text:
Taichang Emperor

The Taichang Emperor (28 August 1582 – 26 September 1620), personal name Zhu Changluo, was the 15th emperor of the Ming dynasty. He was the eldest son of the Wanli Emperor and succeeded his father as emperor in 1620. However, his reign came to an abrupt end less than one month after his coronation when he was found dead one morning in the palace following a bout of diarrhea. He was succeeded by his son, Zhu Youjiao, who was enthroned as the Tianqi Emperor. His era name, "Taichang", means "grand prosperity." His reign was the shortest in Ming history.

Zhu Changluo was born in 1582, during the tenth year of the Wanli Emperor's reign. His mother, Lady Wang, was a servant of the emperor's mother. Lady Wang was promoted, but did not gain the favor of the Wanli Emperor, and her son, despite being the emperor's eldest, was ignored by him. Instead, the Wanli Emperor showed preference towards Zhu Changxun, the son of his favorite concubine, Lady Zheng. This led to the Wanli Emperor's intention to appoint Zhu Changxun as crown prince, but it faced strong opposition from the ministers. As a result, the matter remained at a standstill for many years due to the stubbornness of both sides.

In 1601, the Wanli Emperor finally succumbed to the pressure of ministers, officials, and above all his mother, and officially appointed nineteen-year-old Zhu Changluo as the crown prince and rightful heir to the throne. However, even with this formal recognition, intrigue and the emperor's dissatisfaction with the succession persisted. In 1615, the court was rocked by an unusual scandal when a man named Zhang Chai armed himself with a wooden staff and broke into the Forbidden City, specifically targeting the Crown Prince's palace. While the initial investigation deemed him insane, another investigator suggested the involvement of two eunuchs close to Lady Zheng. Both eunuchs were swiftly executed, but speculation about the true perpetrators of the plot continued to circulate.

The Wanli Emperor died on 18 August 1620, and Zhu Changluo officially ascended the throne as the Taichang Emperor on 28 August. However, just a few days after his coronation, he fell ill and died on 26 September 1620, despite attempts at treatment. The Taichang Emperor's eldest son, Zhu Youxiao, then became the new Ming ruler. The death of the relatively young emperor sparked suspicion, speculation, and recrimination among different court factions.

Early life
Zhu Changluo was born in 1582, the 10th year of the Wanli era, to the Wanli Emperor and a palace attendant, Lady Wang, who served under the Emperor's mother, Empress Dowager Xiaoding. After it was discovered that Lady Wang was pregnant, the Emperor was persuaded by his mother to make her a concubine and awarded her the title "Consort Gong of the Second Grade" (恭妃). However she was never one of the Wanli Emperor's favourite consorts. After his birth, Zhu Changluo was largely ignored by his father even though he, as the firstborn son of the emperor, was by default the heir apparent (crown prince) according to the Ming dynasty's traditional rules of succession. He was born shortly after his elder sister, the Princess Rongchang; the Wanli Emperor's eldest child and only child with his primary wife Empress Xiaoduanxian.

Zhu Changluo spent most of his life as a hapless pawn in a power struggle for the title of crown prince. The Wanli Emperor openly preferred naming Zhu Changxun, his younger son born to his favourite consort Noble Consort Zheng as crown prince over the seniority of Zhu Changluo, but his intention was met with vehement opposition by most of his Confucian-educated ministers who insisted that the Emperor adhered to dynastic traditions. Frustrated by the multiple petitions to install Zhu Changluo as crown prince, the Wanli Emperor decided to stonewall the issue and left the question of his designated heir in suspense. Some historians have suggested that the impasse on the selection of crown prince was part of the cause of the Wanli Emperor's withdrawal from daily government administration.

Caught in this political limbo, Zhu Changluo was deliberately not assigned a regular tutor or given any systematic Confucian education even after he started school at the age of 13, an unusually late age for Ming princes to begin their education. In 1601, the Wanli Emperor gave in to pressure from his ministers and more importantly from the empress dowager and a 19-year-old Zhu Changluo was formally instated as crown prince and heir apparent. However this formal recognition did not signal the end of court intrigues. Rumours of the Wanli Emperor's intention to replace Zhu Changluo with Zhu Changxun continued to surface through the years,

In 1615, the Ming imperial court was hit by a mysterious scandal. A man called Zhang Chai, armed only with a wooden staff, managed to drive away the eunuchs guarding the palace gates and break into Ciqing Palace—then the crown prince's living quarters. Zhang Chai was eventually subdued and thrown in prison. Although initial investigations found him to be a lunatic, upon further investigations by a magistrate named Wang Zhicai, Zhang Chai confessed to being party to a plot instigated by two eunuchs working under Noble Consort Zheng. According to Zhang Chai's confession, the two eunuchs had promised him rewards for assaulting the crown prince, thus indirectly implicating Lady Zheng in an assassination plot. Presented with incriminating evidence and the gravity of the accusations, the Wanli Emperor, in an attempt to spare Lady Zheng, personally presided over the case and laid full blame on the two eunuchs, who were executed along with Zhang Chai. Although the case was quickly hushed up, it did not squelch public discussions and eventually became known as the "Case of the Wooden Staff Assault" (梃擊案), one of three notorious mysteries of the late Ming dynasty.

In 1615, the crown prince became infuriated with his concubine, Lady Liu, who was the mother of the future Chongzhen Emperor. He ordered her punished, Lady Liu died during the ordeal. It is debated whether the crown prince ordered her to be killed or if her death was an accident. Fearing that this incident would further turn his father against him and towards Zhu Changxun, the crown prince had Lady Liu secretly buried in the Western Hills near Beijing and forbade palace staff from mentioning the affair. On his ascension to the throne, the Chongzhen Emperor had Lady Liu reburied in the Ming tombs next to her husband.

Reign
The Wanli Emperor died on 18 August 1620 and was succeeded by Zhu Changluo on 28 August 1620, the latter's 38th birthday by Western calculation. Upon his coronation, Zhu Changluo adopted the era name "Taichang" (literally "grand prosperity") for his reign, hence he is known as the Taichang Emperor.

The first few days of his reign started promisingly enough as recorded in the Ming histories. Two million taels of silver was entailed as a gift to the troops guarding the border, important bureaucratic posts left vacant during the Wanli Emperor's long periods of administrative inactivity were finally starting to be filled, and many of the deeply unpopular extraordinary taxes and duties imposed by the Wanli Emperor were also revoked at this time. However, ten days after his coronation, the Taichang Emperor became so ill that celebrations for his birthday (by Chinese calculation) were cancelled.

According to non-official primary sources, the Taichang Emperor's illness was brought about by excessive sexual indulgence after he was presented with eight maidens by Lady Zheng. The emperor's already serious condition was further compounded by severe diarrhoea after taking a dose of laxative, recommended by an attending eunuch Cui Wensheng on 10 September. Finally on 25 September, to counter the effects of the laxative, he asked for and took a red pill presented by a minor court official named Li Kezhuo, who dabbled in apothecary.

It was recorded in official Ming histories that the Taichang Emperor felt much better after taking the red pill, regained his appetite and repeatedly praised Li Kezhuo as a "loyal subject". That same afternoon, the emperor took a second pill and was found dead the next morning on 26 September 1620.

The death of an emperor who was seemingly in good health within the span of a month sent shock waves through the Ming Empire and rumours started spreading. The much talked about mystery surrounding the Taichang Emperor's death became known as the infamous "Case of the Red Pills" (红丸案), one of three notorious 'mysteries' of the late Ming dynasty. Consort Kang of the Li Clan was also involved in this matter. The fate of Li Kezhuo, whose pills were at the center of this controversy, became a hotly contested subject between competing power factions of officials and eunuchs vying for influence at the Ming imperial court. Opinions ranged from awarding him money for the emperor's initial recovery to executing his entire family for murdering the emperor. The question was finally settled in 1625 when Li Kezhuo was exiled to the border regions on the order of the powerful eunuch Wei Zhongxian, signalling the total dominance of eunuchs during the reign of the Taichang Emperor's son, the Tianqi Emperor.

Legacy
The Taichang Emperor's unexpected death threw the Ming imperial court into some logistical disarray. Firstly, the court was still officially in mourning over the death of the Wanli Emperor, whose corpse at this point was still lying in state waiting for an auspicious date to be interred. Secondly, all imperial tombs were custom made by the reigning emperor and there was no proper place to bury the Taichang Emperor, who had only just ascended the throne. A tomb was hastily commissioned over the foundation of the demolished tomb of the Jingtai Emperor. The construction was finally completed on the eighth month of 1621 and consecrated Qingling (庆陵). Finally, on the question of naming the emperor's reign, although the emperor had taken the formal era name of "Taichang", it was sandwiched between the 48th year of the Wanli era (1620) and the first year of the Tianqi era (1621). After much discussion, the Ming imperial court accepted Zuo Guangdou's suggestion to designate the Wanli era as having ended in the seventh lunar month of 1620, while the Taichang era spanned from the 8th to 12th months in the same year. The Tianqi era officially started from the first lunar month of 1621.

