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Emperor Wen of Sui

Emperor Wen of Sui (隋文帝; 21 July 541 – 13 August 604 ), personal name Yang Jian (楊堅), Xianbei name Puliuru Jian (普六茹堅), alias Narayana deriving from Buddhist terms, was the founding emperor of the Chinese Sui dynasty. As a Buddhist, he encouraged the spread of Buddhism through the state. He is regarded as one of the most important emperors in Chinese history, reunifying China proper in 589 after centuries of division since the independence of the Cheng-Han and Han-Zhao dynasties from the Western Jin dynasty in 304. During his reign, the construction of the Grand Canal began.

As a Northern Zhou official, Yang Jian served with apparent distinction during the reigns of the Emperor Wu and Emperor Xuan. When the erratic Emperor Xuan died in 580, Yang, as his father-in-law, seized power as regent. After defeating General Yuchi Jiong, who resisted him, he seized the throne for himself, establishing the new Sui dynasty. Yang Jian was the first ethnic Han ruler to control the entirety of North China after the Xianbei people conquered the region from the Liu Song dynasty (not counting the brief reconquest by Emperor Wu of Liang).

Generally speaking, Emperor Wen's reign was a great period of prosperity, not seen since the Han dynasty. Economically, the nation prospered. It was said that there was enough food stored for 50 years. The military was also powerful. At the beginning of his reign, Sui faced the threat of the Göktürks in the north, neighbored Tibetan tribes in the west, Goguryeo in the northeast, and Champa (Linyi) in the south. By the end of Emperor Wen's reign, the Göktürks had split into an eastern and a western khaganate, the eastern one being nominally submissive to Sui, as was Goguryeo. Champa was defeated and, while not conquered, did not remain a threat.

Emperor Wen is also famous for having only two concubines. Although he might have had additional concubines not documented by traditional historians, this is the fewest for an adult Chinese emperor, surpassed only by the monogamous Emperor Fei of Western Wei and the Hongzhi Emperor of Ming. Emperor Wen loved and respected his wife Empress Dugu deeply, and he might not have had sexual relations with his concubines until after her death in 602.

Early life
Yang Jian was a member of the northwestern Chinese military aristocracy which had arisen during the previous period of division, and he had served as a general under the Xianbei-led Northern Zhou. Yang Jian's family was the Yang clan of Hongnong (弘農楊氏),  which had Han origins but had intermarried with the Xianbei for generations. Yang Jian's clan specifically claimed descent from the Han dynasty general Yang Zhen. Yang Zhen's eighth-generation descendant Yang Xuan (楊鉉) served as a commandery governor for a Yan state (Former Yan or Later Yan) during the Sixteen Kingdoms Period, and his descendants subsequently served the Northern Wei dynasty. Yang Jian emphasized Han Chinese cultural identity throughout his reign.

Yang Jian's father was Yang Zhong (楊忠), a follower of the late-Northern Wei general Yuwen Tai, who later became prominent in the politics of the Western Wei under Yuwen's regency. Yang Jian's mother was Lady Lü, who gave birth to him in a Buddhist temple in Pingyi (馮翊, in modern Weinan, Shaanxi). A Buddhist nun was impressed with Yang Jian's appearance, and raised him in his early years. Yang Jian attended the imperial college for the sons of the nobility and high officials. When he was 14 years old, he was appointed to serve in the military under Yuwen Tai.

In 555, on account of Yang Zhong's accomplishments, Yang Jian received several official ranks, including the title of the Duke of Chengji County (成紀縣公). In 557, Dugu Xin, impressed with Yang Jian, gave his daughter, Empress Dugu Qieluo, to Yang and made her his wife. He was 16, and she was 13. After Yuwen Tai's son Emperor Ming of Northern Zhou came to the throne later that year, Yang Jian was made the vice minister of internal affairs, and he was created the greater title of Duke of Daxing Commandery (大興郡公). Subsequently, during the reign of Emperor Ming's brother Emperor Wu, Yang Jian was further promoted in military authority. After Yang Zhong's death in 568, he inherited the title of Duke of Sui. In 573, Emperor Wu took Yang Jian's daughter Yang Lihua to be the wife and crown princess of his son Yuwen Yun the Crown Prince, and further honored Yang Jian. It was said that, however, that Yang Jian was so unusual in his appearance that some of Emperor Wu's close associates suspected Yang Jian of eventually harboring treasonous intent. Both Emperor Wu's brother Yuwen Xian the Prince of Qi and the general Wang Gui (王軌) were said to have suggested that Emperor Wu execute Yang Jian, but Emperor Wu resisted. Still, Yang Jian heard rumors and tried to hide his own talent to avoid trouble. It was not until 575 when Emperor Wu involved Yang Jian in a major campaign against rival Northern Qi. Yang Jian also participated in the 576–577 campaign that saw Emperor Wu being able to destroy Northern Qi and seize its territory.

In 578, Emperor Wu died, and Yuwen Yun took the throne as Emperor Xuan. Emperor Xuan immediately began to show erratic behavior, and while he created Yang Jian's daughter Crown Princess Yang empress, he suspected Yang Jian deeply, although he made Yang Jian the minister of defense. In 579, Emperor Xuan passed the throne to his young son Yuwen Chan (by his concubine Consort Zhu Manyue) (as Emperor Jing) and became retired emperor (with the atypical title of "Emperor Tianyuan" (Tianyuan Huangdi), but continued to exercise imperial powers. On one occasion, he became so suspicious of Yang Jian that he stated to Empress Yang, "I will surely slaughter your clan!" He then summoned Yang Jian to the palace, with instructions to kill him if his expressions betrayed any worries, but Yang Jian arrived without showing any unusual emotions, and avoided being killed. On another occasion, Empress Yang displeased Emperor Xuan, and Emperor Xuan ordered her to commit suicide. When Duchess Dugu heard this, she went to the palace to beg Emperor Xuan's forgiveness, and Emperor Xuan eventually spared Empress Yang.

Regency
In summer 581, with Emperor Xuan intending to conquer Chen dynasty, he sent Yang Jian to be the commandant at Yang Province (揚州, roughly modern Lu'an, Anhui) to prepare for the campaign against Chen. Before Yang Jian could depart, however, Emperor Xuan suddenly grew seriously ill. Two of Emperor Xuan's close associates, Liu Fang (劉昉) and Zheng Yi (鄭譯), who were friends of Yang's, summoned Yang to the palace to prepare to serve as regent, overriding the desire of another closet associate, Yan Zhiyi (顏之儀), to have Emperor Xuan's uncle Yuwen Zhao (宇文招) the Prince of Zhao appointed regent. Emperor Xuan soon died, and Zheng and Liu issued an edict in Emperor Xuan's name appointing Yang regent.

Yang immediately pleased the officials at the capital by abolishing the wastefulness and cruel policies of Emperor Xuan, and he himself demonstrated both hard work and frugality, which impressed the people. Fearful of the intentions of the general Yuchi Jiong, who was then the commandant at Xiang Province (相州, roughly modern Handan, Hebei), he summoned Yuchi back to the capital. Yuchi, however, refused, and believing that Yang's intentions were to usurp the throne, rose at Xiang Province against Yang. He was supported by the generals Sima Xiaonan (司馬消難), the commandant at Xun Province (勛州, roughly modern Xiaogan, Hubei) and Wang Qian (王謙), the commandant at Yi Province (roughly modern Chengdu, Sichuan). However, just 68 days after Yuchi rose in rebellion, the general Wei Xiaokuan defeated Yuchi, and Yuchi committed suicide. Wang was also soon defeated, and Sima fled to Chen. To prevent Yuchi's headquarters at Yecheng to be used again as a base of opposition against him, Yang Jian had Yecheng (Northern Qi's old capital) torn down.

During Yuchi's campaign, Zhou princes like Yuwen Xian Prince of Bi and Yuwen Zhao made attempts to assassinate Yang, but failed. In response, Yang put Yuwen Xian, Yuwen Zhao and Zhao's younger brother Yuwen Sheng (宇文盛) the Prince of Yue and their sons to death, and after Yuchi was defeated, he began to slaughter the Yuwen clan in earnest. He also had Emperor Jing promote his titles quickly, and he changed his surname back to Yang. Around the new year 581, his title was promoted to Prince of Sui (隨王). In spring 581, he had Emperor Jing yield the throne to him, ending Northern Zhou and establishing Sui dynasty, as its Emperor Wen. (His use of "Sui" as his new dynasty name was typical of Chinese historical dynastic transitions—using the old fief name as the new dynasty's name—but he, believing that the character for his fief Sui (隨) to contain a "辶" radical, denoting "walking" and therefore a lack of permanence in the regime, removed "辶" from the character, rendering it "隋".)

Early Kaihuang era
The Book of Sui records Emperor Wen as having withdrawn his favour from the Confucians, giving it to "the group advocating Legalism and authoritarian government." Emperor Wen abolished Northern Zhou's governmental organization of six departments, instead establishing five main bureaus—executive bureau (Shangshu Sheng (尚書省)), examination bureau (Menxia Sheng (門下省)), legislative bureau (Neishǐ Sheng (內史省)), Palace Library, and eunuch bureau (Neishì Sheng (內侍省—note different tone and character versus 'legislative bureau')), with two additional independent agencies, 11 other independent departments, and 12 military commands.

He posthumously honored his father Yang Zhong and mother Lady Lu as emperor and empress. He created his wife Duchess Dugu empress and their oldest son Yang Yong crown prince; he created his brothers and his other sons imperial princes. He initially created Northern Zhou's Emperor Jing the Duke of Jie, but soon slaughtered all grandsons of Yuwen Tai, and eventually put the Duke of Jie to death as well. He entrusted most of the important governmental matters to his officials Gao Jiong, Yang Su, and Su Wei. Agreeing with some officials' assertions that Northern Zhou fell because its imperial princes lacked power to protect the central government, he sent his sons out to key provinces with broad powers. He further commissioned the official Pei Zheng (裴政) to carry out a project of simplifying the penal code and decrease the penalty from the harsh laws—a reform that was later largely accepted by the succeeding dynasties.

