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Hindu deities

Hindu deities are the gods and goddesses in Hinduism. Deities in Hinduism are as diverse as its traditions, and a Hindu can choose to be polytheistic, pantheistic, monotheistic, monistic, even agnostic, atheistic, or humanist. The terms and epithets for deities within the diverse traditions of Hinduism vary, and include Deva, Devi, Ishvara, Ishvari, Bhagavān and Bhagavati.

The deities of Hinduism have evolved from the Vedic era (2nd millennium BCE) through the medieval era (1st millennium CE), regionally within Nepal, Pakistan, India and in Southeast Asia, and across Hinduism's diverse traditions. The Hindu deity concept varies from a personal god as in Yoga school of Hindu philosophy, to thirty-three major deities in the Vedas, to hundreds of deities mentioned in the Puranas of Hinduism. Illustrations of major deities include Vishnu, Lakshmi, Shiva, Parvati, Brahma and Saraswati. These deities have distinct and complex personalities, yet are often viewed as aspects of the same Ultimate Reality called Brahman. From ancient times, the idea of equivalence has been cherished for all Hindus, in its texts and in early 1st-millennium sculpture with concepts such as Harihara (Half Vishnu, Half Shiva) and Ardhanārīshvara (half Shiva, half Parvati), with myths and temples that feature them together, declaring they are the same. Major deities have inspired their own Hindu traditions, such as Vaishnavism, Shaivism and Shaktism, but with shared mythology, ritual grammar, theosophy, axiology and polycentrism. Some Hindu traditions, such as Smartism from the mid 1st millennium CE, have included multiple major deities as henotheistic manifestations of Saguna Brahman, and as a means to realizing Nirguna Brahman. In Samkhya philosophy, Devata or deities are considered as "natural sources of energy" who have Sattva as the dominant Guna.

Hindu deities are represented with various icons and anicons in sculptures and paintings, called Murtis and Pratimas. Some Hindu traditions, such as ancient Charvakas, rejected all deities and concept of god or goddess, while 19th-century British colonial era movements such as the Arya Samaj and Brahmo Samaj rejected deities and adopted monotheistic concepts similar to Abrahamic religions. Hindu deities have been adopted in other religions such as Jainism, and in regions outside India, such as predominantly Buddhist Thailand and Japan, where they continue to be revered in regional temples or arts.

In ancient and medieval era texts of Hinduism, the human body is described as a temple, and deities are described to be parts residing within it, while the Brahman (Absolute Reality, God) is described to be the same, or of similar nature, as the Atman (Self), which Hindus believe is eternal and within every living being.

Devas and devis
Deities in Hinduism are referred to as Deva (masculine) and Devi (feminine). The root of these terms means "heavenly, divine, anything of excellence".

In the earliest Vedic literature, all supernatural beings are called Asuras. By the late Vedic period (c. 500 BCE), benevolent supernatural beings are referred to as Deva-Asuras. In post-Vedic texts, such as the Puranas and the Itihasas of Hinduism, the Devas represent the good, and the Asuras the bad. In some medieval Indian literature, Devas are also referred to as Suras and contrasted with their equally powerful, but malevolent counterparts referred to as the Asuras.

Hindu deities are part of Hindu mythology, both Devas and Devis feature in one of many cosmological theories in Hinduism.

Characteristics of Vedic-era deities
In Vedic literature, Devas and Devis represent the forces of nature and some represent moral values (such as the Adityas, Varuna, and Mitra), each symbolizing the epitome of specialized knowledge, creative energy, exalted and magical powers (Siddhis).

The most referred to Devas in the Rigveda are Indra, Agni (fire) and Soma, with "fire deity" called the friend of all humanity. Indra and Soma are two celebrated in a yajna fire ritual that marks major Hindu ceremonies. Savitr, Vishnu, Rudra (later given the exclusive epithet of Shiva), and Prajapati (later Brahma) are gods and hence Devas.

The Vedas describes a number of significant Devis such as Ushas (dawn), Prithvi (earth), Aditi (cosmic moral order), Saraswati (river, knowledge), Vāc (sound), Nirṛti (destruction), Ratri (night), Aranyani (forest), and bounty goddesses such as Dinsana, Raka, Puramdhi, Parendi, Bharati, Mahi, among others, mentioned in the Rigveda. Sri, also called Lakshmi, appears in late Vedic texts dated to be pre-Buddhist, but verses dedicated to her do not suggest that her characteristics were fully developed in the Vedic era. All gods and goddesses are distinguished in the Vedic times, but in the post-Vedic texts (c. 500 BCE to 200 CE), and particularly in the early medieval era literature, they are ultimately seen as aspects or manifestations of one Brahman, the Supreme power.

Ananda Coomaraswamy states that Devas and Asuras in the Vedic lore are similar to Angels-Theoi-Gods and Titans of Greek mythology, both are powerful but have different orientations and inclinations, the Devas representing the powers of Light and the Asuras representing the powers of Darkness in Hindu mythology. According to Coomaraswamy's interpretation of Devas and Asuras, both these natures exist in each human being, the tyrant and the angel is within each being, the best and the worst within each person struggles before choices and one's nature, and the Hindu formulation of Devas and Asuras is an eternal dance between these within each person.

"The Devas and Asuras, Angels and Titans, powers of Light and powers of Darkness in Rigveda, although distinct and opposite in operation, are in essence consubstantial, their distinction being a matter not of essence but of orientation, revolution, or transformation. In this case, the Titan is potentially an Angel, the Angel still by nature a Titan; the Darkness in actu is Light, the Light in potentia Darkness; whence the designations Asura and Deva may be applied to one and the same Person according to the mode of operation, as in Rigveda 1.163.3, "Trita art thou (Agni) by interior operation"."

- Ananda Coomaraswamy

Characteristics of medieval-era deities
In the Puranas and the Itihasas with the embedded Bhagavad Gita, the Devas represent the good, and the Asuras the bad. According to the Bhagavad Gita (16.6–16.7), all beings in the universe have both the divine qualities (daivi sampad) and the demonic qualities (asuri sampad) within them. The sixteenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita states that pure god-like saints are rare, as are pure demon-like evil individuals among human beings. Instead, the majority of humanity is multi-charactered with a few or many faults. According to Jeaneane Fowler, the Gita states that desires, aversions, greed, needs, emotions in various forms "are facets of ordinary lives". It is only when they turn to lust, hate, cravings, arrogance, conceit, anger, harshness, hypocrisy, violence, cruelty and such negativity- and destruction-inclined tendencies that natural human inclinations metamorphose into something demonic (Asura).

The Epics and medieval era texts, particularly the Puranas, developed extensive and richly varying mythologies associated with Hindu deities, including their genealogies. Several of the Purana texts are named after major Hindu deities such as Vishnu, Shiva and Devi. Other texts and commentators such as Adi Shankara explain that Hindu deities live or rule over the cosmic body as well as in the temple of the human body. They remark that the Sun deity is the eyes, the Vāyu the nose, the Prajapati the sexual organs, the Lokapalas the ears, Chandra the mind, Mitra the inward breath, Varuna the outward breath, Indra the arms, Bṛhaspati the speech, Vishnu, whose stride is great, is the feet, and Māyā is the smile.

Symbolism
Edelmann states that gods and anti-gods of Hinduism are symbolism for spiritual concepts. For example, god Indra (a Deva) and the antigod Virocana (an Asura) question a sage for insights into the knowledge of the self. Virocana leaves with the first given answer, believing now he can use the knowledge as a weapon. In contrast, Indra keeps pressing the sage, churning the ideas, and learning about means to inner happiness and power. Edelmann suggests that the Deva-Asura dichotomies in Hindu mythology may be seen as "narrative depictions of tendencies within our selves". Hindu deities in Vedic era, states Mahoney, are those artists with "powerfully inward transformative, effective and creative mental powers".

In Hindu mythology, everyone starts as an Asura, born of the same father. "Asuras who remain Asura" share the character of powerful beings craving for more power, more wealth, ego, anger, unprincipled nature, force and violence. The "Asuras who become Devas" in contrast are driven by an inner voice, seek understanding and meaning, prefer moderation, principled behavior, aligned with Ṛta and Dharma, knowledge and harmony.

The god (Deva) and antigod (Asura), states Edelmann, are also symbolically the contradictory forces that motivate each individual and people, and thus Deva-Asura dichotomy is a spiritual concept rather than mere genealogical category or species of being. In the Bhāgavata Purana, saints and gods are born in families of Asuras, such as Mahabali and Prahlada, conveying the symbolism that motivations, beliefs and actions rather than one's birth and family circumstances define whether one is Deva-like or Asura-like.

Ishvara
Another Hindu term that is sometimes translated as the deity is Ishvara, or various deities are described, state Sorajjakool et al., as "the personifications of various aspects of the same Ishvara". The term Ishvara has a wide range of meanings that depend on the era and the school of Hinduism. In ancient texts of Indian philosophy, Ishvara means supreme Self, Brahman (Highest Reality), ruler, king or husband depending on the context. In medieval era texts, Ishvara means God, Supreme Being, personal god, or special Self depending on the school of Hinduism.

Among the six systems of Hindu philosophy, Samkhya and Mimamsa do not consider the concept of Ishvara, i.e., a supreme being, relevant. Yoga, Vaisheshika, Vedanta, and Nyaya schools of Hinduism discuss Ishvara but assign different meanings.

Early Nyaya school scholars considered the hypothesis of a deity as a creator God with the power to grant blessings, boons, and fruits; but these early Nyaya scholars then rejected this hypothesis, and were non-theistic or atheists. Later scholars of Nyaya school reconsidered this question and offered counter arguments for what is Ishvara and various arguments to prove the existence of an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent deity (God).

Vaisheshika school of Hinduism, as founded by Kanada in the 1st millennium BCE, neither required nor relied on a creator deity. Later Vaisheshika school adopted the concept of Ishvara, states Klaus Klostermaier, but as an eternal God who co-exists in the universe with eternal substances and atoms, but He "winds up the clock, and lets it run its course".