Family
Consorts and Issue:
 * Empress Xiaoyuanzhen, of the Guo clan (孝元貞皇后 郭氏; 1580–1613)
 * Princess Huaishu (懷淑公主; 1604–1610), personal name Huijian (徽娟), second daughter
 * Empress Dowager Xiaohe, of the Wang clan (孝和皇太后 王氏; 1582–1619)
 * Zhu Youjiao, the Tianqi Emperor (天啓帝 朱由校; 23 December 1605 – 30 September 1627), first son
 * Zhu Youxue, Prince Huai of Jian (簡懷王 朱由㰒; 1607–1610), second son
 * Empress Dowager Xiaochun, of the Liu clan (孝純皇太后 劉氏; 1588–1615)
 * Zhu Youjian, the Chongzhen Emperor (崇禎帝 朱由檢; 6 February 1611 – 25 April 1644), fifth son
 * Consort Gongyizhuang, of the Li clan (恭懿莊妃 李氏; 5 December 1588 – 6 December 1624)
 * Consort Yi, of the Fu clan (懿妃 傅氏; 1588–1644)
 * Princess Ningde (寧德公主), personal name Huiyan (徽妍), sixth daughter
 * Married Liu Youfu (劉有福) in 1626
 * Princess Suiping (遂平公主; 1611 – 8 February 1633), personal name Huijing (徽婧), seventh daughter
 * Married Qi Zanyuan (齊贊元) in 1627, and had issue (four daughters)
 * Consort Kang, of the Li clan (康妃 李氏; 1584–1674)
 * Zhu Youmo, Prince Hui of Huai (懷惠王 朱由模; 30 November 1610 – 1615), fourth son
 * Princess Le'an (樂安公主; 1611–1643), personal name Huiti (徽媞), ninth daughter
 * Married Gong Yonggu (鞏永固; d. 1644), and had issue (three sons, two daughters)
 * Zhu Huizhao, (朱徽妱; 1616–1617), tenth daughter
 * Consort Yi, of the Ding clan (懿妃 定氏)
 * Zhu Youxu, Prince Huai of Xiang (湘懷王 朱由栩), sixth son
 * Consort Jing, of the Feng clan (敬妃 馮氏)
 * Zhu Youshan, Prince Zhao of Hui (慧昭王 朱由橏; b. 1620), seventh son
 * Concubine Shen, of the Shao clan (慎嬪 邵氏)
 * Princess Daowen (悼溫公主; 1621–1621), personal name Huizheng (徽姃), 11th daughter
 * Concubine Xiang, of the Zhang clan (襄嬪 張氏)
 * Concubine Ke, of the Li clan (恪嬪 李氏)
 * Concubine Ding, of the Guo clan (定嬪 郭氏)
 * Lady of Selected Service, of the Wang clan (選侍 王氏)
 * Zhu Youji, Prince Si of Qi (齊思王 朱由楫; 14 August 1609 – 1616), third son
 * Lady of Selected Service, of the Zhao clan (選侍 趙氏; d. 1620)
 * Unknown
 * Princess Daoyi (悼懿公主), first daughter
 * Zhu Huiheng (朱徽姮), third daughter
 * Princess Daoshun (悼順公主; 1606–1607), personal name Huixian (徽嫙), fourth daughter
 * Zhu Huiweng, (朱徽㜲; 1608–1609), fifth daughter
 * Zhu Huiwan (朱徽婉), eighth daughter

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Taichang Emperor


text:
Tianqi Emperor

The Tianqi Emperor ( 23 December 1605 – 30 September 1627), personal name Zhu Youjiao, was the 16th emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1620 to 1627. He was the eldest son of the Taichang Emperor and a elder brother of the Chongzhen Emperor, who succeeded him. "Tianqi", the era name of his reign, means "heavenly opening".

Biography
Zhu Youjiao became emperor at the age of 15, following the death of his father, the Taichang Emperor, who ruled less than a month. He did not pay much attention to state affairs, and was accused of failing in his filial duties to his late father by not continuing the latter's wishes. It is possible that Zhu Youjiao suffered from a learning disability or something more. He was illiterate and showed no interest in his studies. However, he was an outstanding carpenter and craftsman, often spending vast amounts of time on woodworking and instructing his servants to sell his creations undercover on the market just to see how much they were worth.

Because the Tianqi Emperor was unable to read court memorials and uninterested in state affairs, the court eunuch Wei Zhongxian and the emperor's wet nurse Madam Ke seized power and controlled the Ming imperial court, with the Tianqi Emperor as merely a puppet ruler. The Tianqi Emperor apparently devoted his time to carpentry. Wei Zhongxian took advantage of the situation and began appointing the people he trusted to important positions in the imperial court. Meanwhile, Madam Ke sought to retain power by removing all other women from the emperor's harem by locking away the emperor's concubines and starving them to death. It is believed that he had two private palaces; one for his female lovers and one for his male lovers.

One Confucian moralist group, the Donglin Movement, expressed distress at the conditions of the government. In response, the imperial court, under Wei Zhongxian's control, covertly ordered the execution of a number of officials associated with the Donglin Movement. Living conditions worsened during the Tianqi Emperor's reign. The Ming dynasty also faced several popular uprisings.

The Tianqi Emperor died heirless on 30 September 1627 due to his only son having died in the Wanggongchang Explosion and was succeeded by his fifth and sole surviving brother, Zhu Youjian, because he had no sons to succeed him. Zhu Youjian was enthroned as the Chongzhen Emperor. As both the Tianqi Emperor's daughters died early too, it seems that there were no natural heirs from the emperor left alive.

Family
Consorts and Issue:
 * Empress Xiao'aizhe, of the Zhang clan (孝哀悊皇后 張氏; 1610–1644), personal name Yan (嫣)
 * Zhu Ciran, Crown Prince Huaichong (懷衝皇太子 朱慈燃; 4 November 1623), first son
 * Consort Hui, of the Fan clan (慧妃 范氏), later Imperial Noble Consort
 * Princess Yongning (永寧公主; 1622–1624), personal name Shu'e (淑娥), first daughter
 * Zhu Ciyu, Crown Prince Daohuai (悼懷皇太子 朱慈焴; 1623–1624), second son
 * Consort Rong, of the Ren clan (容妃 任氏), later Imperial Noble Consort
 * Zhu Cijiong, Crown Prince Xianhuai (獻懷皇太子 朱慈炅; 31 October 1625 – 30 May 1626), third son, died during the Wanggongchang Explosion
 * Consort Gonghuichun, of the Duan clan (恭惠純妃 段氏; 10 May 1607 – 3 July 1629)
 * Consort Cheng, of the Li clan (成妃 李氏; 1605 – 21 December 1637)
 * Princess Huaining (懷寧公主; 1624), personal name Shumo (淑嫫), second daughter
 * Consort Daoshunyu, of the Zhang clan (悼順裕妃 張氏; 22 August 1606 – 16 September 1623)
 * Consort Liang, of the Wang clan (良妃 王氏)
 * Noble Lady, of the Feng clan (貴人 馮氏)
 * Noble Lady, of the Hu clan (貴人 胡氏; d. 1623)

Portrayals in the media
In August and September 2009, a 42-hour television series dramatising the events during the reign of the Tianqi Emperor was shown on Chinese television – two hours per night for 21 days. It vividly showed how a hereditary monarchy can lead to the rampant abuse of power. The series ended on 17 September, just two weeks before the 60th anniversary (five 12-year cycles) of the establishment of the People's Republic of China.

title: Tianqi Emperor


text:
Chongzhen Emperor

The Chongzhen Emperor (6 February 1611 – 25 April 1644), personal name Zhu Youjian, courtesy name Deyue (德約), was the 17th and last emperor of the Ming dynasty. He reigned from 1627 to 1644. "Chongzhen", the era name of his reign, means "honorable and auspicious."

Zhu Youjian was son of the Taichang Emperor and younger brother of the Tianqi Emperor, whom he succeeded to the throne in 1627. He battled peasant rebellions and was not able to defend the northern frontier against the Manchu. When rebels under Li Zicheng reached the capital Beijing in 1644, he committed suicide, ending the Ming dynasty. The Manchu formed the succeeding Qing dynasty.

In 1645, Zhu Yousong, who had proclaimed himself the Hongguang Emperor of the Southern Ming dynasty, gave the Chongzhen Emperor the temple name "Sizong". In historical texts, "Sizong" is the most common temple name of the Chongzhen Emperor, even though the Southern Ming rulers had changed "Sizong" to "Yizong" (毅宗) and then to "Weizong" (威宗). The Qing dynasty gave the Chongzhen Emperor the temple name "Huaizong" (懷宗), but the temple name was later revoked.

Early life
Zhu Youjian was the fifth son of Zhu Changluo, the Taichang Emperor, and one of his low-ranking concubines, Lady Liu. When Zhu Youjian was four years old, his mother was executed by his father for reasons unknown and was buried secretly. Zhu Youjian was then adopted by his father's other concubines. He was first raised by Consort Kang, and after she adopted his eldest brother Zhu Youxiao, he was raised by Consort Zhuang.

All of the Taichang Emperor's sons died before reaching adulthood except for Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youjian. Zhu Youjian grew up in a relatively lonely but quiet environment. After the Taichang Emperor died in 1620, Zhu Youjian's elder brother Zhu Youxiao succeeded their father and was enthroned as the Tianqi Emperor. He granted the title "Prince of Xin" (信王) to Zhu Youjian and posthumously honoured Zhu Youjian's mother, Lady Liu, as "Consort Xian" (賢妃). Fearing the court eunuch Wei Zhongxian, who controlled the Tianqi Emperor, Zhu Youjian avoided attending imperial court sessions under the pretext of illness until he was summoned to court by his brother in 1627. At the time, the Tianqi Emperor was gravely ill and wanted Zhu Youjian to rely on Wei Zhongxian in the future.

Reign
When the Tianqi Emperor died in October 1627, he had no surviving heir (his last son died a year prior during the mysterious Wanggongchang Explosion). As the emperor's brother, Zhu Youjian, then about 16 years old, ascended the throne as the Chongzhen Emperor. His succession was helped by Empress Zhang (widow of the Tianqi Emperor), despite the manoeuvres of the chief eunuch, Wei Zhongxian, who wanted to continue to dominate the imperial court. From the beginning of his rule, the Chongzhen Emperor did his best to stem the decline of the Ming dynasty. His efforts at reform focused on the top ranks of the civil and military establishment. However, years of internal corruption and an empty treasury made it almost impossible to find capable ministers to fill important government posts. The emperor also tended to be suspicious of his subordinates, executing dozens of field commanders, including general Yuan Chonghuan, who had directed the defence of the northern frontier against the Manchu (later known as the Qing dynasty). The Chongzhen Emperor's reign was marked by his fear of factionalism among his officials, which had been a serious issue during the reign of the Tianqi Emperor. After his brother's death, the Chongzhen Emperor immediately eliminated Wei Zhongxian and Madam Ke, as well as other officials thought to be involved in the "Wei-Ke conspiracy".

Meanwhile, partisans of the Donglin Academy faction, which had been devastated under Wei Zhongxian's influence, established political organizations throughout the Jiangnan region. Chief among these was the Fushe, or Restoration Society, whose members were a new generation of scholars who identified with the old Donglin faction. They succeeded in placing their members into high government posts through the imperial examinations of 1630 and 1631. The reversal of Wei Zhongxian's fortunes resulted in a renewal of the Donglin faction's influence at court, arousing great suspicion from the Chongzhen Emperor. The nomination of Donglin favorite Qian Qianyi for the post of Grand Secretary led to accusations of corruption and factionalism by his rival Wen Tiren. Qian Qianyi was imprisoned on the emperor's orders. Though he was soon released, his status was reduced to that of a commoner and he returned to Jiangnan. Wen Tiren would later become Grand Secretary himself.

