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Anti-French sentiment

Anti-French sentiment (Francophobia or Gallophobia) is the fear of, discrimination against, prejudice of, or hatred towards France, the French people, French culture, the French government or the Francophonie (set of political entities that use French as an official language or whose French-speaking population is numerically or proportionally large). It has existed in various forms and in different countries for centuries. The phenomenon has been strongest in Belgium, Britain and Germany, and was often expressed in literature and the popular medium. It is also a major factor in some Canadian cultures.

By region
Though French history in the broadest sense extends back more than a millennium, its political unity dates back from the reign of Louis XI, who set up the basis of a nation-state (rather than a dynastic, transnational entity typical of the Late Middle Ages). In the last days of the Ancien Régime, only aristocrats and scholars spoke French in much of the Kingdom of France, as about two-thirds of the population spoke a variety of local languages, often referred to as dialects. Henceforth, Eric Hobsbawm argues that the French nation-state was constituted during the 19th century through conscription, which accounted for interactions between French citizens coming from various regions and the Third Republic's public instruction laws, enacted in the 1880s, probably in parallel with the birth of the European nationalisms.

Britain

England and France have a long history of conflict, dating from before the Battle of Hastings, when William the Conqueror claimed the English throne. Before becoming King of England, William found conflict with his liege Henry I of France several times and conquered some neighbouring fiefs. The relationship between the countries continued to be filled with conflict, even during the Third Crusade. The medieval era of conflict climaxed during the Hundred Years' War, when the House of Plantagenet fought unsuccessfully for control of the French throne and lost almost all French holdings, which resulted in future English kings being more culturally English from Henry III onwards. Previously, they had largely spoken French and lived in French castles much of the time. Richard the Lionheart, who was famous for his feud with French King Philip, spent most of his life in France and as little as six months of his reign as King in England.

In contrast, relations between Scotland and France were generally good. The French throne sided numerous time with Scotland in its conflicts with the English throne, making this relationship compound the existing direct hostility. The Auld Alliance treaty of 1295 provided for mutual support between Scotland and France in the event of an English attack on either. This was replaced by the 1560 Treaty of Edinburgh between England, Scotland and France.

The modern history of conflict between Britain and France stems from the rise of Britain as a primary commercial and maritime power in Europe in the early 18th century onward and the threat it posed to France's ambitions. Hostility toward and strategic conflict with France's similar interests became a defining characteristic of relations between the two powers. The time between the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and Napoleon's final capitulation in 1815 has been perceived in Britain as a prolonged Franco-British conflict to determine who would be the dominant colonial power (sometimes called the Second Hundred Years' War). British hostility to the Catholic Church, which dated back to earlier conflicts with Catholic Habsburg Spain, contributed to attitudes towards the French because France was also seen as a Catholic power, and the majority of the British people were Protestants. England and later Britain joined continental European states in resisting the rising French imperialism during the reign of Louis XIV and the Napoleonic Wars. Britain also resented France's intervention in the American Revolutionary War. This historical antagonism became ingrained in the culture of both countries but was mostly overcome by their successful alliance to stop German aggression in World War I and World War II in the first half of the 20th century.

The dimensions of the conflict in Britain were as much cultural as strategic. Indeed, British nationalism, in its nascent phases, was in large part an anti-France phenomenon and the attitudes involved extended well beyond who won what on various battlefields:

 * A growing group of British nationalists in the 17th and 18th centuries resented the veneration that was often accorded the French culture and language.
 * France was the most powerful Catholic state for much of the modern period and anti-Catholic sentiments had been widespread in Britain since the Act of Supremacy in 1534.
 * The permeation of anti-French sentiment throughout society, as epitomised by the apocryphal story of the Hartlepool monkey hangers, whose belief that the French were literally inhuman led them to have allegedly executed a pet monkey in the belief that it was an invading Frenchman, but the story is based upon the disputed premise that those involved had never seen a Frenchman before.

Robert Graves wrote shortly after the First World War during his time at Oxford University as an undergraduate that: "The eighteenth century owed its unpopularity largely to its Frenchness. Anti-French feeling among most ex-soldiers amounted almost to an obsession. Edmund, shaking with nerves, used to say at this time: "No more wars for me at any price! Except against the French. If ever there is a war against them, I'll go like a shot." Pro-German feeling had been increasing. With the war over and the German armies beaten, we could give the German soldier credit for being the most efficient fighting man in Europe ... Some undergraduates even insisted that we had been fighting on the wrong side: our natural enemies were the French."

- Robert Graves, Goodbye to All That.

Germany
Beginning with the French invasions of Germany in the late 18th century, France became the century-long rival of Germany. The rising German nationalist movement also considered France their greatest enemy because France not only had temporarily conquered much of Western Germany during the Napoleonic Wars but also was the country most strongly opposed to the idea of a unified German empire and wanted Germany to remain divided into many individual states.

