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Talk:Waking the Tiger/Archive:Votes for Undeletion

Waking the Tiger
The VFD decision was to keep. --SPUI (talk) 06:20, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Here's the deletion:
 * 18:56, 3 Apr 2005 RickK deleted "Waking the Tiger" (recreation of previously-VFD'ed article)

The final product was nothing like what was originally VFDed. This is a shortcoming of the VFD process. --SPUI (talk) 06:25, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * Undelete. Total rewrite. The original was a redirect to the VFDed article. When the direction was reversed and contents were moved, that's when Waking the Tiger got implicated. Also the Vfd process result was to keep.--Jondel 08:45, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * VfD result was actually 'no consensus' (4K, 4D). But yes, that means it should have been kept, so undelete. Radiant_* 11:57, Apr 5, 2005 (UTC)

This was an invalid recreation of an article which had a clear delete majority (10 to 1). All Jondel did was to rename it and strip off the VfD header. The second vote was an invalid vote, as it did not address the recreation of a previously-deleted by VfD process vote. RickK 21:59, Apr 5, 2005 (UTC)

 * The condition of the article by the end of the second VFD was nowhere near the original deleted article. Thus your deletion as a "recreation of previously-VFD'ed article" was out of process and should be undone. --SPUI (talk) 23:00, 5 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * Rickk you're being unfair. Pls look at the very first contents of WTT. It was a redirect (to the VFDed article). This article existed almost as long as the Vfd article. I stripped off the Vfd header in good faith(in the undelete Voting of the other article), following suggestions of the other 2, thingking that this was the best option and within the consensus. But if you really are bent on keeping it off. Ok I'll try to focus on other things. Anyway, there are thousands of other articles that are notable.--Jondel 00:03, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * Undelete. since it is a rewrite and a vfd showed that there was no consensus to delete this. Sjakkalle 07:43, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * The original vote was overwhelmingly to delete. RickK 23:54, Apr 6, 2005 (UTC)
 * The original vote was on a totally different article. Stop trolling. --SPUI (talk) 23:56, 6 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * One more point about RickK's comment: It is more important that articles that people want kept get kept, than that the rules regarding deletion and speedies are strictly adhered to. Sjakkalle 06:18, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * It is invalid process to rename a validly-deleted article and strip off the VfD header. This is a direct violation of the consensus to delete the article.  And the purpose of VfU is not to get a second chance (or in this case, a third chance) to get the votes to go your way.  RickK 06:28, Apr 7, 2005 (UTC)
 * RicK, I have not voted in either of the vfd-debates, just in this VfU debate. And if "invalid process" is the only reason to delete something, I feel it is rather thin. Sjakkalle 08:43, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * Keep deleted - article was a valid speedy deletion as recreation of VfD deleted content. SPUI's claim that the articles were not even similar does not stand up to even a brief look at both articles. -- Cyrius|✎ 01:06, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * I'm sure I saw a major difference. If the article could be temporarily undeleted (as I thought was policy on VFU, and which I have requested above), could be viewed to see the changes. --SPUI (talk) 02:56, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thanks for the temp undeletion. is the diff showing what was changed from the original article. This is not "reposted content" but different content, which still needs cleanup but has not been voted for deletion. --SPUI (talk) 03:51, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * The diff doesn't work. But please note that even Jondel him/herself, in the edit summary, said Removed redirect, added and copied contents from How to heal traumas.  So Jondel acknoweldged that the information in the article was copied from the VfD'd article.  This was a violation of consensus, a violation of the VfD process, and not acting in good faith because Jondel has claimed all along that the information was different when even his/her own edit summary says otherwise.  RickK 06:31, Apr 7, 2005 (UTC)

 * Sorry, is the diff. If you had speedied it on creation (or on termination of the first VFD), it would have been with policy. But you waited for a rewrite, and what you deleted was not a recreation of already-deleted content. You allowed the second VFD to happen as if it mattered, but when you disagreed with its result, you speedied it anyway. --SPUI (talk) 12:38, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)

RickK, you showed that are good administrator with your help to keep the Mi Ultimo Adios article which I completely rewrote to keep on the wikipedia. And I appreciate your 'Its notable in Philippine history remark'. I am grateful for that

I apologize for having stripped the Vfd header and violating the Vfd process, copying contents and not acting in good faith. This will not happen again. To the best of my knowledge, I will not violate what is in consensus or the Vfd process, I will not strip the Vfd header again.

About the undelete,please examine these:

Vote for deletion How to heal Traumas The date of the first vote for deletion by Plek is 14 Mar 2005 (UTC).

Now please compare this versions and see if they are different:

 * Last update of Waking the Tiger

 * 14 Mar 2005 (UTC) version  with a special guest appearance by Medusa

Do these two still look like the same article? The current Waking the Tiger now does not have copied contents.

Please let us all now move on. Undelete or keep deleted(is fine by me). There are many other fish in the ocean. I gotta go get a cup of coffee --Jondel 07:30, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Vague keep or re-VfD. --JuntungWu 11:57, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Waking the Tiger
This has been listed here for over five days. At least three people and a majority agree to undelete. Therefore, according to Undeletion policy, it should be undeleted. --SPUI (talk) 22:11, 14 Apr 2005 (UTC)
 * Undeleted and relisted on VfD. Dpbsmith (talk) 00:10, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)


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Foxy Lady

"Foxy Lady" (or alternatively "Foxey Lady") is a song by The Jimi Hendrix Experience. It first appeared on their 1967 debut album Are You Experienced and was later issued as their third single in the U.S. with the alternate spelling. It is one of Hendrix's best-known songs and was frequently performed in concerts throughout his career. Rolling Stone magazine placed the song at number 153 on its list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

Composition and lyrics
Music critic Thomas Ward points out "if one song could be said to encapsulate Hendrix’s entire oeuvre, 'Foxey Lady' is certainly closer than most". The song opens with a fingered note "shaken in a wide exaggerated vibrato" so the adjacent strings are sounded. After the amplifier is allowed to feed back, Hendrix slides down to the rhythm figure, which uses a dominant seventh sharp ninth chord, a jazz and rhythm and blues-style chord, often referred to as the "Hendrix chord". Hendrix's biographer Keith Shadwick writes: "[Hendrix] casts the whole solo in the blues vernacular, using bent notes and glisses, or slides, between the notes primarily within the blues or pentatonic scales. To that he adds the new melodicism he had been hearing on recent British rock records." Prior to the recording, the group had not worked out an ending for the song and bassist Noel Redding claimed that using the last IV chord was his idea. Hendrix biographer Harry Shapiro suggests that song's lyrics were inspired by Heather Taylor, who later married Roger Daltrey of the Who. Hendrix later commented that he did not approach women in such a straightforward manner as the lyrics suggested. Lithofayne "Faye" Pridgon, Hendrix's girlfriend in the mid-1960s, has also been suggested as the inspiration for the song.

Releases and charts
Hendrix's American record company Reprise Records issued the song in December 1967, one month before the release of the second Experience album, Axis: Bold as Love. Reprise used the title "Foxey Lady", which also appeared on the North American release of Are You Experienced. It was backed with "Hey Joe", which Reprise had already released as a single in April 1967. Although Hendrix's albums performed quite well on the record charts, "Foxy Lady", along with the other early singles, made a relatively weak showing, peaking at number 67 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart. In 1967, Polydor Records issued the single in Germany with "Manic Depression" as the B-side, but it did not appear on the charts. Record World said of the single that "This one has the beat to perk up teen ears. Jimi wails it in nitty gritty fashion."

"Foxy Lady" has appeared on numerous Hendrix compilation albums, including Smash Hits, The Essential Jimi Hendrix Volume Two, Cornerstones: 1967–1970, The Ultimate Experience, Experience Hendrix: The Best of Jimi Hendrix, and The Singles Collection. It is also one of the few songs to be performed by each of the different Hendrix lineups, including the Experience, Gypsy Sun and Rainbows, the Band of Gypsys, and the Cry of Love touring group. Live renditions appear on Live at Monterey, Live at Woodstock, Band of Gypsys 2, Blue Wild Angel: Live at the Isle of Wight, and several other live albums. Rolling Stone magazine ranked "Foxy Lady" at number 153 on its list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". In 2020, Far Out ranked the song number six on their list of the 20 greatest Jimi Hendrix songs, and in 2021, American Songwriter ranked the song number four on their list of the 10 greatest Jimi Hendrix songs.

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

title: Foxy Lady


text: User talk:146.27.122.17

title: User talk:146.27.122.17


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Tenchu

Tenchu (天誅) is an action-adventure stealth video game series, originally developed by Japanese developer Acquire, where the player assumes the role of a ninja in 16th-century Japan. The title in Japanese literally translates in English as "Divine Retribution", with 天 (ten) meaning heaven and 誅 (chū) meaning death penalty (another translation of this phrase, Wrath of Heaven, is the title of the first PlayStation 2 entry in the series).

Plot
The series takes place in 16th-century feudal Japan. The original story (Stealth Assassins) revolves around two ninjas, Rikimaru and Ayame, who have both been members of the Azuma Ninja Clan since childhood. The two ninjas serve the benevolent Lord Gohda and work for him as his secret spies to root out corruption and gather intelligence in his province. However, the evil demonic sorcerer Lord Mei-Oh sought to destroy Lord Gohda, and using his demon warrior Onikage, wreaked havoc throughout Lord Gohda's province. Although Lord Mei-Oh was killed in the first game, Onikage appeared in all subsequent games (except Fatal Shadows and Tenchu Z) as the archenemy of the two ninja, especially Rikimaru. Another major character who shows up frequently is Princess Kiku, Lord Gohda's daughter who often needs to be saved.

Gameplay
The game perspective is third-person. There are numerous items to help the ninja on his/her mission, but unlockable items can be acquired if the player gets a "Grand Master" rating at the end of the level by being as stealthy as possible. Items and controls vary from game to game, but the gameplay is essentially the same throughout except Tenchu: Shadow Assassins. Stealth is a very important element in the game, where players have to duck, crouch, and hide behind walls to avoid detection. Enemies can be killed with one maneuver by using Stealth Kills, and a player can avoid detection by using the Ki meter. The larger the number, the closer the player's position to an enemy. If a player is spotted, the Ki meter will turn red, the enemy will alert everyone in the area, and the player is forced to fight hand-to-hand or hide somewhere until the enemies give up their search and resume their patrol routes.