Peasant rebellions and Manchu invasion
In the early 17th century, persistent drought and famine driven by the Little Ice Age accelerated the collapse of the Ming dynasty. Two major popular uprisings swelled up, led by Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng, both poor men from famine-hit Shaanxi who took up arms in the 1620s. At the same time, Ming armies were occupied in the defence of the northern border against the Manchu ruler Hong Taiji, whose father, Nurhaci, had united the Manchu tribes into a cohesive force. In 1636, after years of campaigns against Ming fortifications north of the Great Wall, Hong Taiji declared himself emperor of the Qing dynasty.

Through the 1630s, rebellion spread from Shaanxi to nearby Huguang and Henan. From 1633 to 1644, the Great Plague of Jingshi devastated northern China. In 1641, Xiangyang fell to Zhang Xianzhong, and Luoyang to Li Zicheng. The next year, Li Zicheng captured Kaifeng. The year after that, Zhang Xianzhong took Wuchang and established himself the ruler of his Xi kingdom. Court officials offered a number of unrealistic proposals to stop the rebel armies, including the establishment of archery contests, the restoration of the weisuo military colony system, and the execution of disloyal peasants. Li Zicheng took Xi'an in late 1643, renaming it Chang'an, which had been the city's name when it was the capital of the Tang dynasty. On the lunar New Year of 1644, he proclaimed himself king of the Shun dynasty and prepared to capture Beijing.

By this point, the situation had become critical for the Chongzhen Emperor, who rejected proposals to recruit new militias from the Beijing region and to recall general Wu Sangui, the defender of Shanhai Pass on the Great Wall. The Chongzhen Emperor had dispatched a new field commander, Yu Yinggui, who failed to stop Li Zicheng's armies as they crossed the Yellow River in December 1643. Back in Beijing, the capital defence forces consisted of old and feeble men, who were starving because of the corruption of eunuchs responsible for provisioning their supplies. The troops had not been paid for nearly a year. Meanwhile, the capture of Taiyuan by Li Zicheng's forces gave his campaign additional momentum; garrisons began to surrender to him without a fight. Through February and March 1644, the Chongzhen Emperor declined repeated proposals to move the court south to Nanjing, and in early April, he rejected a suggestion to move the crown prince to the south.

Death

In April 1644, the Ming imperial court finally ordered Wu Sangui to move his army south from his fortress at Ningyuan to Shanhai Pass. It was too late, however, and Wu would not reach Shanhai Pass until 26 April. Word reached Beijing that Shun rebels were approaching the capital through Juyong Pass, and the Chongzhen Emperor held his last audience with his ministers on 23 April. Li Zicheng offered the emperor an opportunity to surrender, but the negotiations produced no result. Li commanded his forces to attack on 24 April. Rather than face capture by the rebels, the Chongzhen Emperor gathered all members of the imperial household except his sons. Using his sword, he killed Consort Yuan and Princess Zhaoren, and severed the arm of Princess Changping.

On 25 April, the Chongzhen Emperor was said to have walked to Meishan, a small hill in present-day Jingshan Park. There, he either hanged himself on a tree, or strangled himself with a sash. By some accounts, the emperor left a suicide note that said, "I die unable to face my ancestors in the underworld, dejected and ashamed. May the rebels dismember my corpse and slaughter my officials, but let them not despoil the imperial tombs nor harm a single one of our people." According to a servant who discovered the emperor's body under a tree, however, the words tianzi (Son of Heaven) were the only written evidence left after his death. The emperor was buried in the Ming tombs.

The Manchus were quick to exploit the death of the Chongzhen Emperor: by claiming to "avenge the emperor," they rallied support from loyalist Ming forces and civilians. The Shun dynasty lasted less than a year with Li Zicheng's defeat at the Battle of Shanhai Pass. The victorious Manchus established the Shunzhi Emperor of the Qing dynasty as ruler of all China. Because the Chongzhen Emperor had refused to move the court south to Nanjing, the new Qing government was able to take over a largely intact Beijing bureaucracy, aiding their efforts to displace the Ming.

After the Chongzhen Emperor's death, loyalist forces proclaimed a Southern Ming dynasty in Nanjing, naming Zhu Yousong (the Prince of Fu) as the Hongguang Emperor. In 1645, however, Qing armies started to move against the Ming remnants. The Southern Ming, again bogged down by factional infighting, were unable to hold back the Qing onslaught, and Nanjing surrendered on 8 June 1645. Zhu Yousong was captured on 15 June and brought to Beijing, where he died the following year. The dwindling Southern Ming were continually pushed farther south, and the last emperor of the Southern Ming, Zhu Youlang, was finally caught in Burma, transported to Yunnan, and executed in 1662 by Wu Sangui.

Legacy
While the Chongzhen Emperor was not especially incompetent by the standards of the later Ming, he nevertheless sealed the fate of the Ming dynasty. In many ways, he did his best to save the dynasty. However, despite a reputation for hard work, the emperor's paranoia, impatience, stubbornness and lack of regard for the plight of his people doomed his crumbling empire. His attempts at reform did not take into account the considerable decline of Ming power, which was already far advanced at the time of his accession. Over the course of his 17-year reign, the Chongzhen Emperor executed seven military governors, 11 regional commanders, replaced his minister of defence 14 times, and appointed an unprecedented 50 ministers to the Grand Secretariat (equivalent to the cabinet and chancellor). Even though the Ming dynasty still possessed capable commanders and skilled politicians in its dying years, the Chongzhen Emperor's impatience and paranoid personality prevented any of them from enacting any real plan to salvage a perilous situation.

In particular, the Chongzhen Emperor's execution of Yuan Chonghuan on extremely flimsy grounds was regarded as the decisively fatal blow. At the time of his death, Yuan was supreme commander of all Ming forces in the northeast, and had just rushed from the borders to defend the capital against a surprise Manchu invasion. For much of the preceding decade, Yuan had served as the Ming Empire's bulwark in the north, where he was responsible for securing Ming borders at a time when the Empire was suffering humiliating defeat after defeat. His unjust death destroyed Ming military morale and removed one of the greatest obstacles to the eventual Manchu conquest of China.

Family
Consorts and Issue:
 * Empress Xiaojielie, of the Zhou clan (孝節烈皇后 周氏; 10 May 1611 – 24 April 1644)
 * Zhu Cilang, Crown Prince Xianmin (獻愍太子 朱慈烺; 26 February 1629 – 1644), first son
 * Zhu Cixuan, Prince Yin of Huai (懷隱王 朱慈烜; died 15 January 1630), second son
 * Princess Kunyi (坤儀公主; 1630 – 24 April 1644), first daughter
 * Princess Changping (長平公主; 1630–1646), personal name Meichuo (媺娖), second daughter
 * Married Zhou Xian (周顯) in 1644
 * Zhu Cijiong, Prince Ai of Ding (定哀王 朱慈炯; b. 1632), third son
 * Princess Zhaoren (昭仁公主; 1639 – 24 April 1644), third daughter
 * Imperial Noble Consort Gongshu, of the Tian clan (恭淑皇貴妃 田氏; 1611 – 16 October 1642), personal name Xiuying (秀英)
 * Zhu Cizhao, Prince Dao of Yong (永悼王 朱慈炤; b. 1632), fourth son
 * Zhu Cihuan, Prince Daoling (悼靈王 朱慈煥; 1633–1637), fifth son
 * Zhu Cican, Prince Daohuai (悼懷王 朱慈燦; 1637 – 5 May 1639), sixth son
 * Prince Daoliang (悼良王), seventh son
 * Noble Consort, of the Yuan clan (貴妃 袁氏; 1616 – 24 April 1644)
 * Fourth daughter
 * Consort Shun, of the Wang clan (順妃 王氏)
 * Consort, of the Shen clan (妃 沈氏)
 * Consort, of the Wang clan (妃 王氏) (first)
 * Consort, of the Wang clan (妃 王氏) (second)
 * Consort, of the Liu clan (妃 劉氏)
 * Consort, of the Fang clan (妃 方氏)
 * Consort, of the You clan (妃 尤氏)
 * Lady of Selected Service, of the Fan clan (選侍 范氏)
 * Lady of Selected Service, of the Xue clan (選侍 薛氏)
 * Yang Yanji (養豔姬)
 * Lin Wanyu (藺婉玉)
 * Unknown
 * Fifth daughter
 * Sixth daughter

In popular culture

 * Portrayed by Seo Young-jin in the 1981 KBS1 TV Series Daemyeong.
 * Portrayed by Wong Wai in the 2000, TVB series Crimson Sabre.
 * Portrayed by Moses Chan in the 2003, TVB series Perish in the Name of Love.

title: Chongzhen Emperor


text:
Astronomical symbols

Astronomical symbols are abstract pictorial symbols used to represent astronomical objects, theoretical constructs and observational events in European astronomy. The earliest forms of these symbols appear in Greek papyrus texts of late antiquity. The Byzantine codices in which many Greek papyrus texts were preserved continued and extended the inventory of astronomical symbols. New symbols have been invented to represent many planets and minor planets discovered in the 18th to the 21st centuries.

These symbols were once commonly used by professional astronomers, amateur astronomers, alchemists, and astrologers. While they are still commonly used in almanacs and astrological publications, their occurrence in published research and texts on astronomy is relatively infrequent, with some exceptions such as the Sun and Earth symbols appearing in astronomical constants, and certain zodiacal signs used to represent the solstices and equinoxes.

Unicode has encoded many of these symbols, mainly in the Miscellaneous Symbols, Miscellaneous Symbols and Arrows, Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs, and Alchemical Symbols blocks.

Symbols for the Sun and Moon
The use of astronomical symbols for the Sun and Moon dates to antiquity. The forms of the symbols that appear in the original papyrus texts of Greek horoscopes are a circle with one ray for the Sun and a crescent for the Moon. The modern Sun symbol, a circle with a dot (☉), first appeared in Europe in the Renaissance.

In modern academic writing, the Sun symbol is used for astronomical constants relating to the Sun. T eff☉ represents the solar effective temperature, and the luminosity, mass, and radius of stars are often represented using the corresponding solar constants (,, and , respectively) as units of measurement.

Symbols for the planets
Symbols for the classical planets appear in many medieval Byzantine codices in which many ancient horoscopes were preserved. The written symbols for Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn have been traced to forms found in late Greek papyrus texts. The symbols for Jupiter and Saturn are identified as monograms of the corresponding Greek names, and the symbol for Mercury is a stylized caduceus. According to A.S.D. Maunder, antecedents of the planetary symbols were used in art to represent the gods associated with the classical planets; Bianchini's planisphere, discovered by Francesco Bianchini in the 18th century, produced in the 2nd century, shows Greek personifications of planetary gods charged with early versions of the planetary symbols: Mercury has a caduceus; Venus has, attached to her necklace, a cord connected to another necklace; Mars, a spear; Jupiter, a staff; Saturn, a scythe; the Sun, a circlet with rays radiating from it; and the Moon, a headdress with a crescent attached.