In this time, the myth of the so-called hereditary enmity (Erbfeindschaft) came into being, according to which the Romanic French and the Germanic Germans had been antithetic enemies ever since the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, a notion that was inherently unhistorical. In the 19th century, anti-French sentiment became commonplace in German political discourse even if the deep cultural interrelation between the two could never be blanked out completely. (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe poked fun at this in his epic Faust I with the verse: Ein echter deutscher Mann mag keinen Franzen leiden, doch ihre Weine trinkt er gern. "A real German man likes no Frenchy, but he likes to drink their wines.")

Several German nationalist anthems were written against the French, most prominently Die Wacht am Rhein. After the German victory in the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, the anniversary of the decisive Battle of Sedan was made a semiofficial national holiday in the German Empire.

After the culminations of Franco-German enmity in both world wars, the two actively gave up their mutual animosities in the second half of the twentieth century. The most prominent symbol of this development is the picture of heads of government François Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl holding each other's hands at a ceremony at the military cemetery in Verdun in 1984. Today, Germany and France are close political partners and two closely connected nations. A joint Franco-German television network, Arte, was founded in 1992.

Ireland
Historically, relations between French and Irish have been generally positive, as both peoples shared a common religion, Roman Catholicism, and a common Protestant enemy, England (later the United Kingdom). French kings during the 16th to 19th centuries often supported Irish interests against English advances in Ireland.

Recently, there have been a few instances of friction between France and the Republic of Ireland over political and economic issues that led to expressions of Irish francophobia. One of these was when Ireland rejected the Lisbon treaty in a referendum in 2008 and Nicolas Sarkozy commented that Ireland "must vote again" – as it indeed did the following year. Another source has been the French criticism of Ireland's low corporate taxation rate and the perceived French resistance to conceding an interest rate reduction on the International Monetary Fund/European Union loan arrangement until Ireland "moves" on this rate, which was perceived as interference.

Francophobia in Ireland rose in the aftermath of a controversial FIFA World Cup playoff game between the two countries, leading to protests outside the French Embassy in Dublin. Irish businesses exploited the occasion in a mostly light-hearted way, with promotions offering discounts for every goal scored against France and special reductions to celebrate the elimination of France from the tournament.

Russia
Some Russians mock French people with the nickname "Lyagushatniki", literally "frog people".

Italy
On Easter Monday (30 March) 1282, at the Church of the Holy Spirit just outside Palermo, at evening prayer (vespers), a Frenchman harassed a Sicilian woman. This single event led to the massacre of 4,000 Frenchmen over the course of the next six weeks, and the government of the French-born king Charles I of Anjou lost control of the island.

Spain
Goya painted several famous pictures depicting the violence of the Peninsula wars during the Napoleonic Era. In particular, the French actions against Spanish civilians during the Peninsular War drew a large amount of criticism, as illustrated by The Third of May 1808 painting.

From 5 to 6 June 1808 Spanish clergyman Baltasar Calvo organized a massacre of 400 French civilians in Valencia.

Africa
French colonialism in Africa led to anti-French sentiments among colonised peoples, particular during periods of conflict between the French and various African states. Imperial disputes with other European colonial powers in Africa (such as the Fashoda Incident) also led to anti-French sentiments. More recently, the French policy of maintaining the Françafrique has been characterized as neocolonialism and led to further anti-French sentiments.

Despite promises of French presidents and politicians to normalize relations with African countries and review the policy of the Elysée Palace towards Africa, Paris currently continues to use economic aid and the French language as leverage. However, African continent has become much more independent in recent decades. Nowadays almost all attempts of the French government to influence African countries end up with discontent and growth of anti-French sentiment.

Algeria
The Algerian War had been underway since 1954. The Évian Accords of March 18, 1962, brought an end to the conflict. The Accords, which were reached during a cease-fire between French armed forces and the Algerian nationalist organization the FLN, began the process of transfer of power from the French to the Algerians. The Évian Accords intended to guarantee the rights and safety of the Pieds-Noirs, the French-speaking European settlers in an independent Algeria.

In 1959, the Pieds-Noirs numbered 1,025,000, and accounted for 10.4% of the total population of French Algeria. However, rumors had already spread among the Pieds-Noirs that their choice would be between "the suitcase or the coffin". On the morning of July 5, 1962, the day Algeria became independent, seven companies of FLN troops entered the city of Oran when several European settlers fired shots at them. An outraged Arab mob swept into the Pieds-Noir neighborhoods, which had already been largely vacated, and attacked the estimated 40,000 remaining Pieds-Noirs. The violence lasted several hours, during which the mob cut the throats of many men, women and children.

The number of Pieds-Noirs who fled Algeria totalled more than 800,000 between 1962 and 1964.

Ivory Coast
France's intervention in the civil war in Côte d'Ivoire has triggered anti-French violence by the "Young Patriots" and other groups.

Other countries of the African continent
The new trend of African countries to "turn away" from Paris was provoked by inability of France to maintain stability and security in the former colonies. Coups and attempted coups indicate the growth of anti-French sentiment and the collapse of Francafrique. Over the past years, rebellions have occurred not only in Mali, Burkina-Faso and Niger, but also in Chad and Gabon, forcing France to reduce its presence on the continent. Thus, Paris reduces the number of its military personnel from 350 to 100 in Gabon, and from 1000 to 300 in Chad.

