Khan never allowed his image to be depicted in any medium; as a result, any painting, sculpture, or engravings are interpretations of the writings of historians, most writing long after his death. The two earliest statements come from the Persian chronicler Juzjani, who relied on Khorasani eyewitnesses, and the contemporary Song diplomat Zhao Hong—both record that he was tall and strong with a powerful stature. Juzjani additionally remarks on the khan's "cat's eyes", mirroring a similar statement Dei Sechen, Genghis' father-in-law, is recorded saying on meeting him as a nine-year old. Another written description is found in the Jami al-tawarikh, which states that Genghis Khan and his Borjigin ancestors had blue-green eyes and either red hair or a ruddy complexion which Kublai Khan did not inherit. The factual nature of this description is considered controversial.Genghis Khan had a notably positive reputation among some western European authors in the Middle Ages, who knew little concrete information about his empire in Asia. The Italian explorer Marco Polo said that Genghis Khan "was a man of great worth, and of great ability, and valor", while philosopher and inventor Roger Bacon applauded the scientific and philosophical vigor of Genghis Khan's empire, and Geoffrey Chaucer praised the "great renown of Cambinskan". In modern culture During the communist period in Mongolia, Genghis was often described by the government as a reactionary figure, and positive statements about him were avoided. In 1962, the erection of a monument at his birthplace and a conference held in commemoration of his 800th birthday led to criticism from the Soviet Union and the dismissal of secretary Tömör-Ochir of the ruling Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party Central Committee. In the early 1990s, the memory of Genghis Khan underwent a powerful revival, partly in reaction to its suppression during the Mongolian People's Republic period. Genghis Khan became a symbol of national identity for many younger Mongolians, who maintain that the historical records written by non-Mongolians are unfairly biased against Genghis Khan and that his butchery is exaggerated, while his positive role is underrated.In Mongolia today, Genghis Khan's name and likeness appear on products, streets, buildings, and other places. His face can be found on everyday commodities, and on the largest denominations of 500, 1,000, 5,000, 10,000, and 20,000 Mongolian tögrög (₮). Mongolia's main international airport in Ulaanbaatar is named Chinggis Khaan International Airport, and there is a 40m-high equestrian statue of Genghis Khan east of the Mongolian capital. There has been talk about regulating the use of his name and image to avoid trivialization. Genghis Khan's birthday, on the first day of winter (according to the Mongolian lunar calendar), is a national holiday. Bibliography

Radical 207 meaning "drum" is 1 of 4 Kangxi radicals (214 radicals total) composed of 13 strokes. In the Kangxi Dictionary there are 46 characters (out of 49,030) to be found under this radical. Characters with Radical 207 Literature Fazzioli, Edoardo (1987). Chinese calligraphy : from pictograph to ideogram : the history of 214 essential Chinese/Japanese characters. calligraphy by Rebecca Hon Ko. New York: Abbeville Press. ISBN 0-89659-774-1. Lunde, Ken (Jan 5, 2009). "Appendix J: Japanese Character Sets" (PDF). CJKV Information Processing: Chinese, Japanese, Korean & Vietnamese Computing (Second ed.). Sebastopol, Calif.: O'Reilly Media. ISBN 978-0-596-51447-1. Unihan Database - U+9F13

Gitis a distributed version control system that tracks changes in any set of computer files, usually used for coordinating work among programmers who are collaboratively developing source code during software development. Its goals include speed, data integrity, and support for distributed, non-linear workflows (thousands of parallel branches running on different computers).Git was originally authored by Linus Torvalds in 2005 for development of the Linux kernel, with other kernel developers contributing to its initial development. Since 2005, Junio Hamano has been the core maintainer. As with most other distributed version control systems, and unlike most client–server systems, every Git directory on every computer is a full-fledged repository with complete history and full version-tracking abilities, independent of network access or a central server. Git is free and open-source software shared under the GPL-2.0-only license. History Git development was started by Torvalds in April 2005 when the proprietary source-control management (SCM) system used for Linux kernel development since 2002, BitKeeper, revoked its free license for Linux development. The copyright holder of BitKeeper, Larry McVoy, claimed that Andrew Tridgell had created SourcePuller by reverse engineering the BitKeeper protocols. The same incident also spurred the creation of another version-control system, Mercurial. Torvalds wanted a distributed system that he could use like BitKeeper, but none of the available free systems met his needs. He cited an example of a source-control management system needing 30 seconds to apply a patch and update all associated metadata, and noted that this would not scale to the needs of Linux kernel development, where synchronizing with fellow maintainers could require 250 such actions at once. For his design criterion, he specified that patching should take no more than three seconds, and added three more goals: Take the Concurrent Versions System (CVS) as an example of what not to do; if in doubt, make the exact opposite decision. Support a distributed, BitKeeper-like workflow. Include very strong safeguards against corruption, either accidental or malicious.These criteria eliminated every version-control system in use at the time, so immediately after the 2.6.12-rc2 Linux kernel development release, Torvalds set out to write his own.The development of Git began on 3 April 2005. Torvalds announced the project on 6 April and became self-hosting the next day. The first merge of multiple branches took place on 18 April. Torvalds achieved his performance goals; on 29 April, the nascent Git was benchmarked recording patches to the Linux kernel tree at a rate of 6.7 patches per second. On 16 June, Git managed the kernel 2.6.12 release.Torvalds turned over maintenance on 26 July 2005 to Junio Hamano, a major contributor to the project. Hamano was responsible for the 1.0 release on 21 December 2005. Naming Torvalds sarcastically quipped about the name git (which means "unpleasant person" in British English slang): "I'm an egotistical bastard, and I name all my projects after myself. First 'Linux', now 'git'." The man page describes Git as "the stupid content tracker". The read-me file of the source code elaborates further: "git" can mean anything, depending on your mood. Random three-letter combination that is pronounceable, and not actually used by any common UNIX command. The fact that it is a mispronunciation of "get" may or may not be relevant. Stupid. Contemptible and despicable. Simple. Take your pick from the dictionary of slang. "Global information tracker": you're in a good mood, and it actually works for you. Angels sing, and a light suddenly fills the room. "Goddamn idiotic truckload of sh*t": when it breaks. The source code for Git refers to the program as "the information manager from hell". Releases List of Git releases: Design Git's design was inspired by BitKeeper and Monotone. Git was originally designed as a low-level version-control system engine, on top of which others could write front ends, such as Cogito or StGIT. The core Git project has since become a complete version-control system that is usable directly. While strongly influenced by BitKeeper, Torvalds deliberately avoided conventional approaches, leading to a unique design. Characteristics Git's design is a synthesis of Torvalds's experience with Linux in maintaining a large distributed development project, along with his intimate knowledge of file-system performance gained from the same project and the urgent need to produce a working system in short order. These influences led to the following implementation choices: Strong support for non-linear development Git supports rapid branching and merging, and includes specific tools for visualizing and navigating a non-linear development history. In Git, a core assumption is that a change will be merged more often than it is written, as it is passed around to various reviewers. In Git, branches are very lightweight: a branch is only a reference to one commit. With its parental commits, the full branch structure can be constructed. Distributed development Like Darcs, BitKeeper, Mercurial, Bazaar, and Monotone, Git gives each developer a local copy of the full development history, and changes are copied from one such repository to another. These changes are imported as added development branches and can be merged in the same way as a locally developed branch. Compatibility with existing systems and protocols Repositories can be published via Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS), Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), or a Git protocol over either a plain socket or Secure Shell (ssh). Git also has a CVS server emulation, which enables the use of existing CVS clients and IDE plugins to access Git repositories. Subversion repositories can be used directly with git-svn. Efficient handling of large projects Torvalds has described Git as being very fast and scalable, and performance tests done by Mozilla showed that it was an order of magnitude faster diffing large repositories than Mercurial and GNU Bazaar; fetching version history from a locally stored repository can be one hundred times faster than fetching it from the remote server. Cryptographic authentication of history The Git history is stored in such a way that the ID of a particular version (a commit in Git terms) depends upon the complete development history leading up to that commit. Once it is published, it is not possible to change the old versions without it being noticed. The structure is similar to a Merkle tree, but with added data at the nodes and leaves. (Mercurial and Monotone also have this property.) Toolkit-based design Git was designed as a set of programs written in C and several shell scripts that provide wrappers around those programs. Although most of those scripts have since been rewritten in C for speed and portability, the design remains, and it is easy to chain the components together. Pluggable merge strategies As part of its toolkit design, Git has a well-defined model of an incomplete merge, and it has multiple algorithms for completing it, culminating in telling the user that it is unable to complete the merge automatically and that manual editing is needed. Garbage accumulates until collected Aborting operations or backing out changes will leave useless dangling objects in the database. These are generally a small fraction of the continuously growing history of wanted objects. Git will automatically perform garbage collection when enough loose objects have been created in the repository. Garbage collection can be called explicitly using git gc. Periodic explicit object packing Git stores each newly created object as a separate file. Although individually compressed, this takes up a great deal of space and is inefficient. This is solved by the use of packs that store a large number of objects delta-compressed among themselves in one file (or network byte stream) called a packfile. Packs are compressed using the heuristic that files with the same name are probably similar, without depending on this for correctness. A corresponding index file is created for each packfile, telling the offset of each object in the packfile. Newly created objects (with newly added history) are still stored as single objects, and periodic repacking is needed to maintain space efficiency. The process of packing the repository can be very computationally costly. By allowing objects to exist in the repository in a loose but quickly generated format, Git allows the costly pack operation to be deferred until later, when time matters less, e.g., the end of a workday. Git does periodic repacking automatically, but manual repacking is also possible with the git gc command. For data integrity, both the packfile and its index have an SHA-1 checksum inside, and the file name of the packfile also contains an SHA-1 checksum. To check the integrity of a repository, run the git fsck command.Another property of Git is that it snapshots directory trees of files. The earliest systems for tracking versions of source code, Source Code Control System (SCCS) and Revision Control System (RCS), worked on individual files and emphasized the space savings to be gained from interleaved deltas (SCCS) or delta encoding (RCS) the (mostly similar) versions. Later revision-control systems maintained this notion of a file having an identity across multiple revisions of a project. However, Torvalds rejected this concept. Consequently, Git does not explicitly record file revision relationships at any level below the source-code tree. These implicit revision relationships have some significant consequences: It is slightly more costly to examine the change history of one file than the whole project. To obtain a history of changes affecting a given file, Git must walk the global history and then determine whether each change modified that file. This method of examining history does, however, let Git produce with equal efficiency a single history showing the changes to an arbitrary set of files. For example, a subdirectory of the source tree plus an associated global header file is a very common case. Renames are handled implicitly rather than explicitly. A common complaint with CVS is that it uses the name of a file to identify its revision history, so moving or renaming a file is not possible without either interrupting its history or renaming the history and thereby making the history inaccurate. Most post-CVS revision-control systems solve this by giving a file a unique long-lived name (analogous to an inode number) that survives renaming. Git does not record such an identifier, and this is claimed as an advantage. Source code files are sometimes split or merged, or simply renamed, and recording this as a simple rename would freeze an inaccurate description of what happened in the (immutable) history. Git addresses the issue by detecting renames while browsing the history of snapshots rather than recording it when making the snapshot. (Briefly, given a file in revision N, a file of the same name in revision N − 1 is its default ancestor. However, when there is no like-named file in revision N − 1, Git searches for a file that existed only in revision N − 1 and is very similar to the new file.) However, it does require more CPU-intensive work every time the history is reviewed, and several options to adjust the heuristics are available. This mechanism does not always work; sometimes a file that is renamed with changes in the same commit is read as a deletion of the old file and the creation of a new file. Developers can work around this limitation by committing the rename and the changes separately.Git implements several merging strategies; a non-default strategy can be selected at merge time: resolve: the traditional three-way merge algorithm. recursive: This is the default when pulling or merging one branch, and is a variant of the three-way merge algorithm. When there are more than one common ancestors that can be used for a three-way merge, it creates a merged tree of the common ancestors and uses that as the reference tree for the three-way merge. This has been reported to result in fewer merge conflicts without causing mis-merges by tests done on prior merge commits taken from Linux 2.6 kernel development history. Also, this can detect and handle merges involving renames. octopus: This is the default when merging more than two heads. Data structures Git's primitives are not inherently a source-code management system. Torvalds explains: In many ways you can just see git as a filesystem—it's content-addressable, and it has a notion of versioning, but I really designed it coming at the problem from the viewpoint of a filesystem person (hey, kernels is what I do), and I actually have absolutely zero interest in creating a traditional SCM system. From this initial design approach, Git has developed the full set of features expected of a traditional SCM, with features mostly being created as needed, then refined and extended over time. Git has two data structures: a mutable index (also called stage or cache) that caches information about the working directory and the next revision to be committed; and an immutable, append-only object database. The index serves as a connection point between the object database and the working tree. The object database contains five types of objects: A blob (binary large object) is the content of a file. Blobs have no proper file name, time stamps, or other metadata (A blob's name internally is a hash of its content.). In git each blob is a version of a file, it holds the file's data. A tree object is the equivalent of a directory. It contains a list of file names, each with some type bits and a reference to a blob or tree object that is that file, symbolic link, or directory's contents. These objects are a snapshot of the source tree. (In whole, this comprises a Merkle tree, meaning that only a single hash for the root tree is sufficient and actually used in commits to precisely pinpoint to the exact state of whole tree structures of any number of sub-directories and files.) A commit object links tree objects together into history. It contains the name of a tree object (of the top-level source directory), a timestamp, a log message, and the names of zero or more parent commit objects. A tag object is a container that contains a reference to another object and can hold added meta-data related to another object. Most commonly, it is used to store a digital signature of a commit object corresponding to a particular release of the data being tracked by Git. A packfile object collects various other objects into a zlib-compressed bundle for compactness and ease of transport over network protocols.Each object is identified by a SHA-1 hash of its contents. Git computes the hash and uses this value for the object's name. The object is put into a directory matching the first two characters of its hash. The rest of the hash is used as the file name for that object. Git stores each revision of a file as a unique blob. The relationships between the blobs can be found through examining the tree and commit objects. Newly added objects are stored in their entirety using zlib compression. This can consume a large amount of disk space quickly, so objects can be combined into packs, which use delta compression to save space, storing blobs as their changes relative to other blobs. Additionally, git stores labels called refs (short for references) to indicate the locations of various commits. They are stored in the reference database and are respectively: Heads (branches): Named references that are advanced automatically to the new commit when a commit is made on top of them. HEAD: A reserved head that will be compared against the working tree to create a commit. Tags: Like branch references but fixed to a particular commit. Used to label important points in history. Every object in the Git database that is not referred to may be cleaned up by using a garbage collection command or automatically. An object may be referenced by another object or an explicit reference. Git knows different types of references. The commands to create, move, and delete references vary. git show-ref lists all references. Some types are: heads: refers to an object locally, remotes: refers to an object which exists in a remote repository, stash: refers to an object not yet committed, meta: e.g. a configuration in a bare repository, user rights; the refs/meta/config namespace was introduced retrospectively, gets used by Gerrit, tags: see above. Implementations Git (the main implementation in C) is primarily developed on Linux, although it also supports most major operating systems, including the BSDs (DragonFly BSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD), Solaris, macOS, and Windows.The first Windows port of Git was primarily a Linux-emulation framework that hosts the Linux version. Installing Git under Windows creates a similarly named Program Files directory containing the Mingw-w64 port of the GNU Compiler Collection, Perl 5, MSYS2 (itself a fork of Cygwin, a Unix-like emulation environment for Windows) and various other Windows ports or emulations of Linux utilities and libraries. Currently, native Windows builds of Git are distributed as 32- and 64-bit installers. The git official website currently maintains a build of Git for Windows, still using the MSYS2 environment.The JGit implementation of Git is a pure Java software library, designed to be embedded in any Java application. JGit is used in the Gerrit code-review tool, and in EGit, a Git client for the Eclipse IDE.Go-git is an open-source implementation of Git written in pure Go. It is currently used for backing projects as a SQL interface for Git code repositories and providing encryption for Git.The Dulwich implementation of Git is a pure Python software component for Python 2.7, 3.4 and 3.5.The libgit2 implementation of Git is an ANSI C software library with no other dependencies, which can be built on multiple platforms, including Windows, Linux, macOS, and BSD. It has bindings for many programming languages, including Ruby, Python, and Haskell.JS-Git is a JavaScript implementation of a subset of Git. Git server As Git is a distributed version control system, it could be used as a server out of the box. It is shipped with a built-in command git daemon which starts a simple TCP server running on the GIT protocol. Dedicated Git HTTP servers help (amongst other features) by adding access control, displaying the contents of a Git repository via the web interfaces, and managing multiple repositories. Already existing Git repositories can be cloned and shared to be used by others as a centralized repo. It can also be accessed via remote shell just by having the Git software installed and allowing a user to log in. Git servers typically listen on TCP port 9418. Open source Hosting the Git server using the Git Binary. Gerrit, a Git server configurable to support code reviews and provide access via ssh, an integrated Apache MINA or OpenSSH, or an integrated Jetty web server. Gerrit provides integration for LDAP, Active Directory, OpenID, OAuth, Kerberos/GSSAPI, X509 https client certificates. With Gerrit 3.0 all configurations will be stored as Git repositories, and no database is required to run. Gerrit has a pull-request feature implemented in its core but lacks a GUI for it. Phabricator, a spin-off from Facebook. As Facebook primarily uses Mercurial, Git support is not as prominent. RhodeCode Community Edition (CE), supporting Git, Mercurial and Subversion with an AGPLv3 license. Kallithea, supporting both Git and Mercurial, developed in Python with GPL license. External projects like gitolite, which provide scripts on top of Git software to provide fine-grained access control. There are several other FLOSS solutions for self-hosting, including Gogs and Gitea, a fork of Gogs, both developed in Go language with MIT license. Git server as a service There are many offerings of Git repositories as a service. The most popular are GitHub, SourceForge, Bitbucket and GitLab. Adoption The Eclipse Foundation reported in its annual community survey that as of May 2014, Git is now the most widely used source-code management tool, with 42.9% of professional software developers reporting that they use Git as their primary source-control system compared with 36.3% in 2013, 32% in 2012; or for Git responses excluding use of GitHub: 33.3% in 2014, 30.3% in 2013, 27.6% in 2012 and 12.8% in 2011. Open-source directory Black Duck Open Hub reports a similar uptake among open-source projects.Stack Overflow has included version control in their annual developer survey in 2015 (16,694 responses), 2017 (30,730 responses), 2018 (74,298 responses) and 2022 (71,379 responses). Git was the overwhelming favorite of responding developers in these surveys, reporting as high as 93.9% in 2022. Version control systems used by responding developers: The UK IT jobs website itjobswatch.co.uk reports that as of late September 2016, 29.27% of UK permanent software development job openings have cited Git, ahead of 12.17% for Microsoft Team Foundation Server, 10.60% for Subversion, 1.30% for Mercurial, and 0.48% for Visual SourceSafe. Extensions There are many Git extensions, like Git LFS, which started as an extension to Git in the GitHub community and is now widely used by other repositories. Extensions are usually independently developed and maintained by different people, but at some point in the future, a widely used extension can be merged with Git. Other open-source Git extensions include: git-annex, a distributed file synchronization system based on Git git-flow, a set of Git extensions to provide high-level repository operations for Vincent Driessen's branching model git-machete, a repository organizer & tool for automating rebase/merge/pull/push operationsMicrosoft developed the Virtual File System for Git (VFS for Git; formerly Git Virtual File System or GVFS) extension to handle the size of the Windows source-code tree as part of their 2017 migration from Perforce. VFS for Git allows cloned repositories to use placeholders whose contents are downloaded only once a file is accessed. Conventions Git does not impose many restrictions on how it should be used, but some conventions are adopted in order to organize histories, especially those which require the cooperation of many contributors. The master branch is created by default with git init and is often used as the branch that other changes are merged into. Correspondingly, the default name of the upstream remote is origin and so the name of the default remote branch is origin/master. The use of master as the default branch name is not universally true; repositories created in GitHub and GitLab initialize with a main branch instead of master, though the default can be changed by the user. Pushed commits should usually not be overwritten, but should rather be reverted (a commit is made on top which reverses the changes to an earlier commit). This prevents shared new commits based on shared commits from being invalid because the commit on which they are based does not exist in the remote. If the commits contain sensitive information, they should be removed, which involves a more complex procedure to rewrite history. The git-flow workflow and naming conventions are often adopted to distinguish feature specific unstable histories (feature/*), unstable shared histories (develop), production ready histories (main), and emergency patches to released products (hotfix). Pull requests are not a feature of git, but are commonly provided by git cloud services. A pull request is a request by one user to merge a branch of their repository fork into another repository sharing the same history (called the upstream remote). The underlying function of a pull request is no different than that of an administrator of a repository pulling changes from another remote (the repository that is the source of the pull request). However, the pull request itself is a ticket managed by the hosting server which initiates scripts to perform these actions; it is not a feature of git SCM. Security Git does not provide access-control mechanisms, but was designed for operation with other tools that specialize in access control.On 17 December 2014, an exploit was found affecting the Windows and macOS versions of the Git client. An attacker could perform arbitrary code execution on a target computer with Git installed by creating a malicious Git tree (directory) named .git (a directory in Git repositories that stores all the data of the repository) in a different case (such as .GIT or .Git, needed because Git does not allow the all-lowercase version of .git to be created manually) with malicious files in the .git/hooks subdirectory (a folder with executable files that Git runs) on a repository that the attacker made or on a repository that the attacker can modify. If a Windows or Mac user pulls (downloads) a version of the repository with the malicious directory, then switches to that directory, the .git directory will be overwritten (due to the case-insensitive trait of the Windows and Mac filesystems) and the malicious executable files in .git/hooks may be run, which results in the attacker's commands being executed. An attacker could also modify the .git/config configuration file, which allows the attacker to create malicious Git aliases (aliases for Git commands or external commands) or modify extant aliases to execute malicious commands when run. The vulnerability was patched in version 2.2.1 of Git, released on 17 December 2014, and announced the next day.Git version 2.6.1, released on 29 September 2015, contained a patch for a security vulnerability (CVE-2015-7545) that allowed arbitrary code execution. The vulnerability was exploitable if an attacker could convince a victim to clone a specific URL, as the arbitrary commands were embedded in the URL itself. An attacker could use the exploit via a man-in-the-middle attack if the connection was unencrypted, as they could redirect the user to a URL of their choice. Recursive clones were also vulnerable since they allowed the controller of a repository to specify arbitrary URLs via the gitmodules file.Git uses SHA-1 hashes internally. Linus Torvalds has responded that the hash was mostly to guard against accidental corruption, and the security a cryptographically secure hash gives was just an accidental side effect, with the main security being signing elsewhere. Since a demonstration of the SHAttered attack against git in 2017, git was modified to use a SHA-1 variant resistant to this attack. A plan for hash function transition is being written since February 2020. Trademark "Git" is a registered word trademark of Software Freedom Conservancy under US500000085961336 since 2015-02-03. See also Comparison of version-control software Comparison of source-code-hosting facilities List of version-control software Chacon, Scott (24 December 2014). Pro Git (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Apress. ISBN 978-1-4842-0077-3. Archived from the original on 25 December 2015. Official website Git at Open Hub

Pad or pads may refer to: Wearables Pads, protective equipment used in baseball, cricket, and hockey Elbow pad Knee pad Shoulder pads (sport) Menstrual pad, used to absorb menstrual or other vaginal blood Incontinence pad, worn to absorb involuntarily expelled bodily fluids Shoulder pads (fashion), fabric-covered padding in clothing Computing and electronics Input devices Gamepad, joypad, or controller, an input device used in gaming Graphics pad, a computer input device Keypad, buttons arranged in a block Touchpad or trackpad, a pointing device featuring a tactile sensor Trigger pad, an electronic sensor on a drum Other hardware Contact pad, the designated surface area for an electrical contact A resistive pad used in an attenuator An electronic notebook GRiDPad, known as first commercial tablet computer iPad, a tablet computer made by Apple ThinkPad, a laptop brand first designed and produced by IBM, but now owned by Lenovo WatchPad, discontinued IBM smartwatch line WorkPad, discontinued line of PDA, branded by IBM Other uses in computing and electronics One-time pad, a method of cryptography Transportation Brake pad, part of a drum brake Launch pad, an area where spacecraft start flight Helicopter landing pad Roll way or running pad, placed along the rails of metro or tram tracks Music Pad, some holes of woodwind instruments (clarinets, saxophones...) are closed by air-tight pads. Soft, mellow timbres generated by synthesisers are often called pads, and are generally used as backing sounds. Other uses Part of a mammal's paw Pad, Roane County, West Virginia A paper notebook San Diego Padres, a Major League Baseball team nicknamed the "Pads" All pages with titles beginning with Pad All pages with titles containing Pad PADS (disambiguation) PAD (disambiguation) PADD Padding (disambiguation)

Bonsai (Japanese: 盆栽, lit. 'tray planting', pronounced [boɰ̃sai] ) is the Japanese and East Asian art of growing and training miniature trees in containers, developed from the traditional Chinese art form of penjing (盆景). Penjing and bonsai differ in that the former attempts to display "wilder," more naturalistic scenes, often representing landscapes, including elements such as water, rocks, or figurines; on the other hand, bonsai typically focuses on a single tree or a group of trees of the same species, with a higher level of aesthetic refinement. Similar versions of the art exist in other cultures, including the miniature living landscapes of Vietnamese Hòn non bộ. During the Tang dynasty, when penjing was at its height, the art was first introduced in China. The loanword "bonsai" has become an umbrella term in English, attached to many forms of diminutive potted plants, and also on occasion to other living and non-living things. According to Stephen Orr in The New York Times, "the term should be reserved for plants that are grown in shallow containers following the precise tenets of bonsai pruning and training, resulting in an artful miniature replica of a full-grown tree in nature." In the most restrictive sense, "bonsai" refers to miniaturized, container-grown trees adhering to Japanese tradition and principles. Purposes of bonsai are primarily contemplation for the viewer, and the pleasant exercise of effort and ingenuity for the grower. In contrast to other plant cultivation practices, bonsai are not grown for the production of food or for medicine. A bonsai is created beginning with a specimen of source material. This may be a cutting, seedling, a tree from the wild (known as Yamadori) or small tree of a species suitable for bonsai development. Bonsai can be created from nearly any perennial woody-stemmed tree or shrub species that produces true branches and can be cultivated to remain small through pot confinement with crown and root pruning. Some species are popular as bonsai material because they have characteristics, such as small leaves or needles, that make them appropriate for the compact visual scope of bonsai. The source specimen is shaped to be relatively small and to meet the aesthetic standards of bonsai, which emphasizes not the entirety of grand sceneries but rather, only the tree itself. When the candidate bonsai nears its planned final size, it is planted in a display pot, usually one designed for bonsai display in one of a few accepted shapes and proportions. From that point forward, its growth is restricted by the pot environment. Throughout the year, the bonsai is shaped to limit growth, redistribute foliar vigor to areas requiring further development, and meet the artist's detailed design. The practice of bonsai is sometimes confused with dwarfing, but dwarfing generally refers to research, discovery, or creation of plants that are permanent, genetic miniatures of existing species. Plant dwarfing often uses selective breeding or genetic engineering to create dwarf cultivars. Bonsai does not require genetically-dwarfed trees but rather, depends on growing small trees from regular stock and seeds. Bonsai uses cultivation techniques like pruning, root reduction, potting, defoliation, and grafting to produce small trees that mimic the shape and style of mature, full-size trees. History Early versions The Japanese art of bonsai originated from the Chinese practice of penjing. From the 6th century onward, Imperial embassy personnel and Buddhist students from Japan visited and returned from mainland China. They brought back many Chinese ideas and goods, including container plantings. Over time, these container plantings began to appear in Japanese writings and representative art. In the medieval period, recognizable bonsai were portrayed in handscroll paintings like the Ippen shonin eden (1299). The 1195 scroll Saigyo Monogatari Emaki is the earliest known to depict dwarfed potted trees in Japan. Wooden tray and dish-like pots with dwarf landscapes on modern-looking wooden shelves also appear in the 1309 Kasuga-gongen-genki scroll. Dwarf trees displayed on short poles are portrayed in the 1351 Boki Ekotoba scroll. Several other scrolls and paintings also include depictions of these kinds of trees. A close relationship between Japan's Zen Buddhism and the potted trees began to shape bonsai reputation and aesthetics, which were introduced to Japan from China. In this period, Chinese Chan (pronounced "Zen" in Japanese) Buddhist monks taught at Japan's monasteries. One of the monks' activities was to introduce political leaders to various arts of miniature landscapes as admirable accomplishments for men of taste and learning. Potted landscape arrangements up to this period included miniature figurines after the Chinese fashion. Japanese artists eventually adopted a simpler style for bonsai, increasing focus on the tree by removing miniatures and other decorations, and using smaller, plainer pots. Hachi no ki Around the 14th century, the term for dwarf potted trees was "the bowl's tree" (鉢の木, hachi no ki). This indicated use of a fairly deep pot rather than the shallow pot denoted by the eventual term bonsai. Hachi no Ki (The Potted Trees) is also the title of a circa 1383 noh play by Zeami Motokiyo, based on a story about an impoverished samurai who burns his last three potted trees as firewood to warm a traveling monk. The monk is a disguised official who later rewards the samurai for his actions. In later centuries, woodblock prints by several artists depicted this popular drama. There was even a fabric design of the same name. Through these and other popular media, bonsai became known to a broad Japanese population.Bonsai cultivation reached a high level of expertise in this period. Bonsai dating to the 17th century have survived to the present. One of the oldest-known living bonsai trees, considered one of the National Treasures of Japan, can be seen in the Tokyo Imperial Palace collection. A five-needle pine (Pinus pentaphylla var. negishi) known as Sandai-Shogun-No Matsu is documented as having been cared for by Tokugawa Iemitsu. The tree is thought to be at least 500 years old and was trained as a bonsai by 1610.By the end of the 18th century, bonsai cultivation in Japan was becoming widespread and began to interest the general public. In the Tenmei era (1781–88), an exhibit of traditional dwarf potted pines began to be held every year in Kyoto. Connoisseurs from five provinces and neighboring areas would bring one or two plants each to the show in order to submit them to visitors for ranking. Classical period In Japan after 1800, bonsai began to move from being the esoteric practice of a few specialists to becoming a widely popular art form and hobby. In Itami, Hyōgo, Japanese scholars of Chinese arts gathered in the early 19th century to discuss recent styles in the art of miniature trees. Many terms and concepts adopted by this group were derived from the Jieziyuan Huazhuan (Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden in English; Kai-shi-en Gaden in Japanese). The Japanese version of potted trees, which had been previously called hachiue or other terms, were renamed bonsai. This word connoted a shallow container, not a deeper bowl style. The term "bonsai", however, would not become broadly used in describing Japan's dwarf potted trees for nearly a century. The popularity of bonsai began to grow outside the limited scope of scholars and the nobility. On October 13, 1868, the Meiji Emperor moved to his new capital in Tokyo. Bonsai were displayed both inside and outside Meiji Palace, and those placed in the grand setting of the Imperial Palace had to be "Giant Bonsai", large enough to fill the grand space. The Meiji Emperor encouraged interest in bonsai, which broadened its importance and appeal to his government's professional staff.New books, magazines, and public exhibitions made bonsai more accessible to the Japanese populace. An Artistic Bonsai Concours was held in Tokyo in 1892, followed by publication of a three-volume commemorative picture book. This event demonstrated a new tendency to see bonsai as an independent art form. In 1903, the Tokyo association Jurakukai held showings of bonsai and ikebana at two Japanese-style restaurants. In 1906, Bonsai Gaho became the first monthly magazine on the subject. It was followed by Toyo Engei and Hana in 1907. The initial issue of Bonsai magazine was published in 1921, and this influential periodical ran for 518 consecutive issues. Bonsai shaping aesthetics, techniques, and tools became increasingly sophisticated as bonsai popularity grew in Japan. In 1910, shaping with wire rather than the older string, rope, and burlap techniques, appeared in the Sanyu-en Bonsai-Dan (History of Bonsai in the Sanyu nursery). Zinc-galvanized steel wire was initially used. Expensive copper wire was used only for selected trees that had real potential. In the 1920s and 1930s, toolsmith Masakuni I (1880–1950) helped design and produce the first steel tools specifically made for the developing requirements of bonsai styling. This included the concave cutter, a branch cutter designed to leave a shallow indentation on the trunk when a branch was removed. Properly treated, this indentation would fill over with live tree tissue and bark over time, greatly reducing or eliminating the usual pruning scar. Prior to World War II, international interest in bonsai was fueled by increased trade in trees and the appearance of books in popular foreign languages. By 1914, the first national annual bonsai show was held (an event repeated annually through 1933) in Tokyo's Hibiya Park. Another great annual public exhibition of trees began in 1927 at the Asahi Newspaper Hall in Tokyo. Beginning in 1934, the prestigious Kokufu-ten annual exhibitions were held in Tokyo's Ueno Park. The first major book on the subject in English was published in the Japanese capital: Dwarf Trees (Bonsai) by Shinobu Nozaki.By 1940, about 300 bonsai dealers worked in Tokyo. Some 150 species of trees were being cultivated, and thousands of specimens were shipped annually to Europe and America. The first bonsai nurseries and clubs in the Americas were started by first and second-generation Japanese immigrants. Though this progress to international markets and enthusiasts was interrupted by the war, by the 1940s bonsai had become an art form of international interest and involvement. Modern bonsai Following World War II, several trends made the Japanese tradition of bonsai increasingly accessible to Western and world audiences. One key trend was the increase in the number, scope, and prominence of bonsai exhibitions. For example, the Kokufu-ten bonsai displays reappeared in 1947 after a four-year cancellation and became annual affairs. These displays continue to this day and are by invitation only for eight days in February. In October 1964, a great exhibition was held in Hibya Park by the private Kokufu Bonsai Association, reorganized into the Nippon Bonsai Association, to mark the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. A large display of bonsai and suiseki was held as part of Expo '70, and formal discussion was made of an international association of enthusiasts. In 1975, the first gafu-ten (elegant-style exhibit) of shohin bonsai (13–25 cm or 5–10 in tall) was held. So was the first sakufu-ten (creative bonsai exhibit), the only event in which professional bonsai growers exhibit traditional trees under their own names rather than under the name of the owner.The first World Bonsai Convention was held in Osaka during the World Bonsai and Suiseki Exhibition in 1980. Nine years later, a series of World Bonsai Conventions was launched by the newly-formed World Bonsai Friendship Federation (WBFF) in Omiya. These conventions attracted several hundreds of participants from dozens of countries and have since been held every four years at different locations around the globe: 1993, Orlando, Florida; 1997, Seoul, Korea; 2001, Munich, Germany; 2005, Washington, D.C.; 2009, San Juan, Puerto Rico; 2013, Jitan, Jiangsu, China; 2017, Saitama, Saitama, Japan; and 2022's virtual convention in Perth, Australia, which replaced the one originally scheduled a year earlier but was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, Japan continues to host regular exhibitions with the world's largest numbers of bonsai specimens and the highest recognized specimen quality. Another key trend was the increase in books on bonsai and related arts, being published for the first time in English and other languages for audiences outside of Japan. In 1952, Yuji Yoshimura, the son of a Japanese bonsai community leader, collaborated with German diplomat and author Alfred Koehn to give bonsai demonstrations. Koehn had been an enthusiast before the war, and his 1937 book Japanese Tray Landscapes had been published in English in Peking. Yoshimura's 1957 book The Art of Bonsai, written in English with his student Giovanna M. Halford, went on to be called the "classic Japanese bonsai bible for westerners" with over thirty printings. The related art of saikei was introduced to English-speaking audiences in 1963 in Kawamoto and Kurihara's book Bonsai-Saikei. This book describes tray landscapes made with younger plant material than was traditionally used in bonsai, providing an alternative to the use of large, older plants, few of which had escaped war damage. A third trend was the increasing availability of expert bonsai training, at first only in Japan, and then more widely. In 1967, the first group of Westerners studied at an Ōmiya nursery. Returning to the U.S., they established the American Bonsai Society. Other groups and individuals from outside Asia then visited and studied at the various Japanese nurseries, occasionally even apprenticing under the masters. These visitors brought back to their local clubs the latest techniques and styles, which were then further disseminated. Japanese teachers also traveled widely, bringing hands-on bonsai expertise to all six continents.The final trend supporting world involvement in bonsai is the widening availability of specialized bonsai plant stock, soil components, tools, pots, and other accessory items. Bonsai nurseries in Japan advertise and ship specimen bonsai worldwide. Most countries have local nurseries providing plant stock as well. Japanese bonsai soil components, such as Akadama clay, are available worldwide, and suppliers also provide similar local materials in many locations. Specialized bonsai tools are widely available from Japanese and Chinese sources. Potters around the globe provide material to hobbyists and specialists in many countries.Bonsai has now reached a worldwide audience. There are over fourteen hundred books on bonsai and the related arts in at least twenty-eight languages available in over one-hundred-and-ten countries and territories. A few dozen magazines in over thirteen languages are in print. Several score of club newsletters are available online, and there are at least that many discussion forums and blogs. There are at least a hundred thousand enthusiasts in some fifteen hundred clubs and associations worldwide, as well as over five million unassociated hobbyists. Plant material from every location is being trained into bonsai and displayed at local, regional, national, and international conventions and exhibitions for enthusiasts and the general public. Cultivation and care Material sources All bonsai start with a specimen of source material, a plant that the grower wishes to train into bonsai form. Bonsai practice is an unusual form of plant cultivation in that growth from seeds is rarely used to obtain source material. To display the characteristic aged appearance of a bonsai within a reasonable time, the source plant is often mature or at least partially grown when the bonsai creator begins work. Propagation from a source tree through cuttings or layering. Nursery stock directly from a nursery, or from a garden centre or similar resale establishment. Commercial bonsai growers, which, in general, sell mature specimens that display bonsai aesthetic qualities already. Collecting suitable bonsai material in its original wild situation, successfully moving it, and replanting it in a container for development as bonsai. These trees are called yamadori and are often the most expensive and prized of all bonsai. Techniques The practice of bonsai development incorporates a number of techniques either unique to bonsai or, if used in other forms of cultivation, applied in unusual ways that are particularly suitable to the bonsai domain. These techniques include: Leaf trimming, the selective removal of leaves (for most varieties of deciduous tree) or needles (for coniferous trees and some others) from a bonsai's trunk and branches. Pruning the trunk, branches, and roots of the candidate tree. Wiring branches and trunks allows the bonsai designer to create the desired general form and make detailed branch and leaf placements. Clamping using mechanical devices for shaping trunks and branches; bending of branches or trunks may also be achieved by the use of tension cables or guy-wires. Grafting new growing material (typically a bud, branch, or root) into a prepared area on the trunk or under the bark of the tree. Defoliation, which can provide short-term dwarfing of foliage for certain deciduous species. Deadwood bonsai techniques such as jin and shari simulate age and maturity in a bonsai. Aesthetics Bonsai aesthetics are the aesthetic goals characterizing the Japanese tradition of growing an artistically shaped miniature tree in a container. Many Japanese cultural characteristics, in particular the influence of Zen Buddhism and the expression of Wabi-sabi, inform the bonsai tradition in Japan. Established art forms that share some aesthetic principles with bonsai include penjing and saikei. A number of other cultures around the globe have adopted the Japanese aesthetic approach to bonsai, and, while some variations have begun to appear, most hew closely to the rules and design philosophies of the Japanese tradition.Over centuries of practice, the Japanese bonsai aesthetic has encoded some important techniques and design guidelines. Like the aesthetic rules that govern, for example, Western common practice period music, bonsai's guidelines help practitioners work within an established tradition with some assurance of success. Simply following the guidelines alone will not guarantee a successful result. Nevertheless, these design rules can rarely be broken without reducing the impact of the bonsai specimen. Some key principles in bonsai aesthetics include: Miniaturization: By definition, a bonsai is a tree kept small enough to be container-grown while otherwise fostered to have a mature appearance. Proportion among elements: The most prized proportions mimic those of a full-grown tree as closely as possible. Small trees with large leaves or needles are out of proportion and are avoided, as is a thin trunk with thick branches. Asymmetry: Bonsai aesthetics discourage strict radial or bilateral symmetry in branch and root placement. No trace of the artist: The designer's touch must not be apparent to the viewer. If a branch is removed in shaping the tree, the scar will be concealed. Likewise, wiring should be removed or at least concealed when the bonsai is shown, and must leave no permanent marks on the branch or bark. Poignancy: Many of the formal rules of bonsai help the grower create a tree that expresses Wabi-sabi, or portrays an aspect of mono no aware. Display A bonsai display presents one or more bonsai specimens in a way that allows a viewer to see all the important features of the bonsai from the most advantageous position. That position emphasizes the bonsai's defined "front", which is designed into all bonsai. It places the bonsai at a height that allows the viewer to imagine the bonsai as a full-size tree seen from a distance, siting the bonsai neither so low that the viewer appears to be hovering in the sky above it nor so high that the viewer appears to be looking up at the tree from beneath the ground. Noted bonsai writer Peter Adams recommends that bonsai be shown as if "in an art gallery: at the right height; in isolation; against a plain background, devoid of all redundancies such as labels and vulgar little accessories."For outdoor displays, there are few aesthetic rules. Many outdoor displays are semi-permanent, with the bonsai trees in place for weeks or months at a time. To avoid damaging the trees, therefore, an outdoor display must not impede the amount of sunlight needed for the trees on display, must support watering, and may also have to block excessive wind or precipitation. As a result of these practical constraints, outdoor displays are often rustic in style, with simple wood or stone components. A common design is the bench, sometimes with sections at different heights to suit different sizes of bonsai, along which bonsai are placed in a line. Where space allows, outdoor bonsai specimens are spaced far enough apart that the viewer can concentrate on one at a time. When the trees are too close to each other, aesthetic discord between adjacent trees of different sizes or styles can confuse the viewer, a problem addressed by exhibition displays. Exhibition displays allow many bonsai to be displayed in a temporary exhibition format, typically indoors, as would be seen in a bonsai design competition. To allow many trees to be located close together, exhibition displays often use a sequence of small alcoves, each containing a single bonsai. The walls or dividers between the alcoves make it easier to view only one bonsai at a time. The back of the alcove is a neutral color and pattern to avoid distracting the viewer's eye. The bonsai pot is almost always placed on a formal stand, of a size and design selected to complement the bonsai and its pot.Indoors, a formal bonsai display is arranged to represent a landscape, and traditionally consists of the featured bonsai tree in an appropriate pot atop a wooden stand, along with a shitakusa (companion plant) representing the foreground, and a hanging scroll representing the background. These three elements are chosen to complement each other and evoke a particular season, and are composed asymmetrically to mimic nature. When displayed inside a traditional Japanese home, a formal bonsai display will often be placed within the home's tokonoma or formal display alcove. An indoor display is usually very temporary, lasting a day or two, as most bonsai are intolerant of indoor conditions and lose vigor rapidly within the house. Containers A variety of informal containers may house the bonsai during its development, and even trees that have been formally planted in a bonsai pot may be returned to growing boxes from time to time. A large growing box can house several bonsai and provide a great volume of soil per tree to encourage root growth. A training box will have a single specimen, and a smaller volume of soil that helps condition the bonsai to the eventual size and shape of the formal bonsai container. There are no aesthetic guidelines for these development containers, and they may be of any material, size, and shape that suit the grower. Completed trees are grown in formal bonsai containers. These containers are usually ceramic pots, which come in a variety of shapes and colors and may be glazed or unglazed. Unlike many common plant containers, bonsai pots have drainage holes at the bottom surface to complement fast-draining bonsai soil, allowing excess water to escape the pot. Growers cover the holes with a screening to prevent soil from falling out and to hinder pests from entering the pots from below. Pots usually have vertical sides, so that the tree's root mass can easily be removed for inspection, pruning, and replanting, although this is a practical consideration and other container shapes are acceptable. There are alternatives to the conventional ceramic pot. Multi-tree bonsai may be created atop a fairly flat slab of rock, with the soil mounded above the rock surface and the trees planted within the raised soil. In recent times, bonsai creators have also begun to fabricate rock-like slabs from raw materials including concrete and glass-reinforced plastic. Such constructed surfaces can be made much lighter than solid rock, can include depressions or pockets for additional soil, and can be designed for drainage of water, all characteristics difficult to achieve with solid rock slabs. Other unconventional containers can also be used, but in formal bonsai display and competitions in Japan, the ceramic bonsai pot is the most common container. For bonsai being shown formally in their completed state, pot shape, color, and size are chosen to complement the tree as a picture frame is chosen to complement a painting. In general, containers with straight sides and sharp corners are used for formally-shaped plants, while oval or round containers are used for plants with informal designs. Many aesthetic guidelines affect the selection of pot finish and color. For example, evergreen bonsai are often placed in unglazed pots, while deciduous trees usually appear in glazed pots. Pots are also distinguished by their size. The overall design of the bonsai tree, the thickness of its trunk, and its height are considered when determining the size of a suitable pot. Some pots are highly collectible, like ancient Chinese or Japanese pots made in regions with experienced pot makers such as Tokoname, Japan, or Yixing, China. Today, many potters worldwide produce pots for bonsai. Bonsai styles The Japanese tradition describes bonsai tree designs using a set of commonly understood, named styles. The most common styles include formal upright, informal upright, slanting, semi-cascade, cascade, raft, literati, and group/forest. Less common forms include windswept, weeping, split-trunk, and driftwood styles. These terms are not mutually exclusive, and a single bonsai specimen can exhibit more than one style characteristic. When a bonsai specimen falls into multiple style categories, the common practice is to describe it by the dominant or most striking characteristic. A frequently used set of styles describes the orientation of the bonsai tree's main trunk. Different terms are used for a tree with its apex directly over the center of the trunk's entry into the soil, slightly to the side of that center, deeply inclined to one side, and inclined below the point at which the trunk of the bonsai enters the soil. Formal upright (直幹, chokkan) is a style of trees characterized by a straight, upright, tapering trunk. Branches progress regularly from the thickest and broadest at the bottom to the finest and shortest at the top. Informal upright (模様木, moyogi) is a style of trees incorporating visible curves in trunk and branches, but the apex of the informal upright is located directly above the trunk's entry into the soil line. Slant (斜幹, shakan) is a style of bonsai possessing straight trunks like those of bonsai grown in the formal upright style. However, the slant style trunk emerges from the soil at an angle, and the apex of the bonsai will be located to the left or right of the root base. Cascade (懸崖, kengai) is a style of specimens modeled after trees that grow over water or down the sides of mountains. The apex (tip of the tree) in the semi-cascade (半懸崖, han-kengai) style bonsai extend just at or beneath the lip of the bonsai pot; the apex of a full cascade-style falls below the base of the pot.A number of styles describe the trunk shape and bark finish. For example, the deadwood bonsai styles identify trees with prominent dead branches or trunk scarring. Shari (舎利幹, sharimiki) is a style involving the portrayal of a tree in its struggle to live while a significant part of its trunk is bare of bark.Although most bonsai trees are planted directly into the soil, there are styles describing trees planted on rock. Root-over-rock (石上樹, sekijoju) is a style in which the roots of the tree are wrapped around a rock, entering the soil at the base of the rock. Growing-in-a-rock (石付 ishizuke or ishitsuki) is a style in which the roots of the tree are growing in soil contained within the cracks and holes of the rock.While the majority of bonsai specimens feature a single tree, there are well-established style categories for specimens with multiple trunks. Forest or group (寄せ植え, yose ue) is a style comprising the planting of several or many trees of one species, typically an odd number, in a bonsai pot. Multi-trunk styles like sokan and sankan have all the trunks growing out of one spot with one root system, so the bonsai is actually a single tree. Raft (筏吹き, ikadabuki) is a style of bonsai that mimic a natural phenomenon that occurs when a tree topples onto its side from erosion or another natural force. Branches along the top side of the trunk continue to grow as a group of new trunks. Other styles A few styles do not fit into the preceding categories. These include: Broom (箒立ち, hokidachi) is a style employed for trees with fine branching, like elms. The trunk is straight and branches out in all directions about 1⁄3 of the way up the entire height of the tree. The branches and leaves form a ball-shaped crown. Windswept (吹き流し, fukinagashi) is a style describing a tree that appears to be affected by strong winds blowing continuously from one direction, as might shape a tree atop a mountain ridge or on an exposed shoreline. Bonsai artists Below is a list of some notable bonsai artists. Bonsai exhibitions There are exhibitions, shows, and competitions dedicated to bonsai all around the world. However, there is a consensus that the best specimens are in Japan. Japan has several private and public museums dedicated to bonsai, such as the Shunka-en Bonsai Garden in Tokyo and the Omiya Bonsai Museum in Saitama.In the United States, there are two museums dedicated to bonsai, the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum at the National Arboretum in Washington DC, and the Pacific Bonsai Museum close to Tacoma, WA.Japan also hosts several annual bonsai competitions where trees compete for awards in different categories. The most prestigious bonsai competition for amateur-owned trees, although most trees are prepared for display by professionals, is the Kokufu-ten, held every year in the month of February in the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. The Kokufu-ten is the oldest competition in Japan, celebrating in 2023 its 97th edition. Awards are presented in different categories.For bonsai professionals, the top competition in Japan is the Nippon Bonsai Sakufuten organized by the Japan Bonsai Cooperative Association. The competition is held in December of each year and the top prize is the Prime Minister Award, which went to Hiroaki Suzuki in 2022 for a Shimpaku Juniper tree. Size classifications Japanese bonsai exhibitions and catalogs frequently refer to the size of individual bonsai specimens by assigning them to size classes (see table below). Not all sources agree on the exact sizes or names for these size ranges, but the concept of the ranges is well-established and useful to both the cultivation and the aesthetic understanding of the trees. A photograph of a bonsai may not give the viewer an accurate impression of the tree's real size, so printed documents may complement a photograph by naming the bonsai's size class. The size class implies the height and weight of the tree in its container. In the very largest size ranges, a recognized Japanese practice is to name the trees "two-handed", "four-handed", and so on, based on the number of men required to move the tree and pot. These trees will have dozens of branches and can closely simulate a full-size tree. The very largest size, called "imperial", is named after the enormous potted trees of Japan's Imperial Palace.At the other end of the size spectrum, there are a number of specific techniques and styles associated solely with the smallest common sizes, mame and shito. These techniques take advantage of the bonsai's minute dimensions and compensate for the limited number of branches and leaves that can appear on a tree this small. Indoor bonsai The Japanese tradition of bonsai does not include indoor bonsai, and bonsai appearing at Japanese exhibitions or in catalogs have been grown outdoors for their entire lives. In less-traditional settings, including climates more severe than Japan's, indoor bonsai may appear in the form of potted trees cultivated for the indoor environment.Traditionally, bonsai are temperate climate trees grown outdoors in containers. Kept in the artificial environment of a home, these trees weaken and die. However, a number of tropical and sub-tropical tree species will survive and grow indoors, such as the jade plant and members of the genus Ficus. In popular culture Bonsai is taught in schools. It has also featured in manga, anime, and been shown on television. In the Karate Kid film franchise, Mr. Miyagi practices bonsai and teaches through it, up to even being the central feature of the film in The Karate Kid Part III, and many years later, being part of the plot of the Cobra Kai sequel TV series. In the Discworld series of books by Terry Pratchett, a monk, Lu-Tze practices the art of bonsai mountains, a parody of bonsai. See also Bonsai aesthetics Bonsai cultivation and care Bonsai Kitten Bonsai styles Chrysanthemum bonsai List of species used in bonsai Tree shaping Dwarf forest Kokedama Kusamono Top 5 Bonsai Museums in the World – Top 5 Bonsai Museums in the World

Peter Nguyen Van Hung (Vietnamese: Phêrô Nguyễn Văn Hùng; Chinese: 阮文雄; pinyin: Ruǎn Wénxióng; born 1958) is a Vietnamese Australian Catholic priest and human rights activist in Taiwan. He was recognized by the United States Department of State as a "hero acting to end modern day slavery". Early life Peter Nguyen Van Hung grew up in a lower-middle-class family outside of Bình Tuy Province in South Vietnam, with two brothers and five sisters. His father was a fisherman, but died after a long battle with illness, forcing his mother, a devout Catholic with roots in the country's north, to become the family's main breadwinner. Peter Nguyen Van Hung himself followed in his mother's faith and devotion. He was an admirer of Saint Francis of Assisi, and reportedly stole food from his own family to feed to the poor. He left Vietnam in 1979 on an overcrowded boat; rescued by a Norwegian ship after just 36 hours and taken to Japan, he joined the Missionary Society of St. Columban upon his arrival.He lived in Japan for three years, studying and taking a variety of jobs to support himself, including as a highway repairman, steel factory worker, and gravedigger. He first came to Taiwan in 1988 as a missionary, after which he went to Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, to study at a seminary. He was ordained in 1991 and returned to Taiwan the following year (in 1992). Work in Taiwan Peter Nguyen Van Hung established the Vietnamese Migrant Workers and Brides Office in Taoyuan County (now Taoyuan City) in 2004 to offer assistance to Vietnamese immigrants in Taiwan. Vietnamese American radio station Little Saigon Radio and others helped him to rent the second floor of a grammar school; two seventy square foot rooms offer sleeping space, while two others are used for office space. They provide Mandarin classes, room and board, and legal assistance. Peter Nguyen Van Hung's exposure of abuses against foreign laborers and brides led the U.S. State Department to list Taiwan as a "Tier 2" region alongside countries such as Cambodia due to their lack of effort in combating human trafficking, which proved a major international embarrassment for the island's government. His work has also made him the target of intimidation in Taiwan. TAIWAN ACT! Taiwan Alliance to Combat Trafficking - www.taiwanact.net Peter Nguyen Van Hung on Facebook

The Western Harbour Crossing (WHC) is a dual 3-lane immersed tube tunnel in Hong Kong. It is the third road tunnel to cross Victoria Harbour, linking the newly reclaimed land in Yau Ma Tei on Kowloon West with Sai Ying Pun on Hong Kong Island. It was constructed by the Western Harbour Tunnel Company Limited (WHTCL) on a 30-year franchise (1993–2023) build-operate-transfer (BOT) model proposed by the Government. Western Harbour Crossing (WHC) is the first three-lane road tunnel in Asia to be constructed using submerged pipe, and is the newest of the three Victoria Harbour road tunnels. It is part of the Airport Core Programme which was a comprehensive set of infrastructure projects associated with the airport at Chek Lap Kok. The tunnel carries on the Route 3 designation from the West Kowloon Highway, and connects to Route 4 on Hong Kong Island. The tunnel project Background By the early 1980s, the Cross-Harbour Tunnel (CHT) was already stretched beyond its designed capacity of 80,000 vehicle-trips daily, with in excess of 120,000. Furthermore, on the basis of population growth projected from 5.125m in 1981 to 6.34m in 2001, the Second Comprehensive Transport Study (CTS-2) in the late 1980s forecast an explosion in the number of cross-harbour trips – individual person trips would increase by 86% from 1.4m to 2.6m, and goods vehicle trips by 129% from 34,000 to 78,000 by 2001.Also, with the development of the Hong Kong International Airport, it was to be an important component of the strategic Airport Core Programme linking it to the Kwai Tsing Container Terminals and Hong Kong Island. There are 10 km of associated roads (40 km of lanes) and 17 bridges.The Government announced in 1990 that the tunnel project would be financed as a private venture, with bidding initially scheduled to be called in April 1991. As the project was to span the change in sovereignty of Hong Kong, the support of both the British and Chinese was necessary. In September 1991, the British and Chinese governments signed the Memorandum of Understanding committing their firm support for building the new airport at Chek Lap Kok and its connecting infrastructure. Since mid-1991, private sector companies interested in the project started looking for partners to form consortia. The formal tendering exercise was launched in March 1992 and ended in early July 1992.In early 1992, two consortia appeared to be vying for the contract. However, one week before the closing date for tenders, Cross Harbour Tunnel Company and CITIC decided to merge their bids. Cross Harbour Tunnel Company, with Wharf Holdings as its major shareholder, dissolved its own consortium in favour of joining with CITIC group; the contractors of the CHT team were dropped. At the close of the tender, the Government was disappointed that there was only one bidder. Upon this news, two new consortia of construction companies proposed to build the project for the Government if the Government decided to pull the tender and run the project itself.In 1993, the Western Harbour Crossing Ordinance (Cap. 436) was enacted to govern the construction and operation of tunnel. Having decided to rely on the private sector, the government opted for a build–operate–transfer (BOT) model, for 30 years. Tenders for the project were invited, and was won by the Western Harbour Tunnel Company (WHTCL). The franchise was awarded for 30 years, ending August 2023. The Western Harbour Crossing Bill was also passed to award the franchise to the Western Harbour Tunnel Company to build and operate WHC.WHTCL's single largest shareholder is The Cross-Harbour (Holdings) Limited (CHHL) 港通控股有限公司 SEHK: 0032, which has a 50% stake. Its other shareholders are CITIC Limited 中國中信股份有限公司 SEHK: 0267 and Kerry Properties Limited 嘉里建設有限公司 SEHK: 0683 which hold 35% and 15% effective interests in WHTCL respectively through a joint venture company. On 5 June 2019, an Australian-based fund manager, Lanyon Asset Management Pty Limited, made a cash offer to acquire the 50% interest in the WHTCL from CHHL.[1] On 11 June 2019, Lanyon's offer was rejected by CHHL. Lanyon cited this was in the best interest of CHHL shareholders. Construction The project team consisted of John Mundy (project manager), John Porter of Nishimatsu (project director), Kazutoshi Torakai of Kumagai Gumi (technical director), K.C. Tsui (JV construction manager for the mechanical and electrical works), Sandy Hone (JV deputy project manager and construction manager for the civil works), Knud Poulsen (engineering manager), Alex Peling (commercial manager), Robert Lloyd, Eric Granville and Don Ramanaynke (the Government's Highways Department Western Harbour Link Office engineers). The project cost was HK$7.5bn, funded privately. The project was completed in 1997.The pipe itself is 2 km long. Tolls and congestion issues The initial toll for private cars projected by the consortium was $30. The franchisee traffic forecast in January 1997 made before the tunnel opened was between 50,000 and 70,000 vehicle trips daily during the first year of operation. The actual number of daily trips did not exceed 47,000, and averaged at 20,000. Toll adjustment mechanism The Government and the consortium agreed on the toll and its future adjustment where the starting toll for private cars was proposed to be at HK$30. The agreed automatic adjustment mechanism would allow the franchisee to maintain the target rate of return of between 15% and 18.5%. The operator could also increase the tunnel toll by HK$10 whenever its IRR fell below 15%.Legislators, principally from the pan-democrat camp but including the Liberal Party, criticised the mechanism as being too generous in favour of the franchisee and were unwilling to approve the deal. The government feared that revision at LegCo would adversely impact project viability and force re-opening of negotiations with the consortium. Underlying that were fears the consortium and its banks may withdraw from the project, so wanted the bill voted through as a package.One week before the final LegCo vote on the deal, in response to legislators' fears, the Liberal Party proposed an amendment that both the Government and the consortium found to be an acceptable compromise: to preserve the HK$30 opening toll, but the return on investment would be capped at 16.5% (instead of 18.5%) for the first three years after the tunnel opened; amounts above that would be transferred the toll stability fund to reduce the need for future toll rises. On 21 July 1993, the legislative council approved by 35 to 19 the amendment proposed by the Liberal Party.Any changes in tolls must be gazetted. The toll adjustment mechanism allows the franchisee to apply for an increase its tolls on six specified dates during the franchise period depending on revenues achieved. Toll increases and revenue appropriation according to following scenarii were envisaged: if the actual net revenue generated falls below the upper net revenue projection, the operator may apply for an increase in tolls; if the net revenue exceeds the upper estimated net revenue but is less than the maximum estimated net revenue, the company would be entitled to the upper estimated net revenue plus half of the excess and the balance, and the remaining half of the excess is transferred to a 'toll stability fund'; if the actual net revenue is greater than the maximum estimated net revenue, the company is entitled to the upper estimated net revenue plus half of the excess between upper estimated net revenue and maximum estimated net revenue; the surplus is transferred to the Toll Stability Fund; If traffic levels and revenue fall below projections, the operator is permitted to bring forward the date of a toll increase according to the mechanism rules. However, the right to increase tolls will be deferred if the revenue received is above the forecast, and a rate of return is over the range specified. Change of tolls over time Congestion Due to severe congestion experienced at the Cross Harbour Tunnel and the feeder roads to the WHC, there have been calls for lower tolls at the Western Harbour Crossing by letting the Government of Hong Kong buy back the tunnel from the current owners of the tunnel, WHTCL, so that it can control tolls and ease traffic congestion in the Cross Harbour Tunnel area. To that end, lawmakers passed a non-binding motion in 2008 for the HK Government to address the situation. However the consultant hired by the Government to find a solution to the traffic problem did not suggest the Western Harbour Crossing have lower tolls. The consultants said that lowering tolls would result in a very high increase in traffic volume, with severe congestion on the exit to Route 4 during rush hour. This solution would only be possible when the construction of the Central–Wan Chai Bypass is completed. Sport events Western Harbour Tunnel has been a place for many events. Before the Western Harbour Tunnel is officially open to public, in 1997, Walk for Millions was held in Western Harbour Tunnel. Participants can participate in the walk by soliciting donation from friends and relatives. Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon is a sport event which held in Western Harbour Tunnel since 1999. Western Harbour Tunnel Company is one of the sponsors of this event. Started from 2001, the tunnel southbound route was closed and used as one of the routes in the game. Hong Kong Cyclothon Hong Kong Cyclothon is another sport event sponsored by Sun Hung Kai Properties and supported by Hong Kong Tourism Board. This event launched on 2015. Western Harbour Tunnel southbound tube was one of the routes in the game. After the game in 2015, the event arranged the route. In the past few years, Lin Cheung Road and slip of West Kowloon Highway were closed to facilitate the races. Based on the road closure on nearby roads, Western Harbour Tunnel had relevant road arrangement. Transport As of 2019, there are 75 bus routes passing through the tunnel. See also List of tunnels and bridges in Hong Kong "Case Study – Western Harbour Crossing, Hong Kong" OMEGA Centre of Excellence work on Mega Urban Transport Projects (2008?) Official site

John of Capistrano (Italian: San Giovanni da Capestrano, Hungarian: Kapisztrán János, Polish: Jan Kapistran, Croatian: Ivan Kapistran) (24 June 1386 – 23 October 1456) was a Franciscan friar and Catholic priest from the Italian town of Capestrano, Abruzzo. Famous as a preacher, theologian, and inquisitor, he earned himself the nickname "the Soldier Saint" when in 1456 at age 70 he led a crusade against the invading Ottoman Empire at the siege of Belgrade with the Hungarian military commander John Hunyadi. Elevated to sainthood, he is the patron saint of jurists and military chaplains, as well as the namesake of the Franciscan missions San Juan Capistrano in Southern California and San Juan Capistrano in San Antonio, Texas. Early life As was the custom of this time, John is denoted by the village of Capestrano, in the Diocese of Sulmona, in the Abruzzi region, Kingdom of Naples. His father had come to Italy with the Angevin court of Louis I of Anjou, titular King of Naples. He studied law at the University of Perugia.In 1412, King Ladislaus of Naples appointed him Governor of Perugia, a tumultuous and resentful papal fief held by Ladislas as the pope's champion, in order to effectively establish public order. When war broke out between Perugia and the Malatestas in 1416, John was sent as ambassador to broker a peace, but Malatesta threw him in prison. It was during this imprisonment that he began to study theology. When he was released in he decided to give up the world and become a Franciscan friar, citing a dream where Saint Francis of Assisi ordered him to enter the Order. He had married before the war, but asserted the marriage was never consummated and received permission to take holy orders. Friar and preacher Together with James of the Marches, John entered the Order of Friars Minor at Perugia on 4 October 1416. Along with James, he studied theology at Fiesole, near Florence, under Bernardine of Siena. He soon gave himself up to the most rigorous asceticism, violently defending the ideal of strict observance and orthodoxy, following the example set by Bernardine. From 1420 onwards, he preached with great effect in numerous cities and eventually became well known. He was ordained in 1425. Unlike most Italian preachers of repentance in the 15th century, John was effective in northern and central Europe—in German states of Holy Roman Empire, Bohemia, Moravia, Austria, Hungary, Croatia and the Kingdom of Poland. The largest churches could not hold the crowds, so he preached in the public squares—at Brescia in Italy, he preached to a crowd of 126,000. Reformer When he was not preaching, John was writing tracts against heresy of every kind. This facet of his life is covered in great detail by his early biographers, Nicholas of Fara, Christopher of Varese and Girlamo of Udine. While he was thus evangelizing, he was actively engaged in assisting Bernardine of Siena in the reform of the Franciscan Order, largely in the interests of a more rigorous discipline in the Franciscan communities. Like Bernardine, he strongly emphasized devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus, and, together with Bernardine, was accused of heresy on this account. In 1429, these Observant friars were called to Rome to answer charges of heresy, and John was chosen by his companions to speak for them. They were both acquitted by the Commission of Cardinals appointed to judge the accusations. He was frequently deployed to embassies by Popes Eugene IV and Nicholas V: in 1439, he was sent as legate to Milan and Burgundy, to oppose the claims of the Antipope Felix V; in 1446, he was on a mission to the King of France; in 1451 he went at the request of the emperor as Apostolic Nuncio to Austria. During the period of his nunciature, John visited all parts of the Empire. As legate, or inquisitor, he persecuted the last Fraticelli of Ferrara, the Jesuati of Venice, the Crypto-Jews of Sicily, Moldavia and Poland, and, above all, the Hussites of Germany, Hungary and Bohemia; his aim in the last case was to make talks impossible between the representatives of Rome and Bohemian "Hussite king" George of Podiebrad, for every attempt at conciliation seemed to him to be conniving at heresy.He also worked for the reform of the Order of Friars Minor. He upheld, in his writings, speeches and sermons, theories of papal supremacy rather than the theological wranglings of councils (see Conciliar Movement). John, together with his teacher, Bernardine, his colleague, James of the Marche, and Albert Berdini of Sarteano, are considered the four great pillars of the Observant reform among the Friars Minor. Anti-Jewish incitement John was known as the "Scourge of the Jews". He saw it as an act of love to preach against Judaism because they did not accept Jesus as their Messiah. In 1450 the Franciscan "Jew-baiter" arranged a forced disputation at Rome with a certain Gamaliel called "Synagogæ Romanæ magister". Between 1451 and 1453, his fiery sermons against Jews persuaded many southern German regions to expel their entire Jewish population. However, “That in dealing with heretics and Jews he transgressed established bounds and thereby failed against Christian charity is a thought practically unknown to contemporaries. He was at times censured as impractical, but never as uncharitable or inhuman. Even Doering, one of his severest critics, finds nothing to blame in Capistrano’s behavior toward the Jews.” The Soldier Priest After the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottoman Empire, under Sultan Mehmed II, threatened Christian Europe. That following year Pope Callixtus III sent John, who was already aged seventy, to preach a Crusade against the invading Turks at the Imperial Diet of Frankfurt. Gaining little response in Bavaria and Austria, he decided to concentrate his efforts in Hungary. By July 1456 Capistrano managed to raise a large, albeit poorly trained force made up of peasants and local countryside landlords, with which he advanced towards Belgrade which was under siege by Turkish forces. Though poorly equipped they were highly motivated. Capistrano and John Hunyadi traveled together, though commanding the army separately. Between them, they had gathered around 40,000–50,000 troops altogether. Hunyadi managed to break the naval blockade on the Danube, and breach the siege, bringing reinforcements and supplies to the city. By some accounts, the peasant soldiers started a spontaneous action, and forced Capistrano and Hunyadi to take advantage of it. Despite Hunyadi's orders to the defenders not to try to loot the Ottoman positions, some of the units crept out from demolished ramparts, took up positions across from the Ottoman line, and began harassing enemy soldiers. Ottoman Sipahis tried without success to disperse the harassing force. As more defenders joined those outside the wall. What began as an isolated incident quickly escalated into a full-scale battle. John of Capistrano at first tried to order his men back inside the walls, but soon found himself surrounded by about 2,000 peasant levymen. He then began leading them toward the Ottoman rear across the Sava river. At the same time, Hunyadi started a desperate charge out of the fort to take the cannon positions in the Ottoman encampment. In the aftermath of a fierce battle, the Ottomans withdrew and retreated under cover of darkness; the siege was lifted. His involvement led to Capistrano being called "the Soldier Priest". Although he survived the battle, John fell victim to the bubonic plague, which flourished in the unsanitary conditions prevailing among armies of the day. He died on 23 October 1456 at the nearby town of Ilok (now a Croatian border town on the Danube). Sainthood and feast day The year of John of Capistrano's canonization is variously given as 1690 by Pope Alexander VIII or as 1724 by Pope Benedict XIII. In 1890, his feast day was included for the first time in the General Roman Calendar and assigned to 28 March. In 1969, Pope Paul VI moved his feast day to 23 October, the day of his death. Where Mass and the Office are said according to the 1962 Roman Missal and its concomitant calendar, his feast day remains on March 28. Eponym As a Franciscan reformer preaching simplicity, John became the eponym of two Spanish missions founded by the Franciscan friars in the north of the then-Spanish Americas: Mission San Juan Capistrano in present-day Southern California and Mission San Juan Capistrano just outside the city center of present-day San Antonio in Texas. Patron saint He is the patron saint of military chaplains and jurists. John of Capistrano in literature Wilhelm von Scholz wrote a novel entitled "The Way to Ilok" ("Der Weg nach Ilok"). See also Church of St. Wojciech, in Kraków, Poland, sermons Mission San Juan Capistrano in San Antonio, Texas Saint John of Capistrano, patron saint archive (March 28) Saint John of Capistrano, patron saint archive (October 23) This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "St. John Capistran". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Further reading Andrić, Stanko (2016). "Saint John Capistran and Despot George Branković: An Impossible Compromise". Byzantinoslavica. 74 (1–2): 202–227. Angiolini, Hélène (2000). "GIOVANNI da Capestrano, santo". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 55: Ginammi–Giovanni da Crema (in Italian). Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. ISBN 978-8-81200032-6.

CFC, cfc, or Cfc may stand for: Science and technology Chlorofluorocarbon, a class of chemical compounds Cardiofaciocutaneous Syndrome, a rare and serious genetic disorder Subpolar oceanic climate (Cfc in the Köppen climate classification), short, generally cool summers and long, mild winters with abundant precipitation year-round ColdFusion Components, objects or files used in ColdFusion application servers Carbon fibre composite, a composite carbon based material, used in fusion armour applications Consideration of future consequences, a personality trait Continuous function chart, sort of Function block diagram enabling to program both Boolean and analogue expressions; Often associated with Sequential function chart (SFC) Counterflow chiller, a type of heat exchanger. Education Canadian Film Centre, an institution for advanced training in film, television and new media in Canada Central Florida Community College, a public state college in Ocala, Florida Businesses and organizations Certificación Fonográfica Centroamericana, music certification organization CFC (Indonesia) or California Fried Chicken, an Indonesia fast food chain CfC Stanbic Holdings, now Stanbic Holdings plc, a financial institution based in Kenya Computer Film Company, a London digital film special effects company Chess Federation of Canada, Canada's national chess organization Citizens for Conservation Compass Family Center, San Francisco family shelter Countrywide Financial Corporation, American residential mortgage banking and related businesses Consumer Federation of California, a California-based, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization. Common Fund for Commodities, an intergovernmental financial institution for supporting strongly commodity-dependent developing countries Consumer Federation of California, a consumer advocacy organization Centers for Change, precursor in New York of the International Workers Party Chemins de fer de Corse, the railway system in Corsica, France Politics, law, government, and finance Cash for clunkers program Combined Federal Campaign, for charities to fundraise via payroll deductions from US Federal Government employees Controlled foreign corporation, company owned or controlled primarily by taxpayers of a different jurisdiction Consumption of fixed capital, accounting term for depreciation of fixed assets Comisión Federal de Competencia, or Federal Competition Commission, an agency of the Mexican government ROK/US Combined Forces Command United States Court of Federal Claims, a United States court Religion Carols for Choirs, a British collection of Christmas carol music books Catechism for Filipino Catholics, Roman Catholic catechism for Filipinos Champions for Christ, Every Nation Churches outreach to college and professional sportspeople Couples for Christ, a Catholic Charismatic renewal movement which seeks to preserve the sanctity of the family Congregatio Fratrum Christianorum, Congregation of Christian Brothers Catholics for Choice, Catholic pro-choice organization Military Combined Forces Command (disambiguation), various multi-national military commands China Fleet Club, British Navy club in Hong Kong Canadian Forestry Corps, timber-processing corps of the Canadian Army during both World Wars Corporal first class, the highest enlistee rank in the Singapore Armed Forces Entertainment and gaming SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash, a game released for the Neo-Geo console Celebrity Fit Club, a reality weight-loss show Sports Canadian Football Council, precursor of the Canadian Football League Football clubs In England: (association football) Chasetown F.C. Chelsea F.C. Chester F.C. Chesterfield F.C. Chipstead F.C. Chorley F.C. Clapton F.C. Clitheroe F.C. Cobham F.C. Cove F.C. Crockenhill F.C. Croydon F.C.In Scotland: (association football) Celtic F.C. Clyde F.C. Clydebank F.C. Cowdenbeath F.C.Other association football: Carrigans F.C., Philippines Cebu F.C., Philippines Ceres F.C., Philippines Changwon City FC, Korea Charlotte FC, Charlotte, United States Chemnitzer FC, Germany Chonburi F.C., Thailand Cincinnati FC, Cincinnati, United States Cimarron F.C., Philippines Clermont-Ferrand Football Club, France Coritiba Foot Ball Club, Brazil Chattanooga FC, Tennessee, United StatesIn Australia: (Australian rules football) Carlton Football Club Clarence Football Club Collingwood Football ClubIn India: (association football) Chennaiyin FC

Anshan (Chinese: 鞍山; pinyin: Ānshān; lit. 'saddle mountain') is an inland prefecture-level city in central-southeast Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, about 92 kilometres (57 mi) south of the provincial capital Shenyang. As of the 2020 census, it was Liaoning's third most populous city with a population of 3,325,372 people, over an area of about 9,270 km2 (3,580 sq mi) spanning 133 km (83 mi) from east to the west. Its built-up area encompassing the 4 Anshan urban districts (1,543,696 inhabitants), the 4 out of 5 urban Liaoyang districts (796,962 inhabitants, Gongchangling not being conurbated yet) and Liaoyang county largely being conurbated, was home to 2,712,789 million inhabitants in 2020. The city's name came from the horse saddle-like shape of a nearby mountain south of the city, which can be seen on the left (west) about five minutes before the northbound train arrives at Anshan railway station. Anshan is home to the Anshan Iron and Steel Group, one of the largest steel producers in China. Anshan is sister city with Sheffield, United Kingdom. Anshan holds one-third of the world's supply of talcum and a quarter of the world's reserves of magnesite. Anshan also produced the largest ever jade stone, now a local tourist attraction carved as a Buddha statue. History The area of Anshan has been inhabited since prehistoric times. It has been a site of iron mining and metallurgy for over 2,000 years.: 289  The area remained of little significance, a small city in Liaodong province, overshadowed by neighbouring Liaoyang city, until the mid-20th Century. In 1587 Anshan was fortified by the Ming Dynasty to combat the growing power of the Manchu. The city was burnt down during the Boxer Rebellion, and was destroyed again in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905). As a result of this war, Japan had gained influence in Liaoning and was engaged in industrialising the region. Anshan lay beside the new South Manchuria Railway line that ran from the port of Dalian to the major city of Shenyang. From 1918 to 1945, Anshan was under Japanese colonial control and was a centre for modern iron and steel production.: 289  After the Mukden Incident in 1931, Japan occupied the northeast of China. The mills were turned into a Japanese-owned monopoly. In 1933, the site was expanded to include steel production and the company was renamed Showa Steel Works. Anshan became part of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. Additional industries developed around the iron and steel mills. Anshan grew significantly in size around this new industrial site, becoming one of, if not the largest producers of iron and steel in Asia. It was therefore of strategic importance in the Pacific War, and was subject to several attacks by B-29 Superfortress strategic bombers of the USAAF. The Japanese Army detached the 1st Chutai (unit) of the 104th Sentai (squadron) of the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force, to Anshan, with other air squadrons for industrial defence purposes. Although this unit was equipped with modern Nakajima Ki-84 Ia (Manshu Type) Hayate "Frank" fighters, manufactured by Manshūkoku Hikōki Seizo KK, the plant suffered heavy damage from the air raids, losing up to 30% of its capacity.After the war in Europe ended, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, as the Red Army simultaneously launched Operation August Storm. Soviet forces advanced rapidly and soon captured much of Manchuria from the Japanese. In late 1945, the Soviet Red Army occupied a large amount of Liaoning and took major portions of the area's manufacturing and mining equipment to the Soviet Union.: 289 With the defeat of Japan in 1945, Anshan was returned to China along with the rest of the Chinese Manchuria. Civil war continued between the Nationalists and the Communists. The Nationalist Government attempted to revive manufacturing in the area during their period of control from 1946 to 1948.: 289–290  The city of Anshan was the scene of one of the battles of this war. The city was taken by the PLA on February 19, 1948. A monument in Lieshishan Park commemorates the battle. The northeast of China was marked out to become a major industrial centre for the new People's Republic of China. Anshan was set to become a key part of this industrial development. Its mining and manufacturing industries had to be rebuilt almost from scratch, however.: 289–290  During this period, Anshan was given the same status as provinces, although it was reversed after the period ended. In December 1948, the Anshan Iron and Steel Company—also known as Angang—was founded. It was a centre of industrialization as part of China's First Five-Year Plan.: 290  Production in the newly repaired steel plant resumed on July 9, 1949. The plant was expanded to become the largest steel producer in China. Other industries set up alongside the steel plant including mining for coal, iron and other minerals. This industrial wealth had an environmental cost. The open-hearth furnaces of the steel mill created large amounts of dust and other pollution. Along with its growing reputation as a major steel producer. Anshan's cleanliness has been consistently subpar, leading to a negative reputation for the town. Anshan became a formal administrative region under the Northeastern People's Government (later renamed as the Northeastern Administration Commission) in November 1949. Anshan is reported to have served as a base for Soviet MIG fighter aircraft and pilots during the Korean War (1950–1953) in air combat operations against US/UN forces.On March 12, 1953, the city became a municipality under the Central Government's direct administration. Haicheng County and Xiuyan County were subordinated to Liaodong Province. Tai'an County was subordinated to Liaoxi Province. August 22, 1954, the central government decided that Anshan should be administered by Liaoning Province. The State Council confirmed that Anshan should be in charge of Xiuyan County and Haicheng City in 1985. The furnaces of the steel plant were changed in the 1980s to designs which blow oxygen in from the front. This increased the production and also reduced pollution. In the 1990s, they were additionally altered to blow oxygen in from the top as well. This further increases production and reduces pollution. In December 2000, all three production lines of Anshan Iron and Steel Company switched from mould-casting to continuous casting. This new technology has significantly reduced the dust and other pollution in the city. The new plant equipment is also much less labour-intensive. This has meant a reduction in the workforce has caused an unemployment problem in the city. A new drive to market Anshan as a tourist destination is hoped to help bolster the city's economy. Geography Sited north of the Liao River plains, Anshan has wide flat lands in the west and central regions that develop into hilly and mountainous terrain on the southeastern fringes, which is bounded by the Qian Mountains and contains the famous Qianshan National Park. The region is rich in minerals including iron ore, coal, magnesite, talcum and jade. The plains of western Anshan have large flat fertile fields ideal for agriculture, with 24,480 hectares (60,500 acres) of arable land accounting for 26.4% of its total land area. One such agricultural product that Anshan has become renowned for is the Nanguo pears (Chinese: 南果梨, Pyrus ussuriensis c.v. Nanguo), nicknamed the "king of pears". Anshan was used as a travel post with motels during the Ming Dynasty for travellers who pass by on work duty. Climate Anshan has a monsoon-influenced humid continental climate (Köppen Dwa) characterised by hot, humid summers, due to the monsoon, and rather long, cold, and very dry winters, due to the Siberian anticyclone. The four seasons here are distinctive. Nearly half of the annual rainfall occurs in July and August. The monthly 24-hour average temperatures ranges from −8.1 °C (17.4 °F) in January to 25.3 °C (77.5 °F) in July, while the annual mean is 10.2 °C (50.4 °F). Sunshine is generous and amounts to 2,543 hours annually, while relative humidity averages 58%, ranging from 47% in March and April to 75% in July and August. Extreme temperatures have ranged from −26.9 °C (−16.4 °F) up to 36.7 °C (98.1 °F). Administrative divisions Anshan is divided into four districts, one town, one county and one autonomous county. Economy The north east of China is a major industrial zone and Anshan is one of the key sites of the north east. Anshan is in the midst of a at least a quarter of China's iron and coal resources.: 289  The city is renowned as "China's capital of iron and steel". Prior to the development of the Iron and Steel industries, Anshan was a relatively small city of little importance. As the steel mills expanded, so to did the city. Spin off industries developed alongside the steel plant making the area a centre of heavy industry. As a joint Sino-Japanese venture, Anshan Zhenzing Iron Ore Company Unlimited was started in Anshan in 1918. When Japan occupied Northeast China in 1931, these mills were turned into a Japanese owned monopoly. Anshan subsequently became part of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo and additional industries developed around the iron and steel mills. Due to its mills, the city became a significant strategic industrial hub during World War II and as such, was subject to constant Allied bombing during the war. Total production of processed iron in Manchuria reached 1,000,000 tonnes in 1931–32, of which almost half was made by Shōwa Steel in Anshan. Iron production grew to 7,000,000 tonnes in 1938 and by 1941, Shōwa Steel Works had a total capacity production of 1,750,000 tonnes of iron bars and 1,000,000 tonnes of processed steel. By 1942, Anshan's Shōwa Steel Works total production capacity reached 3,600,000 tonnes, making it one of the major iron and steel centers in the world. In 1945 the steel plant was looted by Soviet forces. The Republic of China government partially repaired the site, but it was destroyed again during the Chinese civil war that saw the Communist forces victorious. The mills were once again repaired and Anshan Iron and Steel Company (Angang) was founded in 1948. From then to 2001, the company produced 290 million tons of steel, 284 million tons of pig iron and 192 million tons of rolled steel. Until the opening of a new steel plant in Shanghai, Angang was the largest steel producer in China. Today, Angang consists of three steelworks with 13 rolling mills plus supporting plants which produce coke, refractory materials and machinery for the steel plants. The company has an annual production capacity of 10 million tons of pig iron, 10 million tons of steel and 9.5 million tons of rolled steel. A quarter of China's total iron ore reserves, about 10 billion tons, are located in Anshan, ensuring that the city will remain an important steel producer well into the future.Anshan is rich in other mineral wealth too. The southern and south eastern areas of Anshan are rich in magnesite, with reserves equivalent to a quarter of all worldwide reserves. Anshan also has the world's largest reserve of talcum, accounting for fully one third of the entire world supply. The Xiuyan area of Anshan is known for the production of jade. The largest single jade stone ever found came from Xiuyan, now carved into the form of a Buddha, it is a major tourist attraction in the area. Anshan is serviced by Shenyang airport, about 90 kilometres (56 miles) to the north, and by two major highways linking it with Shenyang and Dalian.The government of Anshan established a five-year plan in 2000 with the aim of turning the city into a strong modern industrial city with plenty of tourism. It also aimed to make the city GDP reach 100 billion RMB by 2005 and to build a modern industrial city by using advances in technology to transform the traditional industries. Attracting foreign investment is also another main idea in the plan. The Anshan government anticipates the foreign investment assets would be around 80 billion RMB by 2005. Anshan has been identified by the Economist Intelligence Unit in the November 2010 Access China White Paper as a member of the CHAMPS (Chongqing, Hefei, Anshan, Maanshan, Pingdingshan and Shenyang), an economic profile of the top 20 emerging cities in China. The opportunities for engaging Anshan's consumers have been documented by the ethnographer and cultural sociologist Michael B. Griffiths. Demographics Out of the 3,584,000 people living in Anshan prefecture, 519,400 are ethnic Manchu, a holdover from northeast China's historical rule by the ethnic group. They are mainly in or around the Xiuyan Man regional ethnic autonomy area which is within Anshan's borders. During the last years of the Qing dynasty, large numbers of Han people migrated to the north east in search of work. This pattern continued into the 20th century. The development of Anshan as a large industrial center during and after World War II caused the city's population to increase rapidly, and the new arrivals began to significantly outnumber the local Man people. As of the last census data, Anshan was home to 48 Chinese ethnic groups. The Han people make up the lion's share at 3,020,500 people. Next, after the Han and Man people, come the Hui and the Chaoxian with 23,400 and 10,000 people respectively. The Hui population is widely dispersed but the Chaoxian population is mostly concentrated in Teixi (West district) and Qianshan district.Anshan has a population of 3.65 million at the 2010 census. As the city has expanded, the area between Anshan and the neighbouring city of Liaoyang has become urbanised, with little or no farmland visible on route between them. According to the 2010 census, the conurbation of urban Anshan and urban Liaoyang districts contains 2.17 million inhabitants. The city of Anshan can be divided into districts. The East district, Tiedong has a population of 452,900. The western district, Tiexi has 311,600 people. These two districts are demarcated by the railway lines that run north to south through the city. The north western portion of the city is dominated by the large steel works of Angang. The district of Lishan houses 425,600 people and the suburbs of Qianshan district have 366,200 soles. Within Anshan prefecture lies the subordinate city of Haicheng which accounts for 1,181,100 people. The neighbouring subordinate town of Tai'an has 354,700 people. Transportation Anshan has no river or sea port. The nearby military airport, Anshan Teng'ao Airport (AOG), also accepts commercial domestic flights. Currently there are five routes in operation, Anshan–Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Nanjing, with one flight each per day throughout the year. Anshan Teng'ao Airport is 15 km (9 mi) southwest of the city centre. In addition to the small terminal building at the airport, there is also a city terminal situated just off Qianshan Road in Tiexi district. Passengers may buy tickets and check-in at the city terminal, from which they are taken by coach to the main airport terminal. The nearest other major commercial airports are Shenyang Taoxian International Airport (SHE), about 90 km (56 mi) to the north and Dalian Zhoushuizi International Airport about 270 km (170 mi) to the south. The city is beside the Shenyang–Dalian Expressway (part of the G15 Shenyang–Haikou Expressway), a privately funded eight-lane tolled highway, and was the first road of its kind in mainland China. The Liaozhong Ring Expressway (G91) passes just a few kilometers north of Anshan city. It connects east to Benxi and west onto the Jingshen Expressway (G1). The Panhai and Danxi Expressways (together forming the G16) pass through Anshan's counties of Haicheng and Xiuyan, connecting them to Yingkou and Panjin in the west and Dandong to the east. Anshan is connected to the Chinese rail network with rail routes to Beijing, Dalian, and to the northeastern provinces of Jilin and Heilongjiang as well as to eastern Inner Mongolia, and even a direct, albeit slow, train to Hong Kong. As of December 2012, the new Harbin–Dalian High-Speed Railway serves Anshan West Railway Station and Haicheng West Railway Station. It connects south to Dalian and north east to Shenyang, Changchun and Harbin. This line was hailed as the world's first alpine high-speed rail line. In summer it runs at its full speed of 300 km/h but in winter speeds are restricted to 200 km/h. High-speed services also run via Anshan to Beijing. Tai'an county of Anshan is served by another high-speed rail line linking Shenyang to Beijing. Long-distance coaches run to all the main cities of the province as well as to Beijing. Local transportation is primarily by bus or taxi. Anshan used to have a single tram line—along Zhonghua Avenue, through the city centre and past Angang main gate—but this has been closed and the tracks removed. Due to the flat topography of the city centre, bicycles are popular. Almost all roads have a wide cycle lane on each side. Often this lane is further protected by a traffic island that separates the bikes from larger motor vehicles. Tourist attractions In recent years, Anshan has been trying to throw off its image as a heavy industrial town along with the dirt and pollution that goes with such industry. It has remodeled itself as a tourist destination. Foremost among the attractions in Anshan is Qianshan National Park which is about 18 km (11 mi), by road, to the southeast of the city. Qianshan, literally 'Thousand Mountains', is an abbreviation of 'Thousand lotus flower mountains'. The peaks were said to resemble the petals of the lotus flower which had been dropped to earth by a goddess. The park area of 44 km2 (17 sq mi), is filled with both Buddhist and Taoist temples, monasteries and nunneries. It is one of few locations where both religions are found sharing the same site. Cars are not allowed within the park.One of the mountains in the park is believed to resemble Maitreya Buddha. It is claimed to be the largest naturally occurring image of Maitreya in the world. Several temples have been built on the peaks of the overlooking hills. Near the Buddha is a bird park. Another major tourist location is "219 Park". The name of the park commemorates the liberation of Anshan by the People's Liberation Army on February 19, 1948. The park contains the Dongshan (East Mountain) scenic area as well as numerous lakes. Of particular note is the Jade Buddha Palace. This large Buddhist temple complex of 22,104 square metres, houses the world's largest statue of Buddha made of Jade (It is called jade in Chinese, but in English it is Serpentine). It is a single piece of jade stone measuring 6.88 metres in width, 4.10 metres front to back and 7.95 metres high. The jade stone weighs 260.76 tons. The front of the stone has been carved with an image of Sakyamuni (aka. Gautama) Buddha. On the back of the stone Guanyin (aka. Avalokitesvara) Buddha has been carved. The jade stone was found in 1960 in Xiuyan County. It was declared a treasure of the State and listed as a protected property by Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai. Anshan city government commissioned the carving which took a team of 120 sculptures 18 months to complete. The temple complex was opened on September 3, 1996. The building that houses the Jade Buddha statue is 33 metres tall, representing the 33 layers of heaven in Buddhism. It claims to be one of the tallest two-story buildings of traditional Chinese architectural style in China. Anshan contains naturally hot spring water spas. There are four spas/hotels in Anshan. Visitors may shower and bathe in the spring water. At Tanggangzi Spa, once frequented by the Qing Emperors of China, visitors may have mud treatment where they are buried in hot volcanic sand, which has been infused with the spring water. The geothermal energy is also used to provide hot steam and water for winter heating throughout the area. Education system The city contains two large universities: Anshan Normal University University of Science and Technology, Liaoning Notable people Kei Tomiyama (1938–1995), Japanese actor, voice actor, and narrator, born in Anshan Zhang Dejiang (b. 1946), retired politician, served as the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the 12th National People's Congress Ann Hui (b. 1947), Hong Kong New Wave film director, born in Anshan. Hui's 2006 film The Postmodern Life of My Aunt was partly set and filmed in Anshan. Guo Mingyi (b. 1958), philanthropist who began work at Anshan Iron and Steel Group Chen Xiaoxu (1965–2007), actress noted for playing Lin Daiyu Tang Xiao'ou (b. 1968), computer scientist and co-founder of SenseTime Lei Jiayin (b. 1983), actor noted for playing Chen Junsheng in The First Half of My Life Du Jing (b. 1984), female badminton player, former women's double champion Zhang Xiaofei (b. 1986), actress noted for her performance in Hi, Mom Chen Tao (b. 1986), footballer, most recently played as midfielder for Sichuan Longfor Zhang Wenzhao (b. 1987), footballer, most recently played as a midfielder for Beijing Renhe Li Jiahang (b. 1987), actor noted for playing Fu Erkang in New My Fair Princess. Li Man (b. 1988), actress noted for her role in Zhang Yimou'sCurse of the Golden Flower. Li Xiaoxia (b. 1988), female table tennis player, Grand Slam champion. Guo Yue, table tennis player, 2007 women's world champion. Ma Long (b. 1988), male table tennis player, former world-ranked number one. Wang Yanlin (b. 1989), actor Beiwen Zhang (b. 1990), Chinese-born American badminton player Xu Mengtao (b. 1990), 2022 Olympic Champion aerial skier. Xu Minghao (stage name The8; b. 1997), member of popular K-pop group Seventeen, born in Anshan See also List of twin towns and sister cities in China Official website (in Chinese)

Liaoyang (simplified Chinese: 辽阳; traditional Chinese: 遼陽; pinyin: Liáoyáng) is a prefecture-level city of east-central Liaoning province, China, situated on the Taizi River. It is approximately one hour south of Shenyang, the provincial capital, by car. Liaoyang is home to Liaoning University's College of Foreign Studies and a number of vocational colleges. The city hosts a limited number of professional basketball and volleyball games in a modern sports facility. According to the latest statistics in 2020, the age distribution of the population in Liaoyang is as follows: 0-14 years old account for 9.83% of the population; 15-59 years old account for 62.26% of the population; 60 years old and above account for 27.91% of the population; 65 years old and above account for 19.46% of the population. History Liaoyang is one of the oldest continuously-inhabited cities in northeast China, dating back to before the Warring States period, and the site of the city has not changed ever since. Under the Yan state and the Qin and Han dynasties, Liaoyang (then known as Xiangping) was the capital of Liaodong Commandery and the political center of the Liaodong region. During the Three Kingdoms period, the city was the focus of Sima Yi's devastating Liaodong campaign. From the 5th to 7th centuries, Liaoyang was on the northern edge of the Goguryeo kingdom. Remains of Yodong and Baegam, the old Goguryeo cities, can still be seen near the modern city. This was the site of a major battle between the Tang and Goguryeo in 645 AD. Liaoyang rose to prominence during the Liao dynasty. Several buildings in the city date to this period. Among these is the White Pagoda (baita), which dates back to 1189 in the Liao Dynasty with additions during the Yuan dynasty. The Liaoyang White Pagoda sits in Baita Park within Baita district in the centre of the city. Next to the park is Guangyou Temple, one of the oldest and largest temple complexes in the north east of China covering some 60,000 square metres (650,000 sq ft). Under the Jurchen Jin dynasty, the city served as their empire's eastern capital under the name Dongjing (東京).In the 17th century, the Manchu people rose up against the Ming dynasty of China. Liaoyang was one of the first Ming cities to fall and Nurhaci, the new Emperor of the Later Jin dynasty, made his capital there naming the city Dongjing in 1621. He also moved the tombs of several family members to Liaoyang and they can still be seen in Dongjingling, just east of the city. As the Manchu expanded, they again moved the capital to Shenyang in 1625. After this Dongjing faded in importance. Today, remains of the city walls can still be seen and a small museum stands within the reconstructed south gate. The year 1900 saw the Boxer Rebellion in China. Russian troops camped in Liaoyang city, burning the ancient Guangyou temple. On the August 24 September 1904, the Battle of Liaoyang took place. This was a major battle of the Russo-Japanese war. Liaoyang was one of the major centres of the Manchurian revival, a Protestant Christian revival which took place in Mukden (Shenyang) and the surrounding countryside in 1908. The city was the site of widespread labor protests in March 2002 that were sparked by the bankruptcy and subsequent liquidation of the Liaoyang Ferroalloy Factory, or Liaotie. The protesters were workers from at least seven different factories, including failing textile, chemical, piston, instruments, leather, and precision tool plants. Their grievances involved local government corruption and widespread worker layoffs coupled with arrearage in employee wages, pensions and unemployment benefits. The activists demanded compensation for what they were owed, an investigation into the bankruptcy of Liaotie, and the resignation of the chairman of the local legislature, Gong Shangwu. The protests were eventually dispersed after several days by the government after declaring a curfew under martial law. Two of the workers' representatives, Xiao Yunliang and Yao Fuxin, were given prison terms of four and seven years, respectively. The government also responded by paying most but not all of the money that the workers were owed, and by ordering an investigation into the charges of corruption at Liaotie which culminated in the arrest and thirteen-year prison sentence of its manager, Fan Yicheng, for smuggling and fraudulent dereliction of duty. The provincial governor who approved the Liaotie bankruptcy was also imprisoned for accepting bribes, but Gong Shangwu evaded punitive action. Administrative divisions Within Liaoyang prefecture there are one county, five districts and one city. Geography and climate Tourism The largest park within the city is Baita park. There are several historical sites to be visited. The new Liaoyang Museum, open to the public since 2009, contains many antiques. Guangyou temple beside the Baita (White Pagoda) has become one of Liaoyang's main tourism attraction in recent years. The first temple on the site dates back to 1145. The temple was destroyed by Russian troops during the 1900 Boxer Rebellion but was later rebuilt. It houses a giant statue of Buddha made from sandalwood. There are two small museums for famous Liaoyang residents: Cao Xueqin, author of the book Dreams of a Red Mansion, and Wang Erlie, a notable Qing dynasty official. There is also a small museum just outside the city on the site of Dongjing, the old capital city. Gongchangling County, just east of the main city is noted for its hot spring resort, golf course and ski centre. Outdoor activities include the Tanghe River, Shenwo Reservoir Scenic Area and rafting on the Taizi river. In the downtown area busy shopping malls can be found. The shopping area includes a total of five malls and pedestrianized streets with many Chinese brand name stores. On the streets, there are many interesting and delicious regional snacks. Within the shopping area are two streets with many Korean BBQ restaurants (Er-dao jie, Xingyun da jie). Military Liaoyang is the headquarters of the 39th Mechanized Group Army of the People's Liberation Army, one of the three group armies that comprise the Shenyang Military Region responsible for defending China's northeastern borders with Russia and North Korea. International relations Twin towns — sister cities Liaoyang is twinned with: Los Gatos, California, United States Joliet, Illinois, United States Haman, Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea Notable residents Cao Xueqin, the author of Dream of the Red Chamber (红楼梦; hóng lóu mèng) Wang Erlie, a notable Qing dynasty official Toshiko Akiyoshi (秋吉 敏子 / 穐吉 敏子, Akiyoshi Toshiko), Japanese jazz pianist, born in Liaoyang in 1929 Wang Junfeng, President of the All China Lawyers Association The Liaoyang Government website Information about infrastructure, service facilities and tourism Article about Liaoyang at the Encyclopædia Britannica, with much about the history Article about the Century-Old Liaoyang Church

Radical 1 or radical one (一部) meaning "one" is one of the 6 Kangxi radicals (214 radicals in total) composed of 1 stroke. In the Kangxi Dictionary, there are 60 characters (out of 47,043) to be found under this radical.一 is also the 1st indexing component in the Table of Indexing Chinese Character Components predominantly adopted by Simplified Chinese dictionaries published in mainland China. Evolution Derived characters In calligraphy The only stroke in radical one, known as 橫/横 héng "horizontal", is called 策 cè in the eight principles of the character 永 (永字八法 Yǒngzì Bāfǎ) which are the basis of Chinese calligraphy. Sinogram As an isolated character it is one of the Kyōiku kanji or Kanji taught in elementary school in Japan. It is a first grade kanji. "Dictionary -> Characters containing component "一"". Chinese Text Project. Retrieved 2022-02-10. Literature Fazzioli, Edoardo (1987). Chinese calligraphy : from pictograph to ideogram : the history of 214 essential Chinese/Japanese characters. calligraphy by Rebecca Hon Ko. New York: Abbeville Press. ISBN 0-89659-774-1. Li, Leyi (1993). Tracing the Roots of Chinese Characters: 500 Cases. Beijing. ISBN 978-7-5619-0204-2.: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) Chinese numerals