Ancient Mimamsa scholars of Hinduism questioned what is Ishvara (deity, God)? They considered a deity concept unnecessary for a consistent philosophy and moksha (soteriology).

In the Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy, Isvara is neither a creator-God nor a savior-God. This is called one of the several major atheistic schools of Hinduism by some scholars. Others, such as Jacobsen, state that Samkhya is more accurately described as non-theistic. Deity is considered an irrelevant concept, neither defined nor denied, in Samkhya school of Hindu philosophy.

In the Yoga school of Hinduism, it is any "personal deity" (Ishta Deva or Ishta Devata) or "spiritual inspiration", but not a creator God. Whicher explains that while Patanjali's terse verses in the Yogasutras can be interpreted both as theistic or non-theistic, Patanjali's concept of Isvara in Yoga philosophy functions as a "transformative catalyst or guide for aiding the yogin on the path to spiritual emancipation".

The Advaita Vedanta school of Hinduism asserted that there is no dualistic existence of a deity (or deities). There is no otherness nor distinction between Jiva and Ishvara. God (Ishvara, Brahman) is identical with the Atman (Self) within each human being in Advaita Vedanta school, and there is a monistic Universal Absolute Oneness that connects everyone and everything.

In Dvaita sub-school of Vedanta Hinduism, Ishvara is defined as a creator God that is distinct from Jiva (individual Selfs in living beings). In this school, God creates individual Self (Atman), but the individual Self never was and never will become one with God; the best it can do is to experience bliss by getting infinitely close to God.

Number of deities
Yāska, the earliest known language scholar of India (c. 500 BCE), notes Wilkins, mentions that there are three deities (Devas) according to the Vedas, "Agni (fire), whose place is on the earth; Vayu (wind), whose place is the air; and Surya (sun), whose place is in the sky". This principle of three worlds (or zones), and its multiples is found thereafter in many ancient texts. The Samhitas, which are the oldest layer of text in Vedas enumerate 33 devas, either 11 each for the three worlds, or as 12 Adityas, 11 Rudras, 8 Vasus and 2 Ashvins in the Brahmanas layer of Vedic texts.

The Rigveda states in hymn 1.139.11,

"ये देवासो दिव्येकादश स्थ पृथिव्यामध्येकादश स्थ । अप्सुक्षितो महिनैकादश स्थ ते देवासो यज्ञमिमं जुषध्वम् ॥११॥

O ye eleven gods whose home is heaven, O ye eleven who make earth your dwelling, Ye who with might, eleven, live in waters, accept this sacrifice, O gods, with pleasure. – Translated by Ralph T. H. Griffith

Gods who are eleven in heaven; who are eleven on earth; and who are eleven dwelling with glory in mid-air; may ye be pleased with this our sacrifice. – Translated by HH Wilson"

- Rigveda 1.139.11

One or one-ness
Thirty-three koti (33 supreme) divinities are mentioned in other ancient texts, such as the Yajurveda. Most by far, are goddesses state Foulston and Abbott, suggesting "how important and popular goddesses are" in Hindu culture. Scholars state all deities are typically viewed in Hinduism as "emanations or manifestation of genderless principle called Brahman, representing the many facets of Ultimate Reality". In Hinduism, the concept is that "God, the universe, human beings and all else is essentially one thing" and there is a connected oneness where the same God resides within every human being as Atman, the eternal Self.

Iconography and practices
Hinduism has an ancient and extensive iconography tradition, particularly in the form of Murti (Sanskrit: मूर्ति, IAST: Mūrti), or Vigraha or Pratima. A Murti is itself not the god in Hinduism, but it is an image of god and represents emotional and religious value. A literal translation of Murti as an idol is incorrect, states Jeaneane Fowler when the idol is understood as superstitious end in itself. Just like the photograph of a person is not the real person, a Murti is an image in Hinduism but not the real thing, but in both cases, the image reminds of something of emotional and real value to the viewer. When a person worships a Murti, it is assumed to be a manifestation of the essence or spirit of the deity, the worshipper's spiritual ideas and needs are meditated through it, yet the idea of ultimate reality or Brahman is not confined in it.

A Murti of a Hindu deity is typically made by carving stone, woodworking, metal casting, or through pottery. Medieval era texts describing their proper proportions, positions and gestures include the Puranas, Agamas and Samhitas particularly the Shilpa Shastras. The expressions in a Murti vary in diverse Hindu traditions, ranging from Ugra symbolism to express destruction, fear and violence (Durga, Parvati, Kali), as well as Saumya symbolism to express joy, knowledge, and harmony (Parvati, Saraswati, Lakshmi). Saumya images are most common in Hindu temples. Other Murti forms found in Hinduism include the Linga.

A Murti is an embodiment of the divine, the Ultimate Reality or Brahman to some Hindus. In the religious context, they are found in Hindu temples or homes, where they may be treated as a beloved guest and serve as a participant of Puja rituals in Hinduism. A murti is installed by priests, in Hindu temples, through the Prana Pratishtha ceremony, whereby state Harold Coward and David Goa, the "divine vital energy of the cosmos is infused into the sculpture" and then the divine is welcomed as one would welcome a friend. In other occasions, it serves as the center of attention in annual festive processions and these are called Utsava Murti.

Temple and worship
In Hinduism, deities and their icons may be hosted in a Hindu temple, within a home, or as an amulet. The worship performed by Hindus is known by several regional names, such as Puja. This practice in front of a murti may be elaborate in large temples, or be a simple song or mantra muttered in home, or offering made to sunrise or river or symbolic an icon of a deity. Archaeological evidence of deity worship in Hindu temples trace Puja rituals to Gupta Empire era (c. 4th century CE). In Hindu temples, various pujas may be performed daily at various times of the day; in other temples, it may be occasional.

The Puja practice is structured as an act of welcoming, hosting, and honoring the deity of one's choice as one's honored guest, and remembering the spiritual and emotional significance the deity represents to the devotee. Jan Gonda, as well as Diana L. Eck, states that a typical Puja involves one or more of 16 steps (Shodasha Upachara) traceable to ancient times: the deity is invited as a guest, the devotee hosts and takes care of the deity as an honored guest, praise (hymns) with Dhupa or Aarti along with food (Naivedhya) is offered to the deity, after an expression of love and respect the host takes leave, and with affection expresses goodbye to the deity. The worship practice may also involve reflecting on spiritual questions, with image serving as support for such meditation.

Deity worship (Bhakti), visiting temples, and Puja rites are not mandatory and are optional in Hinduism; it is the choice of a Hindu, it may be a routine daily affair for some Hindus, periodic ritual or infrequent for some. Worship practices in Hinduism are as diverse as its traditions, and a Hindu can choose to be polytheistic, pantheistic, monotheistic, monistic, agnostic, atheistic, or humanist.

Devotees engage with deities in more personalized relationships. Ramanuja differentiates between three types of devotees: power-seekers, liberation-seekers, and those seeking love and communion with the deity. While all three are considered dharmic, they are not equally significant in terms of liberation. Power-seekers pursue goals for overall benefit, while liberation-seekers seek unity with the divine. The highest form of devotion is characterized by selfless love for the divine.

Examples
Major deities have inspired a vast genre of literature such as the Puranas and Agama texts as well their own Hindu traditions, but with shared mythology, ritual grammar, theosophy, axiology and polycentrism. Vishnu and his avatars are at the foundation of Vaishnavism, Shiva for Shaivism, Devi for Shaktism, and some Hindu traditions such as Smarta traditions who revere multiple major deities (five) as henotheistic manifestations of Brahman (absolute metaphysical Reality).

While there are diverse deities in Hinduism, states Lawrence, "Exclusivism – which maintains that only one's own deity is real" is rare in Hinduism. Julius Lipner, and other scholars, state that pluralism and "polycentrism" – where other deities are recognized and revered by members of different "denominations", has been the Hindu ethos and way of life.

Trimurti and Tridevi
The concept of Triad (or Trimurti, Trinity) makes a relatively late appearance in Hindu literature, or in the second half of 1st millennium BCE. The idea of triad, playing three roles in the cosmic affairs, is typically associated with Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva (also called Mahesh); however, this is not the only triad in Hindu literature. Other triads include Tridevi, of three goddesses – Lakshmi, Saraswati and Parvati in the text Devi Mahatmya, in the Shakta tradition, which further assert that Devi is the Brahman (Ultimate Reality) and it is her energy that empowers Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. The other triads, formulated as deities in ancient Indian literature, include Sun (creator), Air (sustainer) and Fire (destroyer); Prana (creator), Food (sustainer) and Time (destroyer). These triads, states Jan Gonda, are in some mythologies grouped together without forming a Trinity, and in other times represented as equal, a unity and manifestations of one Brahman. In the Puranas, for example, this idea of threefold "hypostatization" is expressed as follows,

"They [Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva] exist through each other, and uphold each other; they are parts of one another; they subsist through one another; they are not for a moment separated; they never abandon one another."

- Vayu Purana

The triad appears in Maitrayaniya Upanishad, for the first time in recognized roles known ever since, where they are deployed to present the concept of three Guṇa – the innate nature, tendencies and inner forces found within every being and everything, whose balance transform and keeps changing the individual and the world. It is in the medieval Puranic texts, Trimurti concepts appears in various context, from rituals to spiritual concepts. The Bhagavad Gita, in verses 9.18, 10.21-23 and 11.15, asserts that the triad or trinity is manifestation of one Brahman, which Krishna affirms himself to be. However, suggests Bailey, the mythology of triad is "not the influence nor the most important one" in Hindu traditions, rather the ideologies and spiritual concepts develop on their own foundations. The triad, with Brahma creating, Vishnu preserving and Shiva destroying, balances the functioning of the whole universe.

Avatars of Hindu deities

Hindu mythology has nurtured the concept of the avatar (avatāra), which represents the descent of a deity on earth. This concept is commonly translated as "incarnation", and is an "appearance" or "manifestation".