Characters
The main characters of the Tenchu series are Rikimaru, Ayame, Tesshu and Rin. Rikimaru is a tall, white-haired shinobi with a single ninjatō named "Izayoi" and a scar over his right eye. He is physically stronger than Ayame and Rin, but relatively slower. Ayame is a kunoichi (female ninja) who wears black (sometimes dark purple) clothing, with long pants, a loose belt, arm armor that goes to halfway from the elbow and shoulder, and a ring that surrounds her neck, with her midriff exposed and carries a pair of kodachi. She is faster and can perform more combos than Rikimaru and Tesshu, but is weaker than them. Tesshu is a vigilante who wears blue doctor's clothes and fights bare-handed with acupuncture needles; he is strong like Rikimaru, but slower than Ayame and Rin. His appearance is heavily based on the character "Baian Fujieda". Rin is a young kunoichi who carries a large katana called Natsume. Despite wielding a sword, she prefers to use hand-to-hand combat, relying on fast combos like Ayame.

Games
Activision purchased the rights to this game from Sony Music Entertainment, who originally published the game in Japan. However, Activision sold the rights to the Japanese game publisher FromSoftware in 2004. FromSoftware's rights agreement does not include games previously published by Activision. FromSoftware licensed distribution of Fatal Shadows to Sega.

There is an additional Japan-exclusive release for Tenchu on the PlayStation. One hundred of the best competing levels designed with the level editor of Tenchu: Shinobi Gaisen (an expanded version of Tenchu re-released in Japan) were put together to form a stand-alone, non-story based expansion set called Tenchu: Shinobi Hyakusen. The engine and game fundamentals remained unchanged. Shinobi Hyakusen is famous for the hardest level settings among Tenchu fans, especially because of the tight time limits and the overall lack of the items, excluding the caltrops and the throwing stars. No North American or European versions were released however.

Several games were also ported to mobile phones with graphic changes. These include Tenchu: Ayame's Tale 3D which was released for the Sony Ericsson mobile phone series and Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven by TKO-Software and Digital Bridges which was released for mobile phones in 2005, although it used two-dimensional graphics. A stage play adaptation Tenchu Butai was performed in 2014. A Game Boy Advance version of the franchise was attempted by Classified Games in 2000, but it was scrapped due to the publisher's problems.

It's estimated that the whole series sales are at 10 million games sold worldwide as of 2018.

title: Tenchu


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Black Tie White Noise

Black Tie White Noise is the 18th studio album by the English musician David Bowie, released on 5 April 1993 through Savage Records in the United States and Arista Records in the United Kingdom. Conceived following Bowie's marriage to model Iman and the disbandment of his rock band Tin Machine, it was recorded throughout 1992 between studios in Montreux, Los Angeles and New York City. Bowie co-produced with his Let's Dance (1983) collaborator Nile Rodgers, who voiced dissatisfaction with the project in later decades. The album features several guest appearances, including previous collaborators Mike Garson and Mick Ronson, and new arrivals Lester Bowie and Chico O'Farrill.

Inspired to write the title track after witnessing the 1992 Los Angeles riots, Black Tie White Noise is primarily separated into themes of racial harmony and David's marriage to Iman. It features prevalent saxophone work from Bowie and a wide variety of musical styles, from art rock, electronic and soul, to jazz, pop and hip-hop influences. It also contains multiple instrumentals and cover versions. The album's lead single "Jump They Say" alludes to Bowie's step-brother Terry, who died in 1985.

Released amidst the rise of Britpop in the UK, Black Tie White Noise initially received favourable reviews from music critics, who praised its experimentation but criticised its lack of cohesion. It debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, with each of its three singles reaching the UK top 40. Its promotion in America was stalled following the dissolution of Savage Records, resulting in the album's rarity until later reissues. Instead of touring, Bowie released an accompanying film of the same name to support it.

Despite mixed assessments from critics in subsequent decades, Black Tie White Noise marked the beginning of Bowie's commercial revival and improved critical standing following a string of poorly received projects. An interactive CD-ROM based on the album was released in 1994. It was reissued by EMI in 2003 and remastered in 2021 as part of the box set Brilliant Adventure (1992–2001).

Background
David Bowie began recording material with his former Let's Dance (1983) collaborator Nile Rodgers months after disbanding the rock band Tin Machine. The pair, who had reconnected in New York City after a 1991 Tin Machine concert, first recorded "Real Cool World" for the animated film Cool World. Released as a single in August 1992, it appeared on the film's accompanying soundtrack album and featured a sound that foreshadowed Bowie's direction for his next solo record, his first since Never Let Me Down six years earlier.

In October 1990, Bowie met Somali model Iman in Los Angeles as he resumed recording with Tin Machine following the Sound+Vision Tour. They married on 24 April 1992 in a private ceremony in Lausanne, Switzerland. Five days later, the two returned to Los Angeles on the day the 1992 Los Angeles riots began, forcing the newly-weds to stay in a hotel and witness the violence from inside. Bowie later reflected: "It was an extraordinary feeling. I think the one thing that sprang into our minds was that it felt more like a prison riot than anything else. It felt as if innocent inmates of some vast prison were trying to break out, break free from their bonds." According to biographer Nicholas Pegg, both the wedding and racial divide influenced Bowie's next album.

Recording history
With Bowie and Rodgers co-producing, recording for Black Tie White Noise took place between April and November 1992, alternating between Mountain Studios in Montreux, Switzerland and the Hit Factory in New York City, with additional recording done at 38 Fresh studio in Los Angeles. According to biographer Chris O'Leary, Bowie composed beats and patterns at 38 Fresh, which he sent to Rodgers at the Hit Factory to transpose into songs. Rodgers described Bowie's attitude as calmer than Let's Dance, "a hell of a lot more philosophical and just in a state of mind where his music was really, really making him happy".

Both Bowie and Rodgers gave positive statements regarding the sessions in contemporary interviews. Speaking with Rolling Stone, both said they were not looking to do Let's Dance II, Bowie remarking they "would have done [that] years ago". Nevertheless, Rodgers made several unfavourable comparisons between the two records, including statements about Bowie's involvement and how Black Tie was more difficult to produce and took longer to record than Let's Dance. In the ensuing years, Rodgers expressed disappointment in Black Tie, brushing it off as "an exercise in futility" that was not as good as Let's Dance. Tin Machine member Reeves Gabrels later said Bowie felt coerced into hiring Rodgers, who was intent on creating a Let's Dance follow-up, while Bowie wanted to pursue other musical directions. Decades later, Rodgers commented that he wanted a more commercial record, while Bowie was trying to "make this artistic statement about this period in his life".

During the sessions, Bowie signed a record contract with the American label Savage Records, affiliated with Arista Records and owned by BMG. Savage offered him the "artistic freedom" that he was craving: "[Studio head] David Nemran ... encouraged me to do exactly what I wanted to do, without any kind of indication that it would be manipulated, or that my ideas would be changed, or that other things would be required of me. That made me feel comfortable and that was the deciding factor." Nemran replied that Bowie would be the label's breakthrough: "He's everything that I would use to describe us."

Guest musicians
Black Tie White Noise features an array of guest musicians, some of whom had not collaborated with Bowie for decades. Guitarist Mick Ronson, a member of the Spiders from Mars backing band from 1971 to 1973, appears on a cover of Cream's "I Feel Free" (1966). Ronson, whose last appearance was on 1973's Pin Ups, reconnected with Bowie after the latter was impressed by the former's production work on Morrissey's Your Arsenal (1992). Bowie praised Ronson's contributions on Black Tie while the latter commented, "I hope David's album does well. He's put everything into it." Ronson died of cancer shortly after the album's release.

Pianist Mike Garson, whose last appearance on a Bowie record was 1975's Young Americans, plays on "Looking for Lester". Bowie told Record Collector in 1993: "He really has a gift. He kind of plops those jewels on the track and they're quite extraordinary, eccentric pieces of piano playing." Trinidadian guitarist Tony Springer (credited as "Wild T" Springer) appears on a cover of Morrissey's Your Arsenal track "I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday". Bowie had met Springer in Canada during Tin Machine's It's My Life Tour and invited him to record. Bowie recalled that "he was an absolute delight", comparing his guitar style to Jimi Hendrix.

Gabrels plays lead guitar on "You've Been Around", although his contribution was placed low in the mix. The song was first attempted by Tin Machine during the sessions for their 1989 debut album, but Bowie was dissatisfied with the result so it was shelved, eventually rerecording it for Black Tie. Singer Al B. Sure! duets with Bowie on the title track, of which the two worked on the arrangement extensively, leading Bowie to quip "I've never worked longer with any artist than with Al B".

Black Tie also features trumpet playing by Lester Bowie, whom David Bowie had wanted to work with throughout the 1980s. Lester, who played to tracks before he heard them, appears on six tracks; Pegg considers his contributions the album's "essential musical identity". A foil to Lester's trumpet was David's saxophone, which appears more prominently on Black Tie than any other David Bowie album. Rodgers found his saxophone playing challenging, telling Rolling Stone: "I think David would be the first to admit that he's not a saxophonist in the traditional sense. [...] He uses his playing as an artistic tool. He's a painter. He hears an idea, and he goes with it. But he absolutely knows where he's going." The album's horn arrangements were composed by Afro-Cuban jazz player Chico O'Farrill. Black Tie also features several backing vocalists from Let's Dance and Labyrinth (1986), while pianist Philippe Saisse and producer David Richards returned from Never Let Me Down.

Music and lyrics
Black Tie White Noise features a wide variety of musical influences and styles, including soul, hip-hop, disco, pop, avant-garde jazz and gospel. Author James E. Perone also found references to Bowie's plastic soul work of the 1970s. Rolling Stone's Jason Newman described the music as "a blend of Euro-disco, techno-rock, freestyle jazz, Middle Eastern riffs and hip-hop", while AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine considered Black Tie an "urban soul record" that balances styles of the "commercial dance rock" of Let's Dance with the art rock of the late 1970s Berlin Trilogy. A writer for The Economist later categorised the record as art rock and electronic. In 1993, Bowie told Rolling Stone that his intent for Black Tie White Noise was making a new type of house record that brought back the "strong melodic content" of the 1960s, finding "the new R&B [of today]" a mixture of "hip-hop and house". He commented: "I think this album comes from a very different emotional place. That's the passing of time, which has brought maturity and a willingness to relinquish full control over my emotions."