Azerbaijan
As the result of France's closeness toward Armenia during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, anti-French sentiment began to develop in Azerbaijan, where Azerbaijan accused France of being one-sided and Turkophobic. In addition, reporters from France have also faced numerous instances of harassment and hostility from the host nation. In November 2020, Azerbaijan sent a protest note to Paris after the French Senate recognized the Republic of Artsakh. As it is only a motion, it is not legally binding.

Vietnam
French colonists were given the special epithet thực dân (originally meaning colonist but evolving to refer to the oppressive regime of the French) in Vietnamese; it is still universally used in discussions about the colonial era. After the French were pushed out of Vietnam, those who collaborated with them (called tay sai – agents) were vilified. Those who left for France with the French were known as Việt gian (Viet traitors) and had all their property confiscated. Although anti-French feelings in Vietnam have greatly abated, the use of words like thực dân (colonist) to describe the French is still common.

China
During the 1884 Battle of Tamsui, the Chinese took prisoner and beheaded 11 French marines, who were injured, in addition to La Gailissonniere's captain Fontaine and used bamboo poles to display the heads in public to incite anti-French feelings in China. Pictures of the decapitation of the French were published in the Tien-shih-tsai Pictorial Journal in Shanghai. There was an anti-French campaign in 1916–1917.

Syria
Anti-French sentiment started to develop when the French, who negotiated the infamous Sykes–Picot Agreement, began invading Syria. The Battle of Maysalun that happened in 1920, where the Syrian Army was under the command of the charismatic Yusuf al-'Azma, symbolized a strong anti-French sentiment among Syrians as France had regenerated the promise to occupy and terrorize the Syrian population. French rule in Syria was viewed extremely negatively by a lot of Syrians, and French involvement in the Syrian Civil War also gained little sympathy.

Pakistan
In October 2020, there were numerous protests in Pakistan concerning President Macron's statements on the murder of Samuel Paty.

In April 2021, violent anti-French protests organised by the Tehreek-e-Labbaik led the French embassy to advise all French citizens in Pakistan to leave the country.

United States
Despite a large French contribution to the 1991 Iraq Gulf War (called Operation Daguet) and the French presence in Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom), the opposition of French President Jacques Chirac to the 2003 Iraq War led to a significant rise in anti-French sentiment in the United States. In March 2003, the cafeteria of the United States House of Representatives had its French fries and French toast renamed to freedom fries and toast, at the direction of Representatives Bob Ney and Walter Jones. Ney chaired the Committee on House Administration and had authority over the menu in the House cafeteria.

The french fries renaming was not without controversy or opposition. Timothy Noah of Slate noted that the move was "meant to demonize France for its exasperating refusal to support a war against Iraq". He compared the 2003 renamings to the renaming of all things German in World War I, but argued that the freedom fries episode was even worse because "Germany, after all, was America's enemy, whereas France is America's NATO ally."

The swell of anti-French sentiment in the United States resulting from 2003 episode was marked. Various media personalities and politicians openly expressed anti-French sentiments; News Corporation's media outlets, particularly the Fox Entertainment Group's Fox News Network, were specifically implicated in a campaign fanning francophobia at the time of the war. By 2006, anti-French sentiment among the American public began to decline, following an increased rise in opposition to the Iraq War and rising disapproval of the George W. Bush administration. As a result, positive views of France among Americans began to increase steadily and by 2016, American favorable ratings of France reached a historic high of 87%.

Historically, the French-speaking peoples of Louisiana and New England have also been exposed to disparagement and discrimination. Along with nationwide suppression of the French language, francophones in Vermont were subject to involuntary sterilization during the early twentieth century, when Vermont implemented eugenics policies targeting "the poor, the disabled, French-Canadians and Native Americans." In the 1960s, a common argument against the founding of CODOFIL, Louisiana's agency of francophone affairs, was that empowering the francophone population might foster Quebec-style nationalism, and fracturing national unity. The congressman James R. Domengeaux, founder of CODOFIL and a prominent advocate for francophone rights, was forced to address these concerns on multiple occasions. While subsequent years have since proven these fears baseless, such arguments were considered an adequate reason to deny Louisiana's francophones basic political recognition.

Canada
Anti-Quebec sentiment (Sentiment anti-Québécois) is a form of prejudice which is expressed toward the government, culture, and/or the francophone people of Quebec.

The French-language media in Quebec has termed anti-Quebec sentiment Québec bashing —what it perceives as hateful, anti-Quebec coverage in the English-language media. It mostly cites examples from the English-Canadian media, and occasionally in coverage from other countries, often based on Canadian sources. Some sovereignist journalists and academics noted that unfavourable depictions of the province by the media increased in the late 1990s after the unsuccessful 1995 Quebec referendum on independence.