The concept of the avatar is most developed in Vaishnavism tradition, and associated with Vishnu, particularly with Rama and Krishna. Vishnu takes numerous avatars in Hindu mythology. He becomes female, during the Samudra Manthana, in the form of Mohini, to resolve a conflict between the devas and the asuras. His male avatars include Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, Narasimha, Vamana, Parashurama, Rama, Krishna, Buddha, and Kalki. In some lists, Balarama replaces the Buddha. Various texts, particularly the Bhagavad Gita, discuss the idea of an avatar of Vishnu appearing to restore the cosmic balance whenever the power of evil becomes excessive and causes persistent oppression in the world.

In Shaktism traditions, the concept appears in its legends as the various manifestations of Devi, the divine-mother principle in Hinduism. The avatars of Devi or Parvati include Durga and Kali, who are particularly revered in the eastern states of India, as well as Tantra traditions. Twenty-one avatars of Shiva are also described in Shaivism texts, but unlike Vaishnava traditions, Shaiva traditions focus directly on Shiva rather than the avatar concept.

title: Hindu deities


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South Walsham

South Walsham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It covers an area of 11.43 km2 and had a population of 738 in 303 households at the 2001 census. increasing to 845 living in 345 households at the 2011 Census. For the purposes of local government, it falls within the district of Broadland. Historically, the village comprised two separate parishes, that of St Mary and of St Lawrence. After fire damage in 1827, the church of St Lawrence slowly fell into disuse and the two parishes were combined in 1889.

The village has a primary school, a pub and the disused St Lawrence's church, the tower of which collapsed in 1971, has been repurposed as the St Lawrence Centre for Training and the Arts, hosting various music concerts, art exhibitions, craft fairs and charity events. The parish is also home to the South Walsham estate, purchased in 1946 by Major Henry Broughton, 2nd Lord Fairhaven, which remains in the ownership of the family. Large parts of the estate are opened to the public as the Fairhaven Woodland and Water Garden. Throughout its history, South Walsham has been linked with the wealthy St Benet's Abbey located just outside the parish.

The parish of South Walsham includes the hamlets of Town Green and Pilson Green, and South Walsham Broad lies adjacent to the village.

History
The villages name means 'We)alh's homestead/village' or 'Britons' homestead/village'.

South Walsham is recorded in the Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici as Súðwalshám in a document produced during the reign of Edward the Confessor. Early documents suggest that land in the present parish was owned by a freeman named under Guert, the brother of Harold Godwinson at the time of the Norman conquest of England, before passing under the stewardship of Godric the Steward. Its entry in the Domesday Book shows land ownership divided between William the Conqueror, William, Bishop of Thetford, Godric the Steward and St Benet's Abbey - in total, there were around 124 villagers excluding women and children. During the Middle Ages, much of the land in the parish was used to produce peat for fuel, and records of turbary show that around two hundred thousand turves were sold per annum, yielding an average income of around seven pounds per annum. These revenues dropped rapidly, from over eight pounds (and 250 000 units) in 1268–69 to around two pounds (and 56 700 units) in 1290–91, as the former peat cuttings began to flood and The Broads were formed. There are references to flooded land (or Broddinge) as early as 1315.

After the English Reformation, the abbey at St Benet's remained in use for some time, but had fallen into decay by the early stages of the reign of Elizabeth I.

In the twentieth century, war memorials list 14 deaths from within the parish during World War I. The tower of St Lawrence's church, damaged by a fire on the 30 May 1827, collapsed on the 18 March 1971, with little damage to the church itself.

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Martham

Martham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated some 10 mi north-west of the town of Great Yarmouth and 19 mi north-east of the city of Norwich.

The villages name means 'marten homestead/village' or 'weasel/marten hemmed-in land'.

The civil parish has an area of 11.84 km2 and in the 2001 census had a population of 3,126 in 1,267 households, the population including Cess and increasing at the 2011 Census to 3,569. For the purposes of local government, the parish falls within the district of Great Yarmouth. In recent years the population has expanded with considerable housing being constructed. Bus service to Great Yarmouth is regular. There was a station in the village adjacent to a level crossing on Rollesby Road Martham railway station, but this closed in 1959, when the entire line from Great Yarmouth to North Walsham was eliminated. The station buildings stood for another 30 years.

Education is available in the village from Early Years to aged 16. Martham Primary & Nursery caters for children up to Year 6, with Flegg High School taking students from Year 7 to Year 11. Post 16 education is available at other establishments outside of Martham.

The village has several Georgian houses, a large village green, covering three areas of greensward and two duck ponds. Near St Mary's church Church of England, Ferrygate Lane leads to Martham Ferry, where an unusual floating swing bridge crosses the River Thurne. The bridge leads to Heigham Holmes, an island nature reserve, which can only be accessed by the public on special occasions. About 2 km to the north of the village is Martham Broad, a 140 acre nature reserve, which is not navigable by boat.

The Saxons settled in Martham around AD601 and gave the village its name, "the ham of the martens", the home of the polecats.

The Anglican missionary Anna Hinderer died in the village in 1870.

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Thurne

Thurne is a small village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It is located on the River Thurne in The Broads, some 18 km west of the town of Great Yarmouth and 20 km east of the city of Norwich.

The village's name means 'Thorn-bush'.

The civil parish has an area of 2.69 km2 and in the 2001 census had a population of 116 in 54 households and at the 2011 Census, including Ashby with Oby, had a population of 212 in 94 households. For the purposes of local government, the parish falls within the district of Great Yarmouth.

The village lies at the end of Thurne Dyke, a popular mooring, not least because of Thurne windpump, which became known locally as Morse's Mill, Bob Morse, who purchased it to prevent it from being sold for scrap. It is a popular object for photography, after being painted white. There is a second windpump across the river, the St Benet's Level windpump.

Thurne is also home to the well-respected sailing club Theta, which has been accommodated here for over half a century and is now part of the village's character. Free moorings are available for three boats at Thurne mouth. From there, it is a short walk to the village, with a large pub, the Lion Inn, and a small shop.

The Weavers' Way, a long-distance footpath, runs through the village.

Thurne in 1954 is featured in film held by the Cinema Museum in London. Ref HM0568.

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Potter Heigham

Potter Heigham is a village and civil parish on the River Thurne in the English county of Norfolk. It is situated 12 mi north-east of the city of Norwich on the A149 road, and within the Broads National Park.

The village is known for its medieval bridge and the Church of St Nicholas. There are two national nature reserves within the parish; the Ludham - Potter Heigham NNR is to the west of the village whilst the Heigham Holmes NNR is to the east. The Weavers Way, a long distance footpath, also passes through the village on its way from Cromer to Great Yarmouth.

History
The village's name means 'Hatch homestead/village' or perhaps, 'hedge homestead/village'. There is evidence for Romano-British pottery industry here hence the 'Potter' addition.

The parish of Potter Heigham (pronounced locally as Ham) has a number of features related to the World Wars. Hickling Broad, to the north of the parish, was used as a seaplane base during World War I. Part of Ludham Airstrip, a now shrunken remnant of a larger World War II airbase, is also built on parish lands, and there were a number of defensive structures around the medieval bridge.

The Museum of The Broads was opened in Potter Heigham in 1996, and moved to its current location at the Poor's Staithe in Stalham in 1999.

Government
The civil parish has an area of 10.38 km2 and in the 2001 census had a population of 961 in 425 households, the population increasing to 1,043 at the 2011 Census. For the purposes of local government, the parish falls within the district of North Norfolk and the county of Norfolk.

As in other broadland villages, the areas adjacent to the river fall under the administration of the Broads Authority.

Main sights
Apart from the church of St Nicholas and the medieval bridge, Potter Heigham has a number of buildings of historic or architectural note. These include the Heigham Holmes windpump to the east of the parish, High's mill on the River Thurne, and Sunways corn mill, all of which are listed buildings. The village is home to Lathams of Potter Heigham, a department store opened in 1964, but now owned by the QD Stores group.

Church of St Nicholas
Potter Heigham church is dedicated to St Nicholas, the patron saint of fishermen and children. The earliest surviving feature is the round tower, which dates from the 12th century and has a 14th-century octagonal extension, one of the best preserved in the country.

It is famed for its hammerbeam roof and the almost unique 15th-century brick font. The church also contains a scheme of wall paintings dating from the 14th century, the most readable of which depicts the Seven Works of Mercy. When the roof was re-thatched it required about 1850 bundles of reed. It is one of 124 existing round-tower churches in Norfolk. The church is a Grade I listed building.

Potter Heigham Bridge
Potter Heigham Bridge is a medieval bridge, believed to date from 1385, famous for being the most difficult to navigate in the Broads. The bridge opening is so narrow that only small cruisers can pass through it, and then only at low water, usually with the help of resident pilots at Phoenix Fleet boatyard next to the Bridge - there is a fee of £20 - £10 each way for holiday craft in the summer. Hire boats from the main agencies pay 50%, i.e. £10 for both trips. A modern roadbridge is close by.

Folklore
A tale is told that in 1742 Lady Carew and her daughter Evelyn were taken away on Evelyn's wedding day by a phantom coach driven by skeletons. The coach reportedly caught alight as it crossed Potter Heigham bridge. It is also said that the ghost of a drummer boy skates across the Broad during the month of February.

Notable people

 * The Norfolk humourist Sidney Grapes lived and worked in Potter Heigham. He was famous for his collection of Norfolk dialect letters entitled The Boy John Letters, which were originally published in the Eastern Daily Press.
 * Arthur Ransome set his books Coot Club and The Big Six in the Norfolk Broads, and Potter Heigham features as a location in both.

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Communards' Wall

The Communards’ Wall (Mur des Fédérés) at the Père Lachaise cemetery is where 147 Commune soldiers along with another 19 officers were executed on May 28, 1871, during the Semaine sanglante, the suppression of the Paris Commune. The soldiers were buried in a common grave at the foot of the wall.