Lyrically, Black Tie White Noise is primarily separated into two major themes: racial harmony and Bowie's marriage to Iman. Perone finds the "Black Tie" signifies "a wedding" while "White Noise" epitomises the "instrumentally focused, slightly experimental jazz pieces". For his wedding ceremony, he had composed an instrumental intended to fuse him and Iman's English and Somalian cultures. Writing the piece triggered Bowie to make the album:

"Writing [the music for the wedding] brought my mind around to, obviously, what commitment means and why I was getting married at this age and what my intentions were and were they honorable? [laughs] And what I really wanted from my life from now on. I guess it acted as a watershed to write a lot of quite personal things, putting together a collection of songs that illustrated what I'd been going through over the past three or four years."

Songs
Black Tie White Noise opens with the instrumental "The Wedding", a funk adaptation of the instrumental Bowie composed for his wedding. It's a piece that, in Pegg's words, "fuses dance beats, distant backing vocals and Eastern-influenced saxophone cadences" that set the stage for the remaining tracklist. The Black Tie version of "You've Been Around" blends contemporary dance music with elements of jazz. Although Bowie and Gabrels wrote it together, O'Leary says the new version "effectively erased...Reeves Gabrels". Pegg states the lyrics foreshadow the "fractal images" Bowie used for his next studio album, Outside (1995). Bowie's cover of "I Feel Free" is musically different from Cream's original, being described by Pegg as "techno-funk" and likened by Perone to "1990s dance music".

Bowie's recorded the title track with a rougher edge to avoid ending up like "an 'Ebony and Ivory' for the Nineties". To evoke the racial theme, the lyrics reference "We Are the World" by the supergroup USA for Africa (1985) and Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" (1971); Pegg says that the "black and white voices" of Al B Sure! assist in the theme's presentation. Musically, the track is funky, with prevalent saxophone and trumpet by David and Lester Bowie, respectively. "Jump They Say" discusses themes of mental illness, and is loosely based on David's step-brother Terry Burns, who died by suicide in 1985 after being hospitalised for schizophrenia. Bowie stated, "It's the first time I've felt capable of addressing it." Described by biographer David Buckley as "an eerie psychodrama", the song features prevalent backwards saxophone work from Bowie.

"Nite Flights" was written by singer-songwriter Scott Walker (as Scott Engel) and originally recorded by the Walker Brothers for their 1978 album of the same name. Bowie was a huge fan of the album, first hearing it while recording 1979's Lodger, and decided to cover the song for Black Tie White Noise. Musically, Pegg describes it as a "Euro-disco/jazz-funk fusion" evocative of the Berlin Trilogy, while it lyrically predates the content found on Outside. Buckley considers "Pallas Athena", a mostly instrumental track reminiscent of the Berlin era, Bowie's most experimental work in a decade, combining "contemporary hip-hop dance rhythms" with the ambience of Low (1977). Bowie told NME in 1993 that he "[didn't] know what the fuck it's about".

Both "Miracle Goodnight" and "Don't Let Me Down & Down" support the wedding theme. The former is laden with synthesisers and mimics 1980s pop. The latter was originally recorded in Arabic by Mauritanian singer Tahra Mint Hembara (a friend of Iman's) in 1988 as "T Beyby"; her producer Martine Valmont wrote English lyrics and retitled it "Don't Let Me Down & Down". Bowie discovered it while browsing through Iman's CD collection and decided to cover it as a wedding gift. He stated, "[It was] one of those tracks that sort of in a diary-like way records the beginnings of a relationship." Comparing its arrangement to 1984's Tonight, O'Leary calls it the "most obscure" cover of Bowie's entire career. On its lyrics, Pegg says it recalls the "romantic balladry" of "Win" and "Can You Hear Me?" from Young Americans.

The jazz instrumental "Looking for Lester" features David and Lester Bowie soloing on saxophone and trumpet. The title is a play on John Coltrane's "Chasing the Train". The gospel cover of "I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday" is reminiscent of Bowie's early 1970s ballads, including a direct reference to the climax of "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" (1972). Pegg describes the track as "Bowie covers Morrissey parodying Ziggy Stardust in the style of Young Americans". The album ends with "The Wedding Song", a vocal version of the opening track. Pegg considers the two tracks throwbacks to "It's No Game", which bookends Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980).

Artwork and title
The cover artwork was taken by photographer Nick Knight. The inlay photography depicts Bowie in attire from the "Never Let Me Down" music video (1987): shirtsleeves with a Bogey hat holding a 1940s microphone. According to Buckley, the title was a comment on the racial mix of Bowie and Iman's marriage and the fusion of American and British musical styles Bowie was experimenting with. It was also in debt to the cut-up technique Bowie had discussed in an interview with writer William S. Burroughs in the mid-1970s. A working title for the album was The Wedding Album. On the title, Bowie told Record Collector in 1993:

"White noise itself is something that I first encountered on the synthesiser many years ago. There's black noise and white noise. I thought that much of what is said and done by the whites is white noise. 'Black ties' is because, for me, musically, the one thing that really turned me on to wanting to be a musician, wanting to write, was black music, American black music [...] I found it all very exciting – the feeling of aggression that came through the arrangements."

Release and promotion
By the end of 1992, the rise of Britpop bands such as Blur, the Auteurs and Suede had influenced the UK music scene. These artists, particularly Suede, acknowledged Bowie's influence in interviews and their music, with Buckley describing Suede's debut single "The Drowners" as an homage to Bowie's glam rock work of the early 1970s. Shortly before the release of Suede's debut album and Black Tie White Noise, NME's Steve Sutherland interviewed Bowie and Suede's lead singer Brett Anderson together, where the two discussed influences and exchanged compliments. The interview generated a large amount of publicity for the two artists' upcoming albums in the UK. Additionally, author Paul Trynka states that Ronson's guest appearance earned Black Tie White Noise more attention.

The lead single, "Jump They Say" backed by a remix of "Pallas Athena", was released on 15 March 1993. It came in numerous formats that contained various remixes of the track, a trend that continued in Bowie's work throughout the rest of the 1990s. The single became the artist's biggest hit since "Absolute Beginners" seven years earlier, peaking at number nine on the UK Singles Chart. It was supported by a Mark Romanek-directed music video featuring numerous references to Bowie's prior work. Pegg calls it one of his finest videos, praising its "non-linear" imagery.

Black Tie White Noise was issued shortly after on 5 April 1993 on different LP and CD formats. The LP release removed "The Wedding" and "Looking for Lester", while the CD edition featured a remix of "Jump They Say" and the outtake "Lucy Can't Dance". Meanwhile, the Japanese and Singaporean CDs contained a remix of "Pallas Athena" and "Don't Let Me Down & Down", respectively. Before its release, Bowie expressed love for the album, stating, "I don't think I've hit this peak before as a performer and a writer."

The album was a commercial success in the UK, entering the UK Albums Chart at number one and dethroning Suede's debut album; it was Bowie's final UK number one album until The Next Day in 2013. In America, it charted at number 39 on the Billboard 200, although its promotion was affected when Savage Records filed for bankruptcy shortly after its release. Although Bowie had signed a three-album deal, the label sued Bowie claiming substantial losses on Black Tie. The case was dismissed and the label was dissolved; Black Tie White Noise became a rarity in record stores until reissues later in the 1990s.

The title track, backed by a remix of "You've Been Around", was released as the second single on 1 June 1993, credited to David Bowie featuring Al B. Sure! Charting at number 36 in the UK, it was supported by a Romanek-directed music video, featuring both Bowie and Al B. Sure! and displaying, in Pegg's words, "a deft bricolage of images against the backdrop of an urban ghetto." "Miracle Goodnight", backed by "Looking for Lester", was issued as the third and final single in October 1993, charting at number 40 in the UK. Pegg argues it would have been a bigger hit had it been the lead single. "Nite Flights" was intended as the fourth single, but was cancelled by Arista Records following the performances of the two previous singles. Meanwhile, "Pallas Athena" was remixed by numerous DJs and anonymously became a popular club track in London and New York.

Critical reception
Black Tie White Noise received generally favourable reviews from music critics on release. Some reviewers considered it Bowie's finest since Scary Monsters. Biographer Christopher Sandford states it was praised for its experimentation but criticised for an overall lack of cohesion. David Sinclair of Q magazine argued Black Tie "picks up where Scary Monsters left off" and "if any collection of songs could reinstate [Bowie's] godhead status, then this is it." He primarily criticised the lack of "obvious" hit singles, but felt the record was full of "imagination and charm" and deemed Bowie's saxophone performances some of his best to date. A reviewer for Billboard was also positive, describing it as a whole "trail-blazing and brilliant", further noting "inspired covers" and echoes of Let's Dance, Scary Monsters and Ziggy Stardust (1972). Meanwhile, Rolling Stone's Paul Evans hailed it "one of the smartest records of a very smart career", finding references to the artist's previous works as well as new innovations that "point the way to future risk, to brave changes yet to come". Richard Cromelin of the Los Angeles Times considered it Bowie's "most committed-sounding music in years".

Other reviewers were more negative. A reviewer for Vox magazine found the radio-friendly singles calculated and Bowie's saxophone playing inferior to his musical contributions on "Heroes" (1977), but felt its "bent, ethnic-sounding notes create the album's most atmospheric moments". Dave Thompson found it lacked innovation in The Rocket. Entertainment Weekly Ken Tucker described Black Tie as a "stultifying yet annoying" record save for "Miracle Goodnight" and "I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday". Veteran critic Robert Christgau said in The Village Voice that the music was Bowie's "most arresting" because of its dance beats and electronic textures, but reacted negatively towards the lyrics.

Aftermath and legacy
Bowie did not tour in support of Black Tie White Noise, telling Record Collector that it "takes up so much time". He also declined an invitation to perform on MTV's Unplugged programme. Instead, he made small appearances on American television and released a film to accompany the album. Directed by Bowie's long-time video director David Mallet, David Bowie: Black Tie White Noise (1993) is a hybrid of interviews, footage shot during the recording sessions and mimed performances of six tracks shot by Mallet on 8 May 1993 at Hollywood Center Studios. Pegg calls it a "useful companion" to the album but finds Mallet's material uninspired. Sandford also considers the Mallet-directed material inferior to the two men's prior collaborations. The film was included as part of EMI's 2003 reissue campaign for the album, with a standalone DVD release following two years later. Although Bowie intended to resume the Tin Machine project following the release of Black Tie, the idea never came to fruition. His next effort was the solo The Buddha of Suburbia, released in November 1993.