Haiti
In 1804, Haitian leader Jean-Jacques Dessalines ordered the massacre of nearly all white men, women, and children remaining in Haiti following the Haitian Revolution "except for priests, skilled artisans, health care workers, Americans and British"; between January and April 1804, 3,000 to 5,000 whites were killed.

New Zealand
France controls several islands in the Pacific Ocean which include New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna Islands and French Polynesia. There have been sporadic independence demonstrations in French Polynesia, and briefly in the 1980s, a pro-independence insurgency in New Caledonia, led by the Front de Libération Nationale Kanak Socialiste.

There is also the issue of nuclear testing in the Pacific. Since 1960, around 200 nuclear tests have occurred around the Pacific, to the opprobrium of other Pacific states, Australia and New Zealand. In 1982, New Zealand reggae band Herbs released their breakthrough single, "French Letter", which strongly criticised French nuclear testing. The end of the Cold War led to a French moratorium on nuclear testing, but it was lifted in 1995 by Jacques Chirac. French security forces have sought to interfere with the activity of nuclear testing protesters. In 1972, the Greenpeace vessel Vega was rammed at Moruroa. The following year Greenpeace protesters were detained by the French, and the skipper claimed he was beaten. Also, in 1985 the French secret service bombed and sank the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland, New Zealand. Greenpeace had been a very vocal opponent of French nuclear testing in the Pacific. Australia ceased military cooperation with France and embargoed the export of uranium to France. Chirac's decision to run a nuclear test series at Mururoa on 5 September and 2 October 1995, just one year before the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was to be signed, caused worldwide protest, including an embargo of French wine. Riots took place across Polynesia, and the South Pacific Forum threatened to suspend France.

Australia
Similar anti-French protests occurred in Australia in response to Jacques Chirac's announcement of his intentions to resume French nuclear tests in the Pacific in 1995. In Sydney, protestors marched with placards stating "Guillotine Chirac", "In Your Back Yard Jacques" and "Ageing Hippies Against the Bomb". According to British journalists Robert Milliken and Tony Barber, French nuclear tests in the Pacific had led Australia (and New Zealand) to " [drift] further from their European roots" and reorient their foreign policy in Asia, and establish closer relationships with nations in the Pacific. Numerous boycotts were launched against French companies and products in Australia, and French-owned businesses were vandalised. Marc Lacher, a French-born Australian with dual citizenship, noted that "Like many French people in Australia we're against the tests." Lacher also stated that "If Australia is serious, it would stop selling uranium to France".

New Caledonia
New Caledonia is a sui generis collectivity of overseas France in the southwest Pacific Ocean. The separatist Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front has been operating on the island since the 1970s. They demand independence from France. In May 2024, the organization's activities intensified due to attempt of Paris to amend the constitution which would allow migrants who arrived on the island after 1998 to participate in elections and referendums. French President Emmanuel Macron had to declare a state of emergency in New Caledonia and send troops to counter the protesters. At the moment, France has arrested 11 rebels and taken them to its territory by a special board. This event caused a wave of riots. The protesters are smashing up administrative buildings and gun shops.

France and World War II
The Second World War had an effect on the modern French image abroad. Before the war's outbreak, the French government had reluctantly acquiesced to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement and acceptance of Adolf Hitler's various violations of the Versailles Treaty and his demands at Munich in 1938. French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier was under no illusions about Hitler's ultimate goals and initially opposed Chamberlain's policy and told the British in a late April 1938 meeting that Hitler's real aim was to eventually secure "a domination of the Continent in comparison with which the ambitions of Napoleon were feeble.... Today it is the turn of Czechoslovakia. Tomorrow it will be the turn of Poland and Romania". However, in the end, Daladier could not stand without Chamberlain's support and let him have his way with the appeasement of Hitler at the Munich Agreement.

The prime ministers of France between the World Wars were generally frightened about German intentions, as France sustained more casualties in the First World War than any other Western country, approximately 1.4 million military and 1.6 million total casualties. Accordingly, French policies towards Germany, more specifically the Nazis, were more aggressive than that of other Western nations. Relations were very poor at the time, and French leaders were also acutely aware that the population of Germany (64 million) exceeded that of France by a considerable margin (40 million), a major strategic vulnerability.

The vulnerability and France's proximity to Germany caused French leaders to take a harder stance on Germany than the British. The French occupation of the Rhineland and France's desire to collect reparations, owed by Germany under the Versailles treaty to France, caused British leaders to see French leaders as pushing for war with Germany.

The predecessor of Daladier, Léon Blum, was acutely aware of the dangers Germany could pose. He even considered military assistance to the Spanish government during the Spanish Civil War (the Germans were supporting the Nationalists) but reluctantly decided otherwise, as some Nationalist sympathizers in France openly threatened civil war, just like in Spain. Also, the predecessor of Chamberlain, Stanley Baldwin, and his staff, including Anthony Eden, strongly opposed any aid for fear both of communism (the Soviet Union was supporting the Republicans) and of the war escalating into another world war.