The Père Lachaise cemetery was established in May 1804 on a land owned by the Jesuits for centuries, and where Père ("Father") Lachaise, confessor of Louis XIV, lived the latter part of his life. The cemetery of the aristocracy in the 19th century, it also received the remains of famous people from previous eras. During the spring of 1871 the last of the combatants of the Commune entrenched themselves in the cemetery. The French Army, which was summoned to suppress the Commune, won control towards the end of the afternoon of May 28, captured the remaining Commune soldiers. As with other prisoners taken during the Commune, those captured with weapons in hand, numbering 147, were lined up and executed. Those executed at the wall also included a group of Commune officers, who had been captured earlier at other locations, imprisoned in two army barracks nearby, tried by military tribunals, sentenced to death, and delivered to the cemetery for execution and burial. This brought the total number to an estimated but unconfirmed 166. They were all buried in the same common grave.

The number executed and buried at the wall there is not known exactly, but is estimated at 166 by historian Michele Audin. Other casualties were brought to the cemetery later from other parts of the city and buried in the cemetery. The wall is now the site of an annual commemoration of the Commune and its casualties.

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Talk:False writing system

As far as I know, it's not definitively known that the writing in the Voynich Manuscript is a false writing system. --Brion 07:56 Oct 5, 2002 (UTC)

"Artificial"?
To the best of my knowledge, all alphabets are "artificially constructed". One does not, after all, find them growing from trees, or lying around on beaches.

The definition of "false writing system" given in this article makes no sense. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.95.43.249 (talk) 23:49, 29 March 2016 (UTC)

There are 'writing systems and codes/ciphers which are established and generally accepted' of varying ages (modern ones would include road signs, scientific-mathematical systems, written Morse code and possibly even Klingon). there are 'background texts/necessary documents within stories (treasure maps being a prime example) and artistic and other constructs, and 'things which are meant to deceive for malicious purposes.' Presumably the intent of the article is to cover the latter uses and to create a listing. Jackiespeel (talk) 10:38, 22 May 2016 (UTC)

I'm very suspicious of this entire entry: the Codex Seraphinianus and Voynich Manuscript each may or may not be fake, but there's currently no way of knowing. Moreover, the phrase "false writing system" seems to exist only in this Wikipedia page and other pages derived from it. As such, I can't help but feeling that this page is itself some kind of fake. Proposed for deletion. Nickpelling (talk) 19:16, 5 July 2016 (UTC)
 * The author of the Codex Seraphinianus said it was just an artistic work and the language contained in it is not real. The Voynich Manuscript still remains a complete mystery, though. As to the article's concern: yes, it is poorly written and unsourced. But the concept it is trying to explain certainly exists: writing systems with no meaning are used in comics and many artistic works (asemic writing is an example). I would both rewrite the article and search for sources, but deleting? I wouldn't do that. - Alumnum (talk) 19:34, 5 July 2016 (UTC)
 * I suggest this article to be merged into asemic writing. This article discuss about the same thing the longer one does. - Alumnum (talk) 21:26, 7 July 2016 (UTC)
 * I also endorse this merger. This article is only a poorly written stub-class that carries no relevance on its own. Merging it with Asemic writing may provide more context for this article. Tseung Kwan O Let's talk 01:44, 11 July 2016 (UTC)
 * The article doesn't refer to anything, gives unsourced comments and opinions, and doesn't obviously add anything useful to the topics of cryptographic writing and/or asemic writing. Hence I still think deleting it would be a genuinely better outcome than merging. Nickpelling (talk) 22:39, 26 July 2016 (UTC)

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Cecum

The cecum or caecum is a pouch within the peritoneum that is considered to be the beginning of the large intestine. It is typically located on the right side of the body (the same side of the body as the appendix, to which it is joined). The word cecum (, plural ceca ) stems from the Latin caecus meaning blind.

It receives chyme from the ileum, and connects to the ascending colon of the large intestine. It is separated from the ileum by the ileocecal valve (ICV) or Bauhin's valve. It is also separated from the colon by the cecocolic junction. While the cecum is usually intraperitoneal, the ascending colon is retroperitoneal.

In herbivores, the cecum stores food material where bacteria are able to break down the cellulose. In humans, the cecum is involved in absorption of salts and electrolytes and lubricates the solid waste that passes into the large intestine.

Development
The cecum and appendix are derived from the bud of cecum that forms during week 6 in the midgut next to the apex of the umbilical herniation. Specifically, the cecum and appendix are formed by the enlargement of the postarterial segment of the midgut loop. The proximal part of the bud grows rapidly to form the cecum. The lateral wall of the cecum grows much more rapidly than the medial wall, with the result that the point of attachment of the appendix comes to lie on the medial side. The cecum's position changes after the midgut rotates and the ascending colon elongates, and the accumulation of meconium inside the cecum may result in the latter's increased diameter.

Etymology
The term cecum comes from Latin (intestinum) caecum, literally 'blind intestine', in the sense 'blind gut' or 'cul de sac'. It is a direct translation from Ancient Greek τυφλὸν (ἔντερον). Thus the inflammation of the cecum is called typhlitis.

In dissections by the Greek philosophers, the connection between the ileum of the small intestine and the cecum was not fully understood. Most of the studies of the digestive tract were done on animals and the results were compared to human structures.

The junction between the small intestine and the colon, called the ileocecal valve, is so small in some animals that it was not considered to be a connection between the small and large intestines. During a dissection, the colon could be traced from the rectum, to the sigmoid colon, through the descending, transverse, and ascending sections. The cecum is an end point for the colon with a dead-end portion terminating with the appendix.

The connection between the end of the small intestine (ileum) and the start (as viewed from the perspective of food being processed) of the colon (cecum) is now clearly understood, and is called the ileocecal orifice. The connection between the end of the cecum and the beginning of the ascending colon is called the cecocolic orifice.

Clinical significance
A cecal carcinoid tumor is a carcinoid tumor of the cecum. An appendiceal carcinoid tumor (a carcinoid tumor of the appendix) is sometimes found next to a cecal carcinoid.

Neutropenic enterocolitis (typhlitis) is the condition of inflammation of the cecum, primarily caused by bacterial infections.

Over 99% of the bacteria in the gut are anaerobes,    but in the cecum, aerobic bacteria reach high densities.

Other animals

A cecum is present in most amniote species, and also in lungfish, but not in any living species of amphibian. In reptiles, it is usually a single median structure, arising from the dorsal side of the large intestine. Birds typically have two paired ceca, as do, unlike other mammals, hyraxes. Parrots do not have ceca.

Most mammalian herbivores have a relatively large cecum. In many species, it is considerably wider than the colon. For some herbivores such as lagomorphs (rabbits, hares, pikas), easily digestible food is processed in the gastrointestinal tract & expelled as regular feces. But in order to get nutrients out of hard to digest fiber, lagomorphs ferment fiber in the cecum and then expel the contents as cecotropes, which are reingested (cecotrophy). The cecotropes are then absorbed in the small intestine to utilize the nutrients.

In contrast, obligate carnivores, whose diets contain little or no plant matter, have a reduced cecum, which is often partially or wholly replaced by the appendix. Mammalian species which do not develop a cecum include raccoons, bears, and the red panda.

Many fish have a number of small outpockets, called pyloric ceca, along their intestine; despite the name, they are not homologous with the cecum of amniotes – their purpose is to increase the overall area of the digestive epithelium. Some invertebrates, such as squid, may also have structures with the same name, but these have no relationship with those of vertebrates.

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Qin Shi Huang

Qin Shi Huang (, ; February 259 – 12 July 210 BC) was the founder of the Qin dynasty and the first emperor of China. Rather than maintain the title of "king" (wáng 王) borne by the previous Shang and Zhou rulers, he assumed the invented title of "emperor" (huángdì 皇帝), which would see continuous use by monarchs in China for the next two millennia.

Born in Handan, the capital of Zhao, as Ying Zheng (嬴政) or Zhao Zheng (趙政), his parents were King Zhuangxiang of Qin and Lady Zhao. The wealthy merchant Lü Buwei assisted him in succeeding his father as the king of Qin, after which he became King Zheng of Qin. By 221 BC, he had conquered all the other warring states and unified all of China, and he ascended the throne as China's first emperor. During his reign, his generals greatly expanded the size of the Chinese state: campaigns south of Chu permanently added the Yue lands of Hunan and Guangdong to the Sinosphere, and campaigns in Inner Asia conquered the Ordos Loop from the nomadic Xiongnu, although the Xiongnu later rallied under Modu Chanyu.

Qin Shi Huang also worked with his minister Li Si to enact major economic and political reforms aimed at the standardization of the diverse practices of the earlier Chinese states. He is traditionally said to have banned and burned many books and executed scholars. His public works projects included the incorporation of diverse state walls into a single Great Wall of China and a massive new national road system, as well as his city-sized mausoleum guarded by a life-sized Terracotta Army. He ruled until his death in 210 BC, during his fifth tour of eastern China.

Qin Shi Huang has often been portrayed as a tyrant and strict Legalist—characterizations that stem partly from the scathing assessments made during the Han dynasty that succeeded the Qin. Since the mid-20th century, scholars have begun questioning this evaluation, inciting considerable discussion on the actual nature of his policies and reforms. According to the sinologist Michael Loewe "few would contest the view that the achievements of his reign have exercised a paramount influence on the whole of China's subsequent history, marking the start of an epoch that closed in 1911".

Names
Modern Chinese sources often give the personal name of Qin Shi Huang as Ying Zheng, with Ying (嬴) taken as the surname and Zheng (政) the given name. However, in ancient China, the naming convention differed, and the clan name Zhao (趙), the place where he was born and raised, may be used as the surname. Unlike modern Chinese names, the nobles of ancient China had two distinct surnames: the ancestral name (姓) comprised a larger group descended from a prominent ancestor, usually said to have lived during the time of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors of Chinese legend, and the clan name (氏) comprised a smaller group that showed a branch's current fief or recent title. The ancient practice was to list men's names separately—Sima Qian's "Basic Annals of the First Emperor of Qin" introduces him as "given the name Zheng and the surname Zhao"—or to combine the clan surname with the personal name: Sima's account of Chu describes the sixteenth year of the reign of King Kaolie as "the time when Zhao Zheng was enthroned as King of Qin". However, since modern Chinese surnames (despite usually descending from clan names) use the same character as the old ancestral names, it is much more common in modern Chinese sources to see the emperor's personal name written as Ying Zheng, using the ancestral name of the Ying family.