The Mekong or Mekong River is a trans-boundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is the world's twelfth-longest river and the third-longest in Asia with an estimated length of 4,909 km (3,050 mi) and a drainage area of 795,000 km2 (307,000 sq mi), discharging 475 km3 (114 cu mi) of water annually. From its headwaters in the Tibetan Plateau, the river runs through (where it is officially called the Lancang River), Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and southern Vietnam. The extreme seasonal variations in flow and the presence of rapids and waterfalls in the Mekong make navigation difficult. Even so, the river is a major trade route between Tibet and Southeast Asia. The construction of hydroelectric dams along the Mekong in recent decades causes serious problems for the river's ecosystem, including the exacerbation of drought. Names The Mekong gets its English name from Khmer: មេគង្គ Mékôngk. Me means mother and Kong means Ganga. The literal meaning of “Mekong” is “Mother Ganga”. (Kong is a borrowing into Khmer language of the Sanskrit word “Ganga”. To the early European traders, the Mekong River was also known as Mekon River, May-Kiang River and Cambodia River. In Thai and Lao, Mae Nam ("Mother of Water[s]") is used for large rivers and Khong is the proper name referred to as "River Khong". However, Khong is an archaic word meaning "river", loaned from Austroasiatic languages, such as Vietnamese sông (from *krong) and Mon kruŋ "river", which led to Chinese 江 whose Old Chinese pronunciation has been reconstructed as /*kˤroŋ/ and which long served as the proper name of the Yangtze before becoming a generic word for major rivers. The local names for the river include: From Tai: Thai: แม่น้ำโขง, [mɛ̂ː náːm kʰǒːŋ], or just 'แม่โขง' [mɛ̂ː kʰǒːŋ]. Lao: ແມ່ນ້ຳຂອງ, [mɛː nâːm kʰɔːŋ], ນ້ຳຂອງ [nâːm kʰɔːŋ]. Tai Lue: น้ำแม่ของ [nâːm mɛː kʰɔ̌ːŋ], น้ำของ [nâːm kʰɔ̌ːŋ]. Khmer: មេគង្គ Mékôngk [meːkɔŋ], ទន្លេមេគង្គ Tônlé Mékôngk [tɔnlei meikɔŋ]. Burmese: မဲခေါင်မြစ်, IPA: [mɛ́ɡàʊɰ̃ mjɪ̰ʔ]. Shan: ၼမ်ႉၶွင် [nâm.kʰɔ̌ŋ] or ၼမ်ႉမႄႈၶွင် [nâm.mɛ.kʰɔ̌ŋ]. Chinese: 湄公河; Méigōng hé. Vietnamese: Sông Mê Kông (IPA: [ʂə̄wŋm mē kə̄wŋm]). Other: Vietnamese: Sông Cửu Long, (九龍 Nine Dragons River [ʂə̄wŋm kɨ̂w lāwŋm]). Khmer: ទន្លេធំ Tônlé Thum [tɔnlei tʰum] (lit. "Big River" or "Great River"). Khmuic: [ŏ̞m̥ kʰrɔːŋ̊], 'ŏ̞m̥' means 'river' or 'water', here it means 'river', 'kʰrɔːŋ̊' means 'canal'. So 'ŏ̞m̥ kʰrɔːŋ̊' means 'canal river'. In the ancient time Khmuic people called it '[ŏ̞m̥ kʰrɔːŋ̊ ɲă̞k̥]' or '[ŏ̞m̥ kʰrɔːŋ̊ ɟru̞ːʔ]' which means 'giant canal river' or 'deep canal river' respectively. Course The Mekong rises as the Za Qu (Tibetan: རྫ་ཆུ་, Wylie: rDza chu, ZYPY: Za qu; Chinese: 扎曲; pinyin: Zā Qū) and soon becomes known as the Lancang River (simplified Chinese: 澜沧江; traditional Chinese: 瀾滄江; pinyin: Láncāng Jiāng, from the old name of Lao kingdom Lan Xang; the characters may also be literally understood as "turbulent green river"). It originates in the "three rivers source area" on the Tibetan Plateau in the Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve. The reserve protects the headwaters of, from north to south, the Yellow (Huang He), the Yangtze, and the Mekong Rivers. It flows through the Tibetan Autonomous Region and then southeast into Yunnan Province, and then the Three Parallel Rivers Area in the Hengduan Mountains, along with the Yangtze to its east and the Salween River (Nu Jiang in Chinese) to its west. Then the Mekong meets the China–Myanmar border and flows about 10 km (6.2 mi) along that border until it reaches the tripoint of China, Myanmar and Laos. From there it flows southwest and forms the border of Myanmar and Laos for about 100 km (62 mi) until it arrives at the tripoint of Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand. This is also the point of confluence between the Ruak River (which follows the Thai–Myanmar border) and the Mekong. The area of this tripoint is sometimes termed the Golden Triangle, although the term also refers to the much larger area of those three countries that was notorious as a drug producing region. From the Golden Triangle tripoint, the Mekong turns southeast to briefly form the border of Laos with Thailand. Khon Pi Long is a series of rapids along a 1.6-kilometre section of the Mekong River dividing Chiang Rai and Bokeo Province in Laos. The name of the rapids means 'where the ghost lost its way'. It then turns east into the interior of Laos, flowing first east and then south for some 400 km (250 mi) before meeting the border with Thailand again. Once more, it defines the Laos-Thailand border for some 850 km (530 mi) as it flows first east, passing the capital of Laos, Vientiane, then turns south. A second time, the river leaves the border and flows east into Laos soon passing the city of Pakse. Thereafter, it turns and runs more or less directly south, crossing into Cambodia. At Phnom Penh the river is joined on the right bank by the river and lake system the Tonlé Sap. When the Mekong is low, the Tonle Sap is a tributary: water flows from the lake and river into the Mekong. When the Mekong floods, the flow reverses: the floodwaters of the Mekong flow up the Tonle Sap. Immediately after the Sap River joins the Mekong by Phnom Penh, the Bassac River branches off the right (west) bank. The Bassac River is the first and main distributary of the Mekong. This is the beginning of the Mekong Delta. The two rivers, the Bassac to the west and the Mekong to the east, enter Vietnam shortly after this. In Vietnam, the Bassac is called the Hậu River (Sông Hậu or Hậu Giang); the main, eastern, branch of the Mekong is called the Tiền River or Tiền Giang. In Vietnam, distributaries of the eastern (main, Mekong) branch include the Mỹ Tho River, the Ba Lai River, the Hàm Luông River, and the Cổ Chiên River. Drainage basin The Mekong Basin can be divided into two parts: the "upper Mekong basin" in Tibet, and the "lower Mekong basin" from Yunnan downstream from China to the South China Sea. From the point where it rises to its mouth, the most precipitous drop in the Mekong occurs in the upper Mekong basin, a stretch of some 2,200 km (1,400 mi). Here, it drops 4,500 m (14,800 ft) before it enters the lower basin where the borders of Thailand, Laos, China, and Myanmar come together in the Golden Triangle. Downstream from the Golden Triangle, the river flows for a further 2,600 km (1,600 mi) through Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia before entering the South China Sea via a complex delta system in Vietnam. Upper basin The upper basin makes up 24% of the total area and contributes 15–20% of the water that flows into the Mekong River. The catchment here is steep and narrow with Soil erosion being a major problem and as a result of this, approximately 50% of the sediment in the river comes from the upper basin. In Yunnan Province in China, the river and its tributaries are confined by narrow, deep gorges. The tributary river systems in this part of the basin are small. Only 14 have catchment areas that exceed 1,000 km2 (390 sq mi), yet the greatest amount of loss of forest cover in the entire river system per square kilometer has occurred in this region due to heavy unchecked demand for natural resources. In the south of Yunnan, in Simao and Xishuangbanna Prefectures, the river changes as the valley opens out, the floodplain becomes wider, and the river becomes wider and slower. Lower basin Major tributary systems develop in the lower basin. These systems can be separated into two groups: tributaries that contribute to the major wet season flows, and tributaries that drain low relief regions of lower rainfall. The first group are left bank tributaries that drain the high rainfall areas of Laos. The second group are those on the right bank, mainly the Mun and Chi Rivers, that drain a large part of northeast Thailand. Laos lies almost entirely within the lower Mekong basin. Its climate, landscape and land use are the major factors shaping the hydrology of the river. The mountainous landscape means that only 16% of the country is farmed under lowland terrace or upland shifting cultivation. With upland shifting agriculture (slash and burn), soils recover within 10 to 20 years but the vegetation does not. Shifting cultivation is common in the uplands of northern Laos and is reported to account for as much as 27% of the total land under rice cultivation. As elsewhere in the basin, forest cover has been steadily reduced during the last three decades by shifting agriculture and permanent agriculture. The cumulative impacts of these activities on the river regime have not been measured. However, the hydrological impacts of land cover changes induced by the Vietnam War were quantified in two sub-catchments of the lower Mekong River basin.Loss of forest cover in the Thai areas of the lower basin has been the highest of all the lower Mekong countries over the past 60 years. On the Khorat Plateau, which includes the Mun and Chi tributary systems, forest cover was reduced from 42% in 1961 to 13% in 1993. Although this part of northeast Thailand has an annual rainfall of more than 1,000 mm, a high evaporation rate means it is classified as a semi-arid region. Consequently, although the Mun and Chi basins drain 15% of the entire Mekong basin, they only contribute 6% of the average annual flow. Sandy and saline soils are the most common soil types, which makes much of the land unsuitable for wet rice cultivation. In spite of poor fertility, however, agriculture is intensive. Glutinous rice, maize, and cassava are the principal crops. Drought is by far the major hydrological hazard in this region. As the Mekong enters Cambodia, over 95% of its flows have already joined the river. From here on downstream the terrain is flat and water levels rather than flow volumes determine the movement of water across the landscape. The seasonal cycle of changing water levels at Phnom Penh results in the unique "flow reversal" of water into and out of the Great Lake via the Tonle Sap River. Phnom Penh also marks the beginning of the delta system of the Mekong River. Here the mainstream begins to break up into an increasing number of branches.In Cambodia, wet rice is the main crop and is grown on the flood plains of the Tonle Sap, Mekong, and Bassac (the Mekong delta distributary known as the Hậu in Vietnam) Rivers. More than half of Cambodia remains covered with mixed evergreen and deciduous broadleaf forest, but forest cover has decreased from 73% in 1973 to 63% in 1993. Here, the river landscape is flat. Small changes in water level determine the direction of water movement, including the large-scale reversal of flow into and out of the Tonle Sap basin from the Mekong River. The Mekong delta in Vietnam is farmed intensively and has little natural vegetation left. Forest cover is less than 10%. In the Central Highlands of Vietnam, forest cover was reduced from over 95% in the 1950s to around 50% in the mid-1990s. Agricultural expansion and population pressure are the major reasons for land use and landscape change. Both drought and flood are common hazards in the Delta, which many people believe is the most sensitive to upstream hydrological change. Water flow along its course Table 1: Country share of Mekong River Basin (MRB) and water flows By taking into account hydrological regimes, physiography land use, and existing, planned and potential resource developments, the Mekong is divided into six distinct reaches: Reach 1: Lancang Jiang or Upper Mekong River in China. In this part of the river, the major source of water flowing into the river comes from melting snow on the Tibetan plateau. This volume of water is sometimes called the "Yunnan component" and plays an important role in the low-flow hydrology of the lower mainstream. Even as far downstream as Kratie, the Yunnan component makes up almost 30% of the average dry season flow. A major concern is that the ongoing and planned expansion of dams and reservoirs on the Mekong mainstream in Yunnan could have a significant effect on the low-flow regime of the lower Mekong basin system.Reach 2: Chiang Saen to Vientiane and Nong Khai. This reach is almost entirely mountainous and covered with natural forest although there has been widespread slash and burn agriculture. Although this reach cannot be termed "unspoiled", the hydrological response is perhaps the most natural and undisturbed of all the lower basin. Many hydrological aspects of the lower basin start to change rapidly at the downstream boundary of this reach.On 19 July 2019 this reach of the river dropped to its lowest level in a century. Officials are particularly concerned as July is in the wet season, when mainstream flows are abundant historically. Locals are blaming low water on the newly constructed Xayaburi Dam, as it enters its test phase prior to the start of commercial operation in October 2019.Reach 3: Vientiane and Nong Khai to Pakse. The boundary between Reach 2 and 3 is where the Mekong hydrology starts to change. Reach 2 is dominated in both wet and dry seasons by the Yunnan Component. Reach 3 is increasingly influenced by contributions from the large left bank tributaries in Laos, namely the Nam Ngum, Nam Theun, Nam Hinboun, Se Bang Fai, Se Bang Hieng and Se Done Rivers. The Mun-Chi river system from the right bank in Thailand enters the mainstream within this reach.Reach 4: Pakse to Kratie. The main hydrological contributions to the mainstream in this reach come from the Se Kong, Se San, and Sre Pok catchments. Together, these rivers make up the largest hydrological sub-component of the lower basin. Over 25% of the mean annual flow volume to the mainstream at Kratie comes from these three river basins. They are the key element in the hydrology of this part of the system, especially to the Tonle Sap flow reversal.Reach 5: Kratie to Phnom Penh. This reach includes the hydraulic complexities of the Cambodian floodplain, the Tonle Sap and the Great Lake. By this stage, over 95% of the total flow has entered the Mekong system. The focus turns from hydrology and water discharge to the assessment of water level, over- bank storage and flooding and the hydrodynamics that determine the timing, duration and volume of the seasonal flow reversal into and out of the Great Lake.Reach 6: Phnom Penh to the South China Sea. Here the mainstream divides into a complex and increasingly controlled and artificial system of branches and canals. Key features of flow behaviour are tidal influences and salt water intrusion. Every year, 35–50% of this reach is flooded during the rainy season. The impact of road embankments and similar infrastructure developments on the movement of this flood water is an increasingly important consequence of development.Table 2 summarises the mean annual flows along the mainstream. The mean annual flow entering the lower Mekong from China is equivalent to a relatively modest 450 mm depth of runoff. Downstream of Vientiane this increases to over 600 mm as the principal left bank tributaries enter the mainstream, mainly the Nam Ngum and Nam Theun. The flow level falls again, even with the right bank entry of the Mun-Chi system from Thailand. Although the Mun–Chi basin drains 20% of the lower system, average annual runoff is only 250 mm. Runoff in the mainstream increases again with the entry from the left bank of the Se Kong from southern Laos and Se San and Sre Pok from Vietnam and Cambodia. Table 2: Lower Mekong Mainstream annual flow (1960 to 2004) at selected sites. Flows at Chiang Saen entering the lower basin from Yunnan make up about 15% of the wet season flow at Kratie. This rises to 40% during the dry season, even this far downstream. During the wet season, the proportion of average flow coming from Yunnan rapidly decreases downstream of Chiang Saen, from 70% to less than 20% at Kratie. The dry season contribution from Yunnan is much more significant. The major portion of the balance comes from Laos, which points to a major distinction in the low-flow hydrology of the river. One fraction comes from melting snow in China and Tibet and the rest from over-season catchment storage in the lower basin. This has implications for the occurrence of drought conditions. For example, if runoff from melting snow in any given year is very low, then flows upstream of Vientiane-Nong Khai would be lower.In a large river system like the Mekong, seasonal flows can be quite variable from year to year. Although the pattern of the annual hydrograph is fairly predictable, its magnitude is not. The average monthly flows along the mainstream are listed in Table 3, providing an indication of their range and variability from year to year. At Pakse, for example, flood season flows during August would exceed 20,000 cubic metres per second nine years out of ten, but exceed 34,000 m3/s only one year in ten.Table 3: Mekong Mainstream monthly discharge, 1960–2004 (m3/s). There is little evidence from the last 45 years of data of any systematic changes in the hydrological regime of the Mekong. Geology The internal drainage patterns of the Mekong are unusual when compared to those of other large rivers. Most large river systems that drain the interiors of continents, such as the Amazon, Congo, and Mississippi, have relatively simple dendritic tributary networks that resemble a branching tree.Typically, such patterns develop in basins with gentle slopes where the underlying geological structure is fairly homogeneous and stable, exerting little or no control on river morphology. In marked contrast, the tributary networks of the Salween, Yangtze, and particularly the Mekong, are complex with different sub-basins often exhibiting different, and distinct, drainage patterns. These complex drainage systems have developed in a setting where the underlying geological structure is heterogeneous and active, and is the major factor controlling the course of rivers and the landscapes they carve out.The elevation of the Tibetan Plateau during the Tertiary period was an important factor in the genesis of the south-west monsoon, which is the dominant climatic control influencing the hydrology of the Mekong Basin. Understanding the nature and timing of the elevation of Tibet (and the Central Highlands of Vietnam) therefore helps explain the provenance of sediment reaching the delta and the Tonle Sap Great Lake today. Studies of the provenance of sediments in the Mekong delta reveal a major switch in the source of sediments about eight million years ago (Ma). From 36 to 8 Ma the bulk (76%) of the sediments deposited in the delta came from erosion of the bedrock in the Three Rivers Area. From 8 Ma to the present, however, the contribution from the Three Rivers Area fell to 40%, while that from the Central Highlands rose from 11 to 51%. One of the most striking conclusions of provenance studies is the small contribution of sediment from the other parts of the Mekong basin, notably the Khorat Plateau, the uplands of northern Laos and northern Thailand, and the mountain ranges south of the Three Rivers area. The last glacial period came to an abrupt end about 19,000 years ago (19 ka) when sea levels rose rapidly, reaching a maximum of about 4.5 m above present levels in the early Holocene about 8 ka. At this time the shoreline of the South China Sea almost reached Phnom Penh and cores recovered from near Angkor Borei contained sediments deposited under the influence of tides, and salt marsh and mangrove swamp deposits. Sediments deposited in the Tonle Sap Great Lake about this time (7.9–7.3 ka) also show indications of marine influence, suggesting a connection to the South China Sea. Although the hydraulic relationships between the Mekong and the Tonle Sap Great Lake systems during the Holocene are not well understood, it is clear that between 9,000 and 7,500 years ago the confluence of the Tonle Sap and the Mekong was in proximity to the South China Sea. The present river morphology of the Mekong Delta developed over the last 6,000 years. During this period, the delta advanced 200 km over the continental shelf of the South China Sea, covering an area of more than 62,500 km2. From 5.3 to 3.5 ka the delta advanced across a broad embayment formed between higher ground near the Cambodian border and uplands north of Ho Chi Minh City. During this phase of its development the delta was sheltered from the wave action of long-shore currents and was constructed largely through fluvial and tidal processes. At this time the delta was advancing at a rate of 17–18 m per year. After 3.5 ka, however, the delta had built out beyond the embayment and became subject to wave action and marine currents. These deflected deposition south-eastwards in the direction of the Cà Mau Peninsula, which is one of the most recent features of the delta. For much of its length the Mekong flows through bedrock channels, i.e., channels that are confined or constrained by bedrock or old alluvium in the bed and riverbanks. Geomorphologic features normally associated with the alluvial stretches of mature rivers, such as meanders, oxbow lakes, cut-offs, and extensive floodplains are restricted to a short stretch of the mainstream around Vientiane and downstream of Kratie where the river develops alluvial channels that are free of control exerted by the underlying bedrock. The Mekong basin is not normally considered a seismically active area as much of the basin is underlain by the relatively stable continental block. Nonetheless, the parts of the basin in northern Laos, northern Thailand, Myanmar and China do experience frequent earthquakes and tremors. The magnitude of these earthquakes rarely exceeds 6.5 on the Richter magnitude scale and is unlikely to cause material damage. History The difficulty of navigating the river has meant that it has divided, rather than united, the people who live near it. The earliest known settlements date to 210 BCE, with Ban Chiang being an excellent example of early Iron Age culture. The earliest recorded civilization was the 1st century Indianised-Khmer culture of Funan, in the Mekong delta. Excavations at Oc Eo, near modern An Giang, have found coins from as far away as the Roman Empire. This was succeeded by the Khmer culture Chenla state around the 5th century. The Khmer empire of Angkor was the last great Indianized state in the region. From around the time of the fall of the Khmer empire, the Mekong was the front line between the emergent states of Siam and Tonkin (North Vietnam), with Laos and Cambodia, then on the coast, torn between their influence. The first European to encounter the Mekong was the Portuguese António de Faria in 1540. A European map of 1563 depicts the river, although even by then little was known of the river upstream of the delta. European interest was sporadic: the Spanish and Portuguese mounted some missionary and trade expeditions, while the Dutch Gerrit van Wuysthoff led an expedition up the river as far as Vientiane in 1641–42. The French invaded the region in the mid-19th century, capturing Saigon in 1861, and establishing a protectorate over Cambodia in 1863. The first systematic European exploration began with the French Mekong Expedition led by Ernest Doudard de Lagrée and Francis Garnier, which ascended the river from its mouth to Yunnan between 1866 and 1868. Their chief finding was that the Mekong had too many falls and rapids to ever be useful for navigation. The river's source was found by Pyotr Kuzmich Kozlov in 1900. From 1893, the French extended their control of the river into Laos, establishing French Indochina by the first decade of the 20th century. This lasted until the First and Second Indochina Wars expelled French from its former colony and defeated US-supported governments. During the wars in Indochina in the 1970s, a significant quantity of explosives (sometimes, entire barges loaded with military ordnance) sank in the Cambodian section of the Mekong (as well as in the country's other waterways). Besides being a danger for fishermen, unexploded ordnance also creates problems for bridge and irrigation systems construction. As of 2013, Cambodian volunteers are being trained, with the support of the Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement within the US State Department Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, to conduct underwater explosive removal.The many maps of the river basin produced throughout recorded history reflect the region's changing human geography and politics.In 1995, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam established the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to manage and coordinate the use and care of the Mekong. In 1996 China and Myanmar became "dialogue partners" of the MRC and the six countries now work together in a cooperative framework. In 2000, the governments of China, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar signed a Agreement on Commercial Navigation on Lancang-Mekong River among the Governments of the People’s Republic of China, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, the Union of Myanmar and the Kingdom of Thailand which is the mechanism for cooperation with regard to riverine trade on the upper stretches of the Mekong. Natural history The Mekong basin is one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world. Only the Amazon boasts a higher level of bio-diversity. Biota estimates for the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) include 20,000 plant species, 430 mammals, 1,200 birds, 800 reptiles and amphibians, and an estimated 850 freshwater fish species (excluding euryhaline species mainly found in salt or brackish water, as well as introduced species). The most species rich orders among the freshwater fish in the river basin are cypriniforms (377 species) and catfish (92 species).New species are regularly described from the Mekong. In 2009, 145 species previously unknown to science were described from the region, including 29 fish species, two bird species, 10 reptiles, five mammals, 96 plants, and six amphibians. Between 1997 and 2015, an average of two new species per week were discovered in the region. The Mekong Region contains 16 WWF Global 200 ecoregions, the greatest concentration of ecoregions in mainland Asia.No other river is home to so many species of very large fish. The biggest include three species of Probarbus barbs, which can grow up to 1.5 m (5 ft) and weigh 70 kg (150 lb), the giant freshwater stingray (Himantura polylepis, syn. H. chaophraya), which can reach at least 5 m (16 ft) in length and 1.9 m (6 ft 3 in) in width, the giant pangasius (Pangasius sanitwongsei), giant barb (Catlocarpio siamensis) and the endemic Mekong giant catfish (Pangasianodon gigas). The last three can grow up to about 3 m (10 ft) in length and weigh 300 kg (660 lb). All of these have declined drastically because of dams, flood control, and overfishing.One species of freshwater dolphin, the Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris), was once common in the whole of the lower Mekong but is now very rare, with only 85 individuals remaining.Among other wetland mammals that have been living in and around the river are the smooth-coated otter (Lutra perspicillata) and fishing cat (Prionailurus viverrinus). The endangered Siamese crocodile (Crocodylus siamensis) occurs in small isolated pockets within the northern Cambodian and Laotian portions of the Mekong River. The saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) once ranged from the Mekong Delta up the river into Tonle Sap and beyond but is now extinct in the river, along with being extinct in all of Vietnam and possibly even Cambodia. Protected areas The headwaters of the Mekong in Zadoi County, Qinghai, China, are protected in Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve. The name Sanjiangyuan means "the sources of the Three Rivers". The reserve also includes the headwaters of the Yellow River and the Yangtze. The section of the river flowing through deep gorges in Yunnan Province is part of the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Tonle Sap Biosphere Reserve in Cambodia contains the largest lake in Southeast Asia. It is a UNESCO Biosphere reserve. Natural phenomena The low tide level of the river in Cambodia is lower than the high tide level out at sea, and the flow of the Mekong inverts with the tides throughout its stretch in Vietnam and up to Phnom Penh. The very flat Mekong delta area in Vietnam is thus prone to flooding, especially in the provinces of An Giang and Dong Thap (Đồng Tháp), near the Cambodian border. Fisheries Aquatic biodiversity in the Mekong River system is the second highest in the world after the Amazon. The Mekong boasts the most concentrated biodiversity per hectare of any river. The largest recorded freshwater fish, a 300 kg giant freshwater stingray in 2022 and previously a 293 kg Mekong giant catfish in 2005, were both caught in the Mekong River.The commercially valuable fish species in the Mekong are generally divided between "black fish", which inhabit low oxygen, slow moving, shallow waters, and "white fish", which inhabit well oxygenated, fast moving, deeper waters. People living within the Mekong River system generate many other sources of food and income from what are often termed "other aquatic animals" (OAAs) such as freshwater crabs, shrimp, snakes, turtles, and frogs. OAAs account for about 20% of the total Mekong catch. When fisheries are discussed, catches are typically divided between the wild capture fishery (i.e., fish and other aquatic animals caught in their natural habitat), and aquaculture (fish reared under controlled conditions). Wild capture fisheries play the most important role in supporting livelihoods. Wild capture fisheries are largely open access fisheries, which poor rural people can access for food and income. Broadly, there are three types of fish habitats in the Mekong: i) the river, including all the main tributaries, rivers in the major flood zone, and the Tonle Sap, which altogether yield about 30% of wild catch landings; ii) rain-fed wetlands outside the river-floodplain zone, including mainly rice paddies in formerly forested areas and usually inundated to about 50 cm, yielding about 66% of wild catch landings; and iii) large water bodies outside the flood zone, including canals and reservoirs yielding about 4% of wild catch landings.The Mekong Basin has one of the world's largest and most productive inland fisheries. An estimated two million tonnes of fish are landed a year, in addition to almost 500,000 tonnes of other aquatic animals. Aquaculture yields about two million tonnes of fish a year. Hence, the lower Mekong basin yields about 4.5 million tonnes of fish and aquatic products annually. The total economic value of the fishery is between US$3.9 and US$7 billion a year. Wild capture fisheries alone have been valued at US$2 billion a year. This value increases considerably when the multiplier effect is included, but estimates vary widely. An estimated 2.56 million tonnes of inland fish and other aquatic animals are consumed in the lower Mekong every year. Aquatic resources make up between 47 and 80% of animal protein in rural diets for people who live in the Lower Mekong Basin. Fish are the cheapest source of animal protein in the region and any decline in the fishery is likely to significantly impact nutrition, especially among the poor. Fish are the staple of the diet in Laos and Cambodia, with around 80% of the Cambodian population's annual protein intake coming from fish caught in the Mekong River system, with no alternative source to replace it. An MRC report claims that dam projects on the Mekong River will reduce aquatic life by 40% by 2020, and predicted that 80% of fish will be depleted by 2040. Thailand will be impacted, as its fish stocks in the Mekong will decline by 55%, Laos will be reduced by 50%, Cambodia by 35%, and Vietnam by 30%.It is estimated that 40 million rural people, more than two-thirds of the rural population in the lower Mekong basin, are engaged in the wild capture fishery. Fisheries contribute significantly to a diversified livelihood strategy for many people, particularly the poor, who are highly dependent on the river and its resources for their livelihoods. They provide a principal form of income for numerous people and act as a safety net and coping strategy in times of poor agricultural harvests or other difficulties. In Laos alone, 71% of rural households (2.9 million people) rely on fisheries for either subsistence or additional cash income. Around the Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia, more than 1.2 million people live in fishing communes and depend almost entirely on fishing for their livelihoods. Dams As of at least 2016, the Mekong has the fastest-growing hydropower construction of any large river basin worldwide. China built ten or eleven cascade dams on the Mekong mainstream between 1995 and mid-2019, leaving Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand without same amount of water as before investment. As part of China's Great Western Development program, China's five large state-owned hydropower companies planned, underwrote, and built the majority of dams on the river and its tributaries.: 220 The Lao government has also prioritized hydropower development on the river and its tributaries, describing itself as the "Battery of Asia.": 220–221  Hydropower has brought in significant foreign exchange to Laos.: 221  Much of the Lao hydropower has been exported to Thailand, which in turn has benefited from Lao hydropower in developing its poorer areas, especially in Thailand's northeast.: 221 The Jinghong Dam, as of January 2020 the nearest Chinese dam upstream of the Thai border, has caused huge fluctuations in river levels, affecting people's livelihoods downstream by disrupting the river's natural cycle. It is impacting the ecosystem, disturbing the migratory patterns of fish as well as riverbank plants and local agriculture downstream.Downstream countries Vietnam and Cambodia generate some hydropower, but primarily experience negative ecological and social effects of upstream hydropower development.: 221 Navigation For thousands of years the Mekong River has been an important conduit for people and goods between the many towns on its banks. Traditional forms of trade in small boats linking communities continue today, however the river is also becoming an important link in international trade routes, connecting the six Mekong countries to each other, and also to the rest of the world. The Mekong is still a wild river and navigation conditions vary greatly along its length. Broadly, navigation of the river is divided between upper and lower Mekong, with the "upper" part of the river defined as the stretch north of the Khone Falls in southern Laos and the "lower" part as the stretch below these falls. Narrower and more turbulent sections of water in the upstream parts of the Mekong River, coupled with large annual water level variations continue to present a challenge to navigation. The seasonal variations in water level directly affect trade in this section of the river. Volumes of trade being shipped decrease by more than 50%, primarily due to the reduced draughts available during the low water season (June–January). Despite these difficulties, the Mekong River is already an important link in the transit chain between Kunming and Bangkok with about 300,000 tonnes of goods shipped via this route each year. The volume of this trade is expected to increase by 8–11% per year. Port infrastructure is being expanded to accommodate the expected growth in traffic, with new facilities planned for Chiang Saen port.In Laos, 50 and 100 DWT vessels are operated for regional trade. Cargos carried are timber, agricultural products, and construction materials. Thailand imports a wide variety of products from China, including vegetables, fruit, agricultural products, and fertilisers. The main exports from Thailand are dried longan, fish oil, rubber products, and consumables. Nearly all the ships carrying cargo to and from Chiang Saen Port are 300 DWT Chinese flag vessels.Waterborne trade in the lower Mekong countries of Vietnam and Cambodia has grown significantly, with trends in container traffic at Phnom Penh port and general cargo through Can Tho port both showing steady increases until 2009 when a decrease in cargo volumes can be attributed to the global financial crisis and a subsequent decline in demand for the export of garments to the US. In 2009, Mekong trade received a significant boost with the opening of a new deep-water port at Cai Mep in Vietnam. This new port has generated a renewed focus on the Mekong River as a trade route. The Cai Mep container terminals can accommodate vessels with a draught of 15.2 m, equivalent to the largest container ships in the world. These mother vessels sail directly to Europe or the United States, which means that goods can be shipped internationally to and from Phnom Penh with only a single transshipment at Cai Mep.As an international river, a number of agreements exist between the countries that share the Mekong to enable trade and passage between them. The most important of these, which address the full length of the river, are: Agreement between China and Lao PDR on Freight and Passenger Transport along the Lancang–Mekong River, adopted in November 1994. Agreement on the Cooperation for the Sustainable Development of the Mekong River Basin, Article 9, Freedom of Navigation, 5 April 1995, Chiang Rai. Hanoi Agreement between Cambodia and Viet Nam on Waterway Transportation, 13 December 1998. Agreement between and among the Governments of the Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam for Facilitation of Cross border Transport of Goods and People, (amended at Yangon, Myanmar), signed in Vientiane, 26 November 1999. Agreement on Commercial Navigation on Lancang–Mekong River among the governments of China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand, adopted at Tachileik, 20 April 2000. Phnom Penh Agreement between Cambodia and Vietnam on the Transit of Goods, 7 September 2000. New Agreement on Waterway Transportation between Vietnam and Cambodia, signed in Phnom Penh, 17 December 2009.In December 2016, the Thai cabinet of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha agreed "in principle" to a plan to dredge stretches of the Mekong and demolish rocky outcrops that are hindrances to easy navigation. The international Lancang-Mekong River navigation improvement plan for 2015–2025, conceived by China, Myanmar, Lao, and Thailand, aims to make the river more navigable for 500-tonne cargo vessels sailing the river from Yunnan to Luang Prabang, a distance of 890 kilometres. China has been the driving force behind the demolition plan as it aims to expand trade in the area. The plan is split into two phases. The first phase, from 2015 to 2020, involves a survey, a design, and an assessment of the environmental and social impacts of the project. These have to be approved by the four countries involved: China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand. The second phase (2020–2025) involves navigational improvements from Simao in China to 243 border posts in China and Myanmar, a distance of 259 km. Local groups have countered that native inhabitants already operate their boats year-round and that the plan to blast the rapids is not about making life better for local people, but about enabling year-round traffic of large Chinese commercial boats.On 4 February 2020, the Thai Cabinet voted to stop the project to blast and dredge 97 km of the river bed after Beijing failed to stump up the money for further surveys of the affected area. Bridges Construction of Myanmar–Laos Friendship Bridge started on 19 February 2013. The bridge will be 691.6 m (2,269 ft) long and have an 8.5 m (28 ft) wide two-lane motorway.The Thai–Lao Friendship Bridge (Thai: สะพานมิตรภาพ ไทย-ลาว, RTGS: Saphan Mittraphap Thai-Lao) connects Nong Khai city with Vientiane in Laos. The 1,170 m-long (3,840 ft) bridge opened on 8 April 1994. It has two 3.5 m-wide (11 ft) lanes with a single railway line in the middle. On 20 March 2004, the Thai and Lao governments agreed to extend the railway to Tha Nalaeng in Laos. This extension has since been completed. The Second Thai–Lao Friendship Bridge connects Mukdahan to Savannakhet. The two-lane, 12 m-wide (39 ft), 1,600 m-long (5,200 ft) bridge opened to the public on 9 January 2007. The Third Thai–Lao Friendship Bridge opened for traffic on 11 November 2011, connecting Nakhon Phanom Province (Thailand) and Thakhek (Laos), as part of Asian Highway 3. The Chinese and Thai governments agreed to build the bridge and share the estimated US$33 million cost. The Fourth Thai–Lao Friendship Bridge opened to traffic on 11 December 2013. It links Chiang Rai Province, Thailand with Ban Houayxay, Laos. There is one bridge over the Mekong entirely within Laos. Unlike the Friendship Bridges, it is not a border crossing. It is at Pakse in Champasak Province. It is 1,380 m (4,528 ft) long, and was completed in 2000. 15°6′19.95″N 105°48′49.51″E). The Kizuna Bridge is in Cambodia, in the city of Kampong Cham, on the road linking Phnom Penh with the remote provinces of Ratanakiri and Mondolkiri, and Laos. The bridge opened for traffic on 11 December 2001. The Prek Tamak Bridge, 40 km (25 mi) north of Phnom Penh opened in 2010. Phnom Penh itself has no bridge under construction yet, although two new bridges have recently opened on the Tonle Sap, and the main bridge on the highway to Ho Chi Minh was duplicated in 2010. Another new bridge was built at Neak Leung on the Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh Highway 1 with Japanese government assistance, and opened in 2015. In Vietnam, since the year 2000 Mỹ Thuận Bridge crosses the first channel—the left, main branch of the Mekong, the Sông Tiền or Tiền Giang—near Vĩnh Long and since 2008 Rạch Miễu Bridge crosses it near Mỹ Tho, between the provinces of Tiền Giang and Bến Tre. Cần Thơ Bridge crosses the second channel—the right, main distributary of the Mekong, the Bassac (Song Hau). Inaugurated in 2010, it is the longest main span cable-stayed bridge in Southeast Asia. Environmental issues Drought linked to a changing climate and dozens of hydroelectric dams are damaging the Mekong ecosystem. When drought ends and the inevitable floods begin, the effects of Mekong dams on flood pulse dynamics over the entire Lower Mekong are poorly understood.Sewage treatment is rudimentary in towns and urban areas throughout much of the Mekong's length, such as Vientiane in Laos. Water pollution impacts the river's ecological integrity as a result.Much of the 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic present on earth makes its way to the oceans. Ninety percent of plastic in the oceans is flushed there by just 10 rivers. The Mekong is one of them.A growing number of academics, NGOs, and scientists have urged the international community and the Mekong River Commission to reduce the use of hydropower, giving concerns of long-term sustainability. Some of them have urged an immediate moratorium on new construction of hydropower projects and a shift to solar and other forms of renewable energy, which are becoming more competitive and faster to install. See also Further reading The WISDOM Project, a Water related Information System for the Mekong Delta Mekong River Commission CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems - Greater Mekong Archived 9 July 2021 at the Wayback Machine Mekong Watch Countries of the Mekong River: The Greater Mekong Subregion Asian Development Bank Rivers Network : Mekong river blog Archived 5 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine

Standard Chinese, like many Sinitic varieties, has a significant number of homophonous syllables and words due to its limited phonetic inventory. The Cihai dictionary lists 149 characters representing the syllable "yì". (However, modern Chinese words average about two syllables, so the high rate of syllable homophony does not cause a problem for communication.) Many Chinese take great delight in using the large amount of homophones in the language to form puns, and they have become an important component of Chinese culture. In Chinese, homophones are used for a variety of purposes from rhetoric and poetry to advertisement and humor, and are also common in Chinese loans, for example phono-semantic matching of brand names, computer jargon, technological terms and toponyms.This article is intended to present a list of common or representative homophonous puns in Mandarin Chinese, though many of the examples given are often homophones in other varieties as well. Asterisks before the entry denote near homophones. Terms in Chinese There is no common Chinese word for "pun" in the oral language, although the phrase 一语双关; 一語雙關; yī yǔ shuāng guān may sometimes be used. 双关语; 雙關語; shuāngguānyǔ has the same meaning as a pun but has a more formal or literary register, such as 'double-entendre' in English. It typically refers to the creation of puns in literature. Homophonic puns in particular are called 音义双关; 音義雙關; yīn yì shuāng guān or more simply 谐音; 諧音; xiéyīn; 'homophones' while homophonic characters are called 同音字; tóngyīnzì. Spring Festival traditions Chinese New Year, known in China as Spring Festival, has an abundance of unique traditions associated with it. Some of these traditions are more widespread than others. Among the many New Year's customs are a few whose meaning is derived from puns of Mandarin words. Nián nián yǒu yú - 年年有餘 "There will be an abundance every year" homophonous with 年年有魚 "There will be fish every year." As a result, fish are eaten and used as common decorations during Chinese New Year. Nián gāo - 年糕 "niangao" homophonous with 年高 from 年年高升 nián nián gāoshēng or "raised higher each year," leading to the belief that those who eat niangao should have greater prosperity with each coming year. Fú dào le - 福到了 "fortune has arrived" and 福倒了 "fortune is upside down", the latter simply referring to the ubiquitous character 福, which when displayed upside down denotes one's good fortune has arrived. It is common practice to hang the character upside-down on doors during the Spring festival. Shengcai - Traditionally the first meal of the New Year is vegetarian with a variety of ingredients. The meal is served with lettuce (生菜; shēngcài) because the word is near homophonous to "生財" (shēng cái), "to make money". Lettuce shows up in other New Years customs as well. In the traditional New Year's Day lion dance lettuce and red envelopes of cash are offered to the lion. Tāng yuán - At times of reunion, such as Spring Festival, it is customary to eat sweet round dumplings called tangyuan (湯圓). The tangyuan are traditionally eaten during Lantern Festival, which is the last day of the Chinese New Year celebration. The roundness of the tangyuan and the bowls they are eaten out of emphasize unity in addition to the similarity of their name with the Mandarin word for reunion, "團圓" (tuán yuán). Fā cài (髮菜), a thin black hair-like algae, is a feature of Spring Festival cuisine because its name is a near-homophone of "發財" (fā cái), meaning "prosperity," and as in the Chinese New Year greeting 恭喜發財; Gōngxǐ fācái; 'Congratulations and be prosperous'. Literature Dream of the Red Chamber – Similar to Dickens or Dostoevsky, Cao Xueqin chose many of the names of his characters in Dream of the Red Chamber to be homophones with other words which hint at their qualities. For example, the name of the main family, "賈" (Jiǎ) puns with "假" meaning "fake" or "false" while the name of the other main family in the story, "甄" (Zhēn) puns with "眞" meaning "real" or "true". Hóng Qiū (紅秋) – In this Sichuan opera, a sternsman on the boat asks a nun her name, who defiantly responds that her name is 陳 chén which is a homophone with 沉 or 'to sink' which is the last word one wants to hear on a boat. Máo Dùn – Noted 20th-century author Shen Yanbing is better known by his pseudonym Mao Dun (茅盾), a homophone for "contradiction" (矛盾). The pun is said to be a statement of his disillusionment with the ruling Kuomintang party following the Shanghai massacre of 1927. Fǎng Zǐjiǔ Huà – Yun Shouping, a famous artist of the early Qing dynasty, is best known today for his paintings of flowers, but he was also a prolific poet. One of his poems, "仿子久畫" ("After the artistic style of Zijiu"), was an ode to a previous master of traditional Chinese landscape painting, Huang Gongwang who was also known by his style name "Zijiu" (子久). The poem has several intentional puns. The poem and alternative readings are included below: Circumventing internet censorship Homophonic puns are often used to get around various forms of censorship on the internet. Hexie - 河蟹 hé xiè "river crab" for 和谐 héxié for "harmony", referring to the official policy of a "harmonious society", which led to Internet censorship. Dàibiǎo - 戴表; dàibiǎo "watch" (n., as in "wristwatch") for 代表; dàibiǎo "represent" referring to the "Three Represents", a political ideology. Cao ni ma - 草泥馬; cǎonímǎ, "a horse made from mud and grass"/"mud-grass horse" for 肏你媽; cào nǐ mā, "fuck your mother", used in mainland China similarly to "fuck you" in English. Text-messages and internet chat Shortening words and phrases is a common and often necessary practice for internet chat and especially SMS text-messages in any language. Speakers of Mandarin Chinese have also developed conventional abbreviations for commonly used words. Some of these are based on homophony or near-homophony. 88 (bābā) is pronounced similarly to 拜拜 "bàibài" or the Chinese loanword for "bye-bye." It has therefore become a common way of saying "see you later" when leaving a conversation, similar to "ttyl" or "talk to you later" in English. 3Q (/sæn kʰju/) ) - The number 3 is pronounced as "sān" [sán] in Mandarin, so this combination sounds like English "thank you" (/θæŋk.ju/) and is used as such. 55555 - The number 5, "wǔ" in mandarin, makes this series evoke the sound of a person sobbing. Joke Names Dù Zǐténg - the Chinese characters "杜紫藤" form a very refined name that could belong to a poet (紫藤 is the name for the Wisteria sinensis flower), but it is homophonous with the word 肚子疼 which means "stomachache." Jìyuàn - the names of technical schools which end in 技術學院 jìshù xuéyuàn are often shortened to 技院 'jìyuàn' which has the same pronunciation as 妓院 which means a brothel. Political criticism Critics of government policy in China have frequently employed puns as a means of avoiding criticizing the government too directly. Xiǎo Píngzi - Students participating in the pro-democracy movement in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989 smashed little bottles as a means of protesting Deng Xiaoping's handling of the movement. Deng's given name, Xiaoping (小平) sounds a lot like "Little Bottle" (小瓶子, xiǎo píngzi), which is a nickname that Deng had acquired for his ability to keep afloat amid wave after wave of attacks. Wàn Lǐ - Students at Peking University in Beijing protesting the crackdown on the pro-democracy movement in Beijing's Tiananmen Square displayed on their dorm, in order, portraits of the revered Zhou Enlai, the serving politician Wan Li and the detested leader Li Peng, who had been orphaned and raised by Zhou and his wife Deng Yingchao. Here, Wàn Lǐ (万里) also means "10,000 li (Chinese miles)" so this was a way of saying that Li Peng is nothing like Zhou Enlai (there are 10,000 li between them). Liú & bō - Supporters of the jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo often pun on his name using the phrase "随波逐劉" (suí bō zhú Liú) instead of "随波逐流" meaning “by the waves and with the flow” which by extension means to follow blindly. The usage of the phrase is turned around however. The character 流 liú or "flow" is a homophone with the surname Liu/劉 and the character 波; bō is how a friend would call someone named Xiaobo. So the phrase may also be interpreted as "Go with Xiaobo, follow Liu," such repetition being common in Chinese rhetoric, taking on the meaning of "follow Liu's example" or "be like Liu." Gifts In Chinese culture the giving of certain gifts is traditionally avoided because of unfortunate homophony or near homophony. Si - four (四) death (死) while it is common to give gifts in even number increments, giving four of something is associated with very bad fortune because in Mandarin the word four (四, sì) is pronounced similarly to the word death (死, sǐ), see tetraphobia. This taboo exists in Japanese and Korean as well, where the words are exact homophones shi in Japanese and sa in Korean. Lí - Pears (梨, lí) are also uncommon gifts as they sound like separation (离, lí). Sòng zhōng - Giving a clock (送鐘/送钟, sòng zhōng) is often taboo, especially to the elderly as the term for this act is a homophone with the term for the act of attending another's funeral (送終/送终, sòngzhōng). This can also be regarded as counting the seconds until the recipient's death. Cantonese people thus consider such a gift as a curse. A UK government official Susan Kramer gave a watch to Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je unaware of such a taboo which resulted in some professional embarrassment and a pursuant apology. The homonymic pair works in both Mandarin and Cantonese, although in most parts of China only clocks and large bells, and not watches, are called "zhong", and watches are commonly given as gifts in China.Should such unlucky gifts be given, the "unluckiness" of the gift can traditionally be countered by exacting a small monetary payment so the recipient is buying the clock and thereby counteracting the '送' ("gift") expression of the phrase. Objects of good fortune A symbolic language of prosperity and good fortune has evolved over the centuries from the similarity in pronunciation between some every day objects and common lucky words. Examples are especially common in the decorative arts. Ping'an - In some localities it is customary to always place a vase (瓶, píng) on a table (案，àn) when moving into a new home for good luck, because the combination sounds like "平安" (píng'ān) meaning peace and tranquility. Kuaizi - A traditional wedding custom involves bride and groom exchanging chopsticks, because the word for chopsticks, "筷子" (kuàizi) puns with "快子" (kuàizǐ) which means to quickly have a son. Fú - Bats are a common motif in traditional Chinese painting, because the word for bat, "蝠" (fú) is homophonous with the word for good fortune, "福" (fú). Li, yú, and lián - A more complex example involves the common image of carp swimming through lotus flowers which conveys the wish for continuing profits. Carp (鯉, lǐ), fish (魚, yú), and lotus (蓮, lián) are near-homophonous with "profit" (利, lì), "surplus" (餘, yú), and "successive" (連, lián) respectively. Sānyuán - In the eleventh century in the Northern Song Dynasty men who scored first in all three levels of the civil service examination were distinguished with the title "Sanyuan" (三元) meaning simply "three firsts." Immediately following the appearance of this term in Chinese literature, the motif of the three gibbons pursuing egrets appears in Chinese painting. In Chinese the scene could be described as "三猿得鷺" (sǎn yuán dé lù) a pun on "三元得路" (also sǎn yuán dé lù) meaning "a triple-first gains one power." Soon, the gibbon became a more generalized symbol, praising those who participated in the civil service exam regardless of whether they achieved three firsts. Thus, the image expresses a wish that its recipient do well on his exams and become successful. Later a variation on the gibbons and egret motif appears through the substitution of deer for egrets. In mandarin the word "鹿" (lù), meaning deer, is homophonous with "鷺" (lù), meaning egret, and so the image achieves the same pun. Other notable puns The Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal for December 1882, claims that the residents of the western hills outside Beijing were not allowed to store ice at that time because of the similarity between the word for "ice" (冰, "bīng") and the word for "soldier" (兵, "bīng"). At this time the capital was under considerable threat of rebellions. The rule is presumably an attempt to avoid confusion between troops convening outside the city ahead of an invasion and the otherwise common practice of storing large quantities of ice for the preservation of meat and vegetables.Following the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese Communist Party vigorously promoted the slogan "向前看" ("xiàng qián kàn") meaning "Look forward [to the future]". The slogan was an oft-repeated encouragement which emphasized working toward a common destiny and discouraged deep analysis of past policies. Today it is common to hear "xiàng qián kàn", but it is often accompanied by a gesture of thumb and fore-fingers rubbing together to indicate that the speaker is talking about money. The new phrase, "向錢看" is pronounced exactly the same, but its meaning, "look for the money," contrasts sharply with the old slogan. The popularity of this pun is explained as a result of the dramatic move towards capitalism that took place in China following the country's "reform and opening up".Project 571 (五七一工程; Wǔqīyī gōngchéng), the numeric codename for an alleged plot by supporters of Lin Biao to attempt a coup d'etat and overthrow Mao Zedong in 1971, was named by Lin Biao's son Lin Liguo as a play on its near-homonym of "armed uprising" (武裝起義; wǔzhuāng qǐyì or 武起義; wǔ qǐyì).It is common in China to give apples on Christmas Eve. The custom originates from the similarity of the Mandarin words for "apple" (蘋果; píngguǒ) and "Christmas Eve" (平安夜; píng'ānyè). The first syllable of each word sounds identical. See also Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den Numbers in Chinese culture Mandarin Chinese profanity Faux pas derived from Chinese pronunciation Standard Chinese phonology Kyowa-go

Amphol Lumpoon (Thai: อำพล ลำพูน; born July 20, 1963) is a Thai actor and singer. He was the lead singer in the Thai rock band, Micro, before their split up, where he then began his solo career. During the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, he was an actor, even winning two awards. Music career Amphol's songs (solo, and with Micro) include "Jai Sohm Sohm" ("Broken Heart"), "Ow Pai Loey" ("Take It"), "Bauk Mah Kum Diow" ("Tell Me One Thing") and "Sia Mai" ("Broken"). A compilation album featuring new Thai rock bands such as Clash, Zeal and Kala called Little Rock Project features songs by Amphol and Micro being covered by various artists. Discography -Micro- Rock Lek Lek (Little Bit of Rock, 1986) Meun Fha Rain Hi (10,000 Fahrenheit, 1988) Dtem Tung (Fill the Tank, 1989)-Amphol- Danger (Wutoo Wai Fai, 1992) Iron Horse (Mahlhek, 1993) I.D. Card (Phol Meung Dee, 1995)-Micro (2000s)- Micro: Rock In Love/Rock In Rock (The Best Selected (GMM' Grammy Compilation), 2002) Micro: The Final Collection 1/2 (Micro's band and Amphol's solo songs, 2003) Tum Narn Meu Kwa: Micro: Put the right hand in the right concert (CD Audio/VCD/DVD Concert, 2004) Micro: Songs by Nitipong Hornak (2007) Micro: The Long Play Collection (2008-2009) Rock Lek Lek 10,000 Fahrenheit Wutoo Wai Fai Micro: The 25 Years Hit Collection (2010) Sek Loso: PLUS (Features Big Ass (band), Bodyslam (Thai rock band), and Sek Loso. With live performances from the 25 Years Rock Lek Lek RETURNs concert in karaoke.) Concertography Rock Lek Lek Concert, 1987 Amphol and Micro Concert: Ow Micro Pai Loey(อำพล ลำพูน กับ วงไมโคร คอนเสิร์ตเอาไมโครไปเลย), 1988 Micro: Full Tank (Tem Tung), 1989 Meu Kwa Sa-muk-kee, 1990 Amphol Concert: Kon Wai Fai, 1993 Amphol Concert: Asawin Mahlhek, 1995 Amphol Concert: Gub Kon Wai Jai; Taun Ow Ga Kow Noi, 1995 Amphol: Big Story Concert 1986-1996, 1997 Tum Narn Meu Kwa: Micro: Put the right hand in the right concert, 2003 Micro/Nuvo: ONE BIG SHOW, 2004 Amphol Meung Dee Gub Billy Khem (Concert with Billy Ogan), 2005 H.M. Blues, 2006 Rewut Putinun: Remember in Tribute Concert, 2007 25 Years Nitipong Hornak, 2007 Rock for the King, 2007 Micro: Rock Lek Lek RETURNs, 2010 (Special Guests, Billy Ogan, Sek Loso, Big Ass, Mai Charoenpura) Personal life Amphol was married to singer-actress Marsha Wattanapanich. They divorced in 1997. They have one child together. Filmography Awards Amphol had the title role in The Story of Nam Pu, directed by Euthana Mukdasanit, which was submitted by Thailand for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Amphol won the best actor award at the Asia Pacific Film Festival for Nam Pu, an award he shared with Chow Yun-fat for Hong Kong 1941. Amphol was also awarded best actor for Ang Yee - Dragon's Son at the 2000 Thailand National Film Association Awards. Amphol Lumpoon at IMDb

Interpreting is a translational activity in which one produces a first and final target-language output on the basis of a one-time exposure to an expression in a source language. The most common two modes of interpreting are simultaneous interpreting, which is done at the time of the exposure to the source language, and consecutive interpreting, which is done at breaks to this exposure. Interpreting is an ancient human activity which predates the invention of writing. However, the origins of the profession of interpreting date back to less than a century ago. History Historiography Research into the various aspects of the history of interpreting is quite new. For as long as most scholarly interest was given to professional conference interpreting, very little academic work was done on the practice of interpreting in history, and until the 1990s, only a few dozen publications were done on it.Considering the amount of interpreting activities that is assumed to have occurred for thousands of years, historical records are limited. Moreover, interpreters and their work have usually not found their way into the history books. One of the reasons for that is the dominance of the written text over the spoken word (in the sense that those who have left written texts are more likely to be recorded by historians). Another problem is the tendency to view it as an ordinary support activity which does not require any special attention, and the social status of interpreters, who were sometimes treated unfairly by scribes, chroniclers and historians.Our knowledge of the past of interpreting tends to come from letters, chronicles, biographies, diaries and memoirs, along with a variety of other documents and literary works, many of which (and with few exceptions) were only incidentally or marginally related to interpreting. Etymology Many Indo-European languages have words for interpreting and interpreter. Expressions in Germanic, Scandinavian and Slavic languages denoting an interpreter can be traced back to Akkadian, around 1900 BCE. The Akkadian root targumânu/turgumânu also gave rise to the term dragoman via an etymological sideline from Arabic.The English word interpreter, however, is derived from Latin interpres (meaning 'expounder', 'person explaining what is obscure'), whose semantic roots are not clear. Some scholars take the second part of the word to be derived from partes or pretium (meaning 'price', which fits the meaning of a 'middleman', 'intermediary' or 'commercial go-between'), but others have suggested a Sanskrit root. Modes Consecutive In consecutive interpreting (CI), the interpreter starts to interpret after the speaker pauses; thus much more time (perhaps double) is needed. Customarily, such an interpreter will sit or stand near the speaker.Consecutive interpretation can be conducted in a pattern of short or long segments according to the interpreter's preference. In short CI, the interpreter relies mostly on memory whereas, in long CI, most interpreters will rely on note-taking. The notes must be clear and legible in order to not waste time on reading them. Consecutive interpreting of whole thoughts, rather than in small pieces, is desirable so that the interpreter has the whole meaning before rendering it in the target language. This affords a truer, more accurate, and more accessible interpretation than where short CI or simultaneous interpretation is used. An attempt at consensus about lengths of segments may be reached prior to commencement, depending upon complexity of the subject matter and purpose of the interpretation, though speakers generally face difficulty adjusting to unnatural speech patterns.On occasion, document sight translation is required of the interpreter during consecutive interpretation work. Sight translation combines interpretation and translation; the interpreter must render the source-language document to the target-language as if it were written in the target language. Sight translation occurs usually, but not exclusively, in judicial and medical work. Consecutive interpretation may be the chosen mode when bilingual listeners are present who wish to hear both the original and interpreted speech or where, as in a court setting, a record must be kept of both.When no interpreter is available to interpret directly from source to target, an intermediate interpreter will be inserted in a relay mode, e.g. a Greek source language could be interpreted into English and then from English to another language. This is also commonly known as double-interpretation. Triple-interpretation may even be needed, particularly where rare languages or dialects are involved. Such interpretation can only be effectively conducted using consecutive interpretation. Simultaneous Simultaneous interpretation (SI) has the disadvantage that if a person is performing the service the interpreter must do the best they can within the time permitted by the pace of source speech. However they also have the advantages of saving time and not disturbing the natural flow of the speaker. SI can also be accomplished by software where the program can simultaneously listen to incoming speech and speak the associated interpretation. The most common form is extempore SI, where the interpreter does not know the message until they hear it. Simultaneous interpretation using electronic equipment where the interpreter can hear the speaker's voice as well as the interpreter's own voice was introduced at the Nuremberg trials in 1945. The equipment facilitated large numbers of listeners, and interpretation was offered in French, Russian, German and English. The technology arose in the 1920s and 1930s when American businessman Edward Filene and British engineer Alan Gordon Finlay developed simultaneous interpretation equipment with IBM. Yvonne Kapp attended a conference with simultaneous interpretation in 1935 in the Soviet Union. As it proved successful, IBM was able to sell the equipment to the United Nations, where it is now widely used in the United Nations Interpretation Service. In the ideal setting for oral language, the interpreter sits in a sound-proof booth and speaks into a microphone, while clearly seeing and hearing the source-language speaker via earphones. The simultaneous interpretation is rendered to the target-language listeners via their earphones. The progressive shift from consecutive to simultaneous Pavel Palazchenko's My Years with Gorbachev and Shevardnadze: The Memoir of a Soviet Interpreter gives a short history of modern interpretation and of the transition from its consecutive to simultaneous forms. He explains that during the nineteenth century interpreters were rarely needed during European diplomatic discussions; these were routinely conducted in French, and all government diplomats were required to be fluent in this language. Most European government leaders and heads of state could also speak French. Historian Harold Nicolson attributes the growing need for interpretation after World War I to the fact that U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and British Prime Minister David Lloyd George "were no linguists". At the time, the concept and special equipment needed for simultaneous interpretation, later patented by Alan Gordon Finlay, had not been developed, so consecutive interpretation was used.Consecutive interpreters, in order be accurate, used a specialized system of note-taking which included symbols abbreviations and acronyms. Because they waited until the speaker was finished to provide interpretation, the interpreters then had the difficult task of creating from these notes as much as half an hour of free-flowing sentences closely matching the speaker's meaning. Palazchenko cites Anton Velleman, Jean Herbert and the Kaminker brothers as skilled interpreters, and notes one unusual case in which André Kaminker interpreted a speech by a French diplomat who spoke for two and a half hours without stopping.After World War II, simultaneous interpretation came into use at the Nuremberg trial, and began to be more accepted. Experienced consecutive interpreters asserted that the difficulties of listening and speaking at the same time, adjusting for differences in sentence structure between languages, and interpreting the beginning of a sentence before hearing its end, would produce an inferior result. As well, these interpreters, who to that point had been prominent speakers, would now be speaking invisibly from booths.In 1951, when the United Nations expanded its number of working languages to five (English, French, Russian, Chinese and Spanish), consecutive interpretation became impractical in most cases, and simultaneous interpretation became the most common process for the organization's large meetings. Consecutive interpretation, which provides a more fluent result without the need for specialized equipment, continued to be used for smaller discussions. Technology support Stemming from the field of computer-assisted translation, the field of computer-assisted interpretation has emerged, with dedicated tools integrating glossaries and automated speech recognition. Whispered Whispered interpretation is known in the trade by the French term chuchotage. To avoid disturbing the participants using the original language, the interpreter speaks to a few people at close proximity with normal voiced delivery at a very low volume, or through electronic equipment without the benefit of a soundproof booth. Typically, no actual whispering is involved as this is difficult to decipher, causes postural fatigue while parties lean in to one another, and straining to be heard at a whisper "can be as bad for your voice as shouting." Types Conference Conference interpreting refers to interpretation at a conference or large meeting, either simultaneously or consecutively. The advent of multi-lingual meetings has reduced the amount of consecutive interpretation in the last 20 years. Conference interpretation is divided between two markets: institutional and private. International institutions (EU, UN, EPO, et cetera), which hold multilingual meetings, often favor interpreting several foreign languages into the interpreters' mother tongues. Local private markets tend to have bilingual meetings (the local language plus another), and the interpreters work both into and out of their mother tongues. These markets are not mutually exclusive. The International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC) is the only worldwide association of conference interpreters. Founded in 1953, its membership includes more than 2,800 professional conference interpreters, in more than 90 countries. Judicial Judicial, legal, or court interpreting occurs in courts of justice, administrative tribunals, and wherever a legal proceeding is held (i.e., a police station for an interrogation, a conference room for a deposition, or the locale for taking a sworn statement). Legal interpreting can be the consecutive interpretation of witnesses' testimony, for example, or the simultaneous interpretation of entire proceedings, by electronic means, for one person, or all of the people attending. In a legal context, where ramifications of misinterpretation may be dire, accuracy is paramount. Teams of two or more interpreters, with one actively interpreting and the second monitoring for greater accuracy, may be deployed. The right to a competent interpreter for anyone who does not understand the language of the court (especially for the accused in a criminal trial) is usually considered a fundamental rule of justice. Therefore, this right is often guaranteed in national constitutions, declarations of rights, fundamental laws establishing the justice system or by precedents set by the highest courts. However, it is not a constitutionally required procedure (in the United States) that a certified interpreter be present at police interrogation. This has been especially controversial in cases where illegal immigrants with no English skills are accused of crimes. In the US, depending upon the regulations and standards adhered to per state and venue, court interpreters usually work alone when interpreting consecutively, or as a team, when interpreting simultaneously. In addition to practical mastery of the source and target languages, thorough knowledge of law and legal and court procedures is required of court interpreters. They are often required to have formal authorization from the state to work in the courts – and then are called certified court interpreters. In many jurisdictions, the interpretation is considered an essential part of the evidence. Incompetent interpretation, or simply failure to swear in the interpreter, can lead to a mistrial. Escort interpreter In escort interpreting, an interpreter accompanies a person or a delegation on a tour, on a visit, or to a business meeting or interview. An interpreter in this role is called an escort interpreter or an escorting interpreter. An escort interpreter's work session may run for days, weeks, or even months, depending on the period of the client's visit. This type of interpreting is often needed in business contexts, during presentations, investor meetings, and business negotiations. As such, an escort interpreter needs to be equipped with some business and financial knowledge in order to best understand and convey messages back and forth. Signed language interpreters typically refer to this role as a "designated interpreter." It is not a new practice; since the 1960s, deaf professionals and academics such as Robert Sanderson increasingly sought out and trained specific interpreters to work with on a regular, if not exclusive basis. Public sector Also known as community interpreting, is the type of interpreting occurring in fields such as legal, health, and federal and local government, social, housing, environmental health, education, and welfare services. In community interpreting, factors exist which determine and affect language and communication production, such as speech's emotional content, hostile or polarized social surroundings, its created stress, the power relationships among participants, and the interpreter's degree of responsibility – in many cases more than extreme; in some cases, even the life of the other person depends upon the interpreter's work. Medical Medical interpreting is a subset of public service interpreting, consisting of communication among healthcare personnel and the patient and their family or among Healthcare personnel speaking different languages, facilitated by an interpreter, usually formally educated and qualified to provide such interpretation services. In some situations, medical employees who are multilingual may participate part-time as members of internal language banks. Depending on country/state-specific requirements, the interpreter is often required to have some knowledge of medical terminology, common procedures, the patient interview and exam process. Medical interpreters are often cultural liaisons for people (regardless of language) who are unfamiliar with or uncomfortable in hospital, clinical, or medical settings. For example, in China, there is no mandatory certificate for medical interpreters as of 2012. Most interpretation in hospitals in China is done by doctors, who are proficient in both Chinese and English (mostly) in his/her specialty. They interpret more in academic settings than for communications between doctors and patients. When a patient needs English language service in a Chinese hospital, more often than not the patient will be directed to a staff member in the hospital, who is recognized by his/her colleagues as proficient in English. The actual quality of such service for patients or medical interpretation for communications between doctors speaking different languages is unknown by the interpreting community as interpreters who lack Healthcare background rarely receive accreditation for medical interpretation in the medical community. Interpreters working in the Healthcare setting may be considered Allied Health Professionals. In the United States, language access is a socioeconomic disparity, and language access to federally-funded health services is required by law. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in any program or activity that receives Federal funds or other Federal financial assistance. Hospital systems and clinics that are funded by federal programs, such as Medicare, are required by this law to take reasonable steps towards ensuring equitable access to health services for limited English proficient patients. Military interpreting Interpreters are often used in a military context, carrying out interpretation usually either during active military combat or during noncombat operations. Interpretation is one of the main factors in multi-national and multi-lingual cooperation and military cohesion of the military and civilian populations. During inactive military operations, the most common goal of military interpreters is to increase overall cohesion in the military unit, and with the civilian population. One of the primary forces behind the feeling of an occupation is a lack of mutual intelligibility. During the War in Afghanistan, the use of American soldiers that did not speak the languages of Afghanistan, and the primary recruitment from northern Afghanistan, primarily Tajiks, led to a feeling of the United States and Tajik forces as an occupying force. This feeling was most common in majority Pashtun areas of the country, which in turn was one of the main causes of the Taliban's resurgence. If interpreters are not present inside war zones, it becomes extremely common for misunderstandings from the civilian population and a military force to spiral into an open conflict, or to produce animosity and distrust, forming the basis of a conflict or an insurgency.Military interpreters are commonly found in Iraq and have been largely effective, particularly in the Kurdish held regions (Kurdistan Regional Government), during the fighting against ISIS. Military interpreters were the primary drivers in cooperation between the coalition and the Iraqi population and military. Likewise managing to produce stability in areas held by the coalition, Kurdish interpreters were known for being a primary aid in this endeavour.The fundamental act of interpreting during active combat is an extremely stressful and dangerous. It is, however, necessary when different-language battalions are fighting together with no common intermediate language. Misunderstandings in this context are most often fatal, the most common misinterpretations are positioning and attempted break outs. In the chaos of combat, however, it can be very easy to make a mistake in interpreting, particularly with the immense noise and changing locations.Military interpreters are also used within single armies instead of multi-lingual cooperation. In this context, a military interpreter is usually a given job in each unit. Common examples include Bosnia, Pakistan, Switzerland, and South Africa. This use of assigning soldiers with different languages to a single battalion helps reinforce a feeling of unity in the military force.For an historical example, see also Linguistics and translations in the Austro-Hungarian Army. Sign language A sign language interpreter conveys messages between combinations of spoken and signed languages and manual systems. This may be between deaf signers and hearing nonsigners, or among users of different signed languages and manual systems. This may be done in simultaneous or consecutive modes, or as sight translation from printed text. Interpreters may be hearing, hard of hearing, or deaf, and work in teams of any combination, depending upon the circumstance or audience. Historically, deaf interpreters or DIs work with DeafBlind people who use either close vision or Protactile signing, deaf people with nonstandard, emerging, or idiolect language varieties, affinity or cultural groups within the Deaf community, minors, immigrants of a different signed language, users of a minority signed language, participants in medical, carceral, or legal matters, and persons with cognitive or intellectual disabilities. DIs may work in relay teams with hearing interpreters, from a teleprompter, or with another DI to access the source language. DIs are commonly the member of the team visible on camera or on stage at televised, recorded, or public events. Interpreters can be formally trained in postsecondary programs and receive a certificate, associates, bachelors, masters, or doctoral degree. In some circumstances, lay interpreters take an experiential route through churches, families, and social networks. Formal interpreter education practices are largely the product of 20th century developments.In the United States, Sign Language interpreters have National and some states have a State level certifications. The Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID), a non-profit organization, is known for its national recognition and certification process. In addition to training requirements and stringent certification testing, RID members must abide by a Code of Professional Conduct, Grievance Process and Continuing Education Requirement. There are many interpreter-training programs in the U.S. The Collegiate Commission on Interpreter Education is the body that accredits Interpreter Preparation Programs. A list of accredited programs can be found on the CCIE web site.Some countries have more than one national association due to regional or language differences. National associations can become members of the umbrella organizations, the World Association of Sign Language Interpreters or the European Forum of Sign Language Interpreters (efsli). In Canada, the professional association that recognizes and nationally certifies sign language interpreters is the Association of Visual Language Interpreters of Canada (AVLIC). Under AVLIC holds several affiliate chapters representing a specified region of Canada.Sign language interpreters encounter a number of linguistic, environmental, interpersonal and intrapersonal factors that can have an effect on their ability to provide accurate interpretation. Studies have found that most interpreter training programs do not sufficiently prepare students for the highly variable day-to-day stresses that an interpreter must manage, and there is an ongoing conversation in the interpreting field as to how to appropriately prepare students for the challenges of the job. Proposed changes include having a more robust definition of what a qualified interpreter should know, as well as a post-graduate internship structure that would allow new interpreters to work with the benefit of supervision from more experienced interpreters, much like the programs in place in medicine, law enforcement, etc.In Israel, Naama Weiss, a board member of Malach, the Organization of the Israeli Sign Language Interpreters, advertised a video which she produced. It was her paraphrase of the video So-Low, and showed her viewpoint upon the Israeli Sign Language interpreters' jobs. A study which was made in Finland found that, in comparison to the foreign language teachers and non-linguistic experts, a high cooperativeness was found to be more characteristic to simultaneous and consecutive interpreters, and Weiss showed it in her video, although she claimed to be comic.The World Federation of the Deaf asserts that computer-generated signing avatars "do not surpass the natural quality and skill provided by appropriately trained and qualified interpreters," and approves their application only "for pre-recorded static customer information, for example, in hotels or train stations". The WFD statement concedes to such a project only if "deaf people have been involved in advising," and it does not intend to replace human interpreters. Quality and naturalness of movements are closely critiqued by sign-fluent viewers, particularly those who began signing at a younger age. Media By its very nature, media interpreting has to be conducted in the simultaneous mode. It is provided particularly for live television coverages such as press conferences, live or taped interviews with political figures, musicians, artists, sportsmen or people from the business circle. In this type of interpreting, the interpreter has to sit in a sound-proof booth where ideally he/she can see the speakers on a monitor and the set. All equipment should be checked before recording begins. In particular, satellite connections have to be double-checked to ensure that the interpreter's voice is not sent back and the interpreter gets to hear only one channel at a time. In the case of interviews recorded outside the studio and some current affairs program, the interpreter interprets what they hear on a TV monitor. Background noise can be a serious problem. The interpreter working for the media has to sound as slick and confident as a television presenter. Media interpreting has gained more visibility and presence especially after the Gulf War. Television channels have begun to hire staff simultaneous interpreters. The interpreter renders the press conferences, telephone beepers, interviews and similar live coverage for the viewers. It is more stressful than other types of interpreting as the interpreter has to deal with a wide range of technical problems coupled with the control room's hassle and wrangling during live coverage. Modalities Interpreting services can be delivered in multiple modalities. The most common modality through which interpreting services are provided is on-site interpreting. On-site Also called "in-person" and "face-to-face" or "F2F" interpreting, this traditional method requires the interpreter be physically present. With the growth of remote settings, having interpreters on-site remains crucial in high-stakes medical, legal, and diplomatic situations, and with socially, intellectually, or emotionally vulnerable clients. Telephone Also referred to as "over-the-phone interpreting", "telephonic interpreting", and "tele-interpreting", telephone interpreting enables interpretation via telephone. Telephone interpreting can be used in community settings as well as conference settings. Telephone interpreting may be used in place of on-site interpreting when no on-site interpreter is readily available at the location where services are needed. However, it is more commonly used for situations in which all parties who wish to communicate are already speaking to one another via telephone (e.g. telephone applications for insurance or credit cards, or telephone inquiries from consumers to businesses). Video Interpretation services via Video Remote Interpreting (VRI) or a Video Relay Service (VRS) are useful for spoken language barriers where visual-cultural recognition is relevant, and even more applicable where one of the parties is deaf, hard-of-hearing or speech-impaired (mute). In such cases the direction of interpretation is normally within the same principal language, such as French Sign Language (FSL) to spoken French and Spanish Sign Language (SSL) to spoken Spanish. Multilingual sign language interpreters, who can also interpret as well across principal languages (such as to and from SSL, to and from spoken English), are also available, albeit less frequently. Such activities involve considerable effort on the part of the interpreter, since sign languages are distinct natural languages with their own construction and syntax, different from the aural version of the same principal language. With video interpreting, sign language interpreters work remotely with live video and audio feeds, so that the interpreter can see the deaf or mute party, converse with the hearing party and vice versa. Much like telephone interpreting, video interpreting can be used for situations in which no on-site interpreters are available. However, video interpreting cannot be used for situations in which all parties are speaking via telephone alone. VRI and VRS interpretation requires all parties to have the necessary equipment. Some advanced equipment enables interpreters to control the video camera, in order to zoom in and out, and to point the camera toward the party that is signing. Venues The majority of professional full-time conference interpreters work for phone interpreting agencies, health care institutions, courts, school systems and international organizations like the United Nations (for the United Nations Interpretation Service), the European Union, or the African Union. The world's largest employer of interpreters is currently the European Commission, which employs hundreds of staff and freelance interpreters working into the official languages of the European Union and some others in DG Interpretation. In 2016, Florika Fink-Hooijer was appointed as Director General and the first ever Knowledge Centre on Interpretation was created. She had spoken about the need to "futureproof" services by strengthening the skills of colleagues to work with new technologies.' as well as how Artificial Intelligence may be an (un)desired revolution in linguistic services. Subsequently, she drove forward the digitalization of the service by introducing features like automatic speech recognition and other support services to interpreters. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she scaled up multilingual interpretation in hybrid meetings via new digital platforms and technologies, which was a "watershed moment" for the interpretation profession.The European Union's other institutions (the European Parliament and the European Court of Justice) have smaller interpreting services. The United Nations employs interpreters at almost all its sites throughout the world. Because it has only six official languages, however, it is a smaller employer than the European Union. Interpreters may also work as freelance operators in their local, regional and national communities, or may take on contract work under an interpreting business or service. They would typically take on work as described above. Militaries often use interpreters to better communicate with the local population. One notable example is the US military during the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Associations There are a number of interpreting and translation associations around the world, including NAATI (National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters), AIIC (The International Association of Conference Interpreters), CATTI (China Accreditation Test for Translators and Interpreters), CTTIC (Canadian Translators, Terminologists and Interpreters Council), the Institute of Translation & Interpreting, ADICA (Argentinian International Association of Conference and Interpreters) and TAALS (The American Association of Language Specialists). Certifications No worldwide testing or certification agency exists for all types of interpreters. For conference interpretation, there is the International Association of Conference Interpreters, or AIIC. Specific regions, countries, or even cities will have their own certification standards. In many cases, graduates of a certain caliber university program acts as a de facto certification for conference interpretation. China The most recognized interpretation and translation certificate in P.R.C. is China Accreditation Test for Translation and Interpretation, or CATTI. It is entrusted by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of P.R.C. It is a translation and interpretation professional qualification accreditation test which is implemented throughout the country according to uniform standards, in order to assess examinees' bilingual translation or interpretation capability. CATTI was introduced in 2003. In later 2013, translation and interpreting tests of different levels in English, French, Japanese, Russian, German, Spanish and Arabic were held across the nation. Those examinees who pass CATTI and obtain translation and interpretation certificates acquire corresponding translation and interpretation professional titles. Senior translator or interpreter – professor of translation or interpretation Level 1 translator or interpreter – associate professor of translation or interpretation Level 2 translator or interpreter – translator or interpreter Level 3 translator or interpreter – assistant translator or interpreterRelevant institutions from Australia, France, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore and other countries as well as Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Taiwan have established work ties with CATTI. Germany In Germany, anyone can become and call themselves an interpreter; access to this profession is not regulated, but court interpreters must be sworn in and prove their qualifications, e.g. through a recognized certificate or professional experience of several years.In order to learn and practice the necessary skills, colleges and universities offer studies in Translation and/or Interpretation Studies, primarily to/from English, but there are also Sign Language Interpretation studies. Admission to higher education, however, is highly restricted. Some states offer a State Examination title Staatlich geprüfter Dolmetscher. Unlike a bachelor's or master's degree, this certificate merely certifies professional skills. Access to the exam is far easier, but requires proof of the necessary skills. For that, there are private schools that offer preparatory courses. Attending these schools is usually sufficient to prove someone's aptitude. Of course, a university or college degree is accepted, too. Furthermore, the State Examination is offered in many more languages, including German Sign Language, yet primarily to/from German. See also Interpreting notes Cf., Literal translation List of translators and interpreters associations Bertone, Laura: The Hidden Side of Babel: Unveiling Cognition, Intelligence and Sense. 2006, ISBN 987-21049-1-3 [Evolución, Organización intercultural] Farwick, Judith (2018). Between the Signs. How to take notes without words. Duesseldorf. ISBN 9783752802696 Gaiba, Francesca (1998). The Origins of Simultaneous Interpretation: The Nuremberg Trial. University of Ottawa Press. ISBN 978-0776604572. Pöchhacker, Franz (2016). Introducing Interpreting Studies (2nd ed.). Routledge. ISBN 978-0415742726. Woodsworth, Judith; Delisle, Jean (2012). Translators through History (Revised ed.). John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 978-9027224514. Baigorri-Jalón, Jesús (2004). De Paris à Nuremberg: Naissance de l'interprétation de conférence. Ottawa, Canada: University of Ottawa Press. ISBN 978-2760305762. Baigorri Jalon, Jesus (2004). Interpreters at the United Nations: A History. Salamanca, Spain: Ediciones Universidad Salamanca. ISBN 978-8478006434. AIIC History Group. "Naissance d'une profession". Geneva: AIIC. 2013. Retrieved 8 February 2019. Further reading Takeda, Kayoko; Baigorri-Jalón, Jesús (2016). New Insights in the History of Interpreting. John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 978-9027258670. Moratto, Riccardo; Li, Defeng (2022). Global Insights into Public Service Interpreting: Theory, Practice and Training. Routledge. ISBN 9781032053196. Moratto, Riccardo; Zhang, Irene A. (2023). Conference Interpreting in China: Practice, Training and Research. Routledge. ISBN 9781032413419. Zhang, Irene A.; Moratto, Riccardo (2023). The Rise of Conference Interpreting in China: Insiders' Accounts. Routledge. ISBN 9781032413396. Moratto, Riccardo; Lim, Hyang-Ok (2023). The Routledge Handbook of Korean Interpreting. Routledge. ISBN 9781032394374. AIIC (International Association of Conference Interpreters) website The archives of the International Journal of Translation and Interpreting Research Association of Language Companies (USA)

Tung Shing (Chinese: 通勝) is a Chinese divination guide and almanac. It consists primarily of a calendar based on the Chinese lunar year. History Tung Shing originated from Wong Lik (黃曆, the "Yellow Calendar"), which legend attributes to the Yellow Emperor. It has changed its form numerous times throughout the years during all the dynasties; the latest version was said to have been edited under the Qing dynasty and was called the Tung Shu (通書). Tung (通) means "all", Shu (書) means "book", so Tung Shu literally meant "All-knowing Book". However, in Cantonese Chinese and Mandarin Chinese, the pronunciation of the word for "book" is a homophone of a word for defeated (輸), so Tung Shu sounded like "Defeated in All Things" (通輸). Therefore, the name was changed to Tung Shing (通勝), which means "Victorious in All Things". Contents Most of the contents of the book deals with what is suitable to do on each day. Some Chinese families still follow these days for wedding ceremonies, funerals, etc. Tung Shing is also used by many fung shui practitioners and destiny diviners to complement other date selection methods for selecting dates and times for important events like marriages, official opening ceremonies, house moving-in and big contract signings, as well as smaller events like time to start renovations or travel. The most common use of Tung Shing is in choosing a wedding date. Tung Shing contains information on the auspicious and inauspicious days for weddings and/or engagements. In addition, it provides the auspicious timing in which to carry out such activities. Tung Shing also provide a conversion of years and date between the lunar year and the common year. In more detailed versions, the calendar will list eclipses (both solar and lunar), the start of each season, and days when it will be cold or hot. It also teaches ethics and values through stories. Tung Shing sold in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan are based on two late-Qing versions. It is known for its English definitions and words transliterated into Cantonese characters. Gallery Other specialties Interpret one's fate Measure one's soul weight (requires Four Pillars of Destiny) Face reading and palm reading charts "For many centuries the T'ung Shu was known as the Farmers' Almanac, and most of its practical information was geared to weather, crops, sowing, harvesting and so forth." See also Chinese astrology Da Liu Ren (大六壬) Fuji (planchette writing) Fulu I Ching divination Lingqijing Kau Cim Qi Men Dun Jia (奇門遁甲) Shaobing Song Tai Sui Tai Yi Shen Shu (太乙神數) Tangki Tui bei tu Wen Wang Gua Palmer, Martin (1986). T'ung Shu: the Ancient Chinese Almanac. Boston: Shambhala. ISBN 9780394742212. 中國語文及文化科報告主頁 ─ 什麼是通勝?. Archived from the original on January 24, 2007. "The Chinese Almanac (a.k.a. Tong Sing)". Archived from the original on September 6, 2009. Includes list of chapters Online Tung shing (in Chinese) List of Auspicious Wedding dates from the 2010 Tung Shu T'ung Shu 1986 at Library Thing T'ung Shu 1986 at Open Library T'ung Shu 2001 at Open Library

The Executive Yuan (Chinese: 行政院; pinyin: Xíngzhèng Yuàn) is the executive branch of the government of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Its leader is premier, who is appointed by president of the Republic of China and serves as the head of government of the nation.Under the amended constitution, the head of the Executive Yuan is the Premier who is positioned as the head of government and has the power to appoint members to serve in the cabinet, while the ROC President is the head of state under the semi-presidential system, who can appoint the Premier and nominate the members of the cabinet. The Premier may be removed by a vote of no-confidence by a majority of the Legislative Yuan, after which the President may either remove the Premier or dissolve the Legislative Yuan and initiate a new election for legislators. Organization and structure The Executive Yuan is headed by the Premier (or President of the Executive Yuan) and includes its Vice Premier, twelve cabinet ministers, various chairpersons of commissions, and five to nine ministers without portfolio. The Vice Premier, ministers and chairpersons are appointed by the President of the Republic of China on the recommendation of the Premier.Its formation, as one of five branches ("Yuans") of the government, stemmed from the Three Principles of the People, the constitutional theory of Sun Yat-sen, but was adjusted constitutionally over the years to adapt to the situation in the ROC by changes in the laws and the Constitution of the Republic of China. Ministries Councils and commissions Empowered by various laws or the Constitution, under the Executive Yuan Council several individual boards are formed to enforce different executive functions of the government. Unless regulated otherwise, the chairs are appointed by and answer to the Premier. The members of the boards are usually (a) governmental officials for the purpose of interdepartmental coordination and cooperation; or (b) creditable professionals for their reputation and independence. Independent commissions There are independent executive commissions under the Executive Yuan Council. Members of these commissions have to be confirmed by the Legislative Yuan. Other organs Organizations no longer under Executive Yuan Duencies may be dissolved or merged with other agencies. Based on Executive Yuan website, the following bodies are no longer agencies under the Executive Yuan: Consumer Protection Commission, restructured as the Consumer Protection Committee on 1 January 2012 Aviation Safety Council, became an independent agency on 20 May 2012, later renamed Taiwan Transportation Safety Board National Disaster Prevention and Protection Commission: a task-force-grouped committee authorized by the law of Disaster Prevention and Protection. Dissolved or cease to function Government Information Office on 20 May 2012 Council for Economic Planning and Development on 21 January 2014 Research, Development and Evaluation Commission on 21 January 2014 Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission on 15 September 2017 Ministers without portfolio In the Executive Yuan Council, the current ministers without portfolio are: Chang Ching-sen Huang Chih-ta John Deng Kung Ming-hsin, also serving as Minister of National Development Council Lee Yung-te Lin Wan-i Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成), also serving as spokesperson of the Yuan Wu Tsung-tsong, also serving as Minister of National Science and Technology Council Wu Tze-cheng, also serving as Minister of Public Construction Commission Executive Yuan Council The Executive Yuan Council, commonly referred to as "The Cabinet" (內閣), is the chief policymaking organ of the ROC government. It consists of the premier, who presides over its meetings, the vice premier, ministers without portfolio, the heads of the ministries, and the heads of the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission and the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission. The secretary-general and the deputy secretary-general of the Executive Yuan also attend, as well as heads of other Executive Yuan organizations by invitation, but they have no vote. Article 58 of the Constitution empowers the Executive Yuan Council to evaluate statutory and budgetary bills concerning martial law, amnesty, declarations of war, conclusion of peace or treaties, and other important affairs before submission to the Legislative Yuan. Relationship with the Legislative Yuan The Executive Yuan Council must present the Legislators with an annual policy statement and an administrative report. The Legislative Committee may also summon members of the Executive Yuan Council for questioning. Whenever there is disagreement between the Legislative Council and Executive Yuan Council, the Legislative Committee may pass a resolution asking the Executive Yuan Council to alter the policy proposal in question. The Executive Yuan may, in turn, ask the Legislators to reconsider. Afterwards, if the Legislative Council upholds the original resolution, the premier must abide by the resolution or resign. The Executive Yuan Council may also present an alternative budgetary bill if the one passed by the Legislative Committee is deemed difficult to execute. Access The Executive Yuan building is accessible within walking distance east of Taipei Main Station or west of Shandao Temple Station of Taipei Metro. See also Department of State Affairs in the Three Departments and Six Ministries system Ming dynasty: Central Secretariat → Grand Secretariat Qing dynasty: Grand Secretariat → Grand Council → Cabinet Republic of China: State Council (1912–28); Politics of the Republic of China; Government of the Republic of China People's Republic of China: Government Administration Council of the Central People's Government (1949–54) → State Council of the People's Republic of China (1954–present); Ministries of the PRC Government-General of Taiwan (1895–1945) Official website

Guizhou (Chinese: 贵州; formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked province in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the province. Guizhou borders the autonomous region of Guangxi to the south, Yunnan to the west, Sichuan to the northwest, the municipality of Chongqing to the north, and Hunan to the east. The population of Guizhou stands at 38.5 million, ranking 18th among the provinces in China. The Dian Kingdom, which inhabited the present-day area of Guizhou, was annexed by the Han dynasty in 106 BC. Guizhou was formally made a province in 1413 during the Ming dynasty. After the overthrow of the Qing in 1911 and following the Chinese Civil War, the Chinese Communist Party took refuge in Guizhou during the Long March between 1934 and 1935. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong promoted the relocation of heavy industry into inland provinces such as Guizhou, to better protect them from potential foreign attacks.Guizhou is rich in natural, cultural and environmental resources. Its natural industry includes timber and forestry, and the energy and mining industries constitute an important part of its economy. Notwithstanding, Guizhou is considered a relatively undeveloped province, with the fourth-lowest GDP per capita in China as of 2020. However, it is also one of China's fastest-growing economies. The Chinese government is looking to develop Guizhou as a data hub.Guizhou is a mountainous province, with its higher altitudes in the west and centre. It lies at the eastern end of the Yungui Plateau. Demographically, it is one of China's most diverse provinces. Minority groups account for more than 37% of the population, including sizable populations of the Miao, Bouyei, Dong, Tujia and Yi peoples, all of whom speak languages distinct from Chinese. The main language spoken in Guizhou is Southwestern Mandarin, a variety of Mandarin. Name The area was first organized as an administrative region of a Chinese empire under the Tang, when it was named Juzhou (矩州), pronounced Kjú-jyuw in the Middle Chinese of the period. During the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty, the character 矩 (ju, "carpenter's square") was changed to the more refined 貴 (gui, "precious or expensive"). The region formally became a province in 1413, with an eponymous capital then also called "Guizhou" but now known as Guiyang. History Evidence of settlement by humans during the Middle Palaeolithic is indicated by stone artefacts, including Levallois pieces, found during archaeological excavations at Guanyindong Cave. These artefacts have been dated to approximately 170,000–80,000 years ago using optically stimulated luminescence methods.From around 1046 BC to the emergence of the State of Qin, northwest Guizhou was part of the State of Shu. During the Warring States period, the Chinese state of Chu conquered the area, and control later passed to the Dian Kingdom. During the Chinese Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), to which the Dian was tributary, Guizhou was home to the Yelang collection of tribes, which largely governed themselves before the Han consolidated control in the southwest and established the Lingnan province. During the Three Kingdoms period, parts of Guizhou were governed by the Shu Han state based in Sichuan, followed by Cao Wei (220–266) and the Jin dynasty (266–420).During the 8th and 9th centuries in the Tang dynasty, Chinese soldiers moved into Guizhou (Kweichow) and married native women. Their descendants are known as Lǎohànrén (老汉人), in contrast to new Chinese who populated Guizhou at later times. They still speak an archaic dialect. Many immigrants to Guizhou were descended from these soldiers in garrisons who married these pre-Chinese women.Kublai Khan and Möngke Khan conquered the Chinese southwest in the process of defeating the Song during the Mongol invasion of China, and the newly established Yuan dynasty (1279–1368) saw the importation of Chinese Muslim administrators and settlers from Bukhara in Central Asia. It was during the following Ming dynasty, which was once again led by Han Chinese, that Guizhou was formally made a province in 1413. The Ming established many garrisons in Guizhou from which to pacify the Yao and Miao minorities during the Miao Rebellions. Chinese-style agriculture flourished with the expertise of farmers from Sichuan, Hunan and its surrounding provinces into Guizhou. Wu Sangui was responsible for the ousting the Ming in Guizhou and Yunnan during the Manchu conquest of China. During the governorship-general of the Qing dynasty's nobleman Ortai, the tusi system of indirect governance of the southwest was abolished, prompting rebellions from disenfranchised chieftains and the further centralization of government. After the Second Opium War, criminal triads set up shop in Guangxi and Guizhou to sell British opium. For a time, Taiping Rebels took control of Guizhou, but they were ultimately suppressed by the Qing. Concurrently, Han Chinese soldiers moved into the Taijiang region of Guizhou, married Miao women, and their children were brought up as Miao.More unsuccessful Miao rebellions occurred during the Qing, in 1735, from 1795–1806 and from 1854–1873. After the overthrow of the Qing in 1911 and following Chinese Civil War, the Communists took refuge in Guizhou during the Long March (1934–1935). While the province was formally ruled by the warlord Wang Jialie, the Zunyi Conference in Guizhou established Mao Zedong as the leader of the Communist Party. As the Second Sino-Japanese War pushed China's Nationalist Government to its southwest base of Chongqing, transportation infrastructure improved as Guizhou was linked with the Burma Road. After the end of the War, a 1949 Revolution swept Mao into power, who promoted the relocation of heavy industry into inland provinces such as Guizhou, to better protect them from Soviet and American attacks. The 1957 influenza pandemic started in Guizhou and killed a million people around the world. After the Chinese economic reform began in 1978, geographical factors led Guizhou to become the poorest province in China, with a GDP growth average of 9 percent from 1978 to 1993. Geography Guizhou is a mountainous province, although its higher altitudes are in the west and centre. It lies at the eastern end of the Yungui Plateau. At 2,900 m (9,514 ft) above sea level, Jiucaiping is Guizhou's highest point.Guizhou has a humid subtropical climate. There are few seasonal changes. Its annual average temperature is roughly 10 to 20 °C, with January temperatures ranging from 1 to 10 °C and July temperatures ranging from 17 to 28 °C.Like in China's other southwest provinces, rural areas of Guizhou suffered severe drought during spring 2010. One of China's poorest provinces, Guizhou is experiencing serious environmental problems, such as desertification and persistent water shortages. Beginning on 3 April 2010, China's premier Wen Jiabao went on a three-day inspection tour in the southwest drought-affected province of Guizhou, where he met villagers and called on agricultural scientists to develop drought-resistant technologies for the area. Biodiversity The border mountains of Guizhou, Guangxi, and Hunan have been identified as one of the eight plant diversity hotspots in China. The main ecosystem types include evergreen broad-leaved forest, coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forest, and montane elfin forest. Plant species endemic to this region include Abies ziyuanensis, Cathaya argyrophylla, and Keteleeria pubescens. In broad terms, the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau is one of the vertebrate diversity hotspots of China. At the level of counties, Xingyi is one of nine Chinese vertebrate (excluding birds) diversity hotspots. Animals only known from Guizhou include Leishan moustache toad, Kuankuoshui salamander, Shuicheng salamander, Guizhou salamander, and Zhijin warty newt.Caohai Lake with its surroundings is a wetland that is an important overwintering site for many birds. It is a National Nature Reserve and an Important Bird Area identified by BirdLife International. Scientific research Major scientific research facilities in Guizhou include: The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), the world's largest radio telescope The Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences Politics Administrative divisions Guizhou is divided into nine prefecture-level divisions: six prefecture-level cities and three autonomous prefectures: These nine prefecture-level divisions are in turn subdivided into 88 county-level divisions (14 districts, 7 county-level cities, 55 counties, and 11 autonomous counties and one special district). Urban areas Economy As of the mid-19th century, Guizhou exported mercury, gold, iron, lead, tobacco, incense and drugs.Its natural industry includes timber and forestry. Guizhou is also the third largest producer of tobacco in China, and home to the well-known brand Guizhou Tobacco. Other important industries in the province include energy (electricity generation) - a large portion of which is exported to Guangdong and other provinces - and mining, especially in coal, limestone, arsenic, gypsum, and oil shale. Guizhou's total output of coal was 118 million tons in 2008, a 7% growth from the previous year. Guizhou's export of power to Guangdong equaled 12% of Guangdong's total power consumption. Over the next 5 years Guizhou hopes to increase this by as much as 50%. Transportation In 2017, Sun Zhigang, the governor of Guizhou, announced plans to build 10,000 kilometres (6,210 mi) of highways, 600 kilometres (370 mi) of inland waterways, 4,000 kilometres (2,500 mi) of high-speed rail lines, and 17 airports in three years, in an effort to boost tourism in the province. Rail Guizhou's rail network consists primarily of a cross formed by the Sichuan–Guizhou, Guangxi–Guizhou and Shanghai–Kunming railways, which intersect at the provincial capital, Guiyang, near the center of the province. The Liupanshui–Baiguo, Pan County West and Weishe–Hongguo railways form a rail corridor along Guizhou's western border with Yunnan. This corridor connects the Neijiang–Kunming railway, which dips into northwestern Guizhou at Weining, with the Nanning–Kunming railway, which skirts the southwestern corner of Guizhou at Xingyi.As of 2018, Shanghai–Kunming and Guiyang–Guangzhou high-speed railways are operational. Chengdu–Guiyang high-speed railway is under construction. Demographics In 1832, the population was estimated at five million.Guizhou is demographically one of China's most diverse provinces. Minority groups account for more than 37% of the population and they include Miao (including Gha-Mu and A-Hmao), Yao, Yi, Qiang, Dong, Zhuang, Bouyei, Bai, Tujia, Gelao and Sui. 55.5% of the province area is designated as autonomous regions for ethnic minorities. Guizhou is the province with the highest fertility rate in China, standing at 2.19 (urban: 1.31; rural: 2.42). Religion The predominant religions in Guizhou are Chinese folk religions, Taoist traditions and Chinese Buddhism. According to surveys conducted in 2007 and 2009, 31.18% of the population believes and is involved in ancestor veneration, while 0.99% of the population identifies as Christian, decreasing from 1.13% in 2004. The reports did not give figures for other types of religion; 67.83% of the population may be either irreligious or involved in worship of nature deities, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, folk religious sects, and small minorities of Muslims. There are significant ethnic minority populations (the Miao and the Buyei) who traditionally follow their autochthonous religions. Cuisine Guizhou is the home of the well-known Chinese liquor Moutai, as well as Lao Gan Ma. Tourism The province has many covered bridges, called Wind and Rain Bridges. These were built by the Dong people.The southeastern corner of the province is known for its unique Dong minority culture. Towns such as Rongjiang, Liping, Diping and Zhaoxing are scattered amongst the hills along the border with Guangxi. Three recommended forms The World Bank's "Strategic Environmental Assessment Study: Tourism Development in the Province of Guizhou, China" (May 25, 2007) points to three different forms of tourism that should be fostered and developed in Guizhou: Nature-based, heritage-based and rural. Heritage-based tourism provides ethnic minority groups with an opportunity to preserve their unique heritage while still making a living. Colleges and universities Guizhou University (Guiyang) Guizhou Normal University (Guiyang) Guiyang Medical University (Guiyang) Guizhou Nationalities University (Guiyang) Guizhou Institute of Technology (Guiyang) Zunyi Medical College (Zunyi) Moutai University (Zunyi) Media Guizhou Daily Notable people Shi Jinmo (1881-1969), founder of medical colleges Sun Yafang (1955-), engineer, business executive and former Chairwoman of Huawei from 1999 to 2018 Chuan He (1972-), biologist Huang Xiaoyun (1998-), singer and actress Zhou Shen (1992-), singer See also Major national historical and cultural sites in Guizhou 2020 Guizhou bus crash Works cited Guizhou government website (in Chinese) Guiyang Government website Archived 2010-07-12 at the Wayback Machine Township level administrative map of Guizhou

Primitive may refer to: Mathematics Primitive element (field theory) Primitive element (finite field) Primitive cell (crystallography) Primitive notion, axiomatic systems Primitive polynomial (disambiguation), one of two concepts Primitive function or antiderivative, F′ = f Primitive permutation group Primitive root of unity; See Root of unity Primitive triangle, an integer triangle whose sides have no common prime factor Sciences Primitive (phylogenetics), characteristic of an early stage of development or evolution Primitive equations, a set of nonlinear differential equations that are used to approximate atmospheric flow Primitive change, a general term encompassing a number of basic molecular alterations in the course of a chemical reaction Computing Cryptographic primitives, low-level cryptographic algorithms frequently used to build computer security systems Geometric primitive, the simplest kinds of figures in computer graphics Language primitive, the simplest element provided by a programming language Primitive data type, a datatype provided by a programming language Art and entertainment Naïve art, created by untrained artists Neo-primitivism, an early 20th-century Russian art movement that looks to early human history, folk art and non-Western or children's art for inspiration Primitivism, an early 20th-century art movement that looks to early human history, folk art and non-Western or children's art for inspiration Primitive decorating, a style of decorating using primitive folk art style that is characteristic of a historic or early Americana time period Primitive, a novel by J. F. Gonzalez Music The Primitives, a British indie rock band Primitive Radio Gods, an American alternative rock band Albums Primitive (Neil Diamond album), by Neil Diamond 1984 Primitive (Soulfly album), by Soulfly 2000 Songs "Primitive", by Accept from the 1996 album Predator "Primitive", by The Groupies and covered by The Cramps "Primitive", by Killing Joke from the 1980 album Killing Joke "Primitive", by Cyndi Lauper from A Night to Remember "Primitive", by Annie Lennox from the 1992 album Diva "Primitive", by Róisín Murphy from the 2007 album Overpowered Religion Primitive Church, another name for early Christianity Restorationism, also described as Christian primitivism, is the belief that Christianity should be restored along the lines of what is known about the apostolic early church Primitive Baptist, a religious movement seeking to retain or restore early Christian practices Primitive Methodism Other uses Primitive (philately) Anarcho-primitivism, an anarchist critique of the origins and progress of civilization Noble savage, a particular stock character in literature, i.e., a person uncorrupted by the influences of civilization Pre-industrial society Primitive communism, a pre-agrarian form of communism according to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels Primitive Culture, an 1871 book by Edward Burnett Tylor. Primitive Skateboarding, a company located in Los Angeles See also Primeval (disambiguation) Primitive Man (disambiguation) Primordial (disambiguation)

Edible bird's nests are bird nests created by edible-nest swiftlets, Indian swiftlets, and other swiftlets using solidified saliva, which are harvested for human consumption. They are particularly prized in Chinese culture due to their rarity, high protein content and rich flavor. Edible bird's nests are among the most expensive animal products consumed by humans, with nests being sold at prices up to about $3,000 per pound ($6,600/kg), depending on grading. The type or grading of a bird's nest depends on the type of bird as well as the shape and color of the bird's nest. It is usually white in color, but there also exists a red version that is sometimes called "blood" nest. According to traditional Chinese medicine, it promotes good health, especially for the skin. The nests have been used in Chinese cuisine for over 400 years, most often as bird's nest soup. Etymology The Chinese name for edible bird's nest, Chinese: 燕窩 (yànwō), translates literally as "swallow's (or swift's) nest"; in Indonesia "sarang burung walet" often serves as a synonym for bird's nest soup. Culinary use The best-known use of edible birds nest is bird's nest soup, a delicacy in Chinese cuisine. When dissolved in water, the birds' nests have a flavored gelatinous texture utilized in soup or sweet soup (tong sui). It is mostly referred to as 燕窩 (yànwō) unless references are made to the savory or sweet soup in Chinese cuisine. According to the Qing dynasty manual of gastronomy, the Suiyuan shidan, bird's nest was regarded as a delicate ingredient not to be flavored or cooked with anything overpowering or oily. While it is rare and expensive, it must be served in relatively large quantities; otherwise its texture cannot be fully experienced and enjoyed.In addition to their use in soup, edible bird's nests can be used as an ingredient in other dishes. They can be cooked with rice to produce bird's nest congee or bird's nest boiled rice, or they can be added to egg tarts and other desserts. A bird's nest jelly can be made by placing the bird's nest in a ceramic container with minimal water and sugar (or salt) before double steaming. Production and harvest The most heavily harvested nests are from the edible-nest swiftlet or white-nest swiftlet (Aerodramus fuciphagus) and the black-nest swiftlet (Aerodramus maximus). Previous studies conducted by Lee et al. have reported that the nutrient composition of EBN is dependent on the country of origin, food intake of the birds, climate and breeding sites. Most nests are built during the breeding season by the male swiftlet over a period of 35 days. They take the shape of a shallow cup stuck to the cave wall. The nests are composed of interwoven strands of salivary cement. Both nests have high levels of calcium, iron, potassium, and magnesium.The nests were formerly harvested from caves, principally the enormous limestone caves at Gomantong and Niah in Borneo. With the escalation in demand these sources have been supplanted since the late-1990s by purpose-built nesting houses, usually reinforced concrete structures following the design of the Southeast Asian shop-house ("rumah toko"/"ruko"). These nesting houses are normally found in urban areas near the sea, since the birds have a propensity to flock in such places. It has become an expanding industry as is evident in such places as the province of North Sumatra or the Pak Phanang District in Thailand. From those places the nests are mostly exported to the markets in Hong Kong, which has become the center of the world trade in bird's nests; the industry is valued at around HK$2 billion per year, although most of the final consumers are from mainland China. China is the world's largest consumer of birds' nests, accounting for more than 90 percent of consumption.In some places, nest gatherers (known in the Philippines as busyadors) have seen a steep decline in the number of birds and a rise in unexplained fatalities. Color Although bird's nest is usually white, there also exists a red version, called "blood nest" (Chinese: 血燕; pinyin: xuě yàn), which is significantly more expensive and believed to have more medicinal value. In the market, a kilogram of white bird's nest can fetch up to US$2,000, and a kilogram of red nests up to US$10,000.The reason for its characteristic redness has been a puzzle for centuries. Contrary to popular beliefs, red bird's nest does not contain hemoglobin, the protein responsible for the color of human blood. Researchers reported in 2013 that 'bird soil' containing guano droppings from bird houses were able to turn white edible bird's nests red, and that edible bird's nests' color is likely caused by environmental factors in cave interiors and bird houses.Subsequently, a research team at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore has found that its redness is caused by the vapor of reactive nitrogen species in the atmosphere of the bird house or cave reacting with the mucin glycoprotein of the initially formed white bird nest. Red bird's nest contains tyrosine that has combined with reactive nitrogen species to form 3-nitrotyrosine. At high concentrations, 3-nitrotyrosine produces a distinctively rich red color, while at lower concentrations, it produces the characteristic yellow, golden and orange colors seen in other varieties of bird's nest products.The researchers also note that the bird nest also readily absorbs nitrite and nitrate from the process' vapor which explains why the red bird's nest contains a high concentration of nitrite and nitrate, which are known to lead to carcinogenic compounds. This may mean that non-white bird's nests are harmful to human health. Market Indonesia is the largest bird's nest producer in Southeast Asia, exporting around 2,000 metric tons (2,000 long tons; 2,200 short tons) per year, followed by Malaysia at 600 metric tons (590 long tons; 660 short tons), and Thailand, 400 metric tons (390 long tons; 440 short tons). The Philippines, producing roughly 5 metric tons (4.9 long tons; 5.5 short tons) per year, is the smallest producer.The bird's nest industry in 2014 accounts for 0.5 percent of the Indonesian GDP, a GDP percentage equivalent to about a quarter of the country's fishing industry. In Thailand, the trade value of bird's nests, both wild and "farmed", is estimated at around 10 billion baht per year. The industry globally is an estimated US$5 billion.Hong Kong and the United States are the largest importers of nests. In Hong Kong, a bowl of bird's nest soup costs US$30 to US$100. Counterfeiting Besides the natural coloration process, the white nests can be treated with red pigment to defraud buyers, but methods have been developed to determine an adulterated nest. Natural red cave nests are often found in limestone caves in Pak Phayun District, Thailand. The high returns and growing demand have attracted counterfeiters, leading to the halt of Malaysian nest exports to China. The Malaysian government has since employed RFID technology to thwart counterfeiting by micro-chipping nests with details about harvesting, packaging, and transport. Industrial quality-control techniques such as failure mode and effects analysis have been applied to bird's nest processing at nesting houses in Sarawak, Malaysia and reported by a research team at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. Authentication The high demand for EBN has garnered the attention of counterfeiters to defraud buyers. Fake EBN or EBN with adulterants may be harmful to those who consume it. Hence, there is an urgent need to find a solution to the issues regarding the authenticity and quality of the EBN. Numerous sophisticated techniques have been used for the detection of adulterants in EBN such as energy disperse X-ray microanalysis, electronic microscopy and spectroscopy. Some other methods including DNA- based polymerase chain reactions, protein-based two-dimension gel electrophoresis and genetic identification based on mitochondrial DNA have found applications in the authentication of EBN. Previous studies used gel electrophoresis in combination with liquid chromatographic methods to identify some common adulterants in EBN. In this study, gel electrophoresis and liquid chromatography were used for protein profiling and amino acids studies of cave and house nests, and others samples such as white fungus, fish swimming bladder, jelly and egg white. Each of the samples had a unique protein profile which will be reflected on the protein gel and these results were supported by the chromatographic analysis. Gel electrophoresis also was used to identify and differentiate the EBN base on their geographical origins. This is due to the several advantages that make gel electrophoresis remains to be a popular option for analytical study; it is simple in operation, cost-effective and offers high sensitivity to the sample compared to other electrophoresis methods. Import restrictions Because a bird's nest is an animal product, it is subject to strict import restrictions in some countries, particularly with regard to H5N1 avian flu.In Canada, commercially prepared, canned, and sterile bird's nest preparations are generally acceptable, but may be subject to import restrictions. See also Traditional Chinese medicine List of Chinese soups List of delicacies List of soups Bibliography Jordan, David (2004). "Globalisation and Bird's Nest Soup". International Development Planning Review. 26 (1): 97–110. doi:10.3828/idpr.26.1.6. Archived from the original on 21 October 2008. Lau, Amy S. M.; Melville, David S. (April 1994). International Trade in Swiftlet Nests with Special Reference to Hong Kong. Traffic Network. ISBN 978-1-85850-030-0. Jong, Chian Haur; Tay, Kai Meng; Lim, Chee Peng (August 2013). "Application of the fuzzy Failure Mode and Effect Analysis methodology to edible bird nest processing" (PDF). Computers and Electronics in Agriculture. 96: 90–108. doi:10.1016/j.compag.2013.04.015. Tay, Kai Meng; Jong, Chian Haur; Lim, Chee Peng (April 2015). "A clustering-based failure mode and effect analysis model and its application to the edible bird nest industry" (PDF). Neural Computing and Applications. 26 (3): 551–560. doi:10.1007/s00521-014-1647-4. S2CID 7821836. Lee, Ting Hun; Wong, Syieluing; Lee, Chia Hau; Azmi, Nurul Alia; Darshini, Murugiah; Kavita, Supparmaniam; Cheng, Kian Kai (2020). "Identification of Malaysia's Edible Bird's Nest Geographical Origin Using Gel Electrophoresis Analysis" (PDF). Chiang Mai University Journal of Natural Sciences. 19 (3). doi:10.12982/CMUJNS.2020.0025. Chang, Wui Lee; Tay, Kai Meng; Lim, Chee Peng (November 2015). "Clustering and visualization of failure modes using an evolving tree" (PDF). Expert Systems with Applications. 42 (20): 7235–7244. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2015.04.036. Chai, Kok Chin; Jong, Chian Haur; Tay, Kai Meng; Lim, Chee Peng (August 2016). "A Perceptual Computing-based Method to Prioritize Failure Modes in Failure Mode and Effect Analysis and Its Application to Edible Bird Nest Farming" (PDF). Applied Soft Computing. 49: 734–747. doi:10.1016/j.asoc.2016.08.043. Hun, Lee Ting; Wani, Waseem A.; Poh, Heng Yong; Baig, Umair; Ti Tjih, Eddie Tan; Nashiruddin, Noor Idayu; Ling, Yong Ee; Aziz, Ramlan Abdul (2016). "Gel electrophoretic and liquid chromatographic methods for the identification and authentication of cave and house edible bird's nests from common adulterants". Analytical Methods. 8 (3): 526–536. doi:10.1039/C5AY02170G.. Lee, Ting Hun; Wani, Waseem A.; Koay, Yin Shin; Kavita, Supparmaniam; Tan, Eddie Ti Tjih; Shreaz, Sheikh (2017). "Recent advances in the identification and authentication methods of edible bird's nest". Food Research International. 100 (Pt 1): 14–27. doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2017.07.036. PMID 28873672. Further reading Jandam, Kasem (April 2017). Ethnicity and birds' nest resources in Southeast Asia. Thailand Research Fund (TRF). ISBN 978-616-7474-53-3. Retrieved 12 October 2018. Ting Hun, Lee., Wassem, A. Wani., & Eddie, Tan Ti Tjih (2015). Edible bird's nest: An Incredible salivary bioproduct from swiflets. LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing. ISBN 978-3659792557. Media related to Edible bird's nests at Wikimedia Commons

Songkran is a term derived from the Sanskrit word, saṅkrānti (or, more specifically, meṣa saṅkrānti) and used to refer to the traditional New Year for Buddhist calendar celebrated in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, parts of northeast India, parts of Vietnam and Xishuangbanna, China. It begins when the sun transits the constellation of Aries, the first astrological sign in the Zodiac, as reckoned by sidereal astrology. It is related to the equivalent Hindu calendar-based New Year festivals in most parts of South Asia which are collectively referred to as Mesha Sankranti. History Songkran New Year Festivals Cambodian New Year, in Cambodia Lao New Year, in Laos Sinhalese New Year, in Sri Lanka Songkran (Thailand) Thingyan, in Myanmar Sangken, in Arunachal Pradesh and parts of Assam, India Water-Splashing Festival, in Xishuangbanna in China and parts of northern Vietnam. Festivities outside of Asia Australia Songkran celebrations are held in many parts of the country. One of the most notable celebrations is at the Wat Pa Buddharangsee Buddhist Temple in the Sydney suburb of Leumeah, New South Wales. The festival attracts thousands of visitors each year and involves a water fight, daily prayer, dance performances and food stalls which serve food of Thai, Bangladesh (CHT), Burmese, Cambodian, Laotian, Sri Lankan and Malaysian origin. In 2014, the celebration was attended by more than 2000 people. Similarly in the same suburb, the Mahamakut Buddhist Foundation organizes a Songkran celebration featuring chanting, blessing, a short sermon, a fund raising food fete and Southeast Asian traditional dances. Large scale Thai New Year (Songkran) celebrations are held in Thai Town, Sydney in the popular tourist suburb of Haymarket, New South Wales. In Melbourne, the Sinhalese (Sri Lankan) New Year festival is held annually in Dandenong, Victoria. In 2011, it attracted more than 5000 people and claims to be the largest Sinhalese New Year Festival in Melbourne. The Queen Victoria Market held a two-day Songkran event celebrating the Thai New Year in early April 2017. Songkran celebrations celebrating the Thai, Cambodian, Lao, Burmese and Sri Lankan New Year festivals are well known and popular among the residents of the Sydney suburb of Cabramatta, New South Wales which is home to large populations of Cambodians, Laotians and Thais. Temples and organisations hold celebrations across the suburb including a large Lao New Year celebration in the neighbouring suburb of Bonnyrigg organised in partnership with the Fairfield City Council. In the Melbourne suburb of Footscray, Victoria a Lunar New Year celebration initially focusing on the Vietnamese New Year has expanded into a celebration of the Songkran celebrations of the Thais, Cambodians, Laotians and other Asian Australian communities such as Chinese who celebrate the New Year in either January/February or April. Taronga Zoo in Sydney, New South Wales celebrated the Thai New Year in April 2016 with its Asian elephants and traditional Thai dancers. United States Songkran celebrations often occur in cities which host large Sri Lankan, Thai, Burmese, Laotian and Cambodian populations. The UW Khmer Student Association hosts a new year celebration at the University of Washington in Seattle. The White Center Cambodian New Year Street Festival is held at the Golden House Bakery & Deli in Seattle. The Los Angeles Buddhist Vihara in Pasadena, California celebrates the Songkran festival with a focus on the Sri Lankan New Year. The Brahma Vihara in Azusa, California also holds celebrations with a Burmese New Year focus. The International Lao New Year Festival is held annually in San Francisco and celebrates the Lao New Year with acknowledgment of other Asian communities, Thai, Cambodian, Burmese, Sri Lankan and the Dai people of southern China, who also celebrate the same festival. In February 2015, the Freer and Sackler gallery in Washington D.C. held a Lunar New Year event celebrating the "Year of the Sheep" which also celebrated the Lunar New Year that occurs in mid-April for many other Asian countries. It included activities, information and food from China, Korea, Mongolia, Sri Lanka and other Asian countries that celebrated either of the two new year celebrations. Similarly in 2016, The Wing in Seattle held a Lunar New Year celebration centered around the East Asian Lunar New Year however also focused on New Year customs in Laos as part of its "New Years All Year Round" exhibit. See also South and Southeast Asian New Year List of Buddhist festivals Mesha Sankranti, the term used to refer to the related Hindu calendar-based New Year festivals of April Water Festival, a tradition practiced during certain Songkran celebrations Thai calendar

Matplotlib is a plotting library for the Python programming language and its numerical mathematics extension NumPy. It provides an object-oriented API for embedding plots into applications using general-purpose GUI toolkits like Tkinter, wxPython, Qt, or GTK. There is also a procedural "pylab" interface based on a state machine (like OpenGL), designed to closely resemble that of MATLAB, though its use is discouraged. SciPy makes use of Matplotlib. Matplotlib was originally written by John D. Hunter. Since then it has had an active development community and is distributed under a BSD-style license. Michael Droettboom was nominated as matplotlib's lead developer shortly before John Hunter's death in August 2012 and was further joined by Thomas Caswell. Matplotlib is a NumFOCUS fiscally sponsored project.Matplotlib 2.0.x supports Python versions 2.7 through 3.10. Python 3 support started with Matplotlib 1.2. Matplotlib 1.4 is the last version to support Python 2.6. Matplotlib has pledged not to support Python 2 past 2020 by signing the Python 3 Statement. Comparison with MATLAB Pyplot is a Matplotlib module that provides a MATLAB-like interface. Matplotlib is designed to be as usable as MATLAB, with the ability to use Python, and the advantage of being free and open-source. Examples Toolkits Several toolkits are available which extend Matplotlib functionality. Some are separate downloads, others ship with the Matplotlib source code but have external dependencies. Basemap: map plotting with various map projections, coastlines, and political boundaries Cartopy: a mapping library featuring object-oriented map projection definitions, and arbitrary point, line, polygon and image transformation capabilities. (Matplotlib v1.2 and above) Excel tools: utilities for exchanging data with Microsoft Excel GTK tools: interface to the GTK library Qt interface Mplot3d: 3-D plots Natgrid: interface to the natgrid library for gridding irregularly spaced data. tikzplotlib: export to Pgfplots for smooth integration into LaTeX documents (formerly known as matplotlib2tikz) Seaborn: provides an API on top of Matplotlib that offers sane choices for plot style and color defaults, defines simple high-level functions for common statistical plot types, and integrates with the functionality provided by Pandas Related projects Biggles Chaco DISLIN GNU Octave gnuplotlib - plotting for numpy with a gnuplot backend Gnuplot-py PLplot – Python bindings available SageMath – uses Matplotlib to draw plots SciPy (modules plt and gplt) Plotly – for interactive, online Matplotlib and Python graphs Bokeh – Python interactive visualization library that targets modern web browsers for presentation Official website

Tai Wo (Chinese: 太和) or known as Tai Wo Market are the names of several areas in the Tai Po District, in the New Territories of Hong Kong. The boundaries changed from time to time. In present time, the name "Tai Wo" mostly refers to the area surrounding the Tai Wo station of the East Rail line and the Tai Wo Estate. However, historically, Tai Wo referred to the area that currently called Tai Po Market.: 39  Despite Tai Po Market was also the old name of another area, which currently known as Tai Po Old Market.: 39  All three areas are now part of Tai Po New Town (a.k.a. Tai Po Town or just Tai Po), a satellite town (suburb) that co-jointed with the existing indigenous villages. History Recent years Currently, Tai Wo forms the north-western part of Tai Po Town. It has its own railway station Tai Wo station of the East Rail line and a shopping centre. Tai Wo Estate and Po Nga Court are large public housing estates in the area, which they were situated on the northern shore of the Lam Tsuen River. Their shopping centre, Tai Wo Plaza, is adjacent to the Tai Wo station. Part of the ground floor of the shopping centre, was also named "Tai Wo Market" (Chinese: 太和街市; lit. 'Tai Wo wet market') as an indoor market. Both Tai Wo Estate and Po Nga Court were the residential projects of the Hong Kong Housing Authority, which initially they were part of the portfolios of rental housing and subsidised home ownership respectively. The authority sold the shopping centre of the housing estate to Link REIT in 2005, which the real estate investment trust renamed the shopping centre from Tai Wo shopping centre (太和商場) to Tai Wo Plaza (太和廣場) in 2010.Tai Wo Estate and Po Nga Court were completed in 1989. According to an interview of an elder of the Tang clan of Tai Po Tau, some of the land of Tai Wo Estate, were originally farmlands that owned by Tang clan of Tai Po Tau. (Or more precisely, owned the long term land lease, leasing from the government) Government bought back the farmlands for Tai Po New Town development. Ironically, Tang clan of Tai Po Tau, was one of the operators of the original Tai Po Market, now the residential area Tai Po Old Market, while Tai Wo was named after the historic Tai Wo Market, which now known as Tai Po Market. The area of Tai Wo Estate, was planned as an industrial area. However, the plan was scrapped in 1983. Connection of the historic Tai Wo Market and current Tai Po Market Historically, "Tai Wo" was the name of the current outdoor market area Fu Shin Street (富善街), which was situated on the southern shore of the Lam Tsuen River. It was one of the market town of Tai Po and surrounding villages. Fu Shin Street, at that time known as Tai Wo Market (太和市 transliteration Tai Wo Shi) or Tai Po New Market (大埔新墟) was developed since 1892 by the Tai Po Tsat Yeuk (七約; 'Seven Alliance'). Which Tsat Yeuk was an inter-village alliance, none of them were from Tang clan. The formation of a new market town, was intended to break the monopoly of the [old] Tai Po Market (大埔墟, now Tai Po Old Market) formed by the Tang clans of Lung Yeuk Tau (龍躍頭鄧氏) and Tai Po Tau (大埔頭鄧氏). The Tai Po Old Market (大埔舊墟, transliteration Tai Po Kau Hui) was located on the Northern shore of the Lam Tsuen River. In early Qing dynasty (mid-17th century), Tai Po Old Market was known as Tai Po Tau Hui (大步頭墟).Tsat Yeuk also built Kwong Fuk Bridge which connects the two market towns,: 116  as well as Tai Po's Man Mo Temple which located in the centre of Fu Shin Street.: 102 To add more confusion to the name, government also runs an indoor wet market Tai Po Hui Market (大埔墟街市) in Tai Po Complex, while its former location (大埔墟臨時街市), was redeveloped into a public housing estate Po Heung Estate, where they are near to the Fu Shin Street. All three locations were belongs to "Tai Po Market" District Council Election Constituency of 2015 Hong Kong local elections.The headquarters of Tai Po Rural Committee of Heung Yee Kuk, was located in the former school building of the Sung Tak primary school (not to be confused with Sung Tak Wong Kin Sheung Memorial School), which is located at one end of Fu Shin Street. The former headquarters was redeveloped into aforementioned Po Heung Estate. Tai Po Rural Committee supervised some of the matter of the villages of indigenous inhabitants of Tai Po. Tai Wo Shi (Fu Shin Street) was served by [old] Tai Po Market railway station. The accessibility of Tai Wo Shi had made the area as one of the important market town of the New Territories. However, the railway station was closed in 1983 and was replaced by the current Tai Po Market station and Tai Wo station on different locations. To sum up, despite historically known as Tai Wo, area around Fu Shin Street has known as Tai Po Market, and became the town centre of Tai Po, housing various government buildings. Other namesake Lastly, Tai Po Tai Wo Road is a public road that start from an area next to the Tai Wo Estate, and then connects to area such as Tai Po Centre, a privately owned high rise commercial-residential complex, as well as Tai Po Police Station (not to be confused with Old Tai Po Police Station), and ends on the western boundary of Tai Po Waterfront Park. Most part of the road are not part of the historic Tai Wo Market, nor the current Tai Wo Estate. In election boundaries In 2015 Hong Kong local elections, the name of the District Council Election Constituency that Fu Shin Street (the historic Tai Wo Market) was located, was called "Tai Po Hui" (大埔墟; 'Tai Po Market'), while the large part of Tai Wo Estate was the only residential area of the election constituency "Tai Wo"; Po Nga Court and other part of Tai Wo Estate were the only residential area of the election constituency "Po Nga". North of "Tai Wo" constituency, was the "Old Market & Serenity" constituency (Chinese: 舊墟及太湖; lit. '[The] old market and Serenity Park'), where Tai Po Old Market was located. Tai Po Old Market currently a pure residential area, [sic]: 165  while Serenity Park is another privately owned residential complex. The current Tai Po Market station, was located on the boundary between "Tai Po Hui" constituency and "San Fu" (新富) constituency; the bus terminus of the station, which was located on the ground floor and underground level of a commercial-residential complex, Uptown Plaza (新達廣場), was entirely inside "San Fu" constituency.Tai Wo station was located on the boundary between constituencies "Tai Wo" and "Po Nga".However, the proposed change for the District Council Election Constituencies of 2019 Hong Kong local elections, had enlarged the constituency "Po Nga", which cover more than Po Nga Court and part of the Tai Wo Estate. It was also accused of gerrymandering.In 1989, Tai Wo Estate did not have their own election constituency. See also Tai Po Sports Ground, located in the nearby Tai Po Tau, next to Serenity Park. Further reading 蕭國健 (2007). 太和市開墟. 大埔風物志 (PDF) (in Chinese (Hong Kong)) (revised ed.). Tai Po District Council.