Emperor Wen did not maintain as submissive a relationship with the Göktürks, which brought resentment from the Göktürks' Ïšbara qaγan Ashina Helu. The qaγan's wife, the Xianbei princess Qianjin, Yuwen Zhao's daughter, particularly hated Emperor Wen for destroying the Northern Zhou. Ashina Helu therefore carried out a series of border attacks against Sui, allied with Gao Baoning (高寶寧), the former Northern Qi general who was still holding Ying Province (營州, roughly modern Zhaoyang, Liaoning). In response, under advice from the general Zhangsun Sheng (長孫晟), Emperor Wen carried out the strategy of placating Ashina Helu's subordinate qaγans—his uncle Datou Khan Ashina Dianjue (阿史那玷厥), cousin Abo Khan Ashina Daxianbian (阿史那大暹便), and brother Ashina Chuluohou (阿史那處羅侯) – to create dissension within the Göktürks, and gradually, the strategy worked, causing the Göktürks to be unable to take unified actions against Sui.

In 581, Emperor Wen commissioned a major attack on Chen, and while it was initially successful, Emperor Wen withdrew the attack in spring 582 after hearing that Emperor Xuan of Chen had died and believing it wrongful to attack a state whose emperor had just died.

In 582, believing that Chang'an was too small of a city, Emperor Wen built a new capital nearby, which he named Daxing, and in spring 583 he moved the capital to Daxing. (From that point forward, Daxing and Chang'an became interchangeable names, although by the time of succeeding Tang dynasty, the new capital was known again just as Chang'an.)

Also in 582, Emperor Wen, thankful for the refusal by the vassal Emperor Ming of Western Liang to support Yuchi Jiong in 580, withdrew his forces from Western Liang's capital Jiangling, permitting Western Liang a degree of self-governance. He also took Emperor Ming's daughter as the wife and princess to his son, Yang Guang the Prince of Jin. (After Emperor Ming's death in 585 and succession by his son Emperor Jing of Western Liang, however, Emperor Wen reestablished the post of commandant of Jiangling and again put Western Liang territory under military control.)

By spring 583, the Göktürks' internal dissension had become serious enough that Emperor Wen felt comfortable enough to commission his brother Yang Shuang (楊爽) the Prince of Wei to command a major attack against Ashina Shetu. Yang Shuang achieved a great victory, and part of his army, commanded by the general Yin Shou (陰壽), defeated Gao, forcing Gao to try to flee to the Qidan, but on the way, Gao was killed by his own subordinates, ending the last bit of Northern Qi resistance. After the defeat, the various subordinate khans further engaged in battles among themselves and against Ashina Shetu, with Sui watching by, refusing to give aid to any side. By 584, Ashina Shetu submitted to Sui, and even the resentful Princess Qianjin referred to Emperor Wen as "father." He created her the Princess Dayi.

In summer 584, believing that the Wei River, on account of its sandbars and treacherous waters, was becoming too difficult of a route for food transport to Daxing, commissioned the official Yuwen Kai (宇文愷) to construct a canal between Daxing and Tong Pass, parallel to the Wei River, named the Guangtong Canal (廣通渠), greatly easing the transport of food and other supplies to the capital region Guanzhong. Nevertheless, on account of a famine in Guanzhong in fall 584, Emperor Wen briefly took up residence in Luoyang.

In 586, the officials Liang Shiyan (梁士彥) the Duke of Cheng, Yuwen Xin (宇文忻) the Duke of Qi, and Liu Fang the Duke of Shu—all three of whom were friends of Emperor Wen but all of whom believed that they had been slighted by Emperor Wen—were accused of plotting rebellion, and all three were executed.

In spring 587, continuing his canal-building regime, Emperor Wen built the Shanyang Canal (山陽瀆) between the Yangtze River and the Huai River to improve the transport of material between those two rivers.

In fall 587, Emperor Wen summoned Western Liang's Emperor Jing to Chang'an to meet him. Emperor Jing complied with the direction. While Emperor Jing was away, however, Emperor Wen, believing that Jiangling would not be guarded well, sent his general Cui Hongdu (崔弘度) to Jiangling. Emperor Jing's uncle Xiao Yan (蕭巖) the Prince of Anping and Xiao Huan (蕭瓛) the Prince of Yixing instead believed that Cui was intending to attack the city, and they took the populace of the city and surrendered to the Chen general Chen Huiji (陳慧紀), the cousin to Chen's emperor Chen Shubao. In response, Emperor Wen abolished Western Liang, directly seizing its territory, while creating Emperor Jing the Duke of Ju. Emperor Wen, who had been planning to conquer Chen for years, now further enhanced his planning in earnest. In spring 588, Emperor Wen publicly announced a campaign against Chen, commanded by Yang Guang, another of his sons Yang Jun the Prince of Qin, and Yang Su, with Yang Guang in overall command. Gao Jiong served as Yang Guang's assistant.

In spring 589, the Sui general Heruo Bi (賀若弼) crossed the Yangtze at Jingkou (京口, in modern Zhenjiang, Jiangsu), and the Sui general Han Qinhu (韓擒虎) crossed the Yangtze at Caishi (采石, in modern Ma'anshan, Anhui). Meanwhile, Yang Su was advancing from the west down the Yangtze, and Yang Jun was stationed in the middle Yangtze region, cutting off any Chen forces that might have been able to come to the aid of Chen's capital Jiankang. Heruo soon defeated and captured the Chen general Xiao Mohe, who was making a final attempt to repel Heruo and Han's forces from Jiankang, and Jiankang fell immediately after. Chen Shubao was captured but not harmed. Rather, he and his clan members were transported to Chang'an, where Emperor Wen treated them as honored guests. Some Chen generals briefly resisted, but soon the Sui had control. The Northern and Southern dynasties period was over, and Sui had united China. Much as how he had torn down Yecheng after Yuchi defeat, Emperor Wen tore down Jiankang, establishing only a minor garrison at the nearby Shitou as Jiang Province (蔣州).

Late Kaihuang era
In 590, apparently jealous of the talent of the official Li Delin, who had been key in his takeover of power as regent and who had contributed to the strategies in conquering Chen, Emperor Wen, believing in several false accusations against Li, removed Li from his office and made him a provincial governor. Li would not return to the central government for the rest of his life.

After Chen was conquered, Sui began to apply its laws over Chen's former territory—which brought resentment from the gentry, as they had been treated preferentially under Chen and its predecessor dynasties in the south. Su Wei further wrote a work known as the Five Teachings (五教, Wu Jiao) which is no longer extant but thought to be a work about loyalty to Sui and ordered that all former Chen subjects read and memorize it, leading to further resentment. When a rumor spread that Sui would move Chen subjects into the Guanzhong region in 590, nearly all of former Chen realm rose in rebellion, but in an unorganized manner. Emperor Wen sent Yang Su to quell the rebellions, and the rebels were no match for Yang Su; within the year, the rebellions were put down.

In 591, Tuyuhun sought peace and, as per custom, its khan Murong Shifu (慕容世伏) offered his daughter to be a concubine for Emperor Wen. Emperor Wen accepted the peace offer but declined the offer of Murong Shifu's daughter. (It was, however, around this time that he did take Chen Shubao's sister and another woman from Jiankang, Consort Cai, as concubines, although it appeared likely that Consort Cai was never able to have sexual relations with Emperor Wen while Empress Dugu was alive; Consort Chen, as the sister of a submissive former sovereign, might have had sexual relations with Emperor Wen on an infrequent basis, but it is not clear.)

In spring 592, the official He Tuo (何妥), who, despite his senior status over Su Wei's son Su Kui (蘇夔), was losing out against Su Kui over a debate as to the designation of official music styles for Sui. In anger, He Tuo accused Su Wei of factionalism, and after investigation by Emperor Wen's son Yang Xiu and the official Yu Qingze (ted zhang), Su Wei was removed from office. After Su Wei's removal, Yang Su and Gao Jiong became effectively the co-prime ministers. When Heruo Bi, who believed that he should have been prime minister, complained, Emperor Wen removed him from his post as well and stripped him of his ducal title, but restored the ducal title a year later. (Su Wei, however, was back in his post at the latest by 595.)

Also in 592, Emperor Wen, reacting to an overflowing abundance of food and silk in the governmental stores, reduced the taxes heavily, and he also sent messengers around central China, redistributing land to give the poor farming land.

In 593, Emperor Wen commissioned a summer vacation palace, Renshou Palace (仁壽宮, in modern Linyou County, Shaanxi), away from Chang'an, with Yang Su in charge of the project. The palace was far more luxurious than Emperor Wen expected, and its construction cost many lives. (When it was completed in spring 595 and Emperor Wen visited the palace, he was initially very displeased with Yang Su, but Empress Dugu persuaded him that Yang Su knew that he had little other entertainment, and she awarded Yang Su much treasure to show appreciation.)

Also in 593, knowing that the Princess Dayi was still resentful of him, Emperor Wen had the official Pei Ju inform the cousin and subordinate khan to the Göktürks' Dulan Khan, Ashina Yongyulü, the Tuli Khan Ashina Rangan (son of Ashina Chuluohou) that he would let Ashina Rangan marry a Sui princess if Ashina Rangan was able to get Princess Dayi killed. Ashina Rangan, in response, accused Princess Dayi of adultery, and Ashina Yongyulü killed her and requested another marriage with Sui. Instead, Emperor Wen agreed to marry a princess to Ashina Rangan, in order to create greater friction between them.

In 594, in response to another famine in the Guanzhong region, Emperor Wen again temporarily took up residence in Luoyang. He also, to share in some of his people's suffering, abstained from meat for a year.

Late in 594, Yang Guang submitted a petition that Emperor Wen carry out the ancient ceremonies of worshipping the heaven and earth gods at Mount Tai. Emperor Wen declined to carry out a full set of ceremonies due to its costs, but in spring 595 carried out an abbreviated version to seek blessings from the gods due to the ongoing drought.

Also in spring 595, Emperor Wen ordered that no weapons be held by private individuals and that all of them be collected and destroyed, although he exempted the border provinces from this edict.

In 596, Emperor Wen created a daughter of a clansman the Princess Guanghua and married her to Murong Shifu, to cement the peaceful relations with Tuyuhun.