Black Tie White Noise marked the beginning of Bowie's commercial revival and improved critical standing, with one reviewer later calling it a perfect way to begin the next chapter of his career. Despite its initial success—Pegg arguing it may have initially been "over-praised"—the album's critical standing in later decades has been mixed. Although several agreed it was his best since Scary Monsters at the time, critics remain divided on its cohesiveness, praising individual tracks but finding the album as a whole subpar. Pegg summarises: "It's a supremely confident, professional and commercial piece of work, and its best moments are exceptional." Some also felt the production aged poorly, with Trynka saying that its "overpolite, airbrushed sheen" meant that following the fall of Savage Records, "little bemoaned its passing". Others praised Lester Bowie's trumpet playing and David Bowie's vocal performances. In a positive review, BBC Music's David Quantick recognised Black Tie White Noise as a continuation of Scary Monsters, wherein Bowie used aspects of his entire career in new, innovative ways. He credited the production and Bowie's "immense confidence" for an album that rose above its immediate predecessors. In AllMusic, Erlewine called it "an interesting first step in Bowie's creative revival", identifying ideas that Bowie further expanded with on later releases. In a 2016 retrospective ranking all of Bowie's 26 studio albums from worst to best, Bryan Wawzenek of Ultimate Classic Rock placed Black Tie White Noise at number 25 (above Never Let Me Down). In a 2018 list which included Bowie's two albums with Tin Machine, the writers of Consequence of Sound ranked Black Tie White Noise number 18 out of 28. David Sackllah wrote that the record holds up "fairly well" and, as the beginning of an experimental era, Black Tie "stood as one of his better works from the decade".

CD-ROM and reissues
In 1994, an interactive CD-ROM based on Black Tie White Noise was developed by ION and released by MPC. The CD-ROM, which Bowie intended to be "fully interactive", gave users a chance to remake the "Jump They Say" video using pre-existing footage and view excerpts from the Black Tie White Noise film. It was not well received, although Perone considered it innovative for its time. Bowie initially expressed excitement in the project, but it ultimately did not live up to his expectations, stating in 1995 that he "absolutely loathed it".

In August 2003, Black Tie White Noise was reissued by EMI in a 3-CD deluxe edition to mark its tenth anniversary. It featured the original album, a CD of remixes and other tracks from the period (such as "Real Cool World"), and the original Black Tie White Noise film. In 2021, the album was remastered and included as part of the box set Brilliant Adventure (1992–2001).

Track listing
Notes
 * "Jangan Susahkan Hatiku" ("Don't Let Me Down & Down" with the first half-sung in Indonesian) supplanted "Don't Let Me Down & Down" in the version of the album released in Indonesia.

Personnel
According to the liner notes and biographer Nicholas Pegg.

 * David Bowie – vocals, guitar, saxophone, dog alto
 * Nile Rodgers – guitar
 * Poogie Bell, Sterling Campbell – drums
 * Barry Campbell, John Regan – bass
 * Richard Hilton, Dave Richards, Philippe Saisse, Richard Tee – keyboards
 * Michael Reisman – harp, tubular bells, string arrangement
 * Gerardo Velez – percussion
 * Fonzi Thornton, Tawatha Agee, Curtis King, Jr., Dennis Collins, Brenda White-King, Maryl Epps – background vocals
 * Al B. Sure! – vocal duet on "Black Tie White Noise"
 * Reeves Gabrels – lead guitar on "You've Been Around"
 * Mick Ronson – lead guitar on "I Feel Free"
 * Wild T. Springer – lead guitar on "I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday"
 * Mike Garson – piano on "Looking for Lester"
 * Lester Bowie – trumpet on "You've Been Around", "Jump They Say", "Pallas Athena", "Don't Let Me Down & Down" and "Looking for Lester"
 * Fonzi Thornton, Tawatha Agee, Curtis King, Jr., Dennis Collins, Brenda White-King, Maryl Epps, Frank Simms, George Simms, David Spinner, Lamya Al-Mughiery, Connie Petruk, David Bowie, Nile Rodgers – choir on "I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday"

Production
 * David Bowie – producer
 * Nile Rodgers – producer
 * Jon Goldberger, Mike Greene, Dale Schalow, Michael Thompson – engineer
 * Gary Tole, Andrew Grassi, Louis Alfred III, Lee Anthony, Neal Perry, Andy Smith – assistant engineer
 * Bob Ludwig – mastering engineer
 * Nick Knight – photography
 * Peter Gabriel – session photography

title: Black Tie White Noise


text:
Southern Tang

Southern Tang was a dynastic state of China that existed during Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Located in southern China, the Southern Tang proclaimed itself to be the successor of the Tang dynasty. The capital was located at Nanjing in present-day Jiangsu Province. At its territorial peak in 951, the Southern Tang controlled the whole of modern Jiangxi, and portions of Anhui, Fujian, Hubei, Hunan, and Jiangsu provinces.

The Southern Tang was founded by Li Bian in 937, when he overthrew emperor Yang Pu of Wu. He largely maintained peaceable relations with neighboring states. His son Li Jing did not follow this foreign policy, conquering the Min and Ma Chu dynasties in 945 and 951 respectively.

The Later Zhou dynasty invaded the Southern Tang domain in 956 and defeated them by 958. Li Jing was forced to become a vassal of the Emperor Shizong of Later Zhou, cede all territory north of the Yangtze River, and relinquish his title of emperor. In 960, the Southern Tang became a vassal of the newly established Northern Song dynasty. After the Emperor Taizu of Song had defeated the Later Shu and the Southern Han, he ordered the conquest of the Southern Tang, which was completed in 975.

Name
The names and titles used by Southern Tang rulers changed several times throughout its existence. In the 930s Xu Zhigao ruled as king over a sizeable territory called Qi (齊) that existed within Wu. After deposing the Yang Imperial family in 937 he adopted the title of emperor and announced the creation Great Qi (大齊). The Zizhi Tongjian referred to this state as Tang from its foundation, while the majority of historical sources, including the Old History of the Five Dynasties, New History of the Five Dynasties, and the Spring and Autumn Annals of the Ten Kingdoms, referred to the state as Qi. They begin to use Tang only after Xu Zhigao adopted the name Li Bian in 939.

Unlike the continual unrest and rebellions of the Central Plains, Tang rule across the Yangtze and Southern China had been generally more successful. These halcyon days had become a source of nostalgia for people in the south. This respect paid to the deposed dynasty became a useful political tool for Li Bian. The Later Tang were overthrown in late 936, which opened the way for Li Bian to claim it. In February 939 Li Bian renamed his realm to Great Tang (大唐). Taking on the name of Tang increased his status. Such a move could be easily construed to mean "the potential unification of [Chinese] territories under one ruler."

Li Jing was defeated in 958 by Later Zhou Emperor Chai Rong. The Southern Tang were forced to cede their territories north of the Yangtze and become a vassal of the Later Zhou. Li Jing additionally had to renounce claims to emperorship. The rump state was centered on Jiangnan, which was used by both the Later Zhou and the Song to refer to the Southern Tang. Later Zhou correspondence called Li Jing the "Ruler of the State of Jiangnan" (江南國主). He however used the title "Ruler of Tang" (唐國主) and "Seal of Tang" (唐國之印) for the government.

Li Yu, the third and final Southern Tang monarch, initially used the title and seal of his father. He attempted to demonstrate obeisance to Emperor Taizu after the Song conquest of Southern Han. Li Yu created a more modest "Seal of Jiangnan" (江南國印) and abandoned "Ruler of Tang" in favor of "Ruler of the State of Jiangnan", which remained used until 976 when he surrendered to the invading Song armies. Taizu gave Li Yu the humiliating title of Marquis of Disobedience (違名侯) when he arrived in Bian.

Historical texts produced during the Song dynasty were named after Jiangnan, with variants of Jiangzuo (江左) and Jiangbiao (江俵) also used. By not using the formal name it claimed, authors denied the Southern Tang "the status of an independent state." Reign titles of rulers were likewise seen as unacceptable and their personal names were used exclusively.

Background
Yang Xingmi was the Jiedushi of Huainan Circuit during the final years of the Tang dynasty. Throughout a series of conflicts with neighboring officials he expanded his control over most contemporary Jiangsu and Anhui, along with parts of Jiangxi and Hubei. In 902 Emperor Zhaozong recognized Yang Xingmi's conquests and granted him the title of the Prince of Wu (吳王). He ruled for three more years and died in 905. Yang Wo succeeded his father as the Prince of Wu.

In 907 the last Tang Emperor was evicted from power by Zhu Quanzhong, who declared the Later Liang dynasty. Yang Wo did not recognize this regime change as legitimate and continued to use the Tang era name of 'Tianyou'. Without a reigning Tang emperor, however, he was in effect an independent ruler. In 921 Yang Longyan proclaimed his own reign title. His brother Yang Pu continued this trend of asserting ideological independence from the Kaifeng-based regimes by claiming the title of Emperor in 927. This irrevocably ended diplomatic contact with the Later Tang.

During a campaign in 895 an orphaned child was captured, whom Yang Xingmi initially took into his household. However, his oldest son Yang Wo disliked the child, and so Yang decided to give the child to his lieutenant Xu Wen. The child was given the name Xu Zhigao. Using the threat of Wu-Yueh raids as an excuse, Xu Wen turned Chiang-nan into his base of operations. This in time would morph into the Kingdom of Qi. While Xu Wen assumed a position of power over the Yang family, he likely did not depose them due to unfavorable circumstances rather than the lack of will to do so.

In 927 Xu Zhigao inherited Xu Wen's position of power behind the Wu monarchy and laid out the groundwork for his seizure of the throne. He feared that the majority of the bureaucracy still supported the imperial Yang family. The Crown Prince Yang Lian was arranged to marry one of his daughters.

In September 935 Yang Pu and Xu Zhigao settled on the territorial extent of the kingdom of Qi as having 10 of the 25 prefectures then under Wu control. Yang Pu awarded Xu Zhigao the title of King of Qi (齊王) in March of 937. In May he dropped the ranking character 'zhi' from his given name to distinguish from his adopted brothers and was now known as Xu Gao. In October of the same year Yang Pu surrendered the state seal to him, ending Yang rule of Wu

Foundation
On 11 November 937 Xu Gao formally ascended the throne. Xu Gao took inspiration from Tang governance and established two capitals. Jingling was already his seat of power and became the principal location of the court. The old Wu capital of Guangling meanwhile maintained some significance as the secondary capital. His reign according to Robert Krompart represented the initial rebuilding "of the social, economic, administrative, and religious forces that produce stability in China."