Wu Zetian (17 February 624 – 16 December 705), personal name Wu Zhao, was the first and only female emperor in Chinese history, and de facto ruler of the Tang dynasty from 665 to 705, ruling first through others and then (from 690) in her own right. From 665 to 690, she was first empress consort of the Tang dynasty (as wife of the Emperor Gaozong) and then, after his death, empress dowager (ruling through her sons Emperors Zhongzong and Ruizong). Unprecedented in Chinese history, she subsequently founded and ruled as female emperor of the Wu Zhou dynasty of China from 690 to 705. She was the only female sovereign in the history of China widely regarded as legitimate. Under her 40-year reign, China grew larger, becoming one of the great powers of the world, its culture and economy were revitalized, and corruption in the court was reduced. She was removed from power in a coup and died a few months later. In early life, Wu was the concubine of Emperor Taizong. After his death, she married his ninth son and successor, Emperor Gaozong, officially becoming Gaozong's huanghou (皇后), or empress consort, the highest-ranking of the wives, in 655. Even before becoming empress consort, Wu had considerable political power. Once announced as the empress consort, she began to control the court, and after Gaozong's debilitating stroke in 660, she became administrator of the court, a position equal to the emperor's, until 705. As a young woman entering Gaozong's harem, Wu clashed with Empress Wang and Consort Xiao to gain the emperor's affection, and eventually expelled and killed them. After her wedding to Gaozong in 655, her rise to power was swift. A strong, charismatic, vengeful, ambitious and well-educated woman who enjoyed the absolute affection of her husband, Wu was the most powerful and influential woman at court during a period when the Tang dynasty was at the peak of its glory. Wu was more decisive and proactive than her husband, and historians consider her to have been the real power behind the throne during Gaozong's reign for more than 20 years until his death. She was partially in control of power from November 660, and totally from January 665. History records that: "She was at the helm of the country for long years, her power is no different from that of the emperor." Wu presided over the court with the emperor, and even held court independently when the emperor was unwell. She was given charge of the Heirloom Seal of the Realm, implying that her perusal and consent were necessary before any document or order received legal validity. Gaozong sought her views on all matters before making major decisions. Wu was also granted certain honors and privileges not enjoyed by any Chinese empresses before or since. After Gaozong's death, Wu as empress dowager and regent held power completely and solely, used absolute power more forcefully and violently than before, and suppressed her overt and covert opponents. Seven years later, Wu seized the throne and began the Zhou dynasty, becoming the only empress regnant in Chinese history. Empress Wu is considered one of the greatest emperors in Chinese history due to her strong leadership and effective governance, which made China one of the world's most powerful nations. The importance to history of her tenure includes the major expansion of the Chinese empire, extending it far beyond its previous territorial limits, deep into Central Asia, and engaging in a series of wars on the Korean Peninsula, first allying with Silla against Goguryeo, and then against Silla over the occupation of former Goguryeo territory. Within China, besides the more direct consequences of her struggle to gain and maintain power, Wu's leadership resulted in important effects regarding social class in Chinese society and in relation to state support for Taoism, Buddhism, education and literature. Wu developed a network of spies to build a strong intelligence system in the court and throughout the empire, delivering daily reports on current affairs of the empire or opposition to the central state. She also played a key role in reforming the imperial examination system and encouraging capable officials to work in governance to maintain a peaceful and well-governed state. Effectively, these reforms improved her nation's bureaucracy by placing competence, rather than family connection, at the centre of the civil service. Wu also had a monumental impact upon the statuary of the Longmen Grottoes and the "Wordless Stele" at the Qianling Mausoleum, as well as the construction of some major buildings and bronze castings that no longer survive. Besides her career as a political leader, Wu also had an active family life. She was a mother of four sons, three of whom also carried the title of emperor, although one held that title only as a posthumous honor. One of her grandsons became the controversial Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, whose reign marked the turning point of the Tang dynasty into sharp decline. Names and titles In Chinese history and literature, Wu Zetian (Mandarin pronunciation: [ù tsɤ̌ tʰjɛ́n]) was known by various names and titles. Mention of her in the English language has only increased their number. A difficulty in English translations is that they tend to specify gender (as in the case of "emperor" versus "empress" or "prince" versus "princess"), whereas, in Classical Chinese, words such as hou (后, "sovereign", "prince", "queen") or huangdi (皇帝, "imperial supreme ruler", "royal deity") are of grammatically indeterminate gender. Names In Wu's time, women's birth names were rarely recorded. She changed her name to Wu Zhao after rising to power, often written as 武曌, (曌 has also been written as 瞾 on occasion, and both are derivatives of 照, which may be her original name), with 瞾 being one of the invented characters by Wu. Wu was her patronymic surname, which she retained, according to traditional Chinese practice, after marriage to Gaozong, of the Li family. Emperor Taizong gave her the art name Wu Mei (武媚), meaning "glamorous". Thus, Chinese people often refer to her as Wu Mei or Wu Meiniang (武媚娘) when they write about her youth, as Wu Hou (武后) when referring to her as empress consort and empress dowager, and as Wu Zetian (武則天) when referring to her as empress regnant. Titles During her life, and posthumously, Wu was awarded various official titles. Both hou (后) and huangdi (皇帝) are titles (modifications, or added characters to hou are of lesser importance). Born Wu Zhao, she is not properly known as "Wu Hou" (Empress Wu) until receiving this title in 655, nor is she properly known as "Wu Zetian", her regnal name, until 690, when she took the title Emperor. During the reign of Emperor Gaozu of Tang (618-626): Lady Wu (from 624) During the reign of Emperor Taizong of Tang (626-649): Talented Lady (才人; from 637), 17th rank consort During the reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang (649-683): Imperial Concubine Zhaoyi (昭儀; from 650), 6th rank consort Empress (皇后; from 655), 1st rank consort Heavenly Empress (天后; from 674), 1st rank consort During the reign of Emperor Zhongzong of Tang (684-684): Empress Dowager Wu (武皇太后; from 683) During the reign of Emperor Ruizong of Tang (684-690) Empress Dowager Wu (武皇太后; from 684) During her reign as the Empress Regnant of the Zhou Dynasty (690-705): Holy Emperor (聖神皇帝; from 690) Holy Golden Emperor (金輪聖神皇帝; from 693) Holy Golden Goddess Emperor (越古金輪聖神皇帝; from 694) Holy Golden Emperor (金輪聖神皇帝; from 695) Emperor Tiance Jinlun (天策金輪大帝; from 695) Emperor Zetian Dasheng (則天大聖皇帝; from 705) During the second reign of Emperor Zhongzong of Tang (705-710): Empress Zetian Dasheng (則天大聖皇后; from 705) During the second reign of Emperor Ruizong of Tang (710-712): Heavenly Empress (天后; from 710) Holy Empress (大聖天后; from 710) Empress of Heaven (天后聖帝; from 712) Holy Empress (聖后; from 712) During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (713-756): Empress Zetian (則天皇后; from 716) Holy Empress Zetianshun (則天順聖皇后; from 749) "Empress" Various Chinese titles have been translated into English as "empress", including "empress" in both the sense of empress consort and empress regnant. Generally, the monarch was male and his chief spouse was given a title such as huanghou (皇后), often translated as "empress" or more specific "empress consort". Upon the emperor's death, the surviving empress consort could become empress dowager, sometimes wielding considerable political power as regent during the minority of the (male) heir to the position of emperor. Since the time of Qin Shi Huang (259–210 BC), the Emperor of China using the title huangdi (皇帝, translated as "emperor" or "empress (regnant)" as appropriate), Wu was the only woman in the history of China to assume the title huangdi. Her tenure as de facto ruler of China and official regent of the Tang dynasty (first through her husband and then through her sons, from 665 to 690) was not without precedent in Chinese history, but she broke precedent when she founded her own dynasty in 690, the Zhou (周) (interrupting the Tang dynasty), ruling personally under the name Sacred and Divine Huangdi (聖神皇帝), and variations thereof, from 690 to 705. Wu Zetian and Empress Dowager Liu of the Song Dynasty are said to be the only women in Chinese history to have worn a yellow robe, ordinarily reserved for the emperor's sole use, as a monarch or co-ruler in their own right. Background and early life The Wu family clan originated in Wenshui County, Bingzhou (an ancient name of the city of Taiyuan, Shanxi). Wu Zetian's birthplace is not documented in preserved historical literature and remains disputed. Some scholars argue that Wu was born in Wenshui, some that it was Lizhou (利州) (modern-day Guangyuan in Sichuan), while others insist she was born in the imperial capital of Chang'an (today known as Xi'an). Wu Zetian was born in the seventh year of the reign of Emperor Gaozu of Tang. In the same year, a total eclipse of the sun was visible across China. Her father, Wu Shiyue, worked in the timber business and the family was relatively well off. Her mother was from the powerful Yang family. During the final years of Emperor Yang of Sui, Li Yuan (李淵) (who went on to become Emperor Gaozu of Tang) stayed in the Wu household many times and became close to the Wu family while holding appointments in both Hedong and Taiyuan. After Li Yuan overthrew Emperor Yang, he was generous to the Wu family, giving them money, grain, land, and clothing. Once the Tang dynasty became established, Wu Shihou held a succession of senior ministerial posts, including governor of Yangzhou, Lizhou, and Jingzhou (荊州) (modern-day Jiangling County, Hubei). Wu was from a wealthy family, and was encouraged by her father to read books and pursue her education. He made sure that she was well-educated, an uncommon trait among women, much less encouraged by their fathers. Wu read and learned about many topics, such as politics and other governmental affairs, writing, literature, and music. At age 14, she was taken to be an imperial concubine (lesser wife) of Emperor Taizong of Tang. It was there that she became a type of secretary. This opportunity allowed her to continue to pursue her education. She was given the title of cairen, the title for one of the consorts with the fifth rank in Tang's nine-rank system for imperial officials, nobles, and consorts. When she was summoned to the palace, her mother, the Lady Yang, wept bitterly when saying farewell to her, but she responded, "How do you know that it is not my fortune to meet the Son of Heaven?" Lady Yang reportedly then understood her ambitions, and therefore stopped crying.Consort Wu, however, did not appear to be much favored by Emperor Taizong, although it appeared that she did have sexual relations with him at one point. According to her own account (given in a rebuke of Chancellor Ji Xu during her reign), she once impressed Taizong with her fortitude: Emperor Taizong had a horse with the name "Lion Stallion", and it was so large and strong that no one could get on its back. I was a lady in waiting attending Emperor Taizong, and I suggested to him, "I only need three things to subordinate it: an iron whip, an iron hammer, and a sharp dagger. I will whip it with the iron whip. If it does not submit, I will hammer its head with the iron hammer. If it still does not submit, I will cut its throat with the dagger." Emperor Taizong praised my bravery. Do you really believe that you are qualified to dirty my dagger? When Taizong died in 649, his youngest son, Li Zhi, whose mother was the main wife Wende, succeeded him as Emperor Gaozong. Li Zhi had had an affair with Wu when Taizong was still alive. Taizong had 14 sons, including three by his beloved Empress Zhangsun (601–636), but none with Consort Wu. Thus, according to the custom by which consorts of deceased emperors who had not produced children were permanently confined to a monastic institution after the emperor's death, Wu was consigned to Ganye Temple (感業寺) with the expectation that she would serve as a Buddhist nun there for the remainder of her life. But Wu defied expectations and left the convent for an alternative life. After Taizong's death, Li Zhi came to visit her and, finding her more beautiful, intelligent, and intriguing than before, decided to bring her back as his own concubine. Rise to power By early 650, Consort Wu was a concubine of Emperor Gaozong, and had the title Zhaoyi (昭儀) (the highest-ranking of the nine concubines in the second rank). She progressed rapidly, earning the title of huanghou (皇后) (empress consort, the highest rank and position a woman held in the empire), and gradually gained immeasurable influence and unprecedented authority over the empire's governance throughout Gaozong's reign. Over time, she came to control most major and key decisions made during Gaozong's reign, and presided over imperial gatherings. After Gaozong died in 683, Empress Wu became the empress dowager and regent and power fell completely and solely into her hands. She proceeded to depose Emperor Zhongzong for displaying independence and held onto power even more firmly thereafter. She then had her youngest son, Ruizong, made emperor. She was absolute ruler not only in substance but in appearance. She presided alone over imperial gatherings, prevented Ruizong from taking an any active role in governance, and forbade all meetings with him. In 690, she had Ruizong yield the throne to her and established the Zhou Dynasty. She ruled as emperor until 705. She was regarded as ruthless in her endeavors to grab power, and was believed by traditional historians to have killed her own children. This was later proven false; these rumors seem to have surfaced 400 years after her death, likely due to the belief in ancient China that a woman was unsuited to hold the power of the emperor. But the cause of death of her first two children is still in question. Imperial consort Palatial intrigue: (650–655) Gaozong became emperor at the age of 21. He was not the first choice, as he was inexperienced and frequently incapacitated with a sickness that caused him spells of dizziness. Gaozong was made heir to the empire only due to the disgrace of his two older brothers. On or after the anniversary of Emperor Taizong's death, Gaozong went to Ganye Temple to offer incense to Buddha. When he and Consort Wu saw each other, they both wept. This was seen by Gaozong's wife, Empress Wang. At that time, Gaozong did not favor Wang. Instead, he favored his concubine Consort Xiao. Furthermore, Wang had no children, and Xiao had one son (Li Sujie) and two daughters (Princesses Yiyang and Xuancheng). Wang, seeing that Gaozong was still impressed by Wu's beauty, hoped that the arrival of a new concubine would divert the emperor from Xiao. Therefore, she secretly told Wu to stop shaving her hair and later welcomed her to the palace. (Some modern historians dispute this traditional account. Some think that Wu never left the imperial palace and might have had an affair with Gaozong while Taizong was still alive.)Wu soon overtook Xiao as Gaozong's favorite. In 652, she gave birth to her first child, a son named Li Hong. In 653, she gave birth to another son, Li Xián. Neither of these sons was in contention to be Gaozong's heir, because Gaozong, at the request of officials influenced by Wang and her uncle (the chancellor Liu Shi), had designated his eldest son Li Zhong as his heir. Li Zhong's mother, Consort Liu, was of lowly birth. Wang did this in order to receive Liu's gratitude. By 654, both Wang and Xiao had lost favor with Gaozong, and these two former romantic rivals joined forces against Wu, but to no avail. For example, as a sign of his love for Wu, Gaozong conferred posthumous honors on her father, Wu Shiyue, in 654. In the same year, Wu gave birth to a daughter. But her daughter died shortly after birth, with evidence suggesting deliberate strangulation. The evidence include allegations made by Wu herself, and she accused Wang of murder. Wang was accused of having been seen near the child's room, with corroborating testimony by alleged eyewitnesses. Gaozong was led to believe that Wang, motivated by jealousy, had most likely killed the child. Wang lacked an alibi and was unable to clear her name. Scientifically credible forensic pathology information about the death of Wu's daughter does not exist, and scholars lack concrete evidence about her death. But scholars have many theories and speculations. Because traditional folklore tends to portray Wu as a power-hungry woman unconcerned about whom she hurt or what she did, the most popular theory is that Wu killed her own child in order to implicate Wang. Other schools of thought argue that Wang indeed killed the child out of jealousy and hatred of Wu. The third argument is that the child died of asphyxiation or crib death. The ventilation systems of the time were nonexistent or of poor quality, and the lack of ventilation combined with using coal as a heating method could have led to carbon monoxide poisoning. In any case, Wu blamed Wang for the girl's death, and as a result, tried to remove Wang from her position. Because of the child's death, an angry Gaozong also wanted to depose Wang and replace her with Wu. But first he needed to make sure that he had the support of the government chancellors. So Gaozong met with his uncle Zhangsun Wuji, the head chancellor. During the meeting, Gaozong repeatedly brought up Wang's childlessness. Childlessness was a sufficient excuse to depose Wang, but Zhangsun repeatedly found ways to divert the conversation. Subsequent visits made by Wu's mother, Lady Yang, and an official allied with Wu, Xu Jingzong, to seek support from Zhangsun were met with disappointment. Early in 655, he wanted to create Wu, who carried the sixth-highest rank among imperial consorts, Zhaoyi (昭儀), the unprecedented title of Chenfei (宸妃), and promote her over all other imperial consorts directly under Wang herself, but Han and fellow chancellor Lai Ji both opposed on the grounds that the title was unprecedented, and so Gaozong did not carry it out. In summer 655, Wu accused Wang and her mother, Lady Liu, of using witchcraft. In response, Gaozong barred Liu from the palace and demoted Wang's uncle, Liu Shi. Meanwhile, a faction of officials began to form around Wu, including Li Yifu, Xu, Cui Yixuan (崔義玄), and Yuan Gongyu (袁公瑜). Once in the autumn of 655, Gaozong summoned the chancellors Zhangsun, Li Ji, Yu Zhining, and Chu Suiliang to the palace. Chu had deduced that the summons was about changing the empress. Li Ji claimed illness and refused to attend. At the meeting, Chu vehemently opposed deposing Wang, while Zhangsun and Yu showed their disapproval by silence. Meanwhile, chancellors Han Yuan and Lai Ji also opposed the move. When Gaozong asked Li Ji again, he responded, "This is your family matter, Your Imperial Majesty. Why ask anyone else?" Gaozong therefore became resolved. He demoted Chu to commandant at Tan Prefecture (roughly modern Changsha, Hunan), and then deposed both Wang and Xiao. He placed them both under arrest and made Wu empress. (Later that year, Gaozong showed signs of considering their release. Because of this, Wang and Xiao were killed on Empress Wu's orders. After their deaths, they often haunted Wu's dreams.) For the rest of Gaozong's reign, Wu and Gaozong often took up residence at the eastern capital Luoyang and only infrequently spent time in Chang'an. Empress consort Involvement in politics: (655–660) In 655, Wu became Tang Gaozong's new empress consort (皇后, húanghòu). Empress Wu was a powerful force in the world of politics, and had great influence over the Emperor. After Empress Wu's ascension, one of the first things she did was to submit a petition ostensibly praising the faithfulness of Han and Lai in opposing the unprecedented Chenfei title. The real purpose was to show that she remembered that they had offended her, and it made Han and Lai apprehensive that she was aware of their opposition of her. Han offered to resign soon thereafter, an offer that Emperor Gaozong did not accept. In 656, on the advice of Xu Jingzong, Emperor Gaozong deposed Consort Liu's son Li Zhong from being his heir apparent. He changed Li Zhong's status to Prince of Liang and designated Empress Wu's son, Li Hong as the title of Prince of Dai and crown prince (that is, Heir Apparent). Soon after, Empress Wu became dominant at court, installing officials who favored her ascension in chancellor posts. In 657, Empress Wu persuaded Emperor Gaozong to split the empire into two capitals and make Luoyang the capital alongside Chang'an. In 657, Empress Wu and her allies began reprisals against officials who had opposed her ascension. She first had Xu and Li Yifu, who were by now chancellors, falsely accuse Han Yuan and Lai Ji of being complicit with Chu Suiliang in planning treason. The three of them, along with Liu Shi, were demoted to being prefects of remote prefectures, with provisions that they would never be allowed to return to Chang'an. In 659, she had Xu accuse Zhangsun Wuji of plotting treason with the low-level officials Wei Jifang (韋季方) and Li Chao (李巢). Zhangsun was exiled and, later in the year, was forced to commit suicide in exile. Xu further implicated Chu, Liu, Han, and Yu Zhining in the plot as well. Chu, who had died in 658, was posthumously stripped of his titles, and his sons Chu Yanfu (褚彥甫) and Chu Yanchong (褚彥沖) were executed. Orders were also issued to execute Liu and Han, although Han died before the execution order reached his location. It was said that after this time, no official dared to criticize the emperor or empress. In order to complete the social promotion of her family, she had the Wu clan listed among those of first importance in the registers of the "Great Families" (姓氏錄, xìngshìlù) by changing the "Book of Clans" to "Books of Names"; against imperial traditions. In late 659, she proposed to Emperor Gaozong that Palace Exam be opened to establish talented people from the lower classes as government officials. This reduced the power of the aristocracy. In 660, Li Zhong, Gaozong's first-born son (to consort Liu) also was targeted. Li Zhong had feared that he would be next and had sought out advice of fortune tellers. Wu had him exiled and placed under house arrest. Ruling with Emperor Gaozong: (660–683) After removing those who opposed her rise, she had more power to influence politics, and Emperor Gaozong took full advantage of her advice on petitions made by officials and talking about state affairs. In 660, Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu toured Bian Prefecture (modern-day Taiyuan), and Empress Wu had the opportunity to invite her old neighbors and relatives to a feast. Later that year, Emperor Gaozong began to suffer from an illness that carried the symptoms of painful headaches and loss of vision, generally thought to be hypertension-related. He began to have Empress Wu make rulings on daily petitions and proposals made by officials. It was said that Empress Wu had quick reactions and understood both literature and history, and therefore, she made correct rulings, and Emperor Gaozong, with her ability, no longer paid much attention to governmental affairs, and over time and every day more and more depended on her advice, and delegated his duties to her. Thereafter, her authority rivaled Emperor Gaozong's. From this point on, Empress Wu became the undisputed power behind the throne until the end of his reign. Slowly, Gaozong became aware of Wu's increasing power; however, he could not stop Wu effectively.In 661, Empress Wu asked to forbid women from all over the empire to be haiku (referring to entertainers who perform burlesque), and Emperor Gaozong adopted it and issued an edict. In April, Emperor Gaozong wanted to conquer Goguryeo himself, but surrendered at the urging of Empress Wu and his ministers. In 662, at the suggestion of Empress Wu to her husband the titles of the imperial consorts were temporarily changed to be devoid of feminine and superficial quality. Her motive was probably the possible elimination of female rivals for her power. In the same year, Empress Wu selected military generals to attack Goguryeo. During these years, her ally Li Yifu had been, due to favors from Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu, exceedingly powerful, and he grew particularly corrupt. In 663, after reports of Li Yifu's corruption were made to Emperor Gaozong, Emperor Gaozong had Liu Xiangdao and Li Ji investigate, finding Li Yifu guilty. Li Yifu was removed from his post and exiled, and would never return to Chang'an. Empress Wu is said to have been reluctant to accept corruption and therefore did not defend Li Yifu and her only role in the decision of Emperor Gaozong was to forgo Li Yifu execution. During the years, Empress Wu had repeatedly seen Empress Wang and Consort Xiao in her dreams as they were after death, and she came to believe that their spirits were after her. For that reason, Emperor Gaozong started remodeling a secondary palace, Daming Palace (大明宮), into Penglai Palace (蓬萊宮), and when Penglai Palace's main hall, Hanyuan Hall (含元殿), was completed in 663, Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu moved to the newly remodeled palace (which was itself later renamed to Hanyuan Palace). (However, Empress Wang and Consort Xiao continued to appear in her dreams even after this, and therefore, late in Emperor Gaozong's reign, he and Empress Wu were often at the eastern capital Luoyang, not at Chang'an.) Over the years, Emperor Gaozong's illness had worsened, and Empress Wu's influence continued to grow and was fully established in the political arena. By 664, Empress Wu was said to be interfering so much in governance of the empire that she was angering Emperor Gaozong and was making him unhappy with her controlling behavior. Furthermore, she had engaged the Taoist sorcerer Guo Xingzhen (郭行真) in using witchcraft—an act that was prohibited by regulations and led to Empress Wang's downfall—and the eunuch Wang Fusheng (王伏勝) reported this to Emperor Gaozong which angered him even more. He consulted the chancellor Shangguan Yi, who suggested that he depose Empress Wu. He had Shangguan draft an edict. But as Shangguan was doing so, Empress Wu received news of what was happening. She went to the emperor to plead her case, just as he was holding the edict that Shangguan had drafted. Emperor Gaozong could not bear to depose her and blamed the episode on Shangguan. As both Shangguan and Wang had served on Li Zhong's staff, Empress Wu had Xu falsely accuse Shangguan, Wang, and Li Zhong of planning treason. Shangguan, Wang, and Shangguan's son Shangguan Tingzhi (上官庭芝) were executed, while Li Zhong was forced to commit suicide. (Shangguan Tingzhi's daughter Shangguan Wan'er, then an infant, and her mother, Lady Zheng, became slaves in the inner palace. After Shangguan Wan'er grew up, she eventually became a trusted secretary for Empress Wu.) After that point, Gaozong accepted Wu's participation to a greater extent. From January 665 until the end of his reign, Empress Wu would sit behind a pearl screen behind Emperor Gaozong at imperial meetings and she called her own orders "emperor edicts."; She even wore the yellow robe of the empire like an emperor, which was extraordinary and unprecedented for an empress, and Wu was effectively making the major and key decisions. After the execution of Shangguan Yi, Gaozong increasingly relied on Wu's advice and ruled on her words. Whenever the chancellors and officials discussed political affairs with him, the first sentence he asked was: "Have you ever discussed with Empress Wu? what is her opinion?" If she had clear opinions, he would make a decision based on this, and whenever he was feeling unpleasant, he would tell the chancellors and officials, "I'm not feeling well. Go to the Empress for work." As a result, imperial powers primarily fell into her hands. According to Song dynasty historian Sīmǎ Guāng 司马光 in the Zizhi Tongjian: "Emperor Gaozong sat enthroned before his ministers as usual while they counseled him, Wu would be parked behind a screen, listening in. It does not matter how vital or insignificant the issue is. The great power of the empire all devolved on the empress. Promotion or demotion, life or death, were settled by her word, The emperor sat with folded arms." She and Emperor Gaozong were thereafter referred to as the "Two Saints" (二聖, Er Sheng) both inside the palace and in the empire. The Later Jin historian Liu Xu, in Old Book of Tang, commented: When Emperor Gaozong could not listen to the court issues, all affairs were decided by the Empress of Heaven. Since the execution of the Shangguan Yi, she and the emperor appeared together at the court as Sheng (Holy). The Empress of Heaven hung a curtain behind the throne, and all the political affairs were settled by her, and they were called "two saints" (二聖, Er Sheng) inside and outside. The emperor wanted to issue an edict to make the Empress of Heaven would formally take over the throne of the empire, and Hao Chujun, persuaded him to stop this issue (appoint of regent). In 665, Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu went to Luoyang and began preparation in earnest to make sacrifices to heaven and earth at Mount Tai – a traditional ceremony for emperors that were rarely carried out in history due to the large expenses associated with them. At Empress Wu's request—as she reasoned that the sacrifice to earth also included sacrifices to past empresses (Emperor Gaozong's mother Empress Zhangsun and grandmother Duchess Dou, posthumously honored as an empress), she believed that it would be more appropriate to have females offer the sacrifices rather than male officials, as had been tradition in the past. Emperor Gaozong decreed that the male ministers would offer sacrifices first, but Empress Wu would next offer sacrifices, followed by Princess Dowager Yan, the mother of Emperor Gaozong's younger brother Li Zhen the Prince of Yue. In winter 665, Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu and headed for Mount Tai. On the lunar new year (10 February 666), he and she initiated the sacrifices to heaven, which were not completed until the next day. On 12 February, sacrifices were made to earth. He and she gave general promotions to the imperial officials, and it was said that starting from this time, promotions of imperial officials, which were strict and slow during the reigns of Emperors Gaozu and Taizong, began to become more relaxed and often excessive. He and Empress Wu also declared a general pardon, except for long-term exiles.Meanwhile, on account of Empress Wu's almost absolute authority, her mother Lady Yang had been made the Lady of Rong, and her older sister, now widowed, the Lady of Han, and Lady of Rong and Lady of Han wealth surpassed that of all the Chang'an noble families, and they settled in the imperial palace. Her half-brothers Wu Yuanqing and Wu Yuanshuang and cousins Wu Weiliang and Wu Huaiyun, despite the poor relationships that they had with Lady Yang, were promoted and they became extremely rich. But at a feast that Lady Yang held for them, Wu Weiliang offended Lady Yang by stating that they did not find it honorable for them to be promoted on account of Empress Wu. Empress Wu, therefore, ordered to have them demoted to remote prefectures—outwardly to show modesty, but in reality to avenge the offense to her mother. Wu Yuanqing and Wu Yuanshuang died in effective exile. Meanwhile, in or before 666, Lady of Han died as well. Historians attribute Lady of Han death to poisoning at the behest of Empress Wu, as she and the emperor became involved in adultery. After Lady of Han's death, Emperor Gaozong made her daughter the Lady of Wei and considered keeping her in the palace—possibly as a concubine. He did not immediately do so, as he feared that Empress Wu would be displeased. It was said that Empress Wu heard of this and was nevertheless displeased. She had her niece poisoned, by placing poison in food offerings that Wu Weiliang and Wu Huaiyun had made and then blaming them for the death of the Lady of Wei. At Empress Wu command, Wu Weiliang and Wu Huaiyun were executed.Over the years, Empress Wu had also targeted the children of Emperor Gaozong with his concubines. One of these children was Sujie, the son of Consort Xiao, whom Wu had killed in 655. Early in Gaozong's Qianfeng era (666-668), at Wu's instigation, Gaozong issued an edict that read, "Because Sujie is chronically ill, he is not required to attend imperial gatherings at the capital". In reality, Li Sujie was not ill, and the edict effectively barred him from the capitals Chang'an and Luoyang. Saddened that he was not allowed to see his father, Li Sujie wrote an essay titled "Commentary on Faithfulness and Filial Piety" (忠孝論), which was already lost by the Five Dynasties period. His cashier Zhang Jianzhi secretly submitted the essay to Gaozong. Wu read it, it drew her ire, and she falsely accused Li Sujie of corruption. In 670, Wu's mother, Lady Yang, died, and by Gaozong's and Wu's orders, all of the imperial officials and their wives attended her wake and mourned her. Later that year, with the realm suffering from a major drought, Wu offered to be deposed, which Gaozong rejected. At her request, he further posthumously honored Wu Shiyue (who had previously been posthumously honored as the Duke of Zhou) and Lady Yang by giving them the titles of the Prince and Princess of Taiyuan.Meanwhile, the son of Empress Wu's older sister the Lady of Han, Helan Minzhi (賀蘭敏之), had been given the surname Wu and allowed to inherit the title of Duke of Zhou. But as it was becoming clear to Empress Wu that he suspected her of murdering his sister, the Lady of Wei, Wu began to take precautions against him. (Helan was also said to have had an incestuous relationship with his grandmother Lady Yang.) In 671, Helan was accused of disobeying mourning regulations during the period of mourning for Lady Yang and raping the daughter of the official Yang Sijian (楊思儉), whom Gaozong and Wu had previously selected to be the wife and crown princess for Li Hong. On Wu's orders, Helan was exiled and either was executed in exile or committed suicide. In 673, Wu provided 20,000 cash for a gigantic statue of Maitreya at Longmen Grottoes. In 674, she had Wu Yuanshuang's son Wu Chengsi recalled from exile to inherit the title of Duke of Zhou. Although she had real power, Empress Wu was still in the background, and unsatisfied with her position, so took steps to increase the credibility of her power. In 674, one of her claims concerned the title of empress; she argued that because the emperor was called Son of Heaven (天子, Tiānzǐ), his wife should be called Heaven Empress (天后, Tiānhòu). As a result, she linked her rule with divine right. In 675, she succeeded in making her rule popular with the people with "twelve decrees" or "twelve proposals" for better governance and welfare of the people. In middle 675, as Emperor Gaozong's illness worsened, he considered having Wu formally rule as regent. The chancellor Hao Chujun and the official Li Yiyan both opposed this because Wu was already more powerful than Gaozong and they feared that she might take full possession of the throne. As a result, Gaozong did not formally make her regent, and Wu co-ruled with him as divine monarchs until his death in 683. After Hao Chujun opposed her appointment as regent, Wu reduced chancellors' power in state affairs by appointing several scientists as her advisers. She also wanted to diminish the importance of the army, in order to keep it only as a means of "moral education" for the people. Also in 675, a number of people fell victim to Empress Wu's ire. She had been displeased at the favor that Emperor Gaozong had shown his aunt, Princess Changle. Changle was married to General Zhao Gui (趙瓌) and had a daughter who became the wife and princess consort of Wu's third son, Li Xiǎn, the Prince of Zhou. Princess Zhao was accused of unspecified crimes and placed under arrest, eventually starving to death. Zhao Gui and Changle were exiled. Meanwhile, later that month, Li Hong, the Crown Prince—who urged Wu not to exercise so much influence and authority on Gaozong's governance and offended her by requesting that his half-sisters, Consort Xiao's daughters, Princess Yiyang and Xuancheng (under house arrest) be allowed to marry—died suddenly. Traditional historians generally believed that Wu poisoned Li Hong to death. At her request, Li Xián, then carrying the title of Prince of Yong, was created crown prince. Meanwhile, Consort Xiao's son Li Sujie and another son of Gaozong's, Li Shangjin (李上金), were repeatedly accused of crimes by Wu and were subsequently demoted.Soon, Empress Wu's relationship with Li Xián also deteriorated because he had become unsettled after hearing rumors that he was not born to her but to her sister, the Lady of Han. When Wu heard of his fearfulness, she became angry with him. She had her literary staff write two works, Good Examples for Shaoyang (少陽正範, "Shaoyang" being an oblique term for a crown prince) and Biographies of Filial Sons (孝子傳) and gave them to Li Xian, and further wrote a number of letters rebuking him, making him more fearful. In 678, contemporary poet Luo Binwang 骆宾王 criticized Wu's involvement in governmental affairs: "She whispered slander from behind her sleeves, and swayed emperor with vixen flirting." Luo's remarks angered Wu and he was dismissed and imprisoned. Furthermore, the sorcerer Ming Chongyan (明崇儼), whom both Wu and Gaozong respected, had said that Li Xián was unsuitable to inherit the throne and was assassinated in 679. The assassins were not caught, making Wu suspect that Li Xián was behind the assassination. Li Xian was also known for his liking of music and women. (Some historians, pointing to oblique references that he was "particularly close" to a number of male servants, also believe that he liked sexual relations with both women and men.) When Wu heard this, she had people report the news to Gaozong. In 680, Li Xián was accused of crimes and during an investigation by the officials Xue Yuanchao, Pei Yan, and Gao Zhizhou, a large number of weaponry was found in his palace. Wu formally accused him of treason and the assassination of Ming. Gaozong wanted to forgive Li Xián for treason, but Wu refused, saying, "Heaven and the world cannot stand the conspiracy against the Son of Heaven. How can he be forgiven? if you do not treat your loved ones with justice, how can you maintain order?" He surrendered at her insistence. Li Xián was deposed and exiled, and at Wu's request, placed under house arrest. At Empress Wu's request, after the exile of Li Xián, his younger brother Li Xiǎn [similar-sounding name but different Chinese characters] (now renamed Li Zhe) was named crown prince.In 681, Princess Taiping was married to Xue Shao (薛紹), the son of Emperor Gaozong's sister Princess Chengyang, in a grand ceremony. Empress Wu, initially unimpressed with the lineages of Xue Shao's brothers' wives, wanted to order his brothers to divorce their wives—stopping only after it was pointed out to her that Lady Xiao, the wife of Xue Shao's older brother Xue Yi (薛顗), was a grandniece of the deceased chancellor Xiao Yu. The official Feng Yuanchang was appointed by Gaozong, and he trusted him very much. In 682, Feng also lamented Empress Wu's power and involvement in the administration of the empire and told the emperor: "The queen's authority is very strong, should it be reduced?" Gaozong opposed it, and he was afraid of her, and there was nothing he could do. Upon learning of Feng's ineffective advice to the emperor, Wu became very angry with Feng, and accused him of corruption and degraded him. In 682, Wu pretended to be so friendly that she recalled Shangjin and Sujie and submitted a petition for them to be forgiven their crimes. (Li Shangjin had been previously accused of similar offenses as Li Sujie's and was similarly put under house arrest.) Gaozong made Li Sujie the prefect of Yue Prefecture (岳州, roughly modern Yueyang, Hunan), but she still forbade him and Li Shangjin to visit the capital, and would never allow them to attend political affairs.In late 683, Gaozong died at Luoyang. At the time of his death, no one was allowed to visit him, and Empress Wu forbade anyone from seeing him, from their children to officials, which led to rumors that she had killed him. Before his death, at Wu's request, he ordered Li Zhe to come to Luoyang, and at her suggestion, handed over the imperial power to Li Zhe. Under her protection, Li Zhe took the throne (as Emperor Zhongzong), but Wu retained the real authority as empress dowager and regent. Empress dowager Plenipotentiary regent for Emperor Zhongzong Upon the death of her husband Emperor Gaozong, Wu became empress dowager (皇太后, húangtàihòu) and then regent and she automatically gained full power over the empire, through the will of the Gaozong's, complete with a piece of advice in the will that basically amounted to the governing equivalent of "listen to mommy". As a result, Empress Wu should claim the senior authority in the empire for herself. Wu had already poisoned the crown prince Li Hong and had enough other princes exiled that her third son, Li Zhe, was made heir apparent. Furthermore, Gaozong's will included provisions that Li Zhe should ascend immediately to the imperial throne, Empress Wu must continue to influence all governmental and border matters, and as he had done, the new emperor should look to Empress Wu in regards to any important matter, either military or civil, either rewards or penalties, and he has to get her approval. Therefore, she did not in any way allow the new emperor to decide, and she was the sole decision-maker. In the second month of 684, Li Zhe ascended to the imperial throne, known as his temple name Zhongzong, for a short six weeks. The new emperor was married to a woman of the Wei family. Because Zhongzong was as weak and incompetent as his father, the new empress sought to place herself in the same position of great authority that Empress Wu had enjoyed. Empress Wei had seen that, Empress Wu had a tight grip on power and favors from Emperor Gaozong throughout the years and Wei wanted to be an uncontrollable and powerful empress consort like Wu. Immediately, Emperor Zhongzong showed signs of disobeying Empress Dowager Wu. Emperor Zhongzong was under the thumb of his wife, Empress Wei. Under her influence, the Emperor, appointed his father-in-law as prime minister. He also tried to make his father-in-law Shizhong (侍中, the head of the examination bureau of government, 門下省, Menxia Sheng, and a post considered one for a chancellor) and gave a mid-level office to his wet nurse's son—despite stern opposition by the chancellor Pei Yan, at one point remarking to Pei: What would be wrong even if I gave the empire to Wei Xuanzhen? Why do you care about Shizhong so much? Pei reported this to Empress Dowager Wu, and she, after planning with Pei, Liu Yizhi, and the generals Cheng Wuting (程務挺) and Zhang Qianxu (張虔勖) deposed Emperor Zhongzong and replaced him with her youngest son Li Dan, the Prince of Yu (as Emperor Ruizong). Empress Dowager Wu had Zhongzong's father-in-law, Wei Xuanzhen (韋玄貞), brought up on charges of treason. Wei Xuanzhen was sent into seclusion. Emperor Zhongzong was reduced to the title of Prince of Luling and exiled. Empress Dowager Wu also sent the general, Qiu Shenji (丘神勣) to Li Xián's place in exile and forced Li Xián to commit suicide. As a result, Empress Dowager Wu used absolute power more strongly, centrally and violent than ever before. Plenipotentiary regent for Emperor Ruizong Wu had her youngest son Li Dan made emperor, known as his temple name Ruizong. She was the absolute ruler, however, both in substance and appearance. Wu did not even follow the customary pretense of hiding behind a screen or curtain and, in whispers, issued commands for the nominal ruler to formally announce, and so her reign was fully recognized. Ruizong never moved into the imperial quarters, appeared at no imperial function, and remained a virtual prisoner in the inner quarters. Although Emperor Ruizong held the title of emperor, Empress Dowager Wu firmly and exactly controlled the imperial court, and the officials were not allowed to meet with Emperor Ruizong, nor was he allowed to rule on matters of state, and she, not Emperor Ruizong, was the one that officials reported to, with Emperor Ruizong not even nominally approving official actions. Thus, all matters of empire were ruled on by Empress Dowager Wu. Soon after Emperor Ruizong took the throne, Empress Dowager Wu carried out a major renaming of governmental offices and banners. She, who disliked the capital Chang'an, also elevated Luoyang's status, making it a co-equal capital with Chang'an. At the suggestion of her nephew Wu Chengsi, she also expanded the ancestral shrine of the Wu ancestors and gave them greater posthumous honors, and made Wu's ancestral shrine the size of the emperors ancestral shrine.Soon thereafter, Li Ji's grandson Li Jingye, the Duke of Ying, who had been disaffected by his own exile, started a rebellion at Yang Prefecture (揚州, roughly modern Yangzhou, Jiangsu). The rebellion initially drew much popular support in the region, however, Li Jingye progressed slowly in his attack and did not take advantage of that popular support. Meanwhile, Pei suggested to Empress Dowager Wu that she return imperial authority to the Emperor and argued that doing so would cause the rebellion to collapse on its own. This offended her, and she accused him of being complicit with Li Jingye and had him executed; she also demoted, exiled, and killed a number of officials who, when Pei was arrested, tried to speak on his behalf. She sent a general, Li Xiaoyi (李孝逸), to attack Li Jingye, and while Li Xiaoyi was initially unsuccessful, he pushed on at the urging of his assistant Wei Yuanzhong and eventually was able to crush Li Jingye's forces. Li Jingye fled and was killed in flight.By 685, Empress Dowager Wu began to carry on an affair with the Buddhist monk Huaiyi and during the next few years, Huaiyi would be bestowed with progressively greater honors. In 686, Empress Dowager Wu offered to return imperial authorities to Emperor Ruizong, but Emperor Ruizong, knowing that she did not truly intend to do so, declined, and she continued to exercise imperial authority. Meanwhile, she installed copper mailboxes outside the imperial government buildings to encourage the people of the realm to report secretly on others, as she suspected many officials of opposing her, and also all the reports of betrayal were read by her personally. Thus, exploiting these beliefs of hers, secret police officials, including Suo Yuanli, Zhou Xing, and Lai Junchen, began to rise in power and to carry out systematic false accusations, tortures, and executions of individuals.In 688, Empress Dowager Wu was set to make sacrifices to the deity of the Luo River (洛水, flowing through the Henan province city of Luoyang, then the "Eastern Capital"). Wu summoned senior members of Tang's Li imperial clan to Luoyang. The imperial princes worried that she planned to slaughter them and secure the throne for herself: thus, they plotted to resist her. Before a rebellion could be comprehensively planned out, however, Li Zhen and his son Li Chong, the Prince of Langye rose first, at their respective posts as prefects of Yu Prefecture (豫州, roughly modern Zhumadian, Henan) and Bo Prefecture (博州, roughly modern Liaocheng, Shandong). The other princes were not yet ready, however, and did not rise, and forces sent by Empress Dowager Wu and the local forces crushed Li Chong and Li Zhen's forces quickly. Empress Dowager Wu took this opportunity to arrest Emperor Gaozong's granduncles Li Yuanjia (李元嘉) the Prince of Han, Li Lingkui (李靈夔) the Prince of Lu, and Princess Changle, as well as many other members of the Li clan and she, forced them to commit suicide. Even Princess Taiping's husband Xue Shao was implicated and starved to death. In the subsequent years, there continued to be many politically motivated massacres of officials and Li clan members.In 690, Wu took the final step to become the empress regnant of the newly proclaimed Zhou dynasty, and the title Huangdi. Traditional Chinese order of succession (akin to the Salic law in Europe) did not allow a woman to ascend the throne, but Wu Zetian was determined to quash the opposition and the use of the secret police did not subside, but continued, after her taking the throne. While her organization of the civil service system was criticized for its laxity of the promotion of officials, nonetheless, Wu Zetian was considered capable of evaluating the performance of the officials once they were in office. The Song dynasty historian Sima Guang, in his Zizhi Tongjian, commented: Even though the Empress Dowager excessively used official titles to cause people to submit to her, if she saw that someone was incompetent, she would immediately depose or even execute him. She grasped the powers of punishment and award, controlled the state, and made her own judgments as to policy decisions. She was observant and had good judgment, so the talented people of the time also were willing to be used by her. Reign as empress regnant In 690, Wu had Emperor Ruizong yield the throne to her and established the Zhou dynasty, with herself as the imperial ruler (Huangdi). The early part of her reign was characterized by secret police terror, which moderated as the years went by. On the other hand, she was recognized as a capable and attentive ruler even by traditional historians who despised her, and her ability to select capable men to serve as officials was admired for the rest of the Tang dynasty as well as in subsequent dynasties. Early reign (690–696) Shortly after Wu took the throne in her newly established dynasty, she elevated the status of Buddhism above that of Taoism. She officially sanctioned Buddhism by building temples named Dayun Temple (大雲寺) in each prefecture belonging to the capital regions of the two capitals, Luoyang and Chang'an, and created nine senior monks as dukes. She enshrined seven generations of Wu ancestors at the imperial ancestral temple, while continuing to offer sacrifices to the Tang emperors Gaozu, Taizong, and Gaozong.Wu faced the issue of succession. At the time she took the throne, she created Li Dan, the former Emperor Ruizong, crown prince, and bestowed the name Wu on him. The official Zhang Jiafu convinced the commoner Wang Qingzhi (王慶之) to start a petition drive to make her nephew Wu Chengsi crown prince, arguing that an emperor named Wu should pass the throne to a member of the Wu clan. Wu Zetian was tempted to do so, and when the chancellors Cen Changqian and Ge Fuyuan opposed sternly, they, along with fellow chancellor Ouyang Tong, were executed. She ultimately declined Wang's request to make Wu Chengsi crown prince, but for a time allowed Wang to freely enter the palace to see her.On one occasion, when Wang angered her by coming to the palace too much, she asked the official Li Zhaode to batter Wang as punishment. Li Zhaode exploited the opportunity to batter Wang to death, and his group of petitioners scattered. Li Zhaode then persuaded Wu Zetian to keep Li Dan as crown prince—pointing out that a son was closer in relations than a nephew, and that if Wu Chengsi became emperor, Gaozong would never again be worshiped. Wu Zetian agreed, and for some time did not reconsider the matter. At Li Zhaode's warning that Wu Chengsi was becoming too powerful, Wu Zetian stripped Wu Chengsi of his chancellor authority and bestowed on him largely honorific titles without authority.Meanwhile, the secret police officials' power continued to increase, until they appeared to be curbed, starting in about 692, when Lai Junchen was foiled in his attempt to have the chancellors Ren Zhigu, Di Renjie, Pei Xingben, and other officials Cui Xuanli (崔宣禮), Lu Xian (盧獻), Wei Yuanzhong, and Li Sizhen (李嗣眞) executed. Di, under arrest, had hidden a secret petition inside a change of clothes and had it submitted by his son Di Guangyuan (狄光遠). The seven were exiled. After this incident, particularly at the urging of Li Zhaode, Zhu Jingze, and Zhou Ju (周矩), the waves of politically motivated massacres decreased, although they did not end entirely. Wu Zetian utilized the imperial examination system to find talented poor people or people without backgrounds to stabilize her regime.Also in 692, Wu Zetian commissioned the general Wang Xiaojie to attack the Tibetan Empire. Wang recaptured the four garrisons of the Western Regions that had fallen to the Tibetan Empire in 670 – Kucha, Yutian, Kashgar, and Suyab.In 693, after Wu's trusted lady-in-waiting Wei Tuan'er (韋團兒), who hated Li Dan because he rejected her advances, falsely accused Li Dan's wife Crown Princess Liu and Consort Dou of using witchcraft, Wu had Crown Princess Liu and Consort Dou killed. Li Dan, fearful that he was next, did not dare speak of them. When Wei planned to falsely accuse Li Dan, someone informed on her, and she was executed. Wu had Li Dan's sons demoted in their princely titles. When the officials Pei Feigong (裴匪躬) and Fan Yunxian (范雲仙) were accused of secretly meeting Li Dan, she executed Pei and Fan and further barred officials from meeting Li Dan.There were then accusations that Li Dan was plotting treason. Under Wu's direction, Lai launched an investigation. He arrested Li Dan's servants and tortured them. The torture was such that many of them were ready to falsely implicate themselves and Li Dan. One of Li Dan's servants, An Jincang, proclaimed Li Dan's innocence and cut his own belly open to swear to that fact. When Wu heard what An did, she had doctors attend to An and barely saved his life, and then ordered Lai to end the investigation, saving Li Dan.In 694, Li Zhaode, who had become powerful after Wu Chengsi's removal, was thought to be too powerful, and Wu Zetian removed him. Also around this time, she became highly impressed with a group of mystic individuals—the hermit Wei Shifang (on whom she bestowed a chancellor title briefly), who claimed to be more than 350 years old; an old Buddhist nun who claimed to be a Buddha and capable of predicting the future; and a non-Han man who claimed to be 500 years old. During this time, Wu briefly claimed to be and adopted the cult imagery of Maitreya in order to build popular support for her reign.In 695, after the imperial meeting hall (明堂) and the Heavenly Hall (天堂) were burned by Huaiyi, who was jealous at Wu's taking another lover, the imperial physician Shen Nanqiu (沈南璆), Wu became angry at these mystics for failing to predict the fire. The old nun and her students were arrested and made into slaves. Wei committed suicide. The old non-Han man fled. Wu put Huaiyi to death. After this incident, she appeared to pay less attention to mysticism and became even more dedicated than before to the affairs of state. Middle reign (696–701) Wu's administration soon faced various troubles on the western and northern borders. In spring 696 she sent an army commanded by Wang Xiaojie and Lou Shide against the Tibetan Empire, which was soundly defeated by Tibetan generals, the brothers Gar Trinring Tsendro (論欽陵) and Gar Tsenba (論贊婆). As a result, she demoted Wang to commoner rank and Lou to a low-level prefectural official, though she eventually restored both to general positions. In April of the same year, Wu recast the Nine Tripod Cauldrons, the symbol of ultimate power in ancient China, to reinforce her authority.A much more serious threat arose in summer 696. The Khitan chieftains Li Jinzhong and Sun Wanrong, brothers-in-law, angry over the mistreatment of the Khitan people by the Zhou official Zhao Wenhui (趙文翽), the prefect of Ying Prefecture (營州, roughly Zhaoyang County, Liaoning), rebelled, with Li assuming the title of Wushang Khan (無上可汗). Armies that Wu sent to suppress Li and Sun's rebellion were defeated by Khitan forces, which attacked Zhou proper. Meanwhile, Qapaghan Qaghan of the Second Turkic Khaganate offered to submit, while also launching attacks against Zhou and Khitan. The attacks included one against the Khitan base of operations during the winter of 696, shortly after Li's death, which resulted in the capturing of Li's and Sun's families and temporarily halted Khitan operations against Zhou.Sun, after taking over as khan and reorganizing Khitan forces, again attacked Zhou territory and had many victories over Zhou forces, including a battle during which Wang Shijie was killed. Wu tried to allay the situation by making peace with Ashina Mochuo on fairly costly terms—the return of Tujue people who had previously submitted to Zhou and providing Mochuo with seeds, silk, tools, and iron. In summer 697, Mochuo launched another attack on Khitan's base of operations, and this time, after his attack, Khitan forces collapsed and Sun was killed in flight, ending the Khitan threat.Meanwhile, also in 697, Lai Junchen, who had at one point lost power but then returned to power, falsely accused Li Zhaode (who had been pardoned) of crimes, and then planned to falsely accuse Li Dan, Li Zhe, the Wu clan princes, and Princess Taiping of treason. The Wu clan princes and Princess Taiping acted first against him, accusing him of crimes, and he and Li Zhaode were executed together. After Lai's death, the secret police's reign largely ended. Gradually, many of the victims of Lai and the other secret police officials were exonerated posthumously. Meanwhile, around this time, Wu began relationships with two new lovers—the brothers Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong, who became honored within the palace and were eventually created dukes.Around 698, Wu Chengsi and another nephew of Wu Zetian's, Wu Sansi, the Prince of Liang, repeatedly made attempts to have officials persuade Wu Zetian to create one of them crown prince—again arguing that an emperor should pass the throne to someone of the same clan. But Di Renjie, who by now had become a trusted chancellor, firmly opposed the idea, and proposed that Li Zhe be recalled instead. He was supported in this by fellow chancellors Wang Fangqing and Wang Jishan, as well as Wu Zetian's close advisor Ji Xu, who further persuaded the Zhang brothers to support the idea. In spring 698, Wu agreed and recalled Li Zhe from exile. Soon, Li Dan offered to yield the crown prince position to Li Zhe, and Wu created Li Zhe crown prince. She soon changed his name back to Li Xiǎn and then Wu Xian.Later, Ashina Mochuo demanded a Tang dynasty prince for marriage to his daughter, part of a plot to join his family with the Tang, displace the Zhou, and restore Tang rule over China, under his influence. When Wu sent a member of her own family, grandnephew Wu Yanxiu (武延秀), to marry Mochuo's daughter instead, he rejected him. Mochuo had no intention to cement the peace treaty with a marriage. Instead, when Wu Yanxiu arrived, he detained him and then launched a major attack on Zhou, advancing as far south as Zhao Prefecture (趙州, in modern Shijiazhuang, Hebei) before withdrawing.In 699, the Tibetan threat ceased. Emperor Tridu Songtsen, unhappy that Gar Trinring was monopolizing power, slaughtered Trinring's associates when Trinring was away from Lhasa. He then defeated Trinring in battle, and Trinring committed suicide. Gar Tsenba and Trinring's son, Lun Gongren (論弓仁), surrendered to Zhou. After this, the Tibetan Empire was under internal turmoil for several years, and there was peace for Zhou on the border.Also in 699, Wu, realizing that she was growing old, feared that after her death, Li Xian and the Wu clan princes would not have peace with each other. She made him, Li Dan, Princess Taiping, Princess Taiping's second husband Wu Youji (a nephew of hers), the Prince of Ding, and other Wu clan princes to swear an oath to each other. Late reign (701–705) As Wu grew older, Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong became increasingly powerful, and even the princes of the Wu clan flattered them. She increasingly relied on them to handle the affairs of state. This was secretly discussed and criticized by her grandson Li Chongrun, the Prince of Shao (Li Xian's son), granddaughter Li Xianhui (李仙蕙) the Lady Yongtai (Li Chongrun's sister), and Li Xianhui's husband Wu Yanji (武延基) the Prince of Wei (Wu Zetian's grandnephew and Wu Chengsi's son). Somehow the discussion was leaked, and Zhang Yizhi reported this to Wu. She ordered the three of them to commit suicide.Despite her age, Wu continued to be interested in finding talented officials and promoting them. People she promoted in her old age included Cui Xuanwei and Zhang Jiazhen.By 703, Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong had become resentful of Wei Yuanzhong, who by now was a senior chancellor, for dressing down their brother Zhang Changyi (張昌儀) and rejecting the promotion of another brother, Zhang Changqi (張昌期). They also were fearful that if Wu died, Wei would find a way to execute them, and therefore accused Wei and Gao Jian (高戩), an official favored by Princess Taiping, of speculating on Wu's old age and death. They initially got Wei's subordinate Zhang Shuo to agree to corroborate the charges, but once Zhang Shuo was before Wu, he instead accused Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong of forcing him to bear false witness. As a result, Wei, Gao, and Zhang Shuo were exiled, but escaped death. Removal and death In autumn 704, accusations of corruption began to be levied against Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong, as well as their brothers Zhang Changqi, Zhang Changyi, and Zhang Tongxiu (張同休). Zhang Tongxiu and Zhang Changyi were demoted, but even though the officials Li Chengjia (李承嘉) and Huan Yanfan advocated that Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong be removed as well, Wu Zetian, taking the suggestion of the chancellor Yang Zaisi, did not do so. Subsequently, charges of corruption against Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong were renewed by the chancellor Wei Anshi. In winter 704, Wu Zetian became seriously ill for a period, and only the Zhang brothers were allowed to see her; the chancellors were not. This led to speculation that Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong were plotting to take over the throne, and there were repeated accusations of treason. Once her condition improved, Cui Xuanwei advocated that only Li Xian and Li Dan be allowed to attend to her—a suggestion she did not accept. After further accusations against the Zhang brothers by Huan and Song Jing, Wu allowed Song to investigate, but before the investigation was completed, she issued a pardon for Zhang Yizhi, derailing Song's investigation.By spring 705, Wu was seriously ill again. Zhang Jianzhi, Jing Hui, and Yuan Shuji planned a coup to kill the Zhang brothers. They convinced the generals Li Duozuo, Li Dan (李湛, note different character than the former emperor), and Yang Yuanyan (楊元琰) and another chancellor, Yao Yuanzhi, to be involved. With agreement from Li Xian as well, they acted on 20 February, killing Zhang Yizhi and Zhang Changzong, and had Changsheng Hall (長生殿), where Wu was residing, surrounded. They then reported to her that the Zhang brothers had been executed for treason, and forced her to yield the throne to Li Xian. On 21 February, an edict was issued in her name that made Li Xian regent, and on 22 February, an edict was issued in her name passing the throne to him. On 23 February, Li Xian formally retook the throne, and the next day, under heavy guard, Wu was moved to the subsidiary palace, Shangyang Palace (上陽宮), while still honored with the title of Empress Regent Zetian Dasheng (則天大聖皇帝). On 3 March, the Tang dynasty was restored, ending the Zhou.Wu died on 16 December, and, pursuant to a final edict issued in her name, was no longer called empress regnant, but instead "Empress Consort Zetian Dasheng" (則天大聖皇后). In 706, Wu's son Emperor Zhongzong had Wu interred in a joint burial with his father, Emperor Gaozong, at the Qianling Mausoleum, near the capital Chang'an on Mount Liang. Zhongzong also buried at Qianling his brother Li Xián, son Li Chongrun, and daughter Li Xianhui (李仙蕙) the Lady Yongtai (posthumously honored as the Princess Yongtai)—victims of Wu's wrath. Wu Zhou dynasty In 690, Wu Zetian founded the Wu Zhou dynasty, named after the historical Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BC). The traditional historical view is to discount the Wu Zhou dynasty: dynasties by definition involve the succession of rulers from one family, and the Wu Zhou dynasty was founded by Wu and ended within her lifetime, with her abdication in 705. The alternative is to view the Wu Zhou dynasty as the revival of the historical Zhou dynasty, which was ruled (at least nominally) by the Ji family, almost a thousand years before. Either way, the Wu Zhou dynasty was a brief interruption of the Li family's Tang dynasty, not a fully realized dynasty. But Wu's claim to found a new dynasty was little opposed at the time (690). The 15-year period that Wu designated as her "Zhou Dynasty", considered in the context of nearly a half century of de facto and de jure rule (c. 654–705), reveals a remarkable and still debated period of history. In this context, designating a new dynasty with her as emperor can be seen as part of her power politics and as the culmination of her rule. Though Wu's Zhou dynasty had its own notable characteristics, they are difficult to separate from Wu's reign of power, which lasted for about half of a century. Wu's consolidation of power in part relied on a system of spies. She used informants to choose people to eliminate, a process that peaked in 697 with the wholesale demotion, exile, or killing of various aristocratic families and scholars, furthermore prohibiting their sons from holding office.Wu eliminated many of her real, potential, or perceived rivals to power by means of death (including execution, suicide by command, and more or less directly killing people), demotion, and exile. Mostly this was carried out by her secret police, led by people like Wao Ganjun and Lai Junchen, who were known to have written the Manual of Accusation, a document detailing steps for interrogation and obtaining confessions by torture. One of these methods, the "Dying Swine's Melancholy" (死猪愁), which merely indicated a level of pain inflicted by a torture device, seems to have been conflated in the years following Wu's death with the story of the "human swine" torture conducted by Empress Lü Zhi, in which the victim had limbs and tongue amputated, was force-fed, and left to wallow in his own excrement.Wu targeted various people, including many in her own family. In reaction to an attempt to remove her from power, in 684, she massacred 12 entire collateral branches of the imperial family. Besides this, she also altered the ancient balance of power in China dating to the Qin dynasty. The old area of the Qin state was later called Guanzhong—literally, the area "within the fortified mountain passes". From this area of northwest China, the Ying family of Qin arose, unifying China into its first historical empire. During the Han dynasty, Sima Qian records in his Shiji that Guanzhong had three-tenths of China's population but six-tenths of its wealth. Additionally, at the beginning of Wu's ascendency, Guanzhong was still the stronghold of the most nationally powerful aristocratic families, even though economic development in other parts of China had improved the lot of families in other regions. The Guangzhong aristocracy was not willing to relinquish its hold on the reins of government, but some of the more newly wealthy families in other areas, such as the North China Plain or Hubei, were eager for a larger share of national power. Most of the opposition to Wu was from the Guangzhong families of northwest China. Accordingly, she repressed them, instead favoring less privileged families, thus raising to the ranks of power many talented but less aristocratic families, often recruited through the official examination system. Many of those so favored originated from the North China plain. Through a process of eliminating or diminishing the power of the established aristocracy, whom she perceived as disloyal to her, and establishing a reformed upper class in China loyal to her, Wu made major social changes that historians are still evaluating. Many of Wu's measures were popular and helped her to gain support for her rule. Wu came to power during a time in China in which the people were fairly contented, the administration was run well, and the economy was characterized by rising living standards. For the most part, as far as the masses were concerned, Wu continued in this manner. She was determined that free, self-sufficient farmers continue to work their own land, so she periodically used the juntian, equal-field system, together with updated census figures to ensure fair land allocations, reallocating as necessary. Much of her success was due to her various edicts (including those known as her "Acts of Grace"), which helped satisfy the needs of the lower classes through various acts of relief, her widening recruitment to government service to include previously excluded gentry and commoners, and her generous promotions and pay raises for the lower ranks.Wu used her military and diplomatic skills to enhance her position. The fubing system of self-supportive soldier-farmer colonies, which provided local militia and labor services for her government, allowed her to maintain her armed forces at reduced expense. She also pursued a policy of military action to expand the empire to its furthest extent ever up to that point in Central Asia. Expansion efforts against Tibet and to the northwest were less successful. Allying with the Korean kingdom of Silla against Goguryeo with the promise of ceding Goguryeo's territory to Silla, Chinese forces occupied Goguryeo after its defeat, and even began to occupy Silla territory. Silla resisted the imposition of Chinese rule, and by allying with Goguryeo and Baekche, was able to expel its former ally from the peninsula. Hong argues that Silla's success was in part due to a shift in Wu's focus to Tibet and inadequate support for the forces in the Korean peninsula. In 694, Wu's forces decisively defeated the Tibetan–Western Turk alliance and retook the Four Garrisons of Anxi, lost in 668.In 651, shortly after the Muslim conquest of Persia, the first Arab ambassador arrived in China. Reform of the imperial examination system One apparatus of government that fell into Wu's power was the imperial examination system, the basic theory and practice of which was to recruit into government service those men who were the best educated, most talented, and had the best potential to perform their duties, and to do so by testing a pool of candidates to determine this. This pool was male only, and the qualified pool of candidates and resulting placements into official positions was on a relatively small scale at the time Wu took control of government. The official tests examined things considered important for functionaries of the highly developed, bureaucratic government structure of the imperial government, such as level of literacy in terms of reading and writing and possession of the specific knowledge considered necessary and desirable for a governmental official, such as Confucian precepts on the nature of virtue and theory on the proper ordering of and relationships within society. Wu continued to use the imperial examination system to recruit civil servants, and introduced major changes to the system she inherited, including increasing the pool of candidates permitted to take the test by allowing commoners and gentry, previously disqualified by their background, to take it. In 693, she expanded the governmental examination system and greatly increased the importance of this method of recruiting government officials. Wu provided increased opportunity for the representation within government to people of the North China Plain versus people of the northwestern aristocratic families (whom she decimated, anyway); and the successful candidates recruited through the examination system became an elite group within her government. The historical details of the consequences of Wu's promoting a new group of people from previously disenfranchised backgrounds into prominence as powerful governmental officials, and the examination system's role, remain debated by scholars of this subject. Religion The Great Cloud Sutra Wu Zetian used her political powers to harness from Buddhist practices a strategy to build sovereignty and legitimacy to her throne while decisively establishing the Zhou dynasty in a society under Confucian and patriarchal ideals. One of the first steps she took to legitimize her ascension to the throne was to proclaim herself as the reincarnation of the Devi of Pure Radiance (Jingguang tiannü) through a series of prophecies. In 690, Wu sought out the support of the monk Xue Huaiyi, her reputed lover, and other nine orthodox Buddhist monks, to compose the apocryphal Commentary on the Meanings of the Prophecies About the Divine Sovereign in the Great Cloud Sutra (Dayunjing Shenhuang Shouji Yishu). Translated from a late fourth-century version in Sanskrit to Chinese, the original Great Cloud Sutra (Dayunjing) accentuated in Wu's Commentary had fascicles describing a conversation between the Buddha and the Devi of Pure Radiance. In the sutra, the Buddha foretells to Jingguang that he would be a bodhisattva reincarnated in a woman's body in order to convert beings and rule over the territory of a country. Wu's Buddhist supporters meticulously propagated the Commentary "on the eve of her accession to the dragon throne" while seeking to justify the various events that led Wu to occupy the position of Huangdi as a female ruler and bodhisattva. Since gender in the Buddhist Devi worlds have no standard form, Wu later took a further step to transcend her gender limitations by identifying herself as the incarnation of two important male Buddhist divinities, Maitreya and Vairocana. Her narrative was intentionally crafted to persuade the Confucian establishment, circumvent the Five Impediments that restricted women from holding political and religious power, and gain public support. Sacrifice on Mount Tai In relation to Daoism, there are records that point to Wu's participation in important religious rituals, such as the tou long on Mount Song, and feng and shan on Mount Tai. One of the most important rituals was performed in 666. When Emperor Gaozong offered sacrifices to the deities of heaven and earth, Wu, in an unprecedented action, offered sacrifices after him, with Princess Dowager Yan, mother of Gaozong's brother Li Zhen, Prince of Yue, offering sacrifices after her. Wu's procession of ladies up Mount Tai conspicuously linked Wu with the Chinese empire's most sacred traditional rites. Another important performance was made in 700, when Wu conducted the tou long Daoist expiatory rite. Her participation in the rituals had political as well as religious motives. Such ceremonies served to consolidate Wu's life in politics and show she possessed the Mandate of Heaven. Literature North Gate Scholars Toward the end of Gaozong's life, Wu began engaging a number of mid-level officials who had literary talent, including Yuan Wanqing (元萬頃), Liu Yizhi, Fan Lübing, Miao Chuke (苗楚客), Zhou Simao (周思茂), and Han Chubin (韓楚賓), to write a number of works on her behalf, including the Biographies of Notable Women (列女傳), Guidelines for Imperial Subjects (臣軌), and New Teachings for Official Staff Members (百僚新誡). Collectively, they became known as the "North Gate Scholars" (北門學士), because they served inside the palace, which was north of the imperial government buildings, and Wu sought advice from them to divert the powers of the chancellors. The "Twelve Suggestions" Around the new year 675, Wu submitted 12 suggestions. One was that the work of Laozi (whose family name was Li and to whom the Tang imperial clan traced its ancestry), Tao Te Ching, should be added to imperial university students' required reading. Another was that a three-year mourning period should be observed for a mother's death in all cases, not just in cases when the father was no longer alive. Emperor Gaozong praised her suggestions and adopted them. Modified Chinese characters In 690, Wu's cousin's son Zong Qinke submitted a number of modified Chinese characters intended to showcase Wu's greatness. She adopted them, and took one of the modified characters, Zhao (曌), to be her formal name (i.e., the name by which the people would exercise naming taboo on). 曌 was made from two other characters: Ming (明) on top, meaning "light" or "clarity", and Kong (空) on the bottom, meaning "sky". The implication appeared to be that she would be like the light shining from the sky. (Zhao (照), meaning "shine", from which 曌 was derived, might have been her original name, but evidence of that is inconclusive.) Later that year, after successive petition drives started by the low-level official Fu Youyi began to occur in waves, asking her to take the throne, Emperor Ruizong offered to take the name of Wu as well. On 18 August 690, she approved the requests. She changed the state's name to Zhou, claiming ancestry from the Zhou dynasty, and took the throne as Empress Regnant (with the title Empress Regnant Shengshen (聖神皇帝), literally "Divine and Sacred Emperor or Empress Regnant"). Ruizong was deposed and made crown prince with the atypical title Huangsi (皇嗣). This thus interrupted the Tang dynasty, and Wu became the first (and only) woman to reign over China as empress regnant. Poetry Wu's court was a focus of literary creativity. Forty-six of Wu's poems are collected in the Quan Tangshi (Collected Tang Poems) and 61 essays under her name are recorded in the Quan Tangwen (Collected Tang Essays). Many of those writings serve political ends, but there is one poem in which she laments her mother after she died and expresses her despair at not being able to see her again. During Wu's reign, the imperial court produced various works of which she was a sponsor, such as the anthology of her court's poetry known as the Zhuying ji (Collection of Precious Glories), which contained poems by Cui Rong, Li Jiao, Zhang Yue, and others, arranged according to the poets' rank at court. Among the literary developments that took place during Wu's time (and partly at her court) was the final stylistic development of the "new style" poetry of the regulated verse (jintishi), by the poetic pair Song Zhiwen and Shen Quanqi. Wu also patronized scholars by founding an institute to produce the Collection of Biographies of Famous Women. The development of what is considered characteristic Tang poetry is traditionally ascribed to Chen Zi'ang, one of Wu's ministers. Literary allusions Literary allusions to Wu may carry several connotations: a woman who has inappropriately overstepped her bounds, the hypocrisy of preaching compassion while simultaneously engaging in a pattern of political corruption and vicious behavior. For many centuries, the establishment used Wu as an example of what can go wrong when a woman is in charge. Such sexist opposition to her was lifted only during the late 1960s, when Mao Zedong's wife Jiang Qing rehabilitated Wu as part of a propaganda campaign to suggest she be considered as a successor to her ailing husband. In his biography Wu, Jonathan Clements writes that these wildly differing uses of a historical figure often led to contradictory and even hysterical characterizations. Many alleged poisonings and other incidents, such as her daughter's premature death, may have rational explanations that have been twisted by later opponents. Evaluation Quotes The traditional Chinese historical view of Wu Zetian generally was mixed—admiring her for her abilities in governing the state, but vilifying her for her actions in seizing imperial power. Luo Binwang even wrote along these lines in a declaration during her lifetime, in support of Li Jingye's rebellion. Typical was a commentary by the Later Jin dynasty historian Liu Xu, the lead editor of the Old Book of Tang: The year that Lady Wu declared herself regent, heroic individuals were all mournful of the unfortunate turn of events, worried that the dynasty would fall, and concerned that they could not repay the grace of the deceased emperor [i.e., Emperor Gaozong] and protect his sons. Soon thereafter, great accusations arose, and many innocent people were falsely accused and stuck their necks out in waiting for execution. Heaven and earth became like a huge cage, and even if one could escape it, where could he go? That was lamentable. In the past, the trick of covering the nose surprised the realm in its poisonousness, and the disaster of the human pig caused the entire state to mourn. In order to take over as empress, Empress Wu strangled her own infant daughter; her willingness to crush her own flesh and blood showed how great her viciousness and vile nature was, although this is nothing more than what jealous individuals and evil women might do. However, she accepted the words of righteousness and honored the upright. Although she was like a hen that crowed, she eventually returned the rightful rule to her son. She quickly dispelled the accusation against Wei Yuanzhong, comforted Di Renjie with kind words, respected the will of the times and suppressed her favorites, and listened to honest words and ended the terror of the secret police officials. This was good, this was good. Some of the diversity in terms of points of agreement and even outright divergences in modern evaluations of Wu can be seen in the following quotes by modern non-Chinese authors: Wu Zetian (690–705) was an extraordinary woman, attractive, exceptionally gifted, politically astute and an excellent judge of men. With single minded determination, she overcame the opposition of the Confucian establishment through her own efforts, unique among palace women by not using her own family. Her rise to power was steeped in blood. "To the horror of traditional Chinese historians, all members of the shih class, the continued success of the T'ang was in large measure due to an ex-concubine who finally usurped the throne itself....Though she was ruthless towards her enemies, the period of her ascendency was a good one for China. Government was sound, no rebellions occurred, abuses in the army and administration were stamped out and Korea was annexed, an achievement no previous Chinese had ever managed." "China's only woman ruler, Empress Wu was a remarkably skilled and able politician, but her murderous and illicit methods of maintaining power gave her a bad reputation among male bureaucrats. It also fostered overstaffing and many kinds of corruption." Confucian viewpoints Wu Zetian's rise and reign was criticized harshly by Confucian historians, but has been viewed more favorably since the 1950s.In the early period of the Tang dynasty, because all the emperors were her direct descendants, Wu was evaluated favorably. Commentary in subsequent periods, however, especially the book Zizhi Tongjian compiled by Sima Guang, harshly criticized her. By the period of Southern Song dynasty, when Neo-Confucianism was firmly established as the mainstream political ideology of China, their ideology determined the evaluation of Wu. Era names Chancellors during reign Wu Zetian had many chancellors during her reign as monarch of her self-proclaimed Zhou dynasty, many of them notable in their own right. (For full list see List of chancellors of Wu Zetian). Family Modern depictions Television Portrayed by Petrina Fung in the 1984 Hong-Kong TV series Empress Wu. Portrayed by Angela Pan in the 1985 Taiwanese TV series The Empress of the Dynasty. Portrayed by Liu Xiaoqing in the 1995 Chinese TV series Wu Zetian, in the 2007 TV series The Shadow of Empress Wu and in the 2011 TV series Secret History of Empress Wu. Portrayed by Gua Ah-leh in the 2000 Chinese TV series Palace of Desire. Portrayed by Qin Lan in the 2001 Chinese TV series Love Legend of the Tang Dynasty. Portrayed by Alyssa Chia in the 2003 Chinese TV series Lady Wu: The First Empress. Portrayed by Lü Zhong in the 2004 Chinese TV series Amazing Detective Di Renjie and its sequels Amazing Detective Di Renjie 2, Amazing Detective Di Renjie 3 and Mad Detective Di Renjie. Portrayed by Siqin Gaowa in the 2006 Chinese TV series Wu Zi Bei Ge. Portrayed by Yang Geum-seok in 2006–2007 KBS TV series Dae Jo Yeong. Portrayed by Rebecca Chan in the 2009 Chinese TV series The Greatness of a Hero. Portrayed by Yin Tao, Liu Xiaoqing and Siqin Gaowa in the 2011 Chinese TV series Secret History of Empress Wu. Portrayed by Wang Li Ke in the 2011 Chinese TV series Meng Hui Tang Chao. Portrayed by Kara Hui in the 2011 Chinese TV series Women of the Tang Dynasty and in the 2015 TV series Heroes of Sui and Tang Dynasties 5. Portrayed by Zhang Ting in the 2011 Chinese TV series Beauty World. Portrayed by Liu Yuxin in the 2012 Chinese TV series Secret History of Princess Taiping. Portrayed by Fan Bingbing in the 2014 Chinese TV series The Empress of China. Portrayed by Sheren Tang in the 2014 Chinese TV series Cosmetology High. Portrayed by Ruby Lin in the 2014 Chinese TV series Young Sherlock. Portrayed by Sophie Wu in the 2015 episode of Horrible Histories. Portrayed by Jiao Junyan in the 2017 Chinese TV series Legendary Di Renjie. Portrayed by Yong Mei in the 2021 Chinese TV series Luoyang. Films Portrayed by Gu Lanjun in the 1939 Chinese movie The Empress Wu Tse-tien. Portrayed by Li Lihua in the 1963 Hong-Kong movie Empress Wu Tse-Tien. Portrayed by Carina Lau in the 2010 Chinese-Hong Kong movie Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, its prequels Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon in 2013 and Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings in 2018. Video games Wu appears in the mobile game Fate/Grand Order as an Assassin class servant. Wu appears in the turn-based strategy games Civilization II, Civilization V and Civilization VI as a leader of the Chinese civilization. Wu appears as a character in the mobile game Law of Creation as a front-row tank. Wu appears as a minister earned in the mobile game Call Me Emperor after getting first place in the cross server intimacy event. Wu appears in the mobile game Rise Of Kingdoms as a legendary Chinese civilization Commander. Wu appears as the highest-paying symbol in Wu Zetian, a slot machine published by Realtime Gaming Novels Wu is the protagonist, known as Mei, of the historically inspired fiction novel Moon in the Palace and its sequel The Empress of Bright Moon, both by Weina Dai Randel. Both are retellings of her life leading up to becoming Empress Wu. Xiran Jay Zhao's debut novel, Iron Widow, is a reimagining of Wu's life. In an interview with Publishers Weekly, Zhao said, "there's no other woman in Chinese history who had a rise through the harem as iconic as hers... It's been incredibly fun to reimagine her as instead a teenage peasant girl in an intensely misogynistic world who suddenly gains access to giant fighter mechas—how would she change her world?" Wu is the protagonist and narrator of Shan Sa's historical novel Impératrice, published in France in 2003. The novel, translated by Adriana Hunter, was published in English as Empress in 2006. See also Explanatory notes General sources Further reading Barrett, Timothy Hugh (2008). The Woman Who Discovered Printing. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300127287. Cawthorne, Nigel (2007). Daughter of Heaven: The True Story of the Only Woman to Become Emperor of China. Oxford, England: One World Publications. ISBN 978-1851685301. Clements, Jonathan (2007). Wu: The Chinese Empress Who Schemed, Seduced and Murdered Her Way to Become a Living God. Stroud: Sutton. ISBN 978-0750939614. Offers a critical appraisal of many primary sources and includes an appendix comparing fictional accounts. Guisso, Richard W. L. (1978). Wu Tse-t'ien and the Politics of Legitimation in T'ang China. Bellingham: Western Washington. A scholarly biography. Jiang, Cheng An (1998). Empress of China: Wu Ze Tian. Victory Press. Rothschild, N. Harry (2008). Wu Zhao: China's Only Woman Emperor. Pearson Education. Shu-fang Dien, Dora (2003). Empress Wu Zetian in Fiction and in History: Female Defiance in Confucian China. Nova Publishing. Explores the life of Empress Wu Zetian and the ways women found to participate in public life, despite the societal constraints of dynastic China.

Radical 144 or radical walk enclosure (行部) meaning "go" or "do" is one of the 29 Kangxi radicals (214 radicals in total) composed of 6 strokes. In the Kangxi Dictionary, there are 53 characters (out of 49,030) to be found under this radical. 行 is not used as an indexing component (radical) in Simplified Chinese. Characters with this radical are classified under radical 彳 (No. 60 in the Kangxi Dictionary; No. 41 in the Table of Indexing Chinese Character Components) in Simplified Chinese. Evolution Derived characters Literature Fazzioli, Edoardo (1987). Chinese calligraphy : from pictograph to ideogram : the history of 214 essential Chinese/Japanese characters. calligraphy by Rebecca Hon Ko. New York: Abbeville Press. ISBN 0-89659-774-1. Lunde, Ken (Jan 5, 2009). "Appendix J: Japanese Character Sets" (PDF). CJKV Information Processing: Chinese, Japanese, Korean & Vietnamese Computing (Second ed.). Sebastopol, Calif.: O'Reilly Media. ISBN 978-0-596-51447-1. Unihan Database - U+884C

Feng Congde (simplified Chinese: 封从德; traditional Chinese: 封從德; pinyin: Fēng Cóngdé, born 5 March 1966 in Sichuan) is a Chinese dissident and Republic of China Restoration activist. He was as a student leader from Peking University during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, which placed him onto the Chinese government's 21 Most Wanted list. He spent 10 months hiding in various locations in mainland China, until he was smuggled out to Hong Kong on a shipping vessel.Feng and Chai Ling, a fellow student leader and his wife at the time, were given special permission by the French government to smuggle into France and flown out in secrecy to Paris accompanied by a French diplomat. He spent 15 years in France, in 2003 he received his Ph.D. degree of Religious Sciences on Taoism and Traditional Chinese Medicine at Sorbonne, Paris. He now resides in San Francisco, and continues to advocate for freedom and democracy in China. Feng strives to provide an uncensored representation of the events of the Tiananmen Square protests through his participation in social media and his website, 64memo.com. Feng is the author of A Tiananmen Journal: Republic on the Square, published in 2009 in Chinese. He is the Executive Director of Tiananmen Academy since 2014. Life before and during the 1989 Tiananmen Square Protest Feng was a Peking University graduate student during the 1986-87 pro-democracy student movement in Tiananmen Square, and was briefly arrested for his participation in the event. Right after his release, he discussed his experiences of the protest and the government response with the crowd of students that gathered. This was where he met Chai Ling, and the two developed a relationship that culminated into a marriage in the spring of 1988. He was admitted to Boston University for postgraduate study.On April 18, 1989, many Peking University students had gone to Tiananmen Square to mourn the death of Hu Yaobang. Hu Yaobang was a symbol of reform and justice, and was revered by many students and opponents of the regime. Policemen with nightsticks attacked the demonstrators in front of Xinhua Gate, and the confrontation lead to the early formations of organizations that would lead the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Feng had made his way to the forefront of the movement and became a founding member of the Preparatory Committee, which was designated to establish independent student leadership organizations.Throughout the course of the movement, Feng had been designated Chairman of the Coalition of Independent Student Unions of Beijing, the Vice Commander-in-Chief of the Hunger Strike Group on Tiananmen Square, and then the Vice Commander-in-Chief of the Defend Tiananmen Square Headquarters. Despite being a charismatic student leader, Feng was often disillusioned by the protests and the political struggles of the student leaders, and was not involved in the student leadership at certain points of the movement. Life after the 1989 Tiananmen Square Protest Feng and Chai left Beijing soon after the crackdown. Their names listed as the 21 most wanted student leaders, the couple managed to arrive Hong Kong and eventually Paris in April 1990. Due to dissenting view on ways and means to handle the aftermath of the June 4 movement and promote democracy in China, Feng and Chai divorced in late 1990. Feng participated in House hearing on discussion of China's most favoured nation status.Feng finished the Memo of 1989 Student Protests (八九學運備忘錄), the draft of A Tiananmen Journal: Republic on the Square in early 1991. Raising the idea of setting up a website to provide information related to the 1989 student movement in 2000, Feng established 64memo.com Archived 2020-12-03 at the Wayback Machine in the following year.Feng is an activist of the pro-Republic of China camp. Response to the documentary The Gate of Heavenly Peace Despite many positive reviews for The Gate of Heavenly Peace in the US media, Feng Congde, with the support of other Tiananmen survivors, participants and supporters, sent an ‘open letter’ to the directors and producers of the documentary in 2009. He addressed several issues with the documentary, urging the producers to “correct the false reporting and editing” in the film. Feng also criticized the producer, Carma Hinton for her affiliation with Chinese officials (notably Zhou Enlai and Zhang Chunqiao) and participation in the Cultural Revolution. “…I want to live…” – Chai Ling in the Philip Cunningham interview Feng argued that the producers of the documentary had used the language of Chai Ling to manipulate the truth and give a false impression that she ran away prior to the crackdown on June 4, 1989. As the documentary excluded the speech given by Chai Ling on June 8, he claimed that the film producers intentionally omitted it to reinforce the idea that Chai Ling had left the students while knowing that they would be massacred. The detailed account of the event in the June 8 speech would have been proof of her being in the Square until the violent crackdown by the government, and the omission of these accounts during the speech helped misrepresent historical truths. “women qidai de jiu shi liuxue” (我们期待的就是流血/ what we are actually hoping for is bloodshed) – Chai Ling in the Philip Cunningham interview Feng claimed that Carma Hinton had mistranslated “qidai” and taken it out of context to leave viewers with an impression that Chai Ling and other student leaders had provoked and hoped for the bloodshed that occurred during the crackdown. He suggested that “qidai” properly translated as “hope for with anticipation or wait.” Feng stated that the occupiers of the Square knew of the possible crackdown, and they wanted it to happen in public so the international community could see the oppressive nature of the Chinese government. He also noted that the producers should have made clear that the student leaders had made a major effort to make sure the students remaining in the Square prior to the crackdown were volunteers who understood the risks of staying. At the last moment on the Tiananmen Square, at about 4:30 am on June 4, 1989, it was Feng himself, after consulting Chai Ling and other student leaders still there, who gave the order to retreat from the Monument which situates at the center of the Square. www.64memo.com Archived 2020-12-03 at the Wayback Machine

A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional services, which vary by country. These include providing and accepting government forms (such as passport applications), and processing government services and fees (such as road tax, postal savings, or bank fees). The chief administrator of a post office is called a postmaster. Before the advent of postal codes and the post office, postal systems would route items to a specific post office for receipt or delivery. During the 19th century in the United States, this often led to smaller communities being renamed after their post offices, particularly after the Post Office Department began to require that post office names not be duplicated within a state. Name The term "post-office" has been in use since the 1650s, shortly after the legalisation of private mail services in England in 1635. In early modern England, post riders—mounted couriers—were placed, or "posted", every few hours along post roads at posting houses (also known as post houses) between major cities, or "post towns". These stables or inns permitted important correspondence to travel without delay. In early America, post offices were also known as stations. This term, as well as the term "post house", fell from use as horse and coach services were replaced by railways, aircraft, and automobiles. The term "post office" usually refers to government postal facilities providing customer service. "General Post Office" is sometimes used for the national headquarters of a postal service, even if the building does not provide customer service. A postal facility that is used exclusively for processing mail is instead known as a sorting office or delivery office, which may have a large central area known as a sorting or postal hall. Integrated facilities combining mail processing with railway stations or airports are known as mail exchanges. In India, post offices are found in almost every village having panchayat (a "village council"), towns, cities, and throughout the geographical area of India. India's postal system changed its name to India Post after the advent of private courier companies in the 1990s. It is run by the Indian government's Department of Posts. India Post accepts and delivers inland letters, postcards, parcels, postal stamps, and money orders (money transfers). Few post offices in India offer speed post (fast delivery) and payments or bank savings services. It is also uncommon for Indian post offices to sell insurance policies or accept payment for electricity, landline telephone, or gas bills. Until the 2000 A.D., post offices would collect fees for radio licenses, recruitment for government jobs, and the operation of public call telephone (PCO) booths. Postmen would deliver letters, money orders, and parcels to places that are within the assigned area of a particular post office. Each Indian post office is assigned a unique six-digit code called the Postal Index Number, or PIN. Each post office is identified by its PIN. Post offices coming under Department of Posts ,Ministry of Communication, Government of India have a history of one hundred fifty years.Private courier and delivery services often have offices as well, although these are usually not called "post offices", except in the case of Germany, which has fully privatised its national postal system.As abbreviation PO is used, together with GPO for General Post Office and LPO for Licensed Post Office. History There is evidence of corps of royal couriers disseminating the decrees of Egyptian pharaohs as early as 2400 BCE, and it is possible that the service greatly precedes that date. Similarly, there may be ancient organised systems of post houses providing mounted courier service, although sources vary as to precisely who initiated the practice.In the Persian Empire, a Chapar Khaneh system existed along the Royal Road. Similar postage systems were established in India and China by the Mauryan and Han dynasties in the 2nd century BCE. The Roman historian Suetonius credited Augustus with regularising the Roman transportation and courier network, the Cursus Publicus. Local officials were obliged to provide couriers who would be responsible for their message's entire course. Locally maintained post houses (Latin: stationes) privately owned rest houses (Latin: mansiones) and were obliged or honored to care for couriers along their way. The Roman emperor Diocletian later established two parallel systems: one providing fresh horses or mules for urgent correspondence and the other providing sturdy oxen for bulk shipments. The Byzantine historian Procopius, though not unbiased, records the Cursus Publicus system remained largely intact until it was dismantled in the Byzantine empire by the emperor Justinian in the 6th century. The Princely House of Thurn and Taxis family initiated regular mail service from Brussels in the 16th century, directing the Imperial Post of the Holy Roman Empire. The British Postal Museum claims that the oldest functioning post office in the world is on High Street in Sanquhar, Scotland. The post office has functioned continuously since 1712, during which horses and stagecoaches were used to carry mail. Rural parts of Canada in the 19th century utilised the way office system. Villagers could leave their letters at the way office which were then taken to the nearest post office, as well as pick up their mail from the way office.In parts of Europe, special postal censorship offices existed to intercept and censor mail. In France, such offices were known as cabinets noirs. Unstaffed postal facilities In many jurisdictions, mailboxes and post office boxes have long been in widespread use for drop-off and pickup (respectively) of mail and small packages outside post offices or when offices are closed. Germany's national postage system Deutsche Post introduced the Pack-Station for package delivery, including both drop-off and pickup, in 2001. In the 2000s, the United States Postal Service began to install Automated Postal Centers (APCs) in many locations in both post offices, for when they are closed or busy, and retail locations. APCs can print postage and accept mail and small packages. Notable post offices Operational General Post Office, state postal system and telecommunications carrier of the United Kingdom until 1969 General Post Office in Dublin (inaugurated 1818), headquarters of the Irish post and headquarters of the 1916 Easter Uprising General Post Office (1864), erected on the site of the Black Hole of Calcutta General Post Office (1874) in Chennai, India General Post Office (1887) in Lahore, Pakistan General Post Office (1895), the headquarters of the Sri Lankan Post General Post Office (1903), headquarters of the Croatian post General Post Office (1976), the headquarters of Hongkong Post General Post Office (1913), the main post office of Mumbai, India, and one of the world's largest (120,000 sq ft or 11,000 m2) General Post Office Building (1922), former headquarters of the Chunghwa Post and present home of the Shanghai Postal Museum Central Post Office (1939), also temporary home to the Privy Council of Canada Manila Central Post Office (1926, rebuilt after WWII) James Farley Post Office (1912), America's largest operating post office, the main office for New York City. Bears the famous translation of Herodotus's description of the Persian postal system along its front facade: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" The Edificio Central de Correos y Telégrafos building (1917), San José, Costa Rica. Contains the Costa Rican Philatelic Museum on the second floor Polish Post Office, a scene of intense fighting during the 1939 Nazi Germany invasion of Danzig Taipei Post Office (1928), the headquarters of Taiwan Post First Toronto Post Office (1833) Istanbul Main Post Office (1905), home of the Istanbul Postal Museum Former Bandinelli Palace (1589), a former post office in Lviv in Ukraine General Post Office (1842), Washington, D.C.'s first all-marble building, patterned after Rome's Temple of Jupiter and now the Hotel Monaco, a four-star hotel Chief Post Office (1877), the former chief post office of New Zealand in Christchurch Central Post Office Building (1903), home of the Government of Sweden Buenos Aires Central Post Office (1908), now the Bicentennial Cultural Center The Fullerton (1919), a 5-star hotel in Singapore Old Main Post Office (1921), an enormous abandoned structure in Chicago Palazzo Delle Poste (1928), the former post office of Naples, Italy, heavily damaged during Naples' 1943 uprising against the Nazis Historic The General Post Office East (1825), former headquarters of the GPO in London, demolished in 1912 See also Photos of post offices around the world Royal Mail The British Postal Museum & Archive United Kingdom Post Office site United States Postal Service Universal Postal Union Bijapur post office

Liu Xiaobo (Chinese: 刘晓波; pinyin: Liú Xiǎobō; 28 December 1955 – 13 July 2017) was a Chinese literary critic, human rights activist, philosopher and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who called for political reforms and was involved in campaigns to end communist one-party rule in China. He was arrested numerous times, and was described as China's most prominent dissident and the country's most famous political prisoner. On 26 June 2017, he was granted medical parole after being diagnosed with liver cancer; he died a few weeks later on 13 July 2017.Liu rose to fame in 1980s Chinese literary circles with his exemplary literary critiques. He eventually became a visiting scholar at several international universities. He returned to China to support the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and was imprisoned for the first time from 1989 to 1991, again from 1995 to 1996 and yet again from 1996 to 1999 for his involvement on suspicion of inciting subversion of state power. He served as the President of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, from 2003 to 2007. He was also the president of Minzhu Zhongguo (Democratic China) magazine starting in the mid-1990s. On 8 December 2008, Liu was detained due to his participation with the Charter 08 manifesto. He was formally arrested on 23 June 2009 on suspicion of "inciting subversion of state power". He was tried on the same charges on 23 December 2009 and sentenced to eleven years' imprisonment and two years' deprivation of political rights on 25 December 2009.During his fourth prison term, Liu was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize for "his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China."Liu was the first Chinese citizen to be awarded a Nobel Prize of any kind while residing in China. He was the third person to have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize while in prison or detention, after Germany's Carl von Ossietzky (1935) and Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi (1991). He was the second person to have been denied the right to have a representative collect the Nobel Prize for him as well as the second to die in custody, with the first being Ossietzky, who died in Westend hospital in Berlin-Charlottenburg after being detained in a Nazi concentration camp. Berit Reiss-Andersen, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, blamed the Chinese communist regime for his death and said that "Liu Xiaobo had contributed to the fraternity of peoples through his non-violent resistance against the oppressive actions of the Communist regime in China." Early life and work Liu was born on 28 December 1955 in Changchun, Jilin province, to a family of intellectuals. Liu's father, Liu Ling (刘伶), was born in 1931 in Huaide County, Jilin. A professor of Chinese at Northeast Normal University, he died of liver disease in September 2011. Liu's mother, Zhang Suqin (张素勤; 張素勤), worked in the Northeast Normal University Nursery School. Liu Xiaobo was the third-born in a family of five boys. His eldest brother Liu Xiaoguang (刘晓光; 劉曉光), Dalian import and export clothing company manager, retired. He was estranged from Liu Xiaobo after the 1989 Tiananmen protests. His second brother, Liu Xiaohui (刘晓晖; 劉曉暉), is a historian who graduated from the Department of History of Northeast Normal University, and who became deputy director of the Museum of Jilin Province. His fourth brother Liu Xiaoxuan (刘晓暄; 劉曉暄), born in 1957, is professor of Energy and Materials, Guangdong University of Technology, engaged in optical functional polymer materials and light curing application technology research. In 1995, he was admitted as a PhD student at Tsinghua University, but Liu Xiaobo's political activities meant he was not allowed to take the examinations. His youngest brother, Liu Xiaodong (刘晓东; 劉曉東), died of heart disease early in the 1990s.In 1969, during the Down to the Countryside Movement, Liu's father took him to Horqin Right Front Banner, Inner Mongolia. His father was a professor who remained loyal to the Communist Party. After finishing middle school in 1974, he was sent to the countryside to work on a farm in Jilin.In 1977, Liu was admitted to the Department of Chinese Literature at Jilin University, where he founded a poetry group known as "The Innocent Hearts" (赤子心詩社) with six schoolmates. In 1982, he graduated with a BA in literature before being admitted to the Department of Chinese Literature at Beijing Normal University as a research student, where he received an MA in literature in 1984, and started teaching as a lecturer thereafter. That year, he married Tao Li, with whom he had a son named Liu Tao in 1985.In 1986, Liu started his doctoral study program and published his literary critiques in various magazines. He became renowned as a "dark horse" for his radical opinions and scathing comments on the official doctrines and establishments. Opinions such as these shocked both literary and ideological circles, and his influence on Chinese intellectuals was dubbed the "Liu Xiaobo Shock" or the "Liu Xiaobo Phenomenon". In 1987, his first book, Criticism of the Choice: Dialogs with Li Zehou, was published and became a nonfiction bestseller. It comprehensively criticized the Chinese tradition of Confucianism, and posed a frank challenge to Li Zehou, a rising ideological star who had a strong influence on contemporaneous young intellectuals in China.In June 1988, Liu received a PhD in literature. His doctoral thesis, Esthetic and Human Freedom, passed the examination unanimously and was published as his second book. That same year he became a lecturer at the same department. He soon became a visiting scholar at several universities, including Columbia University, the University of Oslo, and the University of Hawaii. During the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, Liu was in the United States but he decided to return to China to join the movement. He was later named one of the "four junzis of Tiananmen Square" for persuading students to leave the square and thus saving hundreds of lives. That year also saw the publication of his third book, The Fog of Metaphysics, a comprehensive review of Western philosophies. Soon, all of his works were banned in China. Thoughts and political views On Chinese and Western cultures Evolving from his esthetic notion of "individual subjectivity" as opposed to Li Zehou's theory of esthetic subjectivity which combined Marxist materialism and Kantian idealism, he upheld the notion of "esthetic freedom" which was based on the individualistic conception of freedom and esthetics. He also strongly criticized Chinese intellectuals' "traditional attitude of searching for rationalism and harmony as a slave mentality" just as it was criticized by radical left-wing literary critic Lu Hsün during the New Culture Movement. He also echoed the New Cultural Movement's call for wholesale westernization and the rejection of Chinese traditional culture. In a 1988 interview with Hong Kong's Liberation Monthly (now known as Open Magazine), he said "modernization means wholesale westernization, choosing a human life is choosing a Western way of life. The difference between the Western and the Chinese governing system is humane vs in-humane, there's no middle ground ... Westernization is not a choice of a nation, but a choice for the human race." In the same interview, Liu also criticised the TV documentary River Elegy, for not sufficiently criticising Chinese culture and not promoting westernisation enthusiastically enough. Liu was quoted to have said, "If I were to make this I would show just how wimpy, spineless and fucked-up [齷齪、軟弱和操蛋] the Chinese really are". Liu regarded it most unfortunate that his monolingualism bound him to the Chinese cultural sphere. When asked what it would take for China to realize a true historical transformation. He replied:[It would take] 300 years of colonialism. In 100 years of colonialism, Hong Kong has changed to what we see today. With China being so big, of course it would require 300 years as a colony for it to be able to transform into how Hong Kong is today. I have my doubts as to whether 300 years would be enough. In an article in The New York Review of Books, Simon Leys wrote that Liu Xiaobo's perception of the West and its relationship to a modernizing China evolved during his travels in the United States and Europe in the 1980s. During a visit to the Metropolitan Museum in New York City, he experienced a sort of epiphany that crystallized the turmoil of his latest self-questioning: he realized the shallowness of his own learning in the light of the fabulous riches of the diverse civilizations of the past, and simultaneously perceived the inadequacy of contemporary Western answers to mankind's modern predicament. His own dream that Westernization could be used to reform China suddenly appeared to him as pathetic as the attitude of 'a paraplegic laughing at a quadriplegic', he confessed at the time: My tendency to idealize Western civilization arises from my nationalistic desire to use the West in order to reform China. But this has led me to overlook the flaws of Western culture ... I have been obsequious toward Western civilization, exaggerating its merits, and at the same time exaggerating my own merits. I have viewed the West as if it were not only the salvation of China but also the natural and ultimate destination of all humanity. Moreover I have used this delusional idealism to assign myself the role of savior ... I now realize that Western civilization, while it can be useful in reforming China in its present stage, cannot save humanity in an overall sense. If we stand back from Western civilization for a moment, we can see that it possesses all the flaws of humanity in general ... If I, as a person who has lived under China's autocratic system for more than thirty years, want to reflect on the fate of humanity or how to be an authentic person, I have no choice but to carry out two critiques simultaneously. I must: Use Western civilization as a tool to critique China. Use my own creativity to critique the West. In 2002, he reflected on his initial Maoist-flavored radical esthetic and political views in the 1980s: I realize my entire youth and early writings had all been nurtured in hatred, violence and arrogance, or lies, cynicism and sarcasm. I knew at that time that Mao-style thinking and Cultural Revolution-style language had become ingrained in me, and my goal had been to transform myself [...]. It may take me a lifetime to get rid of the poison. Liu admitted in 2006 in another interview with Open Magazine (formerly known as Liberation Monthly) that his 1988 response of "300 years of colonialism" was extemporaneous, although he did not intend to retract it, because it represented "an extreme expression of his longheld belief". The quote was nonetheless used against him. He has commented, "Even today [in 2006], radical patriotic 'angry youth' still frequently use these words to paint me with 'treason'." On Chinese democracy In his letter to his friend Liao Yiwu in 2000, he expressed his thoughts on the prospects of the democracy movement in China: Compared to others under the Communist black curtain, we cannot call ourselves real men. Through the great tragedies of all these years, we still don't have a righteous giant like [Václav] Havel. In order for everyone to have the right to be selfish, there has to be a righteous giant who will sacrifice selflessly. In order to obtain "passive freedoms" (freedom from the arbitrary oppression by those in power), there has to be a will for active resistance. In history, nothing is fated. The appearance of a martyr will to completely change a nation's soul and raise the spiritual quality of the people. But Gandhi was by chance, Havel was by chance; two thousand years ago, a peasant's boy born in the manger was even more by chance. Human progress relies on the chance birth of these individuals. One cannot count on the collective conscience of the masses but only on the great individual conscience to consolidate the weak masses. In particular, our nation needs this righteous giant; the appeal of a role model is infinite; a symbol can rouse an abundance of moral resources. For example, Fang Lizhi's ability to walk out of the U.S. Embassy, or Zhao Ziyang's ability to actively resist after stepping down, or so-and-so refusing to go abroad. A very important reason for the silence and amnesia after June Fourth is that we did not have a righteous giant who stepped forward. He was also a strong critic of Chinese nationalism, believing that the "abnormal nationalism" which had existed in China over the last century had turned from a defensive style which contained "mixed feelings of inferiority, envy, complaint, and blame" into an aggressive form of "patriotism" that was filled with "blind self-confidence, empty boasts, and pent-up hatred". The "ultra-nationalism" being deployed by the Chinese Communist Party since the Tiananmen protests has also become "a euphemism for worship of violence in service of autocratic goals."In 2009 during his trial for "inciting subversion of state power" due to his participation in drafting the Charter 08 manifesto which demanded freedom of expression, human rights and democratic elections, he wrote an essay known as "I Have No Enemies", stating that "the mentality of enmity can poison a nation's spirit, instigate brutal life and death struggles, destroy a society's tolerance and humanity, and block a nation's progress towards freedom and democracy", and he declared that he had no enemies, and no hatred. On the Islamic World In international affairs, he supported U.S. President George W. Bush's 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, his 2003 invasion of Iraq and subsequent reelection.In his 2004 article titled "Victory to the Anglo-American Freedom Alliance", he praised the U.S.-led post-Cold War conflicts as "best examples of how war should be conducted in a modern civilization." He wrote: "Regardless of the savagery of the terrorists, and regardless of the instability of Iraq's situation, and, what's more, regardless of how patriotic youth might despise proponents of the United States such as myself, my support for the invasion of Iraq will not waver. Just as, from the beginning, I believed that the military intervention of Britain and the United States would be victorious, I am still full of belief in the final victory of the Freedom Alliance and the democratic future of Iraq, and even if the armed forces of Britain and the United States should encounter some obstacles such as those that they are currently facing, this belief of mine will not change." He also predicted that "a free, democratic and peaceful Iraq will emerge."He commented on Islamism that, "a culture and (religious) system that has produced this kind of threat (Islamic fundamentalism) must be inherently intolerant and bloodthirsty." He also criticized the Iraq prison abuse scandals. During the 2004 US presidential election, Liu again praised Bush for his war effort against Iraq and condemned Democratic Party candidate John Kerry for not sufficiently supporting the wars in which the U.S. was then involved.On Israel, he said "without America's protection, the long persecuted Jews who faced extermination during World War II, would probably be drowned once more by the Islamic world's hatred." He had defended U.S. policies in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, which he thought was the fault of the "provocateur" Palestinians. Human rights activities On 27 April 1989, Liu returned to Beijing and immediately became an active supporter of the movement. When the army seemed ready to violently eject the students who persistently occupied Tiananmen Square in order to challenge the government and the army that was enforcing its declaration of martial law, he initiated a four-man three-day hunger strike on 2 June. Later referred to as the "Tiananmen Four Gentlemen Hunger Strike", the action earned the trust of the students. He requested that both the government and the students abandon the ideology of class struggle and adopt a new political culture of dialogue and compromise. Although it was too late to prevent the massacre which started on the night of 3 June from occurring beyond the square, he and his colleagues successfully negotiated with the student leaders and the army commander so the several thousand students who remained in the square would all be allowed to peacefully withdraw from it, thus preventing a possibly much larger scale of bloodshed.On 5 June, Liu was arrested and detained in Qincheng Prison for his alleged role in the movement, and three months later he was expelled from Beijing Normal University. The government's media issued numerous publications which labeled him a "mad dog" and a "black hand" because he had allegedly incited and manipulated the student movement to overthrow the government and socialism. His publications were banned, including his fourth book, Going Naked Toward God, which was then in press. In Taiwan however, his first and third books, Criticism of the Choice: Dialogues with Leading Thinker Li Zehou (1989), and the two-volume Mysteries of Thought and Dreams of Mankind (1990) were republished with some additions.In January 1991, 19 months after his arrest, Liu Xiaobo was convicted of "counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement" but he was exempted from criminal punishment due to his "major meritorious action" for preventing what could have been a bloody confrontation in Tiananmen Square. After his release, he was divorced; both his ex-wife and son subsequently emigrated to the US. He resumed his writing, mostly on human rights and political issues, but was not allowed to publish them in Mainland China. In 1992, while in Taiwan, he published his first book after his imprisonment, The Monologues of a Doomsday's Survivor, a controversial memoir which contains his confessions and his political criticism of the popular movement in 1989. In January 1993, Liu was invited to visit Australia and the United States for the interviews in the documentary film The Gate of Heavenly Peace. Although many of his friends suggested that he take refuge abroad, Liu returned to China in May 1993 and continued his freelance writing.On 18 May 1995, the Chinese police took Liu into custody for launching a petition campaign on the eve of the sixth anniversary of the Tiananmen protests calling on the government to reassess the event and initiate political reform. He was held under residential surveillance in the suburbs of Beijing for nine months. He was released in February 1996 but was arrested again on 8 October for writing an October Tenth Declaration, coauthored by him and another prominent dissident, Wang Xizhe, mainly on the Taiwan issue, that advocated a peaceful reunification in order to oppose the Chinese Communist Party's forceful threats against the island. He was ordered to serve three years of reeducation through labor "for disturbing public order" for that statement.In 1996, while he was still imprisoned in the labor camp, Liu married Liu Xia, who herself was not a prisoner. Because she was the only person from the outside allowed to visit him in prison, she was deemed his "most important link to the outside world."After his release on 7 October 1999, Liu Xiaobo resumed his freelance writing. However, it was reported that the government built a sentry station next to his home and his phone calls and internet connections were tapped. In 2000, while in Taiwan, Liu published the book A Nation That Lies to Conscience, a 400-page political criticism. Also published, in Hong Kong, was a Selection of Poems, a 450-page collection of the poems as correspondences between him and his wife during his imprisonment; it was coauthored by Liu and his wife. The last of three books which he published during the year was published in Mainland China, later titled "Selected Poems of Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia" (劉曉波劉霞詩選), a 250-page collection of literary critiques coauthored by a popular young writer and himself under his unknown pen name of "Lao Xiao". The same year, Liu participated in founding the "Independent Chinese PEN Center," and was elected to both its board of directors and as its president in November 2003; he was reelected to both positions two years later. In 2007, he did not seek reelection as president but held his position as a board member until he was detained by the police in December 2008.In 2003, when Liu started writing a human rights report on China at his home, his computer, letters and documents were all confiscated by the government. He once said, "at Liu Xia's [Liu's wife] birthday, her best friend brought two bottles of wine to [my home] but was blocked by the police from coming in. I ordered a [birthday] cake and the police also rejected the man who delivered the cake to us. I quarreled with them and the police said, 'it is for the sake of your security. It has happened many bomb attacks in these days.'" Those measures were loosened until 2007, prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.In January 2005, following the death of former Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang, who had shown sympathy towards the student demonstrations in 1989, Liu was immediately put under house arrest for two weeks before he learned about the death of Zhao. The same year, he published two more books in the US, The Future of Free China Exists in Civil Society, and Single-Blade Poisonous Sword: Criticism of Chinese Nationalism. Liu's writing is considered subversive by the Chinese Communist Party, and his name is censored. He called for multi-party elections and free markets, advocated the values of freedom, supported separation of powers and urged the governments to be accountable for its wrongdoings. When not in prison, he was the subject of government monitoring and he was also put under house arrest during times that the government considered politically sensitive.Liu's human rights work received international recognition. In 2004, Reporters Without Borders awarded him the Fondation de France Prize as a defender of press freedom. Charter 08 Conception and diffusion of Charter 08 Liu Xiaobo actively participated in the writing of Charter 08 and signed it along with more than three hundred Chinese citizens. The Charter is a manifesto that was released on 10 December 2008 in order to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was written in the style of the Czechoslovak Charter 77, and calls for more freedom of expression, human rights, more democratic elections, the privatization of state enterprises and land, and economic liberalism. As of September 2010, the Charter had collected over 10,000 signatures. 2008–2017 arrest, trial, and imprisonment Arrest Two days before the official release of Charter 08, late on the evening of 8 December 2008, Liu was taken into custody by the police, as was Zhang Zuhua, another scholar and Charter 08 signatory. According to Zhang, the two were detained on suspicion of collecting signatures for the Charter. While Liu was detained in solitary confinement, he was forbidden to meet with either his lawyer or his family, but he was allowed to eat lunch with his wife, Liu Xia, and two policemen on New Year's Day 2009. On 23 June 2009, the Beijing procuratorate approved Liu's arrest on charges of "suspicion of inciting subversion of state power," a crime under Article 105 of China's Criminal Law. In a Xinhua news release announcing Liu's arrest, the Beijing Public Security Bureau alleged that Liu had incited the subversion of state power and the overthrow of the socialist system through methods such as spreading rumors and slander, citing almost verbatim Article 105; the Beijing PSB also noted that Liu had "fully confessed". Trial On 1 December 2009, Beijing police transferred Liu's case to the procuratorate for investigation and processing; on 10 December, the procuratorate formally indicted Liu on charges of "inciting subversion of state power" and sent his lawyers, Shang Baojun and Ding Xikui, the indictment document. He was tried at Beijing No. 1 Intermediate Court on 23 December 2009. His wife was not permitted to observe the hearing, although his brother-in-law was present. Diplomats from more than a dozen countries – including the U.S., Britain, Canada, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand – were denied access to the court in order to watch the trial and they all stood outside the court for its duration. Among them were Gregory May, political officer at the U.S. Embassy, and Nicholas Weeks, first secretary of the Swedish Embassy.Liu wrote a statement, entitled "I have no enemies", intending for it to be read at his trial. He was never given the right to speak. The essay was later read in the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, which Liu was unable to attend due to his imprisonment. On 25 December 2009, Liu was sentenced to eleven years' imprisonment and two years' deprivation of political rights by the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate Court on charges of "inciting subversion of state power". According to Liu's family and counsel, he planned to appeal the judgment. In the verdict, Charter 08 was named as part of the evidence supporting his conviction. John Pomfret of The Washington Post said Christmas Day was chosen to dump the news because the Chinese government believed Westerners were less likely to take notice on a holiday. China's political reform ... should be gradual, peaceful, orderly and controllable and should be interactive, from above to below and from below to above. This way causes the least cost and leads to the most effective result. I know the basic principles of political change, that orderly and controllable social change is better than one which is chaotic and out of control. The order of a bad government is better than the chaos of anarchy. So I oppose systems of government that are dictatorships or monopolies. This is not 'inciting subversion of state power'. Opposition is not equivalent to subversion. Liu argued that his verdict violated both the Chinese constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations. He argued that charges against him of 'spreading rumors, slandering and in other ways inciting the subversion of the government and overturning the socialist system' were contrived, as he did not fabricate or create false information, nor did he besmirch the good name and character of others by merely expressing a point of view, a value judgment.Criminal law professor Gao Mingxuan characterized Liu's activities as publishing provocative speech on the Internet and gathering signatures to advocate the overthrow of government, activities he argued were prohibited by Chinese criminal law. However, Liu was advocating for the incremental and peaceful adoption of a democratic system with individual rights. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China asserted that there are similar laws in many countries to prevent activities to advocate the overthrow of government, such as the Treason Act 1351 of England. Liu's detention was condemned worldwide by both human rights organizations and foreign countries. On 11 December 2008, the U.S. Department of State called for Liu's release, which was followed on 22 December 2008 by a similar request from a consortium of scholars, writers, lawyers and human rights advocates. Additionally, on 21 January 2009, 300 international writers, including Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, Ha Jin and Jung Chang, called for Liu's release in a statement put out through PEN. In March 2009, the One World Film Festival awarded Liu Xiaobo the Homo Homini Award, organized by the People in Need foundation, for promoting freedom of speech, democratic principles and human rights.In December 2009, the European Union and United States issued formal appeals calling for the unconditional release of Liu Xiaobo. China's government, responding to the international calls prior to the verdict, stated that other nations should "respect China's judicial sovereignty and not do things that will interfere in China's internal affairs".Responding to the verdict, United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Navanethem Pillay expressed concern about the deterioration of political rights in China. German Chancellor Angela Merkel strongly criticized the verdict, stating "despite the great progress in other areas in the expression of views, I regret that the Chinese government still massively restricts press freedom." Canada and Switzerland also condemned the verdict. The Republic of China President Ma Ying-jeou called on Beijing to "tolerate dissent". On 6 January 2010, former Czech president Václav Havel joined with other communist-era dissidents at the Chinese Embassy in Prague to present a petition calling for Liu's release. On 22 January 2010, European Association for Chinese Studies sent an open letter to Hu Jintao on behalf of over 800 scholars from 36 countries calling for Liu's release.On 18 January 2010, Liu was nominated for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize by Václav Havel, the 14th Dalai Lama, André Glucksmann, Vartan Gregorian, Mike Moore, Karel Schwarzenberg, Desmond Tutu and Grigory Yavlinsky. China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ma Zhaoxu stated that awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu would be "totally wrong". Geir Lundestad, a secretary of the Nobel Committee, stated the award would not be influenced by Beijing's opposition. On 25 September 2010, The New York Times reported that a petition in support of the Nobel nomination was being circulated in China.On 14 September 2010, the Mayor of Reykjavík, Jón Gnarr, met on an unrelated matter with CPC Politburo member Liu Qi and demanded China set the dissident Liu Xiaobo free. Also that September Václav Havel, Dana Němcová and Václav Malý, leaders of Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution, published an open letter in the International Herald Tribune calling for the award to be given to Liu, while a petition began to circulate soon afterwards.On 6 October 2010, the non-governmental organization Freedom Now, which serves as an international counsel to Liu Xiaobo as retained by his family, publicly released a letter from 30 members of the U.S. Congress to President Barack Obama, urging him to directly raise both Liu's case and that of fellow imprisoned dissident Gao Zhisheng to Chinese President Hu Jintao at the G-20 Summit in November 2010. The Republic of China's President Ma Ying-jiu congratulated Liu on winning the Nobel Prize and requested that the Chinese authorities improve their impression in the eyes of the world by respecting human rights, but did not call for his release from prison.On 15 October 2010, the China News Service indicated that in 2008 Liu had received a financial endowment from the National Endowment for Democracy, which is "a Washington-based nonprofit funded largely by the US Congress".In 2011, a WorldWideReading was dedicated to Liu Xiaobo; on 20 March, readings in more than 60 towns and cities on all continents and broadcast via radio stations were held in his honor. The "Freedom for Liu Xiaobo" appeal was supported by more than 700 writers from around the world, among them Nobel Prize laureates John M. Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer, Herta Müller and Elfriede Jelinek, as well as Breyten Breytenbach, Eliot Weinberger, Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth, Mario Vargas Llosa, Wolf Biermann and Dave Eggers. On 20 March 2011, the international literature festival called for a worldwide reading for Liu Xiaobo. More than 700 authors from all continents signed the appeal and over 150 institutions took part in the event. On 19 November 2013, his wife, Liu Xia, who was placed under house arrest shortly after Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, filed an appeal for Liu Xiaobo's retrial. This move has been called "extraordinary" because the action could refocus the world's attention on China's human rights record. According to her attorney, Mo Shaoping, Liu Xia visited her husband in Jinzhou Prison in Liaoning and gained his approval before filing this motion. Nobel Peace Prize On 8 October 2010, the Nobel Committee awarded Liu the Nobel Peace Prize "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China", saying that Liu had long been front-runner as the recipient of the prize. Liu's wife, Liu Xia, expressed gratitude on behalf of her husband to the Nobel Committee, Liu's proposers, and those who have been supporting him since 1989, including the Tiananmen Mothers—family members or representatives of those who were killed, or had disappeared, in the military crackdown of the protests of 4 June 1989. She said, "The prize should belong to all who signed Charter 08 and were jailed due to their support".Liu Xia informed her husband of his award during a visit to Jinzhou Prison on 9 October 2010, one day after the official announcement. She reported that Liu wept and dedicated the award to those who suffered as a result of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, saying: "The award is first and foremost for the Tiananmen martyrs" After Mrs. Liu returned home, she was put under house arrest and was watched by armed guards. She expressed the desire to attend the awards ceremony in Norway in December, but was skeptical of her chances of being allowed to do so. Liu Xia wrote an open letter to 143 prominent figures, encouraging them to attend the award ceremony in Oslo.China reacted negatively to the award, immediately censoring news about the announcement of the award in China, though later that day limited news of the award became available. Foreign news broadcasters including CNN and the BBC were immediately blocked, while heavy censorship was applied to personal communications. The Chinese Foreign Ministry denounced the award to Liu Xiaobo, saying that it "runs completely counter to the principle of the award and it is also a desecration of the Peace Prize". The Norwegian ambassador to the People's Republic of China was summoned by the Foreign Ministry on 8 October 2010 and presented with an official complaint about the granting of the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu. The Chinese government has called Liu Xiaobo a criminal and stated that he does not deserve the prize. Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng, in his response to news of the award, criticized Liu by calling him "the accomplice of the Communist regime." As a result, nearly all large-scale commercial trading between Norway and China was limited, and relations soured until after Liu Xiaobo's death in 2017, when talks resumed. In October 2018, the Norwegian King Harald V visited Beijing and met with Chinese president Xi Jinping, symbolizing the recovery of China-Norway relations.Global Times, part of the Chinese government-owned People's Daily, published a statement saying that Liu Xiaobo and his case had properly undergone "strict legal procedure", blaming Western regimes for sensationalizing the Liu Xiaobo story "in defiance of China's judicial sovereignty". The Chinese paper also rejected the view that Liu Xiaobo should be described as "China's Mandela", by stating: "Mandela was a Nobel Peace Prize laureate for leading African people to anti-apartheid victory through struggles ... however, awarding a Chinese prisoner who confronted authorities and was rejected by mainstream Chinese society derides China's judicial system ... [which] makes sure a society of 1.3 billion people runs smoothly."Following the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize, celebrations in China were either stopped or curtailed, and prominent intellectuals and other dissidents were detained, harassed or put under surveillance; Liu's wife, Liu Xia, was placed under house arrest and she was forbidden to talk to reporters even though no official charges were filed against her. Sixty-five countries with missions in Norway were all invited to the Nobel Prize ceremony, but fifteen of them declined the invitation, in some cases due to heavy lobbying by China. Besides China, these countries included Russia, Kazakhstan, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Vietnam, Venezuela, Egypt, Sudan, Cuba, and Morocco.China also imposed travel restrictions on known dissidents ahead of the ceremony. A Chinese group announced that its answer to the Nobel Peace Prize, the Confucius Peace Prize, would be awarded to former Taiwanese Vice-President Lien Chan for the bridge of peace which he has been building between Taiwan and Mainland China. Lien Chan himself denied any knowledge of the $15,000 prize. Medical parole and health On 26 June 2017, it was reported that Liu had been granted medical parole after being diagnosed with terminal liver cancer in late May 2017. The Shenyang Justice Ministry released a statement on 5 July saying that the First Hospital of China Medical University, where Liu was being treated, has invited cancer experts from the United States, Germany and other nations to join its team of doctors. However, the statement did not mention which foreign doctors had been invited or whether or not any of them had responded. A statement one day later from the hospital said that Liu was admitted on 7 June. On 8 July, the hospital said that Joseph M. Herman of University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Markus Büchler of Heidelberg University had joined domestic experts for group consultation. The foreign doctors said that Liu had indicated that he wanted to be sent abroad for treatment. Acknowledging the risk that is involved when a patient is moved, they deemed that Liu was fit to travel abroad in order to receive the care which they were willing to provide him. However, the hospital said that the foreign doctors had confirmed that even they had no better treatment methods and also that the domestic doctors had done a very good job. On 10 July, the hospital said that Liu was in critical condition, and that he was suffering from an increasingly bloated stomach, an inflamed abdominal wall, falling blood pressure, faltering kidneys, growing cancer lesions, and that they were actively rescuing him, and were starting to use continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT). On 12 July, the hospital said that Liu was suffering from liver failure (Child–Pugh class C), kidney failure, respiratory failure, septic shock, blood clot, etc. and that they had communicated the necessity for tracheal intubation, but his family had rejected the procedure. The New York Times reported that Liu's family could not be independently reached for confirmation of his condition. Death and funeral Liu Xiaobo died on 13 July 2017 in Shenyang's First Hospital of China Medical University from liver cancer. Censorship Since his death, the fate of Liu Xiaobo has been compared by the media of the world to that of Carl von Ossietzky, Nobel Laureate in 1935 who also died as a prisoner of an authoritarian regime. Whilst Liu's death was widely reported in the Western media, it was mentioned only in the most perfunctory manner in the press inside mainland China. Censors deleted images or emojis of candles, or a simple "RIP"; searches on Sina Weibo regarding Liu's health returned the message: "According to relevant laws and policies, results for 'Liu Xiaobo' cannot be displayed". The Citizen Lab documented censorship of the death of Liu Xiaobo on WeChat and Weibo." They noted on 16 July censorship on WeChat of images related to Liu after his death, and found that even images were being blocked in one-to-one chat the first time as well as in group chat and WeChat Moments. Based on analyses of search term blocking on Weibo, the lab confirmed that a blanket ban on searches for Liu Xiaobo's name was still being applied. They said: "In fact, just his given name of Xiaobo is enough to trigger censorship in English and both Simplified and Traditional Chinese..."On the early morning of 15 July 2017, a brief funeral service was held for Liu which Liu's body was cremated following a short mourning service. Liu's mourning ceremony and funeral were heavily stage-managed as friends and supporters had been warned that public funeral or memorial would not be tolerated. All the questions international journalists have been asking about Liu failed to appear in official transcripts of news briefings by the Chinese foreign ministry. Germany, UK, France, the United States, Taiwan and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, called for the People's Republic of China to allow Liu Xiaobo's wife Liu Xia to travel and leave the country if she wishes. Funeral The funeral was organized in a heavy-handed fashion in which Chinese government attempted to defend their treatment of Liu and his wife, even though it was clear they and their family members were under perpetual surveillance. Although the funeral was attended by a brother of Ms. Liu and two of Mr. Liu's brothers and their wives, none of Liu's friends could be identified from official photographs of the mourners. A government spokesman said: "Liu Xia is free now, [but was] grief-stricken and doesn't need to be disturbed" The government claimed that Liu had been cremated, and his ashes scattered into the sea at the family's own request. His eldest brother, Liu Xiaoguang appeared at the same press briefing, thanked the Chinese Communist party and also the government "because everything they have done for our family shows a high level of humanity and personal care to us". According to Liu Xiaobo's biographer Yu Jie, Liu had excommunicated his eldest brother, Xiaoguang, after the 4 June incident, calling him a "petty bureaucrat of the Communist Party". Yu further criticized Xiaoguang for usurping Liu Xia's position of next of kin and his "shamelessness" in attempting to grab a share of Liu's Nobel Prize money. The government of China has been accused by Liu's supporters of trying to erase any shrine or traces to Liu Xiaobo with a sea burial of his remains. Chinese human rights activists Hu Jia stated to the South China Morning Post that the hasty actions were "humiliating to a Nobel winner".In Hong Kong, which at the time, had civil rights that are nonexistent in mainland China, activists organized the only large-scale commemoration for Liu on Chinese soil. A vigil outside the Beijing Liaison Office started on 10 July and continued until his death. Some newspapers in the city splashed Liu's portrait on their front pages to announce his death, while other pro-Communist journals relegated coverage to the inner pages. In the Legislative Council legislators of the Pro-democracy camp made seven attempts to table a debate on Liu, but president of the council, Andrew Leung, who is from the governing faction, rejected the attempts on the grounds that the matter did not have "urgent public importance according to 16.2 of the Rules of Procedure, [and that] the wording of their petitions lacked neutrality". Reactions Sinosphere People's Republic of China: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs' spokesman Geng Shuang chastised foreign officials' "improper comments on Liu Xiaobo's death of illness" and said that China had lodged "stern representations" with their countries. Geng also said on 14 July that "Conferring the prize to such a person goes against the purposes of this award. It's a blasphemy of the peace prize", according to the Voice of America. But an almost identical report from Voice of America Chinese also wrote that Geng's statement could not be found from the regular press briefing's Q&A transcript posted on the ministry's website. Republic of China: President of the Republic of China Tsai Ing-wen pleaded with the Communist government to "show confidence in engaging in political reform so that the Chinese can enjoy the God-given rights of freedom and democracy ... The Chinese Dream is not supposed to be about military might. It should be about taking ideas like those from Liu Xiaobo into consideration. Only through democracy, in which every Chinese person has freedom and respect, can China truly become a proud and important country." In his tribute on Facebook, former ROC President and leader of the Kuomintang Ma Ying-jeou said the Chinese dream should develop proportionally on freedom and human rights. Mayor of Taipei Ko Wen-je expressed condolences. Tibetan Government in Exile: The 14th Dalai Lama, who himself is the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner, the Speaker of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, Khenpo Sonam Tenphel, and Prime Minister of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, Lobsang Sangay mourned the death of Liu. The Dalai Lama issued the following short statement on 14 July 2017, "I am deeply saddened to learn that fellow Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo has passed away while undergoing a lengthy prison sentence. I offer my prayers and condolences to his wife, Liu Xia and to other members of his family. Although he is no longer living, the rest of us can best pay honor to Liu Xiaobo by carrying forward the principles he has long embodied, which would lead to a more harmonious, stable and prosperous China. It is my belief that Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo's unceasing efforts in the cause of freedom will bear fruit before long." International States France: President Emmanuel Macron, who hosted a press conference for visiting US President Trump, later paid tribute to Dr Liu in a tweet, praising him as "a freedom fighter". French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian expressed condolences as well. Germany: Chancellor Angela Merkel described Liu Xiaobo as a "courageous fighter for civil rights and freedom of expression". Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said that "China now has the responsibility to quickly, transparently and plausibly answer the question of whether the cancer could not have been identified much earlier." Japan: Both the Minister of Foreign affairs Fumio Kishida and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga expressed condolences. Norway: Prime Minister of Norway Erna Solberg said that "It is with deep grief that I received the news of Liu Xiaobo's passing. Liu Xiaobo was for decades a central voice for human rights and China's further development." Thorbjørn Jagland, a member and former chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, and a former Prime Minister of Norway, compared Liu Xiaobo to Carl von Ossietzky, noting that he became the second Nobel Prize laureate who was prevented from receiving the prize because he died in prison. An official statement by the Norwegian Nobel Committee blamed the Chinese communist regime for Liu Xiaobo's death and condemned the erosion of human rights as a universal value; on behalf of the committee, chairwoman Reiss-Andersen said that "Liu Xiaobo had contributed to the fraternity of peoples through his non-violent resistance against the oppressive actions of the Communist regime in China" and that "the Chinese Government bears a heavy responsibility for his premature death". Reiss-Andersen said Liu Xiaobo will remain "a powerful symbol for all who fight for freedom, democracy and a better world". She also lamented the "sad and disturbing fact that the representatives of the free world, who themselves hold democracy and human rights in high regard, are less willing to stand up for those rights for the benefit of others." United Kingdom: Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson called Liu a "lifelong campaigner for democracy, human rights and peace", and said that his death was a huge loss. He further stated that "Liu Xiaobo should have been allowed to choose his own medical treatment overseas" and called for the Chinese authorities "to lift all restrictions" on Liu's widow. United States: The White House Press Secretary issued a statement of condolences. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that "Mr Liu dedicated his life to the betterment of his country and humankind, and to the pursuit of justice and liberty," and urged Beijing to free Liu's widow. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad both expressed condolences. The Congressional-Executive Commission on China, whose commissioners come from both the House of Representatives and Senate, issued a bipartisan statement. The United States House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations held a hearing on Liu and his death (entitled "The Tragic Case of Liu Xiaobo"). Nancy Pelosi, the House Minority Leader, was saddened by the news of Liu's passing. Back on 18 May, both Republican Senator Ted Cruz and Representative Mark Meadows had re-introduced bills to resume their push to rename the address of Embassy of China in Washington, D.C. as "1 Liu Xiaobo Plaza." Bob Fu, a Chinese American human rights activist and pastor, told The Texas Tribune that he is "definitely more optimistic" about Cruz's bill getting enacted with President Trump in office. Later Senator Marco Rubio wrote a letter, which was sent to Liu Xia, Liu Xiaobo's widow. Senator John McCain said that "this is only the latest example of Communist China's assault on human rights, democracy, and freedom."Former President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush also expressed condolences. Organizations European Union: President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and President of the European Council Donald Tusk said in a joint statement that they had learned of Liu's death "with deep sadness" and that "We appeal to the Chinese authorities to allow his wife, Ms Liu Xia and his family to bury Liu Xiaobo at a place and in a manner of their choosing, and to allow them to grieve in peace". United Nations: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said, "The human rights movement in China and across the world has lost a principled champion who devoted his life to defending and promoting human rights, peacefully and consistently, and who was jailed for standing up for his beliefs. Liu Xiaobo was the true embodiment of the democratic, non-violent ideals he so ardently advocated." Major works Criticism of the Choice: Dialogues with LI Zehou. Shanghai People's Publishing House. 1987. Criticism of the Choice: Dialogues with Leading Thinker LI Zehou. Shanghai People's Publishing House. 1989. Esthetics and Human Freedom. Beijing Normal University Press. 1988. Going Naked Toward God. Time Literature and Art Publishing House. 1989. The Fog of Metaphysics. Shanghai People's Publishing House. 1989. Mysteries of Thought and Dreams of Mankind, 2 volumes. Strom & Stress Publishing Company. 1989–1990. Contemporary Politics and Intellectuals of China. Tangshan Publishing Company, Taiwan. 1990. Criticism on Contemporary Chinese Intellectuals (Japanese Translation). Tokuma Bookstore, Tokyo. 1992. The Monologues of a Doomsday's Survivor. China Times Publishing Company, Taiwan. 1993. Selected Poems of Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia. Xiafei'er International Press, Hong Kong. 2000. Under pen name Lao Xia and coauthored with Wang Shuo (2000). A Belle Gave me Knockout Drug. Changjiang Literary Press. A Nation That Lies to Conscience. Jie-jou Publishing Company, Taiwan. 2002. Civil Awakening—The Dawn of a Free China. Laogai Research Foundation. 2005. A Single Blade and Toxic Sword: Critique on Contemporary Chinese Nationalism. Broad Press Inc, Sunnyvale. 2006. Falling of A Great Power: Memorandum to China. Yunchen Culture. October 2009. From TianAnMen Incident to Charter 08 (in Japanese ): Memorandum to China. Fujiwara Bookstore, Tokyo. December 2009. No Enemies, No Hatred. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 2012. June Fourth Elegies: Poems translated from the Chinese by Jeffrey Yang With a Foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama Bilingual Edition. Graywolf Press. 2012. Awards and honors Hellman-Hammett Grant (1990, 1996) China Foundation on Democracy Education for Outstanding Democratic Activist (2003) Fondation de France Prize for defender of press freedom (2004) Hong Kong Human Rights Press Awards (2004, 2005, 2006)Excellent Award (2004) for an article Corrupted News is not News, published on Open Magazine, January 2004 issue Grand Prize (2005) for an article Paradise of the Powerful, Hell of the Vulnerable on Open Magazine, September 2004 issue Excellent Award (2006) for The Causes and Ending of Shanwei Bloodshed on Open Magazine, January 2006Asia-Pacific Human Rights Foundation (Australia) Courage of Conscience Award (2007) People in Need (Czech) Homo Homini Award (2009) PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award (2009) Independent Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars (USA) Free Spirit Award (2009) German PEN Hermann Kesten Medal (2010) Nobel Peace Prize (2010) Giuseppe Motta Medal (2010) Honorary member of German, American, Portuguese, Czech and Sydney PEN Centers and Honorary President of Independent Chinese PEN Center.A statue of Liu Xiaobo in Hong Kong was removed in November 2021 after the police objected to its presence. See also Carl von Ossietzky Charter 08 Human rights in the People's Republic of China Inciting subversion of state power List of Chinese dissidents List of Chinese Nobel laureates Literary inquisition Weiquan movement Wolf warrior diplomacy Liu's verdict and articles cited as evidence of Liu's guilt in the verdictLiu Xiaobo's 2009 criminal verdict "The Communist Party of China's Dictatorial Patriotism" "Can It Be that the Chinese People Deserve Only Party-Led Democracy?" "Changing the Regime by Changing Society" "The Negative Effects of the Rise of Dictatorship on World Democratization" "Further Questions about Child Slavery in China's Kilns" Charter 08Other items written by Liu XiaoboLetter from Liu Xiaobo to Liao Yiwu (2000) "The Rise of Civil Society in China" (2003) "Atop a Volcano" (2004) "Remembering June 4th for China's Future" (2005) The Poet in an Unknown Prison letter by Liu from The New York Review of Books (2009) No Enemies, No Hatred: Selected Essays and Poems (2011) "Behind The Rise of the Great Powers" in Guernica Magazine, January 2012 Huang, Zheping; Huang, Echo (17 July 2017). "Dying in custody, a Nobel prize-winning Chinese dissident wrote this last love letter to his wife". Quartz. English language articles and interviews Film Excerpts of Liu Xiaobo from The Gate of Heavenly Peace Interview with Liu Xiaobo (English and Chinese) by PEN American Center on YouTubeOther items related to Liu Xiaobo30 September 2009 floor debate in U.S. Congress on the Liu Xiaobo resolution on YouTube Jailed Chinese Dissident Liu Xiaobo Awarded Nobel Peace Prize—video report by Democracy Now! "Liu Xiaobo's Plea for the Human Spirit"—essay by Jonathan Mirsky in the Sunday Book Review in The New York Times 30 December 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo and the Future of Political Reform in China: Hearing before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, One Hundred Eleventh Congress, Second Session, 9 November 2010 Two Years Later: The Ongoing Detentions of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo and his Wife Liu Xia: Hearing before the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, One Hundred Twelfth Congress, Second Session, 12 December 2012 A worldwide reading organized for Liu Xiaobo Archived 7 July 2019 at the Wayback Machine by the international literature festival berlin Liu Xiaobo on Nobelprize.org