The rulers of Qin had styled themselves kings from the time of King Huiwen in 325 BC. Upon his ascension, Zheng became known as the King of Qin or King Zheng of Qin. This title made him the nominal equal of the rulers of Shang and of Zhou, the last of whose kings had been deposed by King Zhaoxiang of Qin in 256 BC.

Following the surrender of Qi in 221 BC, King Zheng reunited all of the lands of the former Kingdom of Zhou. Rather than maintain his rank as king, however, he created a new title of huángdì (emperor) for himself. This new title combined two titles—huáng of the mythical Three Sovereigns (三皇, Sān Huáng) and the dì of the legendary Five Emperors (五帝, Wŭ Dì) of Chinese prehistory. The title was intended to appropriate some of the prestige of the Yellow Emperor, whose cult was popular in the later Warring States period and who was considered to be a founder of the Chinese people. King Zheng chose the new regnal name of First Emperor (Shǐ Huángdì, formerly transcribed as Shih Huang-ti) on the understanding that his successors would be successively titled the "Second Emperor", "Third Emperor", and so on through the generations. (In fact, the scheme lasted only as long as his immediate heir, the Second Emperor.) The new title carried religious overtones. For that reason, Sinologists—starting with Peter Boodberg or Edward Schafer —sometimes translate it as "thearch" and the First Emperor as the First Thearch.

The First Emperor intended that his realm would remain intact through the ages but, following its overthrow and replacement by Han after his death, it became customary to prefix his title with Qin. Thus:
 * 秦, Qín or Ch'in, "of Qin"
 * 始, Shǐ or Shih, "first"
 * 皇帝, Huángdì or Huang-ti, "emperor", a new term coined from
 * 皇, Huáng or Huang, literally "shining" or "splendid" and formerly most usually applied "as an epithet of Heaven", a title of the Three Sovereigns, the high god of the Zhou
 * 帝, Dì or Ti, the high god of the Shang, possibly composed of their divine ancestors, and used by the Zhou as a title of the legendary Five Emperors, particularly the Yellow Emperor

As early as Sima Qian, it was common to shorten the resulting four-character Qin Shi Huangdi to 秦始皇, variously transcribed as Qin Shihuang or Qin Shi Huang.

Following his elevation as emperor, both Zheng's personal name 政 and possibly its homophone 正 became taboo. The First Emperor also arrogated the first-person Chinese pronoun 朕 ( OC  *lrəm', mod.  zhèn) for his exclusive use and in 212 BC began calling himself The Immortal (真人, OC  *Tin-niŋ, mod.  Zhēnrén, lit.  "True Man"). Others were to address him as "Your Majesty" (陛下, mod.  Bìxià, lit.  "Beneath the Palace Steps") in person and "Your Highness" (上) in writing.

Birth and parentage
According to the Records of the Grand Historian, written by Sima Qian during the Han dynasty, the first emperor was the eldest son of the Qin prince Yiren, who later became King Zhuangxiang of Qin. Prince Yiren at that time was residing at the court of Zhao, serving as a hostage to guarantee the armistice between the Qin and Zhao states. Prince Yiren had fallen in love at first sight with a concubine of Lü Buwei, a rich merchant from the State of Wey. Lü consented for her to be Yiren's wife, who then became known as Lady Zhao after the state of Zhao. He was given the name Zhao Zheng, the name Zheng came from his month of birth Zhengyue, the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar; the clan name of Zhao came from his father's lineage and was unrelated to either his mother's name or the location of his birth. (Song Zhong says that his birthday, significantly, was on the first day of Zhengyue. ) Lü Buwei's machinations later helped Yiren become King Zhuangxiang of Qin in 250 BC.

However, the Records of the Grand Historian also claimed that the first emperor was not the actual son of Prince Yiren but that of Lü Buwei. According to this account, when Lü Buwei introduced the dancing girl to the prince, she was Lü Buwei's concubine and had already become pregnant by him, and the baby was born after an unusually long period of pregnancy. According to translations of the Annals of Lü Buwei, Zhao Ji gave birth to the future emperor in the city of Handan in 259 BC, the first month of the 48th year of King Zhaoxiang of Qin.

The idea that the emperor was an illegitimate child, widely believed throughout Chinese history, contributed to the generally negative view of the First Emperor. However, a number of modern scholars have doubted this account of his birth. Sinologist Derk Bodde wrote: "There is good reason for believing that the sentence describing this unusual pregnancy is an interpolation added to the Shih-chi by an unknown person in order to slander the First Emperor and indicate his political as well as natal illegitimacy". John Knoblock and Jeffrey Riegel, in their translation of Lü Buwei's Spring and Autumn Annals, call the story "patently false, meant both to libel Lü and to cast aspersions on the First Emperor". Claiming Lü Buwei—a merchant—as the First Emperor's biological father was meant to be especially disparaging, since later Confucian society regarded merchants as the lowest of all social classes.

Regency
In 246 BC, when King Zhuangxiang died after a short reign of just three years, he was succeeded on the throne by his 13-year-old son. At the time, Zhao Zheng was still young, so Lü Buwei acted as the regent prime minister of the State of Qin, which was still waging war against the other six states. Nine years later, in 235 BC, Zhao Zheng assumed full power after Lü Buwei was banished for his involvement in a scandal with Queen Dowager Zhao.

Zhao Chengjiao, the Lord Chang'an (长安君), was Zhao Zheng's legitimate half-brother, by the same father but from a different mother. After Zhao Zheng inherited the throne, Chengjiao rebelled at Tunliu and surrendered to the state of Zhao. Chengjiao's remaining retainers and families were executed by Zhao Zheng.

Lao Ai's attempted coup
As King Zheng grew older, Lü Buwei became fearful that the boy king would discover his liaison with his mother, Lady Zhao. He decided to distance himself and look for a replacement for the queen dowager. He found a man named Lao Ai. According to The Record of Grand Historian, Lao Ai was disguised as a eunuch by plucking his beard. Later Lao Ai and queen Zhao Ji got along so well that they secretly had two sons together. Lao Ai was ennobled as Marquis Lào Ǎi, and was showered with riches. Lao Ai's had been planning to replace King Zheng with one of his own sons, but during a dinner party he was heard bragging about being the young king's stepfather. In 238 BC, while the king was travelling to the former capital, Yong (雍), Lao Ai seized the queen mother's seal and mobilized an army in a coup attempt. When notified of the rebellion, King Zheng ordered Lü Buwei to let Lord Changping and Lord Changwen attack Lao Ai. Although the royal army killed hundreds of rebels at the capital, Lao Ai successfully fled the battlefield.

A price of 1 million copper coins was placed on Lao Ai's head if he was taken alive or half a million if dead. Lao Ai's supporters were captured and beheaded; then Lao Ai was tied up and torn to five pieces by horse carriages, while his entire family was executed to the third degree. The two hidden sons were also killed, while the mother Zhao Ji was placed under house arrest until her death many years later. Lü Buwei drank a cup of poisoned wine and committed suicide in 235 BC. Ying Zheng then assumed full power as the King of the Qin state. Replacing Lü Buwei, Li Si became the new chancellor.

First assassination attempt
King Zheng and his troops continued their conquest of the neighbouring states. The state of Yan was no match for the Qin states: small and weak, it had already been harassed frequently by Qin soldiers. Crown Prince Dan of Yan plotted an assassination attempt against King Zheng, recruiting Jing Ke and Qin Wuyang for the mission in 227 BC.

The assassins gained access to King Zheng by pretending a diplomatic gifting of goodwill: a map of Dukang and the severed head of Fan Wuji. Qin Wuyang stepped forward first to present the map case but was overcome by fear. Jing Ke then advanced with both gifts, while explaining that his partner was trembling because "[he] had never set eyes on the Son of Heaven". When the dagger unrolled from the map, the king leapt to his feet and struggled to draw his sword – none of his courtiers was allowed to carry arms in his presence. Jing Ke stabbed at the king but missed, and King Zheng slashed Jing Ke's thigh. In desperation, Jing Ke threw the dagger but missed again. He surrendered after a brief fight in which he was further injured. The Yan state was conquered in its entirety five years later.

Second assassination attempt
Gao Jianli was a close friend of Jing Ke, and wanted to avenge his death. As a famous lute player, he was summoned to play for King Zheng. Someone in the palace recognized him and guessed his plans. Reluctant to kill such a skilled musician, the emperor ordered his eyes put out, and then proceeded with the performance. The king praised Gao Jianli's playing and even allowed him closer. The lute had been weighted with a slab of lead, and Gao Jianli swung it at the king but missed. The second assassination attempt had failed; Gao Jianli was executed shortly after.

Unification of China
In 230 BC, King Zheng began the final campaigns of the Warring States period, setting out to conquer the remaining six major Chinese states and bring China under unified Qin control.

The state of Han, the weakest of the Warring States, was the first to fall in 230 BC. In 229 BC, Qin armies invaded Zhao, which had been severely weakened by natural disasters, and captured the capital of Handan in 228 BC. Prince Jia of Zhao managed to escape with the remnants of the Zhao army and established the short-lived state of Dai, proclaiming himself king.

In 227 BC, fearing a Qin invasion, Crown Prince Dan of Yan ordered a failed assassination attempt on King Zheng. This provided casus belli for Zheng to invade Yan in 226 BC, capturing the capital of Ji (modern Beijing) that same year. The remnants of the Yan army, along with King Xi of Yan, were able to retreat to the Liaodong Peninsula.

After Qin besieged and flooded their capital of Daliang, the state of Wei surrendered in 225 BC. Around this time, as a precautionary measure, Qin seized ten cities from Chu, the largest and most powerful of the other Warring States. In 224 BC, Qin launched a full-scale invasion of Chu, capturing the capital of Shouchun in 223 BC. In 222 BC, Qin armies extinguished the last Yan remnants in Liaodong and the Zhao rump state of Dai. In 221 BC, Qin armies invaded the state of Qi and captured King Jian of Qi without much resistance, bringing an end to the Warring States period.