On 12 March 939 Xu Gao took on the name of Li Bian. He additionally authorized a genealogy that claimed descent from the Tang Imperial family. Records vary about whom his supposed Tang progenitor was. Johannes L. Kurz concluded that the more reliable sources state his ancestor was either son or a younger brother of Xuanzong. On 2 May 939 Li Bian performed the traditional sacrifices to Heaven. Jingnan and Wuyue sent ambassadors praising this event.

Li Bian encouraged the bureaucratization of his court, taking power away from military officers. The constant turmoil of the Central Plains created a pool of experienced émigré officials that relocated to the more stable south. Li Bian was in particular interested in men versed in Confucian rituals. Ma Ling (馬令) reported that the civilian government maintained by Li Bian "was humane and attracted men from far and near." Among these recruits was Han Xizai, who rose in prominence during the reign of Li Jing.

The question of succession arose near the end of Li Bian's reign. He preferred his second son Li Jingda. However, his oldest son Li Jing was eventually picked as his heir. In 943 Li Bian died and Li Jing succeeded his father.

Economy
The Southern Tang and its neighbors were relatively prosperous compared to regimes successively in control of the Central Plains. The greater agricultural productivity of the region created favorable conditions. Consistent tax revenues were secured with the growing disposable income of the populace. Interstate trading of specialized crafts like colored silks and salt reclaimed from the Huai River likewise was promoted by the Southern Tang.

Agricultural practices along the lower Yangtze River had undergone major modifications in the final years of the Tang dynasty. Irrigation and water management systems were more complex than in previous years. Intensive cultivation of rice was conducted in lowlands and adjacent reclaimed areas from waterways. Silk production developed into a regional cottage industry as farmers planted mulberry trees alongside their cereal crop. Meanwhile, in nearby piedmont areas agriculturalists became specialized in growing tea or textile plants like hemp (麻) or ramie (苧). These practices were in efflorescence during the Southern Tang, which created the most developed agricultural economy among the southern states. Rice farmers had better yields and in general had more disposable income than their predecessors. This led to more state revenue by taxes on cereal and cash crops.

Li Bian pursued the economic development of his realm through a number of fiscal policies. Song Qiqiu drafted many initiatives that focused on tax reform that were implemented. According to Sima Guang these were successful, as "the lands of Huai were fully planted, sericulture was widespread, and the [Southern Tang] state grew rich and strong." Mulberry trees (桑樹) were planted in large numbers in the Huai and Yangtze River basins. In May 939 farmers that had cultivated 3,000 or more in the past three years were given fifty bolts of silk from Li Bian's treasury. Payment of 20,000 copper cash was awarded to those that reclaimed at least 80 mu (≈1,040 acres) of land. All new fields they cultivated were not taxed for 5 years. These measures have been credited with increasing agricultural production across the realm.

During the reign of Li Jing he authorized several military ventures that according to He Jainming incurred heavy financial burdens that inhibited further economic development of the Southern Tang realm. Tributes were paid to the Later Zhou once they defeated the Southern Tang in 958. After the Song dynasty was established in 960 these payments became exorbitant. Tribute to the Song incurred a downturn of the Southern Tang economy. After forcible incorporation into the Song Empire the former southern kingdoms became the focal point of the Chinese economy. Throughout their brief period of independence they had "laid the groundwork for the great economic surge that followed."

Coinage

Copper mining in the north was heavily disrupted by the constant warfare of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms era. In consequence bronze coins became scarce. The situation became dire in northern China. In 955 the Later Zhou Emperor Chai Rong banned the possession of bronze utensils upon pain of death. The Southern Tang and their neighbors minted coinage from clay, iron, or lead. These coins for domestic circulation (despite having minimal value intrinsically) and to prevent the export of precious bronze coinage to neighboring states.

Li Bian possibly cast a coin with the inscription Daqi Tongbao (大唐通寶) while the state still had its original name of Qi. During the reign of Li Jing several cash coins were created of different commercial value. Datang Tongbao (大唐通寶) and Tangguo Tongbao (唐國通寶) coins maintained the same inscription, size, and weight but used different fonts of Chinese calligraphy Yongtong Quanhuo (永通泉貨) coins were initially valued at 10 copper coins but counterfeits were widely circulated leading to distrust of them. Copper coins were still preferred by the populace, which caused a rapid depreciation of the newer coins. Kaiyuan Tongbao (開元通寶) coins that were created during the Tang dynasty remained in circulation. Li Yu later minted coins with the same inscription in clerical and seal scripts.

The Southern Tang were the first in Chinese history to issue vault protector coins, which served as numismatic charms. They were hung on red silk and tassels in the spirit hall of the Imperial Treasury for offerings to the gods of the Chinese pantheon, especially the Chinese God of Wealth.

Artwork
The majority of Southern Tang court painters with surviving documentation were natives of Jiangnan. It is likely that the area had a potent artistic tradition before the formation of the Southern Tang. While most subjects were inherited, Southern Tang painters developed relatively new genres such as "landscape, ink bamboo, and flower-and-bird painting." Additionally they developed artwork focused on marine life. Their Tang predecessors apparently did not paint fish. Dong Yuan and his students developed a unique style of landscape painting known as the Southern School, which influence artists in the Song and Yuan dynasties. Sculptures crafted with detailed pictorial reliefs became widespread and surviving examples can be found at the Qixia Temple outside Nanjing.

The Hanlin Academy (翰林院) was founded in 943 and had large amounts of accomplished painters. There were only two other artistic academies in operation during the period. Those employed by the institution held hierarchical titles that denoted rank. The lowest ranked were likely apprentices to established artists. The Emperors of Southern Tang took part in the administration of the Hanlin Academy and oversaw the hiring of new painters. Wu Daozi and Zhou Fang were among the stylistic standards for Southern Tang painters. As successful artists took on apprenticeships the styles and genres popular with the Southern Tang court were likely transmitted to many artists outside the Hanlin Academy. In 975 the Song conquered the Southern Tang. Talented painters and poets were subsequently hired and brought to the Song capital.

Four Treasures of the Study
The Four Treasures of the Study of the Southern Tang or Nan Tang Wenfang Sibao (南唐文房四寶) focused on brushes made by the Zhuge family, dragon tail inkstones (龙尾砚), inksticks crafted by Li Tinggui (李廷珪), and Pure Heart Hall paper (澄心堂紙). By the middle of the 11th century the Four Treasures were appreciated by Song literati who amassed private collections of them. While Song literati noted the quality of writing instruments, they did not perceive the Southern Tang regime itself as exceptional.

Brushes produced by the Zhuge family of Xuanzhou were popular among the Southern Tang. Li Congqian (李從謙) of the imperial family in particular greatly cherished the brushes. They later received praise from Song literati like Mei Yaochen and Ouyang Xiu. Zhuge brushes kept a position of prominence until the mid-Northern Song era. The quality of Zhuge brushes began to decline. Song scholars developed a new calligraphic style of writing frame-less characters (無骨字) which required more flexible brushes than those made by the Zhuge family. Competing brush producers from other areas, especially from Huizhou, overtook the Zhuge brushes in popularity.

Dragon tail inkstones were another literary tool produced by the Southern Tang. They were made in the vicinity of Wuyuan. Li Jing established the Inkstone Bureau (硯務) to set annual quotas of their production. Skilled craftsmen that worked for the bureau received monthly salaries. Efforts were overseen by an Inkstone Officer (硯官). Dragon tail inkstones were prized possessions and offered as gifts among the Southern Tang literati, a tradition that continued into the Song dynasty. The most valued dragon tail inkstone contained minerals of a golden hue and were called jinxing yan (金星硯).

Emperor Zhenzong had a dragon tail inkstone among his collection, which provoked further interest in them by Song literati. Su Shi considered them second only to Phoenix beak inkstones (鳳咮硯), at point trading a bronze sword for a dragon tail inkstone. In the 13th century Yao Mian (姚勉) wrote a poem about a dragon tail inkstone once opened by Su Shi:

Its shape is round as the moon, And its tripod feet are like a toad's. It was the dragon tail inkstone from the dark jade bank. And was once appreciated by Su Shi in a snowy hall.

— Yao Mian (姚勉) Yao Mian ji (姚勉集) vol. 42 Longwei yan ming (龍尾硯銘)

During the late Tang dynasty Xi Nai (奚鼐) established himself as a prominent inkstick manufacturer in Hebei. His son Xi Chao (奚超) migrated to Shezhou to escape the continual instability of the period. There the family utilized Huangshan pine trees to produce huimo (徽墨) inksticks. The highest quality were produced by Xi Chao's son, Xi Tinggui, whose skill was recognized by Li Yu. The Southern Tang ruler bestowed his family name (Li) to the Xi family in honor of their craftsmanship. Now called Li Tinggui, his products became known as Li Tinggui mo (李廷珪墨 "Li Tinggui Ink"), while those made by his relatives were called Lishi mo (李氏墨 "Li Family Ink").

Initial Song emperors did not value Lishi mo and used it as a source of paint for restoration projects. It was not until the reign of Emperor Renzong that Lishi mo and Li Tinggui mo in particular were recognized for their quality. Emperors gave them as presents to their scholars. Cai Xiang created a collection of Lishi mo made by four generations of the Li family. Emperor Shenzong rewarded the polymath Su Song with Li Tinggui mo for his scholarly pursuits. Li Tinggui's ink remained the standard to which other inksticks were compared until the reign of Emperor Huizong.

An important paper medium for the Southern Tang was Pure Heart Hall paper. During the Tang dynasty generations of Jiangnan craftsmen developed their skills and artistic talent in creating paper. These trends were used by their successors in the Southern Tang to create Pure Heart Hall paper. This distinctive paper became the official paper for royal proclamations. Only privileged officials were given any for use in creating government documents. Pure Heart Hall paper retained its importance throughout the Southern Tang, it was so prized that it was not sold in marketplaces. After the Song defeated the Southern Tang a multitude of imitation Pure Heart Hall papers appeared as the process for creating genuine articles had become lost.