In 1940, the military defeat of the French Army, after only a month, caused much disillusion across Europe. As a consequence, the image and the reputation of France as Europe's military superpower were seriously compromised, even after the war ended. Vichy France collaborated with Germany, which included anti-Jewish legislation and other actions, which had a negative effect on the French image abroad. However, Free French Forces still participated actively in the final Allied victory, and France rebuilt its military after the war to recover some of its position as a major military power.

France as a major power
Post-World War II France is a major world power with nuclear armed forces retaining a weapons stockpile of around 300 operational nuclear warheads, making it the third-largest in the world. France also has a permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council, and one of the largest economies in the world. It is very active in international affairs in locations overseas (such as its continuing participation in Libya, its Pacific nuclear testing in the 1980s, and in interventions in its former African colonies).

However, France's status and active foreign policy have caused it to attract some negative attention. Some view some of postwar France's leaders to be vocal and independent-minded in their dealings with other major nations. The two French presidents most often perceived to be vocal and independent are Charles de Gaulle and Jacques Chirac.

De Gaulle's presidencies and Gaullism in the 1960s
The policies of Charles de Gaulle during his second presidency (1959–1969) included several actions that some critics have held against him.

 * De Gaulle advocated the view that while France is remaining within the political structure of NATO, it should partially act as a third pole between the United States and the Soviet Union, actively supporting European organizations such as the European Economic Community, and maintaining close ties with other western European nations (especially with West Germany). This viewpoint was not unique to De Gaulle or the French, because many other nations sought varying degrees of non-aligned status with reference to the two major blocs (the United States/NATO and the Soviet bloc). India, China, Indonesia, and many other nations formed the Non-Aligned Movement, and Yugoslavia pursued a largely independent course from Moscow from 1948 until its dissolution in 2003.
 * De Gaulle decided to end the presence of NATO bases on French soil, and he withdrew France from the military structure of NATO. However, France remained within NATO's political structure.
 * De Gaulle opposed the UK's application to join the EEC in 1963 and 1967. However, the next French President Georges Pompidou reversed De Gaulle's position and supported the UK's admission to the EEC in 1973. Since De Gaulle, French presidents have generally pursued closer relations with British leaders, including Jacques Chirac, who worked with Tony Blair even during the Iraq War.
 * While he was visiting Montreal, Quebec, Canada in order to attend the World's Fair in 1967, De Gaulle expressed his sympathy for the Quebec sovereignty movement, with the "Vive le Québec libre!" speech. This speech was highly regarded by supporters of the Quebec independence movement. However, it was widely criticized by French citizens, the French press, and some French-Canadians, including the future-Canadian prime minister, Pierre Trudeau, a French-Canadian from Montreal.

In short, De Gaulle advocated for a strong French presence among the great nations and of France's independence from both the United States and the Soviet Union.

title: Anti-French sentiment


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Nene Tamayo

Jennivev "Nene" Santillan Tamayo (born September 27, 1981) is a Filipina reality television personality known for winning the first season of Pinoy Big Brother.

Pinoy Big Brother
She's best known as the dancing diva and the 'astig' (tough) housemate because of her past military background as an ROTC officer in University of the East, thus Kumander Nene (Commander Nene) was her popular tagname. Nene is also known as Nenegizer (alluding to Energizer batteries) because of her strong and long-lasting stamina; this was given during the dance marathon challenge of the housemates.

On December 10, 2005, Tamayo, with the most number of text votes, won the show, after spending 111 days inside the Big Brother house.

Post-Pinoy Big Brother
Nene is having second thoughts on building a career in show business, but she said if she would be given an opportunity, she wants to become a newscaster and be part of ABS-CBN's news program, TV Patrol World and indeed became the host of its segment Citizen Patrol. She is set to be awarded by the ABS-CBN's show Pipol with the "2005 Pipol of the Year" award after defeating the co-nominee Manny Pacquiao under the "Sports and Entertainment" Category.

In 2006, she became a finalist of the ABS-CBN dance show U Can Dance. Tamayo is currently a member of ABS CBN's circle of homegrown talents named Star Magic. She also appears as a regular in UNTV 37's morning program Pilipinas, Gising Ka Na Ba?

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

title: Nene Tamayo


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Mr. He's jade

The Heshibi, often translated as Mr. He's jade, was a sacred ceremonial bi (a jade annulus) which had an important role in Chinese history. First appearing during the mid–8th century BCE, it was cut into a ritual bi and recognized as an imperial treasure. The Heshibi became the object of contention among the Warring States, stolen from Chu circa 4th century BCE, acquired by the Zhao, and temporarily traded to Qin in 283 BCE. When the Qin dynasty was founded in 221 BCE, the Heshibi was carved into the Heirloom Seal of the Realm, symbol of the Mandate of Heaven, and subsequently transferred through successive Chinese dynasties until it was lost during the Five Dynasties era in the 10th century.