In 597, Cuan Wan (爨翫), the chief of the Nanning Tribe (南寧夷, located in modern Qujing, Yunnan), rebelled. Emperor Wen sent the general Shi Wansui (史萬歲) the Duke of Taiping against Cuan, forcing him to surrender. Initially, Shi was to take Cuan to Chang'an to be presented to Emperor Wen, but Cuan bribed Shi, and so Shi allowed him to stay. Also in 597, Li Guangshi (李光仕), the chief of the aborigine people in Gui Province (桂州, roughly modern Guilin, Guangxi), also rebelled. Emperor Wen sent the generals Wang Shiji (王世積) and Zhou Fashang (周法尚) against Li, and Zhou was able to defeat and kill Li. However, in the fall, Li Shixian (李世賢), who might have been related to Li Guangshi, rebelled at Gui Province, and Emperor Wen sent Yu Qingze the Duke of Lu to attack Li Shixian; Yu was successful in suppressing the rebellion. Subsequently, however, Yu's brother-in-law Zhao Shizhu (趙什住), who had an affair with Yu's concubine, falsely accused Yu of treason, and around the new year 598, Yu was executed.

Also in 597, Emperor Wen felt that the punishment for official misconduct was too light, and authorized that supervising officials would be permitted to batter their subordinates with large canes if they felt that the legally prescribed punishment was too light in comparison to the degree of misconduct. Further, also believing that there was too much theft and robbery throughout the realm, he increased the punishment for theft to death—a law that he subsequently abolished.

Also in 597, Emperor Wen's son Yang Jun the Prince of Qin, the commandant at Bing Province (并州, roughly Taiyuan, Shanxi), was poisoned, but not to death, by his jealous wife Princess Cui. After Yang Jun was taken back to Chang'an for treatment, Emperor Wen discovered that Yang Jun had been wasteful at his post, and removed him from all of his offices, allowing him to only retain the title of imperial prince. When Princess Cui's poisoning was discovered, Emperor Wen ordered Yang Jun to divorce her, and subsequently ordered her to commit suicide. When Liu Sheng (劉昇) and Yang Su suggested that the punishment against Yang Jun was overly severe, Emperor Wen responded to Yang Su:

 * I am the father of just five sons, not the father of all people over the land. If I agreed with you, does that mean I have to draft a Penal Code for the Emperor's Sons? Even a man as kind as the Duke of Zhou executed his brothers, the lords of Guan and Cai, for their crimes. I am nowhere as capable as the Duke of Zhou, so I can break my own laws?

Also in 597, Ashina Rangan arrived at Chang'an, and Emperor Wen gave him the daughter of a clansman, whom he created the Princess Anyi, to be his wife, and awarded Ashina Rangan with much treasure, to try to break the bond between him and Ashina Yongyulü. From this point on, whenever Ashina Yongyulü would prepare to attack, Ashina Rangan would report his plans to Emperor Wen, allowing Sui forces to become prepared.

In 598, King Yeongyang of Goguryeo attacked Ying Province, and while the governor of Ying Province, Wei Chong (韋沖), fought off the Goguryeo attack, Emperor Wen was angered. He sent his son Yang Liang the Prince of Han and Wang Shiji to serve as commanding generals, with Gao Jiong serving as Yang Liang's assistant, and the former Chen general Zhou Luohou (周羅睺) serving as the commander of the navy, to attack Goguryeo. However, the forces ran into food supply problems, and the ships ran into a storm and suffered great losses. Both at sea and on the ground, Goguryeo forces inflicted heavy losses on the Sui forces. Nevertheless, King Yeongyang ceased his raids into China and so Emperor Wen called off the campaign against Goguryeo, unable to commit yet another enormous force to punish Goguryeo after the recent losses. As King Wideok of Baekje offered assistance to Sui during the campaign, this precipitated a conflict between Goguryeo and Baekje.

Also in 598, Cuan Wan rebelled again, and Yang Xiu accused Shi of accepting bribes from Cuan earlier. Emperor Wen considered executing Shi, but ultimately chose only to remove him from his posts, and it appeared soon after Shi was restored to his post.

In 599, after Ashina Rangan reported that Ashina Yongyulü was planning to attack, Emperor Wen took preemptive action and had Gao Jiong, Yang Su, and Yan Rong (燕榮) command a three-pronged attack against Ashina Yongyulü, with Yang Liang in nominal command but not at the frontline. In response, Ashina Yongyulü and Ashina Dianjue made a joint attack against Ashina Rangan, defeating him and largely seizing his tribe. Ashina Rangan fled to Sui, and Emperor Wen treated him as an honored guest. Subsequently, both Gao Jiong and Yang Su engaged Göktürk forces and repelled them.

Also in 599, with Wang Shiji's subordinate Huangfu Xiaoxie (皇甫孝諧) accusing Wang of treason after Wang refused to shield Huangfu after he committed crimes, Emperor Wen believed Huangfu and executed Wang.

By this point, Yang Yong the Crown Prince had lost the favor of both Emperor Wen and Empress Dugu, over his being overly wasteful (which displeased Emperor Wen) and having many concubines (which displeased Empress Dugu). They therefore considered deposing him and replacing him with Yang Guang. When Empress Dugu hinted as such, Gao Jiong stated clear opposition. Meanwhile, Emperor Wen himself had engaged in sexual relations with Yuchi Jiong's granddaughter, who had been made a servant after her grandfather's defeat—and when Empress Dugu found out, she had Yuchi Jiong's granddaughter killed. Emperor Wen was exceedingly angry and rode away from the palace on a horse, returning to the palace only at the urging of Gao and Yang Su—but with Gao further angering Empress Dugu when Gao referred to her as "a woman." In 599, Gao was accused of associating with Wang Shiji and removed from his posts. Subsequently, Gao was accused of cursing Emperor Wen, but when the sentence of death was recommended, Emperor Wen commented that he could not kill Gao soon after killing Yu and Wang, and therefore only reduced Gao to commoner rank.

In winter 599, Emperor Wen created Ashina Rangan Qimin Khan, and commissioned Zhangsun Sheng to build the city of Dali (大利, in modern Hohhot) to house Ashian Rangan's people, and also sent an army to protect Ashina Rangan. By now, the Princess Anyi had died, and Emperor Wen married another daughter of a clansman, whom he created the Princess Yicheng (義成公主), to marry Ashina Rangan. Soon thereafter, Ashina Yongyulü was assassinated, and Ashina Dianjue declared himself Bujia Khan. In summer 600, Ashina Dianjue attacked Ashina Rangan, and Sui forces fought off Ashina Dianjue's attack, further causing Ashina Rangan to be grateful to Sui.

In fall 600, with Yang Guang and Yang Su forming a faction, with tacit support of Empress Dugu, they had Yang Yong's associate Ji Wei (姬威) falsely accuse Yang Yong of plotting treason. Emperor Wen deposed Yang Yong and replaced him with Yang Guang. Emperor Wen also put a number of officials whom he believed to be part of Yang Yong's faction, including Shi and Yuan Min (元旻) the Duke of Wuyuan, to death.

Renshou era
In 602, Empress Dugu died, and Emperor Wen was greatly saddened. Thereafter, he began to engage in sexual relations with his concubines, favoring Consort Chen and Consort Cai.

Also in 602, Yang Guang, believing that Yang Xiu would eventually create trouble for him, had Yang Su collect evidence of Yang Xiu's wastefulness and use of items that were only appropriate for emperors. Yang Su submitted the evidence to Emperor Wen, and Emperor Wen, in anger, recalled Yang Xiu to the capital. After Yang Xiu arrived at the capital, Yang Guang further manufactured evidence that Yang Xiu had cursed Emperor Wen and Yang Liang. In anger, Emperor Wen reduced Yang Xiu to commoner rank and put him under house arrest.

In 603, Ashina Dianjue, faced with rebellions from the Tiele and Pugu (僕骨) tribes, surrendered to Ashina Rangan. By now, Ashina Rangan became the undisputed khan of the Göktürks.

In spring 604, Emperor Wen, as per his custom, went to Renshou Palace to avoid the heat, despite warnings from the sorcerer Zhangchou Taiyi (章仇太翼) that if he went, he would never return. While there, he grew ill, and in fall 604, he died. He was buried at the Yangling District's Tailing (泰陵) tumulus mausoleum, with Empress Dugu (though not in the same burial chamber).

How Emperor Wen died, however, is a matter of historical controversy. Most traditional historians relay and believe an account in which, while Emperor Wen was ill, Yang Guang tried to rape Consort Chen. When she reported the attempted rape to Emperor Wen, he became angry and had the officials Liu Shu (柳述, the husband of his daughter Yang Awu (楊阿五) the Princess Lanling) and Yuan Yan (元巖) the Duke of Longgu summon Yang Yong, intending to restore him. When Yang Guang found out, he, in association with Yang Su, had Liu and Yuan arrested, and then sent his associate Zhang Heng (張衡) to kill Emperor Wen, and Zhang did so. Soon thereafter, he forced Consorts Chen and Cai to become his concubines and had Yang Yong put to death, and only then announced Emperor Wen's death and took the throne (as Emperor Yang).

The historian Sima Guang, in his Zizhi Tongjian, borrowing parts of analyses from the Book of Sui and the History of the Northern Dynasties, opined:

"Gaozu [Emperor Wen's temple name] was by nature cautious and solemn, and he always made sure that his orders are carried out, whether it be an order for an affirmative act or for a prohibition. He got up early in the morning to host imperial gatherings, and he would not appear tired even after noon. Although he was himself stingy, but he did not hold back his awards when rewarding the people with accomplishments.  He gave much compensation to the families of soldiers who died in battle, and sent messengers to comfort them.  He loved his people, encouraging them to till the field and grow mulberries, and decreasing their labor and tax burdens.  He himself lived simply and frugally, and the vessels and clothes he used, even after they became worn out, continued to be patched and used.  Except at feasts, his meals would contain a single meat dish.  The clothes of the palace women were continued to be used even after they were washed. Based on his influence, during his reign, men only wore cotton and cloth, not silk, and their decorations were made of copper, iron, bones, and horns, not gold, silver, or gemstones. There were bountiful productions of food and textile, so much so that the storage was insufficient for them. At the start of his reign, the census rolls only had less than four million households, but at the end of his reign, there were almost nine million households, and Ji Province [(冀州, roughly modern Hengshui, Hebei)] by itself contained one million households. However, he was suspicious, critical, and picky, believing many alienating words of his officials. Therefore, even of those with the most accomplishments and his old friends, not one was able to maintain the relationship from start to end. He even treated his own sons as enemies. These were his faults."

Emperor Wen also established seven orchestras comprising musicians from across Asia at his court; these orchestras were expanded to nine by his son Emperor Yang of Sui.