A diagram in Byzantine astronomer Johannes Kamateros's 12th century Compendium of Astrology shows the Sun represented by the circle with a ray, Jupiter by the letter Zeta (the initial of Zeus, Jupiter's counterpart in Greek mythology), Mars by a shield crossed by a spear, and the remaining classical planets by symbols resembling the modern ones, without the cross-mark at the bottom of the modern versions of the symbols for Mercury and Venus. These cross-marks first appear around the 16th century. According to Maunder, the addition of crosses appears to be "an attempt to give a savour of Christianity to the symbols of the old pagan gods."

The symbols for Uranus were created shortly after its discovery. One symbol,, invented by J. G. Köhler and refined by Bode, was intended to represent the newly discovered metal platinum; since platinum, commonly called white gold, was found by chemists mixed with iron, the symbol for platinum combines the alchemical symbols for the planetary elements iron, ♂, and gold, ☉. Another symbol,, was suggested by Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande in 1784. In a letter to William Herschel, Lalande described it as "un globe surmonté par la première lettre de votre nom" ("a globe surmounted by the first letter of your name"). Today, Köhler's symbol is more common among astronomers, and Lalande's among astrologers, although it is not uncommon to see each symbol in the other context.

Several symbols were proposed for Neptune to accompany the suggested names for the planet. Claiming the right to name his discovery, Urbain Le Verrier originally proposed the name Neptune and the symbol of a trident, while falsely stating that this had been officially approved by the French Bureau des Longitudes. In October, he sought to name the planet Leverrier, after himself, and he had loyal support in this from the observatory director, François Arago, who in turn proposed a new symbol for the planet. However, this suggestion met with stiff resistance outside France. French almanacs quickly reintroduced the name Herschel for Uranus, after that planet's discoverer Sir William Herschel, and Leverrier for the new planet. Professor James Pillans of the University of Edinburgh defended the name Janus for the new planet, and proposed a key for its symbol. Meanwhile, German-Russian astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve presented the name Neptune on December 29, 1846, to the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In August 1847, the Bureau des Longitudes announced its decision to follow prevailing astronomical practice and adopt the choice of Neptune, with Arago refraining from participating in this decision.

The International Astronomical Union discourages the use of these symbols in journal articles, though they do occur. In certain cases where planetary symbols might be used, such as in the headings of tables, the IAU Style Manual permits certain one- and (to disambiguate Mercury and Mars) two-letter abbreviations for the names of the planets.

 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

! scope="col" | Planet !! scope="col" | IAU abbreviation !! scope="col" | Symbol !! scope="col" | Unicode code point !! scope="col" | Unicode display !! scope="col" | Represents (dec 9791) (dec 9792) (dec 128808) (dec 9793) (dec 9794) (dec 9795) (dec 9796) (dec 9954) (dec 9797) (more common in older or British literature) (dec 9798) (dec 11209) (more common in older, especially French, literature)
 * + Planets
 * scope="row" | Mercury
 * H, Me
 * align=center | Mercury symbol (fixed width).svg
 * align=center | Mercury symbol (fixed width).svg
 * U+263F
 * style="text-align: left;" | Mercury's caduceus, with a cross
 * scope="row" | Venus
 * V
 * align=center | Venus symbol (fixed width).svg
 * V
 * align=center | Venus symbol (fixed width).svg
 * U+2640
 * style="text-align: left;" | Perhaps Venus's necklace or a (copper) hand mirror, with a cross
 * scope="row" rowspan="2" | Earth
 * rowspan="2" | E
 * align=center | Earth symbol (fixed width).svg
 * rowspan="2" | E
 * align=center | Earth symbol (fixed width).svg
 * U+1F728
 * style="text-align: left;" | the four quadrants of the world, divided by the four rivers descending from Eden
 * align=center | Globus cruciger (fixed width).svg
 * align=center | Globus cruciger (fixed width).svg
 * align=center | Globus cruciger (fixed width).svg
 * U+2641
 * style="text-align: left;" | a globus cruciger
 * scope="row" | Mars
 * M, Ma
 * align=center | Mars symbol (fixed width).svg
 * M, Ma
 * align=center | Mars symbol (fixed width).svg
 * U+2642
 * style="text-align: left;" | Mars's shield and spear
 * scope="row" | Jupiter
 * J
 * align=center | Jupiter symbol (fixed width).svg
 * J
 * align=center | Jupiter symbol (fixed width).svg
 * U+2643
 * style="text-align: left;" | the letter Zeta with an abbreviation stroke (for Zeus, the Greek equivalent to the Roman god Jupiter)
 * scope="row" | Saturn
 * S
 * align=center | Saturn symbol (fixed width).svg
 * S
 * align=center | Saturn symbol (fixed width).svg
 * U+2644
 * style="text-align: left;" | the letters kappa-rho with an abbreviation stroke (for Kronos, the Greek equivalent to the Roman god Saturn), with a cross
 * scope="row" rowspan=2| Uranus
 * rowspan=2| U
 * align=center| Uranus platinum symbol (fixed width).svg
 * rowspan=2| U
 * align=center| Uranus platinum symbol (fixed width).svg
 * U+26E2
 * style="text-align: left;" | symbol of the recently described element platinum, which was invented to provide a symbol for Uranus
 * align=center | Uranus Herschel symbol (fixed width).svg
 * align=center | Uranus Herschel symbol (fixed width).svg
 * align=center | Uranus Herschel symbol (fixed width).svg
 * U+2645
 * style="text-align: left;" | a globe surmounted by the letter H (for Herschel, who discovered Uranus)
 * style="text-align: left;" | a globe surmounted by the letter H (for Herschel, who discovered Uranus)
 * scope="row" rowspan=2|Neptune
 * rowspan=2|N
 * align=center | Neptune symbol (fixed width).svg
 * align=center | Neptune symbol (fixed width).svg
 * U+2646
 * style="text-align: left;" | Neptune's trident
 * align=center | Neptune monogram (fixed width).svg
 * align=center | Neptune monogram (fixed width).svg
 * align=center | Neptune monogram (fixed width).svg
 * U+2BC9
 * style="text-align: left;" | a globe surmounted by the letters "L" and "V", (for Le Verrier, who discovered Neptune)
 * style="text-align: left;" | a globe surmounted by the letters "L" and "V", (for Le Verrier, who discovered Neptune)
 * }

Symbols for asteroids
Following the discovery of Ceres in 1801 by the astronomer and Catholic priest Giuseppe Piazzi, a group of astronomers ratified the name, which Piazzi had proposed. At that time, the sickle was chosen as a symbol of the planet.

The symbol for 2 Pallas, the spear of Pallas Athena, was invented by Baron Franz Xaver von Zach, who organized a group of twenty-four astronomers to search for a planet between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. The symbol was introduced by von Zach in 1802. In a letter to von Zach, discoverer Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers (who had discovered and named Pallas) expressed his approval of the proposed symbol, but wished that the handle of the sickle of Ceres had been adorned with a pommel instead of a crossbar, to better differentiate it from the sign of Venus.

German astronomer Karl Ludwig Harding created the symbol for 3 Juno. Harding, who discovered this asteroid in 1804, proposed the name Juno and the use of a scepter topped with a star as its astronomical symbol.

The symbol for 4 Vesta was invented by German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss. Olbers, having previously discovered and named 2 Pallas, gave Gauss the honor of naming his newest discovery. Gauss decided to name the new asteroid for the goddess Vesta, and also designed the symbol : the altar of the goddess, with the sacred fire burning on it. Other contemporaneous writers use a more elaborate symbol instead.

Karl Ludwig Hencke, a German amateur astronomer, discovered the next two asteroids, 5 Astraea (in 1845) and 6 Hebe (in 1847). Hencke requested that the symbol for 5 Astraea be an upside-down anchor; however, a weighing scale was sometimes used instead. Gauss named 6 Hebe at Hencke's request, and chose a wineglass as the symbol.

As more new asteroids were discovered, astronomers continued to assign symbols to them. Thus, 7 Iris (discovered 1847) had for its symbol a rainbow with a star; 8 Flora (discovered 1847), a flower; 9 Metis (discovered 1848), an eye with a star; 10 Hygiea (discovered 1849), an upright snake with a star on its head; 11 Parthenope (discovered 1850), a standing fish with a star; 12 Victoria (discovered 1850), a star topped with a branch of laurel; 13 Egeria (discovered 1850), a buckler; 14 Irene (discovered 1851), a dove carrying an olive branch with a star on its head; 15 Eunomia (discovered 1851), a heart topped with a star; 16 Psyche (discovered 1852), a butterfly wing with a star; 17 Thetis (discovered 1852), a dolphin with a star; 18 Melpomene (discovered 1852), a dagger over a star; and 19 Fortuna (discovered 1852), a star over Fortuna's wheel.

In most cases the discovery reports only describe the symbols and do not draw them; from Hygiea onward, there are significant glyph variants as well as a significant delay between the discovery and the symbols having been communicated to the astronomical community as a whole. Consequently, astronomical publications were not always complete. The discovery reports for Melpomene and Fortuna do not even describe the symbols, which only appear in a later reference work by the discoverer; the symbols are drawn in the reports for Astraea, Hebe, and Thetis. Benjamin Apthorp Gould criticised the symbols in 1852 as being often inefficient at suggesting the bodies they represented and difficult to draw, and pointed out that the symbol that had been described for Irene had to his knowledge never actually been drawn. The same year, John Russell Hind expressed the contrary view that the symbols were easier to remember than the numbers, but also admitted that the names were more commonly used than either the numbers or the symbols.

The last edition of the Berliner Astronomisches Jahrbuch (BAJ, Berlin Astronomical Yearbook) to use asteroid symbols was for the year 1853, published in 1850: although it includes eleven asteroids up to Parthenope, it only includes symbols for the first nine (up to Metis), noting that the symbols for Hygiea and Parthenope had not yet been made definitively known. The last edition of the British The Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris to include asteroid ephemerides was that for 1855, published in 1852: despite fifteen asteroids being known (up to Eunomia), symbols are only included for the first nine.