Song literati began to value Pure Heart Hall paper after a gathering of notable scholars that included Liu Ban (劉攽), Mei Yaochen, Ouyang Xiu, Su Shi, noted its quality in poetic works. Ouyang Xiu later gifted Mei Yaochen two scrolls of Pure Heart Hall paper for calligraphy. Song painters utilized the paper for their artwork. Li Gonglin in particular only used Pure Heart Hall paper for his compositions.

Cuisine
Among the culinary options available in the Southern Tang was a pastry called yunying chao (雲英麨). It was often given as a gift during celebrations. Yunying chao was made from ground melon and a medley of flower bulbs and corms: lilies (百合), lotus (蓮), arrowhead (慈姑), fox nuts (雞頭), taro (芋), and two kinds of water chestnuts, 荸薺 and 菱. The mixture was steamed, sweetened with honey and then sliced into pieces. The dish continued to be made during the Song Dynasty.

Foreign relations
The foreign policy maintained by Li Bian has been described as maintaining a "martial conservatism." He recruited disaffected officials exiled from the north who found his realm to have bountiful resources. This made some of the newcomers contemplate its ability to expand territorially. The perceived need for Li Bian to prove his legitimacy through military conquest likewise motivated many Southern Tang officials.

Li Bian however felt it was sensible to foster friendly relations with the other southern states. He dispatched ambassadors to the neighboring states of Jingnan, Min, Southern Han, and Wuyue on 21 November 937 to announce his assumption of the throne. By spring of the following year all four states had sent their own envoys to congratulate Li Bian on becoming emperor. Thus began interactions between the Southern Tang and their neighboring and often competing states.

In 941 Li Bian held meetings with his officials about the geopolitical position of the Southern Tang. He felt if the Southern Tang were to invade Wuyue, then the Later Jin would surely launch a counter-attack to protect their vassal. While the Min Kingdom was much easier to conquer, it was also likely to be a financial burden and source of disorder. Both states were much more useful as buffers against the North than areas of expansion. If a propitious opportunity arose to strike the "usurpers and thieves" in control of the Central Plains he declared he would act. After their defeat the Imperial Court would relocate to Chang'an and rebuild the dilapidated city. The restored Tang Empire would then encourage the remaining Southern states to recognize their legitimate rule and submit.

Officials pushed for attacking the Later Jin. Li Bian refused to engage in a conflict at that time as he felt it was inopportune: "'As a child I grew up in the army and saw the profound damage soldiers did to the people. I cannot bear to hear words about this again. When I leave other people alone and in peace, then my people will be in peace as well. Why do you ask me to start a war then!'"

Unlike his father Li Jing pursued territorial expansion against neighboring states. In 945 the Min Kingdom was conquered, although the Wuyue gained control of the prosperous port city Fuzhou. Chu was subjugated in 951 but much of the state was lost in a rebellion against the deeply unpopular Southern Tang administration.

According to Sima Guang these initially successful campaigns against Chu and Min made Li Jing grow an "ambition for the empire." Xuan Xu recorded in the Jiangnan Lu that certain officials sent requests to the Imperial Court for the Southern Tang "to secure the four quarters" (經營四方) through military conquest. These typically disastrous schemes were formed by certain officials keen on creating opportunities for their own advancement.

Five Dynasties
The term "Five Dynasties" was coined by Song dynasty historians and reflects the view that the successive regimes based in Bian possessed the Mandate of Heaven.

Compared to regimes of the Central Plains, the Southern Tang were economically prosperous. This created bottlenecks for any army advancing north as long supply trains were required. The Southern Tang military utilized a combination of infantry and naval forces, while cavalry was seldom employed. However, in the open Central Plains cavalry forces held the advantage. Peter A. Lorge concluded that these circumstances made Southern Tang campaigns into the Central Plains logisitically challenging.

Hino Kaisaburō has detailed the principle routes used for inland economic and diplomatic exchanges between northern and southern Chinese states. These were the Grand Canal, Gan River, and Xiang River. Control of the Grand Canal was divided between several states, therefore it was the least used route in the era.

Later Jin
In 936 Shi Jingtang secured an alliance with the Yelü Deguang to overthrow his brother-in-law Li Congke of the Later Tang with Khitan forces. He ceded the Sixteen Prefectures, promised annual tribute, and accepted a subordinate role to Yelü Deguang. In return the Khitan ruler appointed Shi Jingtang as Emperor of the Later Jin. Throughout his reign Shi Jingtang maintained amicable relations with his overlord, despite criticism from many officials.

In the summer of 938 Song Qiqiu proposed for the assassination of a Khitan dignitary that was visiting the Southern Tang court when they returned north through Later Jin territory. He felt that the murder could provoke a war between the Later Jin and the Khitans. While successful in killing the envoy, the harmonious relations between the Later Jin and Khitan continued.

In 940 the Southern Tang supported backed a rebellion in the Later Jin territory Anyuan. Li Bian broke his policy of maintaining peaceable relations with neighboring states in a campaign that ultimately ended in Southern Tang failure. The military commissioner of Anyuan, Li Jinquan, contacted the Southern Tang with an offer to change allegiance from the Later Jin to the Southern Tang realm. Li Bian accepted the offer and sent an army northwards.

Southern Tang forces met up with Li Jinquan as planned. But against Li Bian's commands its commanders ordered the looting Anlu. Afterwards, the Southern Tang army began to return home. Later Jin forces eventually caught up to the sluggish Southern Tang army and decisively defeated them in Mahuang Valley. The disobedience of his commanders upset Li Bian greatly. In a letter to Shi Jingtang, he claimed his generals were uncontrollable, as they were keen on career advancement through combat, and pressed for amicable relations. Thus, ended Southern Tang pretensions to the Central Plains for the time being.

Under the influence of Jing Yanguang, the second Later Jin Emperor Shi Chonggui pursued an antagonistic course with his overlord Yelü Deguang. This incensed the Khitan ruler who launched an invasion and defeated Shi Conggui in 946.

Later Han
By 947 Liu Zhiyuan had evicted the Khitan forces and established the Later Han dynasty.

Based in modern Yuncheng, Shanxi, the Later Han military governor of Huguo Circuit (護國]), Li Shouzhen, revolted in the summer of 948. He sent envoys to Jinling in the hopes of securing an attack on the Later Han's southern flank. Li Jing was amenable to an intervention and dispatched an army under Li Jinquan from the Huai River. This force reached modern Shandong, encamping across the Yi River from Linyi. One evening Later Han forces appeared and attempted to encircle the Southern Tang base. Li Jinquan was able to lead a retreat to the port of Haizhou with his forces intact. His inaction against the Later Han perturbed Li Jing that Li Lingquan never held another active military posting.

After the ignominious withdrawal Li Jing contacted Liu Chengyou calling for the resumption of trade between the Southern Tang and Later Han. This request was denied and the two states continued to clash in border conflicts throughout 949. In March an army of 10,000 was sent across the border into modern Anhui. Later Han rebel groups operating there were receptive to accepting Southern Tang rule. While stationed there a Southern Tang army captured Mengcheng. The Southern Tang commander hesitated when a Later Han army arrived and called for a retreat back to the Huai River. Later that year another army was sent to seize territory across the Huai River. The campaign focused on Zhengyang, a city of strategic importance due to the ease of crossing the Huai River there. As in previous attempts of expanding north the Southern Tang army suffered a defeat from Later Han forces and retreated to the Huai River.

Later Zhou
In March 951 the Later Zhou Emperor Guo Wei decreed in an edict to regulate contact with the Southern Tang: "'We have no hostile intentions towards the Tang. Both of us station troops along the Huai River, and both of us protect our border regions. We will not permit our troops and people to enter Tang territory illegally. Merchants can travel to and fro, and there will be no restrictions on trade.'"

The Southern Tang were initially able to export their tea, salt, and silk without impediment to the Central Plains. Additionally the positive relations allowed the Southern Tang to pursue the conquest of Chu without Later Zhou interference. This period of peaceable interactions quickly deteriorated as Guo Wei enforced his will over northern China.

In 952 a member of the deposed Later Han imperial family, Murong Yanchao, revolted against the Later Zhou. He was able to court military intervention from the Northern Han and the Southern Tang although neither actually provided much assistance. At the time the Southern Tang were experiencing great difficulty in securing their recent conquests in the kingdom of Chu. Their unpopular administration provoked provincial revolts. The Southern Han meanwhile began an invasion to secure Lingnan. These military pressures likely explain why Li Jing only sent 5,000 troops to assist Murong Yanchao. The Southern Tang army reached Xiapi before Later Zhou resistance was met. Pushed south of Xuzhou, the Southern Tang lost a pitched battle and lost over 1,000 troops. Despite this failure, court officials pushed for conquering the Later Zhou. Han Xizai advised strongly against the idea as he felt Guo Wei was in a position of power. Li Jing ultimately concurred and ceased hostilities.

In spring 955 Emperor Chai Rong was advised to strike the lengthy and porous Southern Tang border. Simultaneously Southern Tang defensive procedures were reduced along the seasonally shallow Huai River in winter 955, leaving their border easy to cross. Later Zhou forces advanced south and constructed a floating bridge to cross the Huai River at Zhengyang and began the invasion of Huainan in early 956. The crucially important city of Shouchun became encircled by the Later Zhou but resisted them for 14 months. Throughout the conflict incompetent military officers made critical errors that ended in a string of costly defeats for the Southern Tang. By April 958 Shouchun had fallen and the Later Zhou were advancing upon the capital of Jinling. The Southern Tang offered to cede all territory north of the Yangtze to the Later Zhou and become a vassal. The Later Zhou gained control over Huainan and almost a quarter million families.

Ten Kingdoms
Leadership across the Ten Kingdoms did not see a politically unified China under a centralized bureaucracy as necessarily inevitable. Their sovereignty was revoked only through force of arms. Conceptually there could only be one Son of Heaven but regional autonomy was still possible. Some kingdoms nominally accepted the suzerianity of the Five Dynasties. Several rulers simultaneously claimed to be emperors and still engaged in diplomatic exchanges with each other despite this breach of imperial orthodoxy.

Min
Wang Yanxi sent Zhu Wenjin in 938 to represent the Min court and praised Li Bian for his assumption of the throne. In January 940 Min representatives renewed arrangements previously made with the Southern Tang.