By 221 BC, all Chinese lands had been unified under the Qin. To elevate himself above the feudal Zhou kings, King Zheng proclaimed himself the First Emperor, or Shi Huang Di (始皇帝), creating the title of huangdi, which would be used as the title of the Chinese sovereign for the next two millennia. Qin Shi Huang also ordered the Heshibi to be crafted into the Heirloom Seal of the Realm, which would serve as a physical symbol of the Mandate of Heaven, and would be passed from emperor to emperor until its loss in the 10th century CE.

During the year 215 BC, in an attempt to expand Qin territory, Qin Shi Huang ordered military campaigns against the Xiongnu nomads in the North. Led by General Meng Tian, Qin armies successfully routed the Xiongnu from the Ordos region, setting the ancient foundations for the construction of the Great Wall of China. In the South, Qin Shi Huang also ordered several military campaigns against the Yue tribes, which annexed various regions in modern Guangdong Province and Vietnam.

Administrative reforms

In an attempt to avoid a recurrence of the political chaos of the Warring States period, Qin Shi Huang and his prime minister Li Si worked to completely abolish the feudal system of loose alliances and federations. They organized the empire into administrative units and subunits: first 36 (later 40) commanderies (郡, Jùn), then counties (縣, Xiàn), townships (鄉, Xiāng) and hundred-family units (里, Li, roughly corresponding to modern-day subdistricts and communities). People assigned to these units would no longer be identified by their native region or former feudal state, for example "Chu person" (楚人, Chu rén). Appointments were to be based on merit instead of hereditary rights.

Economic reforms
Qin Shi Huang and Li Si unified China economically by standardizing the Chinese weights and measures. Wagon axles were prescribed a standard length to facilitate road transport. The emperor also developed an extensive network of roads and canals for trade and communication. The currencies of the different states were standardized to the Ban liang coin (半兩, Bàn Liǎng). Perhaps most importantly, the Chinese script was unified. Under Li Si, the seal script of the state of Qin became the official standard, and the Qin script itself was simplified through removal of variant forms. This did away with all the regional scripts to form a universal written language for all of China, despite the diversity of spoken dialects.

Monumental statuary
According to Chinese records, after unifying the country in 221 BCE, Qin Shuhuang confiscated all the bronze weapons of the conquered countries, and cast them into twelve monumental statues, the Twelve Metal Colossi, which he used to adorn his Palace. Each statue was said to be 5 zhang [11.5 meters] in height, and weighing about 1000 dan [about 70 tons]. Sima Qian considered this as one of the great achievements of the Emperor, on a par with the "unification of the law, weights and measurements, standardization of the axle width of carriages, and standardization of the writing system". During 600 years, the statues were commented upon and moved around from palace to palace, until they were finally destroyed in the 4th century CE, but no illustration has remained.

Philosophy
While the previous Warring States era was one of constant warfare, it was also considered the golden age of free thought. Qin Shi Huang eliminated the Hundred Schools of Thought, which included Confucianism and other philosophies. With all other philosophies banned, legalism became the mandatory ideology of the Qin dynasty.

Beginning 213 BC, at the instigation of Li Si and to avoid scholars' comparisons of his reign with the past, Qin Shi Huang ordered most existing books to be burned, with the exception of those on astrology, agriculture, medicine, divination, and the history of the State of Qin. This would also serve to further the ongoing reformation of the writing system by removing examples of obsolete scripts. Owning the Book of Songs or the Classic of History was to be punished especially severely. According to the later Records of the Grand Historian, the following year Qin Shi Huang had some 460 scholars buried alive for possessing the forbidden books. The emperor's oldest son Fusu criticised him for this act. The emperor's own library did retain copies of the forbidden books, but most of these were destroyed when Xiang Yu burned the palaces of Xianyang in 206 BC.

Recent research suggests that this "burying Confucian scholars alive" is a Confucian martyrs' legend. More probably, the emperor ordered the execution (坑 kēng) of a group of alchemists who had deceived him. In the subsequent Han dynasty, the Confucian scholars, who had served the Qin loyally, used this incident to distance themselves from the failed regime. Kong Anguo (孔安國 c. 165), a descendant of Confucius, described the alchemists (方士 fāngshì) as Confucianists (儒 rú) and entwined the martyrs' legend with his story of discovering the lost Confucian books behind a demolished wall in his ancestral house.

Qin Shi Huang also followed the theory of the five elements: fire, water, earth, wood, and metal. (五德終始說) It was believed that the royal house of the previous dynasty Zhou had ruled by the power of fire, associated with the colour red. The new Qin dynasty must be ruled by the next element on the list, which is water, Zhao Zheng's birth element. Water was represented by the colour black, and black became the preferred colour for Qin garments, flags, and pennants. Other associations include north as the cardinal direction, the winter season and the number six. Tallies and official hats were 15 cm long, carriages 2 m wide, one pace was 1.4 m.

Third assassination attempt
In 230 BC, the state of Qin had defeated the state of Han. In 218 BC, a former Han aristocrat named Zhang Liang swore revenge on Qin Shi Huang. He sold his valuables and hired a strongman assassin, building a heavy metal cone weighing 120 jin (roughly 160 lb or 97 kg). The two men hid among the bushes along the emperor's route over a mountain during Qin Shi Huangdi's third imperial tour. At a signal, the muscular assassin hurled the cone at the first carriage and shattered it. However, the emperor was travelling with two identical carriages to baffle attackers, and he was actually in the second carriage. Thus the attempt failed, though both men were able to escape the subsequent manhunt.

Great Wall
Numerous state walls had been built during the previous four centuries, many of them closing gaps between river defences and impassable cliffs. To impose centralized rule and prevent the resurgence of feudal lords, the Emperor ordered the destruction of walls between the former states, which were now internal walls dividing the empire.

However, to defend against the northern Xiongnu nomadic tribes, who had beaten back repeated campaigns against them, he ordered new walls to connect the fortifications along the empire's northern frontier. Hundreds of thousands of workers were mobilized, and an unknown number died, to build this precursor to the current Great Wall of China. Transporting building materials was difficult, so builders always tried to use local materials: rock over mountain ranges, rammed earth over the plains. "Build and move on" was a guiding principle, implying that the Wall was not a permanently fixed border. There are no surviving records specifying the length and course of the Qin walls, which have largely eroded away over the centuries.

Lingqu Canal
In 214 BC the Emperor began the project of a major canal allowing water transport between north and south China, originally for military supplies. The canal, 34 kilometres in length, links two of China's major waterways, the Xiang River flowing into the Yangtze and the Li Jiang flowing into the Pearl River. The canal aided Qin's expansion to the south-west. It is considered one of the three great feats of ancient Chinese engineering, along with the Great Wall and the Sichuan Dujiangyan Irrigation System.

Elixir of life
As he grew old, Qin Shi Huang desperately sought the fabled elixir of life which supposedly confers immortality. In his obsessive quest, he fell prey to many fraudulent elixirs. He visited Zhifu Island three times in his search.

In one case he sent Xu Fu, a Zhifu islander, with ships carrying hundreds of young men and women in search of the mystical Penglai mountain. They sought Anqi Sheng, a thousand-year-old magician who had supposedly invited Qin Shi Huang during a chance meeting during his travels. The expedition never returned, perhaps for fear of the consequences of failure. Legends claim that they reached Japan and colonized it.

It is also possible that the Emperor's book burning, which exempted alchemical works, could be seen as an attempt to focus the minds of the best scholars on the Emperor's quest. Some of those buried alive were alchemists, and this could have been a means of testing their death-defying abilities.

The emperor built a system of tunnels and passageways to each of his over 200 palaces, because traveling unseen would supposedly keep him safe from evil spirits.

Death
In 211 BC a large meteor is said to have fallen in Dongjun in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, and someone inscribed the seditious words "The First Emperor will die and his land will be divided" (始皇死而地分). The Emperor sent an imperial secretary to investigate this prophecy. No one would confess to the deed, so all living nearby were put to death, and the stone was pulverized.

During his fifth tour of Eastern China, the Emperor became seriously ill in Pingyuanjin (Pingyuan County, Shandong), and died in July or August 210 BC at the palace in Shaqiu prefecture (沙丘平台, Shāqiū Píngtái), about two months travel from the capital Xianyang, at the age of 49.

The cause of Qin Shi Huang's death remains unknown, though he had been worn down by his many years of rule. One hypothesis holds that he was poisoned by an elixir containing mercury, given to him by his court alchemists and physicians in his quest for immortality.

Succession
Upon witnessing the Emperor's death, Imperial Chancellor Li Si feared the news could trigger a general uprising during the two months' travel for the imperial entourage to return to the capital Xianyang. Li Si decided to hide the emperor's death: the only members of the entourage to be informed were a younger son, Ying Huhai, the eunuch Zhao Gao, and five or six favourite eunuchs. Li Si ordered carts of rotten fish to be carried before and behind the wagon of the Emperor, to cover the foul smell of his body decomposing in the summer heat. Pretending he was alive behind the wagon's shade, they changed his clothes daily, brought food, and pretended to carry messages to and from him.

After they reached Xianyang, the death of the Emperor was announced. Qin Shi Huang had not liked to talk about his death and had never written a will. Although his eldest son Fusu was first in line to succeed him as emperor, Li Si and the chief eunuch Zhao Gao conspired to kill Fusu, who was in league with their enemy, general Meng Tian. Meng Tian's brother, a senior minister, had once punished Zhao Gao. Li Si and Zhao Gao forged a letter from Qin Shi Huang commanding Fusu and General Meng to commit suicide. The plan worked, and the younger son Hu Hai started his brief reign as the Second Emperor, later known as Qin Er Shi or "Second Generation Qin".

Family
The immediate family members of Qin Shi Huang include:
 * Parents
 * King Zhuangxiang of Qin
 * Queen Dowager Zhao
 * Half-siblings:
 * Chengjiao, legitimate paternal half brother from a different mother Lord of Chang'an
 * Two illegitimate maternal half-brothers born to Queen Dowager Zhao and Lao Ai.
 * Children:
 * Fusu, Crown Prince (1st son)
 * Gao
 * Jianglü
 * Huhai, later Qin Er Shi (18th son)

Qin Shi Huang had about 50 children (about 30 sons and 15 daughters), but most of their names are unknown. He had numerous concubines but appeared to have never named an empress.