Johann Franz Encke made a major change in the BAJ for the year 1854, published in 1851. He introduced encircled numbers instead of symbols, although his numbering began with Astraea, the first four asteroids continuing to be denoted by their traditional symbols. This symbolic innovation was adopted very quickly by the astronomical community. The following year (1852), Astraea's number was bumped up to 5, but Ceres through Vesta were not listed by their numbers until the 1867 edition. The Astronomical Journal edited by Gould adopted the symbolism in this form, with Ceres at 1 and Astraea at 5. This form had previously been proposed in an 1850 letter by Heinrich Christian Schumacher to Gauss. The circle later became a pair of parentheses, which were easier to typeset, and the parentheses were sometimes omitted altogether over the next few decades. Thus the iconic asteroid symbols fell out of use; reference works continued giving them for the next few decades, though they often noted them as being obsolete.

A few asteroids were given symbols by their discoverers after the encircled-number notation became widespread. 26 Proserpina (discovered 1853), 28 Bellona (discovered 1854), 35 Leukothea (discovered 1855), and 37 Fides (discovered 1855), all discovered by German astronomer Robert Luther, were assigned, respectively, a pomegranate with a star inside; a whip and spear; an antique lighthouse; and a cross. These symbols were drawn in the discovery reports. 29 Amphitrite was named and assigned a shell for its symbol by George Bishop, the owner of the observatory where astronomer Albert Marth discovered it in 1854, though the symbol was not drawn in the discovery report.

All these symbols are rare or obsolete in modern astronomy, though NASA has used Ceres' symbol when describing the dwarf planets, and Psyche's symbol may have influenced the design of the insignia for the Psyche mission. The major use of symbols for minor planets today is by astrologers, who have invented symbols for many more objects, though they sometimes use symbols that differ from the historical symbols for the same bodies.

Table
{{Legend|#cccccc|Provisionally assigned in the pipeline for Unicode 17.0; not yet part of the Unicode Standard. }}

Symbols for trans-Neptunian objects
Pluto's name and symbol were announced by the discoverers on May 1, 1930. The symbol, a monogram of the letters PL, could be interpreted to stand for Pluto or for Percival Lowell, the astronomer who initiated Lowell Observatory's search for a planet beyond the orbit of Neptune. Pluto has an alternative symbol consisting of a planetary orb over Pluto's bident: it is more common in astrology than astronomy, and was popularised by the astrologer Paul Clancy, but has been used by NASA to refer to Pluto as a dwarf planet. There are a few other astrological symbols for Pluto that are used locally. Pluto also had the IAU abbreviation P when it was considered the ninth planet.

The other large trans-Neptunian objects were only discovered around the dawn of the 21st century. They were not generally thought to be planets on their discovery, and planetary symbols had in any case mostly fallen out of use among astronomers by then. Denis a software engineer in Massachusetts, proposed astronomical symbols for the dwarf planets Quaoar, Sedna, Orcus, Haumea, Eris, Makemake, and Gonggong. These symbols are somewhat standard among astrologers (e.g. in the program Astrolog), which is where planetary symbols are most used today. Moskowitz has also proposed symbols for Varuna, Ixion, and Salacia, and others have done so for additional TNOs, but there is little consistency between sources.

NASA has used Moskowitz's symbols for Haumea, Makemake, and Eris in an astronomical context, and Unicode labels the symbols for Haumea, Makemake, Gonggong, Quaoar, and Orcus (added to Unicode in 2022) as "astronomy symbols". Therefore, symbols mentioned in the Unicode proposal for Haumea, Makemake, Gonggong, Quaoar, and Orcus have been shown below to fill out the list of named TNOs down to 600 km diameter, even though not all of them are actually attested in astronomical use. (Grundy et al. suggest 600 to 700 km diameter as a speculative upper limit for a trans-Neptunian object to retain substantial pore space.)

Symbols for zodiac and other constellations

The zodiac symbols have several astronomical interpretations. Depending on context, a zodiac symbol may denote either a constellation, or a point or interval on the ecliptic plane.

Lists of astronomical phenomena published by almanacs sometimes included conjunctions of stars and planets or the Moon; rather than print the full name of the star, a Greek letter and the symbol for the constellation of the star was sometimes used instead. The ecliptic was sometimes divided into 12 signs, each subdivided into 30 degrees, and the sign component of ecliptic longitude was expressed either with a number from 0 to 11. or with the corresponding zodiacal symbol.

In modern astronomical writing, all the constellations, including the twelve of the zodiac, have dedicated three-letter abbreviations, which specifically refer to constellations rather than signs. The zodiac symbols are also sometimes used to represent points on the ecliptic, particularly the solstices and equinoxes. Each symbol is taken to represent the "first point" of each sign, rather than the place in the visible constellation where the alignment is observed. Thus, ♈ the symbol for Aries, represents the March equinox; ♋, for Cancer, the June solstice; ♎, for Libra, the September equinox; and ♑, for Capricorn, the December solstice.

Although the use of astrological sign symbols is rare, the particular symbol ♈ for Aries, is an exception; it is commonly used in modern astronomy to represent the location of the (slowly) moving reference point for the ecliptic and equatorial celestial coordinate systems.

 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

!scope="col"| Constellation !scope="col"| IAU abbreviation !scope="col"| Number !scope="col"| Astrological location !scope="col"| Symbol !scope="col"| Translation !scope="col"| Unicode code point !scope="col"| Unicode display (dec 9800) (dec 9801)
 * + Zodiacal symbols
 * scope="row"| Aries
 * Ari
 * 0
 * 0°
 * Aries symbol (fixed width).svg
 * ram
 * U+2648
 * U+2648
 * scope="row"| Taurus
 * Tau
 * 1
 * 30°
 * Taurus symbol (fixed width).svg
 * 30°
 * Taurus symbol (fixed width).svg
 * bull
 * U+2649
 * scope="row"| Gemini
 * Gem
 * 2
 * 60°
 * Gemini symbol (fixed width).svg
 * 60°
 * Gemini symbol (fixed width).svg
 * twinned
 * U+264A (dec 9802)
 * scope="row"| Cancer
 * Cnc
 * scope="row"| Cancer
 * Cnc
 * 3
 * 90°
 * Cancer symbol (fixed width).svg Cancer symbol (straight, fixed width).svg
 * crab
 * U+264B (dec 9803)
 * scope="row"| Leo
 * Leo
 * 4
 * 120°
 * Leo symbol (fixed width).svg
 * lion
 * U+264C (dec 9804)
 * scope="row"| Virgo
 * Vir
 * 5
 * 150°
 * Virgo symbol (fixed width).svg
 * maiden
 * U+264D (dec 9805)
 * scope="row"| Libra
 * Lib
 * 6
 * 180°
 * Libra symbol (fixed width).svg
 * scales
 * U+264E (dec 9806)
 * scope="row"| Scorpio
 * Sco
 * 7
 * 210°
 * Scorpius symbol (fixed width).svg
 * scorpion
 * U+264F (dec 9807)
 * scope="row"| Sagittarius
 * Sgr
 * 8
 * 240°
 * Sagittarius symbol (fixed width).svg
 * archer
 * U+2650 (dec 9808)
 * scope="row"| Capricorn
 * Cap
 * 9
 * 270°
 * Capricornus symbol (fixed width).svg [[file:Capricornus symbol (European, fixed width).svg|frameless|upright=0.15]]
 * having a goat's horns
 * U+2651 (dec 9809)
 * scope="row"| Aquarius
 * Aqr
 * 10
 * 300°
 * Aquarius symbol (fixed width).svg
 * water-carrier
 * U+2652 (dec 9810)
 * scope="row"| Pisces
 * Psc
 * 11
 * 330°
 * Pisces symbol (fixed width).svg
 * fishes
 * U+2653 (dec 9811)
 * }
 * Aqr
 * 10
 * 300°
 * Aquarius symbol (fixed width).svg
 * water-carrier
 * U+2652 (dec 9810)
 * scope="row"| Pisces
 * Psc
 * 11
 * 330°
 * Pisces symbol (fixed width).svg
 * fishes
 * U+2653 (dec 9811)
 * }
 * U+2653 (dec 9811)
 * }
 * }

Ophiuchus has been proposed as a thirteenth sign of the zodiac by astrologer Walter Berg in 1995, who gave it a symbol that has become popular in Japan.

 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

!scope="col"| Constellation !scope="col"| IAU abbreviation !scope="col"| Symbol !scope="col"| Translation !scope="col"| Unicode code point !scope="col"| Unicode display
 * scope="row"| Ophiuchus
 * Oph
 * Ophiuchus symbol (fixed width).svg
 * the Serpent-holder
 * U+26CE (dec 9934)
 * }
 * }
 * }

None of the constellations have official symbols. However, occasional symbols for the modern constellations, as well as older ones that occur in modern nomenclature, have appeared in publication. The symbols below were devised by Denis Moskowitz (except those for the thirteen constellations already listed above).

 * Andromeda Andromeda symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Antlia Antlia symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Apus Apus symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Aquarius Aquarius symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Aquila Aquila symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Ara Ara symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Argo Navis Argo Navis symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Carina Carina symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Puppis Puppis symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Vela Vela symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Aries Aries symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Auriga Auriga symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Boötes Bootes symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Caelum Caelum symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Camelopardalis Camelopardalis symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Cancer Cancer symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Canes Venatici Canes Venatici symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Canis Major Canis Major symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Canis Minor Canis Minor symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Capricornus Capricornus symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Cassiopeia Cassiopeia symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Centaurus Centaurus symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Cepheus Cepheus symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Cetus Cetus symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Chamaeleon Chamaeleon symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Circinus Circinus symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Columba Columba symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Coma Berenices Coma Berenices symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Corona Australis Corona Australis symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Corona Borealis Corona Borealis symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Corvus Corvus symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Crater Crater symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Crux Crux symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Cygnus Cygnus symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Delphinus Delphinus symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Dorado Dorado symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Draco Draco symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Equuleus Equuleus symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Eridanus Eridanus symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Fornax Fornax symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Gemini Gemini symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Grus Grus symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Hercules Hercules symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Horologium Horologium symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Hydra Hydra constellation symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Hydrus Hydrus symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Indus Indus symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Lacerta Lacerta symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Leo Leo symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Leo Minor Leo Minor symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Lepus Lepus symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Libra Libra symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Lupus Lupus symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Lynx Lynx symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Lyra Lyra symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Mensa Mensa symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Microscopium Microscopium symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Monoceros Monoceros symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Musca Musca symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Norma Norma symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Octans Octans symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Ophiuchus Ophiuchus symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Orion Orion symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Pavo Pavo symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Pegasus Pegasus symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Perseus Perseus symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Phoenix Phoenix symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Pictor Pictor symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Pisces Pisces symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Piscis Austrinus Piscis Austrinus symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Pyxis Pyxis symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Quadrans Muralis Quadrans Muralis symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Reticulum Reticulum symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Sagitta Sagitta symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Sagittarius Sagittarius symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Scorpius Scorpius symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Sculptor Sculptor symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Scutum Scutum symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Serpens Serpens symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Serpens Cauda Serpens cauda symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Serpens Caput Serpens caput symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Sextans Sextans symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Taurus Taurus symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Telescopium Telescopium symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Triangulum Triangulum symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Triangulum Australe Triangulum Australe symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Tucana Tucana symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Ursa Major Ursa Major symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Ursa Minor Ursa Minor symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Virgo Virgo symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Volans Volans symbol (fixed width).svg
 * Vulpecula Vulpecula symbol (fixed width).svg

Other symbols
Symbols for aspects and nodes appear in medieval texts, although medieval and modern usage of the node symbols differ; the modern ascending node symbol (☊) formerly stood for the descending node, and the modern descending node symbol (☋) was used for the ascending node. In describing the Keplerian elements of an orbit, ☊ is sometimes used to denote the ecliptic longitude of the ascending node, although it is more common to use Ω (capital omega, and inverted ℧), which were originally typographical substitutes for the astronomical symbols.