The early historicity of the stone is uncertain, though its great antiquity seems clear. The earliest mention of it is from the 3rd century BCE. The story of its finding is likely apocryphal. Whether it was turned into the Heirloom Seal of the Realm is also a matter of dispute. If it was turned into the seal, it was certainly lost by the time of the Ming dynasty. It has been used as a metaphor for a precious object since its earliest mentions.

Terminology

Héshìbì (, "He's jade annulus") or Héshìzhībì using the Classical Chinese grammatical possessive affix zhī (之) was a Bì (, "jade annulus") or ceremonial jade annulus. Bi artifacts date back to the Liangzhu culture (3400–2250 BCE). Bi signified heavenly kingship in Zhou times, and were often used ceremonially as symbolic of a covenant or guarantee. The word can also be used to refer to jade in general. The Heshibi is named after Bian He, the person who first discovered the jade stone.

Bian He (卞和) is a Chinese name, Biàn (卞) is the surname (e.g., Bian Lan) and Hé (和) is the given name. However, He is also an uncommon surname (e.g., He Qia) and early texts refer to Bian He as both Bianshi (卞氏, "of Bian clan") and Heshi (和氏, "of He clan"), with the word shì (氏, "Chinese clan; family"). Some alternate names are Heshi (龢氏, with the ancient variant character Hé), Heshi (咼氏, with the unique variant Guō (咼) only pronounced He in this name), and Jing He (荊和, "He from Jingzhou"). Most scholars translate Heshi as "Mr. He" with suffixed shi, some as "Master He", and a few literally interpret shi and translate Heshi as "He Clan" or "He family".

Legends
The Chinese story of the Heshibi has been retold and developed for over two millennia.

Hanfeizi
The earliest extant account is the Heshi (和氏, "Mr. He") chapter of the classic Hanfeizi, attributed to Han Fei (c. 280–233 BC). The Hanfeizi version involves Mr. He presenting his jade to the first three "kings" of Chu state: "King Li of Chu" (楚厲王) posthumously refers to Viscount Fenmao (r. 757–741 BCE), his brother King Wu of Chu (楚武王, r. 740–690 BCE) who was the first to style himself "king", and his son King Wen of Chu (楚文王, r. 689–677 BCE). Several Hanfeizi commentaries say these three 8th-century BCE Chu rulers of Bian He should be three Zhou dynasty rulers: King Wu of Zhou (周武王, r. c. 1050–1043 BCE), his father King Wen of Zhou (周文王, r. 1100–1050), and King Cheng of Zhou (周成王, r. 1042–1021 BCE).

"Once a man of Ch'u, named Pien Ho, came by an uncut jade in the Ch'u Hills. He brought it home and submitted it as a present to King Wu. Thereupon King Wu had a jeweller give an opinion of it. 'It is an ordinary stone,' said the jeweller. The King, regarding Ho as a liar, had his left foot cut off. Upon King Wu's death, King Wên ascended the throne, when Ho again submitted it as a present to King Wên. King Wên also had a jeweller give an opinion of it. Again he said, 'It is an ordinary stone.' The King, also regarding Ho as a liar, had his right foot cut off. When King Wên died and King Ch'êng ascended the throne, Ho, carrying the uncut jade in his arms, cried at the foot of the Ching Hills. After three days and three nights his tears were all exhausted and blood flowed out. At this news the King sent men out to ask him the reason, saying, 'Throughout All-under-Heaven men whose feet were cut off are many. Why should you be crying so bitterly?' 'I am lamenting not the loss of my feet,' said Ho in reply, 'but for the calling a precious gem an ordinary stone and for their dubbing an honest man a liar. This is the reason why I am lamenting.' Meanwhile, the King had a jeweller polish up the jade and got the treasure out at last. So it was designated 'the Jade of Pien Ho' [和氏之璧]." The subsequent Hanfeizi context criticizes contemporary rulers and recommends that a wise person who hopes to avoid punishment should not present a ruler any "uncut jewels of wisdom and statecraft".

Joseph P. Yap translates the Hanfeizi story with the three Chu kings Li, Wu, and Wen. "At around 8th century BCE, Bian He a jeweller from the kingdom of Chu discovered a piece of stone; he knew from experience that it was a piece of priceless jade. He presented the piece of stone to King Li of Chu, (757–741 BCE). The king thought the jeweller was trying to deceive him and had his left foot chopped off as a punishment. When the next king, King Wu of Chu (r. 740–691 BCE) ascended to the throne, Bian He again presented the piece of stone to the new king; this time, the king had his right foot chopped off as he also maintained that the jeweller was trying to deceive him. Bian He embracing his piece of stone cried for three days and three nights at the foothills of Jingshan Mountain. Much later, when King Wen of Chu (r. 690–675 BCE) ascended the throne the king sent someone to ask the jeweller why he was so adamant about his belief. He answered, 'This is a piece of priceless jade, and the two former kings regarded it as a useless piece of stone. I am not saddened by the loss of my feet, but I am distressed by the fact that a patriot is misconstrued as being wicked and evil.' [The king] then asked a jade expert to cut open the stone, and it transpired that it was indeed a piece of priceless jade. Legend has it that it was pure white and flawless. The king of Chu named it Heshibi, Master He's jade."