Family
Consorts and Issue:
 * Empress Wenxian, of the Henan Dugu clan (文獻皇后 河南獨孤氏; 544–602), personal name Jialuo (伽羅)
 * Princess Leping (樂平公主; 561–609), personal name Lihua (麗華), first daughter
 * Married Yuwen Yun (559–580) in 573, and had issue (one daughter)
 * Princess Xiang (襄公主), second daughter
 * Married Li Changya, Duke Heyang (李長雅)
 * Yang Yong, Prince of Fangling (房陵王 楊勇; 568–604), first son
 * Yang Guang, Emperor Yang (煬皇帝 楊廣; 569–618), second son
 * Princess Guangping (廣平公主), third daughter
 * Married Yuwen Jingli, Duke Ande (宇文靜禮), and had issue (two sons)
 * Yang Jun, Prince Xiao of Qin (秦孝王 楊俊; 571–600), third son
 * Fourth daughter
 * Yang Xiu, Prince of Shu (蜀王 楊秀; 573–618), fourth son
 * Princess Lanling (蘭陵公主; 573–604), fifth daughter
 * Married Wang Fengxiao (王奉孝; d. 583) in 580
 * Married Liu Shu of Hedong, Duke Jian'an (河東 柳述) in 585
 * Yang Liang, Prince of Han (漢王 楊諒; 575–605), fifth son
 * Furen, of the Yingchuan Chen clan (宣華夫人 潁川陳氏; 577–605)
 * Furen, of the Cai clan (容华夫人 蔡氏)

title: Emperor Wen of Sui


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Glacial motion

Glacial motion is the motion of glaciers, which can be likened to rivers of ice. It has played an important role in sculpting many landscapes. Most lakes in the world occupy basins scoured out by glaciers. Glacial motion can be fast (up to 30 m/day, observed on Jakobshavn Isbræ in Greenland) or slow (0.5 m/year on small glaciers or in the center of ice sheets), but is typically around 25 cm/day.

Processes of motion
Glacier motion occurs from four processes, all driven by gravity: basal sliding, glacial quakes generating fractional movements of large sections of ice, bed deformation, and internal deformation.
 * In the case of basal sliding, the entire glacier slides over its bed. This type of motion is enhanced if the bed is soft sediment, if the glacier bed is thawed and if meltwater is prevalent.
 * Bed deformation is thus usually limited to areas of sliding. Seasonal melt ponding and penetrating under glaciers shows seasonal acceleration and deceleration of ice flows affecting whole icesheets.
 * Some glaciers experience glacial quakes—glaciers "as large as Manhattan and as tall as the Empire State Building, can move 10 meters in less than a minute, a jolt that is sufficient to generate moderate seismic waves." There has been an increasing pattern of these ice quakes - "Quakes ranged from six to 15 per year from 1993 to 2002, then jumped to 20 in 2003, 23 in 2004, and 32 in the first 10 months of 2005." A glacier that is frozen up to its bed does not experience basal sliding.
 * Internal deformation occurs when the weight of the ice causes the deformation of ice crystals. This takes place most readily near the glacier bed, where pressures are highest. There are glaciers that primarily move via sliding, glacial quakes, and others that move almost entirely through deformation.

Terminus movement and mass balance
If a glacier's terminus moves forward faster than it melts, the net result is advance. Glacier retreat occurs when more material ablates from the terminus than is replenished by flow into that region.

Glaciologists consider that trends in mass balance for glaciers are more fundamental than the advance or retreat of the termini of individual glaciers. In the years since 1960, there has been a striking decline in the overall volume of glaciers worldwide. This decline is correlated with global warming. As a glacier thins, due to the loss of mass it will slow down and crevassing will decrease.

Landscape and geology
Studying glacial motion and the landforms that result requires tools from many different disciplines: physical geography, climatology, and geology are among the areas sometime grouped together and called earth science.

During the Pleistocene (the last ice age), huge sheets of ice called continental glaciers advanced over much of the earth. The movement of these continental glaciers created many now-familiar glacial landforms. As the glaciers were expanded, due to their accumulating weight of snow and ice, they crushed and redistributed surface rocks, creating erosional landforms such as striations, cirques, and hanging valleys. Later, when the glaciers retreated leaving behind their freight of crushed rock and sand, depositional landforms were created, such as moraines, eskers, drumlins, and kames. The stone walls found in New England (northeastern United States) contain many glacial erratics, rocks that were dragged by a glacier many miles from their bedrock origin.

At some point, if an Alpine glacier becomes too thin it will stop moving. This will result in the end of any basal erosion. The stream issuing from the glacier will then become clearer as glacial flour diminishes. Lakes and ponds can also be caused by glacial movement. Kettle lakes form when a retreating glacier leaves behind an underground chunk of ice. Moraine-dammed lakes occur when a stream (or snow runoff) is dammed by glacial till.

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

title: Glacial motion


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Talk:USS Sacramento (PG-19)

Dominican
The article mentions the ship has visited "Dominican" ports. Is this a reference to the Dominican Republic or to Dominica? JoaoRicardo 23:49, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)

title: Talk:USS Sacramento (PG-19)


text: User talk:129.174.62.152

title: User talk:129.174.62.152


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Ashley Jones

Ashley Aubra Jones (born September 3, 1976) is an American actress. She is known for her roles in soap operas as Megan Dennison on The Young and the Restless and as Bridget Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful. She also portrayed the recurring role as Daphne in the second season of the HBO drama series True Blood. From 2016 to 2017, Jones played the recurring role of Parker Forsyth on General Hospital

Early life
Jones was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on September 3, 1976. Shawn Jones, her father, is a minister. The family lived in Tennessee for five years before her father took a job preaching in Texas. Jones has one brother named Zach and one sister named Toni, named after their aunt who saved their mother's life by donating blood. At the age of five, she filmed her first commercial. At the age of nine, Jones starred in several theater productions in the Actors Theatre of Houston including The Women, Ah, Wilderness!, and Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs. At the age of 12, she was in The Chalk Garden by Enid Bagnold.

Career
Jones rose to fame on the long-running CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless, playing Megan Dennison from 1997 to 2000, and again in 2001. She received two Daytime Emmy Award nominations for her role on The Young and the Restless. She played Dr. Bridget Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful from December 2004 to February 2012 and again in 2013. She has made brief return appearances several times since 2013.

Jones starred as Daphne on the second season of HBO's True Blood in 2009. Jones also has starred in the number of Lifetime movies, like A Teacher's Crime (2008), Dead At 17 (2008), Secrets from Her Past (2011), House (2011), A Sister's Revenge (2013), and The Secret Sex Life of a Single Mom (2014) and Saving My Daughter (2021). In late January 2016, Jones was confirmed to be cast as Parker Forsyth on General Hospital.

In 2023, Jones directed the Lifetime movie The Perfect In-Laws which premieres Nov. 30. She starred in an independent film In Flight with co-stars Tiffany Smith and Cristo Fernandez that will be released in 2024. In September 2023, she joined Bold and the Beautiful co-star Katherine Kelly Lang as a model for Impero Couture, a fashion company based in Naples, Italy. Jones and Lang are the stars of the line's 2024 campaign.

Personal life
Jones was married to actor Noah Nelson, the son of actor Craig T. Nelson, from August 17, 2002, to May 2009. She previously dated former B&B co-star Jack Wagner.

On February 1, 2016, Jones married IT infrastructure manager Joel Henricks in a small courthouse wedding. In March 2016, it was announced that Jones and Henricks were expecting a son together, who was born in May 2016. Henricks already has a son from a previous relationship. In September 2019, Jones filed for divorce from Henricks. They share joint custody of their minor child.

title: Ashley Jones


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San Diego Mesa College

San Diego Mesa College (Mesa College or Mesa) is a public community college in Clairemont Mesa in San Diego, California. It is a California Community College and one of four colleges in the San Diego Community College District.

Community college education in San Diego began in 1914 when the Board of Education of the San Diego City Schools authorized post-secondary classes for San Diego high school students. In 1956, San Diego voters authorized the first of two bonds to establish and construct what would become San Diego Mesa College on an 85-acre mesa next to Stephen Watts Kearny High School. Classes began in 1963 with four faculty members serving 35 students at the 900 building at Kearny High while construction on the college’s campus was completed. The campus was officially opened in January 1964. It has since grown into one of the largest community colleges in the City of San Diego and the 11th largest community college in California.

In 2016, Mesa College became one of the first 15 California community colleges to offer four-year, bachelor's degrees.

Administration
The college is administered by the San Diego Community College District. Mesa is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

Academics
Courses are provided in general education, lower-division transfer programs, occupational and developmental education.

As of February 2024, Mesa College offers almost 200 associate degree and certificate programs.

In 2016, Mesa was one of the first California Community Colleges to be approved to offer a four-year bachelor’s degree program. The first class with a Bachelor of Science in Health Information Management graduated in spring 2018. 22 students graduated with a B.S. from the Health Information Management Program in Spring 2023. In October of 2023, Mesa was approved to offer an additional bachelor’s program in the Physical Therapist Assistant Program.

Transfers
San Diego Mesa college offers Transfer Admission Guarantee programs that provide pathways to San Diego State University and the University of California, San Diego. Additionally, the College offers Associate Degree for Transfer programs in many departments.

According to Mesa’s 2022-2023 factsheet, “Mesa College ranks as one of San Diego's top transfer institutions. Mesa’s transfer rate consistently surpasses the statewide average, with over half of the college’s students transferring to a four-year institution within six years.”

Mesa also staffs a Transfer Center in its Student Support department, providing dedicated counseling and resources.

Mesa College Foundation
The Mesa College Foundation offers scholarships to Mesa students. In 2023, it awarded $159,566 in scholarships across 118 opportunities to 168 student recipients.

Campus
San Diego Mesa College is located in the Clairemont Mesa neighborhood of central San Diego. The campus is bordered by the Tecolote Nature Preserve, Kearny Mesa, and residential neighborhoods. It is home to over 20 instructional buildings and athletic facilities and fields, the Learning Resource Center (LRC), Library, and Mesa Commons. Mesa Commons houses a multi-cuisine cafeteria and student-run restaurant, 72Fifty.