Macau International Airport (IATA: MFM, ICAO: VMMC) (Chinese: 澳門國際機場; Portuguese: Aeroporto Internacional de Macau) is an international airport in the special administrative region of Macau, situated at the eastern end of Taipa island and neighbouring waters which opened for commercial operations on 9 November 1995, during Portuguese administration of the region. Since then the airport has been a common transfer point for people traveling between the Mainland and Taiwan, as well as a passenger hub for destinations in mainland China and Southeast Asia. During 2006, the airport handled 5 million passengers and 220,000 tonnes of cargo. In 2017 the number of passengers had increased to 7,165,803, which is more than the 6 million passengers per year the terminal was originally designed for. History The Macau airport was constructed on reclaimed land adjacent to the islands of Taipa and Coloane. It cost US$1 billion to build. Commercial air service began on 9 November 1995. The first departure was an Air Macau flight to Beijing, and the first arrival was a Malaysia Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur. The official inauguration ceremony took place on 8 December 1995, and Portuguese President Mário Soares presided over it.In April 1996, TAP Air Portugal started service to Lisbon using Airbus A340s. It cooperated with Sabena on the route; the flight stopped in Brussels, and TAP allocated a certain number of seats to the airline on the segment between Brussels and Macau. TAP encountered difficulties in running the flights. The crew had to spend long layovers in Macau because the service only operated twice a week. Additionally, TAP and Air Macau, in which the former held a stake, were unable to coordinate their schedules, making connections between the Lisbon flight and Air Macau's network inconvenient. In April 1997, TAP moved the stopover to Bangkok in hopes of attracting more passengers. Nevertheless, it was losing money on the route. The company's chairman stated in November 1997 that he wanted to end the link but that he faced opposition from the Portuguese government, which owned the airline. TAP stopped serving Macau the following year. Facilities Terminal The airport's designed capacity is 6,000,000 passengers per year, with processing capacity of up to 2,000 passengers per hour. The airport does not have a night curfew. There are 24 parking spaces for aircraft in the apron, with five jetways. There are 10 gates. As in Hong Kong, Macau has its own immigration policies and is a separate customs territory from mainland China. All travellers, including those to mainland China and Hong Kong, need to go through the immigration and customs inspections of international flights. Runway and aprons The airport's runway was built on a strip of reclaimed land in the sea, adjacent to Taipa Island, where the main terminal and air traffic control facilities are located, unlike in Hong Kong, where Chek Lap Kok has them all on a reclaimed island. The runway is connected to the apron by two causeways. Runway 34 is ILS CAT II equipped. Navigational and radio aids are located at either end of the runway. Despite its small area, the airport is capable of handling Boeing 747s and Antonov 124s, which forms a vital freight link between local manufacturers and overseas markets. Its catering facility can produce up to 10,000 meals per day. Other tenants Other tenants of the airport are the Macau Customs Service (Independent department under Secretariat for Security of Macau), the Macau Immigration Department/Services (Public Security Police Force of Macau), the Macau Business Aviation Centre, Servair Macau and Menzies Macau. Redevelopment Since 2016, Macau's government has been developing a master plan for the airport's expansion. To be done in three phases, the most visible sections of it broke ground in 2020. Airlines and destinations Statistics Annual traffic Ground transportation The airport is connected by public transit bus routes, light rail, taxis, private cars, and regional coach services. Air–sea link For passengers transferring to China or Hong Kong, a "two customs, one checkpoint" service is provided. Passengers can use a bus shuttle directly from the airport to the New Macau Ferry Terminal or the Taipa Ferry Terminal without passing Macau immigration. Bus Towards Macau Peninsula, Taipa, Cotai and Coloane Transmac routes: 26 – Bacia Norte do Patane ↔ Mercado Municipal de Coloane 51A – The Praia ↔ Av. Vale das Borboletas AP1 – Portas do Cerco ↺ Aeroporto de Macau AP1X – Praça das Portas do Cerco ↺ Aeroporto de Macau (06:00–10:00, 15:00–20:00) MT4 – Parque M. Dr. Sun Yat Sen ↔ Terminal Marítimo de Passageiros da Taipa T.C.M. routes: N2 – Bacia Norte do Patane ↔ Terminal Marítimo de Passageiros da Taipa (00:00–06:00) 36 – Rotunda Leonel Sousa ↺ Aeroporto de Macau MT1 – Praceta 24 de Junho ↺ Aeroporto de Macau Cross-border coaches Cross-border coaches connect Macau International Airport with mainland locations like Huadao, Guangzhou, Panyu, Dongguan, Gongbei Port of Entry and Hengqin Border. The "two customs, one checkpoint" service is also available at the Hengqin Border. Light rail The airport is served by the Airport Station of the Macau Light Rail Transit's Taipa Line at Avenida Wai Long. See also Civil Aviation Authority of Macau SAR Media related to Macau International Airport at Wikimedia Commons Macau International Airport "Macao AIP". Civil Aviation Authority of Macao SAR. Current weather for VMMC at NOAA/NWS Accident history for MFM at Aviation Safety Network

The Xuantong Emperor (7 February 1906 – 17 October 1967), better known by his personal name Puyi, courtesy name Yaozhi (曜之), was the last emperor of China as the eleventh and final monarch of the Qing dynasty. He was later ruler of the puppet state of Manchukuo under the Empire of Japan from 1934 to 1945. He became emperor at the age of two in 1908, but was forced to abdicate at the age of six in 1912 during the Xinhai Revolution. His era name as Qing emperor, "Xuantong" (Hsuan-t'ung, 宣統), means "proclamation of unity". Puyi was briefly restored to the throne as Qing emperor by the loyalist General Zhang Xun from 1 July to 12 July 1917. He was first wed to Empress Wanrong in 1922 in an arranged marriage. In 1924, he was expelled from the Forbidden City and found refuge in Tianjin, where he began to court both the warlords fighting for hegemony over China and the Japanese who had long desired control of China. In 1932, after the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, the puppet state of Manchukuo was established by Japan, and he was chosen to become the chief executive of the new state using the era name of "Datong" (Ta-tung, 大同). In 1934, he was declared emperor of Manchukuo with the era name "Kangde" (K'ang-te, 康德) and reigned over his new empire until the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1945. This third stint as emperor saw him as a puppet of Japan; he signed most edicts the Japanese gave him. During this period, he largely resided in the Salt Tax Palace, where he regularly ordered his servants beaten. His first wife's opium addiction consumed her during these years, and they were generally distant. He took on numerous concubines, as well as male lovers. With the fall of Japan (and thus Manchukuo) in 1945, Puyi fled the capital and was eventually captured by the Soviets; he was extradited to the People's Republic of China in 1950. After his capture, he never saw his first wife again; she died of starvation in a Chinese prison in 1946. Puyi was a defendant at the Tokyo Trials and was later imprisoned and reeducated as a war criminal for 10 years. After his release in 1959, he wrote his memoirs (with the help of a ghost writer) and became a titular member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China. His time in prison greatly changed him, and he expressed deep regret for his actions while he was an emperor. He died in 1967 and was ultimately buried near the Western Qing tombs in a commercial cemetery. Emperor of China (1908–1912) Chosen by Empress Dowager Cixi, Puyi became emperor at the age of 2 years and 10 months in December 1908 after the Guangxu Emperor, Puyi's half-uncle, died childless on 14 November. Titled the Xuantong Emperor (Wade-Giles: Hsuan-t'ung Emperor), Puyi's introduction to the life of an emperor began when palace officials arrived at his family residence to take him. On the evening of 13 November, without any advance notice, a procession of eunuchs and guardsmen led by the palace chamberlain left the Forbidden City for the Northern Mansion to inform Prince Chun that they were taking away his two-year-old son Puyi to be the new emperor. The toddler Puyi screamed and resisted as the officials ordered the eunuch attendants to pick him up. Puyi's parents said nothing when they learned that they were losing their son. As Puyi wept, screaming that he did not want to leave his parents, he was forced into a palanquin that took him back to the Forbidden City. Puyi's wet nurse Wang Lianshou was the only person from the Northern Mansion allowed to go with him. Upon arriving at the Forbidden City, Puyi was taken to see Cixi. Puyi later wrote: I still have a dim recollection of this meeting, the shock of which left a deep impression on my memory. I remember suddenly finding myself surrounded by strangers, while before me was hung a drab curtain through which I could see an emaciated and terrifying hideous face. This was Cixi. It is said that I burst out into loud howls at the sight and started to tremble uncontrollably. Cixi told someone to give me some sweets, but I threw them on the floor and yelled "I want nanny, I want nanny", to her great displeasure. "What a naughty child", she said. "Take him away to play." Cixi died on 15 November, less than two days after the meeting. Puyi's father, Prince Chun, became Prince Regent (攝政王). During Puyi's coronation in the Hall of Supreme Harmony on 2 December 1908, the young emperor was carried onto the Dragon Throne by his father. Puyi was frightened by the scene before him and the deafening sounds of ceremonial drums and music, and started crying. His father could do nothing except quietly comfort him: "Don't cry, it'll be over soon." Puyi wrote in his autobiography: Two days after I entered the palace, Cixi died and on 2 December the “Great Enthronement Ceremony” took place, a ceremony that I ruined with my tears. Puyi did not see his biological mother, Princess Consort Chun, for the next seven years. He developed a special bond with Wang and credited her as the only person who could control him. She was sent away when he was eight years old. After Puyi married, he would occasionally bring her to the Forbidden City, and later Manchukuo, to visit him. After his special government pardon in 1959, she visited her adopted son and only then did he learn of her personal sacrifices to be his nurse.Growing up with scarcely any memory of a time when he was not indulged and revered, Puyi quickly became spoiled. The adults in his life, except for Wang, were all strangers, remote, distant, and unable to discipline him. Wherever he went, grown men would kneel down in a ritual kowtow, averting their eyes until he passed. Soon he discovered the absolute power he wielded over the eunuchs, and he frequently had them beaten for small transgressions. As an emperor, Puyi's every whim was catered to while no one ever said no to him, making him into a sadistic boy who loved to have his eunuchs flogged. The Anglo-French journalist Edward Behr wrote about Puyi's power as emperor of China, which allowed him to fire his air-gun at anyone he liked: The Emperor was Divine. He could not be remonstrated with, or punished. He could only be deferentially advised against ill-treating innocent eunuchs, and if he chose to fire air-gun pellets at them, that was his prerogative. Puyi later said, "Flogging eunuchs was part of my daily routine. My cruelty and love of wielding power were already too firmly set for persuasion to have any effect on me."Wang was the only person capable of controlling Puyi; once, Puyi decided to "reward" a eunuch for a well-done puppet show by having a cake baked for him with iron filings in it, saying, "I want to see what he looks like when he eats it". With much difficulty, Wang talked Puyi out of this plan.Every day, Puyi had to visit five former imperial concubines, called his "mothers", to report on his progress. He hated his "mothers", not least because they prevented him from seeing his real mother until he was 13. Their leader was the autocratic Empress Dowager Longyu, who successfully conspired to have Puyi's beloved wet nurse Wang expelled from the Forbidden City when he was 8 on the grounds that Puyi was too old to be breast-fed. Puyi especially hated Longyu for that. Puyi later wrote, "Although I had many mothers, I never knew any motherly love." Empress dowager Longyu ruled with paramount authority over the Qing imperial court, and though she was not the de jure "regent", she was the de facto ruler of the Qing empire. Puyi had a standard Confucian education, being taught the various Chinese classics and nothing else. He later wrote: "I learnt nothing of mathematics, let alone science, and for a long time I had no idea where Peking was situated". When Puyi was 13, he met his parents and siblings, all of whom had to kowtow before him as he sat upon the Dragon Throne. By this time, he had forgotten what his mother looked like. Such was the awe in which the emperor was held that his younger brother Pujie never heard his parents refer to Puyi as "your elder brother" but only as the emperor. Pujie told Behr his image of Puyi prior to meeting him was that of "a venerable old man with a beard. I couldn't believe it when I saw this boy in yellow robes sitting solemnly on the throne". Although Puyi could see his family, this happened rarely, and always under the stifling rules of imperial etiquette. The consequence was that the relationship of the emperor with his parents was distant and he found himself more attached to his nurse, Miss Wang (who had accompanied him to the Forbidden City). Later, Puyi began to receive visits from his brothers and cousins, who provided a certain air of normality to his unique childhood. Eunuchs and the Household Department Separated from his family, Puyi lived his childhood in a regime of virtual seclusion in the Forbidden City, surrounded by guards, eunuchs and other servants who treated him like a divinity. The emperor's upbringing was a mixture of pampering and mistreatment, as he was required to follow all the rules of rigid Chinese imperial protocol and was unable to behave like a normal child.The eunuchs were virtual slaves who did all the work in the Forbidden City, such as cooking, gardening, cleaning, entertaining guests, and the bureaucratic work needed to govern a vast empire. They also served as the emperor's advisers. The Forbidden City was full of treasures that the eunuchs constantly stole and sold on the black market. The business of government and of providing for the emperor created further opportunities for corruption, in which virtually all the eunuchs engaged.Puyi never had any privacy and had all his needs attended to at all times, having eunuchs open doors for him, dress him, wash him, and even blow air into his soup to cool it. At his meals, Puyi was always presented with a huge buffet containing every conceivable dish, the vast majority of which he did not eat, and every day he wore new clothing, as Chinese emperors never reused their clothing.After his wedding, Puyi began to take control of the palace. He described "an orgy of looting" taking place that involved "everyone from the highest to the lowest". According to Puyi, by the end of his wedding ceremony, the pearls and jade in the empress's crown had been stolen. Locks were broken, areas ransacked. Puyi's next plan of action was to reform the Household Department. In this period, he brought in more outsiders to replace the traditional aristocratic officers to improve accountability. He appointed Zheng Xiaoxu as minister of Household Department, and Zheng Xiaoxu hired Tong Jixu, a former Air Force officer from the Beiyang Army, as his chief of staff to help with the reforms. But on 27 June 1923, a fire destroyed the area around the Palace of Established Happiness, just at the moment when the emperor had ordered to carry out the inventory of one of the imperial warehouses. Puyi suspected it was arson to cover theft. The emperor overheard conversations among the eunuchs that made him fear for his life. In response, a month after the fire, he evicted the eunuchs from the palace with the support of the Republican military. The reform efforts did not last long before Puyi was forced out of the Forbidden City by Feng Yuxiang. Abdication On 10 October 1911, the army garrison in Wuhan mutinied, sparking a widespread revolt in the Yangtze river valley and beyond, demanding the overthrow of the Qing dynasty that had ruled China since 1644. The strongman of late imperial China, General Yuan Shikai, was dispatched by the court to crush the revolution, but was unable to, as by 1911 public opinion had turned decisively against the Qing, and many Chinese had no wish to fight for a dynasty that was seen as having lost the Mandate of Heaven. Puyi's father, Prince Chun, served as a regent until 6 December, when Empress Dowager Longyu took over following the Xinhai Revolution.Empress Dowager Longyu endorsed the "Imperial Edict of the Abdication of the Qing Emperor" (清帝退位詔書) on 12 February 1912 under a deal brokered by Yuan, now Prime Minister, with the imperial court in Peking and the Republicans in southern China. Puyi recalled in his autobiography the meeting between Longyu and Yuan: The Dowager Empress was sitting on a kang [platform] in a side room of the Mind Nature Palace, wiping her eyes with a handkerchief as a fat old man [Yuan] knelt before her on a red cushion, tears streaming down his face. I was sitting to the right of the widow and wondering why both adults were crying. There was no one in the room other than the three of us and everything was very quiet; the fat man snorted as he spoke and I couldn't understand what he was saying... This was the time when Yuan directly raised the question of abdication. Life in the Forbidden City (1912–1924) Under the "Articles of Favourable Treatment of the Great Qing Emperor after His Abdication" (清帝退位優待條件), signed with the new Republic of China, Puyi was to retain his imperial title and be treated by the government of the Republic with the protocol attached to a foreign monarch. Puyi and the imperial court were allowed to remain in the northern half of the Forbidden City (the Private Apartments) as well as in the Summer Palace. A hefty annual subsidy of four million silver taels was granted by the Republic to the imperial household, although it was never fully paid and was abolished after just a few years. Puyi was not informed in February 1912 that his reign had ended and China was now a republic, and continued to believe that he was still emperor for some time. In 1913, when the Empress Dowager Longyu died, President Yuan arrived at the Forbidden City to pay his respects, which Puyi's tutors told him meant that major changes were afoot.Puyi soon learned that the real reasons for the Articles of Favourable Settlement was that President Yuan was planning on restoring the monarchy with himself as the emperor of a new dynasty, and wanted to have Puyi as a sort of custodian of the Forbidden City until he could move in. Puyi first learned of Yuan's plans to become emperor when he brought in army bands to serenade him whenever he had a meal, and he started on a decidedly imperial take on the presidency. Puyi spent hours staring at the Presidential Palace across from the Forbidden City and cursed Yuan whenever he saw him come and go in his automobile. Puyi loathed Yuan as a "traitor" and decided to sabotage his plans to become emperor by hiding the Imperial Seals, only to be told by his tutors that he would just make new ones. In 1915, Yuan proclaimed himself as emperor, and he was planning to marry his daughter to Puyi, but had to abdicate in the face of popular opposition. Brief restoration (1917) In 1917, the warlord Zhang Xun restored Puyi to the throne from 1 July to 12 July. Zhang Xun ordered his army to keep their queues to display loyalty to the emperor. However, then-Premier of the Republic of China Duan Qirui ordered a Caudron Type D plane, piloted by Pan Shizhong (潘世忠) with bombardier Du Yuyuan (杜裕源) from Nanyuan airfield, to drop three bombs over the Forbidden City as a show of force against Zhang Xun, causing the death of a eunuch, but otherwise inflicting minor damage. This is the first aerial bombardment recorded by a Chinese Air Force, and the restoration failed due to extensive opposition across China. Meeting Sir Reginald Johnston … In the time when China was called a republic and humanity had advanced to the 20th century, I was still living as an emperor, breathing the dust of the 19th century. Sir Reginald Johnston, a respected British scholar and diplomat from Edinburgh, Scotland, arrived in the Forbidden City as Puyi's tutor on 3 March 1919. President Xu Shichang believed the monarchy would eventually be restored, and to prepare Puyi for the challenges of the modern world had hired Johnston to teach Puyi "subjects such as political science, constitutional history and English". Johnston was allowed only five texts in English to give Puyi to read: Alice in Wonderland and translations into English of the "Four Great Books" of Confucianism; the Analects, the Mencius, the Great Learning and the Doctrine of the Mean. But he disregarded the rules, and taught Puyi about world history with a special focus on British history. Besides history, Johnston taught Puyi philosophy and about what he saw as the superiority of monarchies to republics. Puyi remembered that his tutor's piercing blue eyes "made me feel uneasy ... I found him very intimidating and studied English with him like a good boy, not daring to talk about other things when I got bored ... as I did with my other Chinese tutors". As the only person capable of controlling Puyi, Johnston had much more influence than his title of English tutor would suggest, as the eunuchs began to rely on him to steer Puyi away from his more capricious moods. Under the Scotsman's influence, Puyi started to insist that his eunuchs address him as "Henry" and later his wife Wanrong as "Elizabeth" as Puyi began to speak "Chinglish", a mixture of Mandarin and English that became his preferred mode of speech. Puyi recalled of Johnston: "I thought everything about him was first-rate. He made me feel that Westerners were the most intelligent and civilised people in the world and that he was the most learned of Westerners" and that "Johnston had become the major part of my soul". In May 1919, Puyi noticed the protests in Peking generated by the May 4th movement as thousands of Chinese university students protested against the decision by the great powers at the Paris peace conference to award the former German concessions in Shandong province together with the former German colony of Qingdao to Japan. For Puyi, the May 4th movement, which he asked Johnston about, was a revelation as it marked the first time in his life that he noticed that people outside the Forbidden City had concerns that were not about him. After his first interview with the emperor, the British academic recorded his impressions in a report addressed to the British authorities; in this document Johnston mentions: He appears to be physically robust and well developed for his age. He is a very "human" boy, with liveliness, intelligence and an enthusiastic sense of humour. Furthermore, he has excellent manners and is totally free from arrogance […] Although the emperor does not seem to have been spoiled yet, from the nonsense and futility that surrounds him, I am afraid there is no hope that he will emerge unscathed from the moral dangers through of the next few years of his life (very critical years necessarily for a boy in his early adolescence), unless he can be removed from the influence of the hordes of eunuchs and other useless officials who are now almost his only companions. I am inclined to think that the best course of action to take in the interest of the boy himself would be to remove him from the harmful atmosphere of the "Forbidden City" and send him to the Summer Palace. There it would be possible for him to live a much less artificial and happier life than he can under the present conditions... Puyi could not speak Manchu; he only knew a single word in the language, yili ("arise"). Despite studying Manchu for years, he admitted that it was his "worst" subject among everything he studied. According to the journalist S. M. Ali, Puyi spoke Mandarin when interviewed, but Ali believed he could understand English. Johnston also introduced Puyi to the new technology of cinema, and Puyi was so delighted with the movies, especially Harold Lloyd films, that he had a film projector installed in the Forbidden City despite the opposition of the eunuchs. Johnston was also the first to argue that Puyi needed glasses since he had developed myopia, as he was extremely near-sighted, and after much argument with Prince Chun, who thought it was undignified for an emperor, finally prevailed. Johnston, who spoke fluent Mandarin, closely followed the intellectual scene in China, and introduced Puyi to the "new-style" Chinese books and magazines, which so inspired Puyi that he wrote several poems that were published anonymously in "New China" publications. In 1922, Johnston had his friend, the writer Hu Shih, visit the Forbidden City to teach Puyi about recent developments in Chinese literature. Under Johnston's influence, Puyi embraced the bicycle as a way to exercise, cut his queue and grew a full head of hair, and wanted to go to study at Oxford, Johnston's alma mater. Johnston also introduced Puyi to the telephone, which Puyi soon became addicted to, phoning people in Peking at random just to hear their voices on the other end. Johnston also pressured Puyi to cut down on the waste and extravagance in the Forbidden City and encouraged him to be more self-sufficient. Marriage In March 1922, the Dowager Consorts decided that Puyi should be married, and gave him a selection of photographs of aristocratic teenage girls to choose from. Puyi first chose Erdet Wenxiu as his wife, but was told that she was acceptable only as a concubine, so he would have to choose again. Puyi later claimed that the faces were too small to distinguish between. Puyi then chose Gobulo Wanrong, the daughter of one of Manchuria's richest aristocrats, who had been educated in English by American missionaries in Tianjin, who was considered to be an acceptable empress by the Dowager Consorts. On 15 March 1922, the betrothal of Puyi and Wanrong was announced in the newspapers. On 17 March, Wanrong took the train to Peking, and on 6 April, Puyi went to the Qing family shrine to inform his ancestors that he would be married to her later that year. Puyi did not meet Wanrong until their wedding.In an interview in 1986, Prince Pujie told Behr: "Puyi constantly talked about going to England and becoming an Oxford student, like Johnston." On 4 June 1922, Puyi attempted to escape from the Forbidden City and planned to issue an open letter to "the people of China" renouncing the title of Emperor before leaving for Oxford. The escape attempt failed when Johnston vetoed it and refused to call a taxi, and Puyi was too frightened to live on the streets of Peking on his own. Pujie said of Puyi's escape attempt: "Puyi's decision had nothing to do with the impending marriage. He felt cooped up, and wanted out." Johnston later recounted his time as Puyi's tutor between 1919 and 1924 in his 1934 book Twilight in the Forbidden City, one of the main sources of information about Puyi's life in this period. Though Behr cautioned that Johnston painted an idealised picture of Puyi, avoiding all mention of Puyi's sexuality, merely average academic ability, erratic mood swings, and eunuch-flogging. Pujie told Behr of Puyi's moods: "When he was in a good mood, everything was fine, and he was a charming companion. If something upset him, his dark side would emerge. On 21 October 1922, Puyi's wedding to Princess Wanrong began with the "betrothal presents" of 18 sheep, 2 horses, 40 pieces of satin, and 80 rolls of cloth, marched from the Forbidden City to Wanrong's house, accompanied by court musicians and cavalry. Following Manchu traditions where weddings were conducted under moonlight for good luck, an enormous procession of palace guardsmen, eunuchs, and musicians carried the Princess Wanrong in a red sedan chair called the Phoenix Chair within the Forbidden City, where Puyi sat upon the Dragon Throne. Later Wanrong kowtowed to him six times in her living quarters to symbolize her submission to her husband as the decree of their marriage was read out.Wanrong wore a mask in accordance with Chinese tradition and Puyi, who knew nothing of women, remembered: "I hardly thought about marriage and family. It was only when the Empress came into my field of vision with a crimson satin cloth embroidered with a dragon and a phoenix over her head that I felt at all curious about what she looked like." After the wedding was complete, Puyi, Wanrong, and his secondary consort Wenxiu (whom he married the same night) went to the Palace of Earthly Tranquility, where everything was red – the colour of love and sex in China – and where emperors had traditionally consummated their marriages. Puyi, who was sexually inexperienced and timid, fled from the bridal chamber, leaving his wives to sleep in the Dragon Bed by themselves. Of Puyi's failure to consummate his marriage on his wedding night, Behr wrote: It was perhaps too much to expect an adolescent, permanently surrounded by eunuchs, to show the sexual maturity of a normal seventeen-year-old. Neither the Dowager consorts nor Johnston himself had given him any advice on sexual matters – this sort of thing simply was not done, where emperors were concerned: it would have been an appalling breach of protocol. But the fact remains that a totally inexperienced, over-sheltered adolescent, if normal, could hardly have failed to be aroused by Wan Jung's [Wanrong's] unusual, sensual beauty. The inference is, of course, that Pu Yi was either impotent, extraordinarily immature sexually, or already aware of his homosexual tendencies. Wanrong's younger brother Rong Qi remembered how Puyi and Wanrong, both teenagers, loved to race their bicycles through the Forbidden City, forcing eunuchs to get out of the way, and told Behr in an interview: "There was a lot of laughter, she and Puyi seemed to get on well, they were like kids together." In 1986, Behr interviewed one of Puyi's two surviving eunuchs, an 85-year-old who was reluctant to answer the questions asked of him, but finally said of Puyi's relationship with Wanrong: "The Emperor would come over to the nuptial apartments once every three months and spend the night there ... He left early in the morning on the following day and for the rest of that day he would invariably be in a very filthy temper indeed." A eunuch who served in the Forbidden City as Wanrong's personal servant later wrote in his memoir that there was a rumour among the eunuchs that Puyi was gay, noting a strange situation where he was asked by Puyi to stand inside Wanrong's room while Puyi groped her. Another eunuch claimed that Puyi preferred the land-way of the eunuchs to the water-way of the Empress, implying he was gay.Puyi rarely left the Forbidden City, knew nothing of the lives of ordinary Chinese people, and was somewhat misled by Johnston, who told him that the vast majority of the Chinese wanted a Qing restoration. Johnston, a Sinophile scholar and a romantic conservative with an instinctive preference for monarchies, believed that China needed a benevolent autocrat to guide the country forward. He was enough of a traditionalist to respect that all major events in the Forbidden City were determined by the court astrologers. Johnston disparaged the superficially Westernised Chinese republican elite who dressed in top hats, frock coats, and business suits as inauthentically Chinese, and praised to Puyi the Confucian scholars with their traditional robes as the ones who were authentically Chinese.As part of an effort to crack down on corruption by the eunuchs, inspired by Johnston, Puyi ordered an inventory of the Forbidden City's treasures. The Hall of Established Happiness was burned on the night of 26 June 1923, as the eunuchs tried to cover up the extent of their theft. Johnston reported that the next day, he "found the Emperor and Empress standing on a heap of charred wood, sadly contemplating the spectacle". The treasures reported lost in the fire included 2,685 golden statues of Buddha, 1,675 golden altar ornaments, 435 porcelain antiques, and 31 boxes of sable furs, though it is likely that most if not all of these had been sold on the black market before the fire.Puyi finally decided to expel all of the eunuchs from the Forbidden City to end the problem of theft, only agreeing to keep 50 after the Dowager Consorts complained that they could not function without them. Puyi turned the grounds where the Hall of Supreme Harmony had once stood into a tennis court, as he and Wanrong loved to play. Wanrong's brother Rong Qi recalled: "But after the eunuchs went, many of the palaces inside the Forbidden City were closed down, and the place took on a desolate, abandoned air." After the Great Kantō earthquake on 1 September 1923 destroyed the cities of Tokyo and Yokohama, Puyi donated jade antiques worth some £33,000 to pay for disaster relief, which led a delegation of Japanese diplomats to visit the Forbidden City to express their thanks. In their report about the visit, the diplomats noted that Puyi was highly vain and malleable, and could be used by Japan, which marked the beginning of Japanese interest in Puyi. Expulsion from the Forbidden City (1924) On 23 October 1924, a coup led by the warlord Feng Yuxiang took control of Peking. Feng, the latest of the warlords to take Peking, was seeking legitimacy and decided that abolishing the unpopular Articles of Favourable Settlement was an easy way to win the crowd's approval. Feng unilaterally revised the "Articles of Favourable Treatment" on 5 November 1924, abolishing Puyi's imperial title and privileges and reducing him to a private citizen of the Republic of China. Puyi was expelled from the Forbidden City the same day. He was given three hours to leave. He spent a few days at the house of his father Prince Chun, and then temporarily resided in the Japanese embassy in Peking. Puyi left his father's house together with Johnston and his chief servant Big Li without informing Prince Chun's servants, slipped his followers, and went to the Japanese legation. Puyi had originally wanted to go to the British Legation, but the Japanophile Johnston had insisted that he would be safer with the Japanese. For Johnston, the system where the Japanese people worshipped their emperor as a living god was much closer to his ideal than the British constitutional monarchy, and he constantly steered Puyi in a pro-Japanese direction. However, Johnston tried to get the British diplomatic legation in Peking to host Puyi, and although the British authorities were not very interested in welcoming the former emperor, the British representative eventually gave Johnston his consent. However, Johnston later discovered that Puyi – in view of the situation and that Johnston was not returning from his efforts – had taken refuge in the Japanese legation after being advised by Zheng Xiaoxu. Yoshizawa, a Japanese diplomat, gave the regards of the Japanese government to Puyi, saying, Our government has formally acknowledged Your Majesty's taking refuge in our legation and will provide protection for you.Puyi's adviser Lu Zongyu, who was secretly working for the Japanese, suggested that Puyi move to Tianjin, which he argued was safer than Peking, though the real reason was that the Japanese felt that Puyi would be easier to control in Tianjin without the embarrassment of having him live in the Japanese Legation, which was straining relations with China. On 23 February 1925, Puyi left Peking for Tianjin wearing a simple Chinese gown and skullcap as he was afraid of being robbed on the train. Puyi described his train journey to Tianjin, saying, At every stop between Peking and Tianjin several Japanese policeman and special agents in black suits would get on the train so that, by the time we reached Tianjin, my special car was almost half occupied by them.Residence in Tianjin (1925–1931) In February 1925, Puyi moved to the Japanese Concession of Tianjin, first into the Chang Garden (張園), and in 1929 into the former residence of Lu Zongyu known as the Garden of Serenity (traditional Chinese: 靜園; simplified Chinese: 静园; pinyin: jìng yuán). A British journalist, Henry Woodhead, called Puyi's court a "doggy paradise" as both Puyi and Wanrong were dog lovers who owned several very spoiled dogs while Puyi's courtiers spent an inordinate amount of time feuding with one another. Woodhead stated that the only people who seemed to get along at Puyi's court were Wanrong and Wenxiu, who were "like sisters". Tianjin was, after Shanghai, the most cosmopolitan Chinese city, with large British, French, German, Russian and Japanese communities. As an emperor, Puyi was allowed to join several social clubs that normally only admitted whites. During this period, Puyi and his advisers Chen Baochen, Zheng Xiaoxu, and Luo Zhenyu discussed plans to restore Puyi as Emperor. Zheng and Luo favoured enlisting assistance from external parties, while Chen opposed the idea. In June 1925, the warlord Zhang Zuolin visited Tianjin to meet Puyi. "Old Marshal" Zhang, an illiterate former bandit, ruled Manchuria, a region equal in size to Germany and France combined, which had a population of 30 million and was the most industrialised region in China. Zhang kowtowed to Puyi at their meeting and promised to restore the House of Qing if Puyi made a large financial donation to his army. Zhang warned Puyi in a "roundabout way" not to trust his Japanese friends. Zhang fought in the pay of the Japanese, but by this time his relations with the Kwantung Army were becoming strained. In June 1927, Zhang captured Peking and Behr observed that if Puyi had had more courage and returned to Peking, he might have been restored to the Dragon Throne. Puyi was noted to have said in a 1927 article in The Illustrated London News, that I never wish to be Emperor again. Puyi's court was prone to factionalism and his advisers were urging him to back different warlords, which gave him a reputation for duplicity as he negotiated with various warlords, which strained his relations with Marshal Zhang. At various times, Puyi met General Zhang Zongchang, the "Dogmeat General", and the Russian émigré General Grigory Semyonov at his Tianjin house; both of them promised to restore him to the Dragon Throne if he gave them enough money, and both of them kept all the money he gave them for themselves. Puyi remembered Zhang as "a universally detested monster" with a face bloated and "tinged with the livid hue induced by opium smoking". Semyonov in particular proved himself to be a talented con man, claiming as an ataman to have several Cossack Hosts under his command, to have 300 million roubles in the bank, and to be supported by American, British, and Japanese banks in his plans to restore both the House of Qing in China and the House of Romanov in Russia. Puyi gave Semyonov a loan of 5,000 British pounds, which Semyonov never repaid. Another visitor to the Garden of Serenity was General Kenji Doihara, a Japanese Army officer who was fluent in Mandarin and a man of great charm who manipulated Puyi via flattery, telling him that a great man such as himself should go conquer Manchuria and then, just as his Qing ancestors did in the 17th century, use Manchuria as a base for conquering China. In 1928, during the Great Northern Expedition to reunify China, troops sacked the Qing tombs outside of Peking after the Kuomintang and its allies took Peking from Zhang's army who retreated back to Manchuria. The news that the Qing tombs had been plundered and the corpse of the Dowager Empress Cixi had been desecrated greatly offended Puyi, who never forgave the Kuomintang and held Chiang Kai-shek personally responsible; the sacking also showed his powerlessness. During his time in Tianjin, Puyi was besieged with visitors asking him for money, including various members of the vast Qing family, old Manchu bannermen, journalists prepared to write articles calling for a Qing restoration for the right price, and eunuchs who had once lived in the Forbidden City and were now living in poverty. Puyi was often bored with his life, and engaged in maniacal shopping to compensate, recalling that he was addicted to "buying pianos, watches, clocks, radios, Western clothes, leather shoes, and spectacles".Puyi's first wife, Wanrong, continued to smoke opium recreationally during this period. Their marriage began to fall apart as they spent more and more time apart, meeting only at mealtimes. Puyi wrote in his memoir: Even if I had had only one wife she would not have found life with me interesting since my preoccupation was my restoration. Frankly, I did not know anything about love. In other marriages husband and wife were equal, but to me wife and consort were both the slaves and tools of their master. Wanrong complained that her life as an "empress" was extremely dull as the rules for an empress forbade her from going out dancing as she wanted, instead forcing her to spend her days in traditional rituals that she found to be meaningless, all the more so as China was a republic and her title of empress was symbolic only. The westernised Wanrong loved to go out dancing, play tennis, wear western clothes and make-up, listen to jazz music, and to socialize with her friends, which the more conservative courtiers all objected to. She resented having to play the traditional role of a Chinese empress, but was unwilling to break with Puyi. Puyi's butler was secretly a Japanese spy, and in a report to his masters, he described Puyi and Wanrong one day spending hours screaming at one another in the gardens with Wanrong repeatedly calling Puyi a "eunuch"; whether she meant that as a reference to sexual inadequacy is unclear. Puyi's sister, Yunhe, noted in her diary in September 1930, that Puyi had told her that "yesterday the Empress flew into rage saying that she had been bullied by me and she poured out terrible and absurd words". In 1931, Puyi's concubine Wenxiu declared that she had had enough of him and his court and simply walked out, filing for divorce. Captive in Manchuria (1931–1932) In September 1931, Puyi sent a letter to Jirō Minami, the Japanese Minister of War, expressing his desire to be restored to the throne. On the night of 18 September 1931, the Mukden Incident began when the Japanese Kwantung Army blew up a section of railroad belonging to the Japanese-owned South Manchurian Railroad company and blamed the warlord Marshal Zhang Xueliang. On this pretext the Kwantung Army began a general offensive with the aim of conquering all of Manchuria. Puyi was visited by Kenji Doihara, head of the espionage office of the Japanese Kwantung Army, who proposed establishing Puyi as head of a Manchurian state. The Japanese further bribed a cafe worker to tell Puyi that a contract was out on his life in an attempt to frighten Puyi into moving.The Empress Wanrong was firmly against Puyi's plans to go to Manchuria, which she called treason, and for a moment Puyi hesitated, leading Doihara to send for Puyi's cousin, the very pro-Japanese Yoshiko Kawashima (also known as "Eastern Jewel", Dongzhen), to visit him to change his mind. Yoshiko, a strong-willed, flamboyant, openly bisexual woman noted for her habit of wearing male clothing and uniforms, had much influence on Puyi. In the Tientsin Incident during November 1931, Puyi and Zheng Xiaoxu traveled to Manchuria to complete plans for the puppet state of Manchukuo. Puyi left his house in Tianjin by hiding in the trunk of a car. The Chinese government ordered his arrest for treason, but was unable to breach the Japanese protection. Puyi boarded a Japanese ship that took him across Bohai Sea, and when he landed in Port Arthur (modern Lüshun), he was greeted by the man who was to become his minder, General Masahiko Amakasu, who took them to a resort owned by the South Manchurian Railroad company. Amakasu was a fearsome man who told Puyi how in the Amakasu Incident of 1923 he had the feminist Noe Itō, her lover the anarchist Sakae Ōsugi, and a six-year-old boy strangled as they were "enemies of the Emperor", and he likewise would kill Puyi if he should prove to be an "enemy of the Emperor". Chen Baochen returned to Peking, where he died in 1935.Once he arrived in Manchuria, Puyi discovered that he was a prisoner and was not allowed outside the Yamato Hotel, ostensibly to protect him from assassination. Wanrong had stayed in Tianjin, and remained opposed to Puyi's decision to work with the Japanese, requiring her friend Eastern Jewel to visit numerous times to convince her to go to Manchuria. Behr commented that if Wanrong had been a stronger woman, she might have remained in Tianjin and filed for divorce, but ultimately she accepted Eastern Jewel's argument that it was her duty as a wife to follow her husband, and six weeks after the Tientsin incident, she too crossed the East China Sea to Port Arthur with Eastern Jewel to keep her company.In early 1932, General Seishirō Itagaki informed Puyi that the new state was to be a republic with him as Chief Executive; the capital was to be Changchun; his form of address was to be "Your Excellency", not "Your Imperial Majesty"; and there were to be no references to Puyi ruling with the "Mandate of Heaven", all of which displeased Puyi. The suggestion that Manchukuo was to be based on popular sovereignty with the 34 million people of Manchuria "asking" that Puyi rule over them was completely contrary to Puyi's ideas about his right to rule by the Mandate of Heaven.Itagaki suggested to Puyi that in a few years Manchukuo might become a monarchy and that Manchuria was just the beginning, as Japan had ambitions to take all of China; the obvious implication was that Puyi would become the Great Qing Emperor again. When Puyi objected to Itagaki's plans, he was told that he was in no position to negotiate as Itagaki had no interest in his opinions on these issues. Unlike Doihara, who was always very polite and constantly stroked Puyi's ego, Itagaki was brutally rude and brusque, barking out orders as if to a particularly dim-witted common soldier. Itagaki had promised Puyi's chief advisor Zheng Xiaoxu that he would be the Manchukuo prime minister, an offer that appealed to his vanity enough that he persuaded Puyi to accept the Japanese terms, telling him that Manchukuo would soon become a monarchy and history would repeat itself as Puyi would conquer the rest of China from his Manchurian base just as the Qing did in 1644. In Japanese propaganda, Puyi was always celebrated both in traditionalist terms as a Confucian "Sage King" out to restore virtue and as a revolutionary who would end the oppression of the common people by a program of wholesale modernization. Puppet ruler of Manchukuo (1932–1945) Puyi accepted the Japanese offer and on 1 March 1932 was installed as the Chief Executive of Manchukuo, a puppet state of the Empire of Japan, under the reign title Datong. One contemporary commentator, Wen Yuan-ning, quipped that Puyi had now achieved the dubious distinction of having been "made emperor three times without knowing why and apparently without relishing it." A New York Times article from 1933 declared: "There is probably no more democratic or friendlier ruler in the world than Henry Pu-yi, former Emperor of China and now Chief Executive of the new State of Manchukuo."Puyi believed Manchukuo was just the beginning, and that within a few years he would again reign as Emperor of China, having the yellow imperial dragon robes used for coronation of Qing emperors brought from Peking to Changchun. At the time, Japanese propaganda depicted the birth of Manchukuo as a triumph of Pan-Asianism, with the "five races" of Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Manchus, and Mongols coming together, which marked nothing less than the birth of a new civilization and a turning point in world history. A press statement issued on 1 March 1932 stated: "The glorious advent of Manchukuo with the eyes of the world turned on it was an epochal event of far-reaching consequence in world history, marking the birth of a new era in government, racial relations, and other affairs of general interest. Never in the chronicles of the human race was any State born with such high ideals, and never has any State accomplished so much in such a brief space of its existence as Manchukuo".On 8 March 1932, Puyi made his ceremonial entry into Changchun, sharing his car with Zheng, who was beaming with joy, Amakasu, whose expression was stern as usual, and Wanrong, who looked miserable. Puyi also noted he was "too preoccupied with my hopes and hates" to realize the "cold comfort that the Changchun citizens, silent from terror and hatred, were giving me". Puyi's friend, the British journalist Woodhead wrote, "outside official circles, I met no Chinese who felt any enthusiasm for the new regime", and that the city of Harbin was being terrorised by Chinese and Russian gangsters working for the Japanese, making Harbin "lawless ... even its main street unsafe after dark". In an interview with Woodhead, Puyi said he planned to govern Manchukuo "in the Confucian spirit" and that he was "perfectly happy" with his new position. On 20 April 1932, the Lytton Commission arrived in Manchuria to begin its investigation of whether Japan had committed aggression. Puyi was interviewed by Lord Lytton, and recalled thinking that he desperately wanted to ask him for political asylum in Britain, but as General Itagaki was sitting right next to him at the meeting, he told Lytton that "the masses of the people had begged me to come, that my stay here was absolutely voluntary and free". After the interview, Itagaki told Puyi: "Your Excellency's manner was perfect; you spoke beautifully". The diplomat Wellington Koo, who was attached to the commission as its Chinese assessor, received a secret message saying "... a representative of the imperial household in Changchun wanted to see me and had a confidential message for me". The representative, posing as an antique dealer, "... told me he was sent by the Empress: She wanted me to help her escape from Changchun. He said she found life miserable there because she was surrounded in her house by Japanese maids. Every movement of hers was watched and reported". Koo said he was "touched" but could do nothing to help Wanrong escape, which her brother Rong Qi said was the "final blow" to her, leading her into a downward spiral. Right from the start, the Japanese occupation had sparked much resistance by guerrillas, whom the Kwantung Army called "bandits". General Doihara was able in exchange for a multi-million bribe to get one of the more prominent guerrilla leaders, the Hui Muslim general Ma Zhanshan, to accept Japanese rule, and had Puyi appoint him Defense Minister. Much to the intense chagrin of Puyi and his Japanese masters, Ma's defection turned to be a ruse, and only months after Puyi appointed him Defense Minister, Ma took his troops over the border to the Soviet Union to continue the struggle against the Japanese. The Emperor of Japan wanted to see if Puyi was reliable before giving him an imperial title, and it was not until October 1933 that General Doihara told him he was to be an emperor again, causing Puyi to go, in his own words, "wild with joy", though he was disappointed that he was not given back his old title of "Great Qing Emperor". At the same time, Doihara informed Puyi that "the Emperor [of Japan] is your father and is represented in Manchukuo as the Kwantung army which must be obeyed like a father". Right from the start, Manchukuo was infamous for its high crime rate, as Japanese-sponsored gangs of Chinese, Korean, and Russian gangsters fought one another for the control of opium houses, brothels, and gambling dens. There were nine different Japanese or Japanese-sponsored police/intelligence agencies operating in Manchukuo, who were all told by Tokyo that Japan was a poor country and that they were to pay for their own operations by engaging in organised crime. The Italian adventurer Amleto Vespa remembered that General Kenji Doihara told him Manchuria was going to have to pay for its own exploitation. In 1933, Simon Kaspé, a French Jewish pianist visiting his father in Manchukuo, who owned a hotel in Harbin, was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by an anti-Semitic gang from the Russian Fascists. The Kaspé case became an international cause célèbre, attracting much media attention around the world, ultimately leading to two trials in Harbin in 1935 and 1936, as the evidence that the Russian fascist gang who had killed Kaspé was working for the Kenpeitai, the military police of the Imperial Japanese Army, had become too strong for even Tokyo to ignore. Puyi was portrayed as having (with a little help from the Kwantung Army) saved the people from the chaos of rule by the Zhang family. Manchukuo's high crime rate, and the much publicised Kaspé case, made a mockery of the claim that Puyi had saved the people of Manchuria from a lawless and violent regime. Emperor of Manchukuo On 1 March 1934, he was crowned Emperor of Manchukuo, under the reign title Kangde (Wade–Giles: Kang-te; 康德) in Changchun. A sign of the true rulers of Manchukuo was the presence of General Masahiko Amakasu during the coronation; ostensibly there as the film director to record the coronation, Amakasu served as Puyi's minder, keeping a careful watch on him to prevent him from going off script. Wanrong was excluded from the coronation: her addiction to opium, anti-Japanese feelings, dislike of Puyi, and growing reputation for being "difficult" and unpredictable led Amakasu to the conclusion that she could not be trusted to stay on script. Though submissive in public to the Japanese, Puyi was constantly at odds with them in private. He resented being "Head of State" and then "Emperor of Manchukuo" rather than being fully restored as a Qing Emperor. At his enthronement, he clashed with Japan over dress; they wanted him to wear a Manchukuo-style uniform whereas he considered it an insult to wear anything but traditional Manchu robes. In a typical compromise, he wore a Western military uniform to his enthronement (the only Chinese emperor ever to do so) and a dragon robe to the announcement of his accession at the Temple of Heaven. Puyi was driven to his coronation in a Lincoln limousine with bulletproof windows followed by nine Packards, and during his coronation scrolls were read out while sacred wine bottles were opened for the guests to celebrate the beginning of a "Reign of Tranquility and Virtue". The invitations for the coronation were issued by the Kwantung Army and 70% of those who attended Puyi's coronation were Japanese. Time magazine published an article about Puyi's coronation in March 1934.The Japanese chose as the capital of Manchukuo the industrial city of Changchun, which was renamed Hsinking. Puyi had wanted the capital to be Mukden (modern Shenyang), which had been the Qing capital before the Qing conquered China in 1644, but was overruled by his Japanese masters. Puyi hated Hsinking, which he regarded as an undistinguished industrial city that lacked the historical connections with the Qing that Mukden had. As there was no palace in Changchun, Puyi moved into what had once been the office of the Salt Tax Administration during the Russian period, and as result, the building was known as Salt Tax Palace, which is now the Museum of the Imperial Palace of Manchukuo. Puyi lived there as a virtual prisoner and could not leave without permission. Shortly after Puyi's coronation, his father arrived at the Hsinking railroad station for a visit, Prince Chun told his son that he was an idiot if he really believed that the Japanese were going to restore him to the Dragon Throne, and warned him that he was just being used. The Japanese embassy issued a note of diplomatic protest at the welcome extended to Prince Chun, stating that the Hsinking railroad station was under the Kwantung Army's control, that only Japanese soldiers were allowed there, and that they would not tolerate the Manchukuo imperial guard being used to welcome visitors at the Hsinking railroad station again.In this period, Puyi frequently visited the provinces of Manchukuo to open factories and mines, took part in the birthday celebrations for the Showa Emperor at Kwantung Army headquarters and, on the Japanese holiday of Memorial Day, formally paid his respects with Japanese rituals to the souls of the Japanese soldiers killed fighting the "bandits" (as the Japanese called all the guerrillas fighting against their rule of Manchuria). Following the example in Japan, schoolchildren in Manchukuo at the beginning of every school day kowtowed first in the direction of Tokyo and then to a portrait of Puyi in the classroom. Puyi found this "intoxicating". He visited a coal mine and in his rudimentary Japanese thanked the Japanese foreman for his good work, who burst into tears as he thanked the emperor; Puyi later wrote that "The treatment I received really went to my head."Whenever the Japanese wanted a law passed, the relevant decree was dropped off at Salt Tax Palace for Puyi to sign, which he always did. Puyi signed decrees expropriating vast tracts of farmland to Japanese colonists and a law declaring certain thoughts to be "thought crimes", leading Behr to note: "In theory, as 'Supreme Commander', he thus bore full responsibility for Japanese atrocities committed in his name on anti-Japanese 'bandits' and patriotic Chinese citizens." Behr further noted the "Empire of Manchukuo", billed as an idealistic state where the "five races" of the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Manchus, and Mongols had come together in Pan-Asian brotherhood, was in fact "one of the most brutally run countries in the world – a textbook example of colonialism, albeit of the Oriental kind". Manchukuo was a sham, and was a Japanese colony run entirely for Japan's benefit. American historian Carter J. Eckert wrote that the differences in power could be seen in that the Kwantung Army had a "massive" headquarters in downtown Hsinking while Puyi had to live in the "small and shabby" Salt Tax Palace close to the main railroad station in a part of Hsinking with numerous small factories, warehouses, and slaughterhouses, the chief prison, and the red-light district.Behr commented that Puyi knew from his talks in Tianjin with General Kenji Doihara and General Seishirō Itagaki that he was dealing with "ruthless men and that this might be the regime to expect". Puyi later recalled that: "I had put my head in the tiger's mouth" by going to Manchuria in 1931. From 1935 to 1945, Kwantung Army senior staff officer Yoshioka Yasunori (吉岡安則) was assigned to Puyi as Attaché to the Imperial Household in Manchukuo. He acted as a spy for the Japanese government, controlling Puyi through fear, intimidation, and direct orders. There were many attempts on Puyi's life during this period, including a 1937 stabbing by a palace servant.In 1935, Puyi visited Japan. The Second Secretary of the Japanese Embassy in Hsinking, Kenjiro Hayashide, served as Puyi's interpreter during this trip, and later wrote what Behr called a very absurd book, The Epochal Journey to Japan, chronicling this visit, where he managed to present every banal statement made by Puyi as profound wisdom, and claimed that he wrote an average of two poems per day on his trip to Japan, despite being busy with attending all sorts of official functions. Hayashide had also written a booklet promoting the trip in Japan, which claimed that Puyi was a great reader who was "hardly ever seen without a book in his hand", a skilled calligrapher, a talented painter, and an excellent horseman and archer, able to shoot arrows while riding, just like his Qing ancestors. The Shōwa Emperor took this claim that Puyi was a hippophile too seriously and presented him with a gift of a horse for him to review the Imperial Japanese Army with; in fact, Puyi was a hippophobe who adamantly refused to get on the horse, forcing the Japanese to hurriedly bring out a carriage for the two emperors to review the troops.After his return to Hsinking, Puyi hired an American public relations executive, George Bronson Rea, to lobby the U.S. government to recognize Manchukuo. In late 1935, Rea published a book, The Case for Manchukuo, in which Rea castigated China under the Kuomintang as hopelessly corrupt, and praised Puyi's wise leadership of Manchukuo, writing Manchukuo was "... the one step that the people of the East have taken towards escape from the misery and misgovernment that have become theirs. Japan's protection is its only chance of happiness". Rea continued to work for Puyi until the bombing of Pearl Harbor, but he ultimately failed in lobbying Washington to recognize Hsinking. At the second trial relating to the long-running Kaspé case in Harbin in March–June 1936, the Japanese prosecutor argued in favour of the six defendants, calling them "Russian patriots who raised the flag against a world danger – communism". Much to everyone's surprise, the Chinese judges convicted and sentenced the six Russian fascists who had tortured and killed Kaspé to death, which led to a storm as the Russian Fascist Party called the six men "martyrs for Holy Russia", and presented to Puyi a petition with thousands of signatures asking him to pardon the six men. Puyi refused to pardon the Russian fascists, but the verdict was appealed to the Hsinking Supreme Court, where the Japanese judges quashed the verdict, ordering the six men to be freed, a decision that Puyi accepted without complaint. The handling of the Kaspé case, which attracted much attention in the Western media, did much to tarnish the image of Manchukuo and further weakened Puyi's already weak hand as he sought to have the rest of the world recognize Manchukuo.In 1936, Ling Sheng, an aristocrat who was serving as governor of one of Manchukuo's provinces and whose son was engaged to marry one of Puyi's younger sisters, was arrested after complaining about "intolerable" Japanese interference in his work, which led Puyi to ask Yoshioka if something could be done to help him out. The Kwantung Army's commander General Kenkichi Ueda visited Puyi to tell him the matter was resolved as Ling had already been convicted by a Japanese court-martial of "plotting rebellion" and had been executed by beheading, which led Puyi to cancel the marriage between his sister and Ling's son. During these years, Puyi began taking a greater interest in traditional Chinese law and religion (such as Confucianism and Buddhism), but this was disallowed by the Japanese. Gradually his old supporters were eliminated and pro-Japanese ministers put in their place. During this period Puyi's life consisted mostly of signing laws prepared by Japan, reciting prayers, consulting oracles, and making formal visits throughout his state.Puyi was extremely unhappy with his life as a virtual prisoner in the Salt Tax Palace, and his moods became erratic, swinging from hours of passivity staring into space to indulging his sadism by having his servants beaten. Puyi later wrote that his orphaned page boy servants, most of whom had had their parents killed by the Japanese, experienced such wretched lives in the palace they were the size of 10-year-olds at the age of eighteen. Puyi was obsessed by the fact that the vast majority of Puyi's "loving subjects" hated him, and as Behr observed, it was "the knowledge that he was an object of hatred and derision that drove Puyi to the brink of madness". Puyi always had a strong cruel streak, and he imposed harsh "house rules" on his staff; servants were flogged in the basement for such offenses as "irresponsible conversations". The phrase "Take him downstairs" was much feared by Puyi's servants as he had at least one flogging performed a day, and everyone in the Salt Tax Palace was caned at one point or another except the Empress and Puyi's siblings and their spouses. Puyi's experience of widespread theft during his time in the Forbidden City led him to distrust his servants and he obsessively went over the account books for signs of fraud. To further torment his staff of about 100, Puyi drastically cut back on the food allocated for his staff, who suffered from hunger; Big Li told Behr that Puyi was attempting to make everyone as miserable as he was. Besides tormenting his staff, Puyi's life as Emperor was one of lethargy and passivity, which his ghostwriter Li Wenda called "a kind of living death" for him.Puyi became a devoted Buddhist, a mystic and a vegetarian, having statues of the Buddha put up all over the Salt Tax Palace for him to pray to while banning his staff from eating meat. His Buddhism led him to ban his staff from killing insects or mice, but if he found any insects in his food, the cooks were flogged. One day, when out for a stroll in the gardens, Puyi found that a servant had written in chalk on one of the rocks: "Haven't the Japanese humiliated you enough?" When Puyi received guests at the Salt Tax Palace, he gave them long lectures on the "glorious" history of the Qing as a form of masochism, comparing the great Qing Emperors with himself, a miserable man living as a prisoner in his own palace. Wanrong, who detested her husband, liked to mock him behind his back by performing skits before the servants by putting on dark glasses and imitating Puyi's jerky movements. During his time in Tianjin, Puyi had started wearing dark glasses at all times. During the interwar period, dark glasses were worn by Tianjin's homosexual "tiny minority" to signify their orientation. Although Puyi likely knew this, surviving members of his court said that he "really was subject to eye strain and headaches from the sun's glare". On 3 April 1937, Puyi's younger full brother Prince Pujie was proclaimed heir apparent after marrying Lady Hiro Saga, a distant cousin of the Japanese Emperor Hirohito. The Kwantung Army general Shigeru Honjō had politically arranged the marriage. Puyi thereafter would not speak candidly in front of his brother and refused to eat any food Lady Saga provided, believing she was out to poison him. Puyi was forced to sign an agreement that if he himself had a male heir, the child would be sent to Japan to be raised by the Japanese. Puyi initially thought Lady Saga was a Japanese spy, but came to trust her after the Sinophile Saga discarded her kimono for cheongsams and repeatedly assured him that she came to the Salt Tax Palace because she was Pujie's wife, not as a spy. Behr described Lady Saga as "intelligent" and "level-headed", and noted the irony of Puyi snubbing the one Japanese who really wanted to be his friend. Later in April 1937, the 16-year-old Manchu aristocrat Tan Yuling moved into the Salt Tax Palace to become Puyi's concubine. Lady Saga tried to improve relations between Puyi and Wanrong by having them eat dinner together, which was the first time they had shared a meal in three years.Based on his interviews with Puyi's family and staff at the Salt Tax Palace, Behr wrote that it appeared Puyi had an "attraction towards very young girls" that "bordered on pedophilia" and "that Pu Yi was bisexual, and – by his own admission – something of a sadist in his relationships with women". Puyi was very fond of having handsome teenage boys serve as his pageboys and Lady Saga noted he was also very fond of sodomizing them. Lady Saga wrote in her 1957 autobiography Memoirs of A Wandering Princess: Of course I had heard rumours concerning such great men in our history, but I never knew such things existed in the living world. Now, however, I learnt that the Emperor had an unnatural love for a pageboy. He was referred to as "the male concubine". Could these perverted habits, I wondered, have driven his wife to opium smoking? When Behr questioned him about Puyi's sexuality, Prince Pujie said he was "biologically incapable of reproduction", a polite way of saying someone is gay in China. When one of Puyi's pageboys fled the Salt Tax Palace to escape his homosexual advances, Puyi ordered that he be given an especially harsh flogging, which caused the boy's death and led Puyi to have the floggers flogged in turn as punishment.In July 1937, when the Second Sino-Japanese war began, Puyi issued a declaration of support for Japan. In August 1937, Kishi wrote up a decree for Puyi to sign calling for the use of corvée labour to be conscripted both in Manchukuo and in northern China, stating that in these "times of emergency" (i.e. war with China), industry needed to grow at all costs, and slavery was necessary to save money. Driscoll wrote that just as African slaves were taken to the New World on the "Middle Passage", it would be right to speak of the "Manchurian Passage" as vast numbers of Chinese peasants were rounded up to be slaves in Manchukuo's factories and mines. From 1938 until the end of the war, every year about a million Chinese were taken from the Manchukuo countryside and northern China to be slaves in Manchukuo's factories and mines.All that Puyi knew of the outside world was what General Yoshioka told him in daily briefings. When Behr asked Prince Pujie how the news of the Rape of Nanking in December 1937 affected Puyi, his brother replied: "We didn't hear about it until much later. At the time, it made no real impact." On 4 February 1938, the strongly pro-Japanese and anti-Chinese Joachim von Ribbentrop became the German foreign minister, and under his influence German foreign policy swung in an anti-Chinese and pro-Japanese direction. On 20 February 1938, Adolf Hitler announced that Germany was recognizing Manchukuo. In one of his last acts, the outgoing German ambassador to Japan Herbert von Dirksen visited Puyi in the Salt Tax Palace to tell him that a German embassy would be established in Hsinking later that year to join the embassies of Japan, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Italy and Nationalist Spain, the only other countries that had recognised Manchukuo. In 1934, Puyi had been excited when he learned that El Salvador had become the first nation other than Japan to recognize Manchukuo, but by 1938, he did not care much about Germany's recognition of Manchukuo. In May 1938, Puyi was declared a god by the Religions Law, and a cult of emperor-worship very similar to Japan's began with schoolchildren starting their classes by praying to a portrait of the god-emperor while imperial rescripts and the imperial regalia became sacred relics imbued with magical powers by being associated with the god-emperor. Puyi's elevation to a god was due to the Sino-Japanese war, which caused the Japanese state to begin a program of totalitarian mobilization of society for total war in Japan and places ruled by Japan. His Japanese handlers felt that ordinary people in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan were more willing to bear the sacrifices for total war because of their devotion to their god-emperor, and it was decided that making Puyi a god-emperor would have the same effect in Manchukuo. After 1938, Puyi was hardly ever allowed to leave the Salt Tax Palace, while the creation of the puppet regime of President Wang Jingwei in November 1938 crushed Puyi's spirits, as it ended his hope of one day being restored as the Great Qing Emperor. Puyi became a hypochondriac, taking all sorts of pills for various imagined ailments and hormones to improve his sex drive and allow him to father a boy, as Puyi was convinced that the Japanese were poisoning his food to make him sterile. He believed the Japanese wanted one of the children Pujie had fathered with Lady Saga to be the next emperor, and it was a great relief to him that their children were both girls (Manchukuo law forbade female succession to the throne).In 1935, Wanrong engaged in an affair with Puyi's chauffeur Li Tiyu that left her pregnant. To punish her, Wanrong's baby was killed. It is unclear what happened, but there are two accounts of what happened to Wanrong after her baby's murder. One account said that Puyi lied to Wanrong and that her daughter was being raised by a nanny, and she never knew about her daughter's death. The other account said that Wanrong had found out or knew about her daughter's infanticide and lived in a constant daze of opium consumption thereafter. Puyi had known of what was being planned for Wanrong's baby, and in what Behr called a supreme act of "cowardice" on his part, "did nothing". Puyi's ghostwriter for Emperor to Citizen, Li Wenda, told Behr that when interviewing Puyi for the book that he could not get Puyi to talk about the killing of Wanrong's child, as he was too ashamed to speak of his own cowardice. In December 1941, Puyi followed Japan in declaring war on the United States and Great Britain, but as neither nation had recognised Manchukuo, there were no reciprocal declarations of war in return. During the war, Puyi was an example and role model for at least some in Asia who believed in the Japanese Pan-Asian propaganda. U Saw, the Prime Minister of Burma, was secretly in communication with the Japanese, declaring that as an Asian his sympathies were completely with Japan against the West. U Saw further added that he hoped that when Japan won the war that he would enjoy exactly the same status in Burma that Puyi enjoyed in Manchukuo as part of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. During the war, Puyi became estranged from his father, as his half-brother Pu Ren stated in an interview: ... after 1941 Puyi's father had written him off. He never visited Puyi after 1934. They rarely corresponded. All the news he got was through intermediaries, or occasional reports from Puyi's younger sisters, some of whom were allowed to see him. Puyi complained that he had issued so many "slavish" pro-Japanese statements during the war that nobody on the Allied side would take him in if he did escape from Manchukuo. In June 1942, Puyi made a rare visit outside of the Salt Tax Palace when he conferred with the graduating class at the Manchukuo Military Academy, and awarded the star student Takagi Masao a gold watch for his outstanding performance; despite his Japanese name, the star student was actually Korean and under his original Korean name of Park Chung Hee became the dictator of South Korea in 1961. In August 1942, Puyi's concubine Tan Yuling fell ill and died after being treated by the same Japanese doctors who murdered Wanrong's baby. Puyi testified at the Tokyo war crimes trial of his belief that she was murdered. Puyi kept a lock of Tan's hair and her nail clippings for the rest of his life as he expressed much sadness over her loss. He refused to take a Japanese concubine to replace Tan and, in 1943, took a Chinese concubine, Li Yuqin, the 16-year-old daughter of a waiter. Puyi liked Li, but his main interest continued to be his pageboys, as he later wrote: "These actions of mine go to show how cruel, mad, violent and unstable I was."For much of World War II, Puyi, confined to the Salt Tax Palace, believed that Japan was winning the war, and it was not until 1944 that he started to doubt this after the Japanese press began to report "heroic sacrifices" in Burma and on Pacific islands while air raid shelters started to be built in Manchukuo. Puyi's nephew Jui Lon told Behr: "He desperately wanted America to win the war." Big Li said: "When he thought it was safe, he would sit at the piano and do a one-finger version of the Stars and Stripes." In mid-1944, Puyi finally acquired the courage to start occasionally tuning in his radio to Chinese broadcasts and to Chinese-language broadcasts by the Americans, where he was shocked to learn that Japan had suffered so many defeats since 1942.Puyi had to give a speech before a group of Japanese infantrymen who had volunteered to be "human bullets", promising to strap explosives on their bodies and to stage suicide attacks in order to die for the Showa Emperor. Puyi commented as he read out his speech praising the glories of dying for the Emperor: "Only then did I see the ashen grey of their faces and the tears flowing down their cheeks and hear their sobbing." Puyi commented that he felt at that moment utterly "terrified" at the death cult fanaticism of Bushido ("the way of the warrior") which reduced the value of human life down to nothing, as to die for the Emperor was the only thing that mattered. Collapse of Manchukuo On 9 August 1945, the Kwantung Army's commander General Otozō Yamada told Puyi that the Soviet Union had declared war on Japan and the Red Army had entered Manchukuo. Yamada was assuring Puyi that the Kwantung Army would easily defeat the Red Army, when the air raid sirens sounded and the Red Air Force began a bombing raid, forcing all to hide in the basement. While Puyi prayed to the Buddha, Yamada fell silent as the bombs fell, destroying Japanese barracks next to the Salt Tax Palace. In the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation, 1,577,725 Soviet and Mongol troops stormed into Manchuria in a combined arms offensive with tanks, artillery, cavalry, aircraft and infantry working closely together that overwhelmed the Kwantung Army, who had not expected a Soviet invasion until 1946 and were short of both tanks and anti-tank guns.Puyi was terrified to hear that the Mongolian People's Army had joined Operation August Storm, as he believed that the Mongols would torture him to death if they captured him. The next day, Yamada told Puyi that the Soviets had already broken through the defense lines in northern Manchukuo, but the Kwantung Army would "hold the line" in southern Manchukuo and Puyi must leave at once. The staff of the Salt Tax Palace were thrown into panic as Puyi ordered all of his treasures to be boxed up and shipped out; in the meantime Puyi observed from his window that soldiers of the Manchukuo Imperial Army were taking off their uniforms and deserting. To test the reaction of his Japanese masters, Puyi put on his uniform of Commander-in-Chief of the Manchukuo Army and announced "We must support the holy war of our Parental Country with all our strength, and must resist the Soviet armies to the end, to the very end". With that, Yoshioka fled the room, which showed Puyi that the war was lost. At one point, a group of Japanese soldiers arrived at the Salt Tax Palace, and Puyi believed they had come to kill him, but they merely went away after seeing him stand at the top of the staircase. Most of the staff at the Salt Tax Palace had already fled, and Puyi found that his phone calls to the Kwantung Army HQ went unanswered as most of the officers had already left for Korea, his minder Amakasu killed himself by swallowing a cyanide pill, and the people of Changchun booed him when his car, flying imperial standards, took him to the railroad station. Late on the night of 11 August 1945, a train carrying Puyi, his court, his ministers and the Qing treasures left Changchun. Puyi saw thousands of panic-stricken Japanese settlers fleeing south in vast columns across the roads of the countryside. At every railroad station, hundreds of Japanese colonists attempted to board his train; Puyi remembered them weeping and begging Japanese gendarmes to let them pass, and at several stations, Japanese soldiers and gendarmes fought one another. General Yamada boarded the train as it meandered south and told Puyi "the Japanese Army was winning and had destroyed large numbers of tanks and aircraft", a claim that nobody aboard the train believed. On 15 August 1945, Puyi heard on the radio the address of the Showa Emperor announcing that Japan had surrendered. In his address, the Showa Emperor described the Americans as having used a "most unusual and cruel bomb" that had just destroyed the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; this was the first time that Puyi heard of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which the Japanese had not seen fit to tell him about until then.The next day, Puyi abdicated as Emperor of Manchukuo and declared in his last decree that Manchukuo was once again part of China. Puyi's party split up in a panic, with former Manchukuo Premier Zhang Jinghui going back to Changchun. Puyi planned to take a plane to escape from Tonghua, taking with him his brother Pujie, his servant Big Li, Yoshioka, and his doctor while leaving Wanrong, his concubine Li Yuqin, Lady Hiro Saga and Lady Saga's two children behind. The decision to leave behind the women and children was in part made by Yoshioka who thought the women were in no such danger, and vetoed Puyi's attempts to take them on the plane to Japan.Puyi asked for Lady Saga, the most mature and responsible of the three women, to take care of Wanrong, and he gave Lady Saga precious antiques and cash to pay for their way south to Korea. On 16 August, Puyi took a small plane to Mukden, where another larger plane was supposed to arrive to take them to Japan, but instead a Soviet Air Force plane landed. Puyi and his party were all promptly taken prisoner by the Red Army, who initially did not know who Puyi was. The opium-addled Wanrong together with Lady Saga and Li were captured by Chinese Communist guerrillas on their way to Korea, after one of Puyi's brothers-in-law informed the Communists who the women were. Wanrong, the former empress, was put on display in a local jail and people came from miles around to watch her. In a delirious state of mind, she demanded more opium, asked for imaginary servants to bring her clothing, food, and a bath, hallucinated that she was back in the Forbidden City or the Salt Tax Palace. The general hatred for Puyi meant that none had any sympathy for Wanrong, who was seen as another Japanese collaborator, and a guard told Lady Saga that "this one won't last", making it a waste of time feeding her. In June 1946, Wanrong starved to death in her jail cell. In his 1964 book From Emperor to Citizen, Puyi merely stated that he learned in 1951 that Wanrong "died a long time ago" without mentioning how she died. Later life (1945–1967) The Soviets took Puyi to the Siberian town of Chita. He lived in a sanatorium, then later in Khabarovsk near the Chinese border, where he was treated well and allowed to keep some of his servants. As a prisoner, Puyi spent his days praying and expected the prisoners to treat him as an emperor and slapped the faces of his servants when they displeased him. He knew about the civil war in China from Chinese-language broadcasts on Soviet radio but seemed not to care. The Soviet government refused the Republic of China's repeated requests to extradite Puyi; the Kuomintang government had indicted him on charges of high treason, and the Soviet refusal to extradite him almost certainly saved his life, as Chiang Kai-shek had often spoken of his desire to have Puyi shot. The Kuomintang captured Puyi's cousin Dongzhen and publicly executed her in Peking in 1948 after she was convicted of high treason. Not wishing to return to China, Puyi wrote to Joseph Stalin several times asking for asylum in the Soviet Union, and that he be given one of the former tsarist palaces to live out his days.In 1946, Puyi testified at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo, detailing his resentment at how he had been treated by the Japanese. At the Tokyo trial, he had a long exchange with defense counsel Major Ben Bruce Blakeney about whether he had been kidnapped in 1931, in which Puyi perjured himself by saying that the statements in Johnston's 1934 book Twilight in the Forbidden City about how he had willingly become Emperor of Manchukuo were all lies. When Blakeney mentioned that the introduction to the book described how Puyi had told Johnston that he had willingly gone to Manchuria in 1931, Puyi denied being in contact with Johnston in 1931, and that Johnston made things up for "commercial advantage". Puyi had a strong interest in minimizing his own role in history, because any admission of active control would have led to his execution. The Australian judge Sir William Webb, the President of the Tribunal, was often frustrated with Puyi's testimony, and chided him numerous times. Behr described Puyi on the stand as a "consistent, self-assured liar, prepared to go to any lengths to save his skin", and as a combative witness more than able to hold his own against the defense lawyers. Since no one at the trial but Blakeney had actually read Twilight in the Forbidden City or the interviews Woodhead had conducted with him in 1932, Puyi had room to distort what had been written about him or said by him. Puyi greatly respected Johnston, who was a surrogate father to him, and felt guilty about portraying him as a dishonest man. After his return to the Soviet Union, Puyi was held at Detention Center No. 45, where his servants continued to make his bed, dress him and do other work for him. Puyi did not speak Russian and had limited contacts with his Soviet guards, using a few Manchukuo prisoners as translators. One prisoner told Puyi that the Soviets would keep him in Siberia forever because "this is the part of the world you come from". The Soviets had promised the Chinese Communists that they would hand over the high value prisoners when the CCP won the civil war, and wanted to keep Puyi alive. Puyi's brother-in-law Rong Qi and some of his servants were not considered high value, and were sent to work at a Siberian rehabilitation camp.When the Chinese Communist Party under Mao Zedong came to power in 1949, Puyi was repatriated to China after negotiations between the Soviet Union and China. Puyi was of considerable value to Mao, as Behr noted: "In the eyes of Mao and other Chinese Communist leaders, Pu Yi, the last Emperor, was the epitome of all that had been evil in old Chinese society. If he could be shown to have undergone sincere, permanent change, what hope was there for the most diehard counter-revolutionary? The more overwhelming the guilt, the more spectacular the redemption-and the greater glory of the Chinese Communist Party". Puyi was to be subjected to "remodeling" to make him into a Communist. In 1950, the Soviets loaded Puyi and the rest of the Manchukuo and Japanese prisoners onto a train that took them to China with Puyi convinced he would be executed when he arrived. Puyi was surprised at the kindness of his Chinese guards, who told him this was the beginning of a new life for him. In attempt to ingratiate himself, Puyi for the first time in his life addressed commoners with 你, the informal word for "you" instead of 您, the formal word for "you". Except for a period during the Korean War, when he was moved to Harbin, Puyi spent ten years in the Fushun War Criminals Prison in Liaoning province until he was declared reformed. The prisoners at Fushun were senior Japanese, Manchukuo and Kuomintang officials and officers. Puyi was the weakest and most hapless of the prisoners, and was often bullied by the others, who liked to humiliate the emperor; he might not have survived his imprisonment had the warden Jin Yuan not gone out of his way to protect him. In 1951, Puyi learned for the first time that Wanrong had died in 1946.Puyi had never brushed his teeth or tied his own shoelaces once in his life and had to do these basic tasks in prison, subjecting him to the ridicule of other prisoners. Much of Puyi's "remodeling" consisted of attending "Marxist-Leninist-Maoist discussion groups" where the prisoners would discuss their lives before being imprisoned. When Puyi protested to Jin that it had been impossible to resist Japan and there was nothing he could have done, Jin confronted him with people who had fought in the resistance and had been tortured, and asked him why ordinary people in Manchukuo resisted while an emperor did nothing. Puyi had to attend lectures where a former Japanese civil servant spoke about the exploitation of Manchukuo while a former officer in the Kenpeitai talked about how he rounded up people for slave labour and ordered mass executions. At one point, Puyi was taken to Harbin and Pingfang to see where the infamous Unit 731, the chemical and biological warfare unit in the Japanese Army, had conducted gruesome experiments on people. Puyi noted in shame and horror: "All the atrocities had been carried out in my name". Puyi by the mid-1950s was overwhelmed with guilt and often told Jin that he felt utterly worthless to the point that he considered suicide. Jin told Puyi to express his guilt in writing. Puyi later recalled he felt "that I was up against an irresistible force that would not rest until it found out everything". Sometimes Puyi was taken out for tours of the countryside of Manchuria. On one, he met a farmer's wife whose family had been evicted to make way for Japanese settlers and had almost starved to death while working as a slave in one of Manchukuo's factories. When Puyi asked for her forgiveness, she told him "It's all over now, let's not talk about it", causing him to break down in tears. At another meeting, a woman described the mass execution of people from her village by the Japanese Army, and then declared that she did not hate the Japanese and those who had served them as she retained her faith in humanity, which greatly moved Puyi. On another occasion, Jin confronted Puyi with his former concubine Li in meetings in his office, where she attacked him for seeing her only as a sex object, and saying she was now pregnant by a man who loved her.In late 1956, Puyi acted in a play, The Defeat of the Aggressors, about the Suez Crisis, playing the role of a left-wing Labour MP who challenges in the House of Commons a former Manchukuo minister playing the Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd. Puyi enjoyed the role and continued acting in plays about his life and Manchukuo; in one he played a Manchukuo functionary and kowtowed to a portrait of himself as Emperor of Manchukuo. During the Great Leap Forward, when millions of people starved to death in China, Jin chose to cancel Puyi's visits to the countryside lest the scenes of famine undo his growing faith in communism. Behr wrote that many are surprised that Puyi's "remodeling" worked, with an Emperor brought up as almost a god becoming content to be just an ordinary man, but he noted that "... it is essential to remember that Puyi was not alone in undergoing such successful 'remolding'. Tough KMT generals, and even tougher Japanese generals, brought up in the samurai tradition and the Bushido cult which glorifies death in battle and sacrifice to martial Japan, became, in Fushun, just as devout in their support of communist ideals as Puyi".Puyi came to Peking on 9 December 1959 with special permission from Mao and lived for the next six months in an ordinary Peking residence with his sister before being transferred to a government-sponsored hotel. He had the job of sweeping the streets, and got lost on his first day of work, which led him to tell astonished passers-by: "I'm Puyi, the last Emperor of the Qing dynasty. I'm staying with relatives and can't find my way home". One of Puyi's first acts upon returning to Peking was to visit the Forbidden City as a tourist; he pointed out to other tourists that many of the exhibits were the things he had used in his youth. He voiced his support for the Communists and worked as a gardener at the Peking Botanical Gardens. The role brought Puyi a degree of happiness he had never known as an emperor, though he was notably clumsy. Behr noted that in Europe, people who played roles analogous to the role Puyi played in Manchukuo were generally executed; for example, the British hanged William Joyce ("Lord Haw-haw") for being the announcer on the English-language broadcasts of Radio Berlin, the Italians shot Benito Mussolini, and the French executed Pierre Laval, so many Westerners are surprised that Puyi was released from prison after only nine years to start a new life. Behr wrote that the Communist ideology explained this difference, writing: "In a society where all landlord and 'capitalist-roaders' were evil incarnate, it did not matter so much that Puyi was also a traitor to his country: he was, in the eyes of the Communist ideologues, only behaving true to type. If all capitalists and landlords were, by their very nature, traitors, it was only logical that Puyi, the biggest landlord, should also be the biggest traitor. And, in the last resort, Puyi was far more valuable alive than dead". In early 1960, Puyi met Premier Zhou Enlai, who told him: "You weren't responsible for becoming Emperor at the age of three or the 1917 attempted restoration coup. But you were fully to blame for what happened later. You knew perfectly well what you were doing when you took refuge in the Legation Quarter, when you traveled under Japanese protection to Tianjin, and when you agreed to become Manchukuo Chief Executive." Puyi responded by merely saying that though he did not choose to be an emperor, he had behaved with savage cruelty as boy-emperor and wished he could apologize to all the eunuchs he had flogged during his youth.At the age of 56, he married Li Shuxian, a hospital nurse, on 30 April 1962, in a ceremony held at the Banquet Hall of the Consultative Conference. From 1964 until his death, he worked as an editor for the literary department of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, where his monthly salary was around 100 yuan. Li recalled in a 1995 interview that: "I found Pu Yi a honest man, a man who desperately needed my love and was ready to give me as much love as he could. When I was having even a slight case of flu, he was so worried I would die, that he refused to sleep at night and sat by my bedside until dawn so he could attend to my needs". Li also noted like everybody else who knew him that Puyi was an incredibly clumsy man, leading her to say: "Once in a boiling rage at his clumsiness, I threatened to divorce him. On hearing this, he got down on his knees and, with tears in his eyes, he begged me to forgive him. I shall never forget what he said to me: 'I have nothing in this world except you, and you are my life. If you go, I will die'. But apart from him, what did I ever have in the world?". Puyi showed remorse for his past actions, often telling her, Yesterday's Puyi is the enemy of today's Puyi. In the 1960s, with encouragement from Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai, and the public endorsement of the Chinese government, Puyi wrote his autobiography From Emperor to Citizen (Chinese: 我的前半生; pinyin: Wǒdè Qián Bànshēng; Wade–Giles: Wo Te Ch'ien Pan-Sheng; lit. 'The First Half of My Life') together with Li Wenda, an editor at the People's Publishing Bureau. The ghostwriter Li had initially planned to use Puyi's "autocritique" written in Fushun as the basis of the book, expecting the job to take only a few months, but it used such wooden language as Puyi confessed to a career of abject cowardice, that Li was forced to start anew. It took four years to write the book. Puyi said of his testimony at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal: I now feel very ashamed of my testimony, as I withheld some of what I knew to protect myself from being punished by my country. I said nothing about my secret collaboration with the Japanese imperialists over a long period, an association to which my open capitulation after 18 September 1931 was but the conclusion. Instead, I spoke only of the way the Japanese had put pressure on me and forced me to do their will. I maintained that I had not betrayed my country but had been kidnapped; denied all my collaboration with the Japanese; and even claimed that the letter I had written to Jirō Minami was a fake. I covered up my crimes in order to protect myself. Puyi objected to Pujie's attempt to reunite with Lady Saga, who had returned to Japan, writing to Zhou asking him to block Lady Saga from coming back to China, which led Zhou to reply: "The war's over, you know. You don't have to carry this national hatred into your own family." Behr concluded: "It is difficult to avoid the impression that Puyi, in an effort prove himself a 'remolded man', displayed the same craven attitude towards the power-holders of the new China that he had shown in Manchukuo towards the Japanese."Many of the claims in From Emperor to Citizen, like the statement that it was the Kuomintang who stripped Manchuria bare of industrial equipment in 1945–46 rather than the Soviets, together with an "unreservedly rosy picture of prison life", are widely known to be false, but the book was translated into foreign languages and sold well. Behr wrote: "The more fulsome, cliché-ridden chapters in From Emperor to Citizen, dealing with Puyi's prison experiences, and written at the height of the Mao personality cult, give the impression of well-learned, regurgitated lessons." From 1963 onward, Puyi regularly gave press conferences praising life in the People's Republic of China, and foreign diplomats often sought him out, curious to meet the famous "Last Emperor" of China. In an interview with Behr, Li Wenda told him that Puyi was a very clumsy man who "invariably forgot to close doors behind him, forgot to flush the toilet, forgot to turn the tap off after washing his hands, had a genius for creating an instant, disorderly mess around him". Puyi had been so used to having his needs catered to that he never entirely learned how to function on his own. He tried very hard to be modest and humble, always being the last person to board a bus, which meant that on one occasion he missed the ride, mistaking the bus conductor for a passenger. In restaurants he would tell waitresses, "You should not be serving me. I should be serving you." During this period, Puyi was known for his kindness, and once after he accidentally knocked down an elderly lady with his bicycle, he visited her every day in the hospital to bring her flowers to make amends until she was released. Death and burial Mao Zedong started the Cultural Revolution in 1966, and the youth militia known as the Maoist Red Guards saw Puyi, who symbolised Imperial China, as an easy target. Puyi was placed under protection by the local public security bureau and, although his food rations, salary, and various luxuries, including his sofa and desk, were removed, he was not publicly humiliated as was common at the time. The Red Guards attacked Puyi for his book From Emperor to Citizen because it had been translated into English and French, which displeased the Red Guards and led to copies of the book being burned in the streets. Various members of the Qing family, including Pujie, had their homes raided and burned by the Red Guards, but Zhou Enlai used his influence to protect Puyi and the rest of the Qing from the worst abuses inflicted by the Red Guard. Jin Yuan, the man who had "remodelled" Puyi in the 1950s, fell victim to the Red Guard and became a prisoner in Fushun for several years, while Li Wenda, who had ghostwritten From Emperor to Citizen, spent seven years in solitary confinement. However, Puyi's health began to decline. He died in Peking of complications arising from kidney cancer and heart disease on 17 October 1967 at the age of 61.In accordance with the laws of the People's Republic of China at the time, Puyi's body was cremated. His ashes were first placed at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery, alongside those of other party and state dignitaries. (This was the burial ground of imperial concubines and eunuchs prior to the establishment of the People's Republic of China.) In 1995, as a part of a commercial arrangement, Puyi's ashes were transferred by his widow Li Shuxian to a new commercial cemetery named Hualong Imperial Cemetery (华龙皇家陵园) in return for monetary support. The cemetery is near the Western Qing Tombs, 120 km (75 mi) southwest of Peking, where four of the nine Qing emperors preceding him are interred, along with three empresses and 69 princes, princesses, and imperial concubines. In 2015, some descendants of the Aisin-Gioro clan bestowed posthumous names upon Puyi and his wives. Wenxiu and Li Yuqin were not given posthumous names as their imperial status was removed upon divorce. Titles, honors, and decorations Titles When he ruled as emperor of the Qing dynasty (and therefore emperor of China) from 1908 to 1912 and during his brief restoration in 1917, Puyi's era name was "Xuantong", so he was known as the "Xuantong Emperor" (simplified Chinese: 宣统皇帝; traditional Chinese: 宣統皇帝; pinyin: Xuāntǒng Huángdì; Wade–Giles: Hsüan1-t'ung3 Huang2-ti4) during those two periods. Puyi was also allowed to retain his title as Emperor of the Great Qing, being treated like a foreign monarch by the Republic of China until 5 November 1924. As Puyi was also the last ruling emperor of China, he is widely known as "the last emperor" (Chinese: 末代皇帝; pinyin: Mòdài Huángdì; Wade–Giles: Mo4-tai4 Huang2-ti4) in China and throughout the rest of the world. Some refer to him as "the last emperor of the Qing dynasty" (Chinese: 清末帝; pinyin: Qīng Mò Dì; Wade–Giles: Ch'ing1 Mo4-ti4). Due to his abdication, Puyi is also known as the "yielded emperor" (Chinese: 遜帝; pinyin: Xùn Dì) or "abrogated emperor" (simplified Chinese: 废帝; traditional Chinese: 廢帝; pinyin: Fèi Dì). Sometimes, the character "Qing" (Chinese: 清; pinyin: Qīng) is added in front of the two titles to indicate his affiliation with the Qing dynasty. When Puyi ruled the puppet state of Manchukuo and assumed the title of Chief Executive of the new state, his era name was "Datong" (Ta-tung). As emperor of Manchukuo from 1934 to 1945, his era name was "Kangde" (Kang-te), so he was known as the "Kangde emperor" (Chinese: 康德皇帝; pinyin: Kāngdé Huángdì, Japanese: Kōtoku Kōtei) during that period of time. Honours and decorations Qing DynastyManchukuoForeign Family Portrayal in media Film The Last Emperor, a 1986 Hong Kong film (Chinese title 火龍, literally means Fire Dragon) directed by Li Han-hsiang. Tony Leung Ka-fai played Puyi. The Last Emperor, a 1987 film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. John Lone played the adult Puyi. Aisin-Gioro Puyi (愛新覺羅·溥儀), a 2005 Chinese documentary film on the life of Puyi. Produced by CCTV, it was part of a series of ten documentary films about ten historical persons. The Founding of a Party, a 2011 Chinese film directed by Huang Jianxin and Han Sanping. Child actor Yan Ruihan played Puyi. 1911, a 2011 historical film directed by Jackie Chan and Zhang Li. The film tells of the founding of the Republic of China when Sun Yat-sen led the Xinhai Revolution to overthrow the Qing dynasty. The five-year-old Puyi is played by child actor Su Hanye. Although Puyi's time on screen is short, there are significant scenes showing how the emperor was treated at court before his abdication at the age of six. Television The Misadventure of Zoo, a 1981 Hong Kong television series produced by TVB. Adam Cheng played an adult Puyi. Modai Huangdi (末代皇帝; literally means The Last Emperor), a 1988 Chinese television series based on Puyi's autobiography From Emperor to Citizen, with Puyi's brother Pujie as a consultant for the series. Chen Daoming starred as Puyi. Feichang Gongmin (非常公民; literally means Unusual Citizen), a 2002 Chinese television series directed by Cheng Hao. Dayo Wong starred as Puyi. Ruten no Ōhi – Saigo no Kōtei (流転の王妃·最後の皇弟; Chinese title 流轉的王妃), a 2003 Japanese television series about Pujie and Hiro Saga. Wang Bozhao played Puyi. Modai Huangfei (末代皇妃; literally means The Last Imperial Consort), a 2003 Chinese television series. Li Yapeng played Puyi. Modai Huangdi Chuanqi (末代皇帝传奇; literally means The Legend of the Last Emperor), a 2015 Hong Kong/China television collaboration (59 episodes, each 45 minutes), starring Winston Chao Bibliography By Puyi 我的前半生- The autobiography of Puyi – ghost-written by Li Wenda. The title of the Chinese book is usually rendered in English as From Emperor to Citizen. The book was re-released in China in 2007 in a new corrected and revised version. Many sentences which had been deleted from the 1964 version prior to its publication were now included. Aisin-Gioro, Puyi (2002) [1964]. 我的前半生 [The First Half of My Life; From Emperor to Citizen: The Autobiography of Aisin-Gioro Puyi] (in Chinese). Foreign Languages Press. ISBN 978-7119007724. – original Pu Yi, Henry; Kramer, Paul (2010) [1967]. The Last Manchu: The Autobiography of Henry Pu Yi, Last Emperor of China. Skyhorse Publishing. ISBN 978-1602397323. By others Behr, Edward (1987). The Last Emperor. Toronto: Futura. ISBN 978-0708834398.Inspired by Bernardo Bertolucci's film of the same name.Driscoll, Mark (2010). Absolute Erotic, Absolute Grotesque: The Living, The Dead, and The Undead in Japan's Imperialism, 1895–1945. Durham: Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0822347613. JSTOR j.ctv11cw7mv. Fenby, Jonathan (2004). Chiang Kai-shek China's Generalissimo and the Nation He Lost. New York: Carroll & Graf. ISBN 9780786739844. Headland, Isaac Taylor (1909). Court Life in China. F.H. Revell. ISBN 978-0585150291. Archived from the original on 11 June 2023. Johnston, Reginald Fleming (2008) [1934]. Twilight in the Forbidden City. Soul Care Publishing. ISBN 978-0968045954. Li Shuxian (2006) [1984]. My Husband Puyi: Puyi yu wo / [Li Shuxian kou shu; Wang Qingxiang zheng li; Changchun shi zheng xie wen shi zi liao yan jiu wei yuan hui bian]. Chuan guo xin hua shu dian jing xiao. ISBN 978-7208001671.By Puyi's fifth wife Li Shuxian. Memories of their life together were ghost written by Wang Qingxian. An English version translated by Ni Na was published by China Travel and Tourism Press.Weinberg, Gerhard (2005). A World In Arms: a Global History of World War II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521618267. Young, Louise (1998). Japan's Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism. Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520219342. JSTOR j.ctt1png7c. See also Chinese emperors family tree (late) Dynasties in Chinese history List of heads of regimes who were later imprisoned List of monarchs who lost their thrones in the 20th century Puyi Wikimedia photos "Five Wives of The Last Emperor Puyi". Cultural China. Archived from the original on 15 December 2009. Retrieved 9 August 2010. Royalty.nu: Extended Bio Time: Last Emperor's Humble Occupation Li Xin, Pu Yi's Widow Reveals Last Emperor's Soft Side Pu Ru (溥儒), Pu Yi's cousin, accomplished Chinese brush painter and calligrapher Newspaper clippings about Puyi in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW

.hack//Sign (stylized as .hack//SIGN) is a Japanese anime television series directed by Kōichi Mashimo, and produced by studio Bee Train and Bandai Visual, that makes up one of the four original storylines for the .hack franchise. Twenty-six original episodes aired in 2002 on television and three additional bonus ones were released on DVD as original video animation. The series features each characters designed by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, and written by Kazunori Itō. The score was composed by Yuki Kajiura, marking her second collaboration with Mashimo.The series is influenced by psychological and sociological subjects, such as anxiety, escapism and interpersonal relationships. The series focuses on a Wavemaster (magic user) named Tsukasa, a player character in a virtual reality massively multiplayer online role-playing game called The World. He wakes up to find himself in a dungeon in The World, but he suffers from short-term memory loss as he wonders where he is and how he got there. The situation gets worse when he discovers he is trapped in the game and cannot log out. From then on, along with other players, Tsukasa embarks on a quest to find the truth behind his abnormal situation. The series premiered in Japan on TV Tokyo from April 4 to September 25, 2002. It was broadcast across East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia and Latin America, by the anime television network, Animax, and across the United States, Nigeria, Canada and United Kingdom, by Cartoon Network, YTV and AnimeCentral (English and Japanese) respectively. It was distributed across North America by Bandai. The storyline moves at a leisurely pace, and has multiple layers — the viewer is often fed false information and red herrings, potentially leading to confusion until the true nature of events is unveiled towards the end of the series. It relies on character development and has few action scenes; most of the time character interaction is presented in the form of dialogue. English language reception to the series has been generally positive, but some of these sources have negatively criticised the series as a result of its slow pacing and character-driven storyline. Synopsis Setting The series is set in a fictional 2009, introducing a computer virus called Pluto's Kiss as the cause of a massive Internet shutdown. The results are described as catastrophic: traffic lights shut down, planes collide in midair, and the American nuclear missiles are nearly launched. As a consequence, cyberspace is subjected to severe restrictions. The virus affects all operating systems except for one, Altimit OS, the only operating system immune to all computer viruses. Two years later free access to the networks recovers, bringing with it the release of The World: the first online game since Pluto's Kiss, developed for Altimit OS. The World is portrayed as a fantasy setting wherein player characters can be different classes, adventure by themselves to go searching through dungeons or join with others and form parties, fight monsters and level up, collect new items and participate in special events. At the center of each server is a Root Town, which contain shops, a save point, and the Chaos Gate that players use to travel between servers in the game.Harald Hoerwick is introduced as the creator of The World. He secretly designed the game as a virtual womb in order to create the ultimate artificial intelligence (AI), by receiving emotional and psychological data from the players. His motivation is revealed to be the death of Emma Wielant, a German poet with whom he was in love; the AI, who was named Aura, would serve as the "daughter" they never had. Harald left the gathering of the required data for Aura's development at the care of the core system of The World itself, an omnipresent AI called Morganna Mode Gone. The storyline of .hack//Sign, set in early 2010, revolves around the premise of Morganna attempting to stall the growth of Aura indefinitely, after realizing that she will lose her purpose once Aura is complete. Plot The series follows the story about Tsukasa being mind-trapped into the game. Despite being a "fantasy quest type adventure", it does not rely on action sequences. Instead, the show is driven by mystery, slowly revealing its secrets to the viewer while paying much attention to the individual characters. Questions like what happened to Tsukasa in the real world, who he really is, and why he cannot log out are driving points of the story.Soon after the beginning of the series, Tsukasa is led to a hidden area. There he meets Morganna, depicted as a voice without physical appearance, and Aura, who appears as a young girl clad entirely in white, floating asleep above a bed. The storyline introduces Morganna as an ally, but her real intentions are unknown at this point. As the story progresses many characters are introduced, some who want to help, some who have ulterior motives. Then more questions arise as to "what is happening in the game itself, who are these various characters, what are their true goals and what will happen to Tsukasa". All the while he is seen struggling with his increasingly dire situation as well as his own social and emotional shortcomings. Tsukasa isolates himself, but eventually he begins to get closer to other players, and builds strong relationships with some of them; the most important is the one born between him and Subaru, a kind and thoughtful female Heavy Axeman.In the meantime, the series follows the quest for the Key of the Twilight (黄昏の鍵, Tasogare no Kagi), a legendary item rumored to have the ability to bypass the system in The World. Some characters want the Key to gain the power this supposedly confers. Others believe the item will provide Tsukasa with a way to log out. Despite their reasons for seeking it, everyone agrees that it is related to Tsukasa in some way, as he is also a factor bypassing the system in the game. His body being in a coma in the real world adds a sense of urgency to the quest. Near the end of the series, Tsukasa's real-life identity takes a more central place in the storyline, particularly in relation to his growing bond with Subaru. The series shows his fear and insecurity as he confesses to her that he is probably a girl in the real world. It is also at this point when Tsukasa is told Morganna's plan by a highly skilled hacker called Helba. Morganna conceived the plan to link Aura to a character who could corrupt her with negative emotional data, placing her in a state where she would never awaken. The chosen character was Tsukasa, as his mind was filled with distressful memories of his real life. Helba also suggests that when Aura is able to awaken, "the Key of the Twilight will take form". The story reaches the climax, when Tsukasa confronts Morganna. He declares that he is no longer afraid of her or of reality, and will log out because there is someone he wants to see. This statement triggers Aura's awakening, allowing Tsukasa to log out. The last scenes feature an emotional encounter between Tsukasa's real-life self, who is shown to actually be a girl, and the real-life player behind Subaru. Characters The primary characters in the series are Tsukasa, BT, Bear, Mimiru and Subaru (as depicted in the intro of the series). Tsukasa is the protagonist of the story and plays a Wavemaster. At the start of the series he is seen waking up to find himself trapped in The World, unable to log out. He is initially depicted as a cynical introvert who tends to avoid others as much as possible, but his character development shows him growing to realize there are people who care about him. One of these people is Subaru, a female Heavy Axeman introduced as the leader of the Crimson Knights, a player organization designed to fight injustice (such as player killing) in The World. Most of the time Subaru is the only character preventing the Crimson Knights from running wild; she knows that they must be restrained from abusing their power. She eventually joins in the search of a way to help Tsukasa, and builds a close relationship with him.Also close to Tsukasa is Mimiru, a Heavy Blade who is poor at planning things out and following through on them. She is the first player to meet Tsukasa, and later forms a bond with him and vows to protect him. She usually hangs out with Bear, trying to solve the mystery of Tsukasa's inability to log out. Bear is an older player of the game and plays a Blademaster. He appears as cool and collected, always willing to help out newbies. He also conducts research in the real world on Tsukasa. One of Bear's acquaintances is BT, a plotting and scheming Wavemaster.BT teams up with Crim and Sora to find the Key of the Twilight. Crim is a powerful Long Arm, friend of Subaru who founded the Crimson Knights organization with her, but afterwards left it as he found it did not match his personality. Amiable, easygoing and sociable; he prefers to keep the real world and the game separate. Crim's stated goal when playing is simply to have fun, although he never turns down a chance to help somebody in need. Sora is a Twin Blade player killer who enjoys hunting players down, especially attractive female ones, and demanding their Member Addresses in exchange for their lives. He sees Tsukasa as the strongest link to the Key of the Twilight, and starts working with BT in the quest for it. Concept and design The project development began in early 2000 as a joint effort between Bandai and CyberConnect2, with the original idea of producing an online game. In online games people can interact with each other and create their own stories. The producers wanted to design a game that would offer the players the same experience, but they later thought it would be more appealing with its own storyline, like in standard offline role-playing video game. According to Daisuke Uchiyama, sub-leader of Bandai's video game planning department, the result was a challenge to the RPG genre itself: an offline RPG, entitled .hack, set in a simulated MMORPG named The World.For The World's design, writer Kazunori Ito did an extensive research on online games available at the time: the staff played titles such as Phantasy Star Online, Final Fantasy XI, and Ultima Online. Nevertheless, according to Hiroshi Matsuyama (president of CyberConnect2), they were not actively looking to make the fictional game seem like a real-life one. Instead, the idea was to create a "gigantic game system that, if the CC Corporation (the creators of The World in the game) actually existed, it would make sense for them to be behind" [emphasis added]; a game described by Matsuyama as largely "futuristic and alien".As the project started shortly before the PlayStation 2's release, the authors seized the opportunity to make the .hack game on the new platform. This decision allowed them to develop into unexpected directions. Shin Unozawa, general manager of Bandai's game department, suggested dividing the game into four parts and release them in three-month intervals. The idea being to follow the four panel manga style as well as to keep sales constant throughout the year. Taking advantage of the PlayStation 2's capability to read DVD-Video, the authors also decided making an OVA series (.hack//Liminality) comprised by four episodes, one to go with each game. Nevertheless, they still felt the need to bolster the project with something more, therefore they decided to produce .hack//Sign, a TV show timed to air with the first game's release. For Kōichi Mashimo it was a hectic schedule: he was directing both animated projects, and was also in the midst of developing the Noir anime series. Imagery The virtual environment depicted in .hack//Sign draws on medieval imagery: settings range from a Venice-like city to a Gothic stone church, passing by settlements such as villages and castles; the series' scenery shows examples of Celtic art. Natural landscapes such as forests and tundras complete the setting design, which overall displays the fantasy theme seen in most MMORPGs.Sadamoto's character designs follow the fantasy theme as well, drawing influence from the sword and sorcery subgenre in particular. Character designs also draw on Celtic imagery: Director Mashimo acknowledged similarities between Bear's design and Mel Gibson in his role as William Wallace, an example of Celtic warrior. All the characters are given distinctive patterns resembling tattoos, the visual representation of a fictional gameplay aspect called Wave.In contrast with The World's scenery, real-world sequences are minimalist in their presentation. They display faces frequently obscured by shadows or hidden by extreme angles. The dialogue is not heard, but shown through title cards: when someone speaks the screen blacks out and a line of red or blue text appears with the dialogue. The combination of visual and acoustic noise makes reality appear as "some kind of less authentic, alternate channel". Music Yuki Kajiura provides a soundtrack permeated by the Celtic style and gaming theme of the series. The songs feature synthesizer and strings compositions, as well as vocals consisting of English chanting. Celtic influence is prominent in themes such as "Key of the Twilight" and "Open Your Heart". Performed by Emily Bindiger, "Key of the Twilight" blends a pulsing drum and bass mix with guitar intonations. "Open Your Heart", on the other hand, combines Bindiger's contralto vocals with an uilleann pipes solo. The .hack//Sign soundtrack also features vocals by Yuriko Kaida. "Mimiru" has her humming across a saxophone melody performed by Kazuo Takeda; in "Das Wandern" she sings over a lone piano.European influence is prominent in instrumental pieces as well, "Foreigners" being a prime example. Reminiscent of a classic Irish diddy, the track comprises a flute dancing across a tribal-like percussion set. Orchestral music includes pieces such as "Fear" and "Kiss". "Fear" features an electronic melody wrapped around a digital-beat groove, mixed with a distant voice uttering "feeaarr!". Combining "the childlike humanity into a frightening digital reality", the song is an "analogy to the series' plot". "Kiss" is a theme that entirely features traditional symphony, although only using a few performers. It is a violin and piano mix, used to set mood in the series.The opening theme of the series is "Obsession". Performed by Kajiura's musical group See-Saw, the track features an electric guitar and rapid electronic beat. The closing theme is "Yasashii Yoake" (優しい夜明け, "gentle dawn"), also performed by See-Saw. It is a blend of Japanese vocals, an Irish bouzouki, acoustic guitars and percussion. Both themes were released as a single on May 22, 2002, by Victor Entertainment. Three original soundtracks with vocals Emily Bindiger, with music and arrangement (and lyrics in vocals themes) by Yuki Kajiura were released. The first original soundtrack was released in North America with the limited edition of the first .hack//Sign DVD. This album is a mix of vocal themes and BGM. Most of the vocal songs and a couple of BGM tracks have strong Celtic influence. The BGM is completed with tracks with noticeable console-RPG style. The second original soundtrack was released in North America with the limited edition of the second .hack//Sign DVD. All of the tracks are fairly slow, with catchy beats. The final music soundtrack was titled ".hack//Extra Soundtrack". In North America this soundtrack was included with the limited edition of the fourth .hack//Sign DVD. DSTV-channel/full> Discs Themes Despite its visual concept, .hack//Sign is not a sword and sorcery story, but an exposition-driven character study. It proposes "a trip inside the psychology and soul of an emotionally bruised, but slowly healing person." Themes range from psychological to sociological and are dealt with using classical dialogue as well as image-only introspection. Among the most prominent themes in .hack//Sign are anxiety, its causes, and the effects it has upon human behavior. Scenes of the real world show people living an apprehensive, even painful reality: characters' background includes subjects such as dysfunctional families and physical impediments. Tsukasa himself is psychologically affected by years of physical abuse and neglect, a state that gets worse throughout his experience in the game, where his reality disappears and he begins to doubt his own existence. When anxiety is excessive (like in the case depicted by Tsukasa's story) and can not be relieved by practical problem-solving methods, "the human ego uses maneuvers such as a defense mechanism to deny, falsify or even distort reality." The anime series explores this process as the root of emotional and behavioral issues such as detachment and isolation.Escapism, if only as representing a consequence of anxiety, is a significant theme in .hack//Sign. The series explores how technology, such as the Internet and online games, can be used to escape reality. The World is portrayed as a means that people use "to escape their lives", assuming roles online that compensate for their shortcomings in the real world: to some, it is a place where they can overcome their physical limitations; to others, it is a social outlet or a world free of rules. In addition, the preference given to the virtual world over reality represents the intrusion of technology in the social structure: as people engage in "the wide potential of cyberspace", they become more withdrawn in the real world.Interpersonal relationships are a prominent theme too. The show explores the psychological effects social connections have upon people with emotional needs. Initially Tsukasa shows no respect for any values or other people, but as he engages in relationships, he begins to gradually change, learning to care about others and acquiring the strength to face the reality of his life. Media Releases Originally, .hack//Sign was broadcast in Japan on TV Tokyo between April 4 to September 25, 2002. The same year Victor Entertainment released the entire score in three albums, along with a single containing the opening and ending of the series.In North America, .hack//Sign was licensed and distributed by Bandai Entertainment, and dubbed by PCB Productions, who are known for their adaptations of fare like Geneshaft. The dub aired on Cartoon Network's Toonami between February 1, 2003 and March 1, 2004. The series was also released on DVD, spanning six volumes. The limited edition ran from March 4, 2003 to March 16, 2004, followed by the regular edition from March 18, 2003 to March 16, 2004. A recap episode called Evidence and the DVD only episode Intermezzo were included in the sixth volume, and Unison was only included in its limited edition. Following the multimedia concept of the franchise, Bandai also acquired the license for the .hack games, the first one being released the same month the anime series began broadcast.The multimedia approach is shown through the DVD release as well. The limited edition not only included the three soundtrack albums of the series, but also the soundtrack of .hack//Liminality and a demo disc of the first game.The series was compiled three times. The first DVD box set was released on October 26, 2004, by the name .hack//Sign – Complete Collection, and the second, more affordable one on August 22, 2006, by the name .hack//Sign: Anime Legends Complete Collection. Neither of these releases contains the OVA episode Unison.Following the closure of Bandai Entertainment, Funimation announced at SDCC 2013, that they acquired four .hack titles including SIGN. In 2015, Funimation released the DVD boxset .hack//Sign: The Complete Series, which contains all 28 episodes, including both OVA episodes. Publications A compilation artbook called .hack//the visions was included in the February, 2003 issue of Newtype published by Kadokawa Shoten. The book contains .hack//Sign, .hack//Legend of the Twilight, and the .hack games illustrations which were originally shown in different issues of Newtype during 2002. Participating artists included Rei Izumi, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Satoshi Ohsawa, and Yuko Iwaoka.An information book about Project .hack. was published by Fujimi Shobo in June, 2003. The book, called Encyclopedia .hack (ISBN 4-8291-7530-3), is a compilation of theories and information about storyline, setting, and characters of the franchise, taken from the series itself. Another information book about Project .hack was published by Softbank Publishing on September 27, 2003. This publication was called hack//analysis (ISBN 4-7973-2455-4) and, unlike Encyclopedia, included never-before-seen information on The World and the characters of the franchise. Information about .hack//Sign characters like Bear and BT was expanded in this book. Reception The series has generally been positive. Holly Ellinwood of Anime Active saluted Ito's "well thought out, even provocative" storyline in the 2006 review of the series, saying that it is "far more cerebral, even existential than the anime's other less sophisticated contemporaries." Nevertheless, reviewers agree that it is the series which viewers either love or hate. According to Mike Toole from Anime Jump, it "deserves to be both maligned and admired". NeedCoffee's reviewer regarded the show as "one of the most controversial titles in recent years". Negative criticism focuses on the slow-paced story and the almost total absence of action sequences, elements which are also considered as what makes the series "most unique".Bamboo Dong of Anime News Network called the series "interesting to watch," saying the story gets more "detailed and complex" by the show's fourth episode, praised the music selection, the voice casting, and the artwork. Dong also said that while the storyline has "aspects of mediocrity, " the storyline is intriguing and intense, and that the series is something that "has to be watched at least once." Nick Creamer of Anime News Network called the series the "grandfather of MMO anime," saying it is mellow, contemplative, and slow. He further said that the show puts you in the middle of relationships between the character and although these are not originally described, views come to understand the logic behind their actions, and added that the "underlying art" of the series holds up. He also said that the series has consistent backgrounds, a diverse music score, and calls the anime, ultimately, a story of "anxiety and identity and virtual selves." The series received high marks for technical aspects. Chris Beveridge from Anime On DVD feels the animation is "gorgeous" and the "colors are lush and vivid". Tasha Robinson from SCI FI Weekly says that "The World's hugely varied settings provide ever-changing backgrounds," which are considered by Rob Lineberger of DVD Verdict as "detailed and innovative". In his review of the first English release, Mike Toole described the series as "a beautiful, rich-looking series, with frequently sumptuous character design and animation that's only emphasized by the quality of the DVD." A negative opinion is expressed by Rob Lineberger himself, who says that "many of the animated sequences were static characters with slightly moving lips." Tasha Robinson, instead, shows a more neutral perspective on this subject, saying that "the animation is simple but attractive." A concern several reviewers express is that the gaming environment the series tries to simulate should be more crowded, being a game supposedly extremely popular worldwide. A different opinion is that of Anime Academy's reviewer, who writes that the anime's depiction of the game-world setting is realistic and accurate.Bandai's release earned praise for the quality of the video transfer and the DVD extras (particularly in the limited edition). Reviewers appreciated the English voice acting: Lauren Synger from DVD Vision Japan feels that "everyone was very appropriate to their characters", noting that Brianne Sidal did an excellent work capturing Saiga's Tsukasa. Lineberger, in contrast, finds the English dub to be "antiseptic and uninspired". Bamboo Dong of Anime News Network thinks for her part that Mimiru sounded bland and poorly executed, but overall, the actors did a good job "delivering their lines and giving life to their characters."Ridwan Khan of Animefringe welcomes the "excellent" .hack//Sign score composed by Yuki Kajiura, which is hailed by Mark McPherson from Anime Boredom as "the best orchestrated track ever made for a television series". Most reviewers agree that the soundtrack is one of the series' most prominent features. A negative criticism on the music is that it tends to overwhelm the dialogue in the first couple of episodes. Kōichi Mashimo has stated that he specifically had the music louder than the dialogue as he tried to do some experimentation, and it was his intent to draw complaints from the audience. Still, Chris Beveridge thinks it is an "interesting device to sort of ratchet up the speed of things." and references Official Bandai Namco .hack website (in Japanese) Official Cyberconnect .hack//Sign website (in Japanese) .hack//Sign (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia .hack//Sign at IMDb

PD, P.D., or Pd may refer to: Arts and media People's Democracy (newspaper), weekly organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) The Plain Dealer, a Cleveland, Ohio, US newspaper Post Diaspora, a time frame in the Honorverse series of science fiction novels Principia Discordia, a 1965 holy text in Discordianism Production designer, a profession in film or television Production diary, a promotional video podcast Public domain, a copyright status Economics and business Personnel department, of an organization Price discrimination, a microeconomic pricing strategy Probability of default, used in finance (Basel II) Professional degree, or first professional degree Professional development, learning to earn or maintain professional credentials Program director, in service industries Public Debt, of a government Organizations Companies Phelps Dodge, a former American mining company, now part of Freeport-McMoRan Polyphony Digital, developer of the Gran Turismo video game series Porter Airlines (IATA airline designator), a regional airline headquartered at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, Canada Government and law Police department Preventive detention, an imprisonment that is putatively justified for non-punitive purposes Property damage liability, in insurance Public defender, an attorney appointed to represent people who cannot afford to hire one Public domain, works whose exclusive intellectual property rights are no longer valid Punitive damages Political parties Democratic Party of Albania (Partia Demokratike), a centre-right political party in Albania Democratic Party (Indonesia) (Partai Demokrat), a political party in Indonesia Democratic Party (Italy) (Partito Democratico), a centre-left political party in Italy Democratic Party (Malta) (Partit Demokratiku), a centre-left political party in Malta Democratic Party (Romania) (Partidul Democrat), a social-democratic and, later, a centre-right political party in Romania Democratic Party – demokraci.pl (Partia Demokratyczna – demokraci.pl), Poland Party of Democrats (Partito dei Democratici), a defunct political party in San Marino People's Democracy (Ireland), a defunct political organization in Ireland Progressive Democrats, a defunct political party in the Republic of Ireland Places Province of Padua (ISO 3166-2:IT), Italy Port Dickson (town), a coastal city in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia Professions Doctor of Pharmacy, also abbreviated PharmD Postdoctoral, a research position or course of study Privatdozent, a title or position especially in German universities Production designer, a profession in film or television Science and technology Medicine Paleolithic diet, a diet based on presumed ancient diets Panic disorder, a condition with excessive fear or anxiety Parkinson's disease, a degenerative neurological condition Paroxysmal dyskinesia, a group of movement disorders Pediatric dentistry, mouth health care and tooth repair for children Peritoneal dialysis, a way to filter the blood when the kidneys are not working well Personality disorder, any of various psychiatric problems Peyronie's disease, a connective tissue disorder involving the growth of fibrous plaques in the soft tissue of the penis Pharmacodynamics, the study of how a drug affects an organism Phenyldichloroarsine, a blister agent and vomiting agent Polydipsia, excessive thirst Progressive disease, a disease that continues to worsen and often has no proven total cure Psychotic depression, a major depressive episode that is accompanied by psychotic symptoms Pupillary distance, in optometry Computing Pentium D, a dual-core variant of the Pentium 4 processor Perfect Dark (P2P), a Japanese peer-to-peer file-sharing (P2P) application designed for use with Microsoft Windows Phase-change Dual, an optical media format Pure Data, the graphical audio-processing language USB PD (USB Power Delivery), an extension of the USB standard Physics Photodiode, a semiconductor device that converts light into current Potential difference, or voltage Partial discharge, an undesirable discharge phenomenon in high voltage dielectrics Other uses in science and technology PD resistor, a pull-down resistor Pd test, the outcome of using a drop of para-phenylenediamine (also abbr. "Pd") to identify lichens Palladium, symbol Pd, a chemical element Point-defence, a category of weapons Axiom of projective determinacy, in mathematical logic Pumpe Düse, a Volkswagen Group name for Unit Injector diesel engine technology Other uses The NYSE ticker symbol of PagerDuty Padang railway station, West Sumatra, Indonesia (station code) Full stop (or period, in American English), used in coded military communications Personal development, as used in the self-help and personal growth requiring fields peu difficile, in mountaineering, "little difficult" climbing grade International French adjectival system See also PD-50, a 1979 currently non-floating floating dry dock made in Sweden PD Draw, a bridge over the Passaic River, New Jersey, US PD-1, a cell surface receptor protein pd, the nickname of Brent Scott, the founder of the website Insex Pee Dee Pound (mass) Pulldown (disambiguation)

Gloria Tang Sze-wing (Chinese: 鄧詩穎; [tɐŋ˨ siː˥ weŋ˨]; born 16 August 1991), known professionally as G.E.M. (backronym of Get Everybody Moving) or Tang Tsz-kei (Chinese: 鄧紫棋; [tɐŋ˨ tsiː˧˥ kʰei˩]), is a Chinese singer-songwriter raised in Hong Kong and originally from Shanghai, China. She made her debut in the Hong Kong music industry in 2008. After releasing three albums in Hong Kong, her appearance in the 2014 edition of Chinese singing competition program I Am a Singer 2 and subsequent 2nd-place finish gained her immense fame and popularity in Greater China.In 2015, G.E.M. released her first full Mandopop album Heartbeat. The following year, she became the only Asian artist featured in the Forbes 30 Under 30. She is the first female Chinese singer to have four music videos that exceed 100 million views on YouTube. Early life Tang Sze-wing was born on 16 August 1991, in Shanghai, China; she was given the English name Gloria by her father. Her father is from Hong Kong, and her mother is from Shanghai. She has a younger sister, four years younger than her. G.E.M. spent her childhood at Caoyang New Village and lived with her maternal grandmother who died in March 2011. She moved to Hong Kong with her parents at the age of four. She attended Christian schools for her education.G.E.M. grew up with a musical background, her mother from Vocal Music department of Shanghai Conservatory of Music, her grandmother was a vocal coach, her grandfather was a saxophonist in an orchestra, and her uncle was a violinist. G.E.M. started to write songs at the age of five. She would play a few practice songs and improvise them herself. She was featured in a performance on Hong Kong's Educational Television at the age of seven. She achieved ABRSM's piano grade 8 at the age of thirteen. G.E.M. names Christina Aguilera, Beyoncé, and Mariah Carey as her influences.In 2006, G.E.M. won the champion in the singing competition titled Spice It Up, and caught the attention of Chang Tan (張丹), who offered her a recording deal with Hummingbird Music. She then became a professional singer at the age of 16. She graduated from Heep Woh Primary School and True Light Girls' College with a score of 21 points in HKCEE. In 2008, she attended Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, but dropped out in 2009 due to her decision to focus on her singing career. Career 2008–2010: G.E.M., 18..., and MySecret In October 2008, G.E.M. released her debut self-titled EP G.E.M. which included two Mandarin songs and three Cantonese songs. She won a series of awards for the album, and was dubbed the "Girl with Giant Lungs" and "Young Diva with Giant Lungs" for her vocal range. In May 2009, G.E.M. travelled to Los Angeles to record her first studio album, 18..., which was released in October 2009. In November 2009, she held her first concert G.E.M. 18 Live 2009 at Hong Kong International Trade and Exhibition Centre, and the concert featured special guests including Jan Lamb and Justin Lo. In the same year, she also held a concert in Toronto. In 2010, G.E.M. went to Taiwan to promote the album 18... and then returned to Los Angeles to record her next studio album, MySecret, which was released in October 2010. 2011–2012: Get Everybody Moving Tour and Xposed In May 2011, G.E.M. performed a three-day concerts titled Get Everybody Moving Tour in Hong Kong Coliseum, and became the youngest Hong Kong female artist to perform in the venue. She then performed another five concerts in the same venue in September and embarked a concert tour in eight countries. In June 2012, she performed alongside Jason Mraz and Khalil Fong at the iTunes Live in Hong Kong, and sang "Lucky" with Jason Mraz. Her third studio album, Xposed, was released in July 2012. The lead single, "What Have U Done", peaked number one on all four pop music charts in Hong Kong. 2013–2015: X.X.X. Live Tour, I Am a Singer, and Heartbeat G.E.M. embarked on her X.X.X. Live World Tour in April 2013, in support of her third studio album, Xposed. The tour started with five shows in Hong Kong Coliseum, and ended with a show at Wembley Arena in London, which is also her debut show in Europe. There was a total of 73 shows in 4 continents. In May, she became the youngest nominee ever of Golden Melody Award for Best Female Vocalist Mandarin, with her album Xposed. In June, she released a cover of Chinese smash hit Intoxicated, which was played for 15 million times on QQ Music within a week. In January 2014, she appeared in the second season of Hunan TV's I Am a Singer 2 alongside Han Lei, Zhou Bichang, Phil Chang, Gary Chaw and others. Her second-place finish gained her immense popularity and fame in Greater China. In the same year, she earned a World Music Award nomination for World's Best Female Artist and an MTV Europe Music Award nomination for Best Mainland China & Hong Kong Act. In December 2014, G.E.M.'s wax figure at Madame Tussauds Hong Kong was unveiled. On 10 February 2015, JJ Lin published the official music video for his song "Beautiful" (手心的薔薇) featuring G.E.M.. In September 2015, she was selected to be the team advisor for team Wang Feng at The Voice of China 4. In November 2015, she appeared on the cover of China's Apple Music, and released her studio album Heartbeat with music videos of all ten tracks in the album. The album topped the iTunes chart in China. 2016–2018: G-Force and Queen of Hearts Tour In 2016, she appeared on the list of Forbes 30 Under 30 (Music), being the only Asian musician on the list. In the same year, she was asked to voice a lead role in the animated film Charming, alongside Demi Lovato, Ashley Tisdale, and Avril Lavigne. She also performed at Heroes of Remix that same year, singing EDM versions of songs such as "Like You" (喜歡你) and "The Brightest Star In The Night Sky" (夜空中最亮的星), among others. In September 2016, she released her photobook 25 Looks and an EP, which includes four remix songs. In November 2016, she earned an MTV Europe Music Award for Best Mainland China & Hong Kong Act. On 29 December 2016, G.E.M. released the Chinese theme song for the science fiction film Passengers titled "Light Years Away", which she also performed on several occasions, including NASA 2019 Breakthrough Prize. Lyrically, similar to the plot of the film itself, it speaks of a doomed love. In May 2017, G.E.M released her first documentary G-Force, which was directed by Nick Wickham. In April 2017, she embarked on her Queen of Hearts World Tour. On 21 October 2017, Chinese-Malaysian hip hop artist Namewee published a video featuring her in a cover of his song "Stranger In The North (KTV Version)" (漂向北方), which had received widespread popularity, where she sings the chorus which was originally performed by Taiwanese-American singer-songwriter Wang Leehom. At the 13th Annual KKBox Music Awards on 21 January 2018, G.E.M. and Namewee together sang "Stranger In The North" immediately after she sang "Goodbye" (再見) and "Light Years Away" for her 2018 KKBox Artist of the Year award-winner performance. On April, she was invited to be the duet partner for Hua Chenyu in the finals of Singer 2018 and sang "Light Years Away". On 18 August 2018, her Queen of Hearts World Tour has called for an end for part 1 of the tour and she announced the part 2 tour will hold in 2019 with more new songs. 2018–2021: Fairytale Trilogy project, Queen of Hearts Tour Part 2, and City Zoo In 2018, G.E.M announced that she would be working on a project, Fairytale Trilogy, where each of the three EP's will feature three new songs written by herself, and produced by Lupo Groinig. The first EP, My Fairytale, with the lead single "Tik Tok" was released digitally on Chinese streaming platforms on 16 August and officially released worldwide on the 30th. On 4 November, G.E.M. was invited to perform the song "Light Years Away" and served as on-stage presenter in the Breakthrough Prize, being the first ever Chinese singer to perform at the ceremony. On 19 November, she was selected as one of the BBC 100 Women, being the only Chinese on the list. On 22 November, the number of subscribers of her official YouTube channel "GEMblog" exceeded 1 million. On 26 October, the second EP, Fearless, with the single "Woke", was released digitally on Chinese streaming platforms and worldwide on 9 November. On 14 December, the third and final EP from the project, Queen G, with the lead single "Love Finds a Way", was released on Chinese streaming platforms and worldwide on 28 December. After gaining some more new commercial endorsements, G.E.M. composed and recorded new commercial songs in Los Angeles in early 2019. Then beginning March 2019, she resumed her Queen of Hearts World Tour with concerts across Canada, US and Eastern Asia. On 3 May 2019, G.E.M. released her sixth and last studio album with Hummingbird, Happily Ever After, which is a compilation of three EPs she released in late 2018 as part of the Fairytale Trilogy. G.E.M. released her seventh studio album City Zoo on 27 December 2019. Following, she appeared on the Bilibili New Year's Eve event and Jiangsu TV's New Year's Eve event simultaneously on 31 December 2019, performing her hit singles Light Years Away, Tik Tok and Full Stop. On 3 January 2020, G.E.M. was invited to host by Taiwanese singer Jolin Tsai fifth concert tour Ugly Beauty World Tour at Taipei Arena in Taipei. They are singing "Say Love You" and "Light Years Away" with each other. In February 2021, G.E.M. released new single "Parallel" (平行世界). In November 2021, G.E.M. released new single "Double You" (兩個你 / 兩個自己). 2022–present: Revelation On July 16, 2022, G.E.M. announced her new album Revelation would be released soon. The 14-track album is to be released by Warner Music China. "Gloria", the first single from the album, was released on August 9, 2022. G.E.M. spoke of the inspiration behind Revelation. On December 8, 2022, G.E.M. released her single "Wallfacer" (面壁者). On July 10, 2023, G.E.M. released new Spanish language album Revelación. Personal life G.E.M. is a devout Christian and several of her songs reflect Christian themes, including Gloria, Heartbeat, and Walk on Water. Her Revelation album is inspired by a "supernatural experience she encountered." She has stated that her field has been stressful, but that it has been "her faith in God that kept her through the hardships of her career and allowed her to grow in trials." Contractual issues and lawsuit On 7 March 2019, she announced that she would no longer be represented by Hummingbird after three months of negotiations on her contract and allegedly being pressured to work. Hummingbird replied saying that there was no such pressure or unfair practices. G.E.M. continued on The Queen of Hearts World Tour until April 2019 so as not to disappoint her fans. As "G.E.M." and "Tang Tsz-kei" are trademarks held by Hummingbird, it was speculated that she may have to give up using the stage name. However Hummingbird explained that the copyright was to prevent piracy, and a lawyer is being consulted before an appropriate course of action is carried out. A spokesperson added that "a lawyer has been assigned to make sure that [she] will receive all the basic rights that she deserves".On 29 March 2019, Hummingbird filed a court case claiming that G.E.M. has three more years on her contract, ending in 2022, and is looking to validate the contracts signed in 2014, with no start date indicated on the documents, as to be taken in effect only in March 2017. Should their case succeed and she leaves the company, she may have to pay HK$120,000,000 (approximately US$15 million) as compensation for losses. G.E.M. maintained that the 2014 contract was signed under the pressure of not being able to participate in the finals of I Am a Singer if she did not sign the contract. G.E.M. had since filed a counter-suit for unspecified damages, claiming that the company had failed in fulfilling their contractual duties. Both parties seek exclusive rights to her copyrighted works, including the stage name.On a Shende Wisdom Talents (捨得智慧人物) episode aired on 27 October 2020, G.E.M. alleged that she had suffered "mental abuse" at Hummingbird. Discography 18... (2009) MySecret (2010) Xposed (2012) Heartbeat (2015) Happily Ever After (2019) City Zoo (2019) Revelation (2022) Filmography Feature films Music video Short film Variety shows Tours Get Everybody Moving Concert (2011–2012) X.X.X. Live Tour (2013–2015) Queen of Hearts World Tour (2017–2019) Awards G.E.M.｜G.E.M.'s Official Website The Official Website of G.E.M. (since 2019) G.E.M. at IMDb

The Scania K series is a series of chassis in Scania's city bus and coach range with longitudinally, straight-up mounted engine at the rear, replacing the K- (K94, K114, K124) and L-type (L94) chassis of the 4 series. The K series was first presented on Busworld 2005 in Kortrijk, Belgium, and models were available from 2006. Type designation breakdown Plant at which the vehicle was assembled (integral buses only)C: former Kapena plant, Slupsk, Poland (K UB, K UA) L: Lahden Autokori plant, Lahti, Finland – Interlink and OmniExpress (K UB, K IB, K EB) T: Higer plant, China – A30 and A808 Touring coaches (K EB chassis only)Engine locationK: chassis with centrally mounted longitudinal engine behind rearmost axlePower codeApproximation of the power rating in hp to the nearest ten. The power code has spaces on both sides. Type of transportE: coach, long distance, high comfort I: intercity, short to long distance, normal comfort U: urban, short distance, normal comfortChassis adaptionA: articulated bus B: normal bus D: double-decker busWheel configuration4x2: two-axle bus 6x2: tri-axle bus 6x2/2: tri-axle articulated bus 6x2*4: tri-axle bus with steered tag axle 8x2: quad-axle bus (K IB in Latin America only) 8x2/2: quad-axle articulated bus (K IA only)Chassis heightL: low front, normal rear M: low front and middle, normal rear (K UA only) N: normal front and rearSuspensionB: air suspension front and rear, rigid front axle I: air suspension front and rear, independent front suspensionK230UB4x2LB would be a two-axle "low entry" city bus, while K480EB6x2*4NI would be a tri-axle long-distance coach with a steerable tag axle. Note: One might think that double-decker coaches are designated as (e.g.) K 440 ED6x2*4NI. But they still use K EB for some reason. Engines When introduced, the K series was available with Euro IV-compliant 8.9-litre (8867 cc) 5-cylinder engines (DC9) with output of 230 hp (1050 Nm), 270 hp (1250 Nm) and 310 hp (1550 Nm) as well as the 11.7-litre (11705 cc) 6-cylinder engines (DC12) with output of 340 hp (1700 Nm), 380 hp (1900 Nm), 420 hp (2100 Nm) or 470 hp (2200 Nm), the latter being a DT12 turbo-compound engine. For the 5- and 6-cylinder engines Scania is using exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) and selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems to fulfill the legal Euro emission standards. In 2008 Scania released upgraded Euro V engines in order to meet these regulations. The 5-cylinder DC9 (later DC09) engines featured a larger bore and displace 9.3-litres (9291 cc) instead of 8.9-litres. The new DC13 engines feature both a larger bore and a longer stroke and therefore displace 12.7-litres (12742 cc) instead of 11.7-litres. Some engines also received slight performance improvements, for example the DC9 engine that outputs 310 hp (1550 Nm) was upgraded to 320 hp (1600 Nm). With the introduction of Euro VI engines in 2013, the DC09 outputs 250 hp (1250 Nm), 280 hp (1400 Nm), 320 hp (1600 Nm) and 360 hp (1700 Nm), while the DC13 outputs 410 hp (2150 Nm), 450 hp (2350 Nm) and 490 hp (2550 Nm). Euro III, IV and V engines are still available for export markets. For alternative fuels, the 9.3-litre was available as the OC9 CNG engine with power outputs of 270 hp (1100 Nm) and 305 hp (1250 Nm), which from the introduction of Euro VI was replaced by the OC09 with power outputs of 280 hp (1350 Nm) and 340 hp (1600 Nm). The 8.9-litre is available as the ethanol fueled DC9 E02 with a power output of 270 hp (1200 Nm). Scania K EB The K280EB, K310EB, K320EB, K340EB, K360EB, K380EB, K400EB, K410EB, K420EB, K440EB, K450EB, K470EB, K480EB and K490EB chassis have independent front suspension and are used for top end coaches. (4x2, 6x2 and 6x2*4). Scania K IA The K310IA is an articulated intercity bus chassis available in Latin America as 6x2/2 and 8x2/2. One K340IA 6x2/2 and 107 K320IA 6x2/2 are operated for TransJakarta, with the K340IA unit and 51 K320IA units self-operated by TransJakarta management and 56 K320IA units owned and operated by PT. Mayasari Bakti. All units uses OC09 CNG engines that fulfill Euro VI emission standard. Scania K IB The K250IB, K270IB, K280IB, K310IB, K320IB, K340IB, K360IB, K380IB, K400IB, K410IB, and K420IB are the intercity bus variants but are also used for coaches. Available as 4x2, 6x2, 6x2*4 and 8x2. Scania K UA The K310UA, K320UA, and K360UA are the articulated (6x2/2) city bus variant which can be ordered with the two stronger 9-litre diesel engine variants or the strongest 9-litre CNG engine variant. Sydney Buses currently has one K310UA (Fleet No. 2111) in service on Metrobus Route 10, plying between Maroubra Junction and Leichhardt via CBD. In Adelaide (as of the late September 2022), Torrens Transit currently have 96 K320UA units (831–850, 1101–1119, 1121–1166, 1170–1181), plus 19 K360UAs (803, 805–808, 851–853, 857, 1182–1189, 1849–1850). In addition, Torrens Transit has one K310UA unit (1015) which was used as an initial trial bus on the O-Bahn. SouthLink currently has 10 K360UA units (3370–3379). Busways has 3 K360UAs (2859-2860, 2864). Scania K UB The K230UB, K250UB, K270UB, K280UB, K305UB (CNG), K310UB, K320UB, and K360UB are the rigid (4x2 or 6x2*4) city bus variant which can be ordered with all 9-litre engines. A pair of K380UB 6x2*4 with the 11.7-litre engine has also been made for a customer in Norway. Australia Numerous bus operators in Australia operate the Scania K-series chassis. In Melbourne, CDC Melbourne, Transdev Melbourne and Ventura Bus Lines all operate fleets of K230UBs. In Geelong, CDC Geelong operates a number of K230UBs and McHarry's Buslines also operate a number of K270UBs, K270IBs, K280UBs, K280IBs, K320IBs and one K310IB. In New South Wales, Busways and ComfortDelGro Australia's CDC NSW and Hunter Valley Buses subsidiaries have significant numbers of K230UB, K280UB and K310UB in their fleet. Transdev NSW also operates a fleet of K230UB, Transit Systems NSW operates the K280UB, K94UB and the K310UB while State Transit operate K280UB & K310UB.In Canberra, ACTION operates over 150 K320UBs, including 26 Euro V K320UB 6x2*4 buses.In Adelaide (as of late September 2022), Torrens Transit currently have 114 K230UB units, 101 K280UB units, 182 K320UB units, including well as 13 K320UB Hybrid diesel/electric buses. SouthLink currently has 13 K230UB units plus 3 K320 hybrid units, and Busways has 23 K230UBs, 20 K280UBs and 8 K320UB including 3 hybrids.In Brisbane, Transport for Brisbane operate fleets of K310UB6x2. Bus Queensland (Park Ridge Transit, Westside Bus Company) and Mt Gravatt Bus Service have significant numbers of K230UB, K270IB, K280UB, K310UB and K320UB in their fleet., Hornibrook Bus Lines subsidiaries have significant numbers of the K230UB, K280UB and K320UB. Hong Kong In 2008, Kowloon Motor Bus purchased 30 Scania K230UBs with Euro IV engines and Caetano City Gold body, 20 of which were 10.6m and the remainder were 12m in length. All were delivered in 2009. The twenty 10.6m versions of K230UBs have been registered between April and June 2009 and known as the ASB class. After undergoing tests, the first few units were finally introduced on route 2C plying between Yau Yat Tsuen and Tsim Sha Tsui on Sunday, 24 May 2009. Some other buses have also been introduced on suburban routes, such as route 7M & 24. The ten 12m versions of K230UBs have also been registered between June and August 2009 and known as the ASC class. A further 20 K230UBs of 12m length were ordered afterwards, with one being a Euro V EEV demonstrator of the ASCU class. HZMB bus operator has ordered 100 K250UBs with Higer body and delivered in 2018. Indonesia In 2016, the Jakarta Provincial Government placed orders for 150 Scania K250UB Euro III to replace aging Kopaja and MetroMini fleet. In advantage of the older buses, the Scania K250UB is wheelchair accessible and fitted with air conditioner. It is also expected to reduce air pollution since it fulfills Euro III emission standard. The buses are operated by TransJakarta as MetroTrans, and operated outside the BRT system. Operation started by 2017.In 2020, Suroboyo Bus purchased eight Scania K250UB Euro III buses bodied with Cityline 3 by Laksana. These units are equipped with bike racks in the front of the bus. Malaysia Rapid Bus, a Prasarana Malaysia subsidiary company, currently operates one of the largest fleets of Scania K-series buses, with a total of 830 single-deck K250UB and K270UBs with three different service brands. Rapid PenangIn 2009, 200 Scania K270UB Euro III units were delivered to Rapid Penang. An additional order for 120 Scania K250UB Euro III units was placed in 2012, all with a total length of 10.7m. Rapid KLIn 2011, Rapid KL placed an order for 150 Scania K270UB Euro III units. The bodywork and interior of these buses bear a close resemblance to the Euro V units SBS Transit has introduced earlier. Rapid KL placed a follow-up order for 300 units of K250UB Euro III vehicles in 2015. Rapid KuantanTen units Scania K250UB Euro III have gone into operation in December 2012. A total of 60 units has been purchased. The buses have restyled front and rear as well as a newly developed driver's place. New Zealand In New Zealand, several operators have Scania K-series UB urban buses. Because of the additional weight of the 9-litre engine compared to the 7-litre units offered by other manufacturers, many (though not all) Scania urban buses are specified as 6x2 rather than 4x2. This helps reduce the operator's liability for road user charges, which are calculated by vehicle weight. Scania K-series urban buses may have tag axles at lengths where buses of other makes would not, e.g. NZ Bus's 2100 and 2200 series at approximately 12.0 m and only 42 seats. Scania K-series urban buses pioneered steerable tag axles in New Zealand, which became a requirement for buses between 12.6 m and 13.5 m in length. Because Scania K-series buses had a longer rear overhang than competing makes, the allowable overhang with a steerable tag axle was increased from 4.25 m to 4.5 m. The Scania K280 UB 6x2*4 and K320 UB 6x2*4 have been popular chassis for operators building high-capacity single-deck buses. New Zealand's first double-deck bus in regular urban service was a Gemilang-bodied Scania K310 UD 6x2*4. Singapore SBS Transit SBS Transit currently operates the largest fleet of Scania K-series buses in Singapore, with a total of 1,101 Scania K230UBs. The company made its first purchase of 500 K230UBs at a cost of S$180 million in early 2007, as part of its scheme to replace most of the ageing fleet and compliance with the new Euro IV emission standards set by local authorities. The single-decker buses are wheelchair accessible and have 2 wheelchair bays each. They are also fitted with 6-speed ZF automatic transmission, bodied by Gemilang Coachwork of Johor, Malaysia with a modified Scania licensed front. In September 2008, SBS Transit purchased another 400 K230UBs at the cost of S$147 million, with similar features to the first batch of 500. However, these buses had Euro V EEV engine as standard, one wheelchair bay each in favour of extra seating. SBS Transit made the last order for 200 more K230UBs in August 2009 at a cost of S$72 million. Early withdrawal SBS8900B was caught in an accident at Bedok North Bus Depot while on Service 48 in December 2011 and was deregistered and scrapped in April 2013. SBS8360J was caught in an accident at Jalan Jurong Kechil with a MAN NL323F A22 (SMB1636U) while on Service 157 on 11 May 2018 and was deregistered and parked at Traffic Police Compound. In September 2020, it was reported the bus had been moved to Ulu Pandan Bus Depot for repairs. The bus has been repaired as of September 2021. With the mass influx of surplus buses to SBS Transit for revenue service in November 2021, 97 units of Euro IV K230UBs were taken out of revenue service to be scrapped progressively from January 2022 with the majority of them were APAD-registered and from Ulu Pandan Bus Depot. Like the case of Volvo B10M buses in 2014, these were replaced by newer buses such as Mercedes-Benz O530 Citaro and MAN NL323F single decker buses for cross-border bus services. 20 of these buses were stored at a warehouse in Keppel to be converted into a hotel resort at Changi Village, with the remaining scrapped by July 2022. Other operators Singapore Ducktours has 9 Scania K230UBs (3 under 2007, 4 under 2010 and 2 under 2011), configured as open top double-decker buses with bodywork by Soon Chow Corporation for its Hippotours service. All buses were repainted into Big Bus Singapore livery starting from September 2018. Singapore Changi Airport contracted Woodlands Transport Service Pte Ltd to operate 3 Gemilang-bodied Scania K230UB for its internal shuttle services (Budget Terminal >> Terminal 2). Upon withdrawal of the shuttle services (due to the closure of Budget Terminal), these buses were repainted into SATS gateway livery and are used inside the Airport runway. In addition, a specially configured Scania K230UB (registered as SKP8296X) is used as an "ambulance bus". Resorts World Sentosa operates a handful of KUBs to provide shuttle services for its hotel guests. These buses were bodied by SC Auto in a coach configuration. ComfortDelGro Bus also operates a handful of SC Auto-bodied K230UBs, purchased for the National University of Singapore internal shuttle service. Following retirement from NUS duties, these have been repainted and redeployed to other locations such as Sentosa. Taiwan Two units of Scania K230UB have been in operation by Ho-Hsin Bus (zh) in Tainan City since 2014, with bodywork by Gemilang Coachworks. Uruguay Two K270UB4x2LB with automatic ZF Gearboxes Chassis were bought by capital city Montevideo's urban and suburban bus operator UCOT(Union Cooperativa Obrera del Transporte/Cooperative Worker Union of Transport) and bodied in Brazil with Marcopolo Gran Viale LE bodywork in 2011 as testing units for an potential mass buyout of units in and incumbet partial fleet renovation arriving in July of that year, they were mumbered 24 and 36 in sustitution of two Volvo B58E Caio Vitoria buses and assigned exclusively to the 300 line (UCOT most used line) but were finally deemed too powerful and expensive to operate in Montevideo resulting in these two units becoming unique in the cooperative Scania K UD The K280UD, K310UD and K320UD is the double-decker city bus variant with an 8.9-litre DC9-18 5-cylinder 310 hp Euro IV compliant engine (hence the 310 in K310UD), or a 9.3-litre DC9-29 5-cylinder 280 hp Euro V compliant engine. The 'U' indicates the bus is designed for the urban application, the 'D' points out the chassis is made for a double-decker. Hong Kong Kowloon Motor Bus of Hong Kong received two Scania K310UD (complete designation: K310UD6x2EB. The 6x2 shows the bus has a rigid bogie) buses with and ZF 6HP602 gearbox, the rear drive axle has a ratio (differential) of 6.20 and is also a product of ZF. The bus was designed in close co-operation with the body constructor Salvador Caetano (Waterlooville) in order to save weight.The first one has been registered as MT6551 in March 2007 and entered service on route 104 in August 2007 after testing. The second one has been registered as NE6817 and entered service on route 69X in February 2008. The K310UD6x2EB is the replacement of the unique K94UB6x2/4LB and also the second type of Scania double-decker bus (the first type is the Scania N113) for KMB. KMB later ordered a further 20 more units of the K310UD in 2009, they were registered in January 2010. ASU1 and ASU2 were de-registered in March 2012 and were shipped back to Sweden afterwards. In March 2011, Citybus received one Scania K280UD (complete designation: K280UD6x2EB) tri-axle double decker. This is the second Scania bus acquired by Citybus, about 10 years after the unique K94UB6x2/4LB was introduced in 2001 (fleet no. 2800). It is equipped with a Euro V compliant Scania DC9-29 engine, rated at 280 hp with maximum torque 1400Nm, both of which are lower than the KMB counterparts (310 hp power output with 1550Nm maximum torque), coupled to a ZF Ecomat 4 6HP604 NBS 6-speed gearbox. It is also bodied by Salvador Caetano, but with some minor changes from KMB ones. KMB also received two Scania K280UD buses in late 2014 with newly designed Salvador Caetano bodywork. These two buses, like the one purchased by Citybus, are also equipped with Euro V compliant Scania DC9-29 engine. These two buses feature orange Hanover LED destination signs and uses high capacity layout with square staircase. The first bus has been registered as TE7277 with the fleet code ASUD1 in February 2015, with the second one registered as TF6087 with fleet code ASUD2 in March 2015. New Zealand Auckland received a K320UD unit with Gemilang Coachwork Sdn Bhd bodywork in February 2013. It entered service on 6 March 2013. Singapore SBS Transit received a K310UD demonstrator unit with Gemilang Coachwork SDN BHD bodywork on 26 March 2010. It was registered as SBS7888K. This bus is currently deployed as a training bus at Hougang Depot. Scania K CB The Scania K CB chassis' are used on the new Scania Fencer range of vehicles. One of their demonstrators which was seen at Euro Bus Expo is marked as a Scania K280CB4x2LB (Which is now with Ambassador Travel registered as YT23 BDF) See also Scania F series – Series of bus and coach chassis with an engine at the front Scania N series – Series of city bus chassis with straight-up, transversely mounted engine at the rear Scania 4 series – Bus range introduced in 1997. It is the successor of the 3-series bus range and was superseded by the F, N, and K series List of buses "Type designation system for buses and coaches, STD4218-2" (PDF). Scania. 11 January 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 July 2015. Aplicações para Ônibus Scania Brasil June 2012 Scania K series Scania Thailand October 2011 Media related to Scania K-series at Wikimedia Commons

The Scania N113 was a transverse-engined step-entrance and low-floor city bus chassis manufactured by Scania between 1988 and 2000. History The Scania N113 was designed as a successor to the N112. Most of the single-decker buses and the double-decker buses have a double-curvature windscreen with an arched top. It had an 11-litre engine mounted at the rear, coupled to either a Scania or Voith gearbox. It was available as: a standard-floor single-decker bus (N113CLB/N113CRB) a low-floor single-decker bus (N113CLB-LG/N113CLL/N113CRL) a double-decker bus with two or three axles (N113DRB/3-axle N113) an articulated bus (N113ALB). United Kingdom A total of 641 N113s were sold in the United Kingdom, this figure made up of 405 two-axle double-deckers, 194 standard-floor single-deckers and 42 low-floor single-deckers.The double-deckers were offered with bodywork by Alexander, East Lancs and Northern Counties, while most of the standard-floor single-deckers were bodied by Alexander to their PS and Strider designs, though the Wright Endurance, Plaxton Verde and East Lancs EL2000 were also specified. London Transport was to be the biggest UK customer for the double-deckers, taking 71 between 1989 and 1992 for its London Northern and East London subsidiaries. Of these, 29 were bodied by Alexander, the other 42 by Northern Counties. Brighton & Hove bought 51 between 1989 and 1998, all with East Lancs bodies. Yorkshire Rider took 42 in 1990 and 1991 (37 with Alexander bodies and five with Northern Counties bodies), while West Midlands Travel took 40 with Alexander bodies in 1990.Nottingham City Transport would buy 23, while Midland Fox took 20, and Kingston upon Hull City Transport and Mayne Coaches both bought 16. There were also 13 for Northumbria Motor Services, 12 for Newport Transport, and ten each for Busways Travel Services (the former Tyne and Wear PTE undertaking), Cardiff Bus and Liverline of Liverpool. Other customers included Grey-Green, Borehamwood Travel Services, GM Buses, Midland Red North and Derby City Transport. Busways was the first United Kingdom customer for the standard-floor single-decker in 1989, eventually taking 36, all with Alexander PS bodies. The biggest customer, however, was Yorkshire Rider, which bought 55 with Alexander Strider bodies in 1993 and 1994. Newport took 30 Strider-bodied versions between 1993 and 1997, while GRT Group took 26 with Wright Endurance bodies in 1994/95 for its Midland Bluebird and Lowland Scottish fleets. Cardiff Bus bought 14 with Plaxton Verde bodies in 1992 and a further seven with Strider bodies in 1994, while Nottingham took eight PS-bodied versions in 1990. Among other customers were Yorkshire Traction, Tayside Buses and Stevensons of Uttoxeter. Of the 42 low-floor single-deckers, 30 Wright Pathfinder bodied examples were bought by London Buses in 1994 for trials at its East London and Leaside Buses subsidiaries. The other 12 carried an East Lancs body marketed jointly as the MaxCi, and of these, five went to Clydeside 2000, four to Midland Red North, and one to Tayside. Hong Kong In 1993, Kowloon Motor Bus purchased two Alexander RH-bodied Scania N113 tri-axle double-deckers. The Alexander RH buses all have a double-curvature windscreen with an arched top. They were equipped with Scania DS11-74 engines (274 bhp) and Voith DIWA863 gearboxes.Another 20 were purchased in 1996, but equipped with Scania's DSC11-24 engine instead of DS11-74. All were withdrawn between 2010 and 2014. Singapore Singapore Bus Service took delivery of 200 Alexander PS bodied Scania N113CRB single deckers in 1989/90, 50 of which were air-conditioned and the remaining 150 non air-conditioned. Several of the non air-conditioned buses were retrofitted with air conditioning in 1998/99. These buses served mainly the eastern parts of Singapore and were predominantly under the control of the Bedok North depot, with a minority at Ang Mo Kio, Braddell and Hougang depots. They were transferred to SBS Transit on 1 November 2001 and retired from 19 August 2008 to 1 May 2009. These buses were repainted between January 2004 and December 2007. Some of them were already replaced by Volvo B10M who in turn replaced by Scania K230UB. The N113CRBs operated on a majority of trunk, feeder and Townlink services in the East. Australia Metro Tasmania purchased 147 Ansair bodied N113CRBs between 1989 and 1995. Replacement In 1997, Scania introduced its 4-series range of buses, which utilised smaller and cleaner engines in order to comply with Euro2 emission limits. The N113 thus gave way to the low-floor, 9-litre-engined N94. However, N113 double-deckers continued to be sold in the UK until 2000, the last examples being a batch with East Lancs Cityzen bodies built for stock and sold to a variety of small operators. The N94 was eventually introduced to the UK in 2002, in both single-deck and double-deck forms. For the Hong Kong market, Scania developed the low-floor Scania K94UB 6x2/4 double-decker bus, but only one prototype was built. Media related to Scania N113 at Wikimedia Commons

Carlyle Works was an English builder of bus and coach bodywork based in Edgbaston. History In 1920, the Birmingham & Midland Motor Omnibus Company established a bus repair facility on land adjoining Rotton Park Reservoir. It initially performed repair work before chassis construction commenced in 1925. The eight-acre site was redeveloped over a five-year period from 1949. It derived its name from its address, Carlyle Road. The company was famous for building its own buses and coaches, under the BMMO name. These buses were typically very innovative and were the first to introduce many advanced features. When the development and production of its own vehicles became prohibitive in the late 1960s the central works continued to provide heavy engineering services for the company. On 1 January 1969, Midland Red became part of the National Bus Company, and Carlyle Works provided engineering services for other National Bus Company operators. These services included major vehicle modifications and adaptations.In the mid-1980s, minibuses became very popular for operators, allowing them to provide higher frequency service on routes that could serve areas larger vehicles could not access. Carlyle developed a range of bodywork for minibuses, notably Ford Transit conversions. On 5 September 1981, Midland Red was divided into five operating companies with the Carlyle Works retained to provide engineering support. On 5 March 1987, Carlyle Works became the 22nd National Bus Company subsidiary to be privatised. It was purchased by Frontsource Limited, a company set up by Robert Beattie to purchase eight former National Bus Company engineering companies.Carlyle set about building upon its minibus expertise, and developed bodywork for the Freight Rover chassis. These sold well, especially to former NBC operators. Designs for Iveco and Mercedes Benz 700 and 800 series vehicles followed.In 1989, the body designs for the Duple Dartline were acquired from Trinity Holdings. This body was adapted for the Dennis Dart and was available in 8.5m, 9.0m and 9.8m lengths. Carlyle built 140 of an order for the 8.5m vehicles from London Transport. Warrington Borough Transport bought most (13) of the 9.0m versions. The 9.8m version was bought by China Motor Bus (later sold to New World First Bus) and Luton & District. Small numbers of each were bought by other independent operators. New orders became increasingly hard to find, as the minibus vogue had ended and competing bodywork for the Dennis Dart was proving more popular. In October 1991, Carlyle Works was placed in receivership and closed. The rights to the Dartline were sold to bodybuilder Marshall Bus.

Bedford Vehicles, usually shortened to just Bedford, was a brand of vehicle manufactured by Vauxhall Motors, then a subsidiary of multinational corporation General Motors. Established in April 1931, Bedford Vehicles was set up to build commercial vehicles. The company was a leading international lorry brand, with substantial export sales of light, medium, and heavy lorries throughout the world. Bedford's core heavy trucks business was divested by General Motors (GM) as AWD Trucks in 1987, whilst the Bedford brand continued to be used on light commercial vehicles and car-derived vans based on Vauxhall/Opel, Isuzu and Suzuki designs. The brand was retired in 1991. The van manufacturing plant of Bedford, now called GM Manufacturing Luton, is now owned and operated by Stellantis, following Vauxhall's acquisition by PSA Group in 2017. History Until 1925, General Motors assembled trucks in Britain from parts manufactured at its Canadian works. This enabled them to import vehicles into Britain under Imperial Preference, which favoured products from the British Empire as far as import duties were concerned. Such trucks were marketed as "British Chevrolet". In November 1925, GM purchased Vauxhall Motors with production transferred from Hendon to Luton, Vauxhall's headquarters, production commencing there in 1929. 1930s The AC and LQ models were produced at Luton from 1929 to 1931, and styled as the "Chevrolet Bedford", taking the name from the county town of Bedfordshire, in which Luton is located. The AC was bodied as a light van (12 cwt), and the LQ in a wide variety of roles, including a lorry, ambulance, van and bus versions. The name "Chevrolet" was dropped, and the first Bedford was produced in April 1931. This vehicle, a 2-ton lorry, was virtually indistinguishable from its LQ Chevrolet predecessor, apart from detail styling of the radiator, and was available as the WHG with a 10 feet 11 inches (3,330 mm) wheelbase, or as the WLG with a longer wheelbase of 13 feet 1 inch (3,990 mm). However, the Chevrolet LQ and AC continued in production alongside the new product for a further year. In August 1931, a bus chassis was added to the range, and was designated WHB and WLB. A large part of Bedford's original success in breaking into the UK and British Empire markets lay in the overhead-valve (OHV) six-cylinder Chevrolet engine, now known as Chevrolet Stovebolt engine – well ahead of its time, this smooth running inline six-cylinder engine formed the basis of Bedford and Vauxhall petrol engines almost until the marque ceased building trucks and buses. In April 1932, a 30 cwt lorry was introduced, together with a 12 cwt light delivery van, designated as the WS and VYC models respectively. Bedford continued to develop its share of the light transport market, with the introduction of the 8 cwt ASYC and ASXC vans, a close derivative of the Vauxhall Light Six car. The AS series of vans continued in production until 1939. Bedford introduced the 3 ton WT series in November 1933. Again, a short wheelbase WHT (9 feet 3 inches (2,820 mm)), or long wheelbase WLG (13 feet 1 inch (3,990 mm)) version was offered. A change in design of the WLG produced the WTL, with its cab, internal combustion engine and radiator moved forward to allow a 14 feet (4.3 m) bodylength. In 1935, the WTB bus version appeared, and the WS and VYC models were updated – the latter being redesignated BYC as it was fitted with the engine and synchromesh gearbox of the Big Six Vauxhall cars. The 5–6 cwt HC light van was introduced in 1938, based on the Vauxhall Ten car, and the WT and WS acquired a newly styled grill. Mid -1939 saw a complete revamp of Bedfords, with only the HC van continuing in production. The new range consisted of the K (30–40 cwt), MS and ML (2–3 ton), OS and OL (3–4 ton), OS/40 and OL/40 (5 ton) series, and the OB bus. Also on offer was a new 10–12 cwt van, the JC, derived from the new J Model Vauxhall car. Many of the trucks sold by Bedford between June and September 1939 were requisitioned for military use on the outbreak of World War II; many were abandoned after the retreat from Dunkirk, rendered useless to the enemy by removing the engine oil drain plug and running the engine. Because the German armed forces in 1940 were, contrary to their popular image, desperately short of motor transport, many of these captured Bedfords were repaired and pressed into service alongside Opel Blitz (also part of GM) trucks by the German armed forces – although the Bedfords mainly filled second-line roles, including civil defence. Production of the new range ceased, apart from a few examples made for essential civilian duties, when Bedford went onto a war footing. Production resumed in 1945. World War II In 1935, Bedford began the development of a 15 cwt truck for the British War Office. This entered service as the MW in 1939, and 65,995 examples had been built by the end of the war in 1945. The MW appeared in a wide range of roles, as a water tanker, general duties truck, personnel carrier, petrol tanker, wireless truck and anti-aircraft gun tractor – among others. The War Office designated 15 cwt vehicles, such as the MW, as trucks, and larger vehicles as lorries. The 1939 K-, M-, and O-series lorries were quickly redesigned for military use. This was largely a matter of styling, involving a sloping bonnet with a flat front with headlights incorporated and a crash bar to protect the radiator in a minor collision. The military versions were designated OX and OY series, and again were put to a wide range of tasks, including mobile canteens, tankers, general purpose lorries, and a version with a Tasker semi-trailer used by the Royal Air Force to transport dismantled or damaged aircraft. This variant was popularly known as the Queen Mary. A number of Bedford OXD 1.5 ton chassis were converted to make the Bedford OXA armoured vehicle. A total of 72,385 OY and 24,429 OX lorries were built. The Armadillo was an OY fitted for airfield defence with Lewis guns and an ex-aircraft COW 37 mm gun. Bedford supplied numerous trucks and tanks to the Soviet Union during World War II. A radical departure from Bedford's design norms came in October 1939, with the development of a four-wheel drive, forward control lorry, which entered service in March 1941 as the QL, quickly nicknamed the "Queen Lizzie". As with the MW and OY / OX models, the QL went on to serve in a large number of roles, such as artillery tractor, gun porter, command vehicle, wireless lorry and petrol tanker, as well as the troop-carrying QLD, the most common variant. An experimental version used the track unit of a Bren gun carrier (or Universal Carrier), as an answer to the German half-track vehicles, which had superior cross-country capability. Production ran at around 12,000 units per year between 1942 and 1944. Many QLs and other Bedford World War II military vehicles served with the British Army, and other forces into the 1960s, and many others were purchased for civilian use after the war. After the Dunkirk evacuation in June 1940, the British Army had around 100 tanks, most of which were obsolete and inferior to the German tanks of the day. Vauxhall Motors was given one year to design and produce a suitable heavy tank. In May 1941, the Churchill tank derived from work on the A22 tank with Harland & Wolff went into production at Luton, some 5,640 units and 2,000 spare engines being produced at Luton, and other sites under contract to Vauxhall. The resultant need to continue truck production brought about the development of the new Bedford Dunstable plant, which came online in 1942. For wartime production the OB was temporarily replaced by the "utility" OWB, with which Bedford became the only British manufacturer authorised to build single-deck buses during hostilities. Apart from vehicle manufacture during World War II, Vauxhall Motors produced steel helmets, RP-3 rocket bodies, and components for Frank Whittle's top-secret jet engine. 1950s The HC 5–6 cwt van continued briefly after the war, and the JC 10–12 cwt was fitted with the column gear change; and engine from the Vauxhall L Model Wyvern in late 1948; and became the PC. 1952 saw the launch of the Bedford CA light commercial, signifying the end of the road for the outmoded HC and JC models. The CA was a range of vans and pick-ups similar in concept and size to (although pre-dating) the Ford Transit of 1965. These were semi-forward control, having a short bonnet with the rear of the engine protruding into the cab. Engines were the Vauxhall-based 1,508 cubic centimetres (92.0 cu in) OHV in-line four petrol engine, with the option of a Perkins 4/99 or 4/108 diesel engine later on. Performance was adequate for the time, a maximum speed of 60 miles per hour (97 km/h) being attainable with the petrol engine, and offering fuel economy of 25 miles per imperial gallon (11 L/100 km; 21 mpg‑US). The van initially featured a three-speed column gearchange, changing later on to a four-speed column change. The CA was a huge seller both at home and in various overseas markets. The standard panel van was available in short- and long-wheelbase forms, and was also sold as chassis cab / chassis cowl, and became a popular basis for ice-cream vans, ambulances and camper vans. Known affectionately as "the Tilley", the CA enjoyed a very long production span, with only minor tweaks throughout its life, including the replacement of the two piece windscreen of earlier models with a single sheet. Production ended in 1969.The CA was replaced by the CF, a highly redesigned vehicle, albeit architecturally similar, but rather larger, using new overhead camshaft (OHC) engines, which was to have a much harder time proving itself thanks to the Ford Transit.Perhaps the major event of the 1950s was the transfer of all non-car based commercial vehicle manufacture to the former Vauxhall shadow factory at Boscombe Road, Dunstable. Bedford Dunstable plant, dating originally from 1942, was extensively rebuilt and extended between 1955 and 1957, when all production lines were said to be over a mile long. Subsequently, all commercial vehicle manufacture would be concentrated there, with only vans and car-based commercials remaining at the Luton plant. Production of the Bedford commercial vehicle range remained there until production ceased in the 1980s. The 1950s also saw the launch of the popular S type trucks, the so-called Big Bedfords, which brought Bedford into the 7-ton range. The S series was immortalised in RL form – a four-wheel drive, high ground clearance version, as the Green Goddess emergency fire tender, used by the Auxiliary Fire Service until 1968, then until 2004 over 1,000 were held in reserve by the Home Office for use in the event of fire-service industrial action or other serious emergencies. They were disposed of by the Home Office in 2005. Several have found new homes in African countries that lack a developed fire-fighting service, such as Kenya. The C series of 1957 was a forward-control derivative of the S series, and outwardly very similar to it. These vehicles were available in rigid and tractor units, with either petrol or diesel engines. The UK military were a huge customer for Bedford RLs using a 4.9-litre straight six petrol engine. Many RLs found their way into the armed forces of Commonwealth countries and later into civilian use. Alongside the S series trucks, the SB bus was released in 1950, and immediately became a big seller in India, Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand and Africa, as well as in the UK. The SB chassis was also used as a basis for specialised vehicles, such as mobile libraries, fire engines, and civil defence control units. The largest fleet of SB buses in the world belonged to New Zealand Railways Road Services, with 1,280 SB buses built between 1954 and 1981. The Bedford TK range replaced the S type in 1959, but the RL continued in production until 1969, when it was replaced by the M type, which used the basic cab of the TK and the mechanicals of the RL with minimal changes. The pre-war K, M and O types continued in production alongside the heavier S types until 1953. Vauxhall had already gone for a transatlantic styling with its E Model Wyvern and Velox saloons, and Bedford followed suit with its mid-range of trucks in 1953. Designated as the TA series, the new range were mechanically very similar to their predecessors, but featured a new Chevrolet-inspired cab. The 'T' designation meant "truck", so the range is generally referred to as the A series. Numbers 2, 3, 4 and 5; as in A2, etc., identified the weight rating. A factory-fitted Perkins diesel engine was an option. The TA (A) series was updated in 1957, and became the TJ, or J series. The Bedford TJ normal control light truck was introduced in 1958, available with either petrol or diesel engines. Although never a big seller in the home market (with the exception of Post Office Telephones), it was a big export earner in developing countries, due to its basic layout and specification, and remained in production (for export markets only) until production of Bedford vehicles ceased. 1960s and 1970s The Bedford TK range was produced in large numbers since 1959, and served as the basis for a variety of derivatives including fire engines, military vehicles, horse-boxes, tippers, flat-bed trucks, and other specialist utility vehicles. A Post Office Telephones version used for installing telegraph poles was known as the Pole Erection Unit. The British Armed Forces still use four-wheel drive Bedford MKs – a variant of the TK.Available with four and six-cylinder petrol and diesel engines, the TK was the quintessential light truck in the UK through most of the 1960s and 1970s, competing with the similar Ford D series. It was available in rigid form, and also as a light tractor unit, normally using the Scammell coupling form of trailer attachment. The Bedford KM was a similar vehicle, using the same cab, but with a slightly restyled front end, and was marketed for heavier-duty applications than the TK, i.e. 16 tons and over. Many developing countries still use ageing Bedfords every day, their robust nature and simple engineering endearing them as highly useful vehicles in demanding terrain. From 1961 to 1968, General Motors Argentina manufactured Bedford trucks and buses (based on a truck) in a plant at San Martín, Buenos Aires. In 1967, a Bedford SB3 chassis with Plaxton's Panorama cab was used in the construction of seven custom mobile cinema units that toured British factories for the Ministry of Technology to "raise standards". The body was custom fabricated from extruded aluminium by Coventry Steel Caravans. One of these restored units is used as a vintage mobile cinema. The vehicle dubbed The Reel History Bus was used in the BBC Two television series, Reel History of Britain showing little known or totally unseen archive film of historical events, to the surviving participants and their families on board. They showed their reaction and interviewed audience members about their often newly jogged memories of events. The Vintage Mobile Cinema has appeared on The One Show and George Clarke's Small Spaces, and continues to appear around the UK. The smaller Bedford CF was less successful, competing directly with the market-dominating Ford Transit, although used by many of Britain's major utility companies, including British Telecom and British Gas plc. However, the CF was much less popular with fleet operators than the Transit, which was more popular with its drivers and seen as cheaper to operate and maintain. Part of the reason for the CF's relative unpopularity was the use of the slant 4 SOHC petrol engine from the FD and FE Vauxhall Victor – which was notoriously rough running, had high fuel consumption, and was susceptible to cam belt breakage. However, the CF became very popular as a base of special-bodied ice cream vans and mobile shops. The later CF2 used the more reliable Opel Ascona engine. In Australia, the GM subsidiary of Holden began assembling the CF series with in-line six-cylinder engines borrowed from their passenger car range, in competition against Ford Australia's version of the Transit van which had been re-engineered to accommodate in-line six-cylinder engines from the local Ford Falcon. Bedford's smallest products, car-derived vans, were the Bedford HA van, which substantially outlived the Vauxhall Viva HA on which it was based, and the Bedford Chevanne, a short-lived variant of the Vauxhall Chevette. An estate conversion of the HA van by Martin Walter was marketed as the Bedford Beagle. This was further developed into a camper van, the Roma, again by Martin Walter. The company also made a number of bus chassis, its low price catering for the cheaper end of the coach market. During the 1970s, the Bedford HA derived BTV (Basic Transport Vehicle) was produced in many countries and sold under different names such as "Compadre" (Honduras), "Chato" (Guatemala), "Cherito" (El Salvador), "Amigo" (Costa Rica), and "Pinolero" (Nicaragua). 1980s The TK/KM/MK range remained the mainstay of production throughout the 1960s and 1970s, but with little serious product investment the range became increasingly outdated. In 1982, the TL range was introduced almost completely replacing the TK, although its military equivalents continued in production for the UK Ministry of Defence. In reality a long overdue update of the TK, the TL was never as popular as the model range it succeeded. This was largely due to more modern products offered by other companies (increasingly from the likes of Volvo, MAN and Mercedes-Benz). The Bedford TM was the largest of all the modern Bedfords, with payloads available up to 42 tonnes GTW permissible. The TM was available with either GM or Detroit Diesel engines and enjoyed a small but loyal customer base, but could never compete with the volume producers, primarily Volvo and Scania, even in its home market. Turkey's Genoto assembled Bedfords under license.A major blow came when Bedford failed to win a UK Ministry of Defence contract to produce the standard 4–ton 4x4 GS (general service) truck for the British forces – although in extensive tests the Bedford candidate had been the equal of the Leyland (later Leyland DAF) candidate, and the British Army expressed a preference to continue the trusted relationship with Bedford trucks. The reasons for this decision were seen by many as political, as the Army 4–tonner contract was seen by the Thatcher government as essential for the long-term survival of Leyland, and for the formation of Leyland DAF. The implications of the decision were also noted by GM in Detroit, who had already been refused permission to buy the Land Rover division of British Leyland, which they had intended to operate in tandem with the Bedford Truck division as a major force in the military and civilian off-roader market. In addition to this setback, by the middle of the decade, the more technologically advanced competition from other truck manufacturers was eating heavily into sales. In reality, the Bedford truck range, still largely based on the 1960 TK range, had become increasingly outdated when compared with the opposition, leading to a deep decline in non-military sales. It was therefore announced by GM that Bedford would stop production of all commercial vehicles, and the Dunstable plant would close in 1986. From there on in, the Bedford name continued as badge engineering on smaller light commercials only. The HA compact van finally ceased production in 1983, having been kept in production largely due to continuing large orders from British utility companies such as British Rail and the GPO. It was replaced by the Vauxhall Astra-based "Astravan" and the later high-roof "Astramax" variant which were later rebranded as Vauxhalls. The CF van was facelifted in 1982 and was given Opel engines and continued until 1986. In 1985, the IBC Vehicles venture was founded which spawned the Suzuki Carry based Bedford Rascal microvan and Isuzu Fargo based Bedford Midi van range – later to be called the Vauxhall Midi. Isuzu and IBC Bedford's first partnership with Isuzu came in 1976 when it marketed a rebadged version of the Isuzu Faster pickup truck as the Bedford KB. The vehicle was never a strong seller in Britain, (subsequent generations were badged as the Bedford/Vauxhall Brava), but it did pave the way for further collaboration – culminating in the IBC venture. In 1986, the Bedford van factory in Luton was reorganised as a joint venture with Isuzu. The resulting company, IBC Vehicles, produced a locally built version of the Isuzu Fargo in 1985 (badged as the Bedford Midi). In 1991, this was followed by a European version of the Isuzu MU Wizard called the Frontera, and a rebadged Renault Trafic van called the Arena, sold under the Vauxhall and Opel brand names. The Bedford name was dropped completely, as were all of its preceding range apart from the Midi, which was sold for a few years as the Bedford Seta. In 1998, GM bought Isuzu out of the IBC partnership. The plant now operates as GMM Luton, and at first built the Renault Trafic which was badge engineered as a Vivaro under the Vauxhall and Opel marques, currently it builds a licensed version of the Citroën Jumpy. David John Bowes Brown and AWD The Bedford trucks site in Dunstable and business was sold in 1987 to AWD Trucks, a company owned by David John Bowes Brown. The AWD name was used as GM would only allow the use of the Bedford name for military trucks. David John Bowes Brown was the designer in 1973 of the then DJB D250 Articulated Dump Truck, built in Peterlee, England, by DJB Engineering. DJB was renamed Artix in 1985 when the trucks were rebadged as Caterpillar. Artix itself was sold to Caterpillar in 1996. AWD continued with the TL and TM range, and was still producing the TJ series for export. The AWD Bedford TK (a rebadged and modernised version of the Bedford TK / MK range) was also produced and supplied to the British military. Due to cheaper competition and the virtual collapse of the UK market in which AWD competed in 1989/90, the company went into receivership in 1992 and was bought by dealer network Marshall of Cambridge. The name was finally retired in 1998, becoming Marshall Special Vehicles, producer of various military vehicles. Logo Bedford used the Griffin logo of Vauxhall Motors, derived from the heraldic crest of Falkes de Breauté, who was granted the Manor of Luton by King John. By marriage, he acquired property in London, known as Fulk's Hall, which over time, came to be the locality of Vauxhall, the original home of Vauxhall Motors. The griffin returned to Luton in 1903 when Vauxhall Motors moved there. The Bedford version of the logo differed from the Vauxhall version in that the Griffin did not hold a flag – although later versions of the logo showed the Griffin holding a flag carrying a letter "B" (for Bedford) instead of a "V". Products List of products produced at Bedford / IBC Vehicles Luton: Bedford models Very approximately in size order Vauxhall models (some also sold as Opels and other GM brands) Vauxhall Midi (a rebadged Isuzu Fargo) Vauxhall Astramax (a rebadged Opel Combo) Vauxhall Brava (a rebadged Isuzu Faster) Vauxhall Rascal (a rebadged Suzuki Carry) Vauxhall Frontera (a rebadged Isuzu MU 4x4 SUV) Vauxhall Vivaro (a rebadged Renault Trafic) Renault models Renault Trafic (platform-sharing version of Nissan Primastar, Opel Vivaro and Vauxhall Vivaro) Bedford bus sales totals 1931–1966 The SB, VAS, VAL and VAM sales figures are to June 1965. Later production is not included in these figures. Gallery Bedford Portugal blog Dormobile Owners Club Bedford CF Bedford Midivan Owners Club (archived, 12 Oct 2006)

Setra is a German bus brand of EvoBus GmbH, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of Daimler Truck AG. The name "Setra" comes from "selbsttragend" (self-supporting). This refers to the integral nature of the construction of the vehicles back in the 1950s when competitor vehicles still featured a separate chassis and body (often manufactured by separate companies). It is also possible that, with an eye to export markets, the company was mindful that for non-German speakers, the name "Kässbohrer" is difficult to pronounce. Until 1995 the firm operated under the name Karl Kässbohrer Fahrzeugwerke GmbH, but in that year economic difficulties enforced its sale to Daimler-Benz AG (between 1998 and 2008 known, especially in the United States, by the name of its holding company Daimler Chrysler). Since 1995, Setra has been a brand of the Daimler subsidiary, EvoBus GmbH. The North American distribution for Setra by Daimler was set to be partnered and taken over by Motor Coach Industries on April 25, 2012, as Daimler restructured its North American bus operations in 2013; this agreement lasted until the end of 2017 when the REV Group assumed distribution responsibilities. Daimler has again self-distributed Setra coaches in North America since January 2020, through its new subsidiary, Daimler Coaches North America, LLC, with service support from Daimler Truck North America. History The first Setra coach, the Type S8, so called because it contained eight rows of seats, was introduced in April 1951 at the French Internationale Automobile-vouz. It featured a self-supporting body designed by Otto Kässbohrer, a concept now featured in most modern coaches and buses. Equally unusual at the time was the decision to locate the engine behind the rear axle; the rear-mounted engine configuration is another voux bus-Setra innovation which subsequently became mainstream. It simplified the production process and created a range of passenger-focused possibilities regarding the floor level in the passenger and driver/crew sections, and for high-floor layouts, flexible use of the underfloor area. Models The maximum number of seat rows can be identified by the type designation. In the first Setra series, the number of seats was alone. In the second series (series 100), a 0 or 5 was affixed, and one of the numbers preceded in each of the following series (series 200, 300, and 400). Example: S 8 (= 8 seat rows), S 140 (= 14 seat rows), S 215 (= 15 seat rows), S 417 (= 17 seat rows), or S 319 UL (= 19 seat rows). The seats are reduced by comforter buildings or a certain star classification; The type designation is retained. Starting from the series 200, additions after the number indicated the equipment: current (series 400/500) are H for high-floor construction (no wheel arches in the passenger compartment), HD for high floor, HDH for an extra-high floor, DT for double-deck touring bus, MD for mid-height floor (a spinoff of the GT series), UL for interurban commuter buses and NF for low-floor buses. In the past, the Grand Tourisme (GT), HDS for double-deck, SL for city buses, and NR (low-floor Rational) were used for the first highway low-floor (200 series). Only a few types were given different designations, for example, the S 250 Special (a modified S 215 HD which was also offered as an entry-level model after the introduction of the 300 series) and the S 300 NC (a former low-floor city bus as a predecessor of the Mercedes-Benz Citaro). The different models of the 200 series also bore the name designations with name suffixes, whereby the designation International (with the letter I appended to the type designation) for travel and combi-buses with simplified heating/ventilation was used. The term Communal and Regional were used for regular services, and Rational for travel combination models. The short-term offered club bus model based on the S 210 H deviated from the name Real. Air-conditioned high-floor buses were called Optimal, the double-deck S 216 HDS Royal and the double-deck S 228 DT Imperial. The export version of the 215 HDH for the US market (later on, the HDH model for the local market was based) was called Transcontinental. Some of these designations still existed with the introduction of the 300 series, as for the S 328 DT, at the latest with the introduction of the 400 series, these name additions with the division into MultiClass, ComfortClass and TopClass were abandoned. Additionally, the name Business has been produced in Turkey since 2013, with simpler equipment. Current Historic Major incidents 2018 Kazakhstan bus fire – On January 18, 2018, a fire occurred in the passenger compartment of a 1989 Setra bus in Kazakhstan, resulting in 52 deaths. The fire was due to an open-flame cooker being used onboard the vehicle, adjacent to fuel canisters being kept in the passenger compartment. Gallery See also Seida Chavdar Eagle Bus Bibliography Setra website SetraClassic (part of the Setra website): Setra History (archived version) – in English Setra USA

Fish Leong (born Leong Chui Peng on 16 June 1978) is a Malaysian singer and songwriter. Having sold more than 20 million records to date, she has achieved popularity and success in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, and Malaysia. Early life and breakthrough Leong was born in Bahau, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. R&B singer Z-Chen is her older cousin. She debuted her singing career in Taiwan and signed to Rock Records in October 1997. She then adopted the English name "Fish", because the last character of her Chinese name "茹" sounds the same as "魚" (fish) in Cantonese. She was discovered by Jonathan Lee, who later also became her godfather. She received Mandarin training upon arriving in Taiwan as her mother tongue is Cantonese. Her debut album, Grown Up Overnight, was released in September 1999, but had many promotions cancelled due to the 1999 Taiwan earthquake. Her singing career managed to take off after the release of her second album, Courage (2000). Personal life In February 2010, Leong married Taiwanese wine merchant Tony Chao in Boracay, Philippines, and their child Anderson Chao was born in April 2014. On September 8, 2019, Leong announced their divorce at a press conference for her new album in Taipei. She declined further comments on alleged cheating by Chao. Discography Studio albums Grown Up Overnight (1999) Courage (2000) Shining Star (2001) Sunrise (2002) Beautiful (2003) Wings of Love (2004) Silkroad of Love (2005) Kissing the Future of Love (2006) J'Adore (2007) Fall in Love & Songs (2009) What Love Songs Didn't Tell You (2010) Love in Heart (2012) The Sun Also Rises (2019) The Sonnet of Three Days (EP) (2021) The Wonder of Wandering Life (2023) Compilation albums The Power of Love (2003) I Love You Hereafter (2011) Her Story With Mayday (2015), cover album with various artists presenting "Tenderness" Live albums Time & Love (2002) Love Parade (2005) Today Is Our Valentine's Day (2008) Collaborations "Songs of the Earth" (1998) - with Alex To, Bobby Chen, Chyi Yu, Karen Mok, Mayday, Michael Wong, Richie Jen, Victor Wong, Rene Liu, Wakin Chau, Wanfang, Winnie Hsin, Angelica Lee, Fengie Wang, Bobby Dou, Tarcy Su, Walkie Talkie "Love" (2000) - with Rene Liu from I'll Be Waiting for You "I Love You Very Much" (2004) - with Victor Wong from Door Unlocked "Way Back into Love" (2007) - with Victor Wong from Need You Most (between English version and Mandarin version) "Still Good Friends" (2008) - with Leo Ku from Still the Master of Love Songs, as well from her EP, I Do? "Love x Love" (2012) - with Will Pan, Da Mouth (vocal: Harry & Aisa Senda), Cyndi Wang, Rachel Liang, Lee Chien-na, OneTwoFree, Jane Huang, Vision Wei, Bibi Zhou and Jason Zhang "Meant to Be" (2016) - with Christine Fan from Fanfan's Time to Give Thanks Filmography Film Television series Variety and reality show Fish Leong on Facebook Fish Leong on Sina Weibo (in Chinese) Fish Leong on Instagram

Phoenix most often refers to: Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United StatesPhoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a Trojan War hero in Greek mythology Phoenix (son of Agenor), a Greek mythological figure Phoenix, a chieftain who came as Guardian of the young Hymenaeus when they joined Dionysus in his campaign against India (see Phoenix (Greek myth)) Mythical birds called phoenix Phoenix (mythology), a mythical bird from Egyptian, Greek and Roman legends Egyptian Bennu Hindu Garuda and Gandabherunda Firebird (Slavic folklore), in Polish Żar-ptak, Russian Zharptitsa, Serbian Žar ptica, and Slovak Vták Ohnivák Tűzmadár, in Hungarian mythology Persian Simurgh, in Arabian Anka, Turkish Zümrüdü Anka, and Georgian Paskunji Chinese Fenghuang, in Japanese Hō-ō, Tibetan Me Byi Karmo, Korean Bonghwang, and Vietnamese Phượng (hoàng) or Phụng (hoàng) East Asian Vermilion Bird in Chinese Zhū Què, Japanese Suzaku, Korean Jujak or Bulsajo, and Vietnamese Chu Tước Chol (bible), Milcham, Avarshina, Urshinah or other transliterations of אורשינה‎ Nine-headed Bird, one of the earliest forms of the Chinese phoenix (Fenghuang) Places Canada Phoenix, Alberta Phoenix, British Columbia United States Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix metropolitan area, Arizona Phoenix, Georgia Phoenix, Illinois Phoenix, Louisiana Phoenix, Maryland Phoenix, Michigan Phoenix, Mississippi Phoenix, Edison, New Jersey Phoenix, Sayreville, New Jersey Phoenix, New York Phoenix, Oregon Elsewhere Phoenix (Caria), a town of ancient Caria, now in Turkey Phoenix (Crete), a town of ancient Crete mentioned in the Bible Phoenix (Lycia), a town of ancient Lycia, now in Turkey Phoenix Park, Dublin, Ireland Phoenix Islands, in the Republic of Kiribati Phoenix, KwaZulu-Natal, in South Africa Phoenix City, a nickname for Warsaw, the capital of Poland Phoenix, a river of Thessaly, Greece, that flowed at the ancient city of Anthela Arts and entertainment Comics Phoenix (manga) (Hi no Tori), by Osamu Tezuka The Phoenix (comics), a weekly British comics anthology Fictional entities Characters Phoenix (comics), alias used by several comics characters Phoenix Force (comics), a Marvel Comics entity Jean Grey, also known as Phoenix and Dark Phoenix, an X-Men character Rachel Summers, a Marvel Comics character also known as Phoenix Phoenix (Transformers) Phoenix Hathaway, a character in the British soap opera Hollyoaks Phoenix Raynor, a Shortland Street character Phoenix Wright, an Ace Attorney character Aster Phoenix (or Edo Phoenix), a Yu-Gi-Oh! GX character Paul Phoenix (Tekken), a Tekken character Simon Phoenix, a Demolition Man character Stefano DiMera, also known as The Phoenix, a Days of our Lives character Phoenix, female protagonist of the film Phantom of the Paradise, played by Jessica Harper Phoenix Buchanan, a fictional actor and the main antagonist of Paddington 2 Phoenix Jackson, female protagonist of "A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty Organizations Phoenix Foundation (MacGyver) Phoenix Organization, an organization in John Doe Order of the Phoenix (fictional organisation), a secret society in Harry Potter Vessels Phoenix (Star Trek), a spacecraft Film Fushichō (English: Phoenix), a 1947 film by Keisuke Kinoshita The Phoenix (1959 film), by Robert Aldrich Phoenix (1998 film), a crime film by Danny Cannon Phoenix (2006 film), a gay-related film by Michael Akers Phoenix (2014 film), a film by Christian Petzold Literature Books Phoenix: The Posthumous Papers of D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930), an anthology of work by D. H. Lawrence Phoenix (novel), by Stephen Brust The Phoenix (novel), by Henning Boëtius Phoenix IV: The History of the Videogame Industry, by Leonard Herman Periodicals The Phoenix (magazine), Ireland The Phoenix (newspaper), United States' Phoenix (classics journal), originally The Phoenix, a journal of the Classical Association of Canada Project Phoenix, codename of the aborted BBC Newsbrief magazine List of periodicals named Phoenix Other literature The Phoenix (play), by Thomas Middleton The Phoenix (Old English poem) The Phoenix, a play by Morgan Spurlock The Phoenix, a poem attributed to Lactantius Music Musicians Phoenix (band), a French alternative rock band Transsylvania Phoenix, also known as Phoenix, a Romanian rock band Dave Farrell, American bass guitarist in the band Linkin Park Albums Phoenix (Agathodaimon album) Phoenix (Asia album) Phoenix (Vince Bell album) Phoenix, a 2003 EP by Breaking Pangaea Phoenix (Charlotte Cardin album) Phoenix (Carpark North album) The Phoenix (CKY album) Phoenix (Clan of Xymox album) Phoenix (Classic Crime album) Phoenix (Dreamtale album) Phoenix (Emil Bulls album) Phoenix (Everything in Slow Motion album) The Phoenix (EP), an EP by Flipsyde Phoenix (Dan Fogelberg album) Phoenix (Grand Funk Railroad album) Phoenix: The Very Best of InMe, a 2010 greatest hits collection The Phoenix (Lyfe Jennings album) Phoenix (Just Surrender album) Phoenix (Labelle album) The Phoenix (Mastercastle album) Phoenix (Nocturnal Rites album) Phoenix (Rita Ora album) Phoenix, an album by Pink Turns Blue The Phoenix (Raghav album) Phoenix (Warlocks album) Phoenix (EP), by the Warlocks Phoenix (Zebrahead album) Songs List of songs named for the phoenix Television The Phoenix (1982 TV series), an American science fiction series Phoenix (Australian TV series), an Australian police drama Phoenix (South Korean TV series), a 2004 Korean drama "Phoenix", the 1986 premiere episode of The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers "The Phoenix", a 1995 episode of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman "Phoenix", a 2003 episode of Smallville "Phoenix" (Breaking Bad), a 2009 episode of Breaking Bad "Phoenix" (NCIS), a 2012 episode of NCIS Video gaming Phoenix (video game) Phoenix Engine (disambiguation) Phoenix Games (American company), a video game company Phoenix1, a League of Legends team Other uses in arts and entertainment Atlanta from the Ashes (The Phoenix), an Atlanta, Georgia, monument Phoenix Art Museum, the Southwest United States' largest art museum for visual art Phoenix (chess), a fairy chess piece Phoenix (roller coaster) Phoenix, a Looping Starship ride at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay Business In business, generally: Phoenix company, a commercial entity which has emerged from the collapse of another through insolvencySpecific businesses named "Phoenix" include: Airlines Phoenix Air, an airline operating from Georgia, United States Phoenix Aviation, a UAE-Kyrgyzstan airline Finance companies The Phoenix Companies, a Hartford-based financial services company Phoenix Finance, a financial company which attempted to enter into Formula One racing Phoenix Fire Office, a former British insurance company Media companies Phoenix (German TV station) Phoenix (St. Paul's Churchyard), a historical bookseller in London Phoenix Press Phoenix Games (American company) Phoenix Television, a Hong Kong broadcaster Theatres Phoenix Theatre (disambiguation) Phoenix Theatre, London, a West End theatre Phoenix Concert Theatre, a concert venue and nightclub in Toronto, Ontario, Canada La Fenice (The Phoenix), an opera house in Venice, Italy Manufacturers Vehicle manufacturers Phoenix (bicycles), a Chinese company Phoenix (British automobile company), an early 1900s company Phoenix Industries, an American aircraft manufacturer Phoenix Motorcars, a manufacturer of electric vehicles Phoenix Venture Holdings, owner of the MG Rover Group Other manufacturers Phoenix (nuclear technology company), specializing in neutron generator technology Phoenix AG, a German rubber products company Phoenix Beverages, a brewery in Mauritius Phoenix Contact, a manufacturer of industrial automation, interconnection, and interface solutions Phoenix Iron Works (Phoenixville, Pennsylvania), owner of the Phoenix Bridge Company Phoenix Petroleum Philippines, Inc., a Philippine oil and gas company Military AIM-54 Phoenix, a missile BAE Systems Phoenix, an unmanned air vehicle HMHT-302 ("Phoenix"), a U.S. Marine Corps helicopter squadron Phoenix breakwaters, a set of World War II caissons Phoenix Program, a Vietnam War military operation Project Phoenix (South Africa), a National Defence Force program People Phoenix (given name) Phoenix (surname), multiple people Dave Farrell (born 1977), American bass guitarist, stage name Phoenix, in the band Linkin Park Nahshon Even-Chaim (born 1971), or "Phoenix", convicted Australian computer hacker Jody Fleisch (born 1980), professional wrestler nicknamed "The Phoenix" Vishnuvardhan (actor) (1950–2009), Indian actor, known as the "Phoenix of Indian cinema" Schools University of Phoenix, United States Phoenix Academy (disambiguation), including several private schools Phoenix High School (disambiguation) Science and technology Astronomy Phoenix Cluster, a galaxy cluster Phoenix (Chinese astronomy) Phoenix (constellation) Phoenix stream, a stream of very old stars found in the constellation Phoenix Dwarf, a galaxy Project Phoenix (SETI), a search for extraterrestrial intelligence Biology Phoenix (chicken) Phoenix (grape) Phoenix (moth) Phoenix (plant), a genus of palms Computing Phoenix (computer), an IBM mainframe at the University of Cambridge Phoenix (tkWWW-based browser), a web browser and HTML editor discontinued in 1995 Phoenix (web framework), a web development framework Phoenix Network Coordinates, used to compute network latency Phoenix Object Basic, a RAD tool Phoenix Technologies, a BIOS manufacturer Apache Phoenix, a relational database engine Microsoft Phoenix, a compiler framework Mozilla Phoenix, the original name for the Firefox web browser Phoenix pay system, a payroll processing system Vehicles Phoenix (spacecraft), a NASA mission to Mars AIM-54 Phoenix, a missile BAE Systems Phoenix, an unmanned air vehicle EADS Phoenix, a prototype launch vehicle Bristol Phoenix, an aircraft engine Chrysler Phoenix engine, an automotive engine series Dodge Dart Phoenix, an American car produced 1960–1961 Dodge Phoenix, Australian car produced 1960–1973 Pontiac Phoenix, an American car produced 1977–1984 Phoenix Air Phoenix, a Czech glider Other technologies Phoenix (ATC), an air traffic control system Fénix capsules, rescue equipment used after the 2010 Copiapó mining accident Ships HMS Phoenix, several Royal Navy ships Phoenix (East Indiaman), several ships that sailed for the British East India Company between 1680 and 1821 USS Phoenix, several U.S. Navy ships Phoenix, involved in the 1688 Siege of Derry Phoenix (1792), involved in the sea otter trade Phoenix (1794), the first ship built in Russian America Phoenix (1798 ship), made one voyage in 1824 carrying convicts to Tasmania; grounded, condemned, and turned into a prison hulk; broken up in 1837 Phoenix (steamboat), a steamboat built 1806–1807 Phoenix (1809 ship), built in France in 1809; captured by the British Royal Navy in 1810; employed as a whaling ship from 1811 to 1829 Phoenix (1810 ship), a merchant vessel launched in 1810; made one voyage to India for the British East India Company; made three voyages transporting convicts to Australia; wrecked in 1829 Phoenix (1815 steamer), a steamboat that burned on Lake Champlain in 1819; its wreck is a Vermont state historic site Phoenix (1821 whaler), a Nantucket whaling vessel in operation 1821–1858 Phoenix (1845), a steamship that burned on Lake Michigan in 1847 with the loss of at least 190 lives USCS Phoenix, a U.S. Coast Survey ship in service from 1845 to 1858 SS Phönix (1913), a German cargo ship which later saw service as the vorpostenboot V-106 Phönix Phoenix (1929 ship), a Danish ship built in 1929 SS Flying Lark, which went by the name Phoenix from 1946 to 1948 Phoenix (fireboat), a 1955 fireboat operating in San Francisco, California Phoenix (1973), a rescue vessel used to save migrants, refugees and other people in distress in the Mediterranean Sea Sports List of sports teams named for the phoenix Phoenix club (sports), a team that closes and is rebuilt under a new structure and often a new name Phoenix Finance, a Formula One entrant Phoenix Hagen, a German basketball club Phoenix Raceway, Avondale, Arizona Phoenix, an annual sports festival at the National Institute of Technology Karnataka Other uses Phoenix (currency), the first currency of modern Greece Phoenix LRT station, Singapore Phoenix codes, radio shorthand used by British police The Phoenix Patrol Challenge, a Scoutcraft competition Phoenix Pay System, a Canadian federal employee payroll system The Phoenix – S K Club, a social club at Harvard College Fengcheng (disambiguation), various Chinese locations whose names mean "Phoenix" or "Phoenix City" All pages with titles beginning with Phoenix All pages with titles containing Phoenix All pages with titles containing phoenixes De Phoenix (disambiguation) Feniks (disambiguation) Fenix (disambiguation) Phenex, in demonology, a Great Marquis of Hell Phenix (disambiguation) Phoenicus (disambiguation) Phoenicia (disambiguation) Phoenician (disambiguation) Firebird (disambiguation) Redbird (disambiguation)

Yumiko Shiina (椎名 裕美子, Shiina Yumiko, born November 25, 1978), known by her stage name Ringo Sheena (椎名 林檎, Shiina Ringo), is a Japanese singer, songwriter and musician. She is also the founder and lead vocalist of the band Tokyo Jihen. She describes herself as "Shinjuku-kei Jisaku-Jien-ya (新宿系自作自演屋, a Shinjuku-style writer-performer)". She was ranked number 36 in a list of Japan's top 100 musicians compiled by HMV in 2003. Early life Sheena was born with an esophageal atresia in which the esophagus narrows as it approaches the stomach. Treatment of this involved several operations, at least one of which required her right shoulder blade to be cut open. These surgeries left Sheena with large scars on her shoulder blades, said to give the impression that an angel's wings had been removed. Initial solo career Sheena released her first official single "Kōfukuron" in May 1998, when she was 19 years old. She subsequently made singles "Kabukichō no Joō" and "Koko de Kiss Shite", the latter becoming her first hit. This was followed by the release of her first album, Muzai Moratorium, in February 1999. The album was a major hit. "Gips" was due to be the next single, but when Sheena had to cancel recording due to illness, "Honnō" was released as the fourth single instead. Sheena chose a hospital as the setting for the music video for "Honnō". The fifth and sixth singles, "Gips" and "Tsumi to Batsu", were released at the same time to prevent overlap with the release of her second album, Shōso Strip, in March 2000. Sheena had initially indicated that she would retire as "Sheena Ringo" when she had released three albums. At the time the second album was released, she was among the top three Japanese female artists, along with Hikaru Utada and Ayumi Hamasaki, in terms of popularity and annual income. However, she was uncomfortable with being regarded as an icon, and wanted her career to branch out more from the mainstream. When she began to produce her third album under the tentative title "Fushigi, Waizatsu, Ekisentorikku (不思議・猥雑・エキセントリック, Wonder, Vulgar, Eccentric)" she intended to make it her last solo album. She released the single "Mayonaka wa Junketsu" in March 2001, with the intention of including it on a third album. The music video was created in a retro-anime style that depicted Ringo as a sort of mid-'60s spy movie heroine. In 2002, she released a two-disc multilingual cover album Utaite Myōri: Sono Ichi. Since she felt that a cover album did not count as a bona fide album, she began to work on her third original album. In 2003, she released her third album, titled Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana.Towards the conclusion of her solo career, she released her final solo single, "Ringo no Uta" ("Apple Song"), which was adopted by the national children's song TV program Minna no Uta. This song had a summation of her career, and the music video included references to all of her previous videos. In 2004, Sheena undertook the role of music director for the stage play KKP (Kentaro Kobayashi Produce) No. 004 Lens, which is based on the story of her short film Tanpen Kinema Hyaku-Iro Megane. Tokyo Jihen On May 31, 2004, Sheena formed a band called Tokyo Jihen (東京事変, Tōkyō Jihen, lit.Tokyo Incidents). The original lineup of Tokyo Jihen was Ringo Sheena (vocals, guitar, melodica), Mikio Hirama (ヒラマミキオ, Hirama Mikio, also known as Mikki) (guitar, backing vocals); Seiji Kameda (亀田誠治, Kameda Seiji) (bass guitar); H Zett M (stylized as H ZETT M), also known as Masayuki Hiizumi (ヒイズミマサユ機, Hiizumi Masayuki, from jazz instrumental band Pe'z), (keyboard/piano); and Toshiki Hata (刄田綴色, Hata Toshiki) (drums). The band was first introduced in Sheena's Sugoroku Ecstasy tour and is also featured on Sheena's Electric Mole DVD. Hiizumi and Hirama left Tokyo Jihen in July 2005, and the band selected two new members: Ryosuke Nagaoka (長岡亮介, Nagaoka Ryōsuke), also known as Ukigumo (浮雲, "Drifting Cloud"), on guitar and backing vocals, and Keitarō Izawa (伊澤啓太郎, Izawa Keitarō), also known as Ichiyo Izawa (伊澤一葉, Izawa Ichiyō), on keyboards in September 2005. The band released its second album featuring the new lineup in January 2006 and played two concerts, at the Osaka-Jo Hall in Osaka and the Budokan in Tokyo, in February 2006. Resumption of solo work In late 2006, Ringo announced that she would resume work as a solo artist as the Music Director for the 2007 film Sakuran. The album Heisei Fūzoku (2007) is the soundtrack from this film. Violinist Neko Saitō and the band Soil & "Pimp" Sessions appear on the album. A song featuring her and Soil, "Karisome Otome (Death Jazz version)" was released on iTunes Japan exclusively on November 11, 2006. It went to the top of the charts and remained there for days.In June 2007, Sheena was asked to compose music for the kabuki Sannin Kichisa by Kanzaburo Nakamura. She composed the ending theme and some other music.In September 2008, Sheena provided Japanese boy band Tokio with two songs for their singles.In February 2009, Sheena had written music for Japanese rock duo Puffy AmiYumi. The duo's member Ami was introduced to Sheena by Hikaru Utada. Ami is a fan of Sheena's music, which amounted to their friendship together.In March 2009, Sheena Ringo received the newcomer Fine Arts Award in the Popular Culture category from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. In May of the same year, Sheena released a solo single titled "Ariamaru Tomi", which was used as the theme song for the TV drama Smile. In June, Sheena released her solo album titled Sanmon Gossip after a long hiatus. On December 2, 2009, Sheena released the single "Nōdōteki Sanpunkan" with Tokyo Jihen after an interval of about two years. Sheena provided a cover of "Uta" for the January 29, 2020 Buck-Tick tribute album Parade III ~Respective Tracks of Buck-Tick~ Singing and songwriting style Sheena is an accomplished musician and songwriter who writes music spanning numerous genres. She is well known for her eccentricity, rolling her "r"s and creating promotional music videos with striking visuals. She admired Eddi Reader's voice, but felt her own voice was not as clear and sounded hoarse. She admired Janis Ian's singing and wrote "Seventeen" in tribute to Ian's "At Seventeen". She later covered "Love Is Blind". She listens to many genres of music. At the time of her debut, she has ten closely written pages of lists of her favorite musicians. They included various genres such as classical music, Japanese and American popular music from the 1950s and 1960s, contemporary rock, and the local band Fukuoka.She mainly plays rhythm guitar, but she plays other musical instruments. During live shows she sometimes plays the piano and occasionally plays the bass guitar. While recording, she sometimes plays piano and drums, and occasionally uses uncommon musical instruments such as a melodica and a shamisen. Stage name At her audition in 1996, she introduced herself as "Sheena Ringo" for the first time. "Ringo" means "apple" in Japanese. She said that "Ringo" originated from her class nickname when she often blushed in public, and from the Beatles' drummer Ringo Starr. She declared recently that she followed the naming of the pen name of her favorite manga artist, Sensha Yoshida. His first name is just a name of an object like Ringo ("Sensha" in this case meaning a "tank" in English). She thought that those who heard her name would be shocked by that. In popular culture The Duesenberg Starplayer guitar which Sheena has used recorded the historical sales of about 1000 sets in Japan in 2000.Sheena's name often appeared on the books, movies, TV dramas and songs, such as the Japanese movie All About Lily Chou-Chou (with The Beatles, Björk, and UA), Maximum the Hormone's song "Sheena basu tei de matsu.", Kreva's single "Idome", the Japanese movie Linda Linda Linda, the TV drama Furuhata Ninzaburō final series, the book by Taro Aso who is the 92nd Prime Minister of Japan Totetsumonai Nihon (as a singer representative of Jpop with Hikaru Utada).I-No, a character from the fighting game series Guilty Gear, is modeled after Sheena, wields a similar guitar as a weapon, and shares her birthday. Reception Lenny Kravitz stated that he admired Sheena's music video and both her way of making music and the presentation, and said that he wanted to meet her in 2000. When Courtney Love visited Japan in 2001, she was recommended several Japanese female rock singers by the music magazine editor of rockin'on. Sheena and Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her were chosen by Love, but she was unsuccessful in her efforts to contact Sheena. British singer-songwriter Mika mentioned Sheena as one of his favorite Japanese artists (alongside Puffy AmiYumi, The Yellow Monkey, Yoko Kanno, and the Yoshida Brothers) in several interviews during his visit to Japan in 2007. Jack Barnett of These New Puritans, who was visiting Japan for the Summer Sonic 2008 festival, said in an interview that he was a great fan of Ringo Sheena and bought all her works while he was there, as they were not available in the United Kingdom.Her third album, Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana, was ranked second in CNN International Asia's list of "the 2000s' most under-appreciated Japanese music of the last decade" on December 22, 2009. Sheena also received a mention in The Guardian as one of Japan's artists who "deserve to be seen and heard in the west" in 2010. Awards Personal life Sheena's older brother Junpei Shiina is an R&B musician, who debuted in 2000 under Sony. Since 2006, he has been managed by Kronekodow, Sheena's personal management agency. The pair have collaborated musically several times. In 2002, they covered three songs in English: Marvin Gaye's "The Onion Song" for Sheena's album Utaite Myōri, "Where Is the Love" (originally performed by Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway) for Junpei Shiina's album Discover, and Toto's "Georgy Porgy." The latter one was recorded as a part of a special unit called Yokoshima, featuring Jumpei Shiina on keyboards and Ringo Sheena on chorus. In 2007, the pair sang a duet on her single "Kono Yo no Kagiri." In November 2000, Sheena married guitarist Junji Yayoshi, who was a member of her backing band Gyakutai Glycogen. Sheena gave birth to a son in July 2001. The pair then later divorced in January 2002.In September 2013, gossip magazine Josei Jishin published an article that linked her romantically with music director Yuichi Kodama and stating that she was secretly giving birth to her second child. Sheena addressed these rumours publicly during her Tōtaikai concerts in November 2013, announcing that she gave birth in spring of 2013 to a girl. As this was close to the release of her single "Irohanihoheto/Kodoku no Akatsuki," she did not feel it was appropriate to link the birth of her daughter with single promotions, so decided not to announce it at the time. The footage of her announcement was released on her Tōtaikai DVD in March 2014. Controversy In November 2022, Sheena and her record label EMI Records received criticism for the artwork of her remix album, Hyakuyaku no Chō. The artwork of the remix album as well as bonus goods from the Universal Music store included a logo bearing similarity to the Red Cross emblem. Universal Music Japan, the distributor of EMI, released a press announcement on their website apologizing for the usage of the medical cross. Universal Japan announced that the release would be postponed while the company revised the design of the album and bonus goods. While the album was released digitally on its originally planned release date, November 30, a physical CD version of the album was not released until January 13, 2023. Discography Muzai Moratorium (1999) Shōso Strip (2000) Utaite Myōri (2002) Kalk Samen Kuri no Hana (2003) Heisei Fūzoku (2007) Sanmon Gossip (2009) Gyakuyunyū: Kōwankyoku (2014) Hi Izuru Tokoro (2014) Gyakuyunyū: Kōkūkyoku (2017) Sandokushi (2019) Concerts and tours Tours Senkō Ecstasy (先攻エクスタシー; 1999) Manabiya Ecstasy (学舎エクスタシー; 1999) Gekokujō Xstasy (2000) Gokiritsu Japon (2000) Sugoroku Ecstasy (2003) Dai Ikkai Ringo-han Taikai: Adults Only (2005) (Nama) Ringo-haku '08: Jūshūnen Kinen-sai ((生)林檎博'08 ～10周年記念祭～; 2008) Tōtaikai: Heisei Nijūgo-nen Kaneyama-chō Taikai (党大会 平成二十五年神山町大会; 2013) Hantaikai: Heisei Nijūgo-nen Hamarikyū Taikai (班大会 平成二十五年浜離宮大会; 2013) Chotto Shita Recohatsu 2014 (ちょっとしたレコ発 2014; 2014) Ringo Haku '14: Toshionna no Gyakushū (林檎博'14 ～年女の逆襲～; 2014) Shiina Ringo to Kyatsura ga Yuku Hyakkiyakō 2015 (椎名林檎と彼奴等がゆく 百鬼夜行2015; 2015) Shiina Ringo to Kyatsura no Iru Shinkūchitai (椎名林檎と彼奴等の居る真空地帯-AIRPOCKET-; 2018) (Nama) Ringo Haku' 18: Fuwaku no Yoyū ((生)林檎博'18 ～不惑の余裕～; 2018)One-off concerts Zazen Ecstasy (2000) Baishō Ecstasy (賣笑エクスタシー; 2003) Backing bands See also Tokyo Jihen Space Shower Music Awards Official website Official website of Sheena Ringo at Universal Music Japan (in Japanese)