Mausoleum and Terracotta Army

The Chinese historian Sima Qian, writing a century after the First Emperor's death, wrote that it took 700,000 men to construct the emperor's mausoleum. British historian John Man points out that this figure is larger than the population of any city in the world at that time and he calculates that the foundations could have been built by 16,000 men in two years. Sima Qian never mentioned the terracotta army, but he did mention that the Qin Emperor built monumental bronze statues for his palace. The terracotta statues were discovered by a group of farmers digging wells on 29 March 1974. The soldiers were created with a series of mix-and-match clay molds and then further individualized by the artists' hand. Han Purple was also used on some of the warriors. There are around 6,000 Terracotta Warriors and their purpose was to protect the Emperor in the afterlife from evil spirits. Also among the army are chariots and 40,000 real bronze weapons.

One of the first projects which the young king accomplished while he was alive was the construction of his own tomb. In 215 BC Qin Shi Huang ordered General Meng Tian to begin its construction with the assistance of 300,000 men. Other sources suggest that he ordered 720,000 unpaid laborers to build his tomb according to his specifications. Again, given John Man's observation regarding populations at the time (see paragraph above), these historical estimates are debatable. The main tomb (located at 34.38139°N, 109.25361°W) containing the emperor has yet to be opened and evidence suggests that it remains relatively intact. Sima Qian's description of the tomb includes replicas of palaces and scenic towers, "rare utensils and wonderful objects", 100 rivers made with mercury, representations of "the heavenly bodies", and crossbows rigged to shoot anyone who tried to break in. The tomb was built at the foot of Mount Li, 30 kilometers away from Xi'an. Modern archaeologists have located the tomb, and have inserted probes deep into it. The probes revealed abnormally high quantities of mercury, some 100 times the naturally occurring rate, suggesting that some parts of the legend are credible. Secrets were maintained, as most of the workmen who built the tomb were killed.

Reputation and assessment
Traditional Chinese historiography almost always portrayed the Emperor as a brutal tyrant who had an obsessive fear of assassination. Ideological antipathy towards the Legalist State of Qin was established as early as 266 BC, when Confucian philosopher Xunzi disparaged it. Later Confucian historians condemned the emperor, alleging that he burned the classics and buried Confucian scholars alive. They eventually compiled a list of the Ten Crimes of Qin to highlight his tyrannical actions.

The famous Han poet and statesman Jia Yi concluded his essay The Faults of Qin (過秦論, Guò Qín Lùn) with what was to become the standard Confucian judgment of the reasons for Qin's collapse. Jia Yi's essay, admired as a masterpiece of rhetoric and reasoning, was copied into two great Han histories and has had a far-reaching influence on Chinese political thought as a classic illustration of Confucian theory. He attributed Qin's disintegration to its internal failures. Jia Yi wrote that:

"Qin, from a tiny base, had become a great power, ruling the land and receiving homage from all quarters for a hundred odd years. Yet after they unified the land and secured themselves within the pass, a single common rustic could nevertheless challenge this empire... Why? Because the ruler lacked humaneness and rightness; because preserving power differs fundamentally from seizing power."

In more modern times, assessments of the Emperor that differed from those of traditional Chinese historiography began to emerge. The reassessment was spurred on by the weakness of China in the latter half of the 19th century and early 20th century. At that time, some began to regard Confucian traditions as an impediment to China's entry into the modern world, opening the way for changing perspectives.

At a time when foreign nations encroached upon Chinese territory, leading Kuomintang historian Xiao Yishan emphasized the role of Qin Shi Huang in repulsing the northern barbarians, particularly in the construction of the Great Wall.

Another historian, Ma Feibai (馬非百), published in 1941 a full-length revisionist biography of the First Emperor entitled Qín Shǐ Huángdì Zhuàn (秦始皇帝傳), calling him "one of the great heroes of Chinese history". Ma compared him with the contemporary leader Chiang Kai-shek and saw many parallels in the careers and policies of the two men, both of whom he admired. Chiang's Northern Expedition of the late 1920s, which directly preceded the new Nationalist government at Nanjing was compared to the unification brought about by Qin Shi Huang.

With the coming of the Communist Revolution and the establishment of a new, revolutionary regime in 1949, another re-evaluation of the First Emperor emerged as a Marxist critique. This new interpretation of Qin Shi Huang was generally a combination of traditional and modern views, but essentially critical. This is exemplified in the Complete History of China, which was compiled in September 1955 as an official survey of Chinese history. The work described the First Emperor's major steps toward unification and standardisation as corresponding to the interests of the ruling group and the merchant class, not of the nation or the people, and the subsequent fall of his dynasty as a manifestation of the class struggle. The perennial debate about the fall of the Qin dynasty was also explained in Marxist terms, the peasant rebellions being a revolt against oppression—a revolt which undermined the dynasty, but which was bound to fail because of a compromise with "landlord class elements".

Since 1972, however, a radically different official view of Qin Shi Huang in accordance with Maoist thought has been given prominence throughout China. Hong Shidi's biography Qin Shi Huang initiated the re-evaluation. The work was published by the state press as a mass popular history, and it sold 1.85 million copies within two years. In the new era, Qin Shi Huang was seen as a far-sighted ruler who destroyed the forces of division and established the first unified, centralized state in Chinese history by rejecting the past. Personal attributes, such as his quest for immortality, so emphasized in traditional historiography, were scarcely mentioned. The new evaluations described approvingly how, in his time (an era of great political and social change), he had no compunctions against using violent methods to crush counter-revolutionaries, such as the "industrial and commercial slave owner" chancellor Lü Buwei. However, he was criticized for not being as thorough as he should have been, and as a result, after his death, hidden subversives under the leadership of the chief eunuch Zhao Gao were able to seize power and use it to restore the old feudal order.

To round out this re-evaluation, Luo Siding put forward a new interpretation of the precipitous collapse of the Qin dynasty in an article entitled "On the Class Struggle During the Period Between Qin and Han" in a 1974 issue of Red Flag, to replace the old explanation. The new theory claimed that the cause of the fall of Qin lay in the lack of thoroughness of Qin Shi Huang's "dictatorship over the reactionaries, even to the extent of permitting them to worm their way into organs of political authority and usurp important posts."

Mao Zedong's persecution of intellectuals was compared to that of the First Emperor. On his being made aware of having been compared as such, Mao reportedly boasted: "He buried 460 scholars alive; we have buried forty-six thousand scholars alive... You [intellectuals] revile us for being Qin Shi Huangs. You are wrong. We have surpassed Qin Shi Huang a hundredfold. When you berate us for imitating his despotism, we are happy to agree! Your mistake was that you did not say so enough."

Depictions in popular media

 * "The Wall and the Books" ("La muralla y los libros"), an acclaimed essay on Qin Shi Huang published by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) in the 1952 collection Other Inquisitions (Otras Inquisiciones).
 * The Emperor's Shadow (1996) – The film focuses on Qin Shi Huang's relationship with the musician Gao Jianli, a friend of the assassin Jing Ke.
 * The Emperor and the Assassin (1999) – The film covers much of Ying Zheng's career, recalling his early experiences as a hostage and foreshadowing his dominance over China.
 * Hero (2002) – The film stars Jet Li, a nameless assassin who plans an assassination attempt on the King of Qin (Chen Daoming). The film is a fictional re-imagining of the assassination attempt by Jing Ke on Qin Shi Huang.
 * Rise of the Great Wall (1986) – a 63-episode Hong Kong TV series chronicling the events from the emperor's birth until his death. Tony Liu played Qin Shi Huang.
 * A Step into the Past (2001) – a Hong Kong TVB production based on a science fiction novel by Huang Yi.
 * Qin Shi Huang (2002) – a mainland Chinese TV semi-fictionalized series with Zhang Fengyi.
 * Kingdom (2006) – a Japanese manga that provides a fictionalized account of the unification of China by Ying Zheng with Li Xin and all the people that contributed to the conquest of the six Warring States.
 * Fate/Grand Order (2015), an online, free-to-play role-playing mobile game of the Fate franchise developed by Delightworks and published by Aniplex features Qin Shi Huang as a Ruler class servant.
 * Civilization VI (2016), a turn-based strategy 4X video game developed by Firaxis Games and published by 2K features Qin Shi Huang as a playable leader.
 * First Emperor: The Man Who Made China (2006) – a drama-documentary special about Qin Shi Huang. James Pax played the emperor. It was shown on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom in 2006.
 * China's First Emperor (2008) – a special three-hour documentary by The History Channel. Xu Pengkai played Qin Shi Huang.
 * The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008) – the third of The Mummy trilogy. It happened that after General Ming Guo was killed for touching Zi Yuan, she put a curse on the Emperor and his army.
 * Qin Shi Huang is depicted in seventh volume of the manga Record of Ragnarok, fighting Hades. In the manga, he is depicted as a tall slender young man with a cloth covering his eye. He is also shown to be wearing traditional Chinese clothing.

Early

 * Sima Qian (c. 91 BC). Records of the Grand Historian

Modern

 * Books

 * Articles

title: Qin Shi Huang


text:
Ileum

The ileum is the final section of the small intestine in most higher vertebrates, including mammals, reptiles, and birds. In fish, the divisions of the small intestine are not as clear and the terms posterior intestine or distal intestine may be used instead of ileum. Its main function is to absorb vitamin B12, bile salts, and whatever products of digestion that were not absorbed by the jejunum.

The ileum follows the duodenum and jejunum and is separated from the cecum by the ileocecal valve (ICV). In humans, the ileum is about 2–4 m long, and the pH is usually between 7 and 8 (neutral or slightly basic).

Ileum is derived from the Greek word εἰλεός (eileós), referring to a medical condition known as ileus.