Campus landscaping features native species and an environmental learning garden. There is also a geo-garden located in the courtyard of the Math + Science Complex. In addition, the Mesa Woodland Nature and Interpretive Trail is the largest display of labeled native plants in San Diego county, with 41 native species, including four endangered plants: the San Diego Barrel Cactus, Chalk Dudleya. Willowy Mint, and Torrey Pine.

Art facilities include the Gracia Molina de Pick Glass Gallery, the World Art Collection Gallery, and the Mesa College Art Gallery.

Mesa College is serviced at the Rosa Parks transit center by MTS route 44 at the eastern edge of campus. The station’s name honors Rosa Parks, the groundbreaking civil rights leader who made three trips to Mesa in the 1990s.

Student life
The student body government is the Associated Students (AS), organized into an executive council and senate. In addition, over 30 student clubs are represented by the Interclub Council (ICC).

There are also multiple on-campus community centers; the Dreamer Resource Center, FAST Center, Veterans Success Center, Transfer Center, Career Center, Avanza Engagement Center, and Pride Center.

The college newspaper, The Mesa Press, is run by journalism students and covers Mesa-related news. It has published since 1966.

Athletics
The athletics facilities are at the campus's eastern edge. The Merrill Douglas Stadium (named after the first athletic director at the college) provides a venue for the Olympians Football team, Men’s and Women’s Soccer, and Men’s and Women's Track and Field. Additional facilities include a baseball field, softball fields, gymnasium, swimming pool, tennis courts, upper field and beach volleyball courts. In 2016, the 27,000-square-foot Exercise Science building opened. It is home to the School of Exercise Science, Health Education, Dance and Athletics programs.

San Diego Mesa College offers 19 competitive teams across men’s and women’s sports. On average, 220 student-athletes participate in the program. All student athletes must enroll in at least 12 units per semester and maintain at least a 2.0 GPA. The college mascot is the Olympians. The football team has competed in the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference (PCAC) since 1982 in every sport except for football where they have competed under the Central League in the Southern California Football Association.

As of 2023, Mesa athletes competed in the California Community College Athletic Association State Championships in 7 sports. The Women’s Volleyball team and Women’s Badminton team are ranked 1st in the state. Men’s Track and Field are 2nd, and Women’s Track and Field are 3rd, with an additional four and two individual state champions from the teams, respectively. In Men’s Volleyball, they ranked 4th in the state. Two Women’s Beach Volleyball teams and the Softball team qualified for their state championships, and the Women’s Swimming and Diving team ranked 1st in their conference.

The program has also been awarded the Pacific Coast Athletics Conference's highest honor, the Chet DeVore Trophy, four times. The DeVore award is presented annually to the PCAC member college with the most successful men’s and women’s intercollegiate athletic program for the academic year. Mesa College won the honor in 2011-2012, 2018-2019, 2021-2022, and 2022-2023.

Notable alumni

 * Tony Banks, former NFL quarterback. Played quarterback at Mesa from 1992 to 1993.
 * Anthony J. Battaglia, senior United States district judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, attended Mesa in the late 1960s
 * Annette Bening, actress
 * Darren Comeaux, former NFL linebacker. Played at Mesa from 1978 to 1979.
 * Sam Daghles, current Jordanian national basketball team head coach & former Jordanian league basketball player. Played at Mesa from 1999 to 2001.
 * Roger Guy English, American businessman and world record holder
 * Billy Eppler, former general manager of the New York Mets Major League Baseball tea
 * Monique Henderson, Two-time Olympic Gold Medalist at 2004 and 2008 games in 4x400 meter relay. Professor at Mesa College until 2015.
 * Mireille Kamariza, Burundian-born American bioscientist
 * Jonny Kim, American sailor, physician, and astronaut (born 1984)
 * Matt Kofler, former NFL quarterback and head coach of San Diego Mesa Olympians Football team 2006–2008. Played quarterback at Mesa from 1978 to 1979.
 * Shlomo Lipetz, Israeli baseball player as well as Vice President of Programming and music director at City Winery in Manhattan. Played at Mesa from 1999 to 2000.
 * Mike Martz, former NFL coordinator and head coach. Played tight end at Mesa in 1969. Coached at Mesa in 1974, 1976, 1977.
 * Lou Niles, radio host of 91X and executive director of Oceanside International Film Festival
 * Michelle Ozbun, virologist and professor
 * Brittney Reese, Olympic gold medalist in the long jump, assistant track and field coach at San Diego Mesa College since 2013
 * Arnie Robinson, Olympic Medalist in the long jump at the '72 and '76 Olympics. Head Track and Field Coach at Mesa from 1987 to 2010.
 * Felix Sanchez, Olympic gold medalist at 2004 games and the 2012 games in the 400 meter hurdles.
 * Rick Stephenson, champion bodybuilder
 * Snow Tha Product, American rapper (born 1987)

title: San Diego Mesa College


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"All of these projects are multilingual and open-content."

So, I guess the reason we haven't listed WikiSpecies is because it's the one place where they haven't worked out any multi-lingual system yet?

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User:Dcgomez

User:Dcgomez likes MediaWiki. A lot.

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Wolfmother (EP)

Wolfmother is the debut extended play (EP) by Australian rock band Wolfmother. Recorded and mixed at Ghetto Studios in Detroit, it was released in Australia on 27 September 2004 and later in the United States and the United Kingdom. The EP was produced and mastered by Jim Diamond and mixed by bassist and keyboardist Chris Ross; the album cover was designed by drummer Myles Heskett. All four songs from Wolfmother were later re-recorded for the band's self-titled debut studio album; "Dimension", "Woman" and "White Unicorn" were also released as singles from the album.

Reception
The release of the Wolfmother EP began the consequently commonplace comparisons between the band and 1960s and 1970s rock artists, namely Black Sabbath. In a review for music website AllMusic, critic Eduardo Rivadavia summarised the record by saying "Wolfmother aren't claiming any measure of originality here -- they're just offering a form of time travel." He also said the following in his review:

Powerfully fuzzy guitar riffs, serpentine basslines, thumping percussion, echoed, warbling vocals, and even the occasional Hammond organ provide the fundamental building blocks for the youthful trio's convincingly Jurassic creations; and the impressive opening tandem of "Dimension" [...] and "Woman" carry off the illusion so authentically [...]. Next number "Apple Tree" diverges from the basic template just a tad by interspersing a jolt of psychedelic garage rock into its otherwise familiarly ponderous sections [...] and the grand finale intended by "The White Unicorn" is largely achieved thanks to surprisingly pretty, chiming guitar melodies à la Led Zeppelin.

Wolfmother's debut release was also a minor commercial success, reaching number 35 on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart.

Track listing
All songs were written by Andrew Stockdale, Chris Ross and Myles Heskett.
 * 1) "Dimension" – 4:07
 * 2) "Woman" – 2:43
 * 3) "Apple Tree" – 3:32
 * 4) "White Unicorn" – 7:44

Personnel
Wolfmother
 * Andrew Stockdale – vocals, guitar
 * Chris Ross – bass guitar, keyboards, mixing
 * Myles Heskett – drums, artwork

Additional personnel
 * Jim Diamond – production, mastering

title: Wolfmother (EP)


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Talk:Picaresque novel

Childrens books, broad definition
It seems to me to require a very broad definition of the picaresque to include the Oz books or Harry Potter. Don't we want to compare and contrast to the picaresque proper, rather than just say these are "picaresque". - Jmabel | Talk 05:19, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Untitled
I definitely think that the childrens' book section should be removed. I don't see how it makes any sense. How do any of those books represent an anti-hero on the road? I'm going to remove it. If you want to put it back, discuss it here. - Loperco | Talk 14:56, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 02:56, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

Why only novels?
Can't "picaresque" be extended to film as well? Many film comedies, and the entire road movie genre, depend on this narrative conceit.Dooodle (talk) 19:04, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Vanity Fair
Another important novel that may be considered part of the genre is Thackeray's VANITY FAIR, in which the social climber Beck Sharp tries to invade a corrupt aristocratic clique by her wits and charm. Unlike most picaresque novels, however, it has a female anti-hero, is not set among lower classes, and does not involve a journey as the basis of its plot. CharlesTheBold (talk) 16:38, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

Francisco Rico
Somehow I get the feeling that his views are a bit over-represented in this article. He himself has only a rather short article on Spanish Wikipedia, and none on any other language version. Is he really a leading scholar about the topic?—Graf Bobby (talk) 19:43, 9 February 2010 (UTC)

Moll Flanders
"In England, the body of Tobias Smollett's work, and Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders (1722) are considered picaresque, but they lack the sense of religious redemption of delinquency that was very important in Spanish and German novels. The triumph of Moll Flanders is more economic than moral." This is sheer opinion on behalf of the article editor who wrote it. Moll Flanders can be argued (like all of Defoe's novels) to be a Puritan allegory. The economic "triumph" accompanies the moral reformation, as is typical in Puritan theology. If someone has made the argument in the above quote in a legitimate source, that source should be included with a citation, and it should be noted as an analysis (i.e., "So-and-so has argued that..."). Otherwise, it is non-encyclopedic personal opining. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.54.129.168 (talk) 19:46, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

How about Rabelais' Pantagruel
I think Gargantua_and_Pantagruel would also qualify, no? It started to be published in 1532 and therefore predates Lazarillo, but was definitely successful enough to have been a huge influence. It was also one of the first printed books that were specifically designed to be on the cheap side of the market, therefore addressing a more popular audience. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Peutch (talk • contribs) 12:42, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Why is The Book of The New Sun discussed as an example?
I listed on the main article for the story ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:The_Book_of_the_New_Sun#Picaresque_novel.3F ) why I did not think it belonged in the picaresque novel category, and I list here (verbatim) my objections, but this time to it being discussed as an example of picaresque. I've not the knowledge of wikipedia to check such, but I am thinking that both mentions were probably of the same mistaken editor:

To whit:
 * The antagonist is not an antihero.
 * While he is raised and trained in an unpopular and unpleasant profession, he does not revel in the darker aspects of it, keeping in sight the more "noble" aspect of the ingrained necessity of such a function (which he later comes to question). To him, the job is little more than a job that someone must do and for which he is trained.  Many pains are taken to separate the joy and pleasure he associates with his career is that of doing a job well and the comradeship of his guildmates.  This is merely the swineherd who would be king had he been raised by a guild of torturers instead of a pig farmer.  He retains all, not just some, of the heroic nature expected of one to make such an elevation along with the human capacity of making mistakes.