Inuyasha (犬夜叉, lit. "Dog Yaksha") is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi. It was serialized in Shogakukan's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Sunday from November 1996 to June 2008, with its chapters collected in 56 tankōbon volumes. The series begins with Kagome Higurashi, a fifteen-year-old middle school girl from modern-day Tokyo who is transported to the Sengoku period after falling into a well in her family shrine, where she meets the half-dog demon, half-human Inuyasha. After the sacred Shikon Jewel re-emerges from deep inside Kagome's body, she inadvertently shatters it into dozens of fragments that scatter across Japan. Inuyasha and Kagome set to recover the Jewel's fragments, and through their quest they are joined by the lecherous monk Miroku, the demon slayer Sango, and the fox demon Shippō. Together, they journey to restore the Shikon Jewel before it falls into the hands of the evil half-demon Naraku. In contrast to the typically comedic nature of much of Takahashi's previous work, Inuyasha deals with a darker and more serious subject matter, using the setting of the Sengoku period to easily display the violent content while still retaining some comedic elements. The manga was adapted into two anime television series by Sunrise. The first series ran for 167 episodes on Nippon TV and Yomiuri TV from October 2000 to September 2004. The second series, Inuyasha: The Final Act, is a direct sequel that adapts the remainder of the manga. It ran for 26 episodes from October 2009 to March 2010. Four feature films and an original video animation have also been released. Other merchandise includes video games and a light novel. An anime original sequel spin-off television series, titled Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon, aired for two seasons from October 2020 to March 2022. Viz Media licensed the manga, the two anime series, and movies for North America. Both Inuyasha and Inuyasha: The Final Act aired in the United States on Adult Swim (and later on its revived Toonami block) from 2002 to 2015. By September 2020, Inuyasha had 50 million copies in circulation, making it one of the best-selling manga series. In 2002, the manga won the 47th Shogakukan Manga Award for the shōnen category. Plot In 1496 Japan, humans and demons (yōkai) battle over the Shikon Jewel (四魂の玉, Shikon no Tama, lit. "The Jewel of Four Souls"), which is said to grant any wish. Kikyo, the priestess who keeps the Shikon Jewel, is in love with the half-demon Inuyasha. However, they fall into a trap and betray each other. Inuyasha steals the Shikon Jewel, but the dying Kikyo pins Inuyasha to a tree with a sacred arrow. Kikyo is cremated and the Shikon Jewel disappears from the era. Five hundred years later, Kagome Higurashi lives on the grounds of her family's Shinto shrine, with her mother, grandfather and younger brother. On her fifteenth birthday, Kagome is dragged into the enshrined Bone Eater's Well (骨喰いの井戸, Honekui no Ido) by a centipede demon and sent back in time to the Sengoku period in 1546. The Shikon Jewel manifests from within the body of Kagome, who is Kikyo's reincarnation, and she desperately frees Inuyasha from the tree to kill the centipede demon. When Inuyasha threatens her, Kikyo's sister Kaede, subdues him with a magical bead necklace to keep him under control. Kagome inadvertently shatters the Shikon Jewel into many shards with an arrow, and they scatter across Japan and into the possession of various demons and humans. Inuyasha obtains his father's sword Tessaiga, which places him at odds with his older half-brother Sesshomaru, the wielder of Tenseiga. Inuyasha aids Kagome in collecting the shards and dealing with the threats they come across. On their journey, the presence of Naraku, a spider half-demon is responsible for manipulating Inuyasha and Kikyo. While pursuing Naraku, Inuyasha and Kagome recruit the young fox demon Shippō, the perverted monk Miroku (whose hand was cursed by Naraku), the demon slayer Sango and her two-tailed demon cat Kirara. Sango's clan was killed, when they were tricked by Naraku and her younger brother Kohaku fell under his control. Over time, Inuyasha enhances Tessaiga into stronger forms, while defeating his enemies. His team is loosely allied with Sesshomaru, when Naraku attempts to persuade him, the resurrected Kikyo who plans to purify the Shikon Jewel if all shards are collected, and Kōga, the leader of the eastern wolf demon tribe who seeks to avenge his comrades whom Naraku killed. As Inuyasha and his friends journey together, he and Kagome begin to fall in love with one another, which is complicated due to Inuyasha's lingering feelings for Kikyo. Desperately hunted by his enemies, Naraku temporarily removes his heart and wounds Kikyo. Kohaku, having been previously killed but later revived by Naraku and kept alive and under his control by a Shikon Jewel shard, eventually regains his free will and memories, and attempts to escape Naraku's group. During that time, Sesshomaru settles things with Inuyasha to enable his brother to perfect Tessaiga to its optimal abilities. Kikyo sacrifices herself to give life for Kohaku, and Naraku collects all shards to restore the Shikon Jewel. After being killed by Inuyasha and his allies, Naraku reveals his true desire for Kikyo, despite his hatred towards her, and he uses his wish to trap himself and Kagome inside the Shikon Jewel. Revealed to be sentient, the Shikon Jewel intends for Kagome to make a selfish wish, so she and Naraku will be trapped in an eternal conflict. However, with Inuyasha by her side, Kagome wishes for the Shikon Jewel to disappear forever, allowing her to return to her time with the well sealed, and she and Inuyasha lose contact for three years. In that time, the Sengoku period changes drastically: Sango and Miroku marry and have three children together, Kohaku continues his role as a demon slayer, and Shippō trains to make his demon magic stronger. Back in the present, Kagome graduates from high school, and manages to get the Bone Eater's Well in her backyard to work again. She returns to the Sengoku period, where she reunites with Inuyasha, marries him, and continues to train with Kaede and become a topmost-level priestess. Development Takahashi wrote Inuyasha after finishing Ranma ½. In contrast to her previous comedic works such as Urusei Yatsura (1978–1987), Maison Ikkoku (1980–1987), and One Pound Gospel (1987–2006), Takahashi wanted to create a darker storyline that was thematically closer to her Mermaid Saga stories. In order to portray violent themes softly, the story was set in the Sengoku period, when wars were common. Takahashi did no notable research for the designs of samurai or castles because she considered such topics common knowledge. By June 2001, a clear ending to the series had not been established because Takahashi still was unsure about how to end the relationship between Inuyasha and Kagome. Furthermore, Takahashi said that she did not have an ending to previous manga she wrote during the beginning, having figured them out as their serialization progressed. Media Manga Inuyasha is written and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi. The series debuted in Shogakukan's Weekly Shōnen Sunday (issue #50, 1996) on November 13, 1996. Inuyasha finished after an 11 year and seven month run in the magazine (issue #29, 2008) on June 18, 2008. Its 558 chapters were collected in 56 tankōbon volumes by Shogakukan, released from April 18, 1997, to February 18, 2009. Shogakukan re-published the series in a 30-volume wide-ban edition, released from January 18, 2013, to June 18, 2015. Takahashi published a special epilogue chapter, titled "Since Then" (あれから, Are kara), in Weekly Shōnen Sunday on February 6, 2013, as part of the "Heroes Come Back" anthology, which comprised short stories by manga artists to raise funds for recovery of the areas afflicted by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. The chapter was later included in the last volume of the wide-ban edition of the manga in 2015, and was published again in Shōnen Sunday S on October 24, 2020.In North America, Inuyasha has been licensed for English language release by Viz Media, initially titled as Inu-Yasha. They began publishing the manga in April 1997 in an American comic book format, each issue containing two or three chapters from the original manga, and the last issue was released in February 2003, which covered up until the original Japanese 14th volume. Viz Media started publishing the series in a first trade-paperback edition, with 12 volumes published from July 6, 1998, to October 6, 2002. A second edition began with the 13th volume, released on April 9, 2003, and the first 12 volumes, following this edition, were reprinted as well. Up until the 37th volume, Viz Media published the series in left-to-right orientation, and with the release of the 38th volume on July 14, 2009, they published the remaining volumes in "unflipped" right-to-left page layout. Viz Media published the 56th and final volume of Inuyasha on January 11, 2011. In 2009, Viz Media began publishing the series in their 3-in-1 omnibus volume "VizBig" edition, with the original unflipped chapters. The 18 volumes were released from November 10, 2009, to February 11, 2014. On December 15, 2020, Viz released the 18 volumes digitally. Anime Inuyasha The first Inuyasha anime adaptation, sometimes known as Inuyasha: A Feudal Fairy Tale (戦国御伽草子 犬夜叉, Sengoku Otogizōshi Inuyasha), produced by Sunrise, was broadcast for 167 episodes on Nippon TV and Yomiuri TV from October 16, 2000, to September 13, 2004. Avex collected the episodes in a total of seven series of DVD volumes distributed in Japan between May 30, 2001, and July 27, 2005.In North America, the series was licensed for an English dub release by Viz Media. The series was first run on Adult Swim from August 31, 2002, to October 27, 2006, with reruns from 2006 to 2014. When Toonami became a block on Adult Swim, Inuyasha aired there from November 2012 to March 2014, when the network announced that they had lost the broadcast rights to the series. On August 25, 2017, Starz announced that they would be offering episodes of the series for their video on demand service starting on September 1 of that same year, where they were available until November 30, 2018. The series was also streamed on HBO Max in the United States from August 4, 2020, until August 3, 2022. The series aired in Canada on YTV's Bionix programming block from September 5, 2003, to December 1, 2006. Viz collected the series in a total of 55 DVD volumes, while seven box sets were also released. In September 2020, Funimation announced that they would begin streaming the first 54 episodes of the series and the four films.Viz Media also released a separate series of ani-manga volumes which are derived from full-color screenshots of the anime episodes. 30 volumes were released from January 14, 2004 to December 9, 2008. Inuyasha: The Final Act In July 2009, it was announced that another anime television series adaptation, covering the original 36–56 volumes of the manga, would be made by the first anime's same cast and crew. Titled Inuyasha: The Final Act (犬夜叉 完結編, Inuyasha Kanketsu-hen), the series was broadcast for 26 episodes on Nippon TV and Yomiuri TV from October 4, 2009, to March 30, 2010. In other parts of Asia, the series was broadcast in the same week as its broadcast in Japan on Animax Asia. Aniplex collected the episodes on seven DVDs, released between December 23, 2009, and June 23, 2010.In North America, the series was licensed by Viz Media, and the episodes were simulcast via Hulu and Viz Media's Shonen Sunday site in the United States. Viz Media released the series in two DVD or Blu-ray sets, which included an English dub. The first thirteen episodes, constituting the first set, were released on November 20, 2012, and the last thirteen episodes, constituting the second set, were released on February 12, 2013. The series began broadcasting in the United States and Canada on Viz Media's online network, Neon Alley, on October 2, 2012. On October 24, 2014, it was announced that Adult Swim would air The Final Act on the Toonami block, beginning on November 15, at 2:00 a.m. EST. Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon In May 2020, an anime original sequel spin-off television series was announced, titled Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon (半妖の夜叉姫, Han'yō no Yashahime), which follows the journey of Towa Higurashi and Setsuna, Sesshomaru and Rin's fraternal twin daughters, and Moroha, Inuyasha and Kagome's daughter. It premiered on October 3, 2020.The series is produced by Sunrise, with direction by Teruo Sato for the first season and Masakazu Hishida for the second, and main character designs by Inuyasha author Rumiko Takahashi. Staff from the Inuyasha anime returned, with Katsuyuki Sumisawa in charge of the scripts, Yoshihito Hishinuma in charge of the anime character designs and Kaoru Wada as composer. The cast includes Sara Matsumoto as Towa Higurashi, Mikako Komatsu as Setsuna, and Azusa Tadokoro as Moroha.Viz Media announced the rights to digital streaming, EST, and home video release of the series for North and Latin American territories. Films There are four animated films with original storylines written by Katsuyuki Sumisawa, the writer for the Inuyasha anime series. The films were released with English subtitles and dubbed audio tracks on Region 1 DVD by Viz Media. Together, the four films have earned over US$20 million in Japanese box offices.The first film, Inuyasha the Movie: Affections Touching Across Time, was released in 2001. In the film, Inuyasha and his friends confront Menomaru, a demonic moth warrior brought to life by one of the shards. In the second film, Inuyasha the Movie: The Castle Beyond the Looking Glass, released in 2002, the group seemingly kills Naraku for good and return to their normal lives, only to encounter a new enemy named Kaguya, a character based on the literature The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. The third film, Inuyasha the Movie: Swords of an Honorable Ruler, was released in 2003. In it, Inuyasha and Sesshomaru are forced to work together to seal the evil Sō'unga, their father's third sword, when it is awakened from its sheath. The fourth and final film, Inuyasha the Movie: Fire on the Mystic Island, was released in 2004. It follows Inuyasha and his friends protecting a group of half-demon children from four evil demons on an ancient mystical island. Original video animation A 30-minute original video animation titled Black Tessaiga (黒い鉄砕牙, Kuroi Tessaiga), was presented on July 30, 2008, at an "It's a Rumic World" exhibit at the Matsuya Ginza department store in Tokyo's Ginza shopping district. The episode uses the original voice cast from the anime series. It was released in Japan on October 20, 2010, in both DVD and Blu-ray formats. Soundtrack CDs Multiple soundtracks and character songs were released for the series by Avex Mode. Three character singles were released August 3, 2005 – "Aoki Yasei o Daite" (蒼き野生を抱いて, Embrace the Untamed Wilderness) by Inuyasha featuring Kagome, "Kaze no Naka e" (風のなかへ, Into the Wind) by Miroku featuring Sango and Shippō, and "Gō" (業, Fate) by Sesshomaru featuring Jaken and Rin. The singles charted at number 63, 76, and 79 respectively on the Oricon chart. Three more character songs were released on January 25, 2006 – "Rakujitsu" (落日, Setting Sun) by Naraku, "Tatta Hitotsu no Yakusoku" (たったひとつの約束, That's One Promise) by Kagome Higurashi, and "Abarero!!" (暴れろ!!, Go On A Rampage!!) by Bankotsu and Jakotsu. The singles charted at number 130, 131, and 112 respectively on the Oricon chart.On March 24, 2010, Avex released Inuyasha Best Song History (犬夜叉 ベストソング ヒストリー, Inuyasha Besuto Songu Hisutorī), a best album that contains all the opening and ending theme songs used in the series. The album peaked at number 20 on the Oricon album chart and charted for seven weeks. Video games Three video games based on the series were released for the WonderSwan: Inuyasha: Kagome no Sengoku Nikki (犬夜叉 〜かごめの戦国日記, Inuyasha: Kagome's Warring States Diary), Inuyasha: Fūun Emaki (犬夜叉 風雲絵巻, Inuyasha: The Sealed Scroll Picture), and Inuyasha: Kagome no Yume Nikki (犬夜叉 かごめの夢日記, Inuyasha: Kagome's Dream Diary). A single title, Inuyasha: Naraku no Wana! Mayoi no Mori no Shōtaijō (犬夜叉〜奈落の罠!迷いの森の招待状, Inuyasha: Naraku's Trap! Invitation to the Forest of Illusion), was released for the Game Boy Advance on January 23, 2003, in Japan. Inuyasha has been adapted into a mobile game released for Java and Brew handsets on June 21, 2005.Two titles were released for the PlayStation: an RPG simply titled Inuyasha, and the fighting game Inuyasha: A Feudal Fairy Tale, the latter of which was released in North America. For the PlayStation 2, the two released games were the RPG Inuyasha: The Secret of the Cursed Mask and the fighting game Inuyasha: Feudal Combat, which also received an English version. An English-only RPG, Inuyasha: Secret of the Divine Jewel, was released for the Nintendo DS on January 23, 2007.Inuyasha appeared in the crossover video game Sunday vs Magazine: Shūketsu! Chōjō Daikessen as a playable character.Inuyasha's sword, Tessaiga, has appeared in Monster Hunter as a craftable weapon using items gained from a special event.An English-language original collectible card game created by Score Entertainment that was first released on October 20, 2004. Light novel A light novel, written by Tomoko Komparu and illustrated by Rumiko Takahashi, was published by Shogakukan in 2004. Stage plays In 2000, a Japanese live-action stage play ran from April through May in the Akasaka ACT Theater in Tokyo, around the same time the anime series began production. The play's script followed the general plot line of the original manga, with a few minor changes to save time. A second run of the play ran from January through February in 2001 at the Akasaka ACT Theater in Tokyo.In February 2017, it was announced that a stage play adaptation of Inuyasha would be performed at Tennozu Galaxy Theater in Tokyo from April 6–15 of the same year, featuring Yutaka Kyan from Golden Bomber as Inuyasha and Nogizaka46's Yumi Wakatsuki as Kagome. Reception Manga Inuyasha was one of the Manga Division's Jury Recommended Works at the fifth and 12th installments of the Japan Media Arts Festival in 2001 and 2008, respectively. In 2002, the manga won the 47th Shogakukan Manga Award in the shōnen category. On TV Asahi's Manga Sōsenkyo 2021 poll, in which 150,000 people voted for their top 100 manga series, Inuyasha ranked 28th.By February 2010, Inuyasha had over 45 million copies in circulation. By September 2020, the manga had over 50 million copies in circulation. Individual volumes from Inuyasha have been popular in Japan, taking high places in rankings listing sales. In North America, the manga volumes have appeared various times in The New York Times and Diamond Comic Distributors top selling lists. Moreover, in 2005 Inuyasha was one of the most researched series according to Lycos.Reviewing volume two for Ex.org, Eri Izawa wrote that Inuyasha combines many of Rumiko Takahashi's best elements; "fast paced action, interesting characters, deep doses of imaginative fantasy, a bit of horror, and those famous touches of Takahashi humor." She also praised the "undeniably intelligent and observant" Kagome as refreshing. Izawa described the faults of the series as subtle and minor; feeling that the action sometimes seems to drag a little and that some of the characters are too familiar to those from Takahashi's previous works. Rebecca Bundy began her review of volume 23 of Inuyasha for Anime News Network by claiming; "Twenty three volumes in and this series still packs a serious punch." She called its balance of action, conversation and "reflection" perfect, and noted it had plenty of character development for the main cast, sans Koga. Bundy's sole complaint was that she felt the character designs had changed a modest amount since the beginning of the series. Even though they had not read Inuyasha since around volume six, Manga Life's Penny Kenny said they were able to jump right in with volume 52 thanks in part to the sense of familiarity provided by Takahashi "riffing on the same themes." Kenny stated that Takahashi's genius lies in her "endless improvisations on the standard elements" by adding new enemies and monsters she forces the heroes to up their game and grow as individuals. The reviewer described the art as having little background detail, with Takahashi instead focusing on the characters and their actions. Kenny also noted that, like all of the manga artist's works, the drama is heightened by levity, with each character having their own style of humor. Anime The anime of Inuyasha was ranked twenty by TV Asahi of the 100 best anime series in 2006 based on an online survey in Japan. In ICv2's Anime Awards from both 2004 and 2005, the series was the winner in the category of Property of the Year. In the Anime Grand Prix polls by Animage, Inuyasha has appeared various times in the category of Best Anime, taking third place in 2003. In the American Anime Awards from 2007, Inuyasha was a nominee in the categories of Best Cast, Best Long Series, and Best Anime Feature, but lost to Fullmetal Alchemist and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, respectively. A 2019 NHK poll of 210,061 people saw Inuyasha named Takahashi's best animated work. Inuyasha and Sesshomaru were voted first and third place respectively in her characters category.The English DVDs from the series had sold over one million copies between March 2003 and November 2004, with the first film's DVD topping the Nielsen VideoScan anime bestseller list for three weeks. By 2016, Viz Media had sold more than 2 million Inuyasha home video units. Mania Entertainment listed the series in an article ranking anime series that required a reboot, criticizing the series' repetitiveness. See also The Holy Pearl, a 2011 Chinese TV series partially inspired by Inuyasha Nansō Satomi Hakkenden, a 19th-century novel from which Inuyasha draws some of its motifs See also 1990s portal Shonen Sunday's official Inuyasha manga website (in Japanese) Viz's official Inuyasha website Sunrise's official Inuyasha anime website (in Japanese) Yomiuri Television's official Inuyasha anime website (in Japanese) Official Sunrise Inuyasha: The Final Act anime website (in Japanese) Inuyasha (manga) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia

.ad is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Andorra. It is administered by Andorra Telecom.Because .ad is also an abbreviation for the word advertisement or advert, .ad has also been used in an unconventional manner as a domain hack by some advertising media. See also .cat IANA .ad whois information STA Homepage

AUR, or aur, may refer to: Acute urinary retention African Union of Railways Alliance for Romanian Unity Alliance for the Union of Romanians American University of Rome Arch User Repository Aur Atoll, Marshall Islands Auriga constellation abbreviation, as standardized by the International Astronomical Union Aur Island, Malaysia AUR, the IATA code for A. A. Bere Tallo Airport in East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia AUR, the National Rail code for Aberdour railway station in Scotland, UK See also All pages with titles containing AUR All pages with titles beginning with AUR

Cas may refer to: Caș, a type of cheese made in Romania Čas (1886–) Czech magazine associated with Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk Čas (19 April 1945–February 1948), the official, daily newspaper of the Democratic Party of Slovakia CAS, a 2018 album by Lúnasa, an Irish Celtic band Cas (people), an ancient people near the Caspian Sea Cas (name), a list of people (and a mythological hero) with the given name, nickname or surname Cas guava (Psidium friedrichsthalianum), a Costa Rican guava species Cas Cay, an island in St. Thomas, United States Virgin Islands Cassiopeia (constellation), standard astronomical abbreviation Castleford, town in West Yorkshire know colloquially as Cas CRISPR-associated proteins, proteins involved in prokaryotic antiviral defense and gene editing

Numeric control (also computer numeric control, abbreviated CNC) is the automated control of machining tools (such as drills, lathes, mills, grinders, routers and 3D printers) by means of a computer. A CNC machine processes a piece of material (metal, plastic, wood, ceramic, stone, or composite) to meet specifications by following coded programmed instructions and without a manual operator directly controlling the machining operation. A CNC machine is a motorized maneuverable tool and often a motorized maneuverable platform, which are both controlled by a computer, according to specific input instructions. Instructions are delivered to a CNC machine in the form of a sequential program of machine control instructions such as G-code and M-code, and then executed. The program can be written by a person or, far more often, generated by graphical computer-aided design (CAD) or computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software. In the case of 3D printers, the part to be printed is "sliced" before the instructions (or the program) are generated. 3D printers also use G-Code.CNC offers greatly increased productivity over non-computerized machining for repetitive production, where the machine must be manually controlled (e.g. using devices such as hand wheels or levers) or mechanically controlled by pre-fabricated pattern guides (see pantograph mill). However, these advantages come at significant cost in terms of both capital expenditure and job setup time. For some prototyping and small batch jobs, a good machine operator can have parts finished to a high standard whilst a CNC workflow is still in setup. In modern CNC systems, the design of a mechanical part and its manufacturing program are highly automated. The part's mechanical dimensions are defined using CAD software and then translated into manufacturing directives by computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software. The resulting directives are transformed (by "post processor" software) into the specific commands necessary for a particular machine to produce the component and then are loaded into the CNC machine. Since any particular component might require the use of several different tools – drills, saws, etc. – modern machines often combine multiple tools into a single "cell". In other installations, several different machines are used with an external controller and human or robotic operators that move the component from machine to machine. In either case, the series of steps needed to produce any part is highly automated and produces a part that meets every specification in the original CAD drawing, where each specification includes a tolerance. Description Motion is controlling multiple axes, normally at least two (X and Y), and a tool spindle that moves in the Z (depth). The position of the tool is driven by direct-drive stepper motors or servo motors to provide highly accurate movements, or in older designs, motors through a series of step-down gears. Open-loop control works as long as the forces are kept small enough and speeds are not too great. On commercial metalworking machines, closed-loop controls are standard and required to provide the accuracy, speed, and repeatability demanded. Parts description As the controller hardware evolved, the mills themselves also evolved. One change has been to enclose the entire mechanism in a large box as a safety measure (with safety glass in the doors to permit the operator to monitor the machine's function), often with additional safety interlocks to ensure the operator is far enough from the working piece for safe operation. Most new CNC systems built today are 100% electronically controlled. CNC-like systems are used for any process that can be described as movements and operations. These include laser cutting, welding, friction stir welding, ultrasonic welding, flame and plasma cutting, bending, spinning, hole-punching, pinning, gluing, fabric cutting, sewing, tape and fiber placement, routing, picking and placing, and sawing. History The first CNC machines were built in the 1940s and 1950s, based on existing tools that were modified with motors that moved the tool or part to follow points fed into the system on punched tape. These early servomechanisms were rapidly augmented with analog and digital computers, creating the modern CNC machine tools that have revolutionized machining processes. Examples of CNC machines Other CNC tools Many other tools have CNC variants, including: Tool/machine crashing In CNC, a "crash" occurs when the machine moves in such a way that is harmful to the machine, tools, or parts being machined, sometimes resulting in bending or breakage of cutting tools, accessory clamps, vises, and fixtures, or causing damage to the machine itself by bending guide rails, breaking drive screws, or causing structural components to crack or deform under strain. A mild crash may not damage the machine or tools but may damage the part being machined so that it must be scrapped. Many CNC tools have no inherent sense of the absolute position of the table or tools when turned on. They must be manually "homed" or "zeroed" to have any reference to work from, and these limits are just for figuring out the location of the part to work with it and are no hard motion limit on the mechanism. It is often possible to drive the machine outside the physical bounds of its drive mechanism, resulting in a collision with itself or damage to the drive mechanism. Many machines implement control parameters limiting axis motion past a certain limit in addition to physical limit switches. However, these parameters can often be changed by the operator. Many CNC tools also do not know anything about their working environment. Machines may have load sensing systems on spindle and axis drives, but some do not. They blindly follow the machining code provided and it is up to an operator to detect if a crash is either occurring or about to occur, and for the operator to manually abort the active process. Machines equipped with load sensors can stop axis or spindle movement in response to an overload condition, but this does not prevent a crash from occurring. It may only limit the damage resulting from the crash. Some crashes may not ever overload any axis or spindle drives. If the drive system is weaker than the machine's structural integrity, then the drive system simply pushes against the obstruction, and the drive motors "slip in place". The machine tool may not detect the collision or the slipping, so for example the tool should now be at 210mm on the X-axis, but is, in fact, at 32mm where it hit the obstruction and kept slipping. All of the next tool motions will be off by −178mm on the X-axis, and all future motions are now invalid, which may result in further collisions with clamps, vises, or the machine itself. This is common in open-loop stepper systems but is not possible in closed-loop systems unless mechanical slippage between the motor and drive mechanism has occurred. Instead, in a closed-loop system, the machine will continue to attempt to move against the load until either the drive motor goes into an overload condition or a servo motor fails to get to the desired position. Collision detection and avoidance are possible, through the use of absolute position sensors (optical encoder strips or disks) to verify that motion occurred, or torque sensors or power-draw sensors on the drive system to detect abnormal strain when the machine should just be moving and not cutting, but these are not a common component of most hobby CNC tools. Instead, most hobby CNC tools simply rely on the assumed accuracy of stepper motors that rotate a specific number of degrees in response to magnetic field changes. It is often assumed the stepper is perfectly accurate and never missteps, so tool position monitoring simply involves counting the number of pulses sent to the stepper over time. An alternate means of stepper position monitoring is usually not available, so crash or slip detection is not possible. Commercial CNC metalworking machines use closed-loop feedback controls for axis movement. In a closed-loop system, the controller monitors the actual position of each axis with an absolute or incremental encoder. Proper control programming will reduce the possibility of a crash, but it is still up to the operator and programmer to ensure that the machine is operated safely. However, during the 2000s and 2010s, the software for machining simulation has been maturing rapidly, and it is no longer uncommon for the entire machine tool envelope (including all axes, spindles, chucks, turrets, tool holders, tailstocks, fixtures, clamps, and stock) to be modeled accurately with 3D solid models, which allows the simulation software to predict fairly accurately whether a cycle will involve a crash. Although such simulation is not new, its accuracy and market penetration are changing considerably because of computing advancements. Numerical precision and equipment backlash Within the numerical systems of CNC programming, the code generator can assume that the controlled mechanism is always perfectly accurate, or that precision tolerances are identical for all cutting or movement directions. This is not always a true condition of CNC tools. CNC tools with a large amount of mechanical backlash can still be highly precise if the drive or cutting mechanism is only driven to apply cutting force from one direction, and all driving systems are pressed tightly together in that one cutting direction. However, a CNC device with high backlash and a dull cutting tool can lead to cutter chatter and possible workpiece gouging. The backlash also affects the precision of some operations involving axis movement reversals during cutting, such as the milling of a circle, where axis motion is sinusoidal. However, this can be compensated for if the amount of backlash is precisely known by linear encoders or manual measurement. The high backlash mechanism itself is not necessarily relied on to be repeatedly precise for the cutting process, but some other reference object or precision surface may be used to zero the mechanism, by tightly applying pressure against the reference and setting that as the zero references for all following CNC-encoded motions. This is similar to the manual machine tool method of clamping a micrometer onto a reference beam and adjusting the Vernier dial to zero using that object as the reference. Positioning control system In numerical control systems, the position of the tool is defined by a set of instructions called the part program. Positioning control is handled using either an open-loop or a closed-loop system. In an open-loop system, communication takes place in one direction only: from the controller to the motor. In a closed-loop system, feedback is provided to the controller so that it can correct for errors in position, velocity, and acceleration, which can arise due to variations in load or temperature. Open-loop systems are generally cheaper but less accurate. Stepper motors can be used in both types of systems, while servo motors can only be used in closed systems. Cartesian coordinates The G & M code positions are all based on a three-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system. This system is a typical plane often seen in mathematics when graphing. This system is required to map out the machine tool paths and any other kind of actions that need to happen in a specific coordinate. Absolute coordinates are what are generally used more commonly for machines and represent the (0,0,0) point on the plane. This point is set on the stock material to give a starting point or "home position" before starting the actual machining. Coding G-codes G-codes are used to command specific movements of the machine, such as machine moves or drilling functions. The majority of G-Code programs start with a percent (%) symbol on the first line, then followed by an "O" with a numerical name for the program (i.e. "O0001") on the second line, then another percent (%) symbol on the last line of the program. The format for a G-code is the letter G followed by two to three digits; for example G01. G-codes differ slightly between a mill and lathe application, for example: [G00 Rapid Motion Positioning] [G01 Linear Interpolation Motion] [G02 Circular Interpolation Motion-Clockwise] [G03 Circular Interpolation Motion-Counter Clockwise] [G04 Dwell (Group 00) Mill] [G10 Set offsets (Group 00) Mill] [G12 Circular Pocketing-Clockwise] [G13 Circular Pocketing-Counter Clockwise] M-codes [Code Miscellaneous Functions (M-Code)]. M-codes are miscellaneous machine commands that do not command axis motion. The format for an M-code is the letter M followed by two to three digits; for example: [M01 Operational stop] [M02 End of Program] [M03 Start Spindle - Clockwise] [M04 Start Spindle - Counter Clockwise] [M05 Stop Spindle] [M06 Tool Change] [M07 Coolant on mist coolant] [M08 Flood coolant on] [M09 Coolant off] [M10 Chuck open] [M11 Chuck close] [M12 Spindle up] [M13 BOTH M03&M08 Spindle clockwise rotation & flood coolant] [M14 BOTH M04&M08 Spindle counter clockwise rotation & flood coolant] [M16 Special tool call] [M19 Spindle orientate] [M29 DNC mode ] [M30 Program reset & rewind] [M38 Door open] [M39 Door close] [M40 Spindle gear at middle] [M41 Low gear select] [M42 High gear select] [M53 Retract Spindle] (raises tool spindle above current position to allow operator to do whatever they would need to do) [M68 Hydraulic chuck close] [M69 Hydraulic chuck open] [M78 Tailstock advancing] [M79 Tailstock reversing] Example Having the correct speeds and feeds in the program provides for a more efficient and smoother product run. Incorrect speeds and feeds will cause damage to the tool, machine spindle, and even the product. The quickest and simplest way to find these numbers would be to use a calculator that can be found online. A formula can also be used to calculate the proper speeds and feeds for a material. These values can be found online or in Machinery's Handbook. See also Automatic tool changer Binary cutter location Computer-aided technologies Computer-aided engineering (CAE) Coordinate-measuring machine (CMM) Design for manufacturability Direct numerical control (DNC) EIA RS-274 EIA RS-494 Gerber format Home automation Maslow CNC Multiaxis machining Part program Robotics Wireless DNC Further reading Brittain, James (1992), Alexanderson: Pioneer in American Electrical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN 0-8018-4228-X. Holland, Max (1989), When the Machine Stopped: A Cautionary Tale from Industrial America, Boston: Harvard Business School Press, ISBN 978-0-87584-208-0, OCLC 246343673. Noble, David F. (1984), Forces of Production: A Social History of Industrial Automation, New York, New York, US: Knopf, ISBN 978-0-394-51262-4, LCCN 83048867. Reintjes, J. Francis (1991), Numerical Control: Making a New Technology, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-506772-9. Weisberg, David, The Engineering Design Revolution (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 7 July 2010. Wildes, Karl L.; Lindgren, Nilo A. (1985), A Century of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, MIT Press, ISBN 0-262-23119-0. Herrin, Golden E. "Industry Honors The Inventor Of NC", Modern Machine Shop, 12 January 1998. Siegel, Arnold. "Automatic Programming of Numerically Controlled Machine Tools", Control Engineering, Volume 3 Issue 10 (October 1956), pp. 65–70. Smid, Peter (2008), CNC Programming Handbook (3rd ed.), New York: Industrial Press, ISBN 9780831133474, LCCN 2007045901. Christopher jun Pagarigan (Vini) Edmonton Alberta Canada. CNC Infomatic, Automotive Design & Production. The Evolution of CNC Machines (2018). Retrieved October 15, 2018, from Engineering Technology Group Fitzpatrick, Michael (2019), "Machining and CNC Technology". Media related to Computer numerical control at Wikimedia Commons

Lyn or LYN may refer to: People Lyn (singer), South Korean singer Lyn (gamer), South Korean Warcraft III player Lyn (given name) Lyn (surname) In science and technology Lynx (constellation), standard abbreviation Lyn (locomotive), a British narrow gauge railway locomotive built in 1897 for the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway Lyn (Src family kinase), in biochemistry LyN, a video game engine In fiction Lyn Me, a character in the Star Wars universe Lyndis, a character from the Fire Emblem series Other uses Lyn, Ontario, Canada, a community within the township of Elizabethtown-Kitley Lyon–Bron Airport (IATA code LYN) Lyn Fotball, Norwegian football club from Oslo established in 1896 See also Lynn (disambiguation) Lin (disambiguation)

A sexually transmitted infection (STI), also referred to as a sexually transmitted disease (STD) and the older term venereal disease (VD), is an infection that is spread by sexual activity, especially vaginal intercourse, anal sex, or oral sex. STIs often do not initially cause symptoms, which results in a risk of passing the infection on to others. Symptoms and signs of STIs may include vaginal discharge, penile discharge, ulcers on or around the genitals, and pelvic pain. Some STIs can cause infertility.Bacterial STIs include chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis. Viral STIs include genital herpes, HIV/AIDS, and genital warts. Parasitic STIs include trichomoniasis. STI diagnostic tests are usually easily available in the developed world, but they are often unavailable in the developing world.Some vaccinations may also decrease the risk of certain infections including hepatitis B and some types of HPV. Safe sex practices, such as use of condoms, having a smaller number of sexual partners, and being in a relationship in which each person only has sex with the other also decreases the risk of STIs. Comprehensive sex education may also be useful. Most STIs are treatable and curable; of the most common infections, syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, and trichomoniasis are curable, while HIV/AIDS and genital herpes are not curable.In 2015, about 1.1 billion people had STIs other than HIV/AIDS. About 500 million were infected with either syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia or trichomoniasis. At least an additional 530 million people have genital herpes, and 290 million women have human papillomavirus. STIs other than HIV resulted in 108,000 deaths in 2015. In the United States, there were 19 million new cases of STIs in 2010. Historical documentation of STIs in antiquity dates back to at least the Ebers Papyrus (c. 1550 BCE) and the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (8th/7th centuries BCE).There is often shame and stigma associated with STIs. The term sexually transmitted infection is generally preferred over sexually transmitted disease or venereal disease, as it includes those who do not have symptomatic disease. Signs and symptoms Not all STIs are symptomatic, and symptoms may not appear immediately after infection. In some instances a disease can be carried with no symptoms, which leaves a greater risk of passing the disease on to others. Depending on the disease, some untreated STIs can lead to infertility, chronic pain or death.The presence of an STI in prepubescent children may indicate sexual abuse. Cause Transmission A sexually transmitted infection present in a pregnant woman may be passed on to the infant before or after birth. Bacterial Chancroid (Haemophilus ducreyi) Chlamydia (Chlamydia trachomatis) Gonorrhea (Neisseria gonorrhoeae) Granuloma inguinale or (Klebsiella granulomatis) Mycoplasma genitalium Mycoplasma hominis Syphilis (Treponema pallidum) Ureaplasma infection Viral Viral hepatitis (hepatitis B virus)—saliva, venereal fluids.(Note: hepatitis A and hepatitis E are transmitted via the fecal-oral route; hepatitis C is rarely sexually transmittable, and the route of transmission of hepatitis D (only if infected with B) is uncertain, but may include sexual transmission.) Herpes simplex (Herpes simplex virus 1, 2) skin and mucosal, transmissible with or without visible blisters HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus)—venereal fluids, semen, breast milk, blood HPV (Human Papillomavirus)—skin and mucosal contact. 'High risk' types of HPV cause almost all cervical cancers, as well as some anal, penile, and vulvar cancer. Some other types of HPV cause genital warts. Molluscum contagiosum (molluscum contagiosum virus MCV)—close contact Zika virus Parasites Crab louse, colloquially known as "crabs" or "pubic lice" (Pthirus pubis). The infestation and accompanying inflammation is Pediculosis pubis Scabies (Sarcoptes scabiei) Trichomoniasis (Trichomonas vaginalis), colloquially known as "trich" Main types Sexually transmitted infections include: Chlamydia is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis. In women, symptoms may include abnormal vaginal discharge, burning during urination, and bleeding in between periods, although most women do not experience any symptoms. Symptoms in men include pain when urinating, and abnormal discharge from their penis. If left untreated in both men and women, chlamydia can infect the urinary tract and potentially lead to pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). PID can cause serious problems during pregnancy and even has the potential to cause infertility. It can cause a woman to have a potentially deadly ectopic pregnancy, in which the egg implants outside of the uterus. However, chlamydia can be cured with antibiotics. The two most common forms of herpes are caused by infection with herpes simplex virus (HSV). HSV-1 is typically acquired orally and causes cold sores, HSV-2 is usually acquired during sexual contact and affects the genitals, however, either strain may affect either site. Some people are asymptomatic or have very mild symptoms. Those that do experience symptoms usually notice them 2 to 20 days after exposure which lasts 2 to 4 weeks. Symptoms can include small fluid-filled blisters, headaches, backaches, itching or tingling sensations in the genital or anal area, pain during urination, flu like symptoms, swollen glands, or fever. Herpes is spread through skin contact with a person infected with the virus. The virus affects the areas where it entered the body. This can occur through kissing, vaginal intercourse, oral sex or anal sex. The virus is most infectious during times when there are visible symptoms, however, those who are asymptomatic can still spread the virus through skin contact. The initial infection and symptoms are usually the most severe because the body does not have any antibodies built up. After the primary attack, one might have recurring attacks that are milder or might not even have future attacks. There is no cure for the disease but there are antiviral medications that treat its symptoms and lower the risk of transmission (Valtrex). Although HSV-1 is typically the "oral" version of the virus, and HSV-2 is typically the "genital" version of the virus, a person with HSV-1 orally CAN transmit that virus to their partner genitally. The virus, either type, will settle into a nerve bundle either at the top of the spine, producing the "oral" outbreak, or a second nerve bundle at the base of the spine, producing the genital outbreak. The human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common STI in the United States. There are more than 40 different strands of HPV and many do not cause any health problems. In 90% of cases, the body's immune system clears the infection naturally within two years. Some cases may not be cleared and can lead to genital warts (bumps around the genitals that can be small or large, raised or flat, or shaped like cauliflower) or cervical cancer and other HPV related cancers. Symptoms might not show up until advanced stages. It is important for women to get pap smears in order to check for and treat cancers. There are also two vaccines available for women (Cervarix and Gardasil) that protect against the types of HPV that cause cervical cancer. HPV can be passed through genital-to-genital contact as well as during oral sex. The infected partner might not have any symptoms. Gonorrhea is caused by bacterium that lives on moist mucous membranes in the urethra, vagina, rectum, mouth, throat, and eyes. The infection can spread through contact with the penis, vagina, mouth, or anus. Symptoms of gonorrhea usually appear two to five days after contact with an infected partner however, some men might not notice symptoms for up to a month. Symptoms in men include burning and pain while urinating, increased urinary frequency, discharge from the penis (white, green, or yellow in color), red or swollen urethra, swollen or tender testicles, or sore throat. Symptoms in women may include vaginal discharge, burning or itching while urinating, painful sexual intercourse, severe pain in lower abdomen (if infection spreads to fallopian tubes), or fever (if infection spreads to fallopian tubes); however, many women do not show any symptoms. Antibiotic resistant strains of Gonorrhea are a significant concern, but most cases can be cured with existing antibiotics.Syphilis is an STI caused by a bacterium. Untreated, it can lead to complications and death. Clinical manifestations of syphilis include the ulceration of the uro-genital tract, mouth or rectum; if left untreated the symptoms worsen. In recent years, the prevalence of syphilis has declined in Western Europe, but it has increased in Eastern Europe (former Soviet states). A high incidence of syphilis can be found in places such as Cameroon, Cambodia, Papua New Guinea. Syphilis infections are increasing in the United States. Trichomoniasis is a common STI that is caused by infection with a protozoan parasite called Trichomonas vaginalis. Trichomoniasis affects both women and men, but symptoms are more common in women. Most patients are treated with an antibiotic called metronidazole, which is very effective. HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) damages the body's immune system, which interferes with its ability to fight off disease-causing agents. The virus kills CD4 cells, which are white blood cells that help fight off various infections. HIV is carried in body fluids and is spread by sexual activity. It can also be spread by contact with infected blood, breastfeeding, childbirth, and from mother to child during pregnancy. When HIV is at its most advanced stage, an individual is said to have AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). There are different stages of the progression of and HIV infection. The stages include primary infection, asymptomatic infection, symptomatic infection, and AIDS. In the primary infection stage, an individual will have flu-like symptoms (headache, fatigue, fever, muscle aches) for about two weeks. In the asymptomatic stage, symptoms usually disappear, and the patient can remain asymptomatic for years. When HIV progresses to the symptomatic stage, the immune system is weakened and has a low cell count of CD4+ T cells. When the HIV infection becomes life-threatening, it is called AIDS. People with AIDS fall prey to opportunistic infections and die as a result. When the disease was first discovered in the 1980s, those who had AIDS were not likely to live longer than a few years. There are now antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) available to treat HIV infections. There is no known cure for HIV or AIDS but the drugs help suppress the virus. By suppressing the amount of virus in the body, people can lead longer and healthier lives. Even though their virus levels may be low they can still spread the virus to others. Viruses in semen Twenty-seven different viruses have been identified in semen. Information on whether or not transmission occurs or whether the viruses cause disease is uncertain. Some of these microbes are known to be sexually transmitted. Pathophysiology Many STIs are (more easily) transmitted through the mucous membranes of the penis, vulva, rectum, urinary tract and (less often—depending on type of infection) the mouth, throat, respiratory tract and eyes. The visible membrane covering the head of the penis is a mucous membrane, though it produces no mucus (similar to the lips of the mouth). Mucous membranes differ from skin in that they allow certain pathogens into the body. The amount of contact with infective sources which causes infection varies with each pathogen but in all cases, a disease may result from even light contact from fluid carriers like venereal fluids onto a mucous membrane.Some STIs such as HIV can be transmitted from mother to child either during pregnancy or breastfeeding. Healthcare professionals suggest safer sex, such as the use of condoms, as a reliable way of decreasing the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases during sexual activity, but safer sex cannot be considered to provide complete protection from an STI. The transfer of and exposure to bodily fluids, such as blood transfusions and other blood products, sharing injection needles, needle-stick injuries (when medical staff are inadvertently jabbed or pricked with needles during medical procedures), sharing tattoo needles, and childbirth are other avenues of transmission. These different means put certain groups, such as medical workers, and haemophiliacs and drug users, particularly at risk.It is possible to be an asymptomatic carrier of sexually transmitted diseases. In particular, sexually transmitted diseases in women often cause the serious condition of pelvic inflammatory disease. Diagnosis Testing may be for a single infection, or consist of a number of tests for a range of STIs, including tests for syphilis, trichomonas, gonorrhea, chlamydia, herpes, hepatitis, and HIV. No procedure tests for all infectious agents. STI tests may be used for a number of reasons: as a diagnostic test to determine the cause of symptoms or illness as a screening test to detect asymptomatic or presymptomatic infections as a check that prospective sexual partners are free of disease before they engage in sex without safer sex precautions (for example, when starting a long term mutually monogamous sexual relationship, in fluid bonding, or for procreation). as a check prior to or during pregnancy, to prevent harm to the baby as a check after birth, to check that the baby has not caught an STI from the mother to prevent the use of infected donated blood or organs as part of the process of contact tracing from a known infected individual as part of mass epidemiological surveillanceEarly identification and treatment results in less chance to spread disease, and for some conditions may improve the outcomes of treatment. There is often a window period after initial infection during which an STI test will be negative. During this period, the infection may be transmissible. The duration of this period varies depending on the infection and the test. Diagnosis may also be delayed by reluctance of the infected person to seek a medical professional. One report indicated that people turn to the Internet rather than to a medical professional for information on STIs to a higher degree than for other sexual problems. Classification Until the 1990s, STIs were commonly known as venereal diseases, an antiquated euphemism derived from the Latin venereus, being the adjectival form of Venus, the Roman goddess of love. However, in the post-classical education era the euphemistic effect was entirely lost, and the common abbreviation "VD" held only negative connotations. Other former euphemisms for STIs include "blood diseases" and "social diseases". The present euphemism is in the use of the initials "STI" rather than in the words they represent. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended the more inclusive term sexually transmitted infection since 1999. Public health officials originally introduced the term sexually transmitted infection, which clinicians are increasingly using alongside the term sexually transmitted disease in order to distinguish it from the former. Prevention Strategies for reducing STI risk include: vaccination, mutual monogamy, reducing the number of sexual partners, and abstinence. Also potentially helpful is behavioral counseling for sexually active adolescents and for adults who are at increased risk. Such interactive counseling, which can be resource-intensive, is directed at a person's risk, the situations in which risk occurs, and the use of personalized goal-setting strategies. The most effective way to prevent sexual transmission of STIs is to avoid contact of body parts or fluids which can lead to transfer with an infected partner. Not all sexual activities involve contact: cybersex, phone sex or masturbation from a distance are methods of avoiding contact. Proper use of condoms reduces contact and risk. Although a condom is effective in limiting exposure, some disease transmission may occur even with a condom.Both partners can get tested for STIs before initiating sexual contact, or before resuming contact if a partner engaged in contact with someone else. Many infections are not detectable immediately after exposure, so enough time must be allowed between possible exposures and testing for the tests to be accurate. Certain STIs, particularly certain persistent viruses like HPV, may be impossible to detect.Some treatment facilities use in-home test kits and have the person return the test for follow-up. Other facilities strongly encourage that those previously infected return to ensure that the infection has been eliminated. Novel strategies to foster re-testing have been the use of text messaging and email as reminders. These types of reminders are now used in addition to phone calls and letters. After obtaining a sexual history, a healthcare provider can encourage risk reduction by providing prevention counseling. Prevention counseling is most effective if provided in a nonjudgmental and empathetic manner appropriate to the person's culture, language, gender, sexual orientation, age, and developmental level. Prevention counseling for STIs is usually offered to all sexually active adolescents and to all adults who have received a diagnosis, have had an STI in the past year, or have multiple sex partners. Vaccines Vaccines are available that protect against some viral STIs, such as hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and some types of HPV. Vaccination before initiation of sexual contact is advised to assure maximal protection. The development of vaccines to protect against gonorrhea is ongoing. Condoms Condoms and female condoms only provide protection when used properly as a barrier, and only to and from the area that they cover. Uncovered areas are still susceptible to many STIs.In the case of HIV, sexual transmission routes almost always involve the penis, as HIV cannot spread through unbroken skin; therefore, properly shielding the penis with a properly worn condom from the vagina or anus effectively stops HIV transmission. An infected fluid to broken skin borne direct transmission of HIV would not be considered "sexually transmitted", but can still theoretically occur during sexual contact. This can be avoided simply by not engaging in sexual contact when presenting open, bleeding wounds.Other STIs, even viral infections, can be prevented with the use of latex, polyurethane or polyisoprene condoms as a barrier. Some microorganisms and viruses are small enough to pass through the pores in natural skin condoms but are still too large to pass through latex or synthetic condoms.Proper male condom usage entails: Not putting the condom on too tight at the tip by leaving 1.5 centimetres (0.6 in) room for ejaculation. Putting the condom on too tightly can and often does lead to failure. Wearing a condom too loose can defeat the barrier Avoiding inverting or spilling a condom once worn, whether it has ejaculate in it or not If a user attempts to unroll the condom, but realizes they have it on the wrong side, then this condom may not be effective Being careful with the condom if handling it with long nails Avoiding the use of oil-based lubricants (or anything with oil in it) with latex condoms, as oil can eat holes into them Using flavored condoms for oral sex only, as the sugar in the flavoring can lead to yeast infections if used to penetrateIn order to best protect oneself and the partner from STIs, the old condom and its contents are to be treated as infectious and properly disposed of. A new condom is used for each act of intercourse, as multiple usages increase the chance of breakage, defeating the effectiveness as a barrier.In the case of female condoms, the device consists of two rings, one in each terminal portion. The larger ring should fit snugly over the cervix and the smaller ring remains outside the vagina, covering the vulva. This system provides some protection of the external genitalia. Other The cap was developed after the cervical diaphragm. Both cover the cervix and the main difference between the diaphragm and the cap is that the latter must be used only once, using a new one in each sexual act. The diaphragm, however, can be used more than once. These two devices partially protect against STIs (they do not protect against HIV).Researchers had hoped that nonoxynol-9, a vaginal microbicide would help decrease STI risk. Trials, however, have found it ineffective and it may put women at a higher risk of HIV infection. There is evidence that vaginal dapivirine probably reduces HIV in women who have sex with men, other types of vaginal microbicides have not demonstrated effectiveness for HIV or STI's.There is little evidence that school-based interventions such as sexual and reproductive health education programmes on contraceptive choices and condoms are effective on improving the sexual and reproductive health of adolescents. Incentive-based programmes may reduce adolescent pregnancy but more data is needed to confirm this. Screening Specific age groups, persons who participate in risky sexual behavior, or those have certain health conditions may require screening. The CDC recommends that sexually active women under the age of 25 and those over 25 at risk should be screened for chlamydia and gonorrhea yearly. Appropriate times for screening are during regular pelvic examinations and preconception evaluations. Nucleic acid amplification tests are the recommended method of diagnosis for gonorrhea and chlamydia. This can be done on either urine in both men and women, vaginal or cervical swabs in women, or urethral swabs in men. Screening can be performed: to assess the presence of infection and prevent tubal infertility in women during the initial evaluation before infertility treatment to identify HIV infection for men who have sex with men for those who may have been exposed to hepatitis C for HCV Management In the case of rape, the person can be treated prophylacticly with antibiotics.An option for treating partners of patients (index cases) diagnosed with chlamydia or gonorrhea is patient-delivered partner therapy, which is the clinical practice of treating the sex partners of index cases by providing prescriptions or medications to the patient to take to his/her partner without the health care provider first examining the partner. In term of preventing reinfection in sexually transmitted infection, treatment with both patient and the sexual partner of patient resulted in more successful than treatment of the patient without the sexual partner. There is no difference in reinfection prevention whether the sexual partner treated with medication without medical examination or after notification by patient. Epidemiology In 2008, it was estimated that 500 million people were infected with either syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia or trichomoniasis. At least an additional 530 million people have genital herpes and 290 million women have human papillomavirus. STIs other than HIV resulted in 142,000 deaths in 2013. In the United States there were 19 million new cases of sexually transmitted infections in 2010.In 2010, 19 million new cases of sexually transmitted infections occurred in women in the United States. A 2008 CDC study found that 25–40% of U.S. teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease. Out of a population of almost 295,270,000 people there were 110 million new and existing cases of eight sexually transmitted infections.Over 400,000 sexually transmitted infections were reported in England in 2017, about the same as in 2016, but there were more than 20% increases in confirmed cases of gonorrhoea and syphilis. Since 2008 syphilis cases have risen by 148%, from 2,874 to 7,137, mostly among men who have sex with men. The number of first cases of genital warts in 2017 among girls aged 15–17 years was just 441, 90% less than in 2009 – attributed to the national human papilloma virus immunisation programme.AIDS is among the leading causes of death in present-day Sub-Saharan Africa. HIV/AIDS is transmitted primarily via unprotected sexual intercourse. More than 1.1 million persons are living with HIV/AIDS in the United States, and it disproportionately impacts African Americans. Hepatitis B is also considered a sexually transmitted disease because it can be spread through sexual contact. The highest rates are found in Asia and Africa and lower rates are in the Americas and Europe. Approximately two billion people worldwide have been infected with the hepatitis B virus. History The first well-recorded European outbreak of what is now known as syphilis occurred in 1494 when it broke out among French troops besieging Naples in the Italian War of 1494–98. The disease may have originated from the Columbian Exchange. From Naples, the disease swept across Europe, killing more than five million people. As Jared Diamond describes it, "[W]hen syphilis was first definitely recorded in Europe in 1495, its pustules often covered the body from the head to the knees, caused flesh to fall from people's faces, and led to death within a few months," rendering it far more fatal than it is today. Diamond concludes,"[B]y 1546, the disease had evolved into the disease with the symptoms so well known to us today." Gonorrhea is recorded at least up to 700 years ago and associated with a district in Paris formerly known as "Le Clapiers". This is where the prostitutes were to be found at that time. Prior to the invention of modern medicines, sexually transmitted diseases were generally incurable, and treatment was limited to treating the symptoms of the disease. The first voluntary hospital for venereal diseases was founded in 1746 at London Lock Hospital. Treatment was not always voluntary: in the second half of the 19th century, the Contagious Diseases Acts were used to arrest suspected prostitutes. In 1924, a number of states concluded the Brussels Agreement, whereby states agreed to provide free or low-cost medical treatment at ports for merchant seamen with venereal diseases. A proponent of these approaches was Nora Wattie, OBE, Venereal Diseases Officer in Glasgow from 1929, encouraged contact tracing and volunteering for treatment, rather than the prevailing more judgemental view and published her own research on improving sex education and maternity care.The first effective treatment for a sexually transmitted disease was salvarsan, a treatment for syphilis. With the discovery of antibiotics, a large number of sexually transmitted diseases became easily curable, and this, combined with effective public health campaigns against STIs, led to a public perception during the 1960s and 1970s that they have ceased to be a serious medical threat.During this period, the importance of contact tracing in treating STIs was recognized. By tracing the sexual partners of infected individuals, testing them for infection, treating the infected and tracing their contacts, in turn, STI clinics could effectively suppress infections in the general population.In the 1980s, first genital herpes and then AIDS emerged into the public consciousness as sexually transmitted diseases that could not be cured by modern medicine. AIDS, in particular, has a long asymptomatic period—during which time HIV (the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS) can replicate and the disease can be transmitted to others—followed by a symptomatic period, which leads rapidly to death unless treated. HIV/AIDS entered the United States from Haiti in about 1969. Recognition that AIDS threatened a global pandemic led to public information campaigns and the development of treatments that allow AIDS to be managed by suppressing the replication of HIV for as long as possible. Contact tracing continues to be an important measure, even when diseases are incurable, as it helps to contain infection. See also List of sexually transmitted infections by prevalence Further reading Workowski KA, Bachmann LH, Chan PA, Johnston CM, Muzny CA, Park I, et al. (July 2021). "Sexually Transmitted Infections Treatment Guidelines, 2021" (PDF). MMWR Recomm Rep. 70 (4): 1–187. doi:10.15585/mmwr.rr7004a1. PMC 8344968. PMID 34292926. Aral SO (2008). Behavioral Interventions for Prevention and Control of Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Springer Singapore Pte. Limited. ISBN 978-0-387-85768-8. Faro S (2003). Sexually transmitted diseases in women. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. ISBN 978-0-397-51303-1. Ford CA, Bowers ES (2009). Living with Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Facts on File. ISBN 978-0-8160-7672-7. Sexually transmitted disease. Sehgal VN (2003). Sexually Transmitted Diseases (4th ed.). Jaypee Bros. Medical Publishers. ISBN 978-81-8061-105-6. Shoquist J, Stafford D (2003). The encyclopedia of sexually transmitted diseases. Facts on File. ISBN 978-0-8160-4881-6. Edmund O (1911). "Venereal Diseases" . In Chisholm H (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 983–85. This provides an overview of pre-modern medicine's approach to the diseases. Media related to Sexually transmitted diseases and disorders at Wikimedia Commons Sexually transmitted infection at Curlie CDC Sexually Transmitted Diseases Treatment Guidelines, 2010 STD photo library at Dermnet UNFPA: Breaking the Cycle of Sexually Transmitted Infections at UNFPA STDs In Color: Sexually Transmitted Disease Facts and Photos CDC: Sexually transmitted diseases in the U.S. STI Watch: World Health Organization

Yantian District (simplified Chinese: 盐田区; traditional Chinese: 鹽田區; pinyin: Yántián Qū; Jyutping: Jim4tin4 Keoi1) is one of the nine districts of the city of Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It is adjacent to Shenzhen River and Hong Kong to the south, and is surrounded by Luohu, Longgang and Pingshan districts of Shenzhen. Before 1960s, the northern part of the district belonged to Huiyang County (now Huiyang District, Huizhou). The famous Huizhou Uprising launched by Dr. Sun Yat-sen started in the northern part of the district during 1900. The failure of the revolution had inspired Dr. Sun to revolt against the Qing dynasty, which soon ended in 1912 after the Wuchang Uprising. Due to the proximity to Bao'an County, Northern Yantian merged into the new County in 1960s. In 1978, after the establishment of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone(SEZ), Yantian (as a part of Luohu District), together with several other districts in Bao'an County, formed the new special economic district. In March 1998, Yantian separated from Luohu District after the construction of Yantian Port Area of Shenzhen Port. Subdistricts The size of Yantian district is about 72.63 km2 (28.04 sq mi), divided into four subdistricts: Located on Mirs Bay, Yantian is the location of some of Shenzhen's best-known tourist beaches, Dameisha and Xiaomeisha. Yantian Port Area is also located within the district. Economy Vanke is headquartered in Vanke Center (万科中心) in Dameisha, Yantian District. Industrial zone The Shenzhen Yantian Port Free Trade Zone was set up and approved by the State Council on September 27, 1996, with a total area of 0.85 square kilometer. On August 16, 2004, the project of "zone-port interaction" was approved by the State Council between Yantian Port Area and the Shenzhen Yantian Port Free Trade Zone. Yantian Port Bonded Logistics Park was established with 0.96 square kilometer on December 30, 2005. The zone is situated near Yantian Port Area. Industries that are encouraged include printing/publishing/packaging, raw material processing, shipping/warehousing/logistics, and trading and distribution. Tourist attractions Chung Ying Street(中英街) Wutongshan National Park (梧桐山國家森林公園/梧桐山国家森林公园) Dameisha Beach (大梅沙) Xiaomeisha Beach (小梅沙) Shenzhen Xiaomeisha Sea World (小梅沙海洋世界) OCT East (東部華僑城/东部华侨城) Education Schools operated by the Shenzhen Municipal GovernmentShenzhen Foreign Languages School Senior High School Division Transportation The main bus routes covering Yantian District are shown on the table below, and Shenzhen Metro Line 8 also serves the area. Moreover, there is a ferry between Yantian Seafood Street and Nan'ao, Dapeng New District. Yantian Government Online (English) Yantian Government Online (Chinese)

Riya is an feminine given name. Notable people with the name include: Riya, Japanese singer Riya Bamniyal, Indian actress Riya Deepsi, Indian actress and model Riya Sen (born 1981), Indian actress Riya Suman, Indian actress Riya Vishwanathan, Indian actress

The Latin cogito, ergo sum, usually translated into English as "I think, therefore I am", is the "first principle" of René Descartes's philosophy. He originally published it in French as je pense, donc je suis in his 1637 Discourse on the Method, so as to reach a wider audience than Latin would have allowed. It later appeared in Latin in his Principles of Philosophy, and a similar phrase also featured prominently in his Meditations on First Philosophy. The dictum is also sometimes referred to as the cogito. As Descartes explained in a margin note, "we cannot doubt of our existence while we doubt." In the posthumously published The Search for Truth by Natural Light, he expressed this insight as dubito, ergo sum, vel, quod idem est, cogito, ergo sum ("I doubt, therefore I am — or what is the same — I think, therefore I am"). Antoine Léonard Thomas, in a 1765 essay in honor of Descartes presented it as dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum ("I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am").Descartes's statement became a fundamental element of Western philosophy, as it purported to provide a certain foundation for knowledge in the face of radical doubt. While other knowledge could be a figment of imagination, deception, or mistake, Descartes asserted that the very act of doubting one's own existence served—at minimum—as proof of the reality of one's own mind; there must be a thinking entity—in this case the self—for there to be a thought. One critique of the dictum, first suggested by Pierre Gassendi, is that it presupposes that there is an "I" which must be doing the thinking. According to this line of criticism, the most that Descartes was entitled to say was that "thinking is occurring", not that "I am thinking". In Descartes's writings Descartes first wrote the phrase in French in his 1637 Discourse on the Method. He referred to it in Latin without explicitly stating the familiar form of the phrase in his 1641 Meditations on First Philosophy. The earliest written record of the phrase in Latin is in his 1644 Principles of Philosophy, where, in a margin note (see below), he provides a clear explanation of his intent: "[W]e cannot doubt of our existence while we doubt". Fuller forms of the phrase are attributable to other authors. Discourse on the Method The phrase first appeared (in French) in Descartes's 1637 Discourse on the Method in the first paragraph of its fourth part: Meditations on First Philosophy In 1641, Descartes published (in Latin) Meditations on first philosophy in which he referred to the proposition, though not explicitly as "cogito, ergo sum" in Meditation II: Principles of Philosophy In 1644, Descartes published (in Latin) his Principles of Philosophy where the phrase "ego cogito, ergo sum" appears in Part 1, article 7: Descartes's margin note for the above paragraph is: The Search for Truth by Natural Light Descartes, in a lesser-known posthumously published work dated as written ca. 1647 and titled La Recherche de la Vérité par La Lumiere Naturale (The Search for Truth by Natural Light), provides his only known phrasing of the cogito as cogito, ergo sum and admits that his insight is also expressible as dubito, ergo sum: Other forms The proposition is sometimes given as dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum. This form was penned by the French literary critic, Antoine Léonard Thomas, in an award-winning 1765 essay in praise of Descartes, where it appeared as "Puisque je doute, je pense; puisque je pense, j'existe" ('Since I doubt, I think; since I think, I exist'). With rearrangement and compaction, the passage translates to "I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am," or in Latin, "dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum." This aptly captures Descartes's intent as expressed in his posthumously published La Recherche de la Vérité par La Lumiere Naturale as noted above: I doubt, therefore I am — or what is the same — I think, therefore I am. A further expansion, dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum—res cogitans ("…—a thinking thing") extends the cogito with Descartes's statement in the subsequent Meditation, "Ego sum res cogitans, id est dubitans, affirmans, negans, pauca intelligens, multa ignorans, volens, nolens, imaginans etiam et sentiens…" ("I am a thinking [conscious] thing, that is, a being who doubts, affirms, denies, knows a few objects, and is ignorant of many,-- who loves, hates, wills, refuses, who imagines likewise, and perceives"). This has been referred to as "the expanded cogito." Translation "I am thinking" vs. "I think" While the Latin translation cōgitō may be translated rather easily as "I think/ponder/visualize", je pense does not indicate whether the verb form corresponds to the English simple present or progressive aspect. Technically speaking, the French lemma pense by itself is actually the result of numerous different conjugations of the verb penser (to think) – it could mean "I think... (something)"/"He thinks... (something)", "I think."/"He thinks.", or even "You (must) think... (something).", thereby necessitating the use of the wider context, or a pronoun, to understand the meaning. In the case of je pense, a pronoun is already included, je or "I", but this still leaves the question of whether "I think..." or "I think." is intended. Therefore, translation needs a larger context to determine aspect.Following John Lyons (1982), Vladimir Žegarac notes, "The temptation to use the simple present is said to arise from the lack of progressive forms in Latin and French, and from a misinterpretation of the meaning of cogito as habitual or generic" (cf. gnomic aspect). Also following Lyons, Ann Banfield writes, "In order for the statement on which Descartes's argument depends to represent certain knowledge,… its tense must be a true present—in English, a progressive,… not as 'I think' but as 'I am thinking, in conformity with the general translation of the Latin or French present tense in such nongeneric, nonstative contexts." Or in the words of Simon Blackburn, "Descartes's premise is not 'I think' in the sense of 'I ski', which can be true even if you are not at the moment skiing. It is supposed to be parallel to 'I am skiing'."The similar translation "I am thinking, therefore I exist" of Descartes's correspondence in French ("je pense, donc je suis") appears in The Philosophical Writings of Descartes by Cottingham et al. (1988).: 247 The earliest known translation as "I am thinking, therefore I am" is from 1872 by Charles Porterfield Krauth.Fumitaka Suzuki writes "Taking consideration of Cartesian theory of continuous creation, which theory was developed especially in the Meditations and in the Principles, we would assure that 'I am thinking, therefore I am/exist' is the most appropriate English translation of 'ego cogito, ergo sum'." "I exist" vs. "I am" Alexis Deodato S. Itao notes that cogito, ergo sum is "literally 'I think, therefore I am'." Others differ: 1) "[A] precise English translation will read as 'I am thinking, therefore I exist'.; and 2) "[S]ince Descartes ... emphasized that existence is such an important 'notion,' a better translation is 'I am thinking, therefore I exist.'" Punctuation Descartes wrote this phrase as such only once, in the posthumously published lesser-known work noted above, The Search for Truth by Natural Light. It appeared there mid-sentence, uncapitalized, and with a comma. (Commas were not used in Classical Latin but were a regular feature of scholastic Latin, the Latin Descartes "had learned in a Jesuit college at La Flèche.") Most modern reference works show it with a comma, but it is often presented without a comma in academic work and in popular usage. In Descartes's Principia Philosophiae, the proposition appears as ego cogito, ergo sum. Interpretation As put succinctly by Krauth (1872), "That cannot doubt which does not think, and that cannot think which does not exist. I doubt, I think, I exist."The phrase cogito, ergo sum is not used in Descartes's Meditations on First Philosophy but the term "the cogito" is used to refer to an argument from it. In the Meditations, Descartes phrases the conclusion of the argument as "that the proposition, I am, I exist, is necessarily true whenever it is put forward by me or conceived in my mind" (Meditation II). George Henry Lewes says Descartes "has told us that [his objective] was to find a starting point from which to reason—to find an irreversible certainty. And where did he find this? In his own consciousness. Doubt as I may, I cannot doubt of my own existence, because my very doubts reveal to me a something which doubts. You may call this an assumption, if you will; I point out the fact as one above and beyond all logic; which logic can neither prove nor disprove; but which must always remain an irreversible certainty, and as such a fitting basis of philosophy."At the beginning of the second meditation, having reached what he considers to be the ultimate level of doubt—his argument from the existence of a deceiving god—Descartes examines his beliefs to see if any have survived the doubt. In his belief in his own existence, he finds that it is impossible to doubt that he exists. Even if there were a deceiving god (or an evil demon), one's belief in their own existence would be secure, for there is no way one could be deceived unless one existed in order to be deceived. But I have convinced myself that there is absolutely nothing in the world, no sky, no earth, no minds, no bodies. Does it now follow that I, too, do not exist? No. If I convinced myself of something [or thought anything at all], then I certainly existed. But there is a deceiver of supreme power and cunning who deliberately and constantly deceives me. In that case, I, too, undoubtedly exist, if he deceives me; and let him deceive me as much as he can, he will never bring it about that I am nothing, so long as I think that I am something. So, after considering everything very thoroughly, I must finally conclude that the proposition, I am, I exist, is necessarily true whenever it is put forward by me or conceived in my mind. (AT VII 25; CSM II 16–17) There are three important notes to keep in mind here. First, he claims only the certainty of his own existence from the first-person point of view — he has not proved the existence of other minds at this point. This is something that has to be thought through by each of us for ourselves, as we follow the course of the meditations. Second, he does not say that his existence is necessary; he says that if he thinks, then necessarily he exists (see the instantiation principle). Third, this proposition "I am, I exist" is held true not based on a deduction (as mentioned above) or on empirical induction but on the clarity and self-evidence of the proposition. Descartes does not use this first certainty, the cogito, as a foundation upon which to build further knowledge; rather, it is the firm ground upon which he can stand as he works to discover further truths. As he puts it: Archimedes used to demand just one firm and immovable point in order to shift the entire earth; so I too can hope for great things if I manage to find just one thing, however slight, that is certain and unshakable. (AT VII 24; CSM II 16) According to many Descartes specialists, including Étienne Gilson, the goal of Descartes in establishing this first truth is to demonstrate the capacity of his criterion — the immediate clarity and distinctiveness of self-evident propositions — to establish true and justified propositions despite having adopted a method of generalized doubt. As a consequence of this demonstration, Descartes considers science and mathematics to be justified to the extent that their proposals are established on a similarly immediate clarity, distinctiveness, and self-evidence that presents itself to the mind. The originality of Descartes's thinking, therefore, is not so much in expressing the cogito—a feat accomplished by other predecessors, as we shall see—but on using the cogito as demonstrating the most fundamental epistemological principle, that science and mathematics are justified by relying on clarity, distinctiveness, and self-evidence. Baruch Spinoza in "Principia philosophiae cartesianae" at its Prolegomenon identified "cogito ergo sum" the "ego sum cogitans" (I am a thinking being) as the thinking substance with his ontological interpretation. Predecessors Although the idea expressed in cogito, ergo sum is widely attributed to Descartes, he was not the first to mention it. Plato spoke about the "knowledge of knowledge" (Greek: νόησις νοήσεως, nóesis noéseos) and Aristotle explains the idea in full length: But if life itself is good and pleasant…and if one who sees is conscious that he sees, one who hears that he hears, one who walks that he walks and similarly for all the other human activities there is a faculty that is conscious of their exercise, so that whenever we perceive, we are conscious that we perceive, and whenever we think, we are conscious that we think, and to be conscious that we are perceiving or thinking is to be conscious that we exist... (Nicomachean Ethics, 1170a 25 ff.) The Cartesian statement was interpreted to be an Aristotelian syllogism where the premise that all thinkers are also beings is not made explicit.In the late sixth or early fifth century BC, Parmenides is quoted as saying "For to be aware and to be are the same". (Fragment B3) In the early fifth century AD, Augustine of Hippo in De Civitate Dei (book XI, 26) affirmed his certain knowledge of his own existence, and added: "So far as these truths are concerned, I do not at all fear the arguments of the Academics when they say, What if you are mistaken? For if I am mistaken, I exist." This formulation (si fallor, sum) is sometimes called the Augustinian cogito. In 1640, Descartes wrote to thank Andreas Colvius (a friend of Descartes's mentor, Isaac Beeckman) for drawing his attention to Augustine: I am obliged to you for drawing my attention to the passage of St Augustine relevant to my I am thinking, therefore I exist. I went today to the library of this town to read it, and I do indeed find that he does use it to prove the certainty of our existence. He goes on to show that there is a certain likeness of the Trinity in us, in that we exist, we know that we exist, and we love the existence and the knowledge we have. I, on the other hand, use the argument to show that this I which is thinking is an immaterial substance with no bodily element. These are two very different things. In itself it is such a simple and natural thing to infer that one exists from the fact that one is doubting that it could have occurred to any writer. But I am very glad to find myself in agreement with St Augustine, if only to hush the little minds who have tried to find fault with the principle.: 159  Another predecessor was Avicenna's "Floating Man" thought experiment on human self-awareness and self-consciousness.The 8th century Hindu philosopher Adi Shankara wrote, in a similar fashion, that no one thinks 'I am not', arguing that one's existence cannot be doubted, as there must be someone there to doubt.Spanish philosopher Gómez Pereira in his 1554 work De Inmortalitate Animae, wrote "nosco me aliquid noscere, & quidquid noscit, est, ergo ego sum" ('I know that I know something, anyone who knows is, therefore I am'). Critique Use of "I" In Descartes, The Project of Pure Enquiry, Bernard Williams provides a history and full evaluation of this issue. The first to raise the "I" problem was Pierre Gassendi, who in his Disquisitio Metaphysica, as noted by Saul Fisher "points out that recognition that one has a set of thoughts does not imply that one is a particular thinker or another. …[T]he only claim that is indubitable here is the agent-independent claim that there is cognitive activity present."The objection, as presented by Georg Lichtenberg, is that rather than supposing an entity that is thinking, Descartes should have said: "thinking is occurring." That is, whatever the force of the cogito, Descartes draws too much from it; the existence of a thinking thing, the reference of the "I," is more than the cogito can justify. Friedrich Nietzsche criticized the phrase in that it presupposes that there is an "I", that there is such an activity as "thinking", and that "I" know what "thinking" is. He suggested a more appropriate phrase would be "it thinks" wherein the "it" could be an impersonal subject as in the sentence "It is raining." Kierkegaard The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard calls the phrase a tautology in his Concluding Unscientific Postscript.: 38–42  He argues that the cogito already presupposes the existence of "I", and therefore concluding with existence is logically trivial. Kierkegaard's argument can be made clearer if one extracts the premise "I think" into the premises "'x' thinks" and "I am that 'x'", where "x" is used as a placeholder in order to disambiguate the "I" from the thinking thing.Here, the cogito has already assumed the "I"'s existence as that which thinks. For Kierkegaard, Descartes is merely "developing the content of a concept", namely that the "I", which already exists, thinks.: 40  As Kierkegaard argues, the proper logical flow of argument is that existence is already assumed or presupposed in order for thinking to occur, not that existence is concluded from that thinking. Williams Bernard Williams claims that what we are dealing with when we talk of thought, or when we say "I am thinking," is something conceivable from a third-person perspective—namely objective "thought-events" in the former case, and an objective thinker in the latter. He argues, first, that it is impossible to make sense of "there is thinking" without relativizing it to something. However, this something cannot be Cartesian egos, because it is impossible to differentiate objectively between things just on the basis of the pure content of consciousness. The obvious problem is that, through introspection, or our experience of consciousness, we have no way of moving to conclude the existence of any third-personal fact, to conceive of which would require something above and beyond just the purely subjective contents of the mind. Audre Lorde The American writer, professor, philosopher, intersectional feminist and civil rights activist Audre Lorde responded that while 'The white fathers told us: I think, therefore I am. The black mother within each of us—the poet—whispers in our dreams: I feel, therefore I can be free', thus emphasising emotion and feeling as another important determiner of truth and our shared humanity. Heidegger As a critic of Cartesian subjectivity, Heidegger sought to ground human subjectivity in death as that certainty which individualizes and authenticates our being. As he wrote in 1925 in History of the Concept of Time:This certainty, that "I myself am in that I will die," is the basic certainty of Dasein itself. It is a genuine statement of Dasein, while cogito sum is only the semblance of such a statement. If such pointed formulations mean anything at all, then the appropriate statement pertaining to Dasein in its being would have to be sum moribundus [I am in dying], moribundus not as someone gravely ill or wounded, but insofar as I am, I am moribundus. The MORIBUNDUS first gives the SUM its sense. John Macmurray The Scottish philosopher John Macmurray rejects the cogito outright in order to place action at the center of a philosophical system he entitles the Form of the Personal. "We must reject this, both as standpoint and as method. If this be philosophy, then philosophy is a bubble floating in an atmosphere of unreality." The reliance on thought creates an irreconcilable dualism between thought and action in which the unity of experience is lost, thus dissolving the integrity of our selves, and destroying any connection with reality. In order to formulate a more adequate cogito, Macmurray proposes the substitution of "I do" for "I think," ultimately leading to a belief in God as an agent to whom all persons stand in relation. See also Cartesian doubt Floating man Solipsism Academic skepticism Brain in a vat I Am that I Am Tat Tvam Asi, "You are that" The Animal That Therefore I Am Vertiginous question Further reading Abraham, W. E. 1974. "Disentangling the Cogito." Mind 83:329. Baird, Forrest E., and Walter Kaufmann. 2008. From Plato to Derrida. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-158591-1. Boufoy-Bastick, Z. 2005. "Introducing 'Applicable Knowledge' as a Challenge to the Attainment of Absolute Knowledge." Sophia Journal of Philosophy 8:39–52. Christofidou, A. 2013. Self, Reason, and Freedom: A New Light on Descartes' Metaphysics. Routledge. Hatfield, G. 2003. Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Descartes and the Meditations. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-11192-7. Kierkegaard, Søren. [1844] 1985. Philosophical Fragments. Princeton. ISBN 978-0-691-02036-5. — [1846] 1985. Concluding Unscientific Postscript. Princeton. ISBN 978-0-691-02081-5. Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). "Descartes's Epistemology". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Syu (Japanese: シュウ, Hepburn: Shū) is a Japanese musician, best known as leader and guitarist of the power metal band Galneryus. He also performs guitar and lead vocals in Spinalcord (formerly known as Aushvitz) and was formerly a member of Animetal. Under his own name, Syu has released one studio album, one cover album and one instrumental album, each featuring collaborations with many guest musicians. He was voted Best Guitarist in online music magazine Beeast's music awards four years in a row, from 2015 to 2018. His work on Galneryus' song "Emotions" was named the 73rd best guitar instrumental by Young Guitar Magazine in 2019. Early life With parents who played the piano, Syu started playing the instrument at the age of four, but soon stopped. He then started playing the violin at age six, and continued to do so until he was 12 or 13 years old. In fourth grade of elementary school, he discovered X Japan and dove into rock music. With Yoshiki his favorite member, Syu started to play drums alongside violin. He played the drums in a band called Cross-Large, but could not find good musicians to play with. He switched to guitar after finding it easier because guitar and violin are relatively similar. He also said he could better express himself through guitar than through drums. Career Syu joined visual kei band Valkyr in August 1998, nearly a year later they released their first demo tape, titled "Love of Insanity". In August 2000, they released a "making of" VHS. In 2001 they finally released their first single, "Batta". After releasing 5 demos, a single and a VHS, the band broke up on April 24, 2002. When Valkyr broke up, Syu formed the bands Galneryus and Aushvitz with its remaining members.While at a live house in Kujō, Osaka, Syu heard fellow Kansai-native Yama-B on the radio and knew he wanted to work with him. Galneryus formed in 2001 with only Syu and Yama-B as official members. Valkyr keyboardist A was one of their support musicians. In 2002, they signed to VAP and began work on their first full-length album titled The Flag of Punishment. In 2008 they released their fifth album Reincarnation, which became their last with Yama-B as he left amicably due to musical differences. He was replaced by Masatoshi "Sho" Ono and in 2010 Galneryus released their sixth full-length album, aptly titled Resurrection. Visual kei band Aushvitz was formed in 2002 with Syu on guitar and vocals and his Valkyr bandmate Kyoichi on bass. They released their first single, "Akarui" (赤涙), in September of that year. It is with Aushvitz that Syu is free to do what he wants musically, and they have a theme of "violence, hardness, and extreme sorrow". He chose the name Aushvitz, a reference to the Auschwitz concentration camp, with the "hope it won't happen again" and wanting to "express my heart-rending feelings" and the members wear prison uniforms. In 2006 Galneryus drummer Jun-ichi joined. Although Syu announced in June 2006 that they would be changing their name with their next release, it was not until 2008 that the new name Spinalcord was unveiled and the single, "The Spinalcord", was released. They released their first album, Remember Me'Til Your Dying Day, on September 23, 2009. When asked about the future of Spinalcord in 2017, Syu expressed dissatisfaction with his vocals at the time, but said if he could achieve a quality of singing that would allow him to perform for an audience, he would like to.In 2003, Syu joined the Eizo Sakamoto-led Animetal as their new guitarist and moved from Osaka to Tokyo. He joined at the suggestion of producer Yorimasa Hisatake. He recorded four albums with them before they went on indefinite hiatus in 2006. On September 29, 2010, Syu released a cover album on HPQ titled Crying Stars -Stand Proud!-, covering songs from the 1980s and 1990s by Racer X, Yngwie Malmsteen, Arch Enemy and more. It features many guests including his Galneryus and Spinalcord bandmates, Eizo Sakamoto, and other well-known musicians like Panther. In 2014 Syu composed the music for "Biran no Kaze" (毘藍ノ風), which Ryuji Aoki sang as the opening theme song for the anime adaptation of Laughing Under the Clouds.Syu contributed significantly to the first solo album by Rami, 2016's Aspiration. Vap released his instrumental solo album You Play Hard on November 9, 2016. It features Katsuji (Animetal, Gargoyle) and Yasuhiro Mizuno (Saber Tiger) in addition to Galneryus members. Syu's album Vorvados was released on January 23, 2019, by Warner Music Japan. It features collaborations with guest vocalists such as Fuki (Unlucky Morpheus), Sono (Matenrou Opera) and Dancho (Nogod), and English musician Jacky Vincent. In 2020, Syu was one of many metal musicians from around the world who contributed to a cover of Deep Purple's "Burn" for the Metal For Kids United charity organization. Style and influences Syu has said that "all progressive- and symphonic metal guitarists have influenced my work" and that he has too many guitar influences to list. Some he has named include Ulrich Roth, Michael Schenker, Yngwie Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert, John Petrucci, and Gary Moore. He has also stated that hide and X influenced him greatly, and that he really liked Luna Sea "in their prime". Lovebites guitarist Midori has cited Syu as one of her guitar influences and said he has a uniquely Japanese style of playing.When composing music and trying to decide which of his projects the song will go to, Syu said he imagines the vocalist's voice and whether or not it matches the song. Syu stated that a song must still be good even when stripped down to just vocals and piano. The guitarist has also said that while he wants to stand out, the vocalist should stand out the most. Equipment Syu has a signature series of guitars available from ESP Guitars. Discography Solo Crying Stars -Stand Proud!- (September 29, 2010, cover album), Oricon Albums Chart Peak Position: No. 91 You Play Hard (November 9, 2016, instrumental album) No. 43 Vorvados (January 23, 2019) No. 24 With Spinalcord Remember Me 'til Your Dying Day (2009) With Animetal Animetal Marathon V (2003) Animetal Marathon VI (2004) Animetal Marathon VII (2005) Decade of Bravehearts (2006) Galneryus VAP profile Valkyr JaME Profile Official website Official blog Syu ESP guitar gallery

An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records collected in a bound book resembling a photo album; this format evolved after 1948 into single vinyl long-playing (LP) records played at 33+1⁄3 rpm. The album was the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption from the mid-1960s to the early 21st century, a period known as the album era. Vinyl LPs are still issued, though album sales in the 21st-century have mostly focused on CD and MP3 formats. The 8-track tape was the first tape format widely used alongside vinyl from 1965 until being phased out by 1983 and was gradually supplanted by the cassette tape during the 1970s and early 1980s; the popularity of the cassette reached its peak during the late 1980s, sharply declined during the 1990s and had largely disappeared during the first decade of the 2000s. Most albums are recorded in a studio, although they may also be recorded in a concert venue, at home, in the field, or a mix of places. The time frame for completely recording an album varies between a few hours to several years. This process usually requires several takes with different parts recorded separately, and then brought or "mixed" together. Recordings that are done in one take without overdubbing are termed "live", even when done in a studio. Studios are built to absorb sound, eliminating reverberation, to assist in mixing different takes; other locations, such as concert venues and some "live rooms", have reverberation, which creates a "live" sound. Recordings, including live, may contain editing, sound effects, voice adjustments, etc. With modern recording technology, artists can be recorded in separate rooms or at separate times while listening to the other parts using headphones; with each part recorded as a separate track. Album covers and liner notes are used, and sometimes additional information is provided, such as analysis of the recording, and lyrics or librettos. Historically, the term "album" was applied to a collection of various items housed in a book format. In musical usage, the word was used for collections of short pieces of printed music from the early nineteenth century. Later, collections of related 78 rpm records were bundled in book-like albums (one side of a 78 rpm record could hold only about 3.5 minutes of sound). When LP records were introduced, a collection of pieces or songs on a single record was called an "album"; the word was extended to other recording media such as compact disc, MiniDisc, compact audio cassette, 8-track tape and digital albums as they were introduced. History An album (Latin albus, white), in ancient Rome, was a board chalked or painted white, on which decrees, edicts, and other public notices were inscribed in black. It was from this that in medieval and modern times, album came to denote a book of blank pages in which verses, autographs, sketches, photographs and the like are collected. This in turn led to the modern meaning of an album as a collection of audio recordings issued as a single item. The first audio albums were actually published by the publishers of photograph albums. Single 78 rpm records were sold in a brown heavy paper sleeve with a large hole in the center so the record's label could be seen. The fragile records were stored on their sides. By the mid-1920s, photo album publishers sold collections of empty sleeves of heavier paper in bound volumes with stiff covers slightly larger than the 10" popular records. (Classical records measured 12".) On the paper cover in small type were the words "Record Album." Now records could be stored vertically with the record not touching the shelf, and the term was applied to the collection.In the early nineteenth century, "album" was occasionally used in the titles of some classical music sets, such as Robert Schumann's Album for the Young Opus 68, a set of 43 short pieces.With the advent of 78 rpm records in the early 1900s, the typical 10-inch disc could only hold about three minutes of sound per side, so almost all popular recordings were limited to around three minutes in length. Classical-music and spoken-word items generally were released on the longer 12-inch 78s, playing around 4–5 minutes per side. For example, in 1924, George Gershwin recorded a drastically shortened version of his new seventeen-minute composition Rhapsody in Blue with Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra. The recording was issued on both sides of a single record, Victor 55225 and ran for 8m 59s. By 1910, though some European record companies had issued albums of complete operas and other works, the practice of issuing albums was not widely taken up by American record companies until the 1920s. By about 1910, bound collections of empty sleeves with a paperboard or leather cover, similar to a photograph album, were sold as record albums that customers could use to store their records (the term "record album" was printed on some covers). These albums came in both 10-inch and 12-inch sizes. The covers of these bound books were wider and taller than the records inside, allowing the record album to be placed on a shelf upright, like a book, suspending the fragile records above the shelf and protecting them. In the 1930s, record companies began issuing collections of 78 rpm records by one performer or of one type of music in specially assembled albums, typically with artwork on the front cover and liner notes on the back or inside cover. Most albums included three or four records, with two sides each, making six or eight compositions per album.By the mid-1930s, record companies had adopted the album format for classical music selections that were longer than the roughly eight minutes that fit on both sides of a classical 12" 78 rpm record. Initially the covers were plain, with the name of the selection and performer in small type. In 1938, Columbia records hired the first graphic designer in the business to design covers, others soon followed and colorful album covers cover became an important selling feature.By the later '30s, record companies began releasing albums of previously released recordings of popular music in albums organized by performer, singers or bands, or by type of music, boogie-woogie, for example.When Columbia introduced the Long Playing record format in 1948, it was natural the term album would continue. Columbia expected that the record size distinction in 78s would continue, with classical music on 12" records and popular music on 10" records, and singles on 78s. Columbia's first popular 10" LP in fact was Frank Sinatra's first album, the four-record eight-song "The Voice", originally issued in 1946.RCA's introduction of the smaller 45 rpm format later in 1948 disrupted Columbia's expectations. By the mid-1950s, 45s dominated the singles market and 12" LPs dominated the album market and both 78s and 10" LPs were discontinued. In the 1950s albums of popular music were also issued on 45s, sold in small heavy paper-covered "gate-fold" albums with multiple discs in sleeves or in sleeves in small boxes. This format disappeared around 1960. Sinatra's "The Voice" was issued in 1952 on two extended play 45s, with two songs on each side, in both packagings.The 10-inch and 12-inch LP record (long play), or 33+1⁄3 rpm microgroove vinyl record, is a gramophone record format introduced by Columbia Records in 1948. A single LP record often had the same or similar number of tunes as a typical album of 78s, and it was adopted by the record industry as a standard format for the "album". Apart from relatively minor refinements and the important later addition of stereophonic sound capability, it has remained the standard format for vinyl albums. The term "album" was extended to other recording media such as 8-track tape, audio cassette, compact disc, MiniDisc, and digital albums, as they were introduced. As part of a trend of shifting sales in the music industry, some observers feel that the early 21st century experienced the death of the album. Length An album may contain any number of tracks. In the United States, The Recording Academy's rules for Grammy Awards state that an album must comprise a minimum total playing time of 15 minutes with at least five distinct tracks or a minimum total playing time of 30 minutes with no minimum track requirement. In the United Kingdom, the criteria for the UK Albums Chart is that a recording counts as an "album" if it either has more than four tracks or lasts more than 25 minutes. Sometimes shorter albums are referred to as mini-albums or EPs. Albums such as Tubular Bells, Amarok, and Hergest Ridge by Mike Oldfield, and Yes' Close to the Edge, include fewer than four tracks, but still surpass the 25-minute mark. The album Dopesmoker by Sleep contains only a single track, but the composition is over 63 minutes long. There are no formal rules against artists such as Pinhead Gunpowder referring to their own releases under thirty minutes as "albums". If an album becomes too long to fit onto a single vinyl record or CD, it may be released as a double album where two vinyl LPs or compact discs are packaged together in a single case, or a triple album containing three LPs or compact discs. Recording artists who have an extensive back catalogue may re-release several CDs in one single box with a unified design, often containing one or more albums (in this scenario, these releases can sometimes be referred to as a "two (or three)-fer"), or a compilation of previously unreleased recordings. These are known as box sets. Some musical artists have also released more than three compact discs or LP records of new recordings at once, in the form of boxed sets, although in that case the work is still usually considered to be an album. Tracks Material (music or sounds) is stored on an album in sections termed tracks. A music track (often simply referred to as a track) is an individual song or instrumental recording. The term is particularly associated with popular music where separate tracks are known as album tracks; the term is also used for other formats such as EPs and singles. When vinyl records were the primary medium for audio recordings a track could be identified visually from the grooves and many album covers or sleeves included numbers for the tracks on each side. On a compact disc the track number is indexed so that a player can jump straight to the start of any track. On digital music stores such as iTunes the term song is often used interchangeably with track regardless of whether there is any vocal content. A track that has the same name as the album is called the title track. Bonus tracks A bonus track (also known as a bonus cut or bonus) is a piece of music which has been included as an extra. This may be done as a marketing promotion, or for other reasons. It is not uncommon to include singles, B-sides, live recordings, and demo recordings as bonus tracks on re-issues of old albums, where those tracks were not originally included. Online music stores allow buyers to create their own albums by selecting songs themselves; bonus tracks may be included if a customer buys a whole album rather than just one or two songs from the artist. The song is not necessarily free nor is it available as a stand-alone download, adding also to the incentive to buy the complete album. In contrast to hidden tracks, bonus tracks are included on track listings and usually do not have a gap of silence between other album tracks. Bonus tracks on CD or vinyl albums are common in Japan for releases by European and North American artists; since importing international copies of the album can be cheaper than buying a domestically released version, Japanese releases often feature bonus tracks to incentivize domestic purchase. Audio formats Non-audio printed format Commercial sheet music are published in conjunction with the release of a new album (studio, compilation, soundtrack, etc.). A matching folio songbook is a compilation of the music notation of all the songs included in that particular album. It typically has the album's artwork on its cover and, in addition to sheet music, it includes photos of the artist. Most pop and rock releases come in standard Piano/Vocal/Guitar notation format (and occasionally Easy Piano / E-Z Play Today). Rock-oriented releases may also come in Guitar Recorded Versions edition, which are note-for-note transcriptions written directly from artist recordings. Vinyl records Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one-half of the album. If a pop or rock album contained tracks released separately as commercial singles, they were conventionally placed in particular positions on the album. During the sixties, particularly in the UK, singles were generally released separately from albums. Today, many commercial albums of music tracks feature one or more singles, which are released separately to radio, TV or the Internet as a way of promoting the album. Albums have been issued that are compilations of older tracks not originally released together, such as singles not originally found on albums, b-sides of singles, or unfinished "demo" recordings.Double albums during the seventies were sometimes sequenced for record changers. In the case of a two-record set, for example, sides 1 and 4 would be stamped on one record, and sides 2 and 3 on the other. The user would stack the two records onto the spindle of an automatic record changer, with side 1 on the bottom and side 2 (on the other record) on top. Side 1 would automatically drop onto the turntable and be played. When finished, the tone arm's position would trigger a mechanism which moved the arm out of the way, dropped the record with side 2, and played it. When both records had been played, the user would pick up the stack, turn it over, and put them back on the spindle—sides 3 and 4 would then play in sequence. Record changers were used for many years of the LP era, but eventually fell out of use. 8-track tape 8-track tape (formally Stereo 8: commonly known as the eight-track cartridge, eight-track tape, or simply eight-track) is a magnetic tape sound recording technology popular in the United States from the mid-1960s to the late 1970s when the Compact Cassette format took over. The format is regarded as an obsolete technology, and was relatively unknown outside the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.Stereo 8 was created in 1964 by a consortium led by Bill Lear of Lear Jet Corporation, along with Ampex, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Motorola, and RCA Victor Records. It was a further development of the similar Stereo-Pak four-track cartridge created by Earl "Madman" Muntz. A later quadraphonic version of the format was announced by RCA in April 1970 and first known as Quad-8, then later changed to just Q8. Compact cassette The Compact Cassette was a popular medium for distributing pre-recorded music from the early 1970s to the early 2000s. The first "Compact Cassette" was introduced by Philips in August 1963 in the form of a prototype. Compact Cassettes became especially popular during the 1980s after the advent of the Sony Walkman, which allowed the person to control what they listened to. The Walkman was convenient because of its size, the device could fit in most pockets and often came equipped with a clip for belts or pants.The compact cassette used double-sided magnetic tape to distribute music for commercial sale. The music is recorded on both the "A" and "B" side of the tape, with cassette being "turned" to play the other side of the album. Compact Cassettes were also a popular way for musicians to record "Demos" or "Demo Tapes" of their music to distribute to various record labels, in the hopes of acquiring a recording contract.Compact cassettes also saw the creation of mixtapes, which are tapes containing a compilation of songs created by any average listener of music. The songs on a mixtape generally relate to one another in some way, whether it be a conceptual theme or an overall sound. After the introduction of Compact discs, the term "Mixtape" began to apply to any personal compilation of songs on any given format.The sales of Compact Cassettes eventually began to decline in the 1990s, after the release and distribution Compact Discs. The 2010s saw a revival of Compact Cassettes by independent record labels and DIY musicians who preferred the format because of its difficulty to share over the internet. Compact disc The compact disc format replaced both the vinyl record and the cassette as the standard for the commercial mass-market distribution of physical music albums. After the introduction of music downloading and MP3 players such as the iPod, US album sales dropped 54.6% from 2001 to 2009. The CD is a digital data storage device which permits digital recording technology to be used to record and play-back the recorded music. MP3 albums, and similar Most recently, the MP3 audio format has matured, revolutionizing the concept of digital storage. Early MP3 albums were essentially CD-rips created by early CD-ripping software, and sometimes real-time rips from cassettes and vinyl. The so-called "MP3 album" is not necessarily just in MP3 file format, in which higher quality formats such as FLAC and WAV can be used on storage media that MP3 albums reside on, such as CD-R-ROMs, hard drives, flash memory (e.g. thumbdrives, MP3 players, SD cards), etc. Types of album The contents of the album are usually recorded in a studio or live in concert, though may be recorded in other locations, such as at home (as with JJ Cale's Okie, Beck's Odelay, David Gray's White Ladder, and others), in the field – as with early Blues recordings, in prison, or with a mobile recording unit such as the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio. Studio Most albums are studio albums — that is, they are recorded in a recording studio with equipment meant to give those overseeing the recording as much control as possible over the sound of the album. They minimize external noises and reverberations and have highly sensitive microphones and sound mixing equipment. In some studios, each member of a band records their part in separate rooms (or even at separate times, while listening to the other parts of the track with headphones to keep the timing right). In the 2000s, with the advent of digital recording, it became possible for musicians to record their part of a song in another studio in another part of the world, and send their contribution over digital channels to be included in the final product. Live Recordings that are done in one take without overdubbing or multi-tracking are termed "live", even when done in a studio. However, the common understanding of a "live album" is one that was recorded at a concert with a public audience, even when the recording is overdubbed or multi-tracked. Concert or stage performances are recorded using remote recording techniques. Albums may be recorded at a single concert, or combine recordings made at multiple concerts. They may include applause, laughter and other noise from the audience, monologues by the performers between pieces, improvisation, and so on. They may use multitrack recording direct from the stage sound system (rather than microphones placed among the audience), and can employ additional manipulation and effects during post-production to enhance the quality of the recording. Notable early live albums include the double album of Benny Goodman, The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert, released in 1950. Live double albums later became popular during the 1970s. Appraising the concept in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau said most "are profit-taking recaps marred by sound and format inappropriate to phonographic reproduction (you can't put sights, smells, or fellowship on audio tape). But for Joe Cocker and Bette Midler and Bob-Dylan-in-the-arena, the form makes a compelling kind of sense."Eric Clapton's Unplugged (1992), over 26 million copies, Garth Brooks' Double Live (1998), over 21 million copies, and Peter Frampton's Frampton Comes Alive! (1976), over 11 million copies, are among the best selling live albums. In Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time 18 albums were live albums. Solo A solo album, in popular music, is an album recorded by a current or former member of a musical group which is released under that artist's name only, even though some or all other band members may be involved. The solo album appeared as early as the late 1940s. A 1947 Billboard magazine article heralded "Margaret Whiting huddling with Capitol execs over her first solo album on which she will be backed by Frank De Vol". There is no formal definition setting forth the amount of participation a band member can solicit from other members of their band, and still have the album referred to as a solo album. One reviewer wrote that Ringo Starr's third venture, Ringo, "[t]echnically... wasn't a solo album because all four Beatles appeared on it". Three of the four members of the Beatles released solo albums while the group was officially still together. A performer may record a solo album for several reasons. A solo performer working with other members will typically have full creative control of the band, be able to hire and fire accompanists, and get the majority of the proceeds. The performer may be able to produce songs that differ widely from the sound of the band with which the performer has been associated, or that the group as a whole chose not to include in its own albums. Graham Nash of The Hollies described his experience in developing a solo album as follows: "The thing that I go through that results in a solo album is an interesting process of collecting songs that can't be done, for whatever reason, by a lot of people". A solo album may also represent the departure of the performer from the group. Compilation album A compilation album is a collection of material from various recording projects or various artists, assembled with a theme such as the "greatest hits" from one artist, B-sides and rarities by one artist, or selections from a record label, a musical genre, a certain time period, or a regional music scene. Promotional sampler albums are compilations. Tribute or cover A tribute or cover album is a compilation of cover versions of songs or instrumental compositions. Its concept may involve various artists covering the songs of a single artist, genre or period, a single artist covering the songs of various artists or a single artist, genre or period, or any variation of an album of cover songs which is marketed as a "tribute". See also

Lai Tung-kwok, GBS, IDSM, JP (Chinese: 黎棟國; Jyutping: lai4 dung3 gwok3; born 12 November 1951 in Hong Kong) is a retired civil servant and principal official who held the position of Secretary for Security of Hong Kong between 2012 and 2017. He previously served as Under Secretary for Security from 2009 to 2012 and Director of Immigration from 2002 to 2008. Lai joined the Hong Kong government as an Assistant Immigration Officer in 1973. He was promoted to Immigration Officer in 1980, Senior Immigration Officer in 1986, Chief Immigration Officer in 1990, Assistant Principal Immigration Officer in 1992, Principal Immigration Officer in 1995, Senior Principal Immigration Officer in 1997 and to Assistant Director of Immigration in 1999. He was promoted to Deputy Director of Immigration in 2001. Lai was appointed Director of Immigration in 2002. He ceased to be Director of Immigration in 2008 and retired in 2009 when he was succeeded by Simon Peh. In 2009, he was appointed as the Under Secretary for Security. On 1 July 2012, Lai was promoted to Secretary for Security of Hong Kong. As head of the Security Bureau, he was responsible for overseeing most of Hong Kong's disciplined services.In February 2022, Lai told SCMP that he would be attending the 2022 Two Sessions, as a Hong Kong delegate.On 5 January 2022, Carrie Lam announced new warnings and restrictions against social gathering due to potential COVID-19 outbreaks. One day later, it was discovered that Lai attended a birthday party hosted by Witman Hung Wai-man, with 222 guests. At least one guest tested positive with COVID-19, causing all guests to be quarantined. Tung-kwok was warned by Legislative Council president Andrew Leung to not attend any meetings until after finishing his last mandatory Covid-19 test on 22 January 2022. However, he decided to attend the meeting on 19 January 2022, against Leung's orders. Lai Tung-kwok@am730 (in Chinese)

A (hiragana: あ, katakana: ア) is a Japanese kana that represents the mora consisting of single vowel [a]. The hiragana character あ is based on the sōsho style of kanji 安, while the katakana ア is from the radical of kanji 阿. In the modern Japanese system of alphabetical order, it occupies the first position of the alphabet, before い. Additionally, it is the 36th letter in Iroha, after て, before さ. The Unicode for あ is U+3042, and the Unicode for ア is U+30A2. Derivation The katakana ア derives, via man'yōgana, from the left element of kanji 阿. The hiragana あ derives from cursive simplification of the kanji 安. Variant forms Scaled-down versions of the kana (ぁ, ァ) are used to express sounds foreign to the Japanese language, such as ファ (fa). In some Okinawan writing systems, a small ぁ is also combined with the kana く (ku) and ふ (fu or hu) to form the digraphs くぁ kwa and ふぁ hwa, although others use a small ゎ instead. In hentaigana, a variant of あ is appeared with a stroke written exactly as wakanmuri. The version of the kana with dakuten (あ゙, ア゙) are used to represent either a gurgling sound, a voiced pharyngeal fricative (/ʕ/), or other similarly articulated sound. Stroke order The Hiragana あ is made with three strokes: At the top, a horizontal stroke from left to right. A downward vertical stroke starting above and in the center of the last stroke. At the bottom, a loop like the Hiragana の.The Katakana ア is made with two strokes: At the top, a stroke consisting of a horizontal line and a short horizontal line proceeding downward and to the left. Starting at the end of the last stroke, a curved line proceeding downward and to the left. Other communicative representations Full Braille representation* When lengthening "-a" syllables in Japanese braille, a chōon is always used, as in standard katakana usage instead of adding an あ / ア. Computer encodings Footnotes Gilhooly, Helen (2003) [1999]. Beginner's Japanese Script. Teach Yourself. London: Hodder Headline. ISBN 0-340-86024-3. OCLC 56469680.