Throughout the early 940s the Min Emperor Wang Yanxi faced strife with his rebellious brother Wang Yanzheng. In 943 Wang Yanzheng seized the northwest regions of Min and formed the Kingdom of Yin. By February 945 Wang Yanxin had died and Wang Yanzheng reunited Min. The Southern Tang invaded soon afterwards. On 2 October 945 Jianzhou fell and Wang Yangzheng was captured. The majority of Min territory was now under Southern Tang rule.

Li Renda controlled the affluent port of Fuzhou. He initially submitted to Li Jing but was attacked after Southern Tang officials fabricated orders for his surrender. Li Renda appealed to Qian Hongzuo of Wuyue for aid. Throughout winter 946 and spring 947 Wuyue forces arrived on naval transports to protect their new vassal. The Wuyue and Fuzhou garrison killed over 20,000 Southern Tang troops. The siege was lifted and the war soon came to a close.

The conflict had incurred many expenses and for the Southern Tang and drained their treasury. The Southern Tang gained control of the Jianzhou and Tingzhou prefectures, while the Wuyue secured the area around Fuzhou. Control over the coastal prefectures of Quanzhou and Zhangzhou by Liu Congxiao was recognized by the Southern Tang, who appointed him Qingyuan Jiedushi. This vassal state maintained de facto autonomy from the Southern Tang until forcible incorporation into the Song dynasty three decades later.

Wuyue
The Wuyue had antagonistic relations with Wu and several conflicts occurred between the latter's pretensions to Min territory. The rulers of Wuyue maintained a status of vassal to the Northern dynasties as this protected them against Wu and later Southern Tang aggression. If attacked, their northern suzerians could strike at Southern Tang territories along the Huai River. This kept the Southern Tang and Wuyue in a state of equilibrium.

When Li Bian sent messengers announcing his assumption to the throne; the Wuyue were the first to send their congratulations. In January 941 emissaries presented gifts from Wuyue to celebrate Li Bian's birthday. In August 941 the Wuyue capital of Hangzhou was devastated by fires. The ensuing chaos greatly distressed Qian Yuanguan, who died soon afterwards. Southern Tang military officers pushed for an invasion to seize Wuyue. Li Bian demurred to the idea: "How can I take advantage of the calamity of other people?" Instead, an army from Li Bian sent out foodstuffs for the beleaguered people of Hangzhou. An opportune time to strike at a major rival of the Southern Tang was therefore passed over. Dialogue between the two states apparently ended in 942 due to their mutual contentions over Min.

Wuyue became entangled in the Southern Tang conquest of Min. They sent forces to Fuzhou throughout winter 946 and spring 947. The combined forces of the Fuzhou garrison and Wuyue army defeated the Southern Tang in the Battle of Fuzhou. Subsequently, Fuzhou joined the Wuyue domain as a vassal. The Wuyue participated in the Later Zhou invasion of the Southern Tang. In 956 armies were sent capture Changzhou Xuanzhou. Changzhou was put under siege but the Wuyue army suffered heavy losses against a Southern Tang relief force. This defeat made the Wuyue army sent against Xuanzhou retreat before reaching the city. The Wuyue did not try attacking the Southern Tang again until 958 when Later Zhou victory was apparent. 20,000 troops were sent to assist in the final stages of the campaign.

Li Yu pleaded for military assistance from Qian Chu At the beginning of the Song conquest of Southern Tang. The Wuyue ruler instead forwarded the letter to Emperor Taizu. Quan Chu joined his suzerain in attacking the Southern Tang. Changzhou and Runzhou were seized. Wuyue forces joined the Song siege of Jinling.

Chu
To secure his uncertain position Ma Xi'e became a vassal of the Southern Tang in 951. Bian Hao and a 10,000 strong Tang force was sent to the Chu capital of Tanzhou. Ma Xi'e invited them into the city but was deposed in December 951. The majority of Chu territory was now in Southern Tang possession. Officials argued that Bian Hao needed to be replaced due to his incompetence, or the former Chu realm would be lost. Li Jing however took no heed. Liu Yan gathered a coalition of former Chu troops and launched attacks on Southern Tang positions across Hunan. Bian Hao fled Tanzhou on 1 December 952. Liu Yan submitted to the Later Zhou in order to protect against a potentially revanchist Southern Tang. Thus Li Jing's effort to control Hunan ended in an embarrassing rout.

Southern Han
The Southern Han sent envoys in 940 to reconfirm agreements made with Southern Tang. In 941 the Southern Han proposed for the partition of the Chu realm. However, Li Bian was unwilling to commit to the enterprise. The same year they sent gifts to celebrate Li Bian's birthday.

Taking advantage of the Southern Tang invasion of Chu, in winter 951 Liu Sheng launched a successful invasion to secure Lingnan. The Southern Tang counterattack ended in failure and the Southern Han secured their territorial gains.

Liao dynasty

The Khitan were an important partner for the Southern Tang. Positive relations were used to counter the threat posed by the Central Plains regimes and their Wuyue vassal. Dialog and gift exchanges were frequent during Li Bian's rule. He sent ambassadors to the Khitan court at Shangjing to announce the start of his reign. In correspondence Yelü Deguang and Li Bian referred to each other as brothers. This demonstrated the favorable opinion the Khitan held of the southern state compared to the reigning Later Tang.

In 938 both Yelü Deguang and his brother Yelü Lihu dispatched gifts to Li Bian. Later that year a group of Khitan envoys visited with an impressive herd of 35,000 sheep and 300 horses. In return for the livestock the Khitan received medicinal supplies, silk, and tea. The Southern Tang court financed a piece called "Two Qidan Bringing Tribute" by an unnamed artist in honor of these proceedings. The painting symbolized the importance put on relations with the Khitan by Li Bian.

Contact between the two states was blocked by the Central Plains regimes. Consequently, a naval route was developed. Starting at Chunzhou Southern Tang ships sailed north along the coastline until the Shandong Peninsula, where ships crossed the Yellow Sea and landed at the Liaodong Peninsula. The Khitans sent six diplomatic missions to the Southern Tang between 938 and 943. In 940 Khitan envoys presented Li a snow-fox fur robe. In both 941 and 942 the Southern Tang sent three diplomatic missions to the Khitans.

After being insulted by an antagonistic Shi Chonggui, Yelü Deguang destroyed the Later Jin in 946. In early 947 he founded the Liao dynasty as Emperor Taizong after entering Bian. Shortly afterwards Taizong offered Li Jing to become the "ruler of the Central Plains." This proposal was rejected, potentially due to the Southern Tang considering themselves culturally superior to the Khitan. Receiving the Central Plains, rather than conquering it, would have left the legitimacy of the Southern Tang far from certain. Nonetheless, Li Jing praised Taizong of Liao for dethroning the Later Jin and petitioned him to allow the Southern Tang to repair the dilapidated Imperial Tang tombs of Chang'an. The request was denied and greatly infuriated Li Jing who then ordered meetings to formulate an invasion of the Central Plains. Han Xizai advised the Southern Tang Emperor to capture Bian at this time:"'If your Majesty wants to revive your ancestors’ enterprise, then the right time is now. Once the ruler of the slaves has returned to the north, and another ruler has appeared in the Central Plains, it will not be as easy to realize.'"

Despite the motions made by the Khitan in founding an imperial dynasty, they treated the conquest as a "very large scale raid." Taizong soon departed for the Khitan homeland in March 947 and died on the journey Meanwhile, the Southern Tang were embroiled in a war of conquest against Min. This left them unable to effectively pursue a northern invasion. The campaign ended successfully late in 947. By this point however Liu Zhiyuan had already captured Bian from the Khitan and founded the Later Han dynasty. The opportunity to move against the north had been missed by the Southern Tang.

Efforts by the Southern Tang to secure an alliance with the Liao against the northern dynasties continued to flounder. In 948 Liao and Southern Tang officials formulated a joint attack against the Later Han. Yet the Liao delayed for over a year. Once they did attack the Later Han, Khitan forces only raided Hebei.

When Muzong took the Liao throne, securing aid became more difficult for the Southern Tang. He was far less interested in participating in Chinese affairs than his predecessors. In 955 the Later Zhou began a campaign to subdue the Southern Tang. Li Jing requested military intervention by Muzong. His brother-in-law was sent to Tanzhou as an envoy to the Southern Tang in 959. The Liao were treated to a sumptuous feast by their Southern Tang hosts. Spies loyal to the Later Zhou were among those present. Muzong's brother-in-law was beheaded by the Later Zhou spies. The Liao court was unaware that the Later Zhou perpetrated the murder. Muzong furiously revoked all contact with Li Jing, ending Liao-Southern Tang relations.

Goryeo
In 936 Taejo united the Korean Peninsula under Goryeo. The newly formed state bordered the Khitans. The Later Jin reigned as a Khitan vassal which made them undesirable to the Koreans. The strategic position of Goryeo was likely valued by the Southern Tang as a means to threaten the Khitan. Taejo sent a tribute mission to the Southern Tang in the summer of 938. A variety of locally produced goods were presented to Li Bian. Another mission from the Korean Peninsula arrived at Jinling in 938. The group was likely private traders from the recently conquered Silla. A later mission from Goryeo brought more goods as tribute in 940.

Decline
By the close of Li Jing's reign the Southern Tang was well on the way to obscurity. He had pursued a number of foreign adventures managed by incompetent military officers that generally ended in costly disaster. From 955 to 988 the Later Zhou successfully campaigned against the Southern Tang. Li Jing was forced to cede all prefectures north of the Yangtze River and become a Later Zhou tributary. The realm became territorially truncated and lost the economic and political relevance it enjoyed when Li Jing assumed the throne 15 years earlier.

In February 960 Zhao Kuangyin deposed Guo Zongxun and established the Song dynasty as Emperor Taizu. Li Jing quickly sent envoys to confirm his loyalty and vassalage to Taizu. Taizu pursued an expansionist agenda to unite China under his rule. Jiangnan was not a tactical priority compared to other states and was left alone in return for considerable tribute. In August 961 Li Jing died and his son Li Yu took over.

Li Yu kept a semi-independent status but came at a steep price of consistent tribute of gold, silver, and silk. Jiangnan was significantly smaller than the Southern Tang territorial apex achieved in the 950s. This made the large quotas demanded by the Song challenging to meet. In 964 the Song decreed new economic regulations that made the situation even more dire. Northern merchants were forbidden travel into Jiangnan. New commodity taxes were imposed in Jiangnan that could only be paid in gold or silver.