 * travel
 * This is probably the strongest aspect it shares with a picaresque story; however travel in and of itself is not enough.  In many ways, this story arc has much more in common with the likes of the Arthurian legends or the story of Odysseus than picaresque stories in that his travels generally have the purpose of fulfilling a goal and not the aimless wandering of some rogue poking his nose into whatever he can.

 * satire
 * Mayhap I dense, but I cannot recall any point in the story that can be considered satirical without considerable mental gymnastics.

 * episodic
 * Eh, in the sense that it was a framed narrative aware that sequels would follow (which well could be a function of the publishing industry's practices and not any artistic decision), then yes; however within this story there is far more continuity through the "episodes" such that they are more scenes than episodes, but this just may be my interpretation of the difference between the two.

Now, if you want to dig through science fiction to find an ideal picaresque story, Time Enough for Love will fit the bill; however, Wolfe's work simply will not. Wolfe's books differ in that it seems an attempt to present, at the same time, science and gnosis (of the mystic sense). Further it seems an attempt at presenting both myth and legend along with the underpinning reality (which differs surprisingly little from the myth and legend). Even as some who read this might not be familiar with the stories themselves, a cursory reading of the summary can show this to be other than a picaresque novel (well, series thereof). 67.142.178.24 (talk) 22:00, 29 February 2012 (UTC)

Not very diverse set of examples
Only one female author (Rita Mae Brown). I added Sarah Waters' applauded Tipping the Velvet but there needs to be considerably more work on this set of lists. --LQ 03:33, 6 November 2006 (UTC) I  added Iris Murdoch's Under the Net, which is considered one of the most important novels of the 20th century. Vidamasvida (talk) 16:49, 17 July 2012 (UTC)

Hitchhiker's and Restaurant
I was surprised to find neither The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy nor The Restaurant at the End of the Universe on the list. True, starting with Life, the Universe, and Everything, Douglas Adams's novels became quite tightly plotted (to the extent that I had to re-read Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency more than twice just to understand what exactly happened), but the first two books of the series certaintly strike me as "a series of loosely connected adventures or episodes".

Indeed, so loose were the connections that neither the novels, nor the radio series, the TV series, the stage shows, the wonderful, wonderful Infocom game, OR the film follow the same storyline. In some aspects, the one version just rearranges the sequence of events from the other version, but in other instances [I feel my writing is terrible and unconvincing today], there is wholly-different material that doesn't appear in any other version. For example, Arthur Dent only turned into a rag-doll and vomited yarn in the film version. Heh. But seriously, there were more big, structural differences between each version. I think even the two different stage productions were different from each other. (Neil Gaiman's Don't Panic is a great, if dated and incomplete, source for Adams/Hitchhiker's information.)

Maybe Arthur Dent doesn't quite fit the picaresque protagonist profile (although, once his planet is destroyed at the beginning of the first book, he never concerns himself with such petty matters as employment, for the remainder of the five novels).

Definitely, "satire is a prominent element" in virtually all of Adams's work.

Anyone else have a certain opinion on this?

--Ben Culture (talk) 10:22, 8 October 2012 (UTC)

P.S. Good call on Confederacy of Dunces!

WorldCat Genres
Maximilianklein (talk) 23:43, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

Influences and originality
"Possibly" influenced by Arabic literature? Stories about rascals and tricksters are universal. Such tales have been told everywhere since the beginning of humanity. What stands out about the picaresque is that it is more than just a collection of loosely connected amusing episodes featuring clever rascals. The assertion concerning Arabic magama lit influence is made without any support. What is needed is some evidence that stories from, or deriving from Arabic magama literature, were being read in 16th century Spain; otherwise the unsupported statement should be removed, or an explicit statement made that this is only one suggested influence.

Yes, as you say, the trickster and his adventures is a universal theme. In the Hebrew Bible, to take one example, Jacob cheats both his brother Esau and his father Isaac but is then cheated by his father-in-law Laban before eventually outwitting him too. Interestingly, there are also stories there of women tricking men, like Tamar and Judith. Hors-la-loi 17:17, 11 December 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hors-la-loi (talk • contribs)

Moll Flanders
"In England, the body of Tobias Smollett's work, and Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders (1722) are considered picaresque, but they lack the sense of religious redemption of delinquency that was very important in Spanish and German novels. The triumph of Moll Flanders is more economic than moral." This is sheer opinion on behalf of the article editor who wrote it. Moll Flanders can be argued (like all of Defoe's novels) to be a Puritan allegory. The economic "triumph" accompanies the moral reformation, as is typical in Puritan theology. If someone has made the argument in the above quote in a legitimate source, that source should be included with a citation, and it should be noted as an analysis (i.e., "So-and-so has argued that..."). Otherwise, it is non-encyclopedic personal opining. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.54.129.168 (talk) 19:46, 31 December 2011 (UTC)

Charles Bukowski
Would Charles Bukowski qualify as Picaresque novel author according to the 6 points mentioned?

Thanks, Stefan

Stefanwikipedia (talk) 16:42, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

Lazarillo de Tormes
The term "Picaro" does not appear in the original tale of Lazarillo de Tormes, but it does appear in the sequel, written by Juan de Luna in 1620. He describes a picaro as being very much like a philosopher, but while a philospher has to make sacrifices to achieve a nonmaterialistic lifestyle, a picaro gets it for free. (A philosopher throws all of his possessions into the sea, the Picaro throws them into his belly.) Perhaps that is where the credit for Picaro comes from? Monlette (talk) 22:02, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

The English Rogue
Where is Richard Head's "The English Rogue" (1665), published 3 years before Grimmelshausen's "Simplicissimus"? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.113.117.251 (talk) 09:16, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

Don Quixote?
Does Don Quixote qualify as a picaresque? It's the classic Spanish novel example that springs to mind. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.103.37.2 (talk • contribs)

 * I'm somewhat surprised to find so little said about Don Quixote -- and the novels of Charles Dickens are also almost ignored. Rwood128 (talk) 15:03, 20 May 2014 (UTC)

Tortilla Flat
I'm not an expert, but Tortilla Flat seems a perfect example of a picaresque-inspired novel. Pibwl ←« 19:25, 26 May 2014 (UTC)

20th and 21st centuries
A long list of works about seedy people and situations is provided, none of which seems to match the definition of 'picaresque' given in the lede. The only 20th-century specimen I can bring to mind that resonates with the language in the lede is Kubrick's Barry Lyndon; but it is not listed.

I'd like to remove all of these date-slice sections, and list list no more than half-a-dozen well-chosen examples since 1800. Each should exhibit at least two of the distinguishing properties of picaresque-ness. Being a novel is one (so Kubrick's Barry Lyndon doesn't qualify!) MrDemeanour (talk) 18:55, 6 July 2018 (UTC)

 * While I don't see the relevance of Kubrick's film to the article, I agree that the example post 1900 needed to be checked. The question of the looser usage in the English speaking world may be need to be clarified with regard to some of the examples listed. Rwood128 (talk) 20:58, 6 July 2018 (UTC)

 * Some of the examples appear to relate to novels that do not even fit the loose use of the term in the English-speaking world and only involve the episodic recounting of adventure. I will try and weed these out. Rwood128 (talk) 10:34, 7 July 2018 (UTC)

 * Is an "anti-hero" a rogue or rascal? That is should novels whose protagonist isn't clear a rogue or rascal be included in this article? Rwood128 (talk) 10:58, 7 July 2018 (UTC)

To take The Adventures of Augie March, as an example, the article on it describes it as a picaresque novel (and bildungsroman) but states that "Its protagonist may be said to represent the modern Everyman—an individual struggling to make sense of, and succeed in, an alienating world". Can an "Everyman" be the protagonist of a picaresque novel? Perhaps Saul bellow was influenced by the picaresque tradition, but is it a true picaresque work? Rwood128 (talk) 11:21, 7 July 2018 (UTC)

 * Thanks for your comments. I'm not really a literary person, so I don't want to fix this problem myself; I'm just questioning the lists of timesliced 'examples' based on the explanation given for the term in the article itself. Also, for some of these examples, if they really should be included, then so should scores of others, making the article into a list of lists - a fate to be avoided if possible. MrDemeanour (talk) 13:27, 7 July 2018 (UTC)

 * Evidently a 'picaro' is a rogue or rascal. I would suppose that the absence of a rogue or rascal from the tale would disqualify it; but as I said, I'm not a literary type (I just read stuff). MrDemeanour (talk) 13:31, 7 July 2018 (UTC)

 * Barry Lyndon was based on a novel by Thackeray. The leading character is certainly a rogue. The story lacks a 'frame', which may or may not be a feature of picaresque'. It does comprise a series of episodes. I have not read Thackeray, and I am certainly not campaigning to have it included! MrDemeanour (talk) 13:34, 7 July 2018 (UTC)

 * A full discussion of a few good examples is certainly better than a list, especially when no solid evidence is provided that the examples are truly picaresque. Rwood128 (talk) 17:18, 7 July 2018 (UTC)

 * The modern novels listed under William S. Burroughs name seem highly doubtful, and I have deleted two already. The main criterion seems to be that the protagonist is an anti-hero. Unless there are objections, I'll delete further examples (making use of details provided in the articles on the novels).

 * I have reduced the works listed but what is really needed is a fuller discussion of a handful of major works, along with possibly a briefer discussion of others. Rwood128 (talk) 10:17, 10 July 2018 (UTC)

18th and 19th centuries
Most of this section isn't about the picarssque novel: "In the English-speaking world, the term "picaresque" has referred more to a literary technique or model than to the precise genre that the Spanish call picaresco". Therefore these works should be moved to a section that deals with the influence of the genre–and only contain some of its "elements".This probably also applies to works listed under the subsequent centuries. Rwood128 (talk) 15:20, 9 July 2018 (UTC)

 * I concur. And I am grateful to you for picking up this job, that has arisen from my complaint. And I'm OK with all the changes you've made so far. MrDemeanour (talk) 18:47, 9 July 2018 (UTC)

The Catcher In The Rye
20th century picaresque, no? Burtre26 (talk) 22:24, 18 October 2021 (UTC)

title: Talk:Picaresque novel


text:
Talk:Henri Coiffier de Ruzé, Marquis of Cinq-Mars

Untitled
Is it established that Louis's favorites were his lovers? It seems to me that this is rather controversial, and that many historians would deny actual homosexual activity by Louis. So that bit seems potentially POV. john k 23:58, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I can read French, but I often misunderstand the nuances. However, is Louis's comment, "Je voudrais bien voir la grimace qu'il fait à cette heure sur cet échafaud", possibly intended as a sexual pun? "La grimace" in modern French can have a specifically sexual connotation, as in "la grimace de la petite mort". But I'm not sure 1) if a native French speaker would chuckle as I did when reading this comment, or 2) if the modern understanding has any relation at all to a 17th-century comment. But when I read that line, I totally understood it as, "I'd like to see that same look on his face now."