Gao's Huainanzi commentary
The next significant version of Pian He's story is found in Gao You's 212 CE Huainanzi commentary for the passage (below) that compares the Way of Heaven with the Marquis of Sui's pearl and the Heshibi. Gao changes the original three Chu kings state to the three Zhou kings. "A man from Ch'u named Pien Ho found a piece of unpolished jade at the foot of the Ching Mountains. He offered it as tribute to King Wu [of the Chou dynasty]. King Wu had it inspected by a jade expert, who declared it to be ordinary stone. [Pien Ho] had his left leg cut off [as punishment]. When King Wen came to the throne, [Pien Ho] once more presented the jade. King Wen took it to be ordinary stone, and [Pien Ho] had his right leg cut off. Pien Ho wrapped the jade carefully and wept tears of blood. When King Ch'eng ascended the throne, Pien Ho once again presented the jade. King Ch'eng said: 'Dear sir, you disregard having your legs cut off, as long as you can have your jade piece cut up for examination.' As soon as the stone was cut, it appeared that it was truly fine jade, and it was made into a jade [annulus] (pi)."

History
Beginning with the Zhanguo ce and Shiji, many Chinese histories have discussed the Heshibi, but the early historicity remains uncertain.

Zhanguo ce
The 3rd-century BCE Zhanguo ce (Strategies of the Warring States), which is a compendium of political and military anecdotes dating from 490 to 221 BCE, relates that the Heshibi was a national treasure of Chu, stolen from the Prime Minister, and eventually obtained by Zhao state.

King Wei of Chu (r. 339–329 BCE) bestowed the priceless jade upon Prime Minister Zhao Yang (昭陽) in gratitude for his defeat of the Yue kingdom in 333 BCE. On one occasion, Zhao Yang displayed the jade for his guests at a banquet when someone started a commotion, and in the midst of the confusion, the jade annulus disappeared. The School of Diplomacy political strategist Zhang Yi (fl. 328–309 BCE) was accused as the thief, and Zhao Yang had him questioned under torture before he was released. After this incident, the whereabouts of the jade was lost until it resurfaced at Zhao.

Chapter 250 of the Zhanguo ce records how another School of Diplomacy strategist Su Qin (380–284 BCE) persuaded Li Dui (李兌), the Chancellor of Zhao, to provide the Heshibi in order to acquire funding for the Vertical Alliance of six states against Qin. During their first audience, Su Qin convincingly explained his Vertical Alliance strategies to Li Dui and said, "You killed your ruler, [i.e., King Wuling of Zhao], and you extirpated his kin, and find your position in the empire as perilous as though you were perched atop a pile of eggs. If you heed my plans you will live; if you heed them not you will die." After Li told Su to return on the next day for an audience, one of his attendants said Su's "arguments and their scope are beyond you. Will you be able to do as he advises?" Li replied that he could not and followed the attendant's suggestion that he plug up his ears in order to avoid listening to Su's rhetoric. Su Qin persuasively spoke for the entire day during the second audience with Li. When the attendant escorted him out, Su asked "A day ago I spoke only crudely and your ruler was moved. Today I spoke in detail and he was not. Why?" "Your plans are great and their scope is lofty, sir", replied the attendant. "My lord cannot use them, so I asked him firmly to stop both his ears so that he would not heed what was said. However, come again on the morrow and I will ask that the Master be well rewarded." During the final audience, Li Dui gave Su Qin "a moon pearl [秦明月之珠], the Jade of Ho [和氏之璧], a black sable coat and a hundred pieces of pure gold." Thus, Su got the wealth he needed in order to go westward into Qin state.

Shiji
The Han dynasty historiographer Sima Qian's c. 94 BCE Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian) relates the history and background of Hr. He's jade annulus in two biographies.

Lin Xiangru
The Shiji "Biographies of Lian Po and Lin Xiangru" section records a famous story. In 283 BCE, King Zhaoxiang of Qin (r. 306–251 BCE) schemed to obtain Mr. He's jade annulus – this is the first recorded usage of modern term Heshibi 和氏璧 without classical zhi 之—from King Huiwen of Zhao (r. 298–266 BCE) – and deceitfully offered to trade away a large portion of Qin territory for the jade. However, when Xiangru discovered that Zhaoxiang never intended to give away Qin land, he tricked the king and managed to return the jade annulus back to Zhao.