Die, as a verb, refers to death, the cessation of life. Die may also refer to: Games Die, singular of dice, small throwable objects used for producing random numbers Manufacturing Die (integrated circuit), a rectangular piece of a semiconductor wafer Die (manufacturing), a material-shaping device Die (philately) Coin die, a metallic piece used to strike a coin Die casting, a material-shaping process Sort (typesetting), a cast die for printing Die cutting (web), process of using a die to shear webs of low-strength materials Die, a tool used in paper embossing Tap and die, cutting tools used to create screw threads in solid substances Tool and die, the occupation of making dies Arts and media Music Die (album), the seventh studio album by rapper Necro Die (musician), Japanese musician, guitarist of the band Dir en grey DJ Die, British DJ and musician with Reprazent "DiE", a 2013 single by the Japanese idol group BiS die!, an inactive German Neue Deutsche Härte band Other uses in arts and media Die (film), a 2010 thriller film directed by Dominic James Die (comics), a comic book series and role-playing game by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by Stephanie Hans Other uses Die, a grammar article, in the Afrikaans and German languages Die, Drôme, a town in France Duplication is evil, a programming motto German Development Institute, a German think tank for multilateral development policy See also Dai (disambiguation) Di (disambiguation) Dié (disambiguation) Dies (disambiguation) Dice (disambiguation) Dicing Dye

Bad Pyrmont (German: [baːt pʏʁˈmɔnt] , also: [- ˈpʏʁ-]; West Low German: Bad Purmunt) is a town in the district of Hamelin-Pyrmont, in Lower Saxony, Germany, with a population close to 19,000. It is located on the river Emmer, about 10 km (6.2 mi) west of the Weser. Bad Pyrmont is a popular spa resort that gained its reputation as a fashionable place for princely vacations in the 17th and 18th centuries. The town is also the center of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Germany. History Formerly called Pyrmont, it was the seat of a small county during much of the Middle Ages. The county gained its independence from the County of Schwalenberg in 1194. Independence was maintained until the extinction of the comital line in 1494, when the county was inherited by the County of Spiegelberg. In 1557, the county was inherited by Lippe, then by the County of Gleichen in 1583. In 1625, the county became part of the much larger County of Waldeck through inheritance. In 1668, the Reichskammergericht (Imperial Chamber Court) ruled against the Bishopric of Paderborn's claims that Pyrmont had been collateral in a loan, confirming the Count of Waldeck's rights over Pyrmont, who ceded the Amt of Lügde — previously the county's capital — to the bishopric in compensation. In January 1712, the Count of Waldeck and Pyrmont was elevated to hereditary prince by Emperor Charles VI, the count having combined the two titles the previous year. For a brief period, from 1805 to 1812, Pyrmont was again a separate principality as a result of inheritance and partition after the death of the previous prince, but the two parts were united again in 1812. The principality of Waldeck-Pyrmont retained its status after the Congress of Vienna of 1815 and became a member of the German Confederation. In 1813, the inhabitants of Pyrmont began to protest at their lack of autonomy within Waldeck–Pyrmont and the separate constitutional nature of the two territories was confirmed the following year, until a formal union was established in 1849. From 1868 onward, the principality was administered by Prussia, but retained its legislative sovereignty. Prussian administration served to reduce administrative costs for the small state and was based on a ten-year contract that was repeatedly renewed. In 1871 it became a constituent state of the new German Empire. At the end of World War I, during the German Revolution the prince abdicated and Waldeck–Pyrmont became a free state within the Weimar Republic. On 30 November 1921, following a local plebiscite, the town and district of Pyrmont were detached and incorporated into the Prussian Province of Hanover, with Waldeck following into the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau in 1929. Economy As a spa town, Bad Pyrmont's economy is heavily geared towards tourism. Bad Pyrmonter mineral water is bottled in Bad Pyrmont. Attractions Bad Pyrmont features a large Kurpark, with a sizeable outdoor palm garden. The Baroque castle (1706–10) is part of a substantial complex of fortifications dating from the 16th century. The castle now houses the Museum of Municipal and Spa History. Notable people Emil Albes (1861–1923), German actor Max Born (1882–1970), Physicist, Nobel Prize winner and grandfather of Olivia Newton-John, spent his last years in Bad Pyrmont Rainer Brüninghaus (born 1949), German composer and jazz pianist Ferdinand Büchner (1823–1906), German flautist and composer Friedrich Drake (1805–1882), German sculptor Thomas Klenke (born 1966), German racing driver Paul-Gerhard Klumbies (born 1957), German protestant theologian Caren Marks (born 1964), German politician (SPD) Johannes Schraps (born 1983), German politician (SPD) Sigrid Sternebeck (born 1949), former member of the Red Army Faction Theodor Stroefer (1843–1927), German publisher Thomas Webel (born 1954), German politician (CDU) Helmut Wildt (1922–2007), German actor Detlef Zühlke (born 1947), German engineer and professor Gallery Twin towns – sister cities Bad Pyrmont is twinned with: Anzio, Italy See also Hannover–Braunschweig–Göttingen–Wolfsburg Metropolitan Region Pyrmont, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney named after Bad Pyrmont Official website Multimedia CBC Radio reports on surrender of the town, 22 April 1945

Rin' is an all-female Japanese pop group which combines traditional Japanese musical instruments and style with elements of modern pop and rock music. It is a female trio of Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music alumni who graduated in 2003. The band made their performing debut in December 2003, at Meguro Gajoen, and in April 2004, their first single, called Sakitama, was released by avex trax. Chie Arai and Mana Yoshinaga play koto, sangen, and jushichi-gen, while Tomoca Nagasu plays biwa and shakuhachi. All three perform vocals. According to the band's website, the name Rin' comes from the English word 'ring', the Japanese word Wa (和, meaning both 'ring' and 'Japanese-style'), and from the trio's hope to create a 'ring', or circle, of music. Since their debut, the band has performed in many venues around the world, and have released four singles and several albums. A number of their songs have been used as themes for anime and movies, most notable is Fuhen used in the Samurai 7 anime. Their chief international album, Inland Sea, was released worldwide: in Europe and the United States on April 25, 2006 and in Japan on August 30, 2006, featuring guest performances by Leigh Nash and Lisa Loeb.According to the band's website, as of 13 February 2009, Rin' had put an end to their activities and decided to disband · .After 10 years, the group announced their reunification on their official websites on March 8, 2019, and thereafter released the single Koumyou in the same year, held a number of concerts, and released a new album HORIN in 2021. . Members 'Mana' Yoshinaga (吉永 真奈, Yoshinaga Mana) (born November 20, 1979) - vocals, koto, sangen, jushichi-gen 'Tomoca' Nagasu (長須 与佳, Nagasu Tomoka) (born December 22, 1978) - vocals, biwa, shakuhachi 'Chie' Arai (新井 智恵, Arai Chie) (born May 10, 19??) - vocals, koto, sangen, jushichi-gen Discography Singles Sakitama (Sakitama～幸魂～) (7 April 2004) Sakitama (Sakitama～幸魂～, Sakitama: Lucky Soul) Jikū (Instrumental) (時空(Instrumental)) Sakitama (Instrumental) (Sakitama～幸魂～(Instrumental)) Yachiyo no Kaze (八千代ノ風) (30 June 2004) Yachiyo no Kaze (八千代ノ風) Release Yachiyo no Kaze (Instrumental) (八千代ノ風(Instrumental)) Release(Instrumental) Sakura Sakura (サクラ サクラ) (20 April 2005) Sakura Sakura (サクラ サクラ) Sakura Sakura (instrumental with shakuhachi and shamisen) (サクラ サクラ(Instrumental with 尺八・三味線)) Yume hanabi (夢花火, Dream Fireworks) (31 August 2005) Yume hanabi: Rin' Three Pieces (夢花火: Rin' Three Pieces) Yume hanabi (夢花火) Flashback: Rin' Version Yume hanabi: Instrumental (夢花火: Instrumental) Albums Jikū (時空, Space-time) (12 May 2004) Jikū (時空, Space-time) Sakitama (Sakitama～幸魂～, Sakitama: Lucky Soul) Yachiyo no Kaze (八千代ノ風) Fuhen (普遍, Ubiquity) (featured as the ending theme to the anime series Samurai 7) Miyabi (雅, Elegant) weakness Dōshin (道心, Moral Sense) Smile On: English ver. Will Sai no Kami (サイの神) Eternal Asuka (飛鳥) (29 September 2004) Asuka (飛鳥, Flying Bird) Bibō no Kuni (美貌の國, Land of Beauty) The Grace Kamen (仮面, Mask) Kurenai (紅, Crimson) innocence Kochō no Yume (胡蝶之夢, Dream of Butterflies) Nomado Kagami Tsuki (鏡月, Mirror Moon) Tenka (天華, Quintessence of Heaven) Hanafubuki (花吹雪, Flower Storm) Asukagawa (明日香川) Sarasōju (沙羅双樹, A Couple of Sal Trees) Hanging in there Rin' Christmas Cover Songs: Seiya (～Rin' Christmas Cover Songs～聖夜) (14 November 2004) Happy Xmas (War Is Over) Last Christmas Rin' Xmas Medley: Silent Night / 赤鼻のトナカイ / I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus / Jingle Bells / We Wish You a Merry Xmas / Silent Night Koukyōkyoku Daikyūban (交響曲 第九番, Symphony No.9 (Beethoven) also called "Ode to Joy") Christmas Eve (クリスマス・イブ) Merry Christmas Mr.Lawrence White Christmas In My Life (First edition-only bonus track)) Utage uta/Sakura Sakura (宴歌/さくら さくら, Party Song /Cherry Blossom) (Live album, 30 March 2005) Inland Sea (released in U.S./Europe on 25 April 2006, in Japan on 30 August 2006) New Day Rising (feat. Leigh Nash) Solemn What the Rain Said Never Knew What Love Meant (feat. Leigh Nash) Moss Garden Anti Hero (feat. Lisa Loeb) Inland Sea Sea of Tranquility (feat. Leigh Nash) Superflat(Part II) Past Imperfect AA170 Niji Musubi (虹結び, Rainbow Tying) (Japan-only bonus track) Inland Sea -Special edition- (Includes 2 CDs and a DVD. The first CD is the same like the normal Inland Sea CD without track 12. So here is only the track list of the second CD. The DVD includes the videos of Anti Hero, Sakura Sakura (サクラ サクラ), Inland Sea Spot and Samurai Heart) Sanzen Sekai (三千世界) Jikū (時空, Spacetime) Asuka (飛鳥, Flying Bird) Sakitama (Sakitama～幸魂～, Sakitama: Lucky Soul) Akatsuki No Sora (暁の契, Sky at Dawn) Niji Musubi (虹結び, Rainbow Tying) Bibō no Kuni (美貌の國, Land of Beauty) Dōshin (道心, Moral Sense) Tenka (天華, Quintessence of Heaven) Hanafubuki (花吹雪, Flower Storm) Utage Uta (残花, Party Song) Genji Nostalgie (源氏ノスタルジー, Genji Nosutarujī) (5 December 2007) Murasaki No Yukari, futatabi (紫のゆかり、ふたたび, Belonging to the purple, once again) Genji Sennen No Niji (千年の虹, Rainbow of A Thousand Years) (feat. alan) Ranka (乱華, Chaotic Beauty) Na Mo Naki Hana (名もなき花, Nameless Flower) Asaki Yume Mishi (浅キ夢見シ, And we shall not have superficial dreams) The title comes from the poem Ihora (Ihora-uta) (jap. いろは歌 ; 伊呂波歌) DVD "Utage: Rin' First Live Tour 2004 Jikū" (歌宴: Rin' First Live Tour 2004 "時空") (17 November 2004) Other Rin' featuring m.c.A・T Flashback (31 August 2005; used in Kamen Rider Hibiki & The Seven Senki) Crossover Japan '05 CD/DVD (28 September 2005) Provided traditional instrument sounds to the backing track for the single Samurai Heart [侍 Heart] recorded by Japanese pop band AAA. Released December 2006 by Avex Trax music as part of a double A side single package called Black and White, which featured the tracks Samurai Heart and Winter Lander. (Rin' only play on 'Samurai heart' and track is credited to AAA, not as a Rin' single). In 2008 Rin' collaborated with Japanese composer Conisch on the soundtrack to a Japanese TV drama series called Hana goromo yume goromo　「花衣夢衣」. This resulted in an album of this music being released through EMI Music Japan (4 June 2008). Although this work is not acknowledged on the Rin' websites (as it is released by a record label different than their usual Avex Trax), the group get equal title credits, appearing as Rin' & Conisch. The album has 34 tracks, lasts 69 minutes and mixes Rin's traditional Japanese instruments with a full western orchestra. Rin' Official Site 新井智恵 Chie Arai Official Site 吉永真奈 Mana Yoshinaga Official Web Site | 生田流箏曲・地歌三味線演奏家 長須与佳 Tomoca Nagasu Official Web Site Rin' MySpace Rin'の復活を願う会 (Blog) Rin' with Mana Yoshinaga (吉永真奈), Tomoca Nagasu (長須与佳) & Chie Arai (新井智恵)

Nogebus is a Spain-based coachbuilder. The company builds bus and coach bodies on various possible chassis. Their products are sold throughout all of Western Europe. The company, originally named Noge, collapsed in January 2013. However, later that year it was acquired by another Catalan company, Sartruck, and resumed its activities.Noge was, after Indcar, Ayats and Beulas, the fourth coachbuilding company to be founded in Girona, Catalonia. It was established in 1964 by a former Ayats worker, Miquel Genabat Puig (whose son presides the company today) and by Josep Noguera, who dissociated himself from the company in 1978. Noge began its activities building city buses but soon expanded to intercity and luxury coaches as well. In its heyday, the company had over 250 employees and produced an average of 600 vehicles a year. The workforce had been reduced to 93 by the time the factory temporarily closed in early 2013. 22 of these workers were rehired by the new company Nogebus. By the time activities restarted in July 2013, the company had 32 employees, and an objective of building 60–70 coaches per year, initially only for Spanish operators and later for other European markets.On November 17, 2022, Nogebus filed for insolvency proceedings. Products Cittour - city bus Aertour - airport shuttle bus Touring - coach Titanium - luxury coach Official Nogebus website (in English)

Beulas SAU is a coachbuilder based in Arbúcies, Catalonia, Spain. The company builds a range of coach bodies on a variety of chassis. Their products are sold throughout Europe. History The company was established in 1934 by Ramón Beulas and Narcís Pujol in Arbúcies, a village in the Selva county of the province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain. It was (after Indcar and Ayats) the third coachbuilding company to be founded in this small town, which offered the advantage of being in the midst of a densely forested area ("Selva" means "forest" in Catalan), useful since the bodyworks were still made of wood at the time. During the Spanish Civil War, Beulas built ambulance bodies for the army. For the next three decades, Beulas remained a small coachbuilder which hand-crafted each bodywork to order, making 6–10 per year. During the 1960s, the company grew steadily and components began to be standardized, allowing for an increase in production volume. In the 1970s and 1980s, the company multiplied the size of the factory premises and introduced more modern designs, and in the 1990s they began their international distribution, first in Germany and the UK, and later in the rest of Europe. Today, Beulas has close to 270 employees, and produces around 310 vehicles a year. In 2012, Beulas has made a restyling of all of his models excepting Gianino. Products Gianino - small coach Stela - small coach (Only with Mercedes-Benz engine) Aura - coach Stergo' Spica - coach Cygnus - coach Glory - top of the range luxury coach, introduced in 2008 Jewel - Double deck coach, introduced in 2009 Chassis types Beulas coach bodies are known to have been built upon the following manufacturers' chassis types (some may have been discontinued): Iveco Bus Mercedes-Benz Volvo VDL Scania MAN Official Beulas website (in English)

Sebastiano Timpanaro (September 5, 1923 in Parma – November 26, 2000 in Florence) was an Italian classical philologist, essayist, and literary critic. He was also a long-time Marxist who made important contributions to left-wing political causes. He was an atheist. Bibliography La filologia di Giacomo Leopardi (1955) La genesi del metodo del Lachmann (1963) Classicismo e illuminismo nell'Ottocento italiano (1965) Sul materialismo (1970) Il lapsus freudiano: psicanalisi e critica testuale (1974) Contributi di filologia e di storia della lingua latina (1978) Aspetti e figure della cultura ottocentesca (1980) Antileopardiani e neomoderati nella sinistra italiana (1982) Il socialismo di Edmondo De Amicis: lettura del "Primo maggio" (1984) Per la storia della filologia virgiliana antica (1986) La fobia romana e altri scritti su Freud e Meringer, a cura di C.A. Madrignani, ETS (1992) La fobia romana e altri scritti su Freud e Meringer, a cura di A. Pagnini, ETS (2006) Nuovi contributi di filologia e storia della lingua latina (1994) Nuovi studi sul nostro Ottocento (1995) Virgilianisti antichi e tradizione indiretta (2001; posthumous) Il verde e il rosso: scritti militanti, 1966-2000 (2001; posthumous) See also Giacomo Leopardi Karl Lachmann Sigmund Freud Signorelli parapraxis Edmondo De Amicis Rudolf Meringer Italian Socialist Party Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity English translations On materialism (Lawrence Garner, tr., 1975) The Freudian slip: psychoanalysis and textual criticism (Kate Soper, tr., 1976) The genesis of Lachmann's method (Glenn W. Most, ed. and tr., 2005) "The Pessimistic Materialism of Giacomo Leopardi". New Left Review; I/116, July–August 1979: 29–50. "Considerations of Materialism". New Left Review; I/85 May/June 1974: 3-22. Per Sebastiano Timpanaro (ITA) [http://www.accademiafiorentina.it) Sebastiano Timpanaro Archive (Marxists Internet Archive) Library of Congress Online Catalog (bibliographical information) Perry Anderson on Sebastiano Timpanaro

Radical 102 or radical field (田部) meaning "field" is number 102 out of 214 Kangxi radicals. It is one of the 23 radicals composed of 5 strokes. With 192 signs derived from this character in the Kangxi Dictionary, it has a frequency somewhat below average. 田 is also the 106th indexing component in the Table of Indexing Chinese Character Components predominantly adopted by Simplified Chinese dictionaries published in mainland China. The character 田 is a pictograph of a rice field with irrigation channels. There are several variants of the radical, which may also have other meanings. Signs derived from this character mostly belong to the agricultural sphere, such as 亩, a unit of area, 男, a field worker, or 畜 "cattle". Evolution Derived characters In Chinese astrology, 申 represents the ninth Earthly Branch and corresponds to the Monkey in the Chinese zodiac. In other signs such as 钿 "coin", the radical has merely phonetic significance. In other cases, it is present due to assimilation of a similar but originally distinct radical, as in 胃 "stomach". In the ancient Chinese cyclic character numeral system tiāngān, 甲 represents the first Celestial stem. Literature Fazzioli, Edoardo (1987). Chinese calligraphy : from pictograph to ideogram : the history of 214 essential Chinese/Japanese characters. calligraphy by Rebecca Hon Ko. New York: Abbeville Press. ISBN 0-89659-774-1. Leyi Li: "Tracing the Roots of Chinese Characters: 500 Cases". Beijing 1993, ISBN 978-7-5619-0204-2 Rick Harbaugh, Chinese Characters: A Genealogy and Dictionary, Yale University Press (1998), ISBN 978-0-9660750-0-7.[1] Unihan Database - U+7530

A favicon (; short for favorite icon), also known as a shortcut icon, website icon, tab icon, URL icon, or bookmark icon, is a file containing one or more small icons associated with a particular website or web page. A web designer can create such an icon and upload it to a website (or web page) by several means, and graphical web browsers will then make use of it. Browsers that provide favicon support typically display a page's favicon in the browser's address bar (sometimes in the history as well) and next to the page's name in a list of bookmarks. Browsers that support a tabbed document interface typically show a page's favicon next to the page's title on the tab, and site-specific browsers use the favicon as a desktop icon. History In March 1999, Microsoft released Internet Explorer 5, which supported favicons for the first time. Originally, the favicon was a file called favicon.ico placed in the root directory of a website. It was used in Internet Explorer's favorites (bookmarks) and next to the URL in the address bar if the page was bookmarked. A side effect was that the number of visitors who had bookmarked the page could be estimated by the requests of the favicon. This side effect no longer works, as all modern browsers load the favicon file to display in their web address bar, regardless of whether the site is bookmarked. Standardization The favicon was standardized by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) in the HTML 4.01 recommendation, released in December 1999, and later in the XHTML 1.0 recommendation, released in January 2000. The standard implementation uses a link element with a rel attribute in the <head> section of the document to specify the file format, file name, and location. Unlike in the prior scheme, the file can be in any website directory and have any image file format.In 2003, the .ico format was registered by a third party with the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) under the MIME type image/vnd.microsoft.icon. However, when using the .ico format to display as images (e.g. not as favicon), Internet Explorer cannot display files served with this standardized MIME type. A workaround for Internet Explorer is to associate .ico with the non-standard image/x-icon MIME type in web servers.RFC 5988 established an IANA link relation registry, and rel="icon" was registered in 2010 based on the HTML5 specification. The popular theoretically identifies two relations, shortcut and icon, but shortcut is not registered and is redundant. In 2011 the HTML living standard specified that for historical reasons shortcut is allowed immediately before icon; however, shortcut does not have a meaning in this context. Legacy Internet Explorer 5–10 supports only the ICO file format. Netscape 7 and Internet Explorer versions 5 and 6 display the favicon only when the page is bookmarked, and not simply when the pages are visited as in later browsers. Examples of favicons Browser implementation The following tables illustrate support of various features with major web browsers. Unless noted, the version numbers indicate the starting version number of a supported feature. Image file format support The following table illustrates the image file format support for the favicon. Additionally, such icon files can be 16×16, 32×32, 48×48, or 64×64 pixels in size, and 8-bit, 24-bit, or 32-bit in color depth. The ICO file format article explains the details for icons with more than 256 colors on various Microsoft Windows platforms. Use of favicon This table illustrates the different areas of the browser where favicons can be displayed. Opera Software added the ability to change the favicon in the Speed Dial in Opera 10. How to use This table illustrates the different ways the favicon can be recognized by the web browser. The standard implementation uses a link element with a rel attribute in the <head> section of the document to specify the file's format, name and location. If links for both PNG and ICO favicons are present, PNG-favicon-compatible browsers select which format and size to use as follows. Firefox and Safari will use the favicon that comes last. Chrome for Mac will use whichever favicon is ICO formatted, otherwise the 32×32 favicon. Chrome for Windows will use the favicon that comes first if it is 16×16, otherwise the ICO. If none of the aforementioned options are available, Chrome will use whichever favicon comes first, exactly the opposite of Firefox and Safari. Indeed, Chrome for Mac will ignore the 16×16 favicon and use the 32×32 version, only to scale it back down to 16×16 on non-retina devices. Opera will choose from any of the available icons at random.Only SeaMonkey does not fetch favicon.ico files in the website's root by default. HTML5 recommendation for icons in multiple sizes The current HTML5 specification recommends specifying multiple sizes for the icons, using the attributes rel="icon" sizes="space-separated list of icon dimensions" within a tag. Multiple icon formats, including container formats such as Microsoft .ico and Macintosh .icns files, as well as Scalable Vector Graphics may be provided by including the icon's content type in the format type="file content-type" within the tag. As of iOS 5, Apple mobile devices ignore the HTML5 recommendation and instead use the proprietary apple-touch-icon method detailed below. The Google Chrome web browser however, will select the closest matching size from those provided in the HTML headers to create 128×128 pixel application icons, when the user chooses the Create application shortcuts... from the "Tools" menu. Home screen icons on mobile devices On Apple iPhones and iPads, as well as Android mobile devices, users can pin web pages as shortcuts icons to their home screen. These shortcut icons look similar to regular apps and web developers can provide dedicated icons for them. Apple devices For Apple devices with the iOS operating system version 1.1.3 or later, users can pin a website to the home screen using the Add to Home Screen button within the share sheet in Safari.This works for any website. But for iOS to display the shortcut with an icon, the a website needs to supplying a in the <head> section of documents served by the website. If the custom icon is not provided, a thumbnail of the web page will be put on the home screen instead.The app icon sizes on the different device classes differ. The recommended sizes for the icons are 152x152 for iPads (until iPad 2, released in 2011), 167x167 for iPads with Retina screens (iPad 3 and later) and 180x180 for iPhones. If no icon in the matching size is provided, iOS will pick the largest icon with rel="apple-touch-icon" and scale it automatically. Example code The icon file referenced by apple-touch-icon is modified to add rounded corners. On the iOS versions prior to iOS 7, a drop shadow, and reflective shine would be added, and apple-touch-icon-precomposed icon may be provided to instruct devices not to apply reflective shine on the image.No HTML is required by browsers or mobile devices to retrieve these icons. The website's root is the default location for the file apple-touch-icon.png (in order of priority). Android devices On Android devices, users can use the Add to home screen function in Chrome's tools menu to pin a web page to their home screen. This also works for any website, but if no favicon is provided, a generic icon is used. As Android app icons are sized in 48x48 points, website should provide favicons sized in multiples of 48x48 pixels. For modern high resolution devices, Google recommends providing icons in 192x192 pixels. Example code Android also supports Web Manifest files, which makes it possible to integrate web sites deeper within the system. A Web Manifest is a JSON file, that specifies meta data for a progressive web app. It allows the developer to not only provide the icons but also a short name for display on the home screen as well as theme colors. However, providing a web manifest file is not necessary for the Add to home screen feature to work. Animated favicons Various browsers such as Firefox and Opera support animation of favicons. A bug report has been open for Firefox since 2001 requesting a way to disable this feature. Limitations and criticism Due to the need to always check for it in a fixed location, the favicon can lead to artificially slow page-load time and unnecessary 404 entries in the server log if it is nonexistent.The W3C did not standardize the rel-attribute, so there are other keywords such as shortcut icon that are also accepted by the user agent.Favicons are often manipulated as part of phishing or eavesdropping attacks against HTTPS web pages. Many web browsers display favicons near areas of the web browser's UI, such as the address bar, that are used to convey whether the connection to a website is using a secure protocol like TLS. By changing the favicon to a familiar padlock image an attacker can attempt to trick the user into thinking they are securely connected to the proper website. Automated man-in-the-middle attack tools such as sslstrip utilize this trick. In order to eliminate this, some web browsers, such as Firefox or Google Chrome, display the favicon within the tab whilst displaying the security status of the protocol used to access the website beside the URL.Since favicons are usually located at the root of the site directory on the server, they can be employed with some reliability to disclose whether a web client is logged into a given service. This works by making use of the redirect-after-login feature of many websites, by querying for the favicon in a redirect-after-login URL and testing the server response to discern whether the user is given the requested resource (which means they are logged in), or instead redirected to the login page (which means that they are not logged into the service).In 2021, a method for browser tracking using favicons was demonstrated by researchers at the University of Illinois. The dictionary definition of favicon at Wiktionary Media related to Favicons at Wikimedia Commons W3C web standards organization on how to add a Favicon Systems and Methods Involving Favicons 2008 patent application

Park Chung Hee (Korean: 박정희, IPA: [pak̚.tɕ͈ʌŋ.hi]; November 14, 1917 – October 26, 1979) was a South Korean politician and army general. After seizing power in the May 16 coup of 1961, he was then elected as the third President of South Korea in 1963. He ruled the country until his assassination in 1979. Before his presidency, Park was the second-highest ranking officer in the South Korean army. His coup brought an end to the interim Second Republic of Korea. After serving for two years as chairman of the military junta, he was elected president in 1963, ushering in the Third Republic. Park began a series of economic reforms that eventually led to rapid economic growth and industrialization, a phenomenon that is now known as the Miracle on the Han River. This made South Korea one of the fastest growing economies of the 1960s and 1970s, albeit with costs to labor rights. This era also saw the formation of chaebols: family companies supported by the state similar to the Japanese zaibatsu. Examples of significant chaebols include Hyundai, LG, and Samsung. Although popular during the 1960s, Park's popularity started to plateau by the 1970s, with closer than expected victories during the 1971 presidential election and the subsequent legislative elections. In 1972, Park declared martial law and introduced the highly authoritarian Yushin Constitution, ushering in the Fourth Republic. Political opposition and dissent was now constantly repressed and Park had complete control of the military, and much control over the media and expressions of art. In 1975, in preparation for South Korea's bid to host the 1988 Olympic Games, he ordered the police to 'cleanse' the streets and expel beggars, vagrants and street vendors who gave the country a bad image abroad. The victims of this social cleansing campaign, numbering tens of thousands, were sent to camps and subjected to forced labour, without pay, and to torture and repeated rape. Officially, 513 people died of exhaustion in these camps, but the number could be much higher. In 1979, Park was assassinated by close friend Kim Jae-gyu, director of the KCIA, following the Busan–Masan Uprising. Whether the assassination was spontaneous or premeditated remains unclear to this day. Economic growth continued in spite of the 1979 coup d'état and considerable political turmoil in the wake of his assassination. The country eventually democratized with the June Democratic Struggle in 1987. Park ruled South Korea as an authoritarian dictator, and remains a controversial figure in modern South Korean political discourse and among the South Korean populace in general, making a detached evaluation of his tenure difficult. While some credit him for sustaining economic growth, which reshaped and modernized South Korea, others criticize his authoritarian way of ruling the country (especially after 1971) and for prioritizing economic growth and social order at the expense of civil liberties and human rights. A Gallup Korea poll in October 2021 showed Park, Kim Dae-jung (an old opponent of Park whom he tried to have executed), and Roh Moo-hyun as the most highly rated presidents of South Korean history in terms of leaving a positive legacy, especially among South Korean conservatives and the elderly. Park's eldest daughter Park Geun-hye later served as the 11th president of South Korea from 2013 until she was impeached and convicted of various corruption charges in 2017. Early life and education Park was born around 11:00 am on November 14, 1917, in Sangmo-dong, Gumi, North Gyeongsang, Chōsen, Empire of Japan to father Park Sŏng-bin and mother Paek Nam-ŭi. He was the youngest of five brothers and two sisters. He was of the Goryeong Park clan.Park was born into an extremely poor family that consistently lacked food. According to Park, his father had actually been upper-class (yangban) and set to inherit the family's moderate holdings, but he was disinherited and banished from the clan after he participated in the 1894–1895 Donghak Peasant Revolution. In 1916, the elder Park then moved to his wife's village of Sangmo-dong, where he was given a small plot of land. For some reason (documentation from around this time is sparse), he did not work the land along with his wife, and instead took to drinking and wandering around. The scholar Chong-Sik Lee speculates that the elder Park did not wish to be seen working, as that signaled an acceptance of his lost yangban status.Unlike Park's father, Park's mother was seen by her contemporaries as diligent and focused. She managed both the household and the farming. She was around 43 years old at the time of Park's birth. Due to her advanced age and disastrous economic situation, she tried to abort the pregnancy using a wide variety of techniques, including by drinking bowls of soy sauce and throwing herself off of high places. However, when Park was eventually born, she was deeply affectionate towards him.When Park was two years old, he crawled off of a raised floor and landed in a smouldering fire pit. He was quickly rescued from the pit, but his forearms were significantly burned. For the rest of his life, he consistently wore shirts with long sleeves to hide his scars.Other than the poverty and the injury, Park's early childhood was fairly happy. A significant biographer of Park, Cho Gab-je, interviewed many people who knew Park, and had the impression that Park had had many close friends, his parents had gotten along well, and that the whole family had adored him. Elementary school Park was the second person in his family, after his older brother Park Sang Hee, to attend elementary school. He first enrolled on April 1, 1927, when he was nine years old, and eventually graduated on March 25, 1932. His school, Gumi Elementary School, was 8 kilometers (5.0 mi) away from his home, via a treacherous mountain path. The strenuous daily trek and the lack of food took a toll on his body. He was consistently among the shortest students in each school he attended; in sixth grade, he was 135.8 cm (4 ft 5+1⁄2 in) tall and weighed 30 kg (66 lb). In spite of his physical challenges, he was a diligent student and had good grades. Park was made class leader for several years; his classmates later recalled that he could be overbearing in enforcing discipline, even slapping a number of them.Even as a child, Park was ambitious, competitive, and brash. His classmates later recalled that even after he lost in competitions of strength, such as arm wrestling or ssireum, he would taunt his opponents and demand rematches until he won.He was also a voracious reader of history, and frequently talked excitedly and at length about his heroes to his friends. When he was around 13 years old, Park became an admirer of the French Emperor Napoleon. Lee claimed that Park was impressed that "Napoleon's short stature did not prevent him from greatness". Around this time, he also came to idolize the famed Korean admiral Yi Sun-sin. Park read a biography about the admiral by Yi Gwangsu that moved him deeply. According to Lee, a significant part of the biography is disparaging towards politicians and even Koreans in general, as the competent Yi Sun-sin was treated poorly by them during his lifetime. Lee speculated that this later influenced Park's authoritarian leadership style. Taegu Normal School In 1932, Park was admitted to Taegu Normal School, a secondary school that trained elementary school teachers. Admissions were highly competitive, as it was the third such school in the country, tuition was free, and teaching positions were historically seen as prestigious in Korea. Park was accepted from among 1,070 applicants into a class of 10 Japanese and 90 Korean students, and was ranked 50th at time of admission.Despite this honor and the free tuition, his mother despaired over the other expenses his education would incur. According to Lee, Park's family was about to go through their worst economic struggles yet. Around this time, Asia was feeling the shock of the 1929 Great Depression and Japanese colonial policies mandated that Koreans send to Japan a significant portion of their agricultural output.Park's schooling at Taegu was militaristic, especially as Japanese military officers were involved in running it. In the fall, the entire school participated in enshū (演習)—military training programs. According to Lee, Park enjoyed and excelled in these aspects of the school. He took up kendo and became a trumpeter. His enthusiasm caught the eye of Lieutenant Colonel Arikawa Keiichi (有川圭一, 1891–1945) of the Kwantung Army, who ran the military training programs and became fond of Park.Park became interested in quitting teaching and joining the military. But to his contemporaries, his chances seemed slim; entrance into the Japanese Military Academy was highly competitive for Koreans, and Park's grades were plummeting. In 1935, he was ranked 73 out of 73 in his class, and had been missing more and more days of school each year. Park's teachers attributed this to his dire economic situation. Lee speculates that the absences were caused by his parents' inability to gather enough money for his expenses at the school in time before the beginning of the school year. In addition, Park's older brother Sang Hee lost his job (and two children to disease) in 1935, making him unable to assist the rest of the family.By contrast, many of Park's classmates came from financially comfortable families. Several of them felt that Park was humiliated by his situation. When they pooled their money to buy snacks, Park would excuse himself and sulk alone. One classmate recalled finding Park in tears one evening. He was being sent home to collect money for his living expenses—money that he knew his family would not have. Lee speculates that Park became more pragmatic and calculating during this time, as they were traits that were needed for not only staying enrolled, but also to avoid starving. First girlfriend and first wife In 1934, Park began secretly dating Yi Chŏng-ok, who was attending a girl's school in the same city. Park's father wished to see Park married as soon as possible, and, not knowing about his son's relationship, arranged a marriage to a different woman: Kim Ho-nam. The two married in 1935, while Park was still in love with Yi. While the marriage would eventually produce a daughter, Kim was appalled at the family's poverty, and the couple avoided each other as much as possible. After their marriage, Park had a year left to go at school, so he left her at the shabby Park household and returned. Teaching On March 20, 1937, Park graduated from Taegu, ranked 69 out of 70 in his class. As part of the conditions of his schooling, he was required to teach for at least two years, and was placed in the Mungyeong Public Normal School. The school was in Mungyeong, now a popular tourist attraction but then an isolated coal mining town. He finally began receiving a comfortable salary, which he sent part of to his family. But his students, like Park had once, trekked to the school often from far away and struggled to afford meals. He offered assistance to several of them in order to have them keep coming to the school. While Park was remembered by his students as a caring and enthusiastic teacher, Lee speculates that, in such a small town, Park was lonely and understimulated. He and his roommate took to drinking copious amounts of makgeolli—Korean rice wine—to pass the time.Shortly after Park began teaching, Japan launched the Second Sino-Japanese War, and began making significant victories in quick succession. Park was inspired by the success of the Japanese. He even wrote a stageplay that his students acted out, entitled [The Korean] Volunteer Soldiers Go to War. The play reflected contemporary events, as around February 1938, the colonial government had instituted the Special Volunteer Enlistment System. Thousands of Korean youths applied, although whether most applied willingly, or even just for the salary and benefits, is a subject of academic debate. However, the Japanese military was wary of accepting Koreans due to concerns over their loyalty, and thus only accepted a fraction of the applicants each year. If a Korean could somehow demonstrate unshakable patriotism, they were considered to have a better chance of being accepted. Applying for military school and blood oath In 1938, Park applied to join the Manchukuo Army Military Academy, which was to open the following year. However, he was three years over the maximum age limit of 19 for candidates; he wrote a request for the admissions office to overlook his age, but was rejected. Desperate, Park sought out Kang Chae-ho, an ethnic Korean captain in the Manchukuo Army and a native of Daegu, for advice. Kang offered to use his connections to try and get an exception for Park. He also advised Park to swear a blood oath (혈서; 血書; hyŏlsŏ) in order to demonstrate his fealty to Japan and draw publicity for his cause.Park did so. On March 31, 1939, the Manshū Shimbun ran an article called "Blood Oath: Desire to be an Army Officer: Young Teacher from the Peninsula". On the 29th, admissions officers of the Military Government command were deeply moved by a piece of registered mail from Park Chung Hee, a teacher at Western Mungyeong Public School in North Gyeongsang Province, Korea. Included in the mail was a passionate letter that expressed Park's desire to be an army officer, as well as an oath written in blood that read "Service Until Death" (一死以テ御奉公)... Becoming an officer, however, is limited to those already in the army; being 23 years old, he exceeded the age limit of 19. Therefore and regretfully, his application was politely rejected. Acceptance and controversy In spite of this second rejection, Park was somehow eventually accepted to the academy. The circumstances surrounding his acceptance are not known with certainty, and are even a source of controversy.The leading theory is that Arikawa, then a colonel in the Kwantung Army, personally asked the commandant of the academy Major General Nagumo to let Park in.Another theory, proposed by the Korean Chinese historian Ryu Yŏn-san in 2003, posits that Park may have joined the Kantō ("Jiandao" in Chinese; "Gando" in Korean) Special Korean Paramilitary Unit as another show of fealty. The theory is based on an account from an ethnic Korean in China who allegedly served under Park in the unit. The unit was meant to suppress Korean independence activism in the Jiandao region of Northeast China. Jiandao was a hotbed for militant resistance against the Japanese Empire, with famous fighters like Kim Il Sung and Hong Beom-do operating there. Park is already controversial in contemporary South Korea for collaborating with the Japanese Empire; the idea that he voluntarily suppressed Korean freedom fighters would make him even more controversial. What followed was a series of lawsuits that alleged defamation, including several from Park's daughter Park Geun Ryeong, who sued Ryu and several publishers of Ryu's works. This sparked a debate over academic freedom and free speech. Over a hundred scholars published a letter in protest of the lawsuits, in which they argued Park had been a public figure and not just a private citizen, so he should be discussed publicly. Irrespective of the debate over freedom of speech, this theory is rejected by significant biographers of Park Cho Gab-je and Chong-Sik Lee, as details in the testimony do not align with the chronology of other widely accepted events in Park's life. Military career Manchukuo Army Military Academy During this time, he adopted the Japanese name Takagi Masao (高木正雄). He graduated top of his class in 1942 and was recognized as a talented officer by his Japanese instructors, who recommended him for further studies at the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in Japan. His talents as an officer were swiftly recognized and he was one of the few Koreans allowed to attend the Imperial Japanese Army Academy near Tokyo. He was subsequently posted to a Japanese Army regiment in Manchuria and served there until Japan’s surrender at the end of World War II. In Manchukuo After graduating fifth in the class of 1944, Park was commissioned as a lieutenant into the army of Manchukuo, a Japanese puppet-state, and served during the final stages of World War II as aide-de-camp to a regimental commander. Return to Korea Park returned to Korea after the war and enrolled at the Korea Military Academy. He graduated in the second class of 1946 (one of his classmates was Kim Jae-gyu, his close friend and later assassin) and became an officer in the constabulary army under the United States Army Military Government in South Korea. The newly established South Korean government, under the leadership of Syngman Rhee, arrested Park in November 1948 on charges that he led a Communist cell in the Korean constabulary. Park was subsequently sentenced to death by a military court, but his sentence was commuted by Rhee at the urging of several high-ranking Korean military officers.While Park had been a member of the Workers' Party of South Korea, the allegations concerning his involvement in a military cell were never substantiated. Nevertheless, he was forced out of the army. While working in the Army as an unpaid civilian assistant, he came across the 8th class of the Korea Military Academy (graduated in 1950), among whom was Kim Jong-pil, and this particular class would later serve as the backbone of the May 16 coup. Right after the Korean War began and with help from Paik Sun-Yup, Park returned to active service as a major in the South Korean Army.He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in September 1950 and to colonel in April 1951. As a colonel, Park was the deputy director of the Army Headquarters Intelligence Bureau in 1952 before switching to artillery and commanded the II and III Artillery Corps during the war. By the time the war ended in 1953, Park had risen to become a brigadier general. After the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement, Park was selected for six months’ training at Fort Sill in the United States.After returning to Korea, Park rose rapidly in the military hierarchy. He was the head of the Army's Artillery School and commanded the 5th and 7th Divisions of the South Korean army before his promotion to major general in 1958. Park was then appointed Chief of Staff of the First Army and made the head of the Korean 1st and 6th District Command, which gave him responsibility for the defense of Seoul. In 1960, Park became commander of the Pusan Logistics Command before becoming Chief of the Operations Staff of the South Korean Army and the deputy commander of the Second Army. As such, he was one of the most powerful and influential figures in the military. Rise to power On April 26, 1960, Syngman Rhee, the authoritarian inaugural President of South Korea, was forced out of office and into exile following the April 19 Movement, a student-led uprising. A new democratic government took office on August 13, 1960. However, this was a short-lived period of parliamentary rule in South Korea. Yun Bo-seon was a figurehead president, with the real power vested in Prime Minister Chang Myon. Problems arose immediately because neither man could command loyalty from any majority of the Democratic Party or reach agreement on the composition of the cabinet. Prime Minister Chang attempted to hold the tenuous coalition together by reshuffling cabinet positions three times within five months.Meanwhile, the new government was caught between an economy that was suffering from a decade of mismanagement and corruption under the Rhee presidency and the students who had instigated Rhee's ousting. Protesters regularly filled the streets making numerous and wide-ranging demands for political and economic reforms. Public security had deteriorated while the public had distrusted the police, which was long under the control of the Rhee government, and the ruling Democratic Party lost public support after long factional fighting.Against this backdrop of social instability and division, Major General Park formed the Military Revolutionary Committee. When he found out that he was going to be retired within the next few months, he sped up the Committee's plans. It led a military coup on May 16, 1961, which was nominally led by Army Chief of Staff Chang Do-yong after his defection on the day it started. The military takeover rendered powerless the democratically elected government of President Yun, ending the Second Republic.Initially, a new administration was formed from among those military officers who supported Park. The reformist military Supreme Council for National Reconstruction was nominally led by General Chang. Following Chang's arrest in July 1961, Park took overall control of the council. The coup was largely welcomed by a general populace exhausted by political chaos. Although Prime Minister Chang and United States Army General Carter Magruder resisted the coup efforts, President Yun sided with the military and persuaded the United States Eighth Army and the commanders of various ROK army units not to interfere with the new government.Soon after the coup, Park was promoted to Lieutenant General. The South Korean historian Hwang Moon Kyung described Park's rule as very "militaristic", noting right from the start Park aimed to mobilize South Korean society along "militaristically disciplined lines". One of Park's very first acts upon coming to power was a campaign to "clean up" the streets by arresting and putting the homeless to work in "welfare centers".The American historian Carter Eckert wrote that the historiography, including his work, around Park has tended to ignore the "enormous elephant in the room" namely that the way in which Park sought kündaehwa (modernization) of South Korea was influenced by his distinctively militaristic way of understanding the world, and the degree in which the Japanophile Park was influenced by Japanese militarism as he created what South Korean historians call a "developmental dictatorship". Eckert called South Korea under Park's leadership one of the most militarized states in the entire world, writing that Park sought to militarize South Korean society in a way that no other South Korean leader has ever attempted.In the Imperial Japanese Army, there was the belief that Bushido would give Japanese soldiers enough "spirit" as to make them invincible in battle, as the Japanese regarded war as simply a matter of willpower with the side with the stronger will always prevailing. Reflecting his background as a man trained by Japanese officers, one of Park's favorite sayings was "we can do anything if we try" as Park argued that all problems could be overcome by sheer willpower. Eckert wrote when interviewing Park's closest friends, he always received the same answer when he asked them what was the important influence on Park, namely his officer training by the Japanese in Manchukuo. All of Park's friends told Eckert that to understand him, one needed to understand his Ilbonsik sagwan kyoyuk (Japanese officer training) as they all maintained Park's values were those of an Imperial Japanese Army officer. On June 19, 1961, the military council created the Korean Central Intelligence Agency in order to prevent counter-coups and suppress potential enemies, both foreign and domestic. Along with being given investigative powers, the KCIA was also given the authority to arrest and detain anyone suspected of wrongdoing or having anti-government sentiments. Under its first director, retired Brigadier General Kim Jong-pil, a relative of Park and one of the original planners of the coup, the KCIA would extend its power to economic and foreign affairs.President Yun remained in office, giving the military regime legitimacy. After Yun resigned on March 24, 1962, Lt. General Park, who remained chairman of the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction, consolidated his power by becoming acting president; he was also promoted to full general. Park agreed to restore civilian rule following pressure from the Kennedy administration.In 1963, he was elected president in his own right as the candidate of the newly created Democratic Republican Party. He appointed Park Myung-keun, the Vice Leader of the party as the chief of the President's Office. He narrowly defeated former President Yun, the candidate of the Civil Rule Party, by just over 156,000 votes—a margin of 1.5 percent. Park would be re-elected president in 1967, defeating Yun with somewhat less difficulty. Presidency (1962–1979) Foreign policy In June 1965 Park signed a treaty normalizing relations with Japan, which included payment of reparations and the making of soft-loans from Japan, and led to increased trade and investment between South Korea and Japan. In July 1966 South Korea and the United States signed a Status of Forces Agreement establishing a more equal relationship between the two countries. With its growing economic strength and the security guarantee of the United States, the threat of a conventional invasion from North Korea seemed increasingly remote. Following the escalation of the Vietnam War with the deployment of ground combat troops in March 1965, South Korea sent the Capital Division and the 2nd Marine Brigade to South Vietnam in September 1965, followed by the White Horse Division in September 1966. Throughout the 1960s, Park made speeches in which he blamed the Anglo-Japanese Alliance and the British for Japan's takeover of Korea. Vietnam War At the request of the United States, Park sent approximately 320,000 South Korean troops to fight alongside the United States and South Vietnam during the Vietnam War; a commitment second only to that of the United States. The stated reasons for this were to help maintain good relations with the United States, prevent the further advance of communism in East Asia and to enhance the Republic's international standing. In January 1965, on the day when a bill mandating a major deployment passed the National Assembly (with 106 votes for and 11 against), Park announced that it was "time for South Korea to wean itself from a passive position of receiving help or suffering intervention, and to assume a proactive role of taking responsibility on major international issues." South Korean soldiers were not able to ultimately defeat the Viet Cong, even though South Korea was quite successful. They also gained a reputation for brutality towards civilians and were accused of numerous "My Lai-style" massacres.Although primarily to strengthen the military alliance with the United States, there were also financial incentives for South Korea's participation in the war. South Korean military personnel were paid by the United States federal government and their salaries were remitted directly to the South Korean government. Park was eager to send South Korean troops to Vietnam and vigorously campaigned to extend the war. In return for troop commitments, South Korea received tens of billions of dollars in grants, loans, subsidies, technology transfers, and preferential markets, all provided by the Johnson and Nixon administrations. North Korea Park oversaw transitional changes between the two Koreas from conflict to consolidation. In 1961, the North Korean leader, Kim Il Sung secretly sent Hwang Tae-song, a former friend of Park Chung Hee and a vice-minister in ministry of trade, to South Korea, hoping to improve inter-Korean relations. However, in order to dissipate the suspicions about his Communist leanings and assure Americans his firm stance as an ally, Park decided to execute Hwang as a spy.Beginning in October 1964, North Korea increased the infiltration of its intelligence-gatherers and propagandists into the South. More than 30 South Korean soldiers and at least 10 civilians had been killed in clashes with North Korean infiltrators by October 1966. In October 1966, Park ordered the Korean Army to stage a retaliatory attack without seeking the approval of General Charles Bonesteel. This action, which was in retaliation for ongoing South Korean losses, caused tension between Park's government and the U.S. command in Korea, which wished not to violate the armistice. Between 1966 and 1969 the clashes escalated as Park's armed forces were involved in firefights along the Korean DMZ. The fighting, sometimes referred to as the Second Korean War, was related to a speech given by Kim Il Sung on October 5, 1966, in which the North Korean leader challenged the legitimacy of the 1953 Armistice Agreement. Kim stated that irregular warfare could now succeed in a way conventional warfare could not because the South Korean military was now involved with the ever-growing Vietnam War. He believed Park's administration could be undermined if armed provocation by North Korea was directed against U.S. troops. This would force United States to reconsider its worldwide commitments. Any splits would give the North an opportunity to incite an insurgency in the South against Park. On January 21, 1968, the 31-man Unit 124 of North Korean People's Army special forces commandos attempted to assassinate Park and nearly succeeded. They were stopped just 800 metres from the Blue House by a police patrol. A fire fight broke out and all but two of the North Koreans were killed or captured. In response to the assassination attempt, Park organized Unit 684, a group intended to assassinate Kim Il-Sung. It was disbanded in 1971. Despite the hostility, negotiations were conducted between the North and South regarding reunification. On July 4, 1972, both countries released a joint statement specifying that reunification must be achieved internally with no reliance on external forces or outside interference, that the process must be achieved peacefully without the use of military force, and that all parties must promote national unity as a united people over any differences of ideological and political systems. The United States Department of State was not happy with these proposals and, following Park's assassination in 1979, they were quietly buried.On August 15, 1974, Park was delivering a speech in the National Theater in Seoul at the ceremony to celebrate the 29th anniversary of the ending of colonial rule when a man named Mun Se-gwang fired a gun at Park from the front row. The would-be assassin, who was a Japanese-born North Korean sympathizer, missed Park but a stray bullet struck his wife Yuk Young-soo (who died later that day) and others on the stage. Park continued his speech as his dying wife was carried off the stage. Mun was hanged in a Seoul prison four months later. On the first anniversary of his wife's death, Park wrote in his diary "I felt as though I had lost everything in the world. All things became a burden and I lost my courage and will. A year has passed since then. And during that year I have cried alone in secret too many times to count." Japan On June 22, 1965, the Park administration and the government of Japan under Eisaku Satō signed the Treaty on Basic Relations Between Japan and the Republic of Korea, which normalized relations between Japan and South Korea for the first time. Relations with Japan had previously not been officially established since Korea's decolonization and division at the end of World War II. In January 2005, the government of the Republic of Korea uncovered 1,200 pages of diplomatic documents of the Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea of 1965 that had been kept secret for forty years. These documents revealed that the Japanese government proposed to the government of the Republic of Korea, headed by Park Chung Hee, to directly compensate individual victims of Japanese colonization of Korea, but it was the Park administration that insisted it would handle the individual compensation to the victims, and took over the entire amount of the grant, 300 million dollars, (for 35 years of Japanese colonial rule in Korea), on behalf of the victims. The Park administration negotiated for a total of 360 million dollars in compensation for the 1.03 million Koreans conscripted into the forced labor and military service during the colonial period but received only 300 million dollars. Economic policy One of Park's main goals was to end the poverty of South Korea, and lift the country up from being a underdeveloped economy to a developed economy via statist methods. Using the Soviet Union and its Five Year Plans as a model, Park launched his first Five Year Plan in 1962 by declaring the city of Ulsan as a "special industrial development zone". The chaebol of Hyundai took advantage of Ulsan's special status to make the city the home of its main factories.Park is credited with playing a pivotal role in the development of South Korea's tiger economy by shifting its focus to export-oriented industrialisation. When he came to power in 1961, South Korea's per capita income was only US$72.00. North Korea was the greater economic and military power on the peninsula due to the North's history of heavy industries such as the power and chemical plants, and the large amounts of economic, technical and financial aid it received from other communist bloc countries such as the Soviet Union, East Germany and China. One of Park's reforms was to bring in 24 hour provision of electricity in 1964, which was a major change as previously homes and businesses were provided with electricity for a few hours every day. With the second Five Year Plan in 1967, Park founded the Kuro Industrial Park in southwestern Seoul, and created the state owned Pohang Iron and Steel Company Limited to provide cheap steel for the chaebol, who were founding the first automobile factories and shipyards in South Korea. Reflecting its statist tendencies, the Park government rewarded chaebol who met their targets under the Five Year Plans with loans on easy terms of repayment, tax cuts, easy licensing and subsidies.It was common from the late 1960s onward for South Koreans to speak of the "octopus" nature of the chaebol as they began to extend their "tentacles" into all areas of the economy. Some of the successful chaebol like Lucky Goldstar (LG) and Samsung went back to the Japanese period while others like Hyundai were founded shortly after the end of Japanese rule; all would go to become world-famous companies. Hyundai, which began as a transport firm moving supplies for the U.S. Army during the Korean War, came to dominate the South Korean construction industry in the 1960s, and in 1967 opened its first car factory, building automobiles under license for Ford.In 1970, Hyundai finished the construction of the Seoul-Pusan Expressway, which became one of the busiest highways of South Korea, and in 1975 produced the Pony, its first car that was designed entirely by its own engineers. Besides manufacturing automobiles and construction, Hyundai moved into shipbuilding, cement, chemicals and electronics, ultimately becoming one of the world's largest corporations. On August 3, 1972, Park made the so-called "Emergency financial act of August 3rd(8·3긴급금융조치)" which banned all private loans to make the foundation of economic growth, and supported Chaebols even further.A sign of the growth of the South Korean economy was that in 1969 there were 200,000 television sets in operation in South Korea, and by 1979 there were six million television sets operating in South Korea. In 1969, only 6% of South Korean families owned a television; by 1979 four of every five South Korean families owned a TV. However, all television in South Korea was in black and white, and the color television did not come to South Korea until 1979. Reflecting the growth of TV ownership, the state-owned Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) began to produce more programming, while private sector corporation MBC began operating in 1969. During the Yushin era, television productions were subjected to strict censorship with, for example, men with long hair being banned from appearing on TV, but soap operas became a cultural phenomenon in the 1970s, becoming extremely popular.South Korean industry saw remarkable development under Park's leadership. Park viewed Japan's development model, in particular the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) and the Keiretsu, as an example for Korea. Park emulated MITI by establishing the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) and the Economic Planning Board (EPB). Government-corporate cooperation on expanding South Korean exports helped lead to the growth of some South Korean companies into today's giant Korean conglomerates, the chaebols. However, this economic development of South Korea came at great sacrifice to the working class: the government did not recognise a minimum wage or weekly leave and imposed free work periods for its own benefit, and twelve-hour workdays were the norm. In addition, trade unions and industrial action were prohibited. Despite that, the fact that people who were in poverty were able to work stable jobs was welcomed by the vast majority of South Koreans.According to the Gapminder Foundation Extreme poverty was reduced from 66.9 percent in 1961 to 11.2 percent in 1979, making this one of the fastest and largest reductions in poverty in human history. This growth also encompassed declines in child mortality and increases in life expectancy. From 1961 to 1979 child mortality declined by 64%, the third-fastest decrease in child mortality of any country with over 10 million inhabitants during the same period. West Germany Park's economic policy was highlighted by South Korea's relationship with West Germany. Park had an affinity for Germany due to its history of having strong leadership like that of Bismarck and Hitler, and wanted to create ties with West Germany to deal with the problems of increasing population growth and economic hardships and to receive an inflow of foreign capital for domestic development. Upon an agreement in 1961, South Korea sent labor forces to Germany, including more than 8,000 mine workers and 10,000 nurses, which continued until 1977. (See Gastarbeiter and Koreans in Germany) Iran Park was close friends with the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who had established diplomatic relations in 1962 and following a visit to Iran in 1969, developed a close relationship with the two countries. Park realized the importance of Iran in securing oil for South Korea's industrial development and by 1973, was their main and only source of oil during the Oil Crisis. Most refineries in South Korea were built to process Iranian crude and thousands of engineers and workers were sent to Iran to help develop their refining capability.The relationship eventually expanded beyond oil as Park promoted other industries to operate in Iran. Many Chaebol's went to Iran, including Hyundai Engineering & Construction, whose first Middle East Project were a series of shipyards in Bandar Abbas and Chahbahar to help develop Iran's maritime industry. Park's favorite architect Kim Swoo-Geun and his office designed the Ekbatan Complex in Tehran and the South Korean Special Forces helped train the Imperial Iranian Navy Commandos.Park invited the Shah in 1978 for a special "South Korea-Iran" summit to further deepen relations but due to the Iranian Revolution, it never materialized. In preparation for that summit, Tehran and Seoul became sister cities and the two exchanged street names as well; Teheran-ro in Gangnam and Seoul Street in Tehran which both still remain. Domestic policy Among Park's first actions upon assuming control of South Korea in 1961 was to pass strict legislation metrifying the country and banning the use of traditional Korean measurements like the li and pyeong. Despite its strict wording, the law's enforcement was so spotty as to be considered a failure, with the government abandoning prosecution under its terms by 1970. In the end, South Korea's traditional units continued until June 2001.After taking office for his second term in 1967, Park promised that, in accordance with the 1963 Constitution which limited the president to two consecutive terms, he would step down in 1971. However, soon after his 1967 victory, the Democratic Republican-dominated National Assembly successfully pushed through an amendment allowing the incumbent president —himself— to run for three consecutive terms.In the meantime, Park grew anxious of the shift in US policy towards communism under Richard Nixon's Guam Doctrine. His government's legitimacy depended on staunch anti-communism, and any moderation of that policy from South Korea's allies (including the US) threatened the very basis of his rule. Park began to seek options to further cement his hold on the country. In May 1970, the Catholic poet Kim Chi-ha was arrested for supposedly violating the Anti-Communist Law for his poem Five Bandits, which in fact had no references to Communism either explicitly or implicitly, but instead attacked corruption under Park. The issue of the journal Sasanggye that published the Five Bandits was shut down by the government.One of the eponymous bandits of the Five Bandits is described as a general who began his career fighting for Japan in World War Two, and all of the bandits of the poem are described as Chinilpa collaborators who served Japan because of their greed and amorality. Park recognized the reference to himself in Five Bandits with the character of the general while the fact that all of the bandits have a Chinilpa background was a reference to the social basis of Park's regime. In 1974, Kim was sentenced to death for his poem, and though he was not executed, he spent almost all of the 1970s in prison.Later in 1970, Park launched his Saemaul Undong (New Village Movement) that set out to modernize the countryside by providing electricity and running water to farmers, building paved roads, and replacing thatched roofs with tin roofs. The roofing project was said to reflect a personal obsession on the part of Park, who could not stand the sight of thatched roofs on farmers' homes, which for him was a sign of South Korea's backwardness. Park used asbestos for fixing rustic houses, which is harmful to humans.In 1971, Park won another close election against his rival, Kim Dae-jung. That December, shortly after being sworn in, he declared a state of emergency "based on the dangerous realities of the international situation". In October 1972, Park dissolved the legislature and suspended the 1963 constitution in a self-coup. Work then began on drafting a new constitution. Park had drawn inspiration for his self-coup from Ferdinand Marcos, President of the Philippines, who had orchestrated a similar coup a few weeks earlier. A new constitution, the so-called Yushin Constitution was approved in a heavily rigged plebiscite in November 1972. Meaning "rejuvenation" or "renewal" (as well as "restoration" in some contexts), scholars see the term's usage as Park alluding to himself as an "imperial president".The new Yushin constitution was a highly authoritarian document. It transferred the presidential election process to an electoral college, the National Conference for Unification. It also dramatically expanded the president's powers. Notably, he was given sweeping powers to rule by decree and suspend constitutional freedoms. The presidential term was increased from four to six years, with no limits on re-election. For all intents and purposes, it codified the emergency powers Park had exercised for the past year, transforming his presidency into a legal dictatorship. As per his new constitution, Park ran for a fresh term as president in December 1972, and won unopposed. He was reelected in 1978 also unopposed. Many of South Korea's leading writers were opposed to the Park regime, and many of the best remembered poems and novels of the 1970s satirized the Yushin system.Park argued that Western-style liberal democracy was not suitable for South Korea due to its still-shaky economy. He believed that in the interest of stability, the country needed a "Korean-style democracy" with a strong, unchallenged presidency. Although he repeatedly promised to open up the regime and restore full democracy, fewer and fewer people believed him. In 1975, Park ordered homeless people and children to be removed from the streets of Seoul. Thousands of people were captured by the police and sent to thirty-six camps. The detainees were then used as free labor by the authorities and subjected to degrading treatment. Many died under torture.Park abolished the usage of hanja or Chinese characters and established hangul exclusivity for the Korean language in the 1960s and 1970s. After a Five-Year Hangul Exclusivity Plan (한글종양오년계획) was promulgated through legislative and executive means, from 1970, using hanja became illegal in all grades of public school and in the military. This led to less illiteracy in South Korea.The KCIA controlled the whole country, with more than forty thousand regular employees and one million correspondents. Striking workers, protesters or signatories of simple petitions faced long prison sentences and torture. The whole country was under constant surveillance. Final years of presidency During his final years of presidency, Park realized that people were not satisfied with the government. His autocracy became increasingly open in later years. Military As president, Park tried to strengthen the military. He often said that if an independent country cannot protect itself with its military, it is not an independent country. Park ordered the development of missiles to attack Pyongyang. Due to a lack of technical knowledge, Korean engineers had to travel to the United States to learn how to produce missiles. After a painstaking development, on September 26, 1978, Nike Hercules Korea-1 had its successful first launch. But the development of missiles were stopped when Chun Doo-hwan reigned. Park also tried to develop his homegrown nuclear weapons programs, announcing that they would be made by 1983. This was never progressed after Park's death in 1979. Death Final years Although the growth of the South Korean economy had secured a high level of support for Park's presidency in the 1960s, that support began to fade after economic growth started slowing in the early 1970s. Many South Koreans were becoming unhappy with his autocratic rule, his security services and the restrictions placed on personal freedoms. While Park had legitimised his administration, using the provisions laid down in the state of emergency laws dating back to the Korean War, he also failed to address the constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and the press. Furthermore, the security service, the KCIA, retained broad powers of arrest and detention; many of Park's opponents were held without trial and frequently tortured. Eventually demonstrations against the Yushin system erupted throughout the country as Park's unpopularity began to rise. These demonstrations came to a decisive moment on October 16, 1979, when a student group calling for the end of dictatorship and the Yushin system began at Busan National University. The action, which was part of the "Pu-Ma" struggle (named for the Pusan and Masan areas), soon moved into the streets of the city where students and riot police fought all day. By evening, up to 50,000 people had gathered in front of Busan city hall. Over the next two days several public offices were attacked and around 400 protesters were arrested. On October 18, Park's government declared martial law in Busan. On the same day protests spread to Kyungnam University in Masan. Up to 10,000 people, mostly students and workers, joined the demonstrations against Park's Yushin System. Violence quickly escalated with attacks being launched at police stations and city offices of the ruling party. By nightfall a citywide curfew was put into place in Masan. Assassination On October 26, 1979, six days after the student protests ended, Park Chung Hee was fatally shot in the head and chest by Kim Jae-gyu, the director of the KCIA, after a banquet at a safehouse in Gungjeong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul. Other KCIA officers then went to other parts of the building shooting dead four more presidential guards. Cha Ji-chul, chief of the Presidential Security Service, was also fatally shot by Kim. Kim and his group were later arrested by soldiers under South Korea's Army Chief of Staff. They were tortured and later executed.It is unclear whether this was a spontaneous act of passion by an individual or part of a pre-arranged attempted coup by the intelligence service. Kim claimed that Park was an obstacle to democracy and that his act was one of patriotism. The investigation's head, Chun Doo-hwan, rejected his claims and concluded that Kim acted to preserve his own power.Choi Kyu-hah became Acting President pursuant to Article 48 of the Yushin Constitution. Major General Chun Doo-hwan quickly amassed sweeping powers after his Defense Security Command was charged with investigating the assassination, first taking control of the military and the KCIA before installing another military junta and finally assuming the presidency in 1980. Park, who was said to be a devout Buddhist, was accorded the first South Korean interfaith state funeral on November 3 in Seoul. He was buried with full military honors at the National Cemetery near the grave of former president Syngman Rhee who died in 1965. Kim Jae-gyu, whose motive for murdering Park remains unclear, was hanged on May 24, 1980. Personal life Park was married to Kim Ho-nam (having one daughter with her) and the two later divorced. Afterwards, he married Yuk Young-soo, and the couple had two daughters and one son. Yuk was killed in the assassination attempt against Park in 1974. Park's eldest daughter from his second marriage (with Yuk Young-soo), Park Geun-hye, was elected the chairwoman of the conservative Grand National Party in 2004. She was elected as South Korea's 11th president and first female president in 2012 and took office in February 2013. Park Geun-hye's association to her father's legacy has served as a double-edged sword. She had previously been labeled as the daughter of a dictator; however she has been quoted as saying "I want to be judged on my own merits." Her presidency ended in her impeachment in 2016 and removal from office in 2017. She was sentenced to 24 years in prison on April 6, 2018. Park was released in 2021 from the Seoul Detention Center. Legacy Park Chung Hee remains a controversial figure in South Korea. The eighteen-year Park era is considered to be one of the most controversial topics for the Korean public, politicians, and scholars. Opinion is split regarding his legacy, between those who credit Park for his reforms and those who condemn his authoritarian way of ruling the country, especially after 1971. Older generations who spent their adulthood during Park's rule tend to credit Park for building the economic foundation of the country and protecting the country from North Korea, as well as leading Korea to economic and global prominence. Although Park was listed as one of the top ten "Asians of the Century" by Time magazine in 1999, the newer generations of Koreans and those who fought for democratization tend to believe his authoritarian rule was unjustified, and that he hindered South Korea's transition to democracy. Park has been recognized and respected by many South Koreans as an exceptionally efficient leader, credited with making South Korea economically what it is today. Park led the Miracle on the Han River, a period of rapid economic growth in South Korea. Under Park's rule, South Korea possessed one of the fastest growing national economies during the 1960s and 1970s. According to the Gapminder Foundation, extreme poverty was reduced from 66.9 percent in 1961 to 11.2 percent in 1979, making one of the fastest and largest reductions in poverty in human history. This growth also encompassed declines in child mortality and increases in life expectancy. From 1961 to 1979 child mortality declined by 64%, the third-fastest decrease in child mortality of any country with over 10 million inhabitants during the same period. Economic growth continued after Park's death and after considerable political turmoil in the wake of his assassination and the military Coup d'état of December Twelfth. However, Park is regarded as a highly repressive dictator who curtailed freedoms and committed human rights abuses during his rule. Dissolving the constitution to allow him unopposed rule, Park's blackmailing, arresting, jailing, and murdering of opposition figures are well documented. The new constitution President Park implemented after declaring the state of emergency in 1971 gave him the power to appoint one third of the members of the National Assembly and even outlawed criticism of the constitution and of the president. There were also many economic feats established during Park's regime, including the Gyeongbu Expressway, POSCO, the famous Five-Year Plans of South Korea, and the New Community Movement. In 1987, South Korea eventually democratized as a result of the June Struggle movement. Park was accused of having pro-Japanese tendencies by some. Park is responsible for the beginning of a normalized relationship with Japan and today Japan is one of South Korea's top trading partners, surpassed only by the People's Republic of China and the United States.Park's rule is also believed to be one of the main causes of regionalism which is a serious problem in Korea today.Kim Dae-jung, a pro-democracy chief opponent of Park who was kidnapped, arrested, and sentenced to death by the Park administration, later served as the 8th president of South Korea. On October 24, 2007, following an internal inquiry, South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) admitted that its precursor, the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA), undertook the kidnapping of opposition leader and future President Kim Dae-jung, saying it had at least tacit backing from then-leader Park Chung Hee.Park Geun-hye, Park's eldest daughter, became the 11th president of South Korea and the first female president of South Korea. Park Geun-hye's parentage served as a considerable source of controversy during the 2012 presidential election and throughout her administration, as detractors described her as the daughter of a dictator. Park was impeached, removed from office, and later sentenced to 27 years in prison as a result of an influence-peddling scandal.An October 2021 Gallup Korea public opinion poll showed Park Chung Hee, Roh Moo-hyun, and Kim Dae-jung as the most highly rated presidents of South Korean history. The poll showed Park received a favorability rating of 72% and 82% from citizens in the age range of 50–60 and 60+ years respectively, and a favorability rating of 43% and 64% from citizens in the age range of 20–30 and 30–40 years respectively.A number of monuments and memorials to Park now exist. One of Park's houses in Seoul is now a National Registered Cultural Heritage. The Park Chung-hee Presidential Museum opened in 2021. Ancestry Park was a 29th generation descendant of the Goryeong Park clan and from its Jikganggong Branch (직강공파; 直講公派). One of his great-great-grandmothers was from the Jeonju Yi clan, the former ruling family of Joseon and the Korean Empire. Great-great-grandfather: Park Yung-hwan (박영환; 朴英煥 ?–1838), courtesy name Hwaeon (화언; 華彥). He was the son of Park Se-hyung and Lady Park of the Miryang Park clan. Great-great-grandmother: Lady Yi of the Jeonju Yi clan (1786–1849), daughter Yi Hyung-ho (이형호; 李亨浩). Great-grandfather: Park Yi-chan (박이찬; 朴履燦 ?–1846), courtesy name Muji (무지; 茂之). Great-grandmother: Lady Lee of the Seongju Lee clan, daughter of Lee-Yi-jeong (이이정; 李以貞). Grandfather: Park Yung-gyu (박영규; 朴永奎 1840–1914), courtesy name Munseo (문서; 文瑞). Grandmother: Lady Lee of Seongju Lee clan (1840–1915), daughter of Lee Bae-sik (이배식; 李培植). Father: Park Sung-bin (박성빈; 朴成彬 1871–1938), courtesy name Hwaik (화익; 和益). Mother: Baek Nam-eui (백남의; 白南義 1872–1949); she was from the Suwon Baek clan and her father was Baek Nak-chun (백낙춘; 白樂春) Honours National honours South Korea: Recipient of the Grand Order of Mugunghwa Recipient of the Order of Merit for National Foundation (Order of the Republic of Korea) Recipient of the Order of Diplomatic Service Merit (Grand Gwanghwa Medal) Recipient of the Order of Service Merit (1st class) Recipient of the Order of National Security Merit (Tongil Medal) Recipient of the Order of Military Merit (Taegeuk Cordon Medal) Recipient of the Order of Civil Merit (Mugunghwa Medal) Foreign honours Argentina: Grand Cross of the Order of the Liberator General San Martín Austria: Grand Star of the Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria El Salvador: Grand Officer of the Order of José Matías Delgado Ethiopian Empire: Grand Cordon of the Order of the Queen of Sheba West Germany: Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Italy: Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic Malaysia: Honorary Recipient of the Most Exalted Order of the Crown of the Realm (1965) Mexico: Grand Cross of the Order of the Aztec Eagle Netherlands: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion Niger: Grand Officer of the National Order Philippines: Grand Collar of the Order of Sikatuna Senegal: Knight Grand Cross of the National Order of the Lion South Vietnam: Grand Cross of the National Order of Vietnam Spain: Collar of the Order of Civil Merit Taiwan: Special Grand Cordon of the Order of Propitious Clouds Thailand: Knight of the Order of the Rajamitrabhorn (1966) United States: Chief Commander of the Legion of Merit In popular culture The President's Last Bang The Man Standing Next The President's Barber See also List of presidents of South Korea In English Clifford, Mark L. (1993). Troubled Tiger: Businessmen, Bureaucrats and Generals in South Korea. Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe. ISBN 978-0765601414. Kim, Byung-kook; Vogel, Ezra F., eds. (2011). The Park Chung Hee Era: The Transformation of South Korea. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0674058200. Kim, Hyung-A (2003). Korea's Development Under Park Chung Hee (annotated ed.). Routledge. ISBN 978-0415323291. Kim, Hyung-A; Sorensen, Clark W., eds. (2011). Reassessing the Park Chung Hee Era, 1961–1979. Center for Korea Studies, University of Washington. ISBN 978-0295991405. JSTOR j.ctvcwnxph. Lee, Byeong-cheon (2005). Developmental Dictatorship and The Park Chung-Hee Era: The Shaping of Modernity in the Republic of Korea. Paramus, New Jersey: Homa & Sekey Books. ISBN 978-1931907354. Lee, Chong-sik (2012). Park Chung-Hee: From Poverty to Power. The KHU Press. ISBN 978-0615560281. Park, Chung Hee (1970). Our Nation's Path: Ideology of Social Reconstruction (2 ed.). Hollym Publishers. Yi, Pyŏng-chʻŏn (2006). Developmental Dictatorship and the Park Chung Hee Era: The Shaping of Modernity in the Republic of Korea. Homa & Sekey Books. ISBN 978-1-9319-0728-6. In Korean Cho, Gab-je (December 26, 1997), "'내 무덤에 침을 뱉어라!' (67)" ["Spit On My Grave!" (67)], The Chosun Ilbo (in Korean) Cho, Gab-je (December 28, 1997), "'내 무덤에 침을 뱉어라!' (68)" ["Spit On My Grave!" (68)], The Chosun Ilbo (in Korean) Cho, Gab-je (December 30, 1997), "'내 무덤에 침을 뱉어라!' (70)" ["Spit On My Grave!" (70)], The Chosun Ilbo (in Korean) Cho, Gab-je (January 2, 1998), "'내 무덤에 침을 뱉어라!' (71)" ["Spit On My Grave!" (71)], The Chosun Ilbo (in Korean) Cho, Gab-je (January 14, 1998), "'내 무덤에 침을 뱉어라!' (82)" ["Spit On My Grave!" (82)], The Chosun Ilbo (in Korean) Cho, Gab-je (January 16, 1998), "'내 무덤에 침을 뱉어라!' (84)" ["Spit On My Grave!" (84)], The Chosun Ilbo (in Korean) Cho, Gab-je (February 4, 1998), "'내 무덤에 침을 뱉어라!' (97)" ["Spit On My Grave!" (97)], The Chosun Ilbo (in Korean) Cho, Gab-je (February 9, 1998), "'내 무덤에 침을 뱉어라!' (101)" ["Spit On My Grave!" (101)], The Chosun Ilbo (in Korean) Media related to Park Chung-hee at Wikimedia Commons Quotations related to Park Chung Hee at Wikiquote

James Owen Sullivan (February 9, 1981 – December 28, 2009), also known by his stage name The Rev (shortened version of the Reverend Tholomew Plague), was an American musician, best known as a founding member of the heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold, where he played drums, piano and provided backing and co-lead vocals. He was also the lead vocalist/pianist in the avant-garde metal band Pinkly Smooth and drummer for the ska punk band Suburban Legends from 1998 to 1999. Career Sullivan was born on February 9, 1981, of Irish descent and raised Roman Catholic. He received his first pair of drumsticks at the age of five and his own drum set at the age of twelve. In high school, he started playing in bands. Before leaving to join Avenged Sevenfold as one of the band's founding members, Sullivan was the drummer for the third wave ska band Suburban Legends. At the age of 19, he recorded his first album with Avenged Sevenfold titled Sounding the Seventh Trumpet. His early influences included Frank Zappa and King Crimson. The Rev stated in an interview with Modern Drummer that he "was raised on that stuff as much as rock and metal."Later in life, he was influenced by drummers Vinnie Paul, Mike Portnoy (who would later be his fill-in with Avenged Sevenfold), Dave Lombardo, Lars Ulrich, and Terry Bozzio, stating "It's funny [...], of all my influences, Tommy Lee is a visual influence. I never thought I'd have one of those." Sullivan had a signature ability called "the double-ride thing" or "the Double Octopus", as the Rev called it, "just for lack of a better definition." "The double-ride thing" is a technique that can be heard on tracks such as "Almost Easy", "Critical Acclaim", "Crossroads", and "Dancing Dead", in which Sullivan doubles up at a fast tempo between the double bass and ride cymbals. The Rev was the drummer, composer, songwriter, vocalist, and pianist for the band. His vocals are featured in several Avenged Sevenfold songs, including "Strength of the World", "Afterlife", "A Little Piece of Heaven", "Almost Easy", "Scream", "Critical Acclaim", "Lost", "Brompton Cocktail", "Crossroads", "Flash of the Blade" (Iron Maiden cover), "Art of Subconscious Illusion", "Save Me", and "Fiction". He also wrote and composed several songs for Avenged Sevenfold including "A Little Piece of Heaven", "Afterlife", "Almost Easy", "Unbound (The Wild Ride)", "Buried Alive", "Fiction", "Brompton Cocktail", "Welcome to the Family", "Save Me", among others. Avenged Sevenfold released a demo version of "Nightmare" featuring the Rev on an electronic drumset and providing some vocals. At the second annual Revolver Golden God Awards, the Rev won the award for "Best Drummer". His family members, and Avenged Sevenfold, received the posthumous honor on his behalf.In an Ultimate Guitar online readers' poll of the "Top Ten Greatest Drummers of All Time", the Rev appeared at No. 8, placing higher than Bill Ward of Black Sabbath and lower than Keith Moon of the Who. In 2017, he once again appeared in Ultimate Guitar's list of Top 25 Greatest Singing Drummers, at No. 5. Pinkly Smooth Pinkly Smooth was an American heavy metal/avant-garde metal band. The band was formed in the summer of 2001 in Huntington Beach, California, as a side project of the Rev, and originally featured Rev (under the name "Rathead") on vocals, along with fellow Avenged Sevenfold member Synyster Gates on guitar and former Ballistico band members Buck Silverspur (under the name "El Diablo") on bass, as well as Derek Eglit (under the name "Super Loop") on drums. They released only one album, Unfortunate Snort, which featured former Avenged Sevenfold bassist Justin Meacham (under his stage name "Justin Sane") as a keyboard player. Death On December 28, 2009, the Rev was found unresponsive in his Huntington Beach home, and was later pronounced dead upon arrival to the hospital. Police ruled out foul play and noted that his death appeared to be from natural causes. An autopsy performed on December 30, 2009, was inconclusive, but toxicology results revealed to the public in June that he died from an overdose of oxycodone (Percocet), oxymorphone (a metabolite of oxycodone), diazepam (Valium), nordiazepam (a metabolite of diazepam), and alcohol. The coroner noted an enlarged heart as a "significant condition" that may have played a role in Sullivan's death. On January 6, 2010, a private funeral was held for Sullivan. Shortly after his death, Avenged Sevenfold dedicated their fifth studio album Nightmare to him, as well as several songs, including "So Far Away", which had been written by bandmate (and childhood friend) Synyster Gates, and "Fiction", which the Rev had written three days before his death. M. Shadows and Gates stated in an interview to Hard Drive Radio: "The eeriest thing about it is there is a song on the album called 'Fiction' [a nickname the Rev gave himself] which started out with the title 'Death.' And it was the last song The Rev wrote for the album, and when he handed it in, he said, 'That's it, that's the last song for this record.' And then, three days later, he died." Legacy His triple bass drum kit from the 2008 Taste of Chaos tour was donated for display at a Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas. It has since been taken down. Another drum kit he used is displayed in a Hard Rock Cafe in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Discography with Suburban Legends Origin Edition (1999) with Pinkly Smooth Unfortunate Snort (2001) with Brian Haner Fistfight at the Wafflehouse (2010) (posthumous; drums on "Bring My Baby Back") with Avenged Sevenfold Sounding the Seventh Trumpet (2001) Waking the Fallen (2003) City of Evil (2005) Avenged Sevenfold (2007) Live in the LBC & Diamonds in the Rough (2008) Nightmare (2010) (posthumous; lyrics, composing and vocals featured; vocals and drums on demo tracks; co-lead vocals on "Fiction", growl on "Save Me", songwriting on all songs) Life Is but a Dream... (2023) (posthumous; lyrics on "Beautiful Morning"; bridge melody on "Mattel") Media related to The Rev at Wikimedia Commons

Führer ( FURE-ər; German: [ˈfyːʁɐ] , spelled Fuehrer when the umlaut is unavailable) is a German word meaning "leader" or "guide". As a political title, it is strongly associated with Adolf Hitler, the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. Hitler officially styled himself der Führer und Reichskanzler (the Leader and Chancellor of the Reich) after the death of President Paul von Hindenburg in 1934 and the subsequent merging of the offices of Reichspräsident and Reichskanzler. Nazi Germany cultivated the Führerprinzip ("leader principle"), and Hitler was generally known as simply der Führer ("the Leader").In compound words, the use of Führer remains common in German and is used in words such as Bergführer (mountain guide) or Oppositionsführer (leader of the opposition). However, because of its strong association with Hitler, the isolated word itself usually has negative connotations when used with the meaning of "leader", especially in political contexts. The word Führer has cognates in the Scandinavian languages, spelled fører in Danish and Norwegian, which have the same meaning and use as the German word, but without necessarily having political connotations. In Swedish, förare normally means "driver" (of a vehicle). However, in the compound word härförare, that part does mean "leader", and is a cognate of the German "Heerführer". History Background Führer has been used as a military title (compare Latin Dux) in Germany since at least the 18th century. The usage of the term "Führer" in the context of a company-sized military subunit in the German Army referred to a commander lacking the qualifications for permanent command. For example, the commanding officer of a company was (and is) titled "Kompaniechef" (literally, Company Chief), but if he did not have the requisite rank or experience, or was only temporarily assigned to command, he was officially titled "Kompanieführer". Thus operational commands of various military echelons were typically referred to by their formation title followed by the title Führer, in connection with mission-type tactics used by the German military forces. The term Führer was also used at lower levels, regardless of experience or rank; for example, a Gruppenführer was the leader of a squad of infantry (9 or 10 men). Origins of the political concept The first example of the political use of Führer was with the Austrian Georg von Schönerer (1842–1921), a major exponent of pan-Germanism and German nationalism in Austria, whose followers commonly referred to him as the Führer, and who also used the Roman salute – where the right arm and hand are held rigidly outstretched – which they called the "German greeting". According to historian Richard J. Evans, this use of "Führer" by Schönerer's Pan-German Association, probably introduced the term to the German far-right, but its specific adoption by the Nazis may also have been influenced by the use in Italy of "Duce", also meaning "leader", as an informal title for Benito Mussolini, the Fascist Prime Minister, and later (from 1922) dictator, of that country. Führer of the Nazi Party Adolf Hitler took the title to denote his function as the head of the Nazi Party; he received it in 1921 when, infuriated over party founder Anton Drexler's plan to merge with another antisemitic far-right nationalist party, he resigned from the party. Drexler and the party's Executive Committee then acquiesced to Hitler's demand to be made the chairman of the party with "dictatorial powers" as the condition for his return. Führer and Chancellor In 1933, Hitler was appointed Reichskanzler (Chancellor of the Reich) by Reichspräsident Paul von Hindenburg. A month later, the decision to vote with the Nazi Party taken by the MPs of the Catholic Center Party allowed the Nazi-dominated Reichstag to reach the qualified constitutional two-thirds majority required for passage of the Enabling Act allowing the cabinet to promulgate laws by decree, rendering in practice the system of checks and balances defunct. The Act became the official legal justification for such decrees later routinely issued by Hitler himself. Führer and Chancellor of the German Reich One day before Hindenburg's death, Hitler and his cabinet decreed the "Law Concerning the Head of State of the German Reich", which stipulated that upon Hindenburg's death, the office of the president was to be merged with that of Chancellor. Thus, upon Hindenburg's death, Hitler became Führer und Reichskanzler – although eventually Reichskanzler was quietly dropped from day-to-day usage and retained only in official documents. Hitler therefore assumed the President's powers without assuming the office itself – ostensibly out of respect for Hindenburg's achievements as a heroic figure in World War I. The Enabling Act had specifically prohibited legislation that would affect the position or powers of the Reich President, but the first one-party Reichstag elected in November 1933 had passed an act on the first anniversary of Hitler's appointment as Chancellor, 30 January 1934, abolishing those restrictions. It was then approved by a referendum on 19 August. Führer and Chancellor of the Greater German Reich The title was changed on 28 July 1942 to "der Führer und Reichskanzler des Großdeutschen Reiches" (Leader and Chancellor of the Greater German Reich). Führer and Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht According to the Constitution of Weimar, the President was Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. Unlike "President", Hitler did take this title (Oberbefehlshaber) for himself. When conscription was reintroduced in 1935, Hitler created the title of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, a post held by the Minister for War. He retained the title of Supreme Commander for himself. Soldiers had to swear allegiance to Hitler as "Führer des deutschen Reiches und Volkes" (Leader of the German Reich and Nation). Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg, then the Minister of War and one of those who created the Hitler oath, or the personal oath of loyalty of the military to Hitler, became the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces while Hitler remained Supreme Commander. Following the Blomberg–Fritsch Affair in 1938, Hitler assumed the commander-in-chief's post as well and took personal command of the armed forces. However, he continued using the older formally higher title of Supreme Commander, which was thus filled with a somewhat new meaning. Combining it with "Führer", he used the style Führer und Oberster Befehlshaber der Wehrmacht (Leader and Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht), yet a simple "Führer" after May 1942. Führer of the German Reich and Nation Soldiers had to swear allegiance to Hitler as "Führer des deutschen Reiches und Volkes" (Leader of the German Reich and Nation). In his political testament, Hitler also referred to himself as Führer der Nation (Leader of the Nation). Germanic Führer An additional title was adopted by Hitler on 23 June 1941 when he declared himself the "Germanic Führer" (Germanischer Führer), in addition to his duties as Führer of the German state and people. This was done to emphasize Hitler's professed leadership of what the Nazis described as the "Nordic-Germanic master race", which was considered to include peoples such as the Norwegians, Danes, Swedes, Dutch, and others in addition to the Germans, and the intent to annex these countries to the German Reich to form the Greater Germanic Reich (Großgermanisches Reich deutscher Nation). Waffen-SS formations from these countries had to declare obedience to Hitler by addressing him in this fashion. On 12 December 1941 the Dutch fascist Anton Mussert also addressed him as such when he proclaimed his allegiance to Hitler during a visit to the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. He had wanted to address Hitler as Führer aller Germanen ("Führer of all Germanics"), but Hitler personally decreed the former style. Historian Loe de Jong speculates on the difference between the two: Führer aller Germanen implied a position separate from Hitler's role as Führer und Reichskanzler des Grossdeutschen Reiches ("Führer and Reich Chancellor of the Greater German Reich"), while germanischer Führer served more as an attribute of that main function. As late as 1944, however, occasional propaganda publications continued to refer to him by this unofficial title. Führerprinzip One of the Nazis' most-repeated political slogans was Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer – "One People, One Empire, One Leader". American historian Joseph Bendersky says the slogan "left an indelible mark on the minds of most Germans who lived through the Nazi years. It appeared on countless posters and in publications; it was heard constantly in radio broadcasts and speeches." The slogan emphasized the absolute control of the leader over practically every sector of German society and culture – with the churches being formally the most notable exception. The designation Führer itself was initially used only in the context of the Nazi Party, though its meaning gradually sprawled to cover the German state, the German Armed Forces, the German nation and ultimately all the Germanic peoples. Hitler's word became in practice absolute and ultimate, even when incompatible the Constitution, as he saw himself as the sole source of power in Germany, similar to the Roman emperors and German early medieval leaders. In spite of that, he took great care to maintain the pretence of legality of his dictatorship. He issued thousands of decrees that were based explicitly on the Reichstag Fire Decree. That decree itself was based on Article 48 of the constitution, which gave the president the power to take measures deemed necessary to protect public order. The Enabling Act was renewed in 1937 for four years and again in 1939 for four years by the Reichstag. In 1943, it was extended indefinitely by a decree from Hitler himself. Those extensions by the Reichstag were merely a formality with all other parties having been banned. However, Hitler had a narrow range of interest – mostly involving diplomacy and the military – and so his subordinates interpreted his vaguely formulated orders and wishes in a manner beneficial to their own interests or those of their organizations. This led to vicious power wrangles that were immensely beneficial to Hitler in aiding him to ensure that no subordinate amassed enough power to challenge or jeopardize his absolute rule. Usage in lower ranks of Nazi Germany Regional Nazi Party leaders were called Gauleiter, "leiter" also meaning "leader". Almost every Nazi paramilitary organization, in particular the SS and SA, had Nazi party paramilitary ranks incorporating the title of Führer. The SS including the Waffen-SS, like all paramilitary Nazi organizations, called all their members of any rank except the lowest one a Führer of something; thus confusingly, Gruppenführer was also an official rank title for a specific grade of general. The word Truppenführer was also a generic word referring to any commander or leader of troops and could be applied to NCOs or officers at many different levels of command. Under the Nazis, the title Führer was also used in paramilitary titles (see Freikorps). Within the Party's paramilitary organizations, the Sturmabteilung (SA) and its later much more powerful offshoot, the Schutzstaffel (SS), "führer" was the root word used in the names of their officer ranks, such as in Sturmbannführer, meaning "assault unit leader", equivalent to major, or Oberführer, "senior leader", equivalent to senior colonel/brigadier. Modern German usage In Germany, the isolated word "Führer" is usually avoided in political contexts, due to its intimate connection with Nazi institutions and with Hitler personally. However, the suffix -führer is used in many compound words. Examples include Bergführer (mountain guide), Fremdenführer/Touristenführer (human tourist guide), Geschäftsführer (manager), Reiseführer (travel guidebook), Spielführer (team captain — also referred to as Mannschaftskapitän), and Wachführer (command duty officer/officer of the watch). When used in the context of vehicles and traffic, it is often interchangeable with the suffix -fahrer (vehicle driver): Kraft(fahrzeug)führer/-fahrer (road vehicle driver), Lok(omotiv)führer/-fahrer (train driver), Sportbootführer/-fahrer (skipper); however, it is worth noticing the exception of the pair Autofahrer (car driver) and Autoführer (road guidebook). It may also be used in this context as a prefix such as in Führerschein (driver's license), Führerstand (train cabin) or Führerhaus (truck cabin). Since German is a language with grammatical gender, Führer refers to a male leader; the feminine form is Führerin. The use of alternative terms like "Chef" (a borrowing from the French, as is the English "chief", e.g. Chef des Bundeskanzleramtes) or Leiter (often in compound words like Amtsleiter, Projektleiter or Referatsleiter) is usually not the result of replacing of the word "Führer", but rather using terminology that existed before the Nazis. The use of Führer to refer to a political party leader is rare today and Vorsitzender (chairman) is the more common term. However, the word Oppositionsführer ("leader of the (parliamentary) opposition") is more commonly used. See also The dictionary definition of Führer at Wiktionary

Nana, Nanna, Na Na or NANA may refer to: People and fictional characters Nana (given name), including a list of people and characters with the given name Nana (surname), including a list of people and characters with the surname Nana (chief) (died 1896), Mimbreño Apache chief Nana (deejay) (born 1983), Malaysian Akademi Fantasia contestant Nana (entertainer) (born 1991), a member of popular South Korean girl group After School Nana (rapper) (born 1968), German rapper and DJ Nana Astar Deviluke, a character in the manga series To Love Ru Nana (entertainer, born 2001), a member of the South Korean girl group Woo!ah! Nana, female UK garage singer, most notably on the song "Body Groove" by Architechs Lulu and Nana (born 2018), pseudonyms for twin Chinese girls, who are allegedly the first humans produced from embryos that were genome-edited Nana, name used for the Ngaanyatjarra people of Western Australia Arts and entertainment Films Nana (1926 film), a French film by Jean Renoir Nana (1934 film), an American film by Dorothy Arzner and George Fitzmaurice Nana (1944 film), a Mexican film by Celestino Gorostiza and Roberto Gavaldón starring Lupe Velez Nana (1955 film), a French-Italian film by Christian-Jaque Nana (1970 film), starring Gillian Hills Nana, the original title of Nana, the True Key of Pleasure, a 1982 Italian film by Dan Wolman Nana (1985 film), a Mexican film by Rafael Baledón starring Irma Serrano and Verónica Castro Nana (1997 film), a Palestinian documentary film Nanà (2001 film), by Alberto Negrin Nana (2005 film), based on the manga by Ai Yazawa Nana (2007 short film), by Warwick Thornton La Nana, Spanish name for The Maid (2009 film) by Chilean Sebastián Silva Nana: A Tale of Us, a 2017 film by Tiakümzük Aier Music Nana (opera), 1930s opera by Manfred Gurlitt NaNa (band), a Japanese duo formed in 1996 Na Na (boy band), a Russian band Nana (album), the 1996 debut album of German rapper Nana Nana (echos), a concept in Byzantine music "Na Na" (song), a 2014 song by Trey Songz "NaNa", a song by Blaaze "NaNa", a 2013 song from the album Acid Rap by Chance the Rapper and Action Bronson "Nana", a 1986 single by The Checkers (Japanese band) "Nana", a composition by Federico Moreno Torroba Television Nana (1981 miniseries), a French television miniseries with Véronique Genest Nana (1987 television series), a Danish television series for children Nana (1995 television film), a film starring Bernadette Heerwagen "The Nana", an episode of the television show The O.C. (season 1) Other uses in arts and entertainment Nana (novel), by Émile Zola Nana (Manet), a painting by Édouard Manet Nana (manga), by Ai Yazawa Places Nana, Rajasthan, India, a village Nana, Călărași, Romania, a commune Nána, Slovakia, a village and municipality Nana, Bangkok, Thailand, an intersection and neighborhood in Bangkok Soi Nana (Chinatown), an alley in the Chinatown area of Bangkok Nana BTS station, a BTS skytrain station in Bangkok Religion and mythology Nana (Greek mythology), a Phrygian demigoddess and the mother of Attis Nana (Kushan goddess), a Bactrian war goddess Nane (goddess), also found as Nana, the Armenian goddess of war, wisdom, and motherhood Nana Buluku, the supreme goddess of the Fon people of Benin Jnana, also spelled ñana, the concept of knowledge in Hinduism and Buddhism Nanaya, also transcribed as Nanâ, a goddess worshipped by the Sumerians and Akkadians Science and technology Nana (C++ library), a cross-platform library for graphical user interfaces N-Acetylneuraminic acid, abbreviated NANA Nana technology, microchip-based technology designed to benefit older adults Other uses Nana, another name for grandmother Nana (title), an Akan chieftaincy title in Ghana Hurricane Nana, three hurricanes North American Newspaper Alliance (NANA), a large newspaper syndicate from 1922 to 1980 NANA Regional Corporation, a for-profit Alaska Native Regional Corporation NANA Development Corporation, owned by the above Nanadjara, or the Nana, an indigenous Australian group See also All pages with titles beginning with Nana All pages with titles containing Nana Nana mint, a common name for Mentha spicata 'Nana', a spearmint cultivar grown in Morocco Nana-berry, a common name for Rhus dentata, a deciduous tree species Nana 10, an Israeli web portal Nan (disambiguation) Nanas (disambiguation) Nanna (disambiguation) Nanny (disambiguation) Nanum (disambiguation) Nanus (disambiguation)

Asia ( , UK also ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometers, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which has long been home to the majority of the human population, was the site of many of the first civilizations. Its 4.7 billion people constitute roughly 60% of the world's population, having more people than all other continents combined.Asia shares the landmass of Eurasia with Europe, and of Afro-Eurasia with both Europe and Africa. In general terms, it is bounded on the east by the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Indian Ocean, and on the north by the Arctic Ocean. The border of Asia with Europe is a historical and cultural construct, as there is no clear physical and geographical separation between them. It is somewhat arbitrary and has moved since its first conception in classical antiquity. The division of Eurasia into two continents reflects East–West cultural, linguistic, and ethnic differences, some of which vary on a spectrum rather than with a sharp dividing line. A commonly accepted division places Asia to the east of the Suez Canal separating it from Africa; and to the east of the Turkish Straits, the Ural Mountains and Ural River, and to the south of the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian and Black seas, separating it from Europe.China and India alternated in being the largest economies in the world from 1 to 1,800 CE. China was a major economic power and attracted many to the east, and for many the legendary wealth and prosperity of the ancient culture of India personified Asia, attracting European commerce, exploration and colonialism. The accidental discovery of a trans-Atlantic route from Europe to America by Columbus while in search for a route to India demonstrates this deep fascination. The Silk Road became the main east–west trading route in the Asian hinterlands while the Straits of Malacca stood as a major sea route. Asia has exhibited economic dynamism (particularly East Asia) as well as robust population growth during the 20th century, but overall population growth has since fallen. Asia was the birthplace of most of the world's mainstream religions including Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Jainism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, as well as many other religions. Given its size and diversity, the concept of Asia—a name dating back to classical antiquity—may actually have more to do with human geography than physical geography. Asia varies greatly across and within its regions with regard to ethnic groups, cultures, environments, economics, historical ties and government systems. It also has a mix of many different climates ranging from the equatorial south via the hot desert in the Middle East, temperate areas in the east and the continental centre to vast subarctic and polar areas in Siberia. Definition and boundaries Asia–Africa boundary The boundary between Asia and Africa is the Red Sea, the Gulf of Suez, and the Suez Canal. This makes Egypt a transcontinental country, with the Sinai peninsula in Asia and the remainder of the country in Africa. Asia–Europe boundary The threefold division of the Old World into Europe, Asia and Africa has been in use since the 6th century BCE, due to Greek geographers such as Anaximander and Hecataeus. Anaximander placed the boundary between Asia and Europe along the Phasis River (the modern Rioni river) in Georgia of Caucasus (from its mouth by Poti on the Black Sea coast, through the Surami Pass and along the Kura River to the Caspian Sea), a convention still followed by Herodotus in the 5th century BCE. During the Hellenistic period, this convention was revised, and the boundary between Europe and Asia was now considered to be the Tanais (the modern Don River). This is the convention used by Roman era authors such as Posidonius, Strabo and Ptolemy.The border between Asia and Europe was historically defined by European academics. The Don River became unsatisfactory to northern Europeans when Peter the Great, king of the Tsardom of Russia, defeating rival claims of Sweden and the Ottoman Empire to the eastern lands, and armed resistance by the tribes of Siberia, synthesized a new Russian Empire extending to the Ural Mountains and beyond, founded in 1721.In Sweden, five years after Peter's death, in 1730 Philip Johan von Strahlenberg published a new atlas proposing the Ural Mountains as the border of Asia. Tatishchev announced that he had proposed the idea to von Strahlenberg. The latter had suggested the Emba River as the lower boundary. Over the next century various proposals were made until the Ural River prevailed in the mid-19th century. The border had been moved perforce from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea into which the Ural River projects. The border between the Black Sea and the Caspian is usually placed along the crest of the Caucasus Mountains, although it is sometimes placed further north. Asia–Oceania boundary The border between Asia and the region of Oceania is usually placed somewhere in the Indonesia Archipelago. The Maluku Islands are often considered to lie on the border of southeast Asia, with Indonesian New Guinea, to the east of the islands, being wholly part of Oceania. The terms Southeast Asia and Oceania, devised in the 19th century, have had several vastly different geographic meanings since their inception. The chief factor in determining which islands of the Indonesian Archipelago are Asian has been the location of the colonial possessions of the various empires there (not all European). Lewis and Wigen assert, "The narrowing of 'Southeast Asia' to its present boundaries was thus a gradual process." Asia–North America boundary The Bering Strait and Bering Sea separate the landmasses of Asia and North America, as well as forming the international boundary between Russia and the United States. This national and continental boundary separates the Diomede Islands in the Bering Strait, with Big Diomede in Russia and Little Diomede in the United States. The Aleutian Islands are an island chain extending westward from the Alaskan Peninsula toward Russia's Komandorski Islands and Kamchatka Peninsula. Most of them are always associated with North America, except for the westernmost Near Islands group, which is on Asia's continental shelf beyond the North Aleutians Basin and on rare occasions could be associated with Asia, which could then allow the U.S. state of Alaska as well as the United States itself to be considered a transcontinental state. The Aleutian Islands are sometimes associated with Oceania, owing to their status as remote Pacific islands, and their proximity to the Pacific Plate. This is extremely rare however, due to their non-tropical biogeography, as well as their inhabitants, who have historically been related to Indigenous Americans.St. Lawrence Island in the northern Bering Sea belongs to Alaska and may be associated with either continent but is almost always considered part of North America, as with the Rat Islands in the Aleutian chain. At their nearest points, Alaska and Russia are separated by only 4 kilometres (2.5 miles). Ongoing definition Geographical Asia is a cultural artifact of European conceptions of the world, beginning with the Ancient Greeks, being imposed onto other cultures, an imprecise concept causing endemic contention about what it means. Asia does not exactly correspond to the cultural borders of its various types of constituents.From the time of Herodotus a minority of geographers have rejected the three-continent system (Europe, Africa, Asia) on the grounds that there is no substantial physical separation between them. For example, Sir Barry Cunliffe, the emeritus professor of European archeology at Oxford, argues that Europe has been geographically and culturally merely "the western excrescence of the continent of Asia".Geographically, Asia is the major eastern constituent of the continent of Eurasia with Europe being a northwestern peninsula of the landmass. Asia, Europe and Africa make up a single continuous landmass—Afro-Eurasia (except for the Suez Canal)—and share a common continental shelf. Almost all of Europe and a major part of Asia sit atop the Eurasian Plate, adjoined on the south by the Arabian and Indian Plate and with the easternmost part of Siberia (east of the Chersky Range) on the North American Plate. Etymology The term "Asia" is believed to originate in the Bronze Age placename Assuwa (Hittite: 𒀸𒋗𒉿, romanized: aš-šu-wa) which originally referred only to a portion of northwestern Anatolia. The term appears in Hittite records recounting how a confederation of Assuwan states including Troy unsuccessfully rebelled against the Hittite king Tudhaliya I around 1400 BCE. Roughly contemporary Linear B documents contain the term asiwia (Mycenaean Greek: 𐀀𐀯𐀹𐀊, romanized: a-si-wi-ja), seemingly in reference to captives from the same area. Herodotus used the term Ἀσία in reference to Anatolia and the territory of the Persian Empire, in contrast to Greece and Egypt. He reports that Greeks assumed that Asia was named after the wife of Prometheus, but that Lydians say it was named after Asies, son of Cotys, who passed the name on to a tribe at Sardis. In Greek mythology, "Asia" (Ἀσία) or "Asie" (Ἀσίη) was the name of a "Nymph or Titan goddess of Lydia". The Iliad (attributed by the ancient Greeks to Homer) mentions two Phrygians in the Trojan War named Asios (an adjective meaning "Asian"); and also a marsh or lowland containing a marsh in Lydia as ασιος. According to many Muslims, the term came from Ancient Egypt's Queen Asiya, the adoptive mother of Moses.The term was later adopted by the Romans, who used it in reference to the province of Asia, located in western Anatolia. One of the first writers to use Asia as a name of the whole continent was Pliny. History The history of Asia can be seen as the distinct histories of several peripheral coastal regions: East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East (West Asia), linked by the interior mass of the Central Asian steppes. The coastal periphery was home to some of the world's earliest known civilizations, each of them developing around fertile river valleys. The civilizations in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley and the Yellow River shared many similarities. These civilizations may well have exchanged technologies and ideas such as mathematics and the wheel. Other innovations, such as writing, seem to have been developed individually in each area. Cities, states and empires developed in these lowlands. The central steppe region had long been inhabited by horse-mounted nomads who could reach all areas of Asia from the steppes. The earliest postulated expansion out of the steppe is that of the Indo-Europeans, who spread their languages into the Middle East, South Asia, and the borders of China, where the Tocharians resided. The northernmost part of Asia, including much of Siberia, was largely inaccessible to the steppe nomads, owing to the dense forests, climate and tundra. These areas remained very sparsely populated. The center and the peripheries were mostly kept separated by mountains and deserts. The Caucasus and Himalaya mountains and the Karakum and Gobi deserts formed barriers that the steppe horsemen could cross only with difficulty. While the urban city dwellers were more advanced technologically and socially, in many cases they could do little in a military aspect to defend against the mounted hordes of the steppe. However, the lowlands did not have enough open grasslands to support a large horsebound force; for this and other reasons, the nomads who conquered states in China, India, and the Middle East often found themselves adapting to the local, more affluent societies. The Islamic Caliphate's defeats of the Byzantine and Persian empires led to West Asia and southern parts of Central Asia and western parts of South Asia under its control during its conquests of the 7th century. The Mongol Empire conquered a large part of Asia in the 13th century, an area extending from China to Europe. Before the Mongol invasion, Song dynasty reportedly had approximately 120 million citizens; the 1300 census which followed the invasion reported roughly 60 million people.The Black Death, one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, is thought to have originated in the arid plains of central Asia, where it then travelled along the Silk Road.The Russian Empire began to expand into Asia from the 17th century, and would eventually take control of all of Siberia and most of Central Asia by the end of the 19th century. The Ottoman Empire controlled Anatolia, most of the Middle East, North Africa and the Balkans from the mid 16th century onwards. In the 17th century, the Manchu conquered China and established the Qing dynasty. The Islamic Mughal Empire and the Hindu Maratha Empire controlled much of India in the 16th and 18th centuries respectively.Western European colonisation of Asia coincided with the Industrial Revolution in the West and the dethroning of India and China as the world's foremost economies. The British Empire became dominant in South Asia, with large parts of the region first being conquered by British traders before falling under direct British rule; extreme poverty doubled to over 50% during this era. The Middle East was contested and partitioned by the British and French, while Southeast Asia was carved up between the British, Dutch and French. Various Western powers dominated China in what later became known as the "century of humiliation", with the British-supported opium trade and later Opium Wars resulting in China being forced into an unprecedented situation of importing more than it exported. Foreign domination of China was furthered by the Empire of Japan, which controlled most of East Asia and much of Southeast Asia, New Guinea and the Pacific islands during this era; Japan's domination was enabled by its rapid rise that had taken place during the Meiji era of the late 19th century, in which it applied industrial knowledge learned from the West and thus overtook the rest of Asia.With the end of World War II in 1945 and the wartime ruination of Europe and imperial Japan, many countries in Asia were able to rapidly free themselves of colonial rule. The independence of India came along with the carving out of a separate nation for the majority of Indian Muslims, which today has become the countries Pakistan and Bangladesh.Some Arab countries took economic advantage of massive oil deposits that were discovered in their territory, becoming globally influential. East Asian nations (along with Singapore in Southeast Asia) became economically prosperous with high-growth "tiger economies", with China regaining its place among the top two economies of the world by the 21st century. India has grown significantly because of economic liberalisation that started in the 1990s, with extreme poverty now below 20%. Geography Asia is the largest continent on Earth. It covers 9% of the Earth's total surface area (or 30% of its land area), and has the longest coastline, at 62,800 kilometres (39,022 mi). Asia is generally defined as comprising the eastern four-fifths of Eurasia. It is located to the east of the Suez Canal and the Ural Mountains, and south of the Caucasus Mountains (or the Kuma–Manych Depression) and the Caspian and Black Seas. It is bounded on the east by the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Indian Ocean and on the north by the Arctic Ocean. Asia is subdivided into 49 countries, five of them (Georgia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkey) are transcontinental countries lying partly in Europe. Geographically, Russia is partly in Asia, but is considered a European nation, both culturally and politically. The Gobi Desert is in Mongolia and the Arabian Desert stretches across much of the Middle East. The Yangtze River in China is the longest river in the continent. The Himalayas between Nepal and China is the tallest mountain range in the world. Tropical rainforests stretch across much of southern Asia and coniferous and deciduous forests lie farther north. Main regions There are various approaches to the regional division of Asia. The following subdivision into regions is used, among others, by the UN statistics agency UNSD. This division of Asia into regions by the United Nations is done solely for statistical reasons and does not imply any assumption about political or other affiliations of countries and territories. North Asia (Siberia) Central Asia (The 'stans) West Asia (The Middle East or Near East and the Caucasus) South Asia (Indian subcontinent) East Asia (Far East) Southeast Asia (East Indies and Indochina) Climate Asia has extremely diverse climate features. Climates range from arctic and subarctic in Siberia to tropical in southern India and Southeast Asia. It is moist across southeast sections, and dry across much of the interior. Some of the largest daily temperature ranges on Earth occur in western sections of Asia. The monsoon circulation dominates across southern and eastern sections, due to the presence of the Himalayas forcing the formation of a thermal low which draws in moisture during the summer. Southwestern sections of the continent are hot. Siberia is one of the coldest places in the Northern Hemisphere, and can act as a source of arctic air masses for North America. The most active place on Earth for tropical cyclone activity lies northeast of the Philippines and south of Japan. Climate change Climate change is having major impacts on many countries in the continent. A survey carried out in 2010 by global risk analysis farm Maplecroft identified 16 countries that are extremely vulnerable to climate change. Each nation's vulnerability was calculated using 42 socio, economic and environmental indicators, which identified the likely climate change impacts during the next 30 years. The Asian countries of Bangladesh, India, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Pakistan, China and Sri Lanka were among the 16 countries facing extreme risk from climate change. Some shifts are already occurring. For example, in tropical parts of India with a semi-arid climate, the temperature increased by 0.4 °C between 1901 and 2003. A 2013 study by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) aimed to find science-based, pro-poor approaches and techniques that would enable Asia's agricultural systems to cope with climate change, while benefitting poor and vulnerable farmers. The study's recommendations ranged from improving the use of climate information in local planning and strengthening weather-based agro-advisory services, to stimulating diversification of rural household incomes and providing incentives to farmers to adopt natural resource conservation measures to enhance forest cover, replenish groundwater and use renewable energy.The ten countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) – Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam – are among the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change in the world, however, ASEAN's climate mitigation efforts are not commensurate with the climate threats and risks it faces. Economy Asia has the largest continental economy in the world by both GDP nominal and PPP values, and is the fastest growing economic region. As of 2023, China is by far the largest economy on the continent, making up nearly half of the continent's economy by GDP nominal. It is followed by Japan, India, South Korea, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, which are all ranked amongst the top 20 largest economies both by nominal and PPP values. Based on Global Office Locations 2011, Asia dominated the office locations with 4 of the top 5 being in Asia: Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and Seoul. Around 68 percent of international firms have an office in Hong Kong.In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the economies of China and India grew rapidly, both with an average annual growth rate of more than 8%. Other recent very-high-growth nations in Asia include Israel, Malaysia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines, and mineral-rich nations such as Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran, Brunei, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman.According to economic historian Angus Maddison in his book The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective, India had the world's largest economy during 0 BCE and 1000 BCE. Historically, India was the largest economy in the world for most of the two millennia from the 1st until 19th century, contributing 25% of the world's industrial output. China was the largest and most advanced economy on earth for much of recorded history and shared the mantle with India. For several decades in the late twentieth century Japan was the largest economy in Asia and second-largest of any single nation in the world, after surpassing the Soviet Union (measured in net material product) in 1990 and Germany in 1968. (NB: A number of supernational economies are larger, such as the European Union (EU), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or APEC). This ended in 2010 when China overtook Japan to become the world's second largest economy. It is forecasted that India will overtake Japan in terms of nominal GDP by 2027.In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Japan's GDP by currency exchange rates was almost as large as that of the rest of Asia combined. In 1995, Japan's economy nearly equaled that of the US as the largest economy in the world for a day, after the Japanese currency reached a record high of 79 yen/US$. Economic growth in Asia since World War II to the 1990s had been concentrated in Japan as well as the four regions of South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore located in the Pacific Rim, known as the Asian tigers, which are now all considered developed economies, having amongst the highest GDP per capita in Asia. Asia is the largest continent in the world by a considerable margin, and it is rich in natural resources, such as petroleum, forests, fish, water, rice, copper and silver. Manufacturing in Asia has traditionally been strongest in East and Southeast Asia, particularly in China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, India, the Philippines, and Singapore. Japan and South Korea continue to dominate in the area of multinational corporations, but increasingly the PRC and India are making significant inroads. Many companies from Europe, North America, South Korea and Japan have operations in Asia's developing countries to take advantage of its abundant supply of cheap labour and relatively developed infrastructure.According to Citigroup in 2011, 9 of 11 Global Growth Generators countries came from Asia driven by population and income growth. They are Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Mongolia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. Asia has three main financial centers: Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore. Call centers and business process outsourcing (BPOs) are becoming major employers in India and the Philippines due to the availability of a large pool of highly skilled, English-speaking workers. The increased use of outsourcing has assisted the rise of India and the China as financial centers. Due to its large and extremely competitive information technology industry, India has become a major hub for outsourcing.Trade between Asian countries and countries on other continents is largely carried out on the sea routes that are important for Asia. Individual main routes have emerged from this. The main route leads from the Chinese coast south via Hanoi to Jakarta, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur through the Strait of Malacca via the Sri Lankan Colombo to the southern tip of India via Malé to East Africa Mombasa, from there to Djibouti, then through the Red Sea over the Suez Canal into Mediterranean, there via Haifa, Istanbul and Athens to the upper Adriatic to the northern Italian hub of Trieste with its rail connections to Central and Eastern Europe or further to Barcelona and around Spain and France to the European northern ports. A far smaller part of the goods traffic runs via South Africa to Europe. A particularly significant part of the Asian goods traffic is carried out across the Pacific towards Los Angeles and Long Beach. In contrast to the sea routes, the Silk Road via the land route to Europe is on the one hand still under construction and on the other hand is much smaller in terms of scope. Intra-Asian trade, including sea trade, is growing rapidly.In 2010, Asia had 3.3 million millionaires (people with net worth over US$1 million excluding their homes), slightly below North America with 3.4 million millionaires. Last year Asia had toppled Europe. Citigroup in The Wealth Report 2012 stated that Asian centa-millionaire overtook North America's wealth for the first time as the world's "economic center of gravity" continued moving east. At the end of 2011, there were 18,000 Asian people mainly in Southeast Asia, China and Japan who have at least $100 million in disposable assets, while North America with 17,000 people and Western Europe with 14,000 people. Tourism With growing Regional Tourism with domination of Chinese visitors, MasterCard has released Global Destination Cities Index 2013 with 10 of 20 are dominated by Asia and Pacific Region Cities and also for the first time a city of a country from Asia (Bangkok) set in the top-ranked with 15.98 million international visitors. Demographics East Asia had by far the strongest overall Human Development Index (HDI) improvement of any region in the world, nearly doubling average HDI attainment over the past 40 years, according to the report's analysis of health, education and income data. China, the second highest achiever in the world in terms of HDI improvement since 1970, is the only country on the "Top 10 Movers" list due to income rather than health or education achievements. Its per capita income increased a stunning 21-fold over the last four decades, also lifting hundreds of millions out of income poverty. Yet it was not among the region's top performers in improving school enrollment and life expectancy.Nepal, a South Asian country, emerges as one of the world's fastest movers since 1970 mainly due to health and education achievements. Its present life expectancy is 25 years longer than in the 1970s. More than four of every five children of school age in Nepal now attend primary school, compared to just one in five 40 years ago. Hong Kong ranked highest among the countries grouped on the HDI (number 7 in the world, which is in the "very high human development" category), followed by Singapore (9), Japan (19) and South Korea (22). Afghanistan (155) ranked lowest amongst Asian countries out of the 169 countries assessed. Languages Asia is home to several language families and many language isolates. Most Asian countries have more than one language that is natively spoken. For instance, according to Ethnologue, more than 700 languages are spoken in Indonesia, more than 400 languages spoken in India, and more than 100 are spoken in the Philippines. China has many languages and dialects in different provinces. Religions Many of the world's major religions have their origins in Asia, including the five most practiced in the world (excluding irreligion), which are Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Chinese folk religion (classified as Confucianism and Taoism), and Buddhism respectively. Asian mythology is complex and diverse. The story of the Great Flood for example, as presented to Jews in the Hebrew Bible in the narrative of Noah—and later to Christians in the Old Testament, and to Muslims in the Quran—is earliest found in Mesopotamian mythology, in the Enûma Eliš and Epic of Gilgamesh. Hindu mythology similarly tells about an avatar of Vishnu in the form of a fish who warned Manu of a terrible flood. Ancient Chinese mythology also tells of a Great Flood spanning generations, one that required the combined efforts of emperors and divinities to control. Abrahamic The Abrahamic religions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Druze faith, and Baháʼí Faith originated in West Asia.Judaism, the oldest of the Abrahamic faiths, is practiced primarily in Israel, the indigenous homeland and historical birthplace of the Hebrew nation: which today consists both of those Jews who remained in the Middle East and those who returned from diaspora in Europe, North America, and other regions; though various diaspora communities persist worldwide. Jews are the predominant ethnic group in Israel (75.6%) numbering at about 6.1 million, although the levels of adherence to Jewish religion vary. Outside of Israel there are small ancient Jewish communities in Turkey (17,400), Azerbaijan (9,100), Iran (8,756), India (5,000) and Uzbekistan (4,000), among many other places. In total, there are 14.4–17.5 million (2016, est.) Jews alive in the world today, making them one of the smallest Asian minorities, at roughly 0.3 to 0.4 percent of the total population of the continent. Christianity is a widespread religion in Asia with more than 286 million adherents according to Pew Research Center in 2010, and nearly 364 million according to Britannica Book of the Year 2014. Constituting around 12.6% of the total population of Asia. In the Philippines and East Timor, Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion; it was introduced by the Spaniards and the Portuguese, respectively. In Armenia and Georgia, Eastern Orthodoxy is the predominant religion. In the Middle East, such as in the Levant, Anatolia and Fars, Syriac Christianity (Church of the East) and Oriental Orthodoxy are prevalent minority denominations, which are both Eastern Christian sects mainly adhered to Assyrian people or Syriac Christians. Vibrant indigenous minorities in West Asia are adhering to the Eastern Catholic Churches and Eastern Orthodoxy. Saint Thomas Christians in India trace their origins to the evangelistic activity of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century. Significant Christian communities also found in Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia.Islam, which originated in the Hejaz located in modern-day Saudi Arabia, is the second largest and most widely-spread religion in Asia with at least 1 billion Muslims constituting around 23.8% of the total population of Asia. With 12.7% of the world Muslim population, the country currently with the largest Muslim population in the world is Indonesia, followed by Pakistan (11.5%), India (10%), Bangladesh, Iran and Turkey. Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem are the three holiest cities for Islam in all the world. The Hajj and Umrah attract large numbers of Muslim devotees from all over the world to Mecca and Medina. Iran is the largest Shi'a country. The Druze Faith or Druzism originated in West Asia, is a monotheistic religion based on the teachings of figures like Hamza ibn-'Ali ibn-Ahmad and Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, and Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle. The number of Druze people worldwide is around one million, with about 45% to 50% live in Syria, 35% to 40% live in Lebanon, and less than 10% live in Israel, with recently there has been a growing Druze diaspora.The Baháʼí Faith originated in Asia, in Iran (Persia), and spread from there to the Ottoman Empire, Central Asia, India, and Burma during the lifetime of Bahá'u'lláh. Since the middle of the 20th century, growth has particularly occurred in other Asian countries, because Baháʼí activities in many Muslim countries has been severely suppressed by authorities. Lotus Temple is a big Baháʼí Temple in India. Indian and East Asian religions Almost all Asian religions have philosophical character and Asian philosophical traditions cover a large spectrum of philosophical thoughts and writings. Indian philosophy includes Hindu philosophy and Buddhist philosophy. They include elements of nonmaterial pursuits, whereas another school of thought from India, Cārvāka, preached the enjoyment of the material world. The religions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism originated in India, South Asia. In East Asia, particularly in China and Japan, Confucianism, Taoism and Zen Buddhism took shape. As of 2012, Hinduism has around 1.1 billion adherents. The faith represents around 25% of Asia's population and is the largest religion in Asia. However, it is mostly concentrated in South Asia. Over 80% of the populations of both India and Nepal adhere to Hinduism, alongside significant communities in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Bali, Indonesia. Many overseas Indians in countries such as Burma, Singapore and Malaysia also adhere to Hinduism. Buddhism has a great following in mainland Southeast Asia and East Asia. Buddhism is the religion of the majority of the populations of Cambodia (96%), Thailand (95%), Burma (80–89%), Japan (36–96%), Bhutan (75–84%), Sri Lanka (70%), Laos (60–67%) and Mongolia (53–93%). Taiwan (35–93%), South Korea (23–50%), Malaysia (19–21%), Nepal (9–11%), Vietnam (10–75%), China (20–50%), North Korea (2–14%), and small communities in India and Bangladesh. The Communist-governed countries of China, Vietnam and North Korea are officially atheist, thus the number of Buddhists and other religious adherents may be under-reported. Jainism is found mainly in India and in overseas Indian communities such as the United States and Malaysia. Sikhism is found in Northern India and amongst overseas Indian communities in other parts of Asia, especially Southeast Asia. Confucianism is found predominantly in Mainland China, South Korea, Taiwan and in overseas Chinese populations. Taoism is found mainly in Mainland China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore. In many Chinese communities, Taoism is easily syncretized with Mahayana Buddhism, thus exact religious statistics are difficult to obtain and may be understated or overstated. Modern conflicts Some of the events pivotal in the Asia territory related to the relationship with the outside world in the post-Second World War were: The Partition of India The Chinese Civil War The Kashmir conflict The Balochistan Conflict The Naxalite–Maoist insurgency in India The Korean War The French Indochina War The Vietnam War The Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation The 1959 Tibetan uprising The Sino-Vietnamese War The Bangladesh Liberation War The Yom Kippur War The Xinjiang conflict The Iranian Revolution The Soviet–Afghan War The Iran–Iraq War The Cambodian Killing Fields The Insurgency in Laos The Lebanese Civil War The Sri Lankan Civil War The 1988 Maldives coup d'état The Dissolution of the Soviet Union The Gulf War The Nepalese Civil War The Indo-Pakistani wars and conflicts The West Papua conflict The First Nagorno-Karabakh War The 1989 Tiananmen Square protests The Indonesian occupation of East Timor The 1999 Pakistani coup d'état The War in Afghanistan The Iraq War The South Thailand insurgency The 2006 Thai coup d'état The Burmese Civil War The Saffron Revolution The Kurdish–Turkish conflict The Arab Spring The Israeli–Palestinian conflict The Arab–Israeli conflict The Syrian Civil War The Sino-Indian War The 2014 Thai coup d'état The Moro conflict in the Philippines The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant The Turkish invasion of Syria The Rohingya crisis in Myanmar The Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen The Hong Kong protests The 2020 China–India skirmishes The Sino-Indian border dispute Culture The culture of Asia is a diverse blend of customs and traditions that have been practiced by the various ethnic groups of the continent for centuries. The continent is divided into six geographic sub-regions: Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and West Asia. These regions are defined by their cultural similarities, including common religions, languages, and ethnicities. West Asia, also known as Southwest Asia or the Middle East, has cultural roots in the ancient civilizations of the Fertile Crescent and Mesopotamia, which gave rise to the Persian, Arab, Ottoman empires, as well as the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. These civilizations, which are located in the Hilly flanks, are among the oldest in the world, with evidence of farming dating back to around 9000 BCE. Despite the challenges posed by the vast size of the continent and the presence of natural barriers such as deserts and mountain ranges, trade and commerce have helped to create a Pan-Asian culture that is shared across the region. Nobel prizes The polymath Rabindranath Tagore, a Bengali poet, dramatist, and writer from Santiniketan, now in West Bengal, India, became in 1913 the first Asian Nobel laureate. He won his Nobel Prize in Literature for notable impact his prose works and poetic thought had on English, French, and other national literatures of Europe and the Americas. He is also the writer of the national anthems of Bangladesh and India. Other Asian writers who won Nobel Prize for literature include Yasunari Kawabata (Japan, 1968), Kenzaburō Ōe (Japan, 1994), Gao Xingjian (China, 2000), Orhan Pamuk (Turkey, 2006), and Mo Yan (China, 2012). Some may consider the American writer, Pearl S. Buck, an honorary Asian Nobel laureate, having spent considerable time in China as the daughter of missionaries, and based many of her novels, namely The Good Earth (1931) and The Mother (1933), as well as the biographies of her parents for their time in China, The Exile and Fighting Angel, all of which earned her the Literature prize in 1938. Also, Mother Teresa of India and Shirin Ebadi of Iran were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their significant and pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights, especially for the rights of women and children. Ebadi is the first Iranian and the first Muslim woman to receive the prize. Another Nobel Peace Prize winner is Aung San Suu Kyi from Burma for her peaceful and non-violent struggle under a military dictatorship in Burma. She is a nonviolent pro-democracy activist and leader of the National League for Democracy in Burma (Myanmar) and a noted prisoner of conscience. She is a Buddhist and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China" on 8 October 2010. He is the first Chinese citizen to be awarded a Nobel Prize of any kind while residing in China. In 2014, Kailash Satyarthi from India and Malala Yousafzai from Pakistan were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education". Sir C.V. Raman is the first Asian to get a Nobel prize in Sciences. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him". Japan has won the most Nobel Prizes of any Asian nation with 24 followed by India which has won 13. Amartya Sen, (born 3 November 1933) is an Indian economist who was awarded the 1998 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to welfare economics and social choice theory, and for his interest in the problems of society's poorest members. Other Asian Nobel Prize winners include Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Abdus Salam, Malala Yousafzai, Robert Aumann, Menachem Begin, Aaron Ciechanover, Avram Hershko, Daniel Kahneman, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin, Ada Yonath, Yasser Arafat, José Ramos-Horta and Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo of Timor Leste, Kim Dae-jung, and 13 Japanese scientists. Most of the said awardees are from Japan and Israel except for Chandrasekhar and Raman (India), Abdus Salam and Malala Yousafzai, (Pakistan), Arafat (Palestinian Territories), Kim (South Korea), and Horta and Belo (Timor Leste). In 2006, Dr. Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the establishment of Grameen Bank, a community development bank that lends money to poor people, especially women in Bangladesh. Dr. Yunus received his PhD in economics from Vanderbilt University, United States. He is internationally known for the concept of micro credit which allows poor and destitute people with little or no collateral to borrow money. The borrowers typically pay back money within the specified period and the incidence of default is very low. The Dalai Lama has received approximately eighty-four awards over his spiritual and political career. On 22 June 2006, he became one of only four people ever to be recognized with Honorary Citizenship by the Governor General of Canada. On 28 May 2005, he received the Christmas Humphreys Award from the Buddhist Society in the United Kingdom. Most notable was the Nobel Peace Prize, presented in Oslo, Norway on 10 December 1989. Political geography Within the above-mentioned states are several partially recognized countries with limited to no international recognition. None of them are members of the UN: See also Subregions of AsiaSpecial topics: Asian Century Asian cuisine Asian furniture Asian Games Asia-Pacific Asian Para Games Asian Monetary Unit Asian people Cave temples in Asia Eastern world Eurasia Far East East Asia Southeast Asia South Asia Central Asia West Asia North Asia Fauna of Asia Flags of Asia Middle East Eastern Mediterranean Levant Near East Pan-AsianismLists: List of cities in Asia List of metropolitan areas in Asia by population List of sovereign states and dependent territories in AsiaProjects Asian Highway Network Trans-Asian Railway Bibliography Lewis, Martin W.; Wigen, Kären (1997). The myth of continents: a critique of metageography. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-20743-1. Ventris, Michael; Chadwick, John (1973). Documents in Mycenaean Greek (2nd ed.). Cambridge: University Press. Further reading Embree, Ainslie T., ed. Encyclopedia of Asian history (1988) vol. 1 online; vol 2 online; vol 3 online; vol 4 online Higham, Charles. Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations. Facts on File library of world history. New York: Facts On File, 2004. Kamal, Niraj. "Arise Asia: Respond to White Peril". New Delhi: Wordsmith, 2002, ISBN 978-81-87412-08-3 Kapadia, Feroz, and Mandira Mukherjee. Encyclopaedia of Asian Culture and Society. New Delhi: Anmol Publications, 1999. Levinson, David, and Karen Christensen, eds. Encyclopedia of Modern Asia. (6 vol. Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002). Asia web resources provided by GovPubs at the University of Colorado Boulder Libraries Asia at the Encyclopædia Britannica Asia: Human Geography at the National Geographic Society Asia at Curlie Asian Reading Room from the United States Library of Congress "Asia" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). 1911. pp. 320–358. "Display Maps". The Soil Maps of Asia. European Digital Archive of Soil Maps – EuDASM. Archived from the original on 12 August 2011. Retrieved 26 July 2011. "Asia Maps". Perry–Castañeda Library Map Collection. University of Texas Libraries. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 20 July 2011. "Asia". Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library. Archived from the original on 29 September 2011. Retrieved 26 July 2011. Bowring, Philip (12 February 1987). "What is Asia?". Eastern Economic Review. 135 (7). Archived from the original on 28 July 2011. Retrieved 22 April 2009.