Bearing in mind that this was recorded by Tallement, it seems even more likely to me that it was intended to remind the reader of the king's former relationship with Cinq-Mars, regardless of whether Louis said it himself or whether it was Tallement's literary invention.

As for the concern about potential bias in interpreting Louis's favourites--the article does not state that ALL of his farourites were lovers. However, there isn't much reason to doubt that Cinq-Mars, at the very least, was sexually involved with Louis. I'm not sure how much evidence there is for his involvement with others, but it's a little hard to assert that Cinq-Mars was the first and only one. MonteGargano (talk) 17:36, 1 August 2014 (UTC)

Indeed, there are many sources which claim Louis XIII had some involvement with Cinq-Mars and "induldged with crushes on girls and boys" in his early childhood (Moote: 'Louis XIII, the Just', ch. 3, I think), yet there are some reasons to distinguish between the true, mature Louis XIII and an immature, literary made-up Louis XIII. First, Moote also points out that his attitude changed. In his early childhood, he was a very sexually developed child, yet after he had received his baptism and had been educated in the teachings of the Catholic faith, he was described as being a very chaste child (and being also very chaste in his adult life, hence his mock-title "Louis the Chaste") Moote further points out Louis was very religious and did his job as a priest-king (for that was one of his official titles) dutifully. So could you imagine a priest-king who dedicates France to the Virgin Mary and spends almost his entire time with a Cardinal or St. Vincent de Paul at the same time being sexually active with men (just as his half-brother César de Vendôme, whom he couldn't stand)? Furthermore, Moote points out that most favourites (like Luynes and St. Simon) were simply his closest friends (so close in fact, that for him, Luynes was even a father figure). However, the most striking evidence against an involvement of Cinq-Mars and Louis XIII is the fact that the stories about it were actually spread by the Marquise de Rambouillet (and later possibly also by the Mme de Chevreuse) who were both notable for disliking the king a lot and criticising him quite strongly (Mme de Chevreuse: "The king is an idiot and incapable of governing"). It is very possible they simply made up this story, since they are no reliable sources and there are numerous cases were they actually did make such stories up. Later, Tallemant used the account of Rambouillet for his story. The Count of ZielinThe Count of Zielin (talk) 16:03, 1 July 2015 (UTC)

Richelieu - Louis split
I'm removing the part where it says the execution strained the relations between Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu. Not only were they both dead within six months, but Louis was with the Cardinal through his last days, sometimes feeding him by hand. Source for that is CV Wedgewood's The Thirty Years War, 2005 NYRB Classics, page 439. JoshNarins 14:29, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

Henri versus Henry
Please see Talk:Henry III of France — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  07:13, 21 February 2018 (UTC)


text:
Gemesis

Gemesis Inc. was a privately held company located in New York City. The company grew synthetic diamonds using proprietary technology.

Gemesis had the world's largest facilities for both the high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond production methods. Using these methods, Gemesis produced high-quality colorless and fancy color diamonds that were offered for sale at 20–30% lower prices than mined natural diamonds of similar quality (and, from some suppliers, lower prices than that). By about 2010, Gemesis was the principal producer of gem quality lab created diamonds and jewelry.

Gemesis started marketing its diamonds by cutting and polishing them and then selling them to jewelry retailers on the wholesale market. In 2012, the company began also selling polished diamonds and diamond jewelry directly to consumers through its website.

The company was founded by Carter Clarke Jr., a retired United States Army brigadier general and son of Carter W. Clarke, beginning as a 30,000-square-foot factory, outside Sarasota, Florida. It was purchased in early 2012 by diamond industry businessman Jatin Mehta. After allegations of impropriety among some of the company's principals arose in 2012, the company was restructured and refounded in 2013 with Mehta's son Suraj Mehta at the helm and with part or all of the company assets transferred to a new company that was still known as "Gemesis". A new CEO was appointed and the company was renamed to Pure Grown Diamonds in June 2014. The new company became a diamond reseller that does not manufacture the gems themselves.

Production process
There are two well established methods of synthetic diamond creation – CVD and HPHT. Gemesis used elements of both – growing diamonds by HPHT after creating smaller ones by CVD. This contrasts with the method used by its primary diamond gemstone competitor of the 2000–2010 era, Apollo Diamond, which its grew gemstones using only CVD.

In the HPHT diamond-growing method that was used by Gemesis, carbon, in graphite form, was placed in a cylindrical "core". A tiny CVD seed diamond was placed at the bottom of the cylinder. The graphite was then subjected to extreme pressure, 850,000 lbf/in² (5.9 GPa) and temperature, 3000 °F for four days. As the diamond was grown, the carbon atoms within the molten metal would crystallize on top of the seed diamond. In Gemesis' process, a yellow gem-quality diamond up to 3 carats (600 mg) in size would grow inside the resolidified metal cylinder. The metal cylinder would then be dissolved in mild acid and the diamond crystal would be extracted.

With the addition or elimination of certain impurities under controlled conditions, diamonds of various color types could be produced. Since nitrogen is abundant in the atmosphere, the HPHT process was more likely to produce bright yellow diamonds than any other color (although natural yellow diamonds often have higher value than white diamonds). The yellow tint occurs when approximately five out of each 100,000 carbon atoms in the diamond crystal lattice are replaced with nitrogen atoms.

Available in the purest Type IIa colorless and rare fancy yellow colors, the company's diamonds have basically identical chemical, optical and physical characteristics as the highest-quality mined diamonds and can also have the same type of cut, color and clarity for gemstone purposes.

1996–2012
Gemesis was founded in 1996 by Carter Clarke, a retired United States Army brigadier general. In 2006, Stephen D. Lux became its chief executive officer. Lux had substantial prior experience in the diamond industry.

The company announced in November 2010 that it planned to begin offering gemstone-quality colorless diamonds for sale on the internet, and ultimately launched its website to do so in March 2012.

The business was not profitable, partly due to the high cost of developing the diamond production process to a point where sufficient production volume was feasible, and the original investors basically lost their entire investments. The company was heading toward bankruptcy in 2010 when diamond industry businessman Jatin Mehta stepped in with an investment of $US8.4M in exchange for a controlling interest in the firm. Mehta reportedly bought out the remaining shareholders in early 2012 and restructured the company, initially renaming it from Gemesis Corporation to Gemesis Diamond Company. Mehta also moved the company's diamond production operations from Florida to Malaysia and made moves designed to legally separate and protect the company's intellectual property. The company restructuring was sufficiently confusing that the well-known industry analyst Chaim Even-Zohar published a report in May 2012 entitled "The Mystery Of Two Gemesis Companies Under One Hat".

2012 incident involving undisclosed synthetic stones and Lux departure
In May 2012, the news emerged that a parcel of 600 unmarked synthetic diamonds had been submitted by a buyer to the International Gemological Institute (IGI) diamond certifying agency for evaluation, without any accompanying disclosure that they were synthetic. The DTC Diamond Research Center issued an alert and said the undisclosed synthetics were "strikingly similar" in their characteristics to Gemesis diamonds, and a trade journal said the synthetics and Gemesis diamonds had "identical characteristics" and "had the specific Gemesis fingerprint". The diamonds had been grown by CVD and then treated by HPHT, and thus their production required both technologies. It was noted that all of the stones in the parcel were synthetics – there was no mixing to hide synthetic stones among natural ones. The buyer of the parcel said the 600 diamonds were only a sampling from a collection that was four or five times larger.

The IGI alleged that impurities and flaws in the synthetic stones had been intentionally introduced in order to create the appearance that they were of natural origin, concluding that the stones had been "created to defraud".

The invoices for the diamonds were traced to a company called Su-Raj Diamonds and Jewelry USA in New York that was co-owned by Jatin Mehta, the majority owner of Gemesis, along with a junior partner named Ashok Bhansali. The same company was reported to house the central inventory of diamonds for Gemesis itself. Stephen Lux responded to the reports by saying "Gemesis can assure the industry with 100 percent certainty that it has not been involved in selling its diamonds as mined, and the undisclosed diamonds referenced in the DTC and IGI alerts are not Gemesis diamonds." Jatin Mehta then reportedly suggested it was possible that Bhansali "had misappropriated stocks held previously by the partnership" or that "some people who had left Gemesis … might have stolen our technology and are thus producing our typical Gemesis characteristic goods", and showed that the Su-Raj parent company (a large publicly listed company based in India and also known as Winsome Diamonds or Jewellery USA ) had taken some steps to sever its ties with its New York subsidiary (although the degree to which the separation had taken effect was unclear).

In December 2012, Stephen Lux reportedly resigned from his position as the company's CEO. Lux said that internal issues at the company and "distractions" (speculated to include the reports of undisclosed synthetic diamonds) had recently made it difficult for him to focus on his goals for building the business. However, Lux later sued the company, alleging that he had not actually resigned but rather had been terminated, and claiming wrongful termination of his employment. Lux also alleged that the company had not actually been purchased by Jatin Mehta directly, but instead had been sold to a company named Power Capital Ventures Ltd (PCV) in 2012.

Disputes over the incident lasted until at least 2017, when Su-Raj filed a complaint with the Supreme Court of New York against its broker, Sterling Diamonds, Inc.

Milestone achievements 2013–2014
Gemesis created the world's largest lab-created diamond in April 2013, broke that record in November 2013, and then broke the record again in July 2014. The first was a 1.29 carat emerald cut, the second was a princess cut at 1.78 carat, and the third was a 3 carat round brilliant white Type IIa diamond.

Rebranding in 2014
In June 2014, Gemesis named a new CEO, Lisa Bissell, and re-branded itself as "Pure Grown Diamonds". At the time, Bissell said "The new name reinforces our commitment to disclosure and transparency." Suraj Mehta said he had been looking for a person to fill the role after re-founding the company in 2013.