The Later Shu were crushed in 965 by Taizu. In 971 the Southern Han were likewise conquered by the Song. Taizu now turned his attention to Jiangnan. Throughout 973 and 974 Li Yu was repeatedly summoned to the Song court. He feigned illness and claimed to be unable to make the trip. Tired of these excuses, Taizu raised an invasion force under the command of Cao Bin to extinguish Jiangnan.

The campaign began in November 974 and proceeded favorably for the Song. The Yangtze River was overcome with a floating bridge built across from Caishiji. Song forces crossed the waterway and secured a bridgehead. Outside Caishiji an army of 20,000 Jiangnan troops was defeated by Cao Bin. Song forces continued to advance and reached the outskirts of Jinling in March 975. No defensive preparations were made by Li Yu. Both he and his court officials foolishly felt existing fortifications were adequate enough to keep the Song at bay. Starting in April the capital was put under siege by Cao Bin.

In January 976 Li Yu surrendered outside his palace. He and his remaining courtiers kneeled down at the feet of Cao Bin. The deposed ruler reached Bian in February. The imperial portrait of Li Bian produced by Zhou Wenju was presented to Taizu. This measure signified the complete submission of Jiangnan to the Song. Jiangnan was formally annexed and dissolved by the Song. The newly incorporated territories had 650,565 registered families. Lu Jiang acting Military Governor of Zhaowu Circuit continued to resist Song army after seizing She Prefecture before persuaded to surrender; Jiangnan general Hu Ze who was stationed at Jiang Prefecture refused to surrender to Song and continued to resist until his failure in May. In 978 Li Yu died probably from actual illness, rather than being poisoned on the command of Taizu as some accounts claim.

Historiography
Song historians tended to favor presenting the Five Dynasties as passing on the mandate of heaven in a linear fashion to the succeeding dynasty. The Song were at the end of this process, gaining the mandate from the Later Zhou. This logic, which did not factor the Southern Tang or other states, was critical to Song claims of legitimacy. Other states of the period were seen as not in possession of the mandate and therefore entirely illegitimate. Song histographers likewise disregarded the Southern Tang and its potential "as a southern alternative to empire building."

The Jiu Wudai Shi was released in 974 and is the earliest work to deal with the Southern Tang. It was composed to justify Song political pretensions. Li Yu still ruled as a vassal of Taizu and so was excluded from the work. The Southern Tang was denounced as a state of "usurpation and thievery" or jianqie 僭竊. Rulers were generally referred to using the word 偽 to label them as swindlers. Despite these ideological attacks, the work accurately recorded political events between the Central Plain dynasties and the Southern Tang.

The Jiangnan lu 江南錄 was written on the order of Emperor Taizong, the successor and younger brother of Taizu. He had a keen interest in the Southern Tang, whose final ruler Li Yu had been dethroned at the beginning of 976. Southern Tang governmental documents remained unprocessed when Taizong ascended to the Song throne later that year. Li Yu was posthumously granted the title prince of Wu (吳王) by Taizong in 978. This was the same title once held by Li Ke, the supposed ancestor of the Southern Tang house. Taizong probably saw it possible to claim to be the legitimate successor of the Tang through transmission from Li Yu and the Southern Tang.

The Jiangnan lu was drafted by Tang Yue (湯悅) and Xu Xuan, both prominent members of the former Southern Tang government, to further the goal of connecting Taizong to the Southern Tang. It likely did not achieve more than a minor circulation. By the 980s Taizong was more firmly in power and the text its significance as a source for him to claim legitimacy. The Jiangnan lu has been lost besides several passages existing in largely hostile sources. Xu Xuan was criticized by various scholars of the era for incorrectly depicting events that occurred in the Southern Tang. The author of the Diaoji litan accused Xu Xuan of blaming other officials for his own ruinous policies. The Jiangbiao Zhi by Zheng Wenbao and the Jiangnan Bielu by Chen Pengnian both in a partisan manner to fix these supposed errors. Later historians like Wang Anshi and Ouyang Xiu likewise critiqued the Jiangnan lu. Hostility to Xu Xuan by other Song historians likely came from a combination of his social prominence and prior service to the Southern Tang.

The Diaoji litan 釣磯立談 was composed by a private citizen of the Southern Tang after its conquest by the Song. In the work the author defended the legacy of the Southern Tang. The Tang-Song interregnum was conceived as a period where competing states potentially had a limited mandate of heaven. They called the Southern Tang a "peripheral hegemonic state" 偏霸. An account was given of the Southern Tang geopolitical position and its plans for unifying China. By utilizing this terminology and logic the author disputed the negative status given to the Southern Tang by Song historians.

The Zizhi Tongjian is an authoritative historical text published in 1084 that remains an important source for Chinese historiography. Sima Guang oversaw and edited the compilation that covered 1,300 years of Chinese history. Leaders of the southern states that claimed the title of emperor were instead referred to as "ruler" (主). The final chapters of the Zizhi Tongjian deal with the Southern Tang. They provide significant amount of information about the state. Sima Guang opined that conquering the north was beyond the capabilities of the Southern Tang. Contemporary scholars have noted that the personal biases of Sima Guang at times removed a sense of objectivity in the text. The ideological stances of the Zizhi Tongjian greatly influenced subsequent Song historiography, and are still prominent in modern scholarship.

The Wudai shiji largely followed the Zizhi Tongjian in its treatment of the Southern Tang. However, the work has been seen as less accurate by contemporary scholars. In the work Ouyang defined the histographical concept of the Ten Kingdoms (十國). He also wrote a treatise on political legitimacy, determining that the principal factor lay in controlling a unified Chinese state. He laid out how to determine the legitimacy of a regime without necessarily giving into personal or cultural biases. He postulated that there were interregnums where no authority was necessarily legitimate.

In 1355 Yang Weizhen wrote an essay critiquing the recently published Song shi. In it he questioned the prevailing belief that the Southern Tang were not a legitimate political entity. He recorded statements from Taizu and Qubilai that supposedly demonstrated the importance of controlling Southern China to acquire political legitimacy. Neither quotation appears in any other historical sources, making them of doubtful authenticity.

"Five Demons"
The Song political experiences influenced the depiction of the Southern Tang in their historical works. During the reign of Emperor Zhenzhong a group of financial and political reformists were derided as the "Five Demons" by opposing interest groups. This designation was later employed by Song historians to describe xiaoren 小人 officials that made a faction to illicitly gain power in the Southern Tang government. Membership in this ostensible group varies somewhat between the sources. It was however almost always affiliated with Song Qiqiu in some capacity. The existence of this supposed faction has been critiqued by Johannes Kurz as a product of the personal biases of Song historians and their deliberate rearrangement of historical materials.

The Diaoji litan was the first work to employ the term. The claimed members of this group were Song Qiqiu, Chen Jue, Feng Yanji, Feng Yanlu, and Zha Wenhui 查文徽. While some men included did act for self-aggrandisement there is not an obvious reason to consider them operating as a cohesive unit. Ma Ling detailed eight men operating as a faction; Song Qiqiu, Chen Jue, Li Zhenggu 李徵古, Feng Yanlu, Feng Yansi, Wei Cen 魏岑, and Zha Wenhui. The Jiangnan Yeshi depicted Song Qiqiu as starting as an honest official that eventually became corrupt. Notably he is not recorded as affiliated with any supposed political faction nor that he established one. In the Wudau Shiji Wei Cen replaces Song Qiqiu as a member of the Five Demons, although the latter reportedly controlled the group through Chen Jue. This purported arrangement was also reported in the Zizhi Tongjian.

Southern Tang and Wu rulers family tree
– Wu emperors; – Southern Tang emperors

title: Southern Tang


text:
Pierre Dupuy (diplomat)

Pierre Dupuy, (July 9, 1896 – May 21, 1969) was a Canadian diplomat and writer. His most noted achievement was as the Commissioner General of Expo 67.

Early life
Dupuy was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1896. He studied law and international law at the Université de Montréal and at the Sorbonne in Paris.

Diplomatic career
In 1922 he joined the department of External Affairs, working in Paris as secretary for the office of the then Canadian Commissioner General. When, in 1928, that office became a formal legation, he was promoted to second secretary and then, in 1938, to first secretary.

During World War II, Canada, unlike Britain, did not break off its diplomatic relations with the Vichy regime in France. The ambassador, Georges Vanier, fled to London, but technically he was still accredited with the French government. Dupuy became the chargé d'affaires for the Canadian legations for France, Belgium and the Netherlands. On 2 November 1940, the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax, asked the Canadian government to allow Dupuy to visit Vichy so as to "make an informal report on [the] present situation [there] which would be of considerable value". Mackenzie King, the Canadian prime minister, quickly agreed "in the hope that such a visit would aid in some measure in throwing light on the present uncertainty and in establishing more friendly relations between the Government of France and the British Commonwealth".

Dupuy thus visited France three times between November 1940 and August 1941, and reported back to the Allies. He stayed on even after his superior, General Vanier, resigned, in May 1941, as minister to France out of "his increasing disgust with the Vichy regime". British Prime Minister Winston Churchill noted that he was deeply grateful for Dupuy's "magnificent work", adding that "the Canadian channel is invaluable and indeed, at the moment, our only line." However, on November 9, 1942, after the Allied landings in North Africa, Canada finally severed relations with Vichy. Dupuy nevertheless stayed in London to represent Canada's interests with the Allied governments-in-exile. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1943.

In September 1944, he accompanied the Belgian government on its return to Brussels and, in January 1945, he was appointed minister to the Netherlands, where he served until 1952. He then became Canada's ambassador to Italy until finally, in 1958, he was named ambassador to France, where he served until his retirement in 1963.

In 1963, he was named Commissioner General of Expo 67. He was responsible for getting foreign nations to participate in the Expo. On April 27, 1967, Expo 67 opened on time and with the largest number of foreign nations participating in a World's Fair to that time: a testament to his persistence and skill as a diplomat and manager. Dupuy wrote a poem that was read at the opening by Laurence Olivier and Jean-Louis Barrault.

On December 22, 1967 he was appointed to the Order of Canada, being invested on April 24, 1968 as a companion of the order. In 1967, he received an honorary doctorate from Sir George Williams University, which later became Concordia University.

Personal life
Dupuy married Therese Ferron in 1921. They had two children, Michel who also became a Canadian diplomat, and Jacqueline who became an author. Dupuy owned a home on the Riviera coast of France in Cannes. It was there that Dupuy died of a heart attack on May 21, 1969.

title: Pierre Dupuy (diplomat)