The symbols for aspects first appear in Byzantine codices. Of the symbols for the five Ptolemaic aspects, only the three displayed here — for conjunction, opposition, and quadrature — are used in astronomy.

Symbols for a comet (☄) and a star have been used in published astronomical observations of comets. In tables of these observations, ☄ stood for the comet being discussed and for the star of comparison relative to which measurements of the comet's position were made.

 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

!scope="col"| Referent !scope="col"| Symbol !scope="col"| Unicode code point !scope="col"| Unicode display (dec 9738) (dec 9741)
 * + Other symbols
 * scope="row"| ascending node
 * Ascending node (fixed width).svg
 * U+260A
 * U+260A
 * scope="row"| descending node
 * Descending node (fixed width).svg
 * U+260B (dec 9739)
 * scope="row" | conjunction
 * Conjunction symbol.svg
 * U+260C (dec 9740)
 * scope="row"| opposition
 * Opposition symbol.svg
 * U+260D
 * U+260C (dec 9740)
 * scope="row"| opposition
 * Opposition symbol.svg
 * U+260D
 * Opposition symbol.svg
 * U+260D
 * scope="row"| occultation
 * Occultation symbol.svg
 * U+1F775 (dec 128885)
 * scope="row"| a lunar eclipse, or any body in the shadow of another
 * Lunar eclipse symbol.svg
 * U+1F776 (dec 128886)
 * scope="row"| quadrature
 * Square symbol.svg
 * U+25A1, U+25FB (dec 9633, 9723)
 * scope="row"| comet
 * Comet symbol (fixed width).svg Comet symbol (dotted).svg
 * U+2604 (dec 9732)
 * scope="row"| star
 * Astronomical symbol for star.svg
 * (various)
 * planetary rings (rare)
 * Planetary ring symbol (Kirkhill).svg
 * U+1FA90 (dec 129680)
 * 🪐
 * U+2604 (dec 9732)
 * scope="row"| star
 * Astronomical symbol for star.svg
 * (various)
 * planetary rings (rare)
 * Planetary ring symbol (Kirkhill).svg
 * U+1FA90 (dec 129680)
 * 🪐
 * planetary rings (rare)
 * Planetary ring symbol (Kirkhill).svg
 * U+1FA90 (dec 129680)
 * 🪐

 * }

title: Astronomical symbols


text:
Peadar Kearney

Peadar Kearney (Peadar Ó Cearnaigh ; 12 December 1883 – 24 November 1942) was an Irish republican and composer of numerous rebel songs. In 1907 he wrote the lyrics to "A Soldier's Song" ("Amhrán na bhFiann"), now the Irish national anthem. He was the uncle of Irish writers Brendan Behan, Brian Behan, and Dominic Behan.

Background
Kearney was born in 1883 at 68 Lower Dorset Street, Dublin, above one of the two grocer's shops owned by his father, John Kearney (1854–1897), originally from Funshog, Collon, County Louth. John soon after lost his businesses and lived precariously as an insurance agent. Peadar's mother, Katie née McGuinness (1859/60–1907), was from Rathmaiden, Slane, County Meath. Peadar was educated at the Model School, Schoolhouse Lane and St. Joseph's C.B.S. in Fairview. He heard Willie Rooney give nationalist lectures on history in the Mechanics' Institute. He started at Belvedere College but played truant to escape beatings, so that his father ended his education and got him a job at a bicycle repair shop. His father died of pneumonia soon after, leaving Peadar to support his mother and five younger siblings. He had various menial jobs for three years before being apprenticed to a house painter. He is a distant relative of Irish-Spanish resident Sandra Dunne (formerly Brady) of the Campoamor region in Spain

Political activity
In 1901, the death of William Rooney prompted Kearney to join the Willie Rooney Branch of the Gaelic League. He joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood in 1903. He taught night classes in Irish and numbered Seán O'Casey among his pupils. He found work with the National Theatre Society and in 1904 was one of the first to inspect the derelict building that became the Abbey Theatre, which opened its doors on 27 December of that year. He assisted with props and performed occasional walk-on parts at the Abbey until 1916.

Kearney was a co-founder of the Irish Volunteers in 1913. He took part in the Howth and Kilcoole gun runnings in 1914. In the Easter Rising of 1916 Kearney fought at Jacob's biscuit factory under Thomas MacDonagh, abandoning an Abbey Theatre tour in England to take part in the Rising. He escaped before the garrison was taken into custody.

He was active in the War of Independence. On 25 November 1920 he was captured at his home in Summerhill, Dublin and was interned first in Collinstown Camp in Dublin and later in Ballykinler Camp in County Down.

Kearney at first took the Free State side in the Civil War but lost faith in the Free State after Collins's death. He took no further part in politics, returning to his original trade of house painting. Kearney died in relative poverty in Inchicore in 1942. He is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin. He was survived by his wife Eva and two sons, Pearse and Con.

Songs and legacy
Kearney's songs were highly popular with the Volunteers (which later became the IRA) in the 1913–22 period. Most popular was "The Soldier's Song". Kearney penned the original English lyrics in 1907 and his friend and musical collaborator Patrick Heeney composed the music. The lyrics were published in 1912 and the music in 1916. After 1916 it replaced "God Save Ireland" as the anthem of Irish nationalists. The Irish Free State was established in 1922 and formally adopted the anthem in 1926. Subsequently, theatres and the state broadcaster began playing the anthem at the end of performances, and Kearney prepared to take legal action to demand royalties, obliging the state to acquire the copyright in 1934 for £980 (half each to Kearney and the heirs of Heeney, who had died). From the 1930s, the anthem was increasingly sung in Irish, in a translation by Liam Ó Rinn.

Other well-known songs by Kearney include "Down by the Glenside", "The Tri-coloured Ribbon", "Down by the Liffey Side", "Knockcroghery" (about the village of Knockcroghery) and "Erin Go Bragh" (Erin Go Bragh was the text on the Irish national flag before the adoption of the tricolour).

Kearney was the uncle of the writers Brendan, and Dominic Behan, both of whom were also republicans and songwriters, via his sister Kathleen Kearney who married Stephen Behan, one of Michael Collins's "Twelve Apostles". Brendan Behan was in prison when Kearney died, and was refused permission to attend his funeral. In a letter to Kearney's son, Pearse, he said, "my Uncle Peadar was the one, outside my own parents, who excited the admiration and love that is friendship."

Famed Irish sculptor and artist James Power did a portrait of Kearney in 1962 and is currently in the Kilmainham Gaol Museum. In 1957 his sister Margaret's son, Seamus de Burca (or Jimmy Bourke), published a biography of Kearney, The Soldier's Song: The Story of Peadar Ó Cearnaigh. In 1976 De Burca also published Kearney's letters to his wife written during his internment in 1921 were published as My Dear Eva ... Letters from Ballykinlar Internment Camp, 1921. A wall plaque on the west side of Dorset Street commemorates his birth there.

title: Peadar Kearney


text:
User talk:Arwel Parry/archive 1

=Archive of discussions, February - November 2003=

Greetings
Nice to meet you, Arwel, and I hope you stay. There are several other Welsh people here, including me -- but I can't remember much about TWW. Deb 21:55 Feb 5, 2003 (UTC)

S'mae Deb! I remember "Tinker and Taylor" on TWW when I was a kid (though reception was terrible, we had a badly-sited mountain between us and the transmitter); my main memory of TWW was their coverage of the Aberfan disaster when I was 8 :-( ... Arwel 03:10 Feb 6, 2003 (UTC)

...and I was ten! (So perhaps I was a little old to be watching "Tinker and Taylor" every Saturday morning.) Deb 22:59 Feb 6, 2003 (UTC)

Hi. I just want to say that it's great work you're doing on ITV etc.. a gentle reminder though to use wiki markup, and follow the manual of style. Cheers. Mintguy

Thanks for the hints, and your updates to the ITV page. I think I'm starting to get the hang of this thing now, and I'm disambiguating some of the company names -- there are too many "ABC Television"s in the world! Arwel 03:10 Feb 6, 2003 (UTC)

Corrie's the only soap I watch, I'm pleased to say. I did go to the studios in 1976 and saw Ena Sharples in full costume, standing around in the canteen. And my sister once had her birthday read out by Gus Honeybun... Deb 19:17 Feb 7, 2003 (UTC)

Spot on with the Pobol y Cwm article! Hasn't it been sold to lots of other countries as well? Deb 22:22 Feb 19, 2003 (UTC)
 * Thanks! I'm not sure where it's been sold to, so I didn't mention it -- feel free to add to it! How on earth did you find I'd created the entry within 3 minutes of my doing it?! Arwel 22:53 Feb 19, 2003 (UTC)

 * You do know about Recent changes, don't you? Deb 22:57 Feb 19, 2003 (UTC)

 * Sure, but the "last 50 changes" is only about 10 minutes' worth usually! You must be looking at it all the time :-) Arwel 01:59 Feb 20, 2003 (UTC)

Nice catch at 9/11. :-) Koyaanis Qatsi

--- Hi Arwel! You can ask for the last 500 changes, which is a little more useful (though even that scrolls past pretty quickly). You can drop me an email with questions if you like. Vicki Rosenzweig

-

Hi there. About your commen on the dates on Talk:Jodrell Bank -- I'm not sure. I started that article as one of those "I can't believe Wikipedia doesn't have an article on this!" things, so it's very much a quick fix. Feel free to completely rewrite it :-) -- Tarquin 23:28 Feb 21, 2003 (UTC)
 * I just had a look at the website the Jodrell Bank links to - it says the first telescope was built in 1947, but the big dish went live in 1957, just in time for the first artificial satellites! I'll hack the item around a bit :) 158.152.70.105 23:36 Feb 21, 2003 (UTC) (oops - this is me, I'm just not logged in at the moment!)