In the wake of the company's restructuring, Jeweller magazine reported that "Gemesis' rebranding and its strong emphasis on transparency could be perceived as an effort to dissociate from previous speculation and confusion." It referred to the May 2012 discovery of undisclosed synthetic diamonds and said that past reports from the company had "caused confusion regarding the status of the company's ownership and operations". The company's 2014 press releases referred to the company as having been founded in 2013, although Gemesis had been in existence since 1996.

Marketing strategy
The company highlighted several advantages of its diamonds over those produced by natural processes:
 * Lower prices
 * Alleviating concerns about the environmental impact of mining
 * Alleviating concerns related to the potential purchase of "conflict" or "blood" diamonds

Diamonds over 0.23 carats sold via Gemesis.com were laser inscribed to identify their origin and were certified by industry authorities such as the International Gemological Institute.

title: Gemesis


text:
User:Theo F

My main user page is on the French-speaking Wikipedia : fr:Utilisateur:Teofilo

I have started a strike to protest against the collection of personal information through edit links. I won't edit articles with articleFeedbackv5_ct_token= ids in their URLs, as has become the case with the article Costa Concordia disaster. Teofilo talk  17:46, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

title: User:Theo F


text: Category:Scottish architects

title: Category:Scottish architects


text:
File:WolfmotherEP.jpg

Summary
Cover art for Wolfmother (EP)

Fair use rationale for the article Wolfmother (EP)
I, Riana, believe that the use of this non-free image in the article Wolfmother (EP) is fair because: ''Note that this does not claim fair use in articles other than Wolfmother (EP). If you wish to use this image in another article, please add a new fair use rationale below.''
 * 1) No free or public domain images have been located for this album.
 * 2) The image does not limit the copyright owners' rights to distribute the album in any way.
 * 3) This image is widely distributed in other venues, so its use on Wikipedia does not make it significantly more accessible or visible than it already is.
 * 4) The cover is being used for educational and informational purposes only, and its use is not believed to detract from the original album in any way, or deprive its copyright holders of any financial gain.
 * 5) The image is of lower resolution than the original cover. Copies made from it will be of inferior quality, and could not be used as artwork on illegal CD copies of the album.

title: File:WolfmotherEP.jpg


text:
The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour

The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour is a Canadian television variety show that aired on CBC Television in 1970 and 1971. It was part of Sunday At Nine, a CBC anthology that included documentaries, dramas (such as Corwin), and "light entertainment", both domestic and imported. The show starred Hart Pomerantz and Lorne Michaels. The show mixed comedy sketches with musical guests, in a format similar to Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, the show that Michaels was working on before returning to Canada to star in his own show.

Cast

 * Lorne Michaels
 * Hart Pomerantz

The cast also included:

 * Dan Aykroyd
 * Victor Garber
 * Paul Bradley
 * Marvin Goldhar
 * Eleanor Beecroft
 * Sydney Brown
 * Jackie Burroughs
 * Jayne Eastwood
 * Alec Englander
 * Andrea Martin
 * Charles Palmer
 * Allan Price
 * Ted Turner
 * Steve Weston

Musical guests
Among the show's musical guests were James Taylor  and Cat Stevens.

title: The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour


text:
La Piedad

La Piedad is a municipality located at in the north-west of the Mexican state of Michoacán, bordering Jalisco and Guanajuato. The municipal seat is the city of La Piedad de Cabadas. The original colonial name was San Sebastián. It is bordered by the town of Santa Ana Pacueco, Guanajuato. Both cities straddle the Lerma River. La Piedad's population was 106,490 inhabitants in the 2020 census (250,000 including its metropolitan area). The municipality has an area of 284.11 km² (109.7 sq mi). It is bordered by the states of Jalisco and Guanajuato.

Geography
La Piedad, "north door" of the state of Michoacán, surrounding the Lerma river, has limits at the north with the municipalities of Degollado, Jalisco and Pénjamo, Guanajuato; at the east with the municipality of Numarán, Michoacán; at the south with the municipalities of Zináparo, Churintzio, and Ecuandureo, Michoacán; and at the west with the municipality of Yurécuaro.

The municipality is connected through roads and highways with cities in the Mexican states of Jalisco, Guanajuato, and of course, the rest of Michoacán.

Distances and average driving times:

 * 89 km from Irapuato, Guanajuato. (1 h)
 * 120 km from León, Guanajuato. (1 h 15 min)
 * 166 km from Morelia, Michoacán. (1 h 40 min)
 * 55 km from Zamora, Michoacán. (40 min)
 * 177.5 km from Guadalajara, Jalisco. (1 h 50 min)
 * 201.0 km from Querétaro. (2 h 00 min)
 * 40. km from Penjamillo. (42 min)

History
In the 12th century Aztecas moved away from Aztlan looking for a new land to settle. In this travel they founded several towns. Zula (meaning quails territory) was one of this towns established on the shore of the Lerma river.

In 1380, Tariácuri purepecha's king, conquered the town of Zula and named it Aramutaro, which means place with caves.

Almost two centuries later, Antonio de Villarroel serving Nuño de Guzmán took control of the town on the San Sebastian's day of 1530 (January 20), so renaming the town as "San Sebastián de Aramutarillo".

From 1530 to 1687, San Sebastian was in total oblivion, victim of slavery and ignorance; nevertheless there were two historic facts, which changed course for the town, one political affair and another religious matter.

The religious matter refers to a finding of a branch from a tree resembling Jesus Christ on the Cross. This happened the midnight of Christmas Eve on a place called Buena Huerta. The towns in its surrounding asked for the Jesus Christ image to be taken to their churches. San Sebastián de Aramutarillo was selected to keep the Christ image. After that, the Christ image was called "Señor de La Piedad" (Lord of Mercy) where Templo del Senor de La Piedad was built in its honor, which also has the biggest dome in the country.

The political affair was the movement of political offices from Tlazazalca to San Sebastian de Aramutarillo. This causes that many people came to offer merchandise, crafts, etc. In this way the town was officially founded in 1692, when Juan López de Aguirre named it as La Piedad.

Attractions
Places of interest include the town center with its kiosco (bandstand) built with quarried stone, the gateways, and the Señor de La Piedad church, which boasts perhaps the biggest dome in the country. Also of note are the Cabadas Bridge and the 30-metre-high El Salto waterfall. The local zoo and "La Torre de la Gaviota" located at the Ciudad del Sol neighborhood, are also places of interest in La Piedad.

There are also urban parks such as Morelos Park and La Placa park. The city is known because of its colorful Rebozos, and the singer José Alfredo Jiménez made it more famous with the song "El Perro Negro" ("The Black Dog").

Industry
La Piedad is a hub for agricultural products. The town was once known as the center of the Mexican pork industry, and still plays an important part in that industry. However, La Piedad has recently moved its economy towards textiles. Major textil manufacturers include Olmeca, Marval and Manriquez. Surrounding towns are Santa Ana, Yurecuaro, Degollado, Numaran, and Ecuandureo. La Piedad is also the headquarters for veterinary pharmaceuticals company LaPisa and industrial turbine manufacturer Turbomaquinas and Famaq. Also there is an important candy factory named Cabadas and sausage factories like Nu-tres, Delta and Bafar (former Parma). Most companies are family owned and operated. These are Saldaña and García, the latter owns Turbomaquinas S.A. de C.V., FAMAQ, Turboaleaciones S.A. de C.V. and the former owns Grupo Kasto.

There are 569 companies registered in the municipality, which puts La Piedad in the top four cities in the state with the greatest number of companies, after Morelia, Uruapan, and Zamora.

Ferromex Railway and Kansas City Southern de México crosses La Piedad allowing other companies to settle around in the future.

Education
Currently the municipality has pre-school institutions, elementary, middle and high school, and the following 6 colleges:

 * Colegio de Michoacán
 * Instituto Tecnológico de La Piedad
 * Universidad de León campus La Piedad
 * Centro de estudios universitarios Veracruz (Univer) campus La Piedad
 * Universidad del Valle de Atemajac campus La Piedad
 * Instituto Michoacano de Ciencias de la Educación (IMCED)

Additionally there is a House of Culture, the cultural center piedadense and the Higher School of Music.

Media

 * TV channels - There are 2 local channels, Videa Plataforma TV and TV La Piedad (there is also a cable service)
 * Radio stations in FM and AM
 * Newspapers - La Redaccion, Info Metropoli.
 * Internet - Código Libre

Notable people
 Arts / Shows
 * Ignacio Ortiz - Painter
 * Josefina Baez- Poet
 * Carlos Alvarado Lang - Engraver
 * Juan Rodríguez Vega - Musician

 Sports
 * Yovani Gallardo - Baseball player - Milwaukee Brewers
 * Hector Pulido - Soccer player, he was part of the national team and coach of Cruz Azul Club (finalist in season 1986–1987)
 * Gustavo Vargas - Soccer player
 * Ramón Morales - Soccer player, he has been part of the national team and played in the World Cup 2002 in Korea-Japan
 * Carlos Morales - Soccer player, he has been part of the national team
 * Jorge Flores - Basketball Player - 1976 Summer Olympics for National Team

Sports
In the city there are basketball and soccer (male and female) leagues, there are wrestling exhibitions, and the city has been the finish of the Ruta Mexico (cycling). There are two public sport centers, clubs with tennis courts, a lienzo charro, and the Juan N. Lopez stadium, and several taekwondo schools from different institutions.

Outside the city are the Alianza, Mercantil and Azteca clubs, where there are football fields and swimming pools.

La Piedad had a football team in Mexico's First Division in 1952-53 season, and again in 2001 Winter and 2002 Summer seasons.

Previously, C.F. La Piedad played in Ascenso MX.

Transportation
La Piedad is located close to the border of three states, Michoacán, Guanajuato and Jalisco. There are three highways entering this city: Mexico highways 110, 39, and 90.

Highway 110 goes west and takes you to the towns of Yurécuaro, Tanhuato, Vista Hermosa, Briseñas y La Barca, and the free-toll route to Guadalajara. Highway 37 runs south of La Piedad to Zamora, this highway goes to the toll highway 15, which goes north-south, from Nogales to Mexico City. Highway 90 runs north of La Piedad to the town of Degollado and states of Guanajuato and Jalisco.

Sister cities
La Piedad has one sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities International:
 * 🇺🇸 Woodland, California, USA

title: La Piedad