Radical 175 or radical wrong (非部) meaning "wrong" is one of the 9 Kangxi radicals (214 radicals in total) composed of 8 strokes. In the Kangxi Dictionary, there are 25 characters (out of 49,030) to be found under this radical. 非 is also the 171st indexing component in the Table of Indexing Chinese Character Components predominantly adopted by Simplified Chinese dictionaries published in mainland China. Evolution Derived characters Variant forms This radical character is written differently in Simplified Chinese compared with other languages. In mainland China's writing reform, xin zixing, or the new printing typeface, adopted a more vulgar and symmetric form 非. This change may also be applied to Traditional Chinese publications in mainland China. Kanji In the Japanese educational system this is one of the Kyōiku kanji or Kanji taught in elementary school in Japan. Students are required to learn it in the fitth grade. Literature Fazzioli, Edoardo (1987). Chinese calligraphy : from pictograph to ideogram : the history of 214 essential Chinese/Japanese characters. calligraphy by Rebecca Hon Ko. New York: Abbeville Press. ISBN 0-89659-774-1. Lunde, Ken (Jan 5, 2009). "Appendix J: Japanese Character Sets" (PDF). CJKV Information Processing: Chinese, Japanese, Korean & Vietnamese Computing (Second ed.). Sebastopol, Calif.: O'Reilly Media. ISBN 978-0-596-51447-1. Unihan Database - U+975E

Radical 187 or radical horse (馬部) meaning "horse" is one of the 8 Kangxi radicals (214 radicals in total) composed of 10 strokes. In the Kangxi Dictionary, there are 472 characters (out of 49,030) to be found under this radical. 马, the simplified form of 馬, is the 58th indexing component in the Table of Indexing Chinese Character Components predominantly adopted by Simplified Chinese dictionaries published in mainland China, while the traditional form 馬 is listed as its associated indexing component. The simplified form 马 is derived from the cursive script form of 馬. Evolution Derived characters Literature Fazzioli, Edoardo (1987). Chinese calligraphy : from pictograph to ideogram : the history of 214 essential Chinese/Japanese characters. calligraphy by Rebecca Hon Ko. New York: Abbeville Press. ISBN 0-89659-774-1. Unihan Database - U+99AC

Tom's Midnight Garden is a children's fantasy novel by English author Philippa Pearce. It was first published in 1958 by Oxford University Press with illustrations by Susan Einzig. The story is about a twelve-year-old Tom who, while staying with his aunt and uncle, slips out at midnight and discovers a magical, mysterious Victorian garden where he befriends a young girl named Hatty. The novel has been reissued in print many times and also adapted for radio, television, cinema, and the stage. Pearce won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's outstanding children's book by a British author. In 2007, for a celebration of the Carnegie Medal's 70th anniversary, a panel named Tom's Midnight Garden one of the top ten Medal-winning works and the British public elected it the nation's second-favourite. Premise Tom is a modern boy living under quarantine with his aunt and uncle in a city flat, part of a converted building that was a country house during the 1880s–1890s. At night he slips back in time to the old garden where he finds a girl playmate, called Hatty. Hatty is a princess or so she says. Plot summary When Tom Long's brother Peter gets measles, Tom is sent to stay with his Uncle Alan and Aunt Gwen. They live in an upstairs flat of a big house with no garden, only a tiny yard for parking. The former grounds of the big house have been sold for building and are occupied by modern houses. The elderly and reclusive landlady, Mrs Bartholomew, lives above them. Because Tom may be infectious, he is not allowed out to play, and he feels lonely. Without exercise he lies awake after midnight, restless, when he hears the communal grandfather clock strangely strike 13. He gets up to investigate and discovers that the back door now opens on a large sunlit garden. However, when Tom checks the back door the following morning, the garden is no longer there. Every night the clock strikes 13 and Tom returns to the Victorian era grounds. There he meets another lonely child, a girl called Hatty, and they become inseparable playmates. Tom sees the family occasionally, but only Hatty (and as is revealed later in the book, the gardener) sees him and the others believe she plays alone. Hatty is established to be an orphan sent to live with her aunt and three older male cousins after the death of her parents. Tom writes daily accounts to his brother Peter, who follows the adventures during his recovery – and afterward, for Tom contrives to extend the stay with Aunt and Uncle. Gradually at first, Hatty grows up and passes Tom's age; he comes to realise that he is slipping to different points in the past. Finally she grows up at a faster rate, until she is an adult and is being courted by an acquaintance of hers who is nicknamed "Barty." At this stage in the book, the season in the old garden tends to be winter. Tom ingeniously obtains ice skates by having Hatty conceal her old pair in his room, where he subsequently finds them and joins her skating on the next night. On the final night before Tom is due to go home, he goes downstairs to find the garden is not there. He frantically tries to find it, but crashes into a set of bins from the present–day courtyard, waking up several residents. He shouts Hatty's name in desperation, before his Uncle Alan finds him and puts the events down to Tom sleepwalking. The following morning, Mrs Bartholomew summons Tom to apologise, only to reveal herself as Hatty, having made the link when she heard him call her name. The events Tom experienced were real in Hatty's past; he has stepped into them by going into the garden at the times she dreamt of them. On the final night, she had instead been dreaming of her wedding with Barty. After taking Tom home, Aunt Gwen comments on the strange way that Tom had said goodbye to Mrs Bartholomew when he left: he hugged her as if she were a little girl. Themes and literary significance The book is regarded as a classic. The final reunion between Tom, still a child, and the elderly Hatty is, many have argued, one of the most moving moments in children's fiction.In Written for Children (1965), John Rowe Townsend summarised, "If I were asked to name a single masterpiece of English children's literature since [the Second World War] ... it would be this outstandingly beautiful and absorbing book". He retained that judgment in the second edition of that magnum opus (1983) and in 2011 repeated it, in a retrospective review of the novel.In the first chapter of Narratives of Love and Loss: Studies in Modern Children's Fiction, Margaret and Michael Rustin analyse the emotional resonances of Tom's Midnight Garden and describe its use of imagination and metaphor, also comparing it to The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.Researcher Ward Bradley, in his review of various modern stories and books depicting Victorian British society, criticized Midnight Garden for "romanticizing the world of the 19th-century aristocratic mansions, making it a glittering 'lost paradise' contrasted with the drab reality of contemporary lower middle class Britain.(...) A child deriving an image of Victorian England from this engaging and well-written fairy tale would get no idea of the crushing poverty in the factories and slums from where mansion owners often derived their wealth".Time slip would be a popular device in British children's novels in this period, although this device arguably started with Mark Twain's adult satirical comedy A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889), followed by Rudyard Kipling's children's book Puck of Pook's Hill (1906, with a succession of slips back into Britain's past), and Margaret Irwin's Still She Wished for Company (1924, combining ghosts and time slip), and Elizabeth Goudge's The Middle Window (1935, with a time-slip back to the era of Bonnie Prince Charlie). Time-slip was a popular theme in paranormal discussion, such as the Moberly–Jourdain incident, also known as the Ghosts of Petit Trianon or Versailles. This was an event that occurred on 10 August 1901 in the gardens of the Petit Trianon, involving two female academics, Charlotte Anne Moberly (1846–1937) and Eleanor Jourdain (1863–1924). Moberly and Jourdain claimed to have slipped back to the last days of pre-Revolutionary France, reported in their later book An Adventure (1911).Other successful examples of time-slip in children's books include Alison Uttley's A Traveller in Time (1939, slipping back to the period of Mary, Queen of Scots), Ronald Welch's The Gauntlet (1951, slipping back to the Welsh Marches in the fourteenth century), Clive King's Stig of the Dump (1963, with a final chapter slipping back to the making of Stone Henge), Barbara Sleigh's Jessamy (1967, back to the First World War), and Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer (1969, back to 1918). Allusions The historical part of the book is set in the grounds of a mansion, which resembles the house in which the author grew up: the Mill House in Great Shelford, near Cambridge, England. Cambridge is represented in fictional form as Castleford throughout the book. At the time she was writing the book, the author was again living in Great Shelford, just across the road from the Mill House. The Kitsons' (in past, the Melbournes') house is thought to be based on a house in Cambridge, near where Pearce studied during her time at university. The theory of time of which the novel makes use is that of J. W. Dunne's influential 1927 work An Experiment with Time. Film, TV or theatrical adaptations Dramatised by the BBC three times, in 1968, 1974, and 1988 (which aired in 1989). 1999 Full-length movie starring Anthony Way 2001 Adapted for the stage by David Wood Publication history 1958, UK, Oxford University Press (ISBN 0-19-271128-8), Publication date: 31 December 1958, hardcover (first edition) 1992, UK, HarperCollins (ISBN 0-397-30477-3), Publication date: 1 February 1992, hardcover 2001, Adapted for the stage by David Wood, Samuel French (ISBN 0-573-05127-5) 2007 recognition Since 1936, the professional association of British librarians has recognised the year's best new book for children with the Carnegie Medal. Philippa Pearce and Tom won the 1958 Medal. For the 70th anniversary celebration in 2007, a panel of experts appointed by the children's librarians named Tom's Midnight Garden one of the top ten Medal-winning works, which composed the ballot for a public election of the nation's favourite. It finished second in the public vote from that shortlist, between two books that were about forty years younger. Among votes cast from the UK, Northern Lights polled 40%, Tom's Midnight Garden 16%; Skellig 8%. The winning author, Philip Pullman, graciously said: "Personally I feel they got the initials right but not the name. I don't know if the result would be the same in a hundred years' time; maybe Philippa Pearce would win then." Julia Eccleshare, Children's Books Editor for The Guardian newspaper, continued the theme: "Northern Lights is the right book by the right author. Philip is accurate in saying that the only contention was from the other PP. And, it must be said, Tom's Midnight Garden has lasted almost 60 years ... and we don't know that Northern Lights will do the same. But, yes. A very good winner." See also Philippa Pearce at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database Tom's Midnight Garden at IMDb Tom's Midnight Garden House for Sale at The Independent

Radical 177 or radical leather (革部) meaning "leather" or "rawhide" is one of the 11 Kangxi radicals (214 radicals in total) composed of 9 strokes. In the Kangxi Dictionary, there are 305 characters (out of 49,030) to be found under this radical. 革 is also the 179th indexing component in the Table of Indexing Chinese Character Components predominantly adopted by Simplified Chinese dictionaries published in mainland China. Evolution Derived characters Literature Fazzioli, Edoardo (1987). Chinese calligraphy : from pictograph to ideogram : the history of 214 essential Chinese/Japanese characters. calligraphy by Rebecca Hon Ko. New York: Abbeville Press. ISBN 0-89659-774-1. Unihan Database - U+9769

Hebe Maria Monteiro de Camargo Ravagnani (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈɛbi mɐˈɾi.ɐ mõˈtejɾu dʒi kɐˈmaʁɡu ˌʁavɐˈɲɐ̃ni]; 8 March 1929 – 29 September 2012) was a Brazilian television host, singer and actress. She is considered the "Queen of Brazilian Television" (Portuguese: Rainha da Televisão Brasileira). She died at her home on 29 September 2012. Her net worth was over US$360 million. Early years Hebe Camargo was born on Friday, an International Women's Day of 1929, in Taubaté, São Paulo, was the daughter of Esther Magalhães Camargo and Sigesfredo Monteiro de Camargo, both of Portuguese origin, She began her career as a singer in the 1940s with her sister Estela, as Rosalinda e Florisbela. During her singing career, Camargo performed sambas and boleros in nightclubs. She left her musical career to devote more time to radio and television. She was invited by Assis Chateaubriand to attend the first live broadcast of Brazilian television, in the neighborhood of Sumaré, São Paulo, Brazil. Career As a singer, Camargo appeared in comedy films by Mazzaropi and starred with Agnaldo Rayol in one of them. In the 1950s, she entered television and worked as a presenter in a series on TV Paulista. In 1955, Camargo appeared in the first program for women on Brazilian television, O Mundo é das Mulheres (The World belongs to Women), on television in Rio de Janeiro, which aired five times a week. In the 1960s, Camargo moved to the Rede Record network, where, for many years, she maintained a top-rated program. During the Jovem Guarda era, Hebe gave way to new talent. On Easter Sunday, 10 April 1966, the network began broadcasting a Sunday program featuring Camargo as an interviewer. This show was sponsored by the Brazilian airline, Varig, with an advertising featuring Camargo.Camargo was seen on almost every television station in Brazil, including the Rede Record and Rede Bandeirantes, in the 1970s and 1980s.In 1980, after a long hiatus she returned to work as an interviewer. From March 1986 to December 2010, Camargo was on the SBT Network, where she presented the television program Hebe, which became one of the network's longest-running programs. The show was also broadcast on Rede Tupi and Rede Bandeirantes, and had a spin-off show Hebe por Elas (Hebe for Them) in the early 1990s. She also presented Fora do Ar, and participated in Telethon, comedy specials, and Romeu e Julieta, in which she starred with Ronald Golias and Nair Bello.In 1995, EMI released a CD of Camargo's greatest hits. On Easter Saturday, 22 April 2006, she celebrated her thousandth program on the SBT. She also has participated in social activities, such as taking part in the Cansei movement, a 2007 protest critical of the Brazilian government.Camargo was spending New Year's Eve in Miami when she complained of severe abdominal pain. A bulletin issued by the hospital later reported that Hebe was subjected to a diagnostic laparoscopy, which found cancer. On 8 January 2010, Camargo was admitted to Albert Einstein Hospital in São Paulo for surgery to remove cancer from the peritoneum. After surgery and chemotherapy, she returned to work on the International Women's Day of 2010, your 81st birthday. Illness and death Camargo suffered from cancer since 2010. She died at 11:45 AM (14:45 GMT) on Saturday, 29 September 2012, having probably suffered a cardiac arrest while she was sleeping. On popular culture Hebe – The Musical was a theatrical production directed by Miguel Falabella and performed by Débora Reis from January to April 2018. Hebe (2019) will be a movie based in the Hebe's life journey and career, it would be produced and directed by Cáca Diegues, but afterward, Maurício Farias replaced him. The actress Andréa Beltrão will perform the presenter and the actor Daniel Boaventura will perform Silvio Santos. "Hebe: Forever" (2019) – on display from this Tuesday until 2 June in Farol Santander, in São Paulo. The immersive and interactive exhibition remembers the career of the singer and presenter that left a mark in the history of Brazilian television. Awards and honors 1990 — "The face of São Paulo" 1994 — "Citizen Paulistana" from the Câmara Municipal 2002 — "Tribute in Portugal" 2007 — "Special Award", for Prêmio Contigo! 2009 — "Title of Professor Honoris Causa" of the Universidade FIAM-FAAM 2010 — "Award LIDE 2010" of the Comitê Executivo do Grupo de Líderes Empresariais 2010 — "Latin Grammy Awards- Trustees Award" "Best Interview" of the Associação Paulista dos Críticos de Artes "Best auditorium program presenter" of the Brazilian Academy of Letters Filmography 2009 – Xuxa e o Mistério de Feiurinha 2005 – Coisa de Mulher 2000 – Dinosaur (Portuguese dubbing of Baylene) 1960 – Zé do Periquito 1951 – Liana, a Pecadora 1949 – Quase no Céu Television career 2010 – Fantástico 2010 – SBT Brasil 2009 – Elas Cantam Roberto 2009 – Vende-se Um Véu de Noiva 2007 – Amigas e Rivais 2003 – Romeu e Julieta Versão 3 2000 – TV Ano 50 1995 – A Escolinha do Golias 1990 – Romeu e Julieta Versão 2 1980 – Cavalo Amarelo 1978 – O Profeta 1970 – As Pupilas do Senhor Reitor 1968 – Romeu e Julieta Versão 1 1950 – Primeira Apresentação Musical da TV Brasileira Discography Sou Eu (1960) Hebe comanda o espetáculo (1961) E Vocês (1963) Hebe (1964) Hebe 65 (1965) Hebe (1967) Pra Você (1998) Hebe Camargo & Convidados (2001) Hebe Mulher e Amigos (2010) Mulher (2010) See also Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão List of television presenters Hebe Camargo at IMDb Site of Hebe program at RedeTV!

Stanley Ho Hung-sun (Chinese: 何鴻燊; 25 November 1921 – 26 May 2020) was a Hong Kong-Macau billionaire businessman. His original patrilineal surname was Bosman, which was later sinicized to 何 (Ho). He was the founder and chairman of SJM Holdings, which owns nineteen casinos in Macau including the Grand Lisboa. Ho was nicknamed variously Godfather and King of Gambling, reflecting the government-granted monopoly he held on the Macau gambling industry for 40 years. His wealth was divided among his daughter, Pansy Ho ($5.3 billion) who owns MGM Macau, fourth wife Angela Leong ($4.1 billion) who is managing director of SJM Holdings, and son Lawrence Ho ($2.6 billion) who owns City of Dreams. Ho was the founder and chairman of Shun Tak Holdings, through which he owned many businesses including entertainment, tourism, shipping, real estate, banking, and air transport. It is estimated that his businesses employ almost one-fourth of the workforce of Macau. Apart from Hong Kong and Macau, he also invested in mainland China, Portugal, North Korea where he operated a casino, Vietnam, the Philippines, Mozambique, Indonesia and East Timor. His opinions and statements on Hong Kong's real estate and commercial development had considerable sway on the market. In his later years, he had been involved in litigation with his sister, Winnie Ho, concerning the ownership of the Macau casino. Having suffered a stroke in July 2009, followed by a long period of recovery, Ho began steps in late 2010 to devolve his grip on his financial empire to his various wives and children. Ho died on 26 May 2020 at the Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital. Early life He was of Chinese, Dutch-Jewish and English ancestry. Ho was descended from his great-grandfather, Charles Henry Maurice Bosman (1839–1892), who was of Dutch Jewish ancestry, and his Chinese mistress, Sze Tai (施娣) a local Bao'an (present-day Shenzhen and Hong Kong) woman. His grandfather was Ho Fook (何福), brother of the merchant Sir Robert Ho Tung.: 187, 195  Ho was the ninth of thirteen children of Ho Sai-kwong (何世光). Education Ho studied at Queen's College, Hong Kong, at which he attended Class D - the lowest class level in the then Hong Kong Class System - owing to unsatisfactory academic results. However, he later received a scholarship to the University of Hong Kong. He became the first student from Class D to be granted a university scholarship. His university studies were cut short by the outbreak of World War II in 1942. Career Ho began clerical work at a Japanese-owned import-export firm in Macau. He made his first fortune smuggling luxury goods across the Chinese border from Macau during World War II. In 1943 he set up a kerosene company and established a construction company with his money. Ho, along with partners including Hong Kong tycoon Henry Fok, Macau gambler Yip Hon and his brother-in-law Teddy Yip, bid for Macau franchises. By bidding high and promising to promote tourism and to develop infrastructure, they won the public tender for Macau's gaming monopoly license in 1961, for US$410,000, of which US$51,000 was provided by Henry Fok. defeating the long-time Macau casino barons, the Fu family, by MOP 17,000. In 1961 the company was renamed Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau, S.A.R.L. (STDM). Business at its flagship Lisboa Casino Hotel blossomed, the hotel later becoming well known internationally. In the same year, Ho also set up Shun Tak Holdings Ltd, which was listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. Through a subsidiary, TurboJET, it owns one of the world's largest fleets of high-speed jetfoils, which ferry passengers between Hong Kong and Macau.Ho's investments in Macau were diverse. In 1989, after STDM took full control of the Macau Jockey Club, Ho became its chairman and chief executive officer. In 1998 Ho became the first living Macanese resident to have a local street named after him. He also launched Asia's first football and basketball lottery, called SLOT.Ho was named by the Canadian Government, citing the Manila Standard newspaper, as having a link to the Kung Lok Triad (Chinese mafia) and as being linked to "several illegal activities" during the period 1999–2002. Ho's alleged ties to Chinese organized crime have also been reported by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, citing a U.S. Senate committee and several government agencies, when the state investigated his ties to American casino operator MGM Mirage. Positions held Business Chairman Emeritus without directorship, Shun Tak Holdings Limited (信德集團) Chairman, Seng Heng Bank Limited Director, Shun Tak Shipping Company, Limited Chairman, iAsia Technology Limited (亞洲網上交易科技有限公司) Chairman, the Chinese Recreation Club in Hong Kong (CRC) Founder of Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau, SARL (STDM) Chairman, SJM Holdings Limited (澳門博彩控股有限公司) (retirement announced in April 2018) Ho also made many other investments, including in venture capital and foreign real estate (such as in Singapore and London). Community President of Real Estate Developers Association of Hong Kong (香港地產建設商會) Chairman of the board of directors of the University of Hong Kong Foundation for Educational Development and Research (香港大學教研發展基金董事局) Member of the Court and Council of the University of Hong Kong (香港大學校董會) Member of the Court of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University Member of the board of trustees of the Better Hong Kong Foundation Member of the Council of the University of Macau (澳門大學) Founder of the Dr. Stanley Ho Medical Development Foundation (何鴻燊博士醫療拓展基金會) Politics In 1987, Portugal agreed to return Macau to China in 1999. Ho took part in the joint advisory committee. He was a Standing Committee member of the 9th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.Also; Member of the Selection Committee for the first Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Member of the Consultative Committee for the Basic Law of the Hong Kong SAR Family Ho had 17 children born to four women. Ho referred to his children's mothers as his wives. Polygamy remained legal in Hong Kong until 1971.In 1942, Ho married Clementina Ângela Leitão, from the prestigious Portuguese Leitão family (Chinese:黎登)– her grandfather was a lawyer and Macau's only notary public at the time. They had four children. Leitão was involved in a motor vehicle accident in 1973, and suffered partial memory loss as a result. In 1981, Ho's and Leitão's son Robert and daughter-in-law Suki Potier died in a car accident. Clementina Leitão Ho died in 2004 and was buried in the St. Michael the Archangel Cemetery (Portuguese: Cemitério São Miguel Arcanjo). In the late 1950s, Ho met Lucina Azul Jean Ying née Laam King-ying (藍瓊纓) and began a relationship. This union was recognized in Macau and Hong Kong at that time due to legacy rulings from the Great Qing Legal Code of the Chinese Qing Dynasty. The relationship resulted in five children including daughters Daisy Ho, to whom Ho ceded the chairmanship of SJM, and Pansy Ho, a 50 percent partner in MGM Macau; son Lawrence Ho, CEO of Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd, another Macau-based casino company; and Josie Ho (何超儀), a rock singer and award-winning actress. Lucina's family now resides in Canada. Ho began a relationship with Ina Chan in 1985. This union is not legitimate by laws in either Hong Kong or Macau. Ho's wife Clementina Leitão needed constant nursing care following her car accident, and Ina Chan was one of the nurses brought in to look after Leitão. Ho and Chan have three children together; Laurinda Ho, Florinda Ho, and Orlando Ho. In 1988, Ho met Angela Leong On-kei when she was his dance instructor. The couple had four children together: Sabrina Ho, Arnaldo Ho, Mario Ho and Alice Ho. Leong is now an incumbent member of the Legislative Assembly in Macau. Personal life Over the years, dancing was one of Ho's favourite hobbies and he achieved excellence in the tango, cha-cha-cha, and waltz. He often danced for televised charity fundraisers and sponsored numerous dance performances in Hong Kong and Macau, including the Hong Kong Arts Festival and the Macau Arts Festival, promoting the art of dance. He also invited internationally renowned dancing groups, such as the National Ballet of China, to perform in Hong Kong and Macau. Ho was a patron of the Hong Kong Ballet, the International Dance Teachers Association and was a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Dance. One of a number of thoroughbred racehorses owned by Ho, Viva Pataca, named after the currency of Macau, won several top Hong Kong races in 2006 and 2007. In late July 2009, Ho suffered a fall at his home that required brain surgery. For seven months Ho was confined to the Hong Kong Adventist Hospital and, later, the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital, during which period he made only one public appearance, on 20 December 2009, when he travelled to Macau to meet Chinese president Hu Jintao on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Macau's return to Chinese sovereignty. Ho was discharged from the Hong Kong Sanatorium and Hospital on 6 March 2010 and thereafter employed a wheelchair. Philanthropy Qing relics In 2003, Ho donated a Qing dynasty bronze boar's head to China's Poly Art Museum, a state-run organisation that aims to develop, display, rescue and protect Chinese cultural relics. The boar's head is part of a collection of twelve looted from the imperial Summer Palace in Beijing in 1860 when it was sacked and burnt by the French and British armies. On 21 September 2007, Ho donated to the Chinese government a Qing dynasty bronze sculpture of a horse's head originally taken from the Old Summer Palace. Ho had reportedly just purchased it from a Taiwanese businessman for US$8.84 million. Lanceford dispute In late January 2011, a dispute erupted among his wives and children involving the transfer of ownership of his private holding company, Lanceford. On 27 December Lanceford allotted 9,998 new shares, representing 99.98 per cent of its enlarged share capital, to two British Virgin Islands companies: Action Winner Holdings Ltd, wholly owned by third wife, Ina, holding 50.55 per cent and Ranillo Investments Ltd, equally held by each of Laam's five children, holding the balance. The allotment document filed with the Registrar of Companies was signed by Laam's daughter Daisy.Ho issued proceedings in the High Court, naming its directors – 11 defendants, including his second and third wives, and children Pansy and Lawrence Ho, alleging the group "improperly and/or illegally" acted in changing the share structure. The writ sought an injunction restraining the defendants from selling or disposing any of the 9,998 new shares in the company. The two British Virgin Islands companies were also named in the writ. Ho said his intention from the outset was to divide his assets equally among his families and that the actions of the directors of Lanceford effectively eliminated this possibility, according to a statement issued by his lawyer Gordon Oldham.Amidst confusion caused by conflicting statements from Ho and his wives and children about the state of the dispute, Ho, through Oldham – who had been allegedly sacked and rehired within the space of a few days – said he had been pressured to make public statements and sign legal documents without him being fully apprised of their contents. Honours In 1984, Ho was awarded an honorary doctorate of social sciences from the University of Macau in 1984. In the New Year Honours 1990, Ho was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) "for services to the community in Hong Kong" In 1995, The Government of Portugal appointed Ho to the Grã-Cruz da Ordem do Infante Dom Henrique (Great Cross of the Order of Prince Henrique), the highest honour for any civilian, for his contributions to society. In 1998, Dr. Stanley Ho Avenue in Macau was named, the first Chinese person to be so honoured in Macau during their lifetime. In 2001, he was among the first recipients to receive the Golden Lotus Medal of Honour from Macau.In 2003 Ho received the Gold Bauhinia Star from the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Tung Chee Hwa. In 2007, he received the Grand Lotus Medal of Honour from Macau. In 2008 Ho received the Medal for Business Entrepreneurialism from the city of Cascais and the street running adjacent to the Estoril Casino was renamed as Avenida Stanley Ho. It was the first road in Portugal to be named after a living Chinese citizen. In June 2009 he received the Visionary award at the G2E Asia conference, organised by the American Gaming Association; the award was delivered by Macau SAR Chief Executive Edmund Ho. In November 2010, Ho was awarded the Grand Bauhinia Medal. Death Ho was in poor health in his last years, and stayed in hospital after his health deteriorated following a stroke in 2009. On 25 May 2020, Ho was reported to be in a critical condition, and he died at the Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital on 26 May 2020, at around 1 pm local time. He was 98. In popular culture It Could Happen Here - The Macau Tycoon : 1991 television film, portrayed by Jackie Lui Chung Yin. Casino Tycoon & Casino Tycoon 2 : 1992 films, the character Benny Ho, portrayed by Andy Lau. Chasing the Dragon II: Wild Wild Bunch : 2019 film, the character Stanford Ho, portrayed by Michael Wong. See also Economy of Macau Legal system of Macau List of graduates of University of Hong Kong List of billionaires Politics of Macau List of oldest fathers Shun Tak Holdings Limited

CN, Cn, cn and other variants may refer to: Companies Canadian National Railway, reporting mark CN China Netcom, a former telecommunication service provider in China, NYSE symbol Collegiate Network, supporting college publications Grand China Air IATA code CN Islands Nationair, an airline based in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, IATA code CN Westward Airways (Nebraska), a former airline, IATA code CN (dissolved 2005) Media and entertainment Cartoon Network, an American cable channel List of international Cartoon Network channels Places China (People's Republic of China), ISO 3166 country code CN CN Centre, an arena in Prince George, British Columbia CN Tower, communications and observation tower in Toronto, Ontario Station code for Cirebon railway station Mathematics, science, and technology Biology Computational neuroethology, the study of animal behavior and its control by the nervous system Cranial nerves, CN 0 to CN XII Chemistry CN gas, a substituted acetophenone used as a riot control agent Copernicium, symbol Cn, a chemical element Cyanide, any chemical compound that contains a carbon atom triple-bonded to a nitrogen atom, -CN Cyano radical, molecular formula ·CN Cyanogen, a colorless, toxic gas with a pungent odor, (CN)2 Computing .cn, country code top-level domain for mainland China Cloud native computing, an approach in software development Common Name, an attribute of the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol protocol family Common Name, an attribute of X.509 public-key certificates VIA CN, a 64-bit CPU for personal computers Mathematics Cn (mathematics), a classical root system cn (elliptic function), one of Jacobi's elliptic functions Other uses in mathematics, science, and technology Carrier-to-noise ratio C/N, the signal-to-noise ratio of a modulated signal Curve number, a parameter used in hydrology for predicting direct runoff or infiltration from rainfall cN, abbreviation for centinewton, a force equal to one hundredth of a newton Classical nova, a type of cataclysmic variable star Other uses Cn (digraph), a digraph used in English for a few words of Greek origin Cnaeus (disambiguation) or Gnaeus (disambiguation), popular Roman praenomens Combined Nomenclature, EU customs coding Vehicle registration code for County Cavan, Ireland Vehicle registration code for Province of Cuneo, Italy Aircraft registration code for Morocco Group CN, a category of prototype racing cars Short for "Citation needed" See also CNN, an American basic cable and satellite television channel All pages with titles beginning with Cn

Jiujiang (Chinese: 九江), formerly transliterated Kiukiang or Kew Keang, is a prefecture-level city located on the southern shores of the Yangtze River in northwest Jiangxi Province, People's Republic of China. It is the second-largest prefecture-level city in Jiangxi province. Jiujiang literally means "nine rivers". Jiujiang is one of the first five cities that were opened to foreign trade along the Yangtze River following the implementation of the reform and opening-up policy. It is the Yangtze River's shipping hub international gateway, and Jiangxi's only international trade port city. Jiujiang Port is the fourth largest port on the Yangtze River.Its population was 4,600,276 inhabitants at the 2020 census, 1,164,268 of whom resided in the built-up area (metro) made up of three urban districts (aka Xunyang, Lianxi, and Chaisang). In 2007, the city was named China's top ten livable cities by the Chinese Cities Brand Value Report, which was released at 2007 Beijing Summit of China Cities Forum. In 2022, the State Council of China granted Jiujiang the title of Famed National Historical and Cultural City for its rich history and multiculture background in the Republic of China era. Administrative divisions Districts:Xunyang District (浔阳区) Lianxi District (濂溪区) Chaisang District (柴桑区)Counties:Wuning County (武宁县) Xiushui County (修水县) Yongxiu County (永修县) De'an County (德安县) Duchang County (都昌县) Hukou County (湖口县) Pengze County (彭泽县)County-level city:Ruichang (瑞昌市) Gongqingcheng (共青城市). Directly administered as a sub-prefecture-level city since 1 July 2014. Lushan (庐山市)Others:Bureau and Administration CommitteesMountain Lu Scenic Area Administration Bureau Mountain Lu West Sea Scenic Area Management Committee Bali Lake New Area Management Committee Poyang Lake Ecological Science and Technology City Management CommitteeTowns and Sub-district OfficesThere are 235 towns and 11 sub-district offices History Ancient history In ancient times it was told that nine rivers converged near where Jiujiang sprang up to become Jiangxi's main water port today. From the Xia to the Shang dynasty, the capitals of several states were located in area of Jiujiang. In the Spring and Autumn period (770–476 BCE) Jiujiang bordered between the states of Wu (downstream, to the east) and Chu (upstream, to the west). Imperial history Tao Yuanming (365–429 CE), a famous Chinese philosopher, recluse and poet, lived at the base of Mountain Lu. He was once appointed magistrate of nearby Pengze County and after 83 days resigned owing to the politics involved in administering justice. He retired back to his village to pen an essay called "Peach Blossom Spring". In 757, Li Bai (701–762 CE) was implicated in the An–Shi disturbances and exiled at Jiujiang. Bai Juyi (772–846 CE) wrote a poem called "Lute Song", which is about his sadness and isolation of forced exile as a middle rank official to reside in such a small and remote town. In the 13th century Zhu Xi was a Confucian philosopher who practiced at the White Deer Grotto Academy, on Mountain Lu's eastern flanks. Jiujiang has also been known as Jiangzhou (江州) and Xunyang (浔阳) in former times. During the Jin dynasty (266–420) it was known as Sin Yang, the Liang dynasty (502–557) of Southern and Northern Dynasties era it was called Jiangzhou. After reunification, the Sui dynasty saw its name as Jiujiang, and the Song dynasty (960–1127) called it Ting Jiang. The Ming dynasty (1368–1644), gave it Jiujiang which has retained its name to this day. It was a Taiping rebellion stronghold for five years (1850–1864) after they devastated the town to only leave one street with buildings intact. The city served as the capital of Taiping's Jiangxi province during this time. British concession and European settlement history The arrival of the Europeans A member of Lord Elgin's committee arriving in 1858 to survey Chinese ports for treaty status noted: "We found it to the last degree deplorable." A single dilapidated street, composed only of a few mean shops, was all that existed of this once thriving populous city. The remainder of the vast area composed within its massive walls 9–10 kilometers in circumference, contained nothing but ruins, weeds and kitchen gardens. After Jiujiang becoming an open treaty port in 1862, it was exporting Jiangxi's vast rice crop. In 1904, more than 160,000 kilos of opium were moved through its customs house. The New York Methodist Mission Society's superintendent, Virgil C. Hart, arrived in Kiukiang in 1866 and bought a piece of property just east of the city wall. This is where the city's first Methodist church and Western hospital was built, with the hospital renamed the No. 1 Hospital, and the oldest/continuous operating hospital in Jiangxi Province. In 1896 Drs. Mary Stone (Shi Meiyu) and Ida Kahn (Kahn Cheng) arrived back in Jiujiang, being China's first two native female Western-educated doctors; having graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School. They were provided with funds collected by Dr. I. N. Danforth (from Chicago residents), to build the Elizabeth Skelton Danforth Hospital and administered entirely by the native Chinese. This was later renamed Jiujiang Women's and Children's Hospital, and the nursing education by Drs. Stone and Kahn would later be the impetus for the founding of Jiujiang University and Jiujiang Medical School.It became one of the three centers of the tea trade in China along with Hankou and Fuzhou. The Russians had two brick tea producing factories, but ceased operations after 1917. On October 16, 1927, there was an explosion of ammunition on the Chinese troopship Kuang Yuang near Jiujiang. The British surrendered their concession in 1927 after being robbed and its Chinese workers mutineered their posts to the marauding crowds. An economic recession had set in over the decades as Indian and Chelonian tea made for greater competition. A military advance was being staged upriver in Wuhan by the Kuomintang in 1927 and all the remaining expatriate community fled on British and American warships towards safer waters of Shanghai, to never return. Jiujiang languished as a port and much of its export trade was siphoned off with the connecting of Nanchang to coastal rail lines built in 1936–37. The establishment of the British concession After China's defeat in the Second Opium War, China and Britain signed the Treaty of Tientsin. At the beginning of the eleventh year of Xianfeng (1861), the British counsellor, Harry Parkes, went to the new port on the Yangtse River by naval vessel according to the treaty to investigate the situation and select the site of concession to be opened. After the concession sites of Zhenjiang and Hankou were delimit, on March 22, Harry Parkes returned to Jiujiang from Hankou and decided to open up a commercial port in Jiujiang.In the 11th year of xianfeng (1861), Zhang Jixin, general minister of Jiangxi province, signed with Harry Parkers the treaty of opening up the British concession in Jiujiang, the Treaty of Land Lease in Jiujiang. The concession was located in a narrow area on the west of Jiujiang, between the Yangtze River and Gantang Lake, to the west of Longkai River, with a length of 150 zhang from east to west and a depth of 60 zhang from south to north, covering an area of 150 acres. The southern part of the concession includes part of PenPu Port. The development of Kuling in Mountain Lu In the early 20th century, Kuling on top of Mountain Lu became the summer resort for international residents because of its beautiful geological landscape and nice climate. At the golden age, over 4000 foreigners from America and European countries lived in this small town in summer time.Kuling, on the slopes of a wide valley of Mountain Lu, was established in 1895 by the missionaries Edward Selby Little, Dr. Edgerton Haskell Hart and three others, as a sanitarium and rest resort for Western missionaries in southern China. They built their houses in the colonial style of architecture, and added churches, schools, and sports facilities. It was named by Little, as a pun: it is wonderfully cooling after the summer heat in the plains below. It was also a word that sounded conveniently Chinese to the local people, and has been adopted by them. Kuling was run by the missionaries in a Kuling Council that sold the plots of the land and with the proceeds paid for local services and security. In 1910, Caroline Maddock Hart and four others met to found the Nurses Association of China; with Caroline Maddock Hart being its first president. Modern history Until 1949 Jiujiang had very little industry except for local handicrafts. Manufacturing is Jiujiang's backbone today with auto, machinery, petrochemical, shipbuilding and textiles as its cornerstones. After the completion of the Yangtze River Bridge in 1992 and the Beijing to Kowloon (Hong Kong) and Wuhan to Shanghai rail systems laid, a convenient ground corridor was provided and a regional airport now serves most of China's capital cities. In 2005, an earthquake hit Ruichang. Kuling American School Association donated 200 sets of desks and chairs and more than 50 sets of Oxford English-Chinese Dictionary to a local primary school near Ruichang. Economy Economic and Technological Development Zones Jiujiang Free Trade (Tariff-free) Zone Jiujiang National Economical and Technological Development Zone Jiujiang Gongqingcheng National High-tech Industrial Development Zone Latest Ranking in the Chinese Cities In 2021, Jiujiang's GDP is 373.528 Billion Yuan. Jiujiang's GDP ranks 70th among all Chinese cities. Demography The city administers a total population of approximately 4,600,276 at the 2020 census of whom approximately 2,814,240 are urban living in the urban area. The population density is 240 per km2. Han Chinese make up 99.8% of the population. Registered residents include 25 ethnic minorities. Six of them are major minorities in Jiujiang. They are: Hui, Miao, Zhuang, Tujia, and She. Jiujiang dialect is unlike typical Gan dialect of Jiangxi. Jiujiang dialect is a variety of Lower Yangtze Mandarin and is close to Wu languages. Climate Industry Primary industries and tertiary sector include: Manufacturing Petrochemical Refinement Tourism Import/Export (through river port) Agricultural Chemical Production Transport Road: G56 Hangzhou–Ruili Expressway G70 Fuzhou–Yinchuan Expressway Jiujiang Ring Expressway Chang-Jiu Expressway Jiu-Rui Expressway G45 Daguang Expressway Yongwu Expressway Penghu Expressway Xiu-ping Expressway Du-Jiu Expressway Dong-jiu Expressway Rail Beijing-Kowloon Tongling–Jiujiang Hefei–Jiujiang Wuhan–Jiujiang Nanchang–Jiujiang Intercity Railway Chang-jiu intercity railway Wu-jiu high speed railway Jiujing-qu railway He-an-Jiu passenger dedicated line Fu-gang-jiu passenger dedicated line Chang-jiu high speed railway. Air Jiujiang Lushan Airport (JIU) Port Jiujiang Port is the largest port in Jiangxi Province located at the junction of the Yangtze River, Poyang Lake and the Beijing-Kowloon Railway. From west to east, this port consists of five docks namely Ruichang, Chengxi, Chengqu, Hukou and Pengze. As an important port situated on the lower and middle reaches of Yangtze River and one of the 5 main ports on the river, many domestic and international marine routes have been established, In the main, the freight handled consists of mineral building materials, coals, metal and nonmetal ores and petroleum. Yangtze Bridges At present, Jiujiang has two Bridges built across the Yangtze River. They are Jiujiang Yangtze River Bridge and Jiujiang Yangtze River Expressway Bridge. The third bridge across the Yangtze River in Jiujiang is under construction. The fourth bridge across the Yangtze River in Jiujiang is being designed Colleges and universities University of Jiujiang: a university located in Lianxi District. The location is most easily reached by the 101 bus from the city center. Jiangxi Vocational College of Finance and Economics: a small picturesque college located right by the lake. This college is well situated within the city. Jiujiang Vocational and Technical College: a vocational college located in Lianxi District near University of Jiujiang. Jiujiang Vocational University: a vocational college located in Lianxi District near University of Jiujiang. Jiangxi Fenglin College: a vocational college located in Yongxiu county. Yongxiu county belongs to Jiujiang. Jiujiang Vocational College of Polytechnic: a vocational college located in Jiujiang Economic and Technological Development Zone. Gongqing Institute of Science and Technology: a vocational college located in Gongqingcheng. Gongqingcheng belongs to Jiujiang. Gongqing College of Nanchang University: a local college located in Gongqingcheng. Science and Technology College of Jiangxi Normal University: a local college located in Gongqingcheng. Modern Economics and Management College of Jiangxi Finance and Economics University: a local college located in Gongqingcheng. Science and Technology College of Nanchang Aviation University: a vocational college located in Gongqingcheng. Science and Technology College of Nanchang University: a local college located in Gongqingcheng. Nanchang Business College of Jiangxi Agriculture University: a local vocational college located in Gongqingcheng. International relations Former Diplomatic Representives in Jiujiang British Consulate General Jiujiang was established in 1861 Japanese Consulate General Jiujiang was established on July 16, 1915 Twin towns — Sister cities Jiujiang is twinned with: Tourism Mountain Lu: one of the most famous mountains in China. It is located in the south of the urban center and listed as a World Heritage Site. Mountain Lu Geopark: is located on Mountain Lu. In 1996, Mountain Lu became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 2004, the Mountain Lu Geopark became a member of Global Geoparks Network. Mountain Lu Geopark is a place of striking beauty. It has spectacular peaks, lakes, cliffs, waterfalls and important Buddhist and Taoist temples. Kuling: as a homonym for cooling. It is a mountain town in the Mountain Lu National Park. It was established in 1895 by the missionaries Edward Selby Little, Dr. Edgerton Haskell Hart and three others, as a sanitarium and summer resort for Western missionaries in southern China. British Concession Museum: located on Binjiang road. It was established by local government from transforming buildings left from the former British Concession of Jiujiang. Yuliang South Road Historical and Cultural Block: a street combines Chinese and Western cultures. Beside the street are:the old Catholic school the old monastery the Catholic church Taling Park the old Perkins Villa Nengren temple Western Goods Exhibition Window Lushan Hotspring: located in Hotspring town, Lushan City. Lushan City is a county-level city belong to Jiujiang. Haiyun Sand Beach: located in Balihu Park. It is the only high standard man-made beach in Jiangxi Province. It is a famous scenic spot and entertainment resort in Jiujiang. Xunyang River Scenic Area: located on Binjiang Road in Xunyang District. It is near shoreline of the Yangtze River. Covering an area of some 765 acres (around 509,490 sqm), with distance of 5.2 km long from east to west. It is only 4.5 km away from Jiujiang Station, 1.6 km away from Fuzhou-Yinchuan Expressway, and about an hour's drive from Changbei Airport. Its rich tourism resources include river, ancient building, garden and museum as follows:Pipa Pavilion Xunyang Tower Suojiang Pagoda British Concession Museum Baishui Lake Park Xunyang River Cruise Ship Mountain Lu West Sea: is located about 90 kilometers to the south of Mountain Lu. It is National 5-Star Scenic Spot. There are thousands of islands in the area just like Maldives. In 2007, between June and August, American reality program Survivor filmed its fifteenth season, Survivor: China, in the area. The program host Jeff Probst claimed that this was the first American television series filmed entirely in China. Nanshan Park (南山公园): completed in early 2013. This park, home to a new pagoda, is covered in flora and lights up the Jiujiang sky at night. Yanshui Pavilion: located in city center, near Gantang lake. It is a well known scenic spot in Jiujiang. Donglin Temple: a Buddhist temple located at foot of Mountain Lu. It is built by Huiyuan (Buddhist), founder of Pure Land Buddhism. Pure Land Buddhism later spread to Japan and gained its prominence there. In 1175, Hōnen established Pure Land Buddhism as an independent sect in Japan known as Jōdo-shū. Pure Land schools have nearly 40 percent of Japanese Buddhism practitioners, only second to Chan schools.The temple provide free vegetarian lunch and free guest house. Visitors can stay at guest house in temple for free up to three days. The guest house is gender separated, and visitors have to share room with others. Donglin Buddha: the world's tallest statue of Amitabha Buddha. Total cost is about 1 billion Yuan. Surface of the Buddha is plated with 48 kilograms of gold. Buddha height is 48 meters tall, representing the forty-eighth vows of Amitabha Buddha. Total height is 81 meters. Mountain Lu Four Seasons Flower City (Botanical Garden): located in Bali lake New Area. It is Jiujiang's largest flower plant park. Stone Bell Hill: just downriver from Jiujiang is Hukou where the Yangtze River and waters of Boyang Lake converge with an abrupt color change. People have been coming here for centuries to listen to the stone-bell sound resonating from the cliffs overlooking this spot. A few theories are provided why this rare geographical phenomenon happens. Li Daoyuan from the Northern Wei period (386–534) theorizes that it is because the hill has a bell-shaped appearance and hollow inside, thus providing the sound when struck. Or it may be because of the water lapping within the limestone nooks and fissures around its base, as famous litterateur from the same time Su Shui discovered. Su Dongpo also did three trips around its perimeter, before settling on this last explanation for its unique sound also. Many Chinese literati's have left more than twenty calligraphy masterpieces carved upon its rocks, with some dating back to the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE). Notable residents Mary Stone (Shi Meiyu) (1873–1954), one of the first western trained Chinese female physicians. Founder of Elizabeth Skelton Danforth Hospital (now called Jiujiang Women and Children's Hospital) in Jiujiang. Lo-Yi Chang (1907–1988), was born in Kuling, Mountain Lu. She was spouse of T.V. Soong, then Premier of the Republic of China. She has made a significant contribution to the promotion of China overseas. Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973), was the first American woman won Nobel Prize in Literature, for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China, in 1938. She also won Pulitzer Prize in 1932. She spent her childhood with her family in Kuling in summer time. Her father built a stone villa in Kuling in 1897, and lived there until his death in 1931. Masato Matsuura (松浦正人) (1942– ), born in Jiujiang. He was a Japanese politician. He served as Hōfu mayor and president of National Mayors Association of Japan. In 2018, then Hōfu mayor and president of National Mayors Association of Japan (NMAJ), Masato Matsuura (松浦正人), led a delegation of NMAJ visitedformer Japanese consulate of Jiujiang. Masato Matsuura said :I was born in the former Japanese consulate of Jiujiang. Jiujiang is my second hometown. I am deeply attached to the beautiful landscape here. Chiang Yee (1903–1977), born in Jiujiang. He was a Chinese poet, author, painter and calligrapher. His translation of Coca Cola is remembered by all Chinese. Mervyn Peake (1911–1968), born in Kuling, Mountain Lu. He was an English writer, artist, poet, and illustrator. He was well known for being the illustrator of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Maggie Mac Neil (2000- ), born in Jiujiang and adopted to Canada at an early age Sylvia Wu (1915–2022), born in Kiukiang and later became a Los Angeles restaurateur and a writer. People's Government of Jiujiang (Chinese language) Archived 2007-02-28 at the Wayback Machine Mountain Lu Website (Chinese language) Archived 2011-07-03 at the Wayback Machine Jiujiang News Network (Chinese language) Archived 2021-07-20 at the Wayback Machine Kuling American School Association

Jiangsu (UK: ; US: Chinese: ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the third smallest, but the fifth most populous and the most densely populated of the 23 provinces of the People's Republic of China. Jiangsu has the highest GDP per capita and second-highest GDP of Chinese provinces, after Guangdong. Jiangsu borders Shandong in the north, Anhui to the west, and Zhejiang and Shanghai to the south. Jiangsu has a coastline of over 1,000 kilometers (620 mi) along the Yellow Sea, and the Yangtze River passes through the southern part of the province. Since the Sui and Tang dynasties, Jiangsu has been a national economic and commercial center, partly due to the construction of the Grand Canal. Cities such as Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, and Shanghai (separated from Jiangsu in 1927) are all major Chinese economic hubs. Since the initiation of economic reforms in 1990, Jiangsu has become a focal point for economic development. It is widely regarded as one of China's most developed provinces, when measured by its Human Development Index (HDI). Its 2021 nominal GDP per capita reached RMB 137,300 (US$21,287), becoming the first province in China to reach the $20,000 mark. Jiangsu is home to many of the world's leading exporters of electronic equipment, chemicals and textiles. It has also been China's largest recipient of foreign direct investment since 2006. In 2022, its GDP was more than CNY¥12.29 trillion (US$1.83 trillion in nominal), which is the sixth-highest of all country subdivisions. If it were a country, it would be the twelfth-largest economy as of 2022 as well as the 19th most populous.Jiangsu is also one of the leading provinces in research and education in China. As of 2022, Jiangsu hosts 168 institutions of higher education, ranking first of all Chinese provinces. Jiangsu has many highly ranked educational institutions, with 16 number of universities listed in the Double First-Class Universities, ranking second after Beijing. As of 2020, two major cities in Jiangsu ranked in the world's top 50 (Nanjing 8th and Suzhou 45th) cities by scientific research output, as tracked by the Nature Index. Name Jiangsu's name is a compound of the first elements of the names of the two cities of Jiangning (now Nanjing) and Suzhou. The abbreviation for this province is "苏" (Sū), the second character of its name. History During the earliest Chinese dynasties, the area that is now Jiangsu was far away from the center of Chinese civilization, which was in the northwest Henan; it was home of the Huai Yi (淮夷), an ancient ethnic group. During the Zhou dynasty more contact was made, and eventually the state of Wu appeared in southern Jiangsu, one of the many hundreds of states that existed across northern and central China at that time. Near the end of the Spring and Autumn period, Wu became a great power under King Helu of Wu, and defeated in 484 BC the state of Qi, a major power in the north in modern-day Shandong province, and contest for the position of overlord over all states of China. The state of Wu was subjugated in 473 BC by the state of Yue, another state that had emerged to the south in modern-day Zhejiang province. Yue was in turn subjugated by the powerful state of Chu from the west in 333 BC. Eventually the state of Qin swept away all the other states, and unified China in 221 BC. Under the reign of the Han dynasty (206 BC to 220 AD), Jiangsu was removed from the centers of civilization in the North China Plain, and was administered under two zhou (provinces): Xu Province in the north, and Yang Province in the south. During the Three Kingdoms period, southern Jiangsu became the base of the Eastern Wu (222 to 280), whose capital, Jianye (later renamed to Jiankang), is modern Nanjing. When nomadic invasions overran northern China in the 4th century, the imperial court of the Jin dynasty moved to Jiankang. Cities in southern and central Jiangsu swelled with the influx of migrants from the north. Jiankang remained as the capital for four successive Southern dynasties and became the largest commercial and cultural center in China. After the Sui dynasty united the country in 581, the political center of the country shifted back to the north, but the Grand Canal was built through Jiangsu to link the Central Plains with the prosperous Yangtze Delta. The Tang dynasty (618–907) relied on southern Jiangsu for annual deliveries of grain. It was during the Song dynasty (960–1279), which saw the development of a wealthy mercantile class and emergent market economy in China, that Jiangnan (southern Jiangsu, Shanghai, and adjacent areas) emerged as a center of trade. From then onwards, major cities like Suzhou or Yangzhou, would be synonymous with opulence and luxury in China. Today the region remains one of the richest parts of China. The Jurchen Jin dynasty gained control of North China in 1127 during the Jin-Song wars, and Huai River, which used to cut through north Jiangsu to reach the Yellow Sea, was the border between the north, under the Jin, and the south, under the Southern Song dynasty. The Mongols took control of China in the thirteenth century. The Ming dynasty, which was established in 1368 after driving out the Mongols who had occupied China, initially put its capital in Nanjing. Regions surrounding Nanjing, corresponding to Jiangsu and Anhui today, were designated as the Nanzhili province (literally "southern directly governed"). Following a coup by Zhu Di (later, the Yongle Emperor), however, the capital was moved to Beijing, far to the north, although Nanjing kept its status as the southern capital. In late Ming, Jiangnan continued to be an important center of trade in China; some historians see in the flourishing textiles industry at the time incipient industrialization and capitalism, a trend that was however aborted. The Qing dynasty converted Nanzhili to "Jiangnan province"; in 1666 Jiangsu and Anhui were split apart as separate provinces. Jiangsu's borders have been for the most part stable since then. With the start of Western incursion into China in the 1840s, the rich and mercantile Yangtze river delta was increasingly exposed to Western influence; Shanghai, originally an unremarkable little town of Jiangsu, quickly developed into a metropolis of trade, banking, and cosmopolitanism, and was split out later as an independent municipality. Jiangnan also figures strongly in the Taiping Rebellion (1851 – 1864), a massive and deadly rebellion that attempted to set up a Christian theocracy in China; it started far to the south, in Guangdong province, swept through much of South China, and by 1853, had established Nanjing as its capital, renamed as Tianjing (天京 "Heavenly Capital"). The Republic of China was established in 1912, and China was soon torn apart by warlords. Jiangsu changed hands several times, but in April 1927, Chiang Kai-shek established a government at Nanking; he was soon able to bring most of China under his control. This was however interrupted by the second Sino-Japanese War, which began full-scale in 1937; on December 13, 1937, Nanking fell, and the combined atrocities of the occupying Japanese for the next three months would come to be known as the Rape of Nanking, after which it became the seat of the collaborationist government of East China under Wang Jingwei, and Jiangsu remained under Japanese occupation until the end of the war in 1945. After the war, Nanking was once again the capital of the Republic of China, though now the Chinese Civil War had broken out between the Kuomintang government and Communist forces, based further north, mostly in Northeast China. The decisive Huaihai Campaign was fought in northern Jiangsu; it resulted in Kuomintang defeat, and the communists were soon able to cross the Yangtze River and take Nanking. The Kuomintang fled southward and eventually ended up in Taipei, from which the Republic of China government continues to administer Taiwan, Pescadores, and its neighboring islands, though it also continues to claim (technically, at least) Nanjing as its rightful de jure capital. After the communist takeover, Peking (formerly Peiping, later spelled as Beijing) was made capital of the People's Republic, and Nanjing was demoted to be the provincial capital of Jiangsu. The economic reforms of Deng Xiaoping initially focused on the south coast of China, in Guangdong province, which soon left Jiangsu behind; starting from the 1990s they were applied more evenly to the rest of China. Suzhou and Wuxi, two southern cities of Jiangsu in close proximity to neighboring Shanghai, have since become particularly prosperous, being among the top 10 cities in China in terms of gross domestic product and outstripping the provincial capital of Nanjing. The income disparity between northern and southern Jiangsu however remains large. Geography Jiangsu is flat, with plains covering 68 percent of its total area (water covers another 18 percent). Most of the province stands not more than 50 meters (160 ft) above sea level. Jiangsu also has a well-developed irrigation system, which earned it (especially the southern half) the moniker of traditional Chinese: 水鄕; simplified Chinese: 水乡 (shuǐxiāng "land of water"). The southern city of Suzhou has so many canals that it has been dubbed "Venice of the East" or the "Venice of the Orient." The Grand Canal of China cuts through Jiangsu from north to south, crossing all the east–west river systems. Jiangsu also borders the Yellow Sea. The Yangtze River, the longest river of China, cuts through the province in the south and reaches the East China Sea, which divides the region into two parts: more urban, prosperous south and more poorer, rural north, and these two parts has a tense division.Mount Huaguo, near the city of Lianyungang, is the highest point in Jiangsu, at an altitude of 625 meters (2,051 ft) above sea level. Large lakes in Jiangsu include Lake Tai (the largest), Lake Hongze, Lake Gaoyou, Lake Luoma, and Lake Yangcheng. Before 1194 A.D., the Huai River cut through north Jiangsu to reach the Yellow Sea. The Huai River is a major river in central China, and it was the traditional border between North China and South China. Since 1194 A.D., the Yellow River further to the north changed its course several times, running into the Huai River in north Jiangsu each time instead of its other usual path northwards into Bohai Bay. The silting caused by the Yellow River was so heavy that after its last episode of "hijacking" the Huai River ended in 1855: the Huai River was no longer able to go through its usual path into the sea. Instead it flooded, pooled up (thereby forming and enlarging Lake Hongze and Lake Gaoyou), and flowed southwards through the Grand Canal into the Yangtze. The old path of the Huai River is now marked by a series of irrigation channels, the most significant of which is the North Jiangsu Main Irrigation Canal (traditional Chinese: 蘇北灌溉總渠; simplified Chinese: 苏北灌溉总渠), which channels a small amount of the water of the Huai River alongside south of its old path into the sea. Most of Jiangsu has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa or Cwa in the Köppen climate classification), beginning to transition into a humid continental climate (Köppen Dwa) in the far north. Seasonal changes are clear-cut, with temperatures at an average of −1 to 4 °C (30 to 39 °F) in January and 26 to 29 °C (79 to 84 °F) in July. Rain falls frequently between spring and summer (meiyu), typhoons with rainstorms occur in late summer and early autumn. As with the rest of the coast, tornados are possible. The annual average rainfall is 800 to 1,200 millimeters (31 to 47 in), concentrated mostly in summer during the southeast monsoon. Climate change in Jiangsu Due to its flat terrain, low altitude, and dense population, Jiangsu is one of the most vulnerable regions in China to climate change and its ensuing sea level rise. According to the data collected by the Center of Climate Change in Jiangsu from 1961 to 2007, on average, the province experiences an temperature increase between 0.16 and 0.45 Celsius per 10 years and total precipitation change between -28.7 and 37.09 mm per 10 years. Extreme weather have become stronger and more common. Jiangsu's agriculture, ecosystem, water resource, transportation, and coastline are all negatively impacted. The speed of sea level rise exceeds the world's average by a large margin.Specifically, a ranking on climate change risk of global regions released in early 2023 by The Cross Dependency Initiative (XDI) puts Jiangsu as the most vulnerable of the entire world. Jiangsu is at more risk due to its extensive industrial, trade, residential, and commercial development.In response to climate disturbance across the country, the fourteenth five-year plan, endorsed by the National People's Congress in 2021, indicates the general direction and various steps towards a low-carbon transition. On a provincial level, the Jiangsu government aims to achieve a 18% carbon dioxide decrease per unit GDP and accelerate the development of a green, low-carbon economy, as indicated in the 14th five-year development. The province also plans to recover the damaged coastal regions such as Lianyugang and Yancheng, and improve resilience against rising sea level by implementing seawalls and river floodgates.Major cities: Administrative divisions Jiangsu is divided into thirteen prefecture-level divisions, all prefecture-level cities (including a sub-provincial city): These prefecture-level cities are in turn subdivided into 95 county-level divisions (55 districts, 21 county-level cities, and 19 counties). Those are in turn divided into 1,237 township-level divisions (699 towns, 19 townships, and 519 subdistricts). At the end of the year 2021, the total population was 85.05 million. Urban areas Politics The politics of Jiangsu is structured in a one party (Communist) government system like all other governing institutions in mainland China. The Governor of Jiangsu is the highest-ranking official in the People's Government of Jiangsu. However, in the province's dual party-government governing system, the Governor has less power than the Jiangsu Chinese Communist Party Provincial Committee Secretary, colloquially termed the "Jiangsu CCP Party Chief." Economy As of 2022, Jiangsu had a gross domestic product (GDP) of CNY¥12.29 trillion (US$1.83 trillion), the second-highest in China after Guangdong. Its GDP is greater than those of Australia and South Korea, which are the world's 12th- and 13th-largest economies respectively. In 2022, Jiangsu's GDP adjusted by purchasing power parity was $3.04 trillion, making it the 3rd-largest of any country subdivision globally, behind California and Guangdong. Jiangsu's economy in PPP also was just behind that of Italy with a GDP PPP of $ $3.05 trillion, the 12th largest in the world.Jiangsu is very wealthy among the provinces of China. Its 2022 nominal GDP per capita reached ¥144,390 (US$21,467), becoming the first province in China to reach the $20,000 mark. Cities like Nanjing, Suzhou, and Wuxi have GDPs per capita around twice the provincial average, making south Jiangsu one of the most prosperous regions in China. The province has an extensive irrigation system supporting its agriculture, which is based primarily on rice and wheat, followed by maize and sorghum. Main cash crops include cotton, soybeans, peanuts, rapeseed, sesame, ambary hemp, and tea. Other products include peppermint, spearmint, bamboo, medicinal herbs, apples, pears, peaches, loquats, ginkgo. Silkworms form an important part of Jiangsu's agriculture, with the Lake Tai region to the south a major base of silk production in China. Jiangsu is an important producer of freshwater fish and other aquatic products. Jiangsu has coal, petroleum, and natural gas deposits, but its most significant mineral products are non-metal minerals such as halite (rock salt), sulfur, phosphorus, and marble. The city of Xuzhou is a coal hub of China. The salt mines of Huaiyin have more than 0.4 trillion tonnes of deposits, one of the greatest collections of deposits in China. Jiangsu is historically oriented toward light industries such as textiles and food industry. Since 1949, Jiangsu has developed heavy industries such as chemical industry and construction materials. Jiangsu's important industries include machinery, electronic, chemicals, and automobile. The government has worked hard to promote the solar industry and hoped by 2012 the solar industry would be worth 100 billion RMB. Jiangsu's economy growth has directly benefited from the reform Chinese's policies, and its growth trajectory reflects that of many other coastal provinces, such as Zhejiang and Shandong. The economic reforms of Deng Xiaoping have greatly benefited southern cities, especially Suzhou and Wuxi, which outstrip the provincial capital, Nanjing, in total output. In the eastern outskirts of Suzhou, Singapore has built the Suzhou Industrial Park, a flagship of Sino-Singaporean cooperation and the only industrial park in China that is in its entirety the investment of a single foreign country. Jiangsu contains over 100 different economic and technological development zones devoted to different types of investments. Demographics The majority of Jiangsu residents are ethnic Han Chinese. Other minorities include the Hui and the Manchus. In 2021, 73.94 percent of the province lived in urban areas, while 26.06 lived in rural areas. Demographic indicators in 2021Population: 85.05 million (urban: 62.89 million; rural: 39.421 million)Birth rate: 5.65 per 1000Death rate: 6.77 per 1000Sex ratio: 103.05 males per 100 femalesLiteracy rate: 96.94% Religion The predominant religions in Jiangsu are Chinese folk religions, Taoist traditions and Chinese Buddhism. According to surveys conducted in 2007 and 2009, 16.67% of the population believes and is involved in cults of ancestors, while 2.64% of the population identifies as Christian. The reports didn't give figures for other types of religion; 80.69% of the population may be either irreligious or involved in worship of nature deities, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, folk religious sects, and small minorities of Muslims. In 2010, there are 130,757 Muslims in Jiangsu. Transportation Jiangsu is home to one of the most extensive transportation networks in China. Air Nanjing Lukou International Airport (IATA: NKG) serves as the major airport in the province, with flights to Tokyo, Osaka, Hong Kong, Seoul-Incheon, Frankfurt, Bangkok, Milan, Vancouver and Los Angeles. Other passenger airports include Sunan Shuofang International Airport, Changzhou Benniu Airport, Yangzhou Taizhou International Airport, and Nantong Xingdong Airport. Air traffic in the populated Suzhou area is often diverted to Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport, to which Suzhou is conveniently connected to via bus services and by expressway. Xuzhou Guanyin International Airport, Yancheng Nanyang International Airport, and Lianyungang Baitabu Airport serve as hubs in northern Jiangsu. Rail The southern part of the province, namely the Shanghai-Nanjing corridor, has very high-frequency rail services. Jiangsu is on the Jinghu railway from Beijing to Shanghai, as well as the high speed line between the two cities: Shanghai–Nanjing intercity railway and Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, completed in 2010 and 2011, respectively. Since the completion of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed line, travel time between Beijing and Nanjing has been reduced to approximately four hours (from eleven hours previously); travel time between Nanjing and Shanghai on the fastest high-speed trains takes just over an hour. As of 2022, all major cities in Jiangsu have been connected by high-speed lines, including: Shanghai-Nanjing intercity railway since 2010, Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway since 2011, Nanjing–Hangzhou high-speed railway since 2013, Nanjing–Anqing intercity railway since 2015, Lianyungang–Zhenjiang high-speed railway since 2020, Xuzhou–Yancheng high-speed railway since 2019, Yancheng–Nantong high-speed railway since 2020, Shanghai–Suzhou–Nantong railway since 2020, and Lianyungang–Xuzhou high-speed railway since 2021. Road Jiangsu's road network is one of the most developed in the country. The Beijing–Shanghai Expressway (G2) enters the province from the north and passes through Huai'an, Yangzhou, Taizhou, and Wuxi on the way to Shanghai; travelling from Shanghai westbound, the G2 forks at Wuxi and continues onto Nanjing separately as G42, the Shanghai–Nanjing Expressway, which serves the widely travelled southern corridor of the province. The Ningchang Expressway links Nanjing with Changzhou. The Suzhou area is extensively networked with expressways, going in all directions. The Yanhai Expressway links the coastal regions of the province, passing through Nantong, Yancheng, and Lianyungang. Historically, the province was divided by the Yangtze River into northern and southern regions. The first bridge across the river in Jiangsu, the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, was completed in 1968 during the Cultural Revolution. The second bridge crossing, Jiangyin Bridge, opened 30 years later at Jiangyin. As of October 2014, there were 11 cross-Yangtze bridges in the province, including the five in Nanjing, which also has two cross-river tunnels. The Jiangyin Bridge (1,385 m (4,544 ft)), Runyang Bridge (opened in 2005, connecting Yangzhou and Zhenjiang, 1,490 m (4,890 ft)), and Fourth Nanjing Bridge (opened in 2012; 1,418 m (4,652 ft)) all rank among the ten longest suspension bridges in the world. The Sutong Bridge, opened in 2008, connecting Nantong and Changshu, has one of the longest cable-stayed bridge spans in the world, at 1,088 m (3,570 ft). Metro (subway) As of December 2022, Jiangsu has six cities that have operational subway systems, together with an extra city (Huai'an) currently under construction. These six cities are Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, Xuzhou and Nantong. The Nanjing Metro was opened in September 2005. It was the sixth city in Mainland China that opened up a metro system. As of December 2019 the city currently has 11 metro lines (Line 1, Line 2, Line 3, Line 4, Line 10, Line S1, Line S3, Line S6, Line S7, Line S8 and Line S9), with several extra ones (i.e. Line 5) under construction. The Suzhou Rail Transit, also known as the Suzhou Metro, was opened in April 2012. As of October, 2022, it currently has five operational lines: Line 1, Line 2, Line 3, Line 4 and Line 5. It also has four other lines under construction (Line 6, Line 7, Line 8, Line S1) and 11 lines under planning (Lines 9, 10, 11 through 16, Line 18, Line 20, Line S4, Line S5). Currently under construction lines are expected to be operational by 2024 and planned lines are expected to be operational by 2035. The Wuxi Metro was opened in July 2014. The system is currently composed of four operational lines by 2022: Line 1, Line 2, Line 3 and Line 4. It also has two other lines under construction: Line S1 and an extension of Line 4. The Changzhou Metro was opened in September 2019. The system currently only has two lines operational, Line 1 and Line 2. The Xuzhou Metro was opened in September 2019, a few days after the Changzhou Metro started operations. The system currently only has three lines operational, Line 1, Line 2 and Line 3. The Nantong Metro was opened in November 2022. It has one operating line: Line 1 and another line under construction: Line 2.The Huai'an Metro, also known as the Huai'an Rail System, began construction in November 2018. There are seven lines planned: Line 1, Line 2, Line 3, Line 4, Line 5, Line S1, and Line S2. It is expected to start operations before 2025. Culture The four mass migrations in the 4th, 8th, 12th and 14th centuries had been influential in shaping the regional culture of Jiangsu. According to dialects and the other factors, the province can be roughly segmented four major cultural subdivisions: Wu (吴), Jinling (金陵), Huaiyang (淮扬) and Xuhuai (徐淮), from southeast to northwest. The belts of transition blurred the boundaries. Jiangsu is rich in cultural traditions. Kunqu, originating in Kunshan, is one of the most renowned and prestigious forms of Chinese opera. Pingtan, a form of storytelling accompanied by music, is also popular: it can be subdivided into types by origin: Suzhou Pingtan (of Suzhou), Yangzhou Pingtan (of Yangzhou), and Nanjing Pingtan (of Nanjing). Wuxi opera, a form of traditional Chinese opera, is popular in Wuxi, while Huaiju is popular further north, around Yancheng. Jiangsu cuisine is one of the eight great traditions of the cuisine of China. Suzhou is also well known for its silk, Chinese embroidery, jasmine tea, stone bridges, pagodas, and classical gardens. Nearby Yixing is noted for its teaware while Yangzhou is known for its lacquerware and jadeware. Nanjing's yunjin is a noted type of woven silk. Since ancient times, south Jiangsu has been famed for its prosperity and opulence, and simply inserting south Jiangsu place names (Suzhou, Yangzhou, etc.) into poetry gave an effect of dreaminess, as was indeed done by many famous poets. In particular, the fame of Suzhou (as well as Hangzhou in neighbouring Zhejiang) has led to the popular saying: 上有天堂，下有蘇杭 ("above there is heaven; below there are Suzhou and Hangzhou"), a saying that continues to be a source of pride for the people of these two still prosperous cities. Similarly, the prosperity of Yangzhou has led poets to dream of: 腰纏十萬貫，騎鶴下揚州 ("with a hundred thousand strings of coins wrapped around its waist, a crane landed in Yangzhou"). Education Higher education As of 2022, Jiangsu hosts 168 institutions of higher education, ranking first of all Chinese provinces. There are two Project 985, 11 Project 211, and 16 Double First Class universities in the province. A combination of 93 members of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering work in Jiangsu. As of 2020, two major cities in Jiangsu ranked in the world's top 50 (Nanjing 8th and Suzhou 45th) cities by scientific research output, as tracked by the Nature Index. Double First Class Universities in Jiangsu Other Major Research Universities in Jiangsu Jiangsu University Jiangsu Normal University Yangzhou University Nanjing Tech University Jiangsu University of Science and Technology Changzhou University Nantong University Suzhou University of Science and Technology Nanjing Institute of Technology Huaiyin Institute of Technology Additional schools Nanjing Jinling High School Tianyi middle School Xishan Senior High School Qianhuang Senior High School School of Foreign Languages and Cultures of NNU Tourism Nanjing was the capital of several Chinese dynasties and contains a variety of historic sites, such as the Purple Mountain, Purple Mountain Observatory, the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, Ming dynasty city wall and gates, Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum (the mausoleum of the first Ming Emperor, Hongwu Emperor), Xuanwu Lake, Jiming Temple, the Nanjing Massacre Memorial, Nanjing Confucius Temple, Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, and the Nanjing Zoo, along with its circus. Suzhou is renowned for its classical gardens (designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site), as well as the Hanshan Temple, and Huqiu Tower. Nearby is the water-town of Zhouzhuang, an international tourist destination with Venice-like waterways, bridges and dwellings, which have been preserved over centuries. Yangzhou is known for Slender West Lake. Wuxi is known for being the home of the world's tallest Buddha statue. In the north, Xuzhou is designated as one of China's "eminent historical cities." The official travel and tourism website for Jiangsu was set up in 2008. Lion Garden in Suzhou Grand Buddha at Ling Shan, Wuxi Chaotian Palace Qixia Temple Tianning Temple Pagoda Tombs of Southern Tang Emperor Yangzhong Puffer Fish Sports Professional sports teams in Jiangsu include: Chinese Super League Nantong Zhiyun F.C. China League One Nanjing City F.C. Suzhou Dongwu F.C. Wuxi Wugo F.C. Chinese Basketball Association Jiangsu Dragons Nanjing Monkey King Chinese Volleyball League Jiangsu Zenith Steel China Baseball League Jiangsu Pegasus International relations Twin Provinces Twin towns and sister cities Nanjing with Aichi, Japan See also Major national historical and cultural sites in Jiangsu Jiangsu-Hong Kong Personnel Training Cooperation Programme Aviation Martyrs Cemetery Complete Map of the Seven Coastal Provinces from 1821 to 1850 (in English and Chinese)

Naoto Kan (菅 直人, Kan Naoto, born 10 October 1946) is a Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) from June 2010 to September 2011. Kan was the first Prime Minister since the resignation of Junichiro Koizumi in 2006 to serve for more than one year, with his predecessors Yukio Hatoyama, Tarō Asō, Yasuo Fukuda, and Shinzō Abe either resigning prematurely or losing an election. On 26 August 2011, Kan announced his resignation. Yoshihiko Noda was elected as his successor. On 1 August 2012, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced Kan would be one of the members of the UN high-level panel on the post-2015 development agenda. Early life and education Kan was born in Ube, Yamaguchi, the eldest son of Hisao Kan, the executive director of the glass manufacturing company Central Glass. He graduated in 1970 from the Tokyo Institute of Technology and became a licensed benrishi (patent agent/attorney) in 1971. Diet career After graduating from college, Kan worked at a patent office for four years. He actively engaged in civic grassroots movements for years and also served on election campaign staff for Fusae Ichikawa, a women's rights activist.After having lost in the 1976 and 1979 general elections and 1977 Upper House election, Kan achieved a seat in the lower house in 1980 as a member of the Socialist Democratic Federation. He gained national popularity in 1996, when serving as the Minister of Health and Welfare, admitting the government's responsibility for the spread of HIV-tainted blood in the 1980s and directly apologized to victims. At that time, he was a member of a small party forming the ruling coalition with the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). His frank action was completely unprecedented and was applauded by the media and the public.In 1998, his image was affected by allegations of an affair, vigorously denied by both parties, with a television newscaster and media consultant, Yūko Tonomoto. After Yukio Hatoyama resigned as the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), Kan again took over the position. In July 2003, the DPJ and the Liberal Party led by Ichirō Ozawa agreed to form a united opposition party to prepare for the general election that was anticipated to take place in the fall. During the campaign of the election of 2003, the DPJ called the election as the choice of the government between the ruling LDP-bloc and the DPJ, with Kan being presented as the alternative candidate to then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. His face was used as the trademark of the campaign against the LDP.However, in 2004 Kan was accused of unpaid annuities and again resigned the position of leader. On 10 May 2004, he officially announced his resignation and made the Shikoku Pilgrimage. Later, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare spokesman apologized, saying the unpaid record was due to an administrative error. In mid-October 2005, Kan, who turned 60 in 2006, proposed the creation of a new political party to be called the "Dankai (baby boomer) Party". The initial intent of the party was to offer places of activity for the Japanese baby boomers – 2.7 million of whom began to retire en masse in 2007. He believes the Japan Self-Defense Forces should play a more prominent role on the international stage. Finance minister On 6 January 2010, he was picked by Yukio Hatoyama to be the new finance minister, assuming the post in addition to deputy prime minister. He replaced Hirohisa Fujii as finance minister.In his first news conference, Kan announced his priority was stimulating growth and took the unusual step of naming a specific dollar-yen level as optimal to help exporters and stimulate the economy: "There are a lot of voices in the business world saying that (the dollar) around ¥95 is appropriate in terms of trade". Hatoyama appeared to rebuke Kan. "When it comes to foreign exchange, stability is desirable and rapid moves are undesirable. The government basically shouldn't comment on foreign exchange," he told reporters. Prime minister On 2 June 2010, Yukio Hatoyama announced his intention to resign as the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and as prime minister, also saying that he had urged his backer in the party, Ichirō Ozawa, to resign as secretary general. The Cabinet resigned en masse on 4 June. Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada and Land and Transport Minister Seiji Maehara, though once considered to be possible successors to Hatoyama, announced their support for Kan. Kan, at the age of 63, won the leadership of the DPJ with 291 votes to 129, defeating a relatively unknown Ozawa-backed legislator Shinji Tarutoko, 50, who was leading the environmental policy committee in the lower house of the Diet.Subsequently, on 4 June, Kan was designated prime minister by the Diet. On 8 June, Emperor Akihito formally appointed Kan as the country's 94th prime minister, and the 29th postwar prime minister. His cabinet was formed later on the day. Kan's approval ratings fell in the month of June after he proposed an increase in the sales tax rate from 5% to 10%. His sales tax increase proposal was opposed by Ichirō Ozawa, amongst others in the DPJ, and the proposal was quickly scaled back by Kan. The botched sales tax increase proposal was partially blamed for the DPJ's disappointing results in the July House of Councillors election, where the DPJ lost its majority and was forced to work with smaller, unaffiliated parties (such as Your Party, the JCP, and the SDP) in order to secure passage of bills in the House of Councillors.In August, Kan apologised to the Republic of Korea on the 100th anniversary of the Japan–Korea Annexation Treaty.Ozawa challenged Kan's leadership of the DPJ in September. Although it was initially believed that Ozawa had a slight edge among DPJ members of parliament, in the final vote Kan garnered the support of 206 DPJ lawmakers to Ozawa's 200. Local rank-and-file party members and activists overwhelmingly supported Kan, and according to opinion polls the wider Japanese public preferred Kan to Ozawa by as much as a 4:1 ratio.After the leadership challenge, Kan reshuffled his cabinet, which left many prominent members of the pro-Ozawa faction of the DPJ without important posts in the new cabinet. The cabinet reshuffle also resulted in the promotion of long-time Kan ally Yoshito Sengoku to Chief Cabinet Secretary. Sengoku was labeled by the opposition LDP as the "second" Prime Minister of the Kan cabinet.On 7 September, a Chinese fishing boat captain was arrested by the Japan Coast Guard (JCG) after his trawler had collided with JCG patrol boats in disputed waters near the Senkaku Islands. China protested the arrest, as it claims the islands as part of its sovereign territory, and demanded the unconditional release of the captain. The captain was released on 24 September, after China had cut off all ministerial-level contacts with Japan and threatened further action. The incident brought Sino-Japanese relations to its lowest point since the Koizumi administration.The Kan government intervened in mid-September to weaken the surging yen by buying U.S. dollars, a move which temporarily relieved Japan's exporters. The move proved popular with stock brokers, Japanese exporters, and the Japanese public. It was the first such move by a Japanese government since 2004. Later, in October, after the yen had offset the intervention and had reached a 15-year high, the Kan cabinet approved a stimulus package worth about 5.1 trillion yen ($62 billion) in order to weaken the yen and fight deflation.In November, Kan spoke out forcefully in support of South Korea and in harsh criticism of North Korea in the wake of the latter's bombardment of Yeonpyeong, meanwhile ignoring China's public comments which had not yet included denunciation of the North. Fukushima disaster response After the earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan on the afternoon of March 11, 2011, Kan flew by helicopter to the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant early the next morning, and was thereafter heavily involved in efforts to effectively respond to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Venting from the Fukushima plant began on the morning of 12 March, shortly after Kan's meeting with Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) management at the plant, and that afternoon the plant suffered its first explosion. That evening, following an order from METI Minister Kaieda to begin pumping seawater into the plant for emergency cooling purposes, Kan expressed concern that the seawater injection plan may lead to re-criticality, in response to which TEPCO directed plant manager Masao Yoshida to stop pumping (an order which Yoshida tacitly ignored). After further briefings on the issue, Kan directed pumping to continue later that evening. Several weeks later, Shinzo Abe circulated information that Kan had ordered pumping to stop, which the Yomiuri Shimbun and other news outlets reported as fact, and opposition leader Sadakazu Tanigaki accused the government of causing the Fukushima meltdowns.Early in the morning of 15 March, amid rumors that TEPCO intended to abandon the plant and allow a full meltdown that would potentially trigger an evacuation of the entire Kanto region, Kan ordered the establishment of a joint response headquarters between the government and TEPCO, and personally traveled to TEPCO headquarters on half an hour's notice. While this move initially antagonized TEPCO, it was later positively evaluated as improving communications between the plant operator and government agencies such as the Self-Defense Forces and Tokyo Fire Department. Kan slept in the Prime Minister's Office and did not return home for an entire week after the disaster struck; he wore blue coveralls instead of a suit until the end of March.Kan took an increasingly anti-nuclear stance in the months following the Fukushima disaster. In May, he ordered that the aging Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant be closed over earthquake and tsunami fears, and he said he would freeze plans to build new reactors.Despite falling popularity, Kan rejected calls to step down while the country continued to suffer from the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear crises of spring 2011. One year into his premiership on 2 June 2011, Kan proposed his resignation, hours before the Diet put forward a vote of no-confidence. The motion was defeated by 293 to 152, bolstering the Prime Minister's position.In July 2011, Kan said that Japan must reduce its dependence on nuclear energy, breaking with a decades-old Japanese government drive to build more nuclear power plants in the country. "We must scrap the plan to have nuclear power contribute 53 percent (of electricity supply) by 2030 and reduce the degree of reliance on nuclear power," Kan told a government panel. Kan said Japan should abandon plans to build 14 new reactors by 2030. He wants to "pass a bill to promote renewable energy and questioned whether private companies should be running atomic plants". In August, Kan removed three of Japan's top nuclear energy officials in effort to break ties between government and the atomic industry.When interviewed in 2012, after resigning as prime minister, Kan said the Fukushima disaster made it clear to him that "Japan needs to dramatically reduce its dependence on nuclear power, which supplied 30 percent of its electricity before the crisis, and has turned him into a believer of renewable energy." He said that at one point Japan faced a situation where there was a chance that people might not be able to live in the capital zone including Tokyo and would have to evacuate, and that he was haunted by the specter of an even bigger nuclear crisis forcing tens of millions of people to flee Tokyo and threatening the nation's existence. "If things had reached that level, not only would the public have had to face hardships but Japan's very existence would have been in peril". That convinced Kan to "declare the need for Japan to end its reliance on atomic power and promote renewable sources of energy such solar [sic] that have long taken a back seat in the resource-poor country's energy mix". He told a parliamentary investigation in 2012 that the nuclear industry had "shown no remorse" for the disaster, and was trying to push Japan back to nuclear power. Resignation Kan announced his intention to resign on 10 August 2011. On 26 August, with passage of a debt bill and the renewable energy bill as final conditions, Kan expected "to see his successor in office [within the] week, according to a Kyodo news report, which cited cabinet ministers". At the same time, Seiji Maehara, who had supported Kan in 2010, was reported to have announced his intention to run to succeed Kan. Maehara was seen as the potential DPJ candidate most popular with the voters at the time, but several other cabinet members joined the race, and the election of the DPJ successor was scheduled for 29 August. At that time, Yoshihiko Noda, most recently finance minister, was elected as the new DPJ leader and, as leader of the largest party in the Diet, became prime minister as well. Post Prime Ministership During 16 December 2012 Tokyo gubernatorial election, called due to the resignation of incumbent Governor Shintaro Ishihara, the Democratic Party of Japan itself did not endorse any candidate, but Kan supported Kenji Utsunomiya, who shared Kan's anti-nuclear stance. Ultimately Utsunomiya came second in the election, losing to Naoki Inose who had been vice-governor under Ishihara from 2007 to 2012, and then acting governor after Ishihara's abrupt resignation. In the 2012 general election called by Kan's successor Noda, Kan lost his seat in the Tokyo 18th district, but retained a seat in the diet through the proportional representation system. In the 2014 general election, Kan lost his district seat but was again elected through the proportional block. He joined the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan along with the liberal-leaning members of the Democratic Party following the party split prior to the 2017 general election. In the election, he regained his district seat, defeating the LDP incumbent Masatada Tsuchiya with a margin of 1,046 votes. Personal life Kan married his wife Nobuko in 1970. Nobuko, born in Okayama Prefecture, entered a relationship with the Tokyo-dwelling Kan after entering Tsuda College. As the two are first cousins, the engagement was met with parental opposition. They have two sons, Gentarō and Shinjirō. Gentarō is a civil rights activist and lost in elections for the Lower House in 2003 and 2005. Shinjiro is a veterinarian and works at an animal hospital in Nerima, Tokyo.Kan is nicknamed "Ira-Kan" (Fretful Kan") due to his reputed short temper. His hobbies were go, shogi and origami. Kan built a machine to calculate the complicated mahjong point system and applied for a patent in 1973. In media Kan was portrayed by Shirō Sano in the 2020 film Fukushima 50, and by Fumiyo Kohinata in the 2023 Netflix series The Days (in which his name was changed to Shinji Azuma). Both works portray Kan's role in the Fukushima crisis from a highly critical perspective. BBC NEWS – Profile: Naoto Kan Official Website Democratic Party of Japan Japan after Kan: Implications for the DPJ’s Political Future, Q&A with Richard J. Samuels, August 2011

HDC may refer to: Computing Hyperdimensional computing, or computation that uses very long vectors Handle of Device Context, part of the GDI API High-Definition Coding, an audio compression codec /dev/hdc; Unix-like ATA device file Organizations Halal Industry Development Corporation, Malaysia Health and Disability Commissioner, New Zealand Health Data Consortium, US Historic Districts Council, New York City, US Honeysuckle Development Corporation, NSW, Australia HDC Hyundai Development Company, South Korea Transportation Haldia Dock Complex, of the Port of Kolkata, India Hammond Northshore Regional Airport (FAA LID code), Louisiana, US Hill descent control system, of an automobile Other uses Heavyweight Dub Champion, an American electronic music group Herräng Dance Camp, Sweden Histidine decarboxylase, an enzyme Holder in due course, a concept in commercial law Home Detention Curfew, in the UK

A hand is a prehensile, multi-fingered appendage located at the end of the forearm or forelimb of primates such as humans, chimpanzees, monkeys, and lemurs. A few other vertebrates such as the koala (which has two opposable thumbs on each "hand" and fingerprints extremely similar to human fingerprints) are often described as having "hands" instead of paws on their front limbs. The raccoon is usually described as having "hands" though opposable thumbs are lacking.Some evolutionary anatomists use the term hand to refer to the appendage of digits on the forelimb more generally—for example, in the context of whether the three digits of the bird hand involved the same homologous loss of two digits as in the dinosaur hand.The human hand usually has five digits: four fingers plus one thumb; these are often referred to collectively as five fingers, however, whereby the thumb is included as one of the fingers. It has 27 bones, not including the sesamoid bone, the number of which varies among people, 14 of which are the phalanges (proximal, intermediate and distal) of the fingers and thumb. The metacarpal bones connect the fingers and the carpal bones of the wrist. Each human hand has five metacarpals and eight carpal bones. Fingers contain some of the densest areas of nerve endings in the body, and are the richest source of tactile feedback. They also have the greatest positioning capability of the body; thus, the sense of touch is intimately associated with hands. Like other paired organs (eyes, feet, legs) each hand is dominantly controlled by the opposing brain hemisphere, so that handedness—the preferred hand choice for single-handed activities such as writing with a pencil, reflects individual brain functioning. Among humans, the hands play an important function in body language and sign language. Likewise, the ten digits of two hands and the twelve phalanges of four fingers (touchable by the thumb) have given rise to number systems and calculation techniques. Structure Many mammals and other animals have grasping appendages similar in form to a hand such as paws, claws, and talons, but these are not scientifically considered to be grasping hands. The scientific use of the term hand in this sense to distinguish the terminations of the front paws from the hind ones is an example of anthropomorphism. The only true grasping hands appear in the mammalian order of primates. Hands must also have opposable thumbs, as described later in the text. The hand is located at the distal end of each arm. Apes and monkeys are sometimes described as having four hands, because the toes are long and the hallux is opposable and looks more like a thumb, thus enabling the feet to be used as hands. The word "hand" is sometimes used by evolutionary anatomists to refer to the appendage of digits on the forelimb such as when researching the homology between the three digits of the bird hand and the dinosaur hand.An adult human male's hand weighs about a pound. Areas Areas of the human hand include: The palm (Volar), which is the central region of the anterior part of the hand, located superficially to the metacarpus. The skin in this area contains dermal papillae to increase friction, such as are also present on the fingers and used for fingerprints. The opisthenar area (dorsal) is the corresponding area on the posterior part of the hand. The heel of the hand is the area anteriorly to the bases of the metacarpal bones, located in the proximal part of the palm. It is the area that sustains most pressure when using the palm of the hand for support, such as in handstand.There are five digits attached to the hand, notably with a nail fixed to the end in place of the normal claw. The four fingers can be folded over the palm which allows the grasping of objects. Each finger, starting with the one closest to the thumb, has a colloquial name to distinguish it from the others: index finger, pointer finger, forefinger, or 2nd digit middle finger or long finger or 3rd digit ring finger or 4th digit little finger, pinky finger, small finger, baby finger, or 5th digitThe thumb (connected to the first metacarpal bone and trapezium) is located on one of the sides, parallel to the arm. A reliable way of identifying human hands is from the presence of opposable thumbs. Opposable thumbs are identified by the ability to be brought opposite to the fingers, a muscle action known as opposition. Bones The skeleton of the human hand consists of 27 bones: the eight short carpal bones of the wrist are organized into a proximal row (scaphoid, lunate, triquetral and pisiform) which articulates with the bones of the forearm, and a distal row (trapezium, trapezoid, capitate and hamate), which articulates with the bases of the five metacarpal bones of the hand. The heads of the metacarpals will each in turn articulate with the bases of the proximal phalanx of the fingers and thumb. These articulations with the fingers are the metacarpophalangeal joints known as the knuckles. At the palmar aspect of the first metacarpophalangeal joints are small, almost spherical bones called the sesamoid bones. The fourteen phalanges make up the fingers and thumb, and are numbered I-V (thumb to little finger) when the hand is viewed from an anatomical position (palm up). The four fingers each consist of three phalanx bones: proximal, middle, and distal. The thumb only consists of a proximal and distal phalanx. Together with the phalanges of the fingers and thumb these metacarpal bones form five rays or poly-articulated chains. Because supination and pronation (rotation about the axis of the forearm) are added to the two axes of movements of the wrist, the ulna and radius are sometimes considered part of the skeleton of the hand. There are numerous sesamoid bones in the hand, small ossified nodes embedded in tendons; the exact number varies between people: whereas a pair of sesamoid bones are found at virtually all thumb metacarpophalangeal joints, sesamoid bones are also common at the interphalangeal joint of the thumb (72.9%) and at the metacarpophalangeal joints of the little finger (82.5%) and the index finger (48%). In rare cases, sesamoid bones have been found in all the metacarpophalangeal joints and all distal interphalangeal joints except that of the long finger. The articulations are: interphalangeal articulations of hand (the hinge joints between the bones of the digits) metacarpophalangeal joints (where the digits meet the palm) intercarpal articulations (where the palm meets the wrist) wrist (may also be viewed as belonging to the forearm). Arches The fixed and mobile parts of the hand adapt to various everyday tasks by forming bony arches: longitudinal arches (the rays formed by the finger bones and their associated metacarpal bones), transverse arches (formed by the carpal bones and distal ends of the metacarpal bones), and oblique arches (between the thumb and four fingers): Of the longitudinal arches or rays of the hand, that of the thumb is the most mobile (and the least longitudinal). While the ray formed by the little finger and its associated metacarpal bone still offers some mobility, the remaining rays are firmly rigid. The phalangeal joints of the index finger, however, offer some independence to its finger, due to the arrangement of its flexor and extension tendons.The carpal bones form two transversal rows, each forming an arch concave on the palmar side. Because the proximal arch simultaneously has to adapt to the articular surface of the radius and to the distal carpal row, it is by necessity flexible. In contrast, the capitate, the "keystone" of the distal arch, moves together with the metacarpal bones and the distal arch is therefore rigid. The stability of these arches is more dependent of the ligaments and capsules of the wrist than of the interlocking shapes of the carpal bones, and the wrist is therefore more stable in flexion than in extension. The distal carpal arch affects the function of the CMC joints and the hands, but not the function of the wrist or the proximal carpal arch. The ligaments that maintain the distal carpal arches are the transverse carpal ligament and the intercarpal ligaments (also oriented transversally). These ligaments also form the carpal tunnel and contribute to the deep and superficial palmar arches. Several muscle tendons attaching to the TCL and the distal carpals also contribute to maintaining the carpal arch.Compared to the carpal arches, the arch formed by the distal ends of the metacarpal bones is flexible due to the mobility of the peripheral metacarpals (thumb and little finger). As these two metacarpals approach each other, the palmar gutter deepens. The central-most metacarpal (middle finger) is the most rigid. It and its two neighbors are tied to the carpus by the interlocking shapes of the metacarpal bones. The thumb metacarpal only articulates with the trapezium and is therefore completely independent, while the fifth metacarpal (little finger) is semi-independent with the fourth metacarpal (ring finger) which forms a transitional element to the fifth metacarpal.Together with the thumb, the four fingers form four oblique arches, of which the arch of the index finger functionally is the most important, especially for precision grip, while the arch of the little finger contribute an important locking mechanism for power grip. The thumb is undoubtedly the "master digit" of the hand, giving value to all the other fingers. Together with the index and middle finger, it forms the dynamic tridactyl configuration responsible for most grips not requiring force. The ring and little fingers are more static, a reserve ready to interact with the palm when great force is needed. Muscles The muscles acting on the hand can be subdivided into two groups: the extrinsic and intrinsic muscle groups. The extrinsic muscle groups are the long flexors and extensors. They are called extrinsic because the muscle belly is located on the forearm. Intrinsic The intrinsic muscle groups are the thenar (thumb) and hypothenar (little finger) muscles; the interosseous muscles (four dorsally and three volarly) originating between the metacarpal bones; and the lumbrical muscles arising from the deep flexor (and are special because they have no bony origin) to insert on the dorsal extensor hood mechanism. Extrinsic The fingers have two long flexors, located on the underside of the forearm. They insert by tendons to the phalanges of the fingers. The deep flexor attaches to the distal phalanx, and the superficial flexor attaches to the middle phalanx. The flexors allow for the actual bending of the fingers. The thumb has one long flexor and a short flexor in the thenar muscle group. The human thumb also has other muscles in the thenar group (opponens and abductor brevis muscle), moving the thumb in opposition, making grasping possible. The extensors are located on the back of the forearm and are connected in a more complex way than the flexors to the dorsum of the fingers. The tendons unite with the interosseous and lumbrical muscles to form the extensorhood mechanism. The primary function of the extensors is to straighten out the digits. The thumb has two extensors in the forearm; the tendons of these form the anatomical snuff box. Also, the index finger and the little finger have an extra extensor used, for instance, for pointing. The extensors are situated within 6 separate compartments. The first four compartments are located in the grooves present on the dorsum of inferior side of radius while the 5th compartment is in between radius and ulna. The 6th compartment is in the groove on the dorsum of inferior side of ulna. Nerve supply The hand is innervated by the radial, median, and ulnar nerves. MotorThe radial nerve supplies the finger extensors and the thumb abductor, thus the muscles that extends at the wrist and metacarpophalangeal joints (knuckles); and that abducts and extends the thumb. The median nerve supplies the flexors of the wrist and digits, the abductors and opponens of the thumb, the first and second lumbrical. The ulnar nerve supplies the remaining intrinsic muscles of the hand.All muscles of the hand are innervated by the brachial plexus (C5–T1) and can be classified by innervation: SensoryThe radial nerve supplies the skin on the back of the hand from the thumb to the ring finger and the dorsal aspects of the index, middle, and half ring fingers as far as the proximal interphalangeal joints. The median nerve supplies the palmar side of the thumb, index, middle, and half ring fingers. Dorsal branches innervates the distal phalanges of the index, middle, and half ring fingers. The ulnar nerve supplies the ulnar third of the hand, both at the palm and the back of the hand, and the little and half ring fingers.There is a considerable variation to this general pattern, except for the little finger and volar surface of the index finger. For example, in some individuals, the ulnar nerve supplies the entire ring finger and the ulnar side of the middle finger, whilst, in others, the median nerve supplies the entire ring finger. Blood supply The hand is supplied with blood from two arteries, the ulnar artery and the radial artery. These arteries form three arches over the dorsal and palmar aspects of the hand, the dorsal carpal arch (across the back of the hand), the deep palmar arch, and the superficial palmar arch. Together these three arches and their anastomoses provide oxygenated blood to the palm, the fingers, and the thumb. The hand is drained by the dorsal venous network of the hand with deoxygenated blood leaving the hand via the cephalic vein and the basilic vein. Skin The glabrous (hairless) skin on the front of the hand, the palm, is relatively thick and can be bent along the hand's flexure lines where the skin is tightly bound to the underlying tissue and bones. Compared to the rest of the body's skin, the hands' palms (as well as the soles of the feet) are usually lighter—and even much lighter in dark-skinned individuals, compared to the other side of the hand. Indeed, genes specifically expressed in the dermis of palmoplantar skin inhibit melanin production and thus the ability to tan, and promote the thickening of the stratum lucidum and stratum corneum layers of the epidermis. All parts of the skin involved in grasping are covered by papillary ridges (fingerprints) acting as friction pads. In contrast, the hairy skin on the dorsal side is thin, soft, and pliable, so that the skin can recoil when the fingers are stretched. On the dorsal side, the skin can be moved across the hand up to 3 cm (1.2 in); an important input the cutaneous mechanoreceptors.The web of the hand is a "fold of skin which connects the digits". These webs, located between each set of digits, are known as skin folds (interdigital folds or plica interdigitalis). They are defined as "one of the folds of skin, or rudimentary web, between the fingers and toes". Variation The ratio of the length of the index finger to the length of the ring finger in adults is affected by the level of exposure to male sex hormones of the embryo in utero. This digit ratio is below 1 for both sexes but it is lower in males than in females on average. Clinical significance A number of genetic disorders affect the hand. Polydactyly is the presence of more than the usual number of fingers. One of the disorders that can cause this is Catel-Manzke syndrome. The fingers may be fused in a disorder known as syndactyly. Or there may be an absence of one or more central fingers—a condition known as ectrodactyly. Additionally, some people are born without one or both hands (amelia). Hereditary multiple exostoses of the forearm—also known as hereditary multiple osteochondromas—is another cause of hand and forearm deformity in children and adults.There are several cutaneous conditions that can affect the hand including the nails. The autoimmune disease rheumatoid arthritis can affect the hand, particularly the joints of the fingers. Some conditions can be treated by hand surgery. These include carpal tunnel syndrome, a painful condition of the hand and fingers caused by compression of the median nerve, and Dupuytren's contracture, a condition in which fingers bend towards the palm and cannot be straightened. Similarly, injury to the ulnar nerve may result in a condition in which some of the fingers cannot be flexed. A common fracture of the hand is a scaphoid fracture—a fracture of the scaphoid bone, one of the carpal bones. This is the commonest carpal bone fracture and can be slow to heal due to a limited blood flow to the bone. There are various types of fracture to the base of the thumb; these are known as Rolando fractures, Bennet's fracture, and Gamekeeper's thumb. Another common fracture, known as Boxer's fracture, is to the neck of a metacarpal. One can also have a broken finger. Evolution The prehensile hands and feet of primates evolved from the mobile hands of semi-arboreal tree shrews that lived about 60 million years ago. This development has been accompanied by important changes in the brain and the relocation of the eyes to the front of the face, together allowing the muscle control and stereoscopic vision necessary for controlled grasping. This grasping, also known as power grip, is supplemented by the precision grip between the thumb and the distal finger pads made possible by the opposable thumbs. Hominidae (great apes including humans) acquired an erect bipedal posture about 3.6 million years ago, which freed the hands from the task of locomotion and paved the way for the precision and range of motion in human hands. Functional analyses of the features unique to the hand of modern humans have shown that they are consistent with the stresses and requirements associated with the effective use of paleolithic stone tools. It is possible that the refinement of the bipedal posture in the earliest hominids evolved to facilitate the use of the trunk as leverage in accelerating the hand.While the human hand has unique anatomical features, including a longer thumb and fingers that can be controlled individually to a higher degree, the hands of other primates are anatomically similar and the dexterity of the human hand can not be explained solely on anatomical factors. The neural machinery underlying hand movements is a major contributing factor; primates have evolved direct connections between neurons in cortical motor areas and spinal motoneurons, giving the cerebral cortex monosynaptic control over the motoneurons of the hand muscles; placing the hands "closer" to the brain. The recent evolution of the human hand is thus a direct result of the development of the central nervous system, and the hand, therefore, is a direct tool of our consciousness—the main source of differentiated tactile sensations—and a precise working organ enabling gestures—the expressions of our personalities. There are nevertheless several primitive features left in the human hand, including pentadactyly (having five fingers), the hairless skin of the palm and fingers, and the os centrale found in human embryos, prosimians, and apes. Furthermore, the precursors of the intrinsic muscles of the hand are present in the earliest fishes, reflecting that the hand evolved from the pectoral fin and thus is much older than the arm in evolutionary terms.The proportions of the human hand are plesiomorphic (shared by both ancestors and extant primate species); the elongated thumbs and short hands more closely resemble the hand proportions of Miocene apes than those of extant primates. Humans did not evolve from knuckle-walking apes, and chimpanzees and gorillas independently acquired elongated metacarpals as part of their adaptation to their modes of locomotion. Several primitive hand features most likely present in the chimpanzee–human last common ancestor (CHLCA) and absent in modern humans are still present in the hands of Australopithecus, Paranthropus, and Homo floresiensis. This suggests that the derived changes in modern humans and Neanderthals did not evolve until 2.5 to 1.5 million years ago or after the appearance of the earliest Acheulian stone tools, and that these changes are associated with tool-related tasks beyond those observed in other hominins. The thumbs of Ardipithecus ramidus, an early hominin, are almost as robust as in humans, so this may be a primitive trait, while the palms of other extant higher primates are elongated to the extent that some of the thumb's original function has been lost (most notably in highly arboreal primates such as the spider monkey). In humans, the big toe is thus more derived than the thumb.There is a hypothesis suggesting the form of the modern human hand is especially conducive to the formation of a compact fist, presumably for fighting purposes. The fist is compact and thus effective as a weapon. It also provides protection for the fingers. However, this is not widely accepted to be one of the primary selective pressures acting on hand morphology throughout human evolution, with tool use and production being thought to be far more influential. Additional images See also Hand anatomy (eMedicine) Film Board of Canada documentary Faces of the Hand "The Common Hand" Archived 2016-07-13 at the Wayback Machine article in the May 2012 National Geographic

UTC+09:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +09:00. During the Japanese occupations of British Borneo, Burma, Hong Kong, Dutch East Indies, Malaya, Philippines, Singapore, and French Indochina, it was used as a common time with Tokyo until the fall of the Empire of Japan. As standard time (year-round) Principal cities: Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Yokohama, Sapporo, Hiroshima, Kyoto, Takamatsu, Sendai, Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Gwangju, Ulsan, Incheon, Changwon, Pohang, Gumi, Jeonju, Cheongju, Chuncheon, Gangneung, Daejeon, Jeju, Pyeongyang, Yakutsk, Koror, Dili, Jayapura, Ambon North Asia Russia – Yakutsk TimeFar Eastern Federal District Amur Oblast, Sakha Republic (western part; west of the Lena River as well as territories adjacent to the Lena on the eastern side) Zabaykalsky Krai East Asia Japan – Japan Standard Time North Korea – Korea Standard Time South Korea – Korea Standard Time Oceania Micronesia Palau Southeast Asia East Timor – Time in East Timor Indonesia – Eastern Indonesia TimeEastern zone, including: Maluku Islands Maluku North Maluku Western New Guinea Papua West Papua Central Papua South Papua Southwest Papua Highland Papua Discrepancies between official UTC+09:00 and geographical UTC+09:00 Areas in UTC+09:00 longitudes using other time zones This concerns areas within 127°30′ E and 142°30′ E longitude. China Parts of Northeast China, including eastern half of Heilongjiang Province and Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in Jilin Province, where UTC+08:00 is used. Australia The easternmost parts of Western Australia where UTC+08:00 is used, Eucla and nearby areas where (unofficial) UTC+08:45 is used.The Northern Territory, where UTC+09:30 is used, and South Australia and Broken Hill where UTC+09:30 and DST UTC+10:30 are used, respectively, despite the borders of the territory and state fitting perfectly within the ideal meridians of UTC+09:00.The western parts of Queensland where UTC+10:00 is used, and westernmost parts of Victoria and New South Wales where UTC+10:00 and UTC+11:00 in summer time, is used. Federated States of Micronesia Parts of Federated States of Micronesia, including western parts of Yap State, where UTC+10:00 is used. Papua New Guinea The very westernmost parts of Papua New Guinea, where UTC+10:00 is used. Russia Parts of Russia, including Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Primorsky Krai, central part of Sakha, and most of Khabarovsk Krai where UTC+10:00 is used, and westernmost parts of eastern Sakha Republic and Sakhalin Island, where UTC+11:00 is used. Areas outside UTC+09:00 longitudes using UTC+09:00 time Areas between 97°30′ E and 112°30′ E ("physical" UTC+07:00) Russia A westernmost part of Sakha Republic, including the urban localities Aykhal and Udachny Areas between 112°30′ E and 127°30′ E ("physical" UTC+08:00) Russia Zabaykalsky Krai Most of western Sakha Republic East Timor Indonesia The western islands in the provinces of Maluku and North Maluku (from south to north): Liran Island Wetar Island Kisar Island Ambelau Island Buru Island Sanana Island Mangole Island Taliabu and surrounding islands Papua Japan Parts of Okinawa Prefecture: Sakishima Islands Yaeyama Islands Miyako Islands Okinawa Islands Kume Island Aguni Islands The western parts of Kerama Islands North Korea The western parts of Korea, including the capital city, Pyongyang South Korea The western parts of Korea, including the capital city, Seoul Areas between 142°30′ E and 157°30′ E ("physical" UTC+10:00) Japan The eastern parts of Hokkaido, including Obihiro, Kushiro, and Nemuro Minami-Tori-shima in Ogasawara municipality Russia New Siberian Islands Novaya Sibir Faddeyevsky Island A smaller part of Kotelny Island The eastern part of Great Lyakhovsky Island See also Time in Russia Time in North Korea Time in South Korea Japan Standard Time Time in Indonesia Time in East Timor Media related to UTC+09:00 at Wikimedia Commons

In Modern English, we is a plural, first-person pronoun. Morphology In Standard Modern English, we has six distinct shapes for five word forms: we: the nominative (subjective) form us and 's: the accusative (objective; also called the 'oblique'.: 146 ) form our: the dependent genitive (possessive) form ours: the independent genitive (possessive) form ourselves: the reflexive formThere is also a distinct determiner we as in we humans aren't perfect, which some people consider to be just an extended use of the pronoun. History We has been part of English since Old English, having come from Proto-Germanic *wejes, from PIE *we-. Similarly, us was used in Old English as the accusative and dative plural of we, from PIE *nes-. The following table shows the old English first-person plural and dual pronouns: By late Middle English the dual form was lost and the dative and accusative had merged.: 117  The ours genitive can be seen as early as the 12th century. Ourselves replaced original construction we selfe, us selfum in the 15th century, so that, by century's end, the Middle English forms of we had solidified into those we use today.: 120 Gender We is not generally seen as participating in the system of gender. In Old English, it certainly didn't. Only third-person pronouns had distinct masculine, feminine, and neutre gender forms.: 117  But by the 17th century, that old gender system, which also marked gender on common nouns and adjectives, had disappeared, leaving only pronoun marking. At the same time, a new relative pronoun system was developing that eventually split between personal relative who and impersonal relative which. This is seen as a new personal / non-personal (or impersonal) gender system.: 1048  As a result, some scholars consider we to belong to the personal gender, along with who. Syntax Functions We can appear as a subject, object, determiner or predicative complement. The reflexive form also appears as an adjunct. Subject: We're there; us being there; our being there; we planned for ourselves to be there. Object: They saw us; She pointed them to us; We though about ourselves. Predicative complement: They have become us; We eventually felt we had become ourselves. Dependent determiner: We reached our goals; We humans aren't perfect; Give it to us students. Independent determiner: This is ours. Adjunct: We did it ourselves.The contracted object form 's is only possible after the special let of let's do that. Dependents Pronouns rarely take dependents, but it is possible for we to have many of the same kind of dependents as other noun phrases. Relative clause modifier: we who arrived late Determiner: Not a lot of people know the real us. Adjective phrase modifier: Not a lot of people know the real us. Adverb phrase external modifier: not even us Semantics We's referents generally must include the speaker, along with other persons. A few exceptional cases, which include nosism, are presented below. We is always definite and specific. Royal we The royal we, or majestic plural (pluralis majestatis), is sometimes used by a person of high office, such as a monarch, earl, or pope. It has singular semantics. Editorial we The editorial we is a similar phenomenon, in which an editorial columnist in a newspaper or a similar commentator in another medium refers to themselves as we when giving their opinion. Here, the writer casts themselves in the role of spokesperson: either for the media institution who employs them, or on behalf of the party or body of citizens who agree with the commentary. The reference is not explicit, but is generally consistent with first-person plural. Author's we The author's we, or pluralis modestiae, is a practice referring to a generic third person as we (instead of one or the informal you): By adding four and five, we obtain nine. We are therefore led also to a definition of "time" in physics. — Albert EinsteinWe in this sense often refers to "the reader and the author" because the author often assumes that the reader knows and agrees with certain principles or previous theorems for the sake of brevity (or, if not, the reader is prompted to look them up). This practice is discouraged by some academic style guides because it fails to distinguish between sole authorship and co-authorship. Again, the reference is not explicit, but is generally consistent with first-person plural. Inclusive and exclusive we Some languages distinguish between inclusive we, which includes both the speaker and the addressee(s), and exclusive we, which excludes the addressee(s). English does not make this distinction grammatically, though we can have both inclusive and exclusive semantics. Imperative let's or let us allows imperatives to be inclusive.: 925  Compare: Take this outside. (exclusive, 2nd person) Let's take this outside. (inclusive, 1st person) Second-person we We is used sometimes in place of you to address a second party: A doctor may ask a patient: "And how are we feeling today?". A waiter may ask a client: "What are we in the mood for?" Membership we The membership we is a simultaneous reference to the individual, and to the collective of which the individual is a member. If ants or hive bees could use English, they might use the pronoun we almost exclusively. Human cultures can be categorized as communal or individualist; the membership we aligns more with a communal culture. The speaker, or thinker, expresses ideas with awareness of both themselves and the collective of other members. If language constrains or liberates thinking, then using the membership we may impact our ability to understand, empathize, and bond with others. The extent of inclusion when using the membership we is loosely definite; the group may be others of the same village, nation, species, or planet. The following two examples show how meaning changes subtly depending on whether I or we is used. When using the membership we, the reader or speaker is automatically drawn into the collective, and the change in viewpoint is significant: If I consume too much, I will run out of resources. If we consume too much, we will run out of resources. The more I learn, the more I should question. The more we learn, the more we should question. Pronunciation According to the OED, the following pronunciations are used:

Yield may refer to: Measures of output/function Computer science Yield (multithreading) is an action that occurs in a computer program during multithreading See generator (computer programming) Physics/chemistry Yield (chemistry), the amount of product obtained in a chemical reaction The arrow symbol in a chemical equation Yield (engineering), yield strength of a material as defined in engineering and material science Fission product yield Nuclear weapon yield Earth science Crop yield, measurement of the amount of a crop harvested, or animal products such as wool, meat or milk produced, per unit area of land Yield (wine), the amount of grapes or wine that is produced per unit surface of vineyard Ecological yield, the harvestable population growth of an ecosystem, most commonly measured in forestry and fishery Specific yield, a measure of aquifer capacity Yield (hydrology), the volume of water escaping from a spring Production/manufacturing Yield (casting) Throughput yield, a manufacturing evaluation method A measure of functioning devices in semiconductor testing, see Semiconductor device fabrication#Device test The number of servings provided by a recipe and hulk Finance Yield (finance), a rate of return for a security Dividend yield and earnings yield, measures of dividends paid on stock Other uses Yield (college admissions), a statistic describing what percent of applicants choose to enroll Yield (album), by Pearl Jam Yield sign, a traffic sign The Yield, a 2019 novel by Tara June Winch Yield, a feature of a coroutine in computer programming Yield, an element of the TV series The Amazing Race

Yew is a common name given to various species of trees. It is most prominently given to any of various coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus Taxus: European yew or common yew (Taxus baccata) Pacific yew or western yew (Taxus brevifolia) Canadian yew (Taxus canadensis) Chinese yew (Taxus chinensis) Japanese yew (Taxus cuspidata) Florida yew (Taxus floridana) Mexican yew (Taxus globosa) Sumatran yew (Taxus sumatrana) Himalayan yew (Taxus wallichiana) †Taxus masonii (Eocene fossil yew)It is also used for any of various coniferous plants in the families Taxaceae and Cephalotaxaceae: White-berry yew (Pseudotaxus chienii) New Caledonian yew or southern yew (Austrotaxus spicata) Catkin-yew (Amentotaxus sp.) Plum-yew (Cephalotaxus sp.)Various coniferous plants in the family Podocarpaceae, superficially similar to other yews, are also known by this name: Prince Albert's yew (Saxegothaea conspicua) Plum-yew (Prumnopitys sp.)