 * BTW, just taken a look at your homepage. You may be interested in http://cy.wikipedia.com/ ... :-) -- Tarquin 23:59 Feb 21, 2003 (UTC)
 * hmmm... it looks really busy, doesn't it? I might try something later, but I've got enough ideas for the English version right now! Arwel 00:17 Feb 22, 2003 (UTC)

-

Trains
Hi again. The railway line articles you're writing look great. There's a British railway system article which gives an overview; it would be good to link the line articles back to that to give readers a "parent" article link. -- Tarquin 22:42 Feb 22, 2003 (UTC)
 * Hmm. I'll have to see how many of these articles I write before I try to tie them in to the main article -- I didn't mean to write all these, I was just doing an article on my home district Crewe and Nantwich, and the history of the place just sort of snowballed!! Arwel 23:01 Feb 22, 2003 (UTC)

Misc.
Oh dear... sounds like the early stages of Wikipediholism... ;-) don't worry, many of us manage to lead constructive lives in spite of it! -- Tarquin 10:30 Feb 23, 2003 (UTC)
 * Oh drat! I read the entry on the Second World War and suddenly got the urge to expand the Battle of the River Plate! Is there no hope? Arwel 12:17 Feb 24, 2003 (UTC)

Hi Arwel - saw you were having a bit of trouble with redirecting Nationalisation - the correct format is #REDIRECT article title. Good stuff you're writing, by the way! --Camembert

Ta! I knew I'd get it right eventually! :-) Arwel

Hi there Arwel and thanks for your exhaustive contributions to UK, List of labor unions. The list was started to be a resource for http://www.consumerium.org/, we are doing most of our research in Wikipedia in order to benefit others too. If you have knowledge on how to figure out who owns which companies in the UK your contribution to http://www.consumerium.org/wiki/wiki.phtml?title=Research would be greatly appreciated. Cheers --Juho 15:18 Mar 16, 2003 (UTC)

British coinage
Hi, I was wondering what you thought about this:

The obverse of the coin depicts the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell as a laureated Roman emperor, with the inscription OLIVAR D G R P ANG SCO HIB &c PRO, while the reverse shows a crowned shield depicting the arms of the Commonwealth with the inscription PAX QVAERITVR BELLO 1656.

There's just something jarring about all-caps. :) I think I've seen it in this style in numismatic books, but I don't have one at hand to check. - Hephaestos

 * Ah! That looks like a good idea :-) Looks neat. I've just altered all the coin descriptions I put in tonight. For now though, to quote Zebedee of The Magic Roundabout it's time for bed as it's gone 2 a.m. here! -- Arwel 02:17 Mar 18, 2003 (UTC)

You're quite welcome on the 5 pence image; I intend to work on it more later. I'd like to have it look more "mint condition." I'm also working on the reverse of the Noble.

I should clue you in about my project. I've been grabbing images off of ebay. To avoid possible (though remote) copyright issues, and since I've been wanting to brush up on my Photoshop skills, I've been taking out the flaws in the coins in Photoshop before posting them here, thus making the image a derivative work (there's little doubt that the pattern itself is public domain).

As you can probably imagine, the Noble is a bit of a wreck after 600 years, which is why it's taking me longer. :) My main concern is that I don't add or erase anything I shouldn't.  (This is a lot of why I asked the diameter question by the way, but I guess it doesn't really matter much, given that people run different screen resolutions.)

Hephaestos

On your British currency pages you have been using the format British coin [type]. This strikes me as 'ugly'. A nicer, and more common fomat, is [type] (British coin). Have you considered this? 212

 * Hmm. Well actually, 212, I'm just continuing the naming format that was in use long before I discovered Wikipedia -- in fact I've just checked the change history and notice that this format was in use when you last edited this article in February of last year! Anyway, there's some discussion going on in Talk:British coinage about this, so there may be changes... -- Arwel 01:15 Mar 24, 2003 (UTC)

 * Mea culpa 212

 * I'm making redirect pages for all similar page titles with no content. - LittleDan

Wow! where do you get all of the information from for your british coinage pages? - LittleDan

 * I remember most of the decimal coinage stuff and some of the younger pre-decimals through having lived through it -- I remember going to the barbers' on 15.2.71 and asking if he wanted fifteen pence or three bob for my haircut!  As to actual weights, dimensions, and composition of coins, a good coin catalogue is a wonderful resource... -- Arwel 02:02 Mar 25, 2003 (UTC)

Wow. Someone else on wiki who remembers the old money! As to article size, I think it is 32K. Anything larger than that and many browsers can't edit a page. If they try, they wipe out anything over 32K (which can be damned annoying if three and a half paragraphs just disappear. Size will of course be affected by using images that take up a lot of space. If necessary, break it up to pre and post date x. One the the largest pages I was involved in was the Irish potato famine and there we had to break it in two. Another large one I did (largely through to the number of images rather than text alone) was the Papal Tiara page. If the article is under 32K it should be fine. (You can check the size by doing a search (on the wiki system rather than this damned annoying google search we have to use at busy times) and it should say how many k an article is up to. I am looking forward to reading your article. God, I still remember the 6d, the thruppence, those massive pennies, etc. And getting a present of ten bob once. (I worked in a shop once and to annoy our accountant, a gang of us doing a till check converted the decimal money into pounds, shillings and pence. I can still remember his 'what the hell?' reaction when he asked what was in till two and someone shouted up £144, 10 shillings and sixpence. Even worse when someone turned the takings into guineas. The account laughed. The boss gave one of his 'pissed off' looks and the younger staff looked in bewilderment. 'Shillings? Guineas? Thruppence? What the fuck are they?' (And watch older customers look all nostalgic. PS - I believe Britain already has a mock-up ready of what British euro coins would look. A bit presumptive, I would think! STÓD/ÉÍRE 00:16 Apr 3, 2003 (UTC)

 * Ten bob? God, I thought I was doing very well if one of my relatives gave me a half-crown! :) I remember scaring myself once when I was about 10 that I didn't have enough money for the bus fare for the 4 miles home - the fare was 1/6 and I only had one coin on me, which said ONE ... I thought it was a shilling, but fortunately it said FLORIN ! The penny article is now 30K long up to the end of Bloody Mary's reign, which seems a good point to break it temporarily... Arwel

Congratulations on a superb set of articles on english coinage. Sometimes you find mediocre stuff on wiki but then you find a gem and you stuff is definitely of the latter category. Well done. I'm deeply impressed. STÓD/ÉÍRE 02:29 Apr 11, 2003 (UTC)

Japanese Navy
Reading your articles on Japanese ships, I notice you using "IJN" as a prefix. I remember Epopt or somebody declaring this wrong, and my own printed reference works don't use it, although many (like Morison) don't use USS either, so the absence may not mean much. Is there an authority you're going by on this? Stan 01:06 Apr 17, 2003 (UTC)
 * See my reply on Stan's page. Summarised: no particular reason!

Coins
You're very welcome! Actually that one didn't take long to fix up, as the original was an uncirculated coin. I'm still working on a cartwheel penny (and frankly the article's so well-written I almost feel bad about marring it up with a picture *grin*). - Hephaestos

Hard to say; I've still got that picture of a noble I haven't finished touching up after all these weeks. I'll start hunting for a two-guinea piece though, so I'll be ready. <g> (Looks like the ones already up will need some tweaking also, some of them have flat spots near the rims) - Hephaestos

Ireland
I did a revert on the Ian Paisley page. I don't know if the person who did the changes was being ultra cautious, ultra NPOV or was just a big fan of Paisley (I think the latter, given that they changed bad health to good health when it is patiently obvious to everyone that big Ian is physically failing. I changed everything back and left a note on the talk page explaining the changes and why they aren't POV but are factually accurate. (I know about Paisley's depression thanks to a medical doctor who treated Ian and inadvertently let it slip in a conversation about clinical depression versus bipolar depression.) I had heard rumours but discounted them as the usual unsubstantiated gossip. But he noted (as I had being a political anorak) Paisley's regular disappearances from public view and explained why (which obviously I am not going to repeat. Suffice to say that what he said suddenly explained something that had puzzled me about Ian and also explained the strange complexity of Ian's character; the out and out bigot who can make your skin crawl and the warm, affectionate, funny, utterly unbigoted man who had the SDLP's John Hume over for Boxing Day dinner - much to the astonishment of a journalist who picked the 'wrong' moment to visit Paisley about something and walked in on the Paisleys and the Humes eating christmas cake together and sharing cake recipes! Anyway thanks for letting me know about what was happening to the article.

BTW, if you get a chance, could you look at Republic of Ireland/temp to see if it is OK. In particular is the history bit too big and heavy or useful and explanatory. Lol. FearÉIREANN 03:48 27 May 2003 (UTC) (BTW II - for some reason, my eMac on iTunes is cheering me up by playing a song about starvation in the Irish famine of the 1840s. Cheerful, eh! Slán.

 * Looks OK - I can't speak for anyone else, but I found the history interesting. The only thing I'd change is to drop the article when you talk of "The English..." being a second official language!