Structure
The ileum is the third and final part of the small intestine. It follows the jejunum and ends at the ileocecal junction, where the terminal ileum communicates with the cecum of the large intestine through the ileocecal valve. The ileum, along with the jejunum, is suspended inside the mesentery, a peritoneal formation that carries the blood vessels supplying them (the superior mesenteric artery and vein), lymphatic vessels and nerve fibers.

There is no line of demarcation between the jejunum and the ileum. There are, however, subtle differences between the two:
 * The ileum has more fat inside the mesentery than the jejunum.
 * The diameter of its lumen is smaller and has thinner walls than the jejunum.
 * Its circular folds are smaller and absent in the terminal part of the ileum.
 * While the length of the intestinal tract contains lymphoid tissue, only the ileum has abundant Peyer's patches, unencapsulated lymphoid nodules that contain large numbers of lymphocytes and other cells of the immune system.

Histology
The four layers that make up the wall of the ileum are consistent with those of the gastrointestinal tract. From the inner to the outer surface, these are:
 * A mucous membrane, itself formed by three different layers:
 * A single layer of tall cells that line the lumen of the organ. The epithelium that forms the innermost part of the mucosa has five distinct types of cells that serve different purposes: enterocytes with microvilli, which digest and absorb nutrients; goblet cells, which secrete mucin, a substance that lubricates the wall of the organ; Paneth cells, most common in the terminal part of the ileum, are only found at the bottom of the intestinal glands and release antimicrobial substances such as alpha defensins and lysozyme; microfold cells, which take up and transport antigens from the lumen to lymphatic cells of the lamina propria; and enteroendocrine cells, which secrete hormones.
 * An underlying lamina propria composed of loose connective tissue and containing germinal centers and large aggregates of lymphoid tissue called Peyer's patches, which are a distinctive feature of the ileum.
 * A thin layer of smooth muscle called muscularis mucosae
 * A submucosa formed by dense irregular connective tissue that carries the larger blood vessels and a nervous component called submucosal plexus, which is part of the enteric nervous system
 * An external muscular layer formed by two layers of smooth muscle arranged in circular bundles in the inner layer and in longitudinal bundles in the outer layer. Between the two layers is the myenteric plexus, formed by nervous tissue and also a part of the enteric nervous system.
 * A serosa composed of mesothelium, a single layer of flat cells with varying quantities of underlying connective and adipose tissue. This layer represents the visceral peritoneum and is continuous with the mesentery.

Development
The small intestine develops from the midgut of the primitive gut tube. By the fifth week of embryological life, the ileum begins to grow longer at a very fast rate, forming a U-shaped fold called the primary intestinal loop. The proximal half of this loop will form the ileum. The loop grows so fast in length that it outgrows the abdomen and protrudes through the umbilicus. By week 10, the loop retracts back into the abdomen. Between weeks six and ten the small intestine rotates anticlockwise, as viewed from the front of the embryo. It rotates a further 180 degrees after it has moved back into the abdomen. This process creates the twisted shape of the large intestine.

In the fetus the ileum is connected to the navel by the vitelline duct. In roughly 2−4% of humans, this duct fails to close during the first seven weeks after birth, leaving a remnant called Meckel's diverticulum.

Function
The main function of the ileum is to absorb vitamin B12, bile salts, and whatever products of digestion were not absorbed by the jejunum. The wall itself is made up of folds, each of which has many tiny finger-like projections known as villi on its surface. In turn, the epithelial cells that line these villi possess even larger numbers of microvilli. Therefore, the ileum has an extremely large surface area both for the adsorption (attachment) of enzyme molecules and for the absorption of products of digestion. The DNES (diffuse neuroendocrine system) cells of the ileum secrete various hormones (gastrin, secretin, cholecystokinin) into the blood. Cells in the lining of the ileum secrete the protease and carbohydrase enzymes responsible for the final stages of protein and carbohydrate digestion into the lumen of the intestine. These enzymes are present in the cytoplasm of the epithelial cells.

The villi contain large numbers of capillaries that take the amino acids and glucose produced by digestion to the hepatic portal vein and the liver. Lacteals are small lymph vessels, and are present in villi. They absorb fatty acid and glycerol, the products of fat digestion. Layers of circular and longitudinal smooth muscle enable the chyme (partly digested food and water) to be pushed along the ileum by waves of muscle contractions called peristalsis. The remaining chyme is passed to the colon.

Clinical significance
It is of importance in medicine as it can be affected in a number of diseases, including:
 * Crohn's disease
 * Tuberculosis
 * Lymphoma
 * Neuroendocrine tumors (carcinoid)

Other animals
In veterinary anatomy, the ileum is distinguished from the jejunum by being that portion of the jejunoileum that is connected to the caecum by the ileocecal fold.

The ileum is the short termi of the small intestine and the connection to the large intestine. It is suspended by the caudal part of the mesentery (mesoileum) and is attached, in addition, to the cecum by the ileocecal fold. The ileum terminates at the cecocolic junction of the large intestine forming the ileal orifice. In the dog the ileal orifice is located at the level of the first or second lumbar vertebra, in the ox in the level of the fourth lumbar vertebrae, in the sheep and goat at the level of the caudal point of the costal arch. By active muscular contraction of the ileum, and closure of the ileal opening as a result of engorgement, the ileum prevents the backflow of ingesta and the equalization of pressure between jejunum and the base of the cecum. Disturbance of this sensitive balance is not uncommon and is one of the causes of colic in horses. During any intestinal surgery, for instance, during appendectomy, distal 2 feet of ileum should be checked for the presence of Meckel's diverticulum.

title: Ileum


text:
Pollarding

Pollarding is a pruning system involving the removal of the upper branches of a tree, which promotes the growth of a dense head of foliage and branches. In ancient Rome, Propertius mentioned pollarding during the 1st century BCE. The practice has occurred commonly in Europe since medieval times, and takes place today in urban areas worldwide, primarily to maintain trees at a determined height or to place new shoots out of the reach of grazing animals.

Traditionally, people pollarded trees for one of two reasons: for fodder to feed livestock or for wood. Fodder pollards produced "pollard hay" for livestock feed; they were pruned at intervals of two to six years so their leafy material would be most abundant. Wood pollards were pruned at longer intervals of eight to fifteen years, a pruning cycle tending to produce upright poles favored for fencing and boat construction. Supple young willow or hazel branches may be harvested as material for weaving baskets, fences, and garden constructions such as bowers. Nowadays, the practice is sometimes used for ornamental trees, such as crape myrtles in southern states of the US.

Pollarding tends to make trees live longer by maintaining them in a partially juvenile state and by reducing the weight and windage of the top part of the tree. Older pollards often become hollow, so it can be difficult to determine age accurately. Pollards tend to grow slowly, with denser growth-rings in the years immediately after cutting.

Practice

As in coppicing, pollarding is to encourage the tree to produce new growth on a regular basis to maintain a supply of new wood for various purposes, particularly for fuel. In some areas, dried leafy branches are stored as winter fodder for stock. Depending on the use of the cut material, the length of time between cutting will vary from one year for tree hay or withies, to five years or more for larger timber. Sometimes, only some of the regrown stems may be cut in a season – this is thought to reduce the chances of death of the tree when recutting long-neglected pollards.

Pollarding was preferred over coppicing in wood-pastures and other grazed areas, because animals would browse the regrowth from coppice stools. Historically in England, the right to pollard or "lop" was often granted to local people for fuel on common land or in royal forests; this was part of the right of estover.

An incidental effect of pollarding in woodland is the encouragement of underbrush growth due to increased light reaching the woodland floor. This can increase species diversity. However, in woodland where pollarding was once common but has now ceased, the opposite effect occurs, as the side and top shoots develop into trunk-sized branches. An example of this can be seen in Epping Forest, which is within both London and Essex, UK, the majority of which was pollarded until the late 19th century. Here, the light that reaches the woodland floor is limited owing to the thick growth of the pollarded trees.

Pollards cut at about a metre above the ground are called stubs (or stubbs). These were often used as markers in coppice or other woodland. Stubs cannot be used where the trees are browsed by animals, as the regrowing shoots are below the browse line.

Species
As with coppicing, only species with vigorous epicormic growth may be pollarded. In these species (which include many broadleaved trees but few conifers), removal of the main apical stems releases the growth of many dormant buds under the bark on the lower part of the tree. Trees without this growth will die without their leaves and branches. Some smaller tree species do not readily form pollards, because cutting the main stem stimulates growth from the base, effectively forming a coppice stool instead. Examples of trees that do well as pollards include broadleaves such as beeches (Fagus), oaks (Quercus), maples (Acer), black locust or false acacia (Robinia pseudoacacia), hornbeams (Carpinus), lindens and limes (Tilia), planes (Platanus), horse chestnuts (Aesculus), mulberries (Morus), Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis), tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima), willows (Salix), and a few conifers, such as yews (Taxus).

The technique is used in Africa for moringa trees to bring the nutritious leaves into easier reach for harvesting. Pollarding is also used in urban forestry in certain areas for reasons such as tree size management, safety, and health concerns. It removes rotting or diseased branches to support the overall health of the tree and removes living and dead branches that could harm property and people, as well as increasing the amount of foliage in spring for aesthetic, shade and air quality reasons. Some trees may be rejuvenated by pollarding – for example, Bradford pear (Pyrus calleryana 'Bradford'), a flowering species that becomes brittle and top-heavy when older.

Oaks, when very old, can form new trunks from the growth of pollard branches; that is, surviving branches which have split away from the main branch naturally.

In Japan, Daisugi is practiced on Cryptomeria.

Origin and usage of term

"Poll" was originally a name for the top of the head, and "to poll" was a verb meaning 'to crop the hair'. This use was extended to similar treatment of the branches of trees and the horns of animals. A pollard simply meant someone or something that had been polled (similar to the formation of "drunkard" and "sluggard"); for example, a hornless ox or polled livestock. Later, the noun "pollard" came to be used as a verb: "pollarding". Pollarding has now largely replaced polling as the verb in the forestry sense. Pollard can also be used as an adjective: "pollard tree".

title: Pollarding