"During the time of King Huiwen, Zhao [趙] acquired Chu's Jade of the Ho Clan [楚和氏璧]. King Zhao [昭] of Qin heard of this and sent a messenger to deliver a letter to the King of Zhao, saying that he wished to offer fifteen walled cities in exchange for the jade annulus [願以十五城請易璧]." The King of Zhao was distrustful and told his advisors "If we give it to Qin, we most likely will not obtain Qin’s cities, but will only be cheated. If we do not give it, then we must fear the arrival of Qin’s soldiers." The king sought the opinion of Lin Xiangru, who said, "Qin is mighty and Zhao is weak, you must grant his request." The king replied, "If he takes my jade, but gives us no cities, what then?" Lin said, "If Qin seeks the jade with its cities and Zhao does not accede, the fault lies with Zhao. If Zhao gives Qin the jade and Qin does not give Zhao the cities, the fault lies with Qin. In weighing these two measures, it would be better to accede, and lay the fault on Qin." Xiangru agreed to undertake the mission to Qin, and promised the king, "If the cities are granted to Zhao, the jade will remain in Qin; if the cities are not granted, allow your servant to return to Zhao with the jade intact." When Lin Xiangru arrived in the Qin capital, he respectfully presented the jade to King Zhaoxiang with both hands. The king was delighted and "passed it around to his Beauties and courtiers, who all shouted 'Long live the King!'" When Xiangru realized that the King of Qin had no intention of honoring the agreement, he came forward and said, "The jade has a flaw. Allow me to show it to Your Majesty." The king handed him the jade, and Xiangru retreated and stood with his back to a pillar. With his "hair bristling against his hat in rage," he threatened to destroy the jade. "It seems to me that Your Majesty has no intention of giving the King of Zhao the cities owed him. Thus I have reclaimed the jade. If you must press me, Great King, my head and the jade will both shatter against this pillar!" Since the King of Qin feared the jade would be demolished, he apologized and said, "The fifteen cities from here on will be given to Zhao." Concluding that Zhao would never acquire the Qin cities, Xiangru then told the king, "The jade of the Ho Clan [和氏璧] is a treasure that the entire world has transmitted with reverence." He then falsely said that before the King of Zhao sent off the jade, he fasted and purified himself for five days, and convinced the King of Qin that he too needed to fast for five days, after which, "your servant would dare to offer up the jade." The king agreed, and while he was fasting, Xiangru arranged for his retainer to disguise himself as a commoner, conceal the jade, and safely smuggle it back to Zhao.

After the King of Qin had finished fasting and purification, he held a ritual ceremony in his court. When Lin Xiangru arrived, he confessed having secretly sent the jade back to Zhao and then insulted the king's ancestors: "Out of the twenty odd lords of Qin since Duke Mu 穆 (r. 659–621 B.C.), not one has honored his agreements and oaths. Your servant truly feared he would be cheated by Your Majesty and thus betray Zhao." Xiangru told the enraged king that he would willingly accept the Qin death penalty for deceiving a king, and requested the pēng (烹, "death by boiling") punishment. Although some of the courtiers wanted to boil Xiangru immediately, the King of Qin said, "If We kill Xiangru now, We still cannot acquire the jade, and it would ruin the good relations between Qin and Zhao. It would be better to treat him with great civility instead, then send him back to Zhao." After Xiangru had returned, the King of Zhao praised the skillful diplomacy of his mission to Qin, and appointed him Senior Grand Master. (Chapter 81)

This story is the source of the Chinese idioms jiàzhíliánchéng (價值連城, lit. "as valuable as multiple cites") meaning "invaluable; priceless" and wánbìguīzhào (完璧歸趙, lit. "return the whole jade annulus to Zhao") meaning "to return something intact to its rightful owner".

Li Si
The Shiji biography of Qin dynasty Grand chancellor Li Si (c. 280–208 BCE) collectively mentions Sui He zhi bao (隨和之寶, "treasures of [Marquis] Sui and [Mr.] He") in a letter advising Emperor Qin Shi Huang not to follow Zheng Guo's advice to expel all foreigners from Qin. "Now Your Majesty imports jade from the Kun Mountains and possesses the treasures of Sui and He [隨和之寶]. Dangling moon–bright pearls [明月之珠], you buckle on the sword Taia, are drawn by fine steeds like Xianli, set up phoenix banners blazoned with kingfisher feathers, and employ drums of sacred lizard skin. Not one of these various precious things is a product native to Qin, and yet Your Majesty takes joy in them. Why? If something must be a product of Qin before it can be acceptable, then no night–shining jewels [夜光之璧] would adorn the court chambers, no vessels of rhinoceros horn or elephant tusk would amuse and delight you, no women of Zheng and Wey would throng the harem, and no fine horses and spirited thoroughbreds would fill your stables. The gold and tin from south of the Yangtze could not be utilized, the vermilion and blue of Shu could not be used for pigment. (Chapter 87)"

Imperial seal of China
ln 228 BCE, Qin overwhelmed the kingdom of Zhao and seized the Heshibi from King Dai of Zhao. In 221 BCE, the Qin kingdom had conquered all six Warring States and Qin Shi Huangdi founded the Qin dynasty. The emperor ordered that the Heshibi jade annulus be carved into his imperial jade seal that read, "Having received the Mandate from Heaven, may (the emperor) lead a long and prosperous life." (受命於天, 既壽永昌). The Qin Chancellor Li Si wrote this inscription in Seal script characters and Sun Shou (孫壽) carved them into the jade.

This Qin dynasty jade seal came to symbolize the Mandate of Heaven, and