'tis done. I don't know where the the came from, but it ain't there no longer. ;-) FearÉIREANN 04:19 28 May 2003 (UTC)

Hey there, if you are really into this Numismatic stuff, you might try this reference: The British Numismatic Journal & The Proceedings Of The British Numismatic Society, 1908, First Series, Volume V, pp. 55-72. Harry Potter

Hi, Arwel. There is a row brewing on the Republic of Ireland page. Put simply, we have an agreed template, structure and text. One user, Scipius, some months ago tried to muck up the page through ludicrous and factually inaccurate changes. (Last time it was to rename the R of I page Ireland, even though that infuriated Irish users, offended Northern Irish users and ignored the approach we had which was to keep Ireland for events before partition, and after that to keep it largely for all-island issues - culture, heritage, etc) In the end he was told to back off, that the consensus was against him. Now he is back, trying the same mucking around. This time he wants to dumb down the agreed template text to remove relevant contextual information he almost alone thinks irrelevant, change facts to his own inaccurate understanding of them, etc. (eg, remove factual information on the formal name of the state - or rewrite it in an inaccurate manner, remove important information that explains where the state came from (ie, partition, the Irish Free State, etc) which he wants confined to a history page, blur facts about the relationship between irish and english (his text implies equality. Officially however the former a the national language, the latter a secondary language, etc.) He tried to ignore the consensus last time. He now wants to pull the same stunt again and highjack the page to introduce his own factually inaccurate version again. If you could visit the page and join in the chorus of telling him to stop messing the article it would be most appreciated. It took a lot of effort the last time (from a lot of Irish people who were furious at what he was trying to do!) to stop him. Every bit of help in stopping this nonsense before it becomes a full scale edit war a second time would be most appreciated. FearÉIREANN 03:31 10 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Royal Navy
Arwel, I have been checking through current RN ship articles, after finding that a large part of the HMS Sceptre article was lifted straight from the RN website. I notice that you have done something similar with the article on HMS Glasgow. The RN website is under Crown Copyright, and so it is not public domain. Did you get permission to use the text that you have? David Newton 17:47 BST 20 Jun 2003

Having had a look at the HMSO website, and its Crown Copyright waiver publications, I find that I was a little too zealous. Apologies for any slight that you might have felt I had given you. I will update the Crown Copyright article to reflect the waivers. David Newton 18:27 BST 20 Jun 2003

 * No offence taken. I will add a little explanatory note about the copyright on the HMS Glasgow page, which really ought to be there anyway. -- Arwel 20:01 20 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Thanks for the help on Firth of Forth! - Hephaestos

Date format
You are quite correct. Either form is acceptable. I will drop into the page to make that point. FearÉIREANN 19:32 21 Jun 2003 (UTC)

I tried with Eloquence but for some reason which I find baffling he won't accept what he we say and intends changing dates around to mm/dd/yy. Whenever I catch him doing it I will simply revert as often as it takes. But I really do not understand his attitude. The fact that this agreement was reached is widely known but as it was never written into the manual of style he insists it didn't happen. Eloquence is normally a superb contributor so why he is so determined to ignore everyone and bulldoze his viewpoint through. I have asked Mav and John Owens to have a word with him but he seems determined. I wish I knew why. FearÉIREANN 22:51 21 Jun 2003 (UTC)

May I ask why you did not convert Crewe Alexandra F.C. to the British format? See, this is what I am talking about: A mess of stylistic inconsistency on different pages. This is absolutely unprofessional. Whatever standard we use needs to be codified in the Manual of Style, where the current standard is MM DD. --Eloquence 23:48 21 Jun 2003 (UTC)
 * I presume you are talking about the one occurrence in that article where a particular day is mentioned? Because I was not looking for any dates to amend -- I was correcting a particularly glaring error in the year that the current manager was appointed, and a spelling error I had introduced. That date has been in the article for as long as the history goes back, when it really was the standard format. However, thank you for bringing the error to my attention. -- Arwel 01:06 22 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Take a look at Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (dates and numbers) and let me know what you think. Eloquence has suggested as a compromise, that he could tolerate British english if non-Americans agreed to use American mm/dd/yy dating. I delivered a rather long and sharp attack on his arguments on the above page. I'd love to hear your views on it. FearÉIREANN 12:03 22 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Trains
Hello there Arwell, I was just wondering if you would like to add something to the Settle and Carlisle Railway article which I have started. G-Man 11:27 5 Jul 2003 (UTC)

-

cy.wikipedia
From Requests for adminship:

 * I'd like to request adminship on cy.wikipedia -- the software's newly updated, and we don't seem to have any Admins! I've put a note on cy's Admin page, but I don't know if anyone reads it :) -- Arwel 23:09 14 Jul 2003 (UTC)
 * I don't work on cy., but I'll second Arwel based on his great work here.  - Hephaestos 23:14 14 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Done. Let me know if anyone else needs to be sysop'd over there. --Eloquence 04:46 16 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Stamps
Thanks for the kind words, and the additions! I don't actually know that much Icelandic postal history, I just do the articles as an excuse to put up stamp images... :-) Stan 22:16 19 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Trains
Hello there Arwell, I moved the long history section on the British railway system article, to it's own article History of the British railway system, and it needs some work doing to it (like finishing). As I'v noticed you're interested in British railway history I thought you might like to add something to it. G-Man 18:36 28 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Football
Hi Arwel. I just noticed your change to English Football League teams. It's funny I was just about to look at the article regarding Welsh teams because I noticed when the football results were given yesterday they gave out results for a Welsh league, which I don't remember them doing before. Is it a new league? (I could of course find this out by googling, but it's nice to chat) Mintguy 22:01, 17 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Private Schultz
I take it you remember Private Shulz too. Your article on Operation Bernhard made me look up "Michael Elphick" and "Private Shulz" on Google and I've just discovered that BBC4 screened it in January as a tribute to Michael Elphick. Arrgghhhh... I've been waiting for 20 years to see that programme again. It's enough to make me get Sky TV (Freeview doesn't work where I live). Mintguy 12:06, 28 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Monstrous Regiment
Arwel, just wanted to note I saw your edit to Monstrous Regiment--I know it was minor, but it's just that attention to detail that I find wonderful about Wikipedia. Since I smiled at the correction, I figured maybe it was worth letting you know I had. Thanks! Jwrosenzweig 15:36, 3 Oct 2003 (UTC) -- Of course i was being sarcastic about 'another mall needed. I now realise the error of ways, there is no place for low-witted sarcasm on the wiki! Wow you user page really screws the eyes up between the black and blue. Always good to communicate with fellow UEA alumnis.62.253.32.7 12:36, 5 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Sysop
You're a sysop now. On my left, you'll see a few extra commands. Use them wisely (not hastily, like me ;-) --Uncle Ed 14:33, 10 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Football
On the Football (soccer) article I've inserted "Football is primarily a European and third world sport and these areas dominate most global competitions." to highlight that most of the world plays soccer. I wasn't trying to say it's a sport played everywhere except North America NOR make any comment on women's soccer or Austral-asia soccer. I well know that soccer is played worldwide (the men's US team isn't too bad, though they pale incomparison to other team), BUT it's currently a huge mainstay of european and the thrid world countries. Australia, some North American countries, and misc. countries do qualify for the World Cup finals, though these countries do not "dominate" like the primary countries (from what I can tell). Sincerely reddi 15:50, 10 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Twins
That was pretty funny. I wonder where those wrong dates came from? Deb 16:49, 12 Oct 2003 (UTC)

BBC ONE
Hi, was your comment at Talk:BBC ONE actually a vote to move the page. I didn't see it as such, but Wik did and moved the page. I moved it back as I thought only Andy G was in favour of moving it. I would appreciate it if you could clarify. Thanks. Angela 23:46, Oct 16, 2003 (UTC)

 * Thanks for letting me know. I've copied your comment to Talk:BBC ONE just to clarify the situation. Hope you don't mind. Angela 00:19, Oct 17, 2003 (UTC)

William Brown
You could have put in a link to Just William when you wrote your William Brown article, or created a seperate disambiguation page. I've put in a disambiguation link at the top. CGS 11:55, 17 Oct 2003 (UTC).

Counties
Thank you for reverting and "protecting" Warwickshire; please do the same for Birmingham and Coventry. Pigsonthewing
 * And now West Midlands: a county whcih still very much exists; and TiptonAndy Mabbett 09:09, 27 Oct 2003 (UTC)

 * "let's see if the children can behave now!" as your edit summary on Protected page made me laugh. Good luck sorting out the Welsh counties! :) Angela 16:06, Oct 25, 2003 (UTC)

 * Hi Arwel, I moved your latest comments about 80.255 to User talk:80.255 as a discussion of the boundary commission stuff isn't really suitable for the Vandalism in progress page. I'm not sure his talk page is the best place for either it though so you might want to find an article talk page to put it on instead. Angela 23:39, Oct 26, 2003 (UTC)

"OTOH if each article has to be nearly doubled in size to fully describe both the historical and current counties of the same name that's going to be a hell of a job..." - There is surely a simple solution to this, and one I have suggested before: For each county, have two pages - County (historic) and County (administrative). Clearly state which one is being delt with at the top of each page, and all confusion is avoided. It also solves the problem of places like manchester, birmingham, bournemouth etc. by allowing it to say (for example) "Bournemouth is in the historic County of Hampshire (historic) and was in the administrative county of Dorset (administrative) until becoming an UAA". Similarly: "Huntingdon is the historic county of Huntingdonshire (historic) and the administraitive county of Cambridgeshire (administrative). The fact that there can be two pages means that referal will not be confusing - i.e. a town stated as being in historic cambridgeshire won't be refered to the page about administrative cambridgeshire, and vice versa. Of course, some will also require County (lieutenency area) since this is sometimes different from both administrative and historic boundaries. However, all in all, I think adopting this would make matters much more clear. Would you agree? 80.255 00:28, 27 Oct 2003 (UTC)

P.s. Another benefit - articles on historical figures may well say "Joe Soap was born in 1887 in Cambridgeshire"; however, as it stands, this redirect would be to administrative cambridgeshire, which would not be correct due to later boundary changes. If my proposal were adopted, this would be avoided by writing "Joe Soap was born in 1887 in Cambridgeshire". 80.255 00:32, 27 Oct 2003 (UTC)

Don't blame me, I just work here. ;) I do like the way certain people have rephrased the 1911 brittanica in some articles because they considered it too modern for them. Morwen 12:29, 7 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Blocks
No problem. I deleted two pages he created as well. Unfortunately IP blocks only last 24 hours. I look forward to seeing the new interface at cy. Angela 11:26, Nov 8, 2003 (UTC)

"British"
I think between us we saw off the British nonsense rather well. Where the heck did 2toise get such a silly idea from? :-) FearÉIREANN 00:45, 14 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Coins
To paraphrase Bob Dylan "silly ideas are everywhere, just reach out and grab one!" Hi Arwel, wow you are some numismatist, Sir T.B. was probably the first Brit/ Eng. numismatist ( see Iceniarticle. (Unless of course you can tell me of earlier collectors) . I have some v. oldish coins ( 1790-1810) but cannot describe them accurately to you; always good to know of other UEA alumini on the wiki and a sysop now to boot, congrats!!Norwikian 16:16, 26 Nov 2003 (UTC)

title: User talk:Arwel Parry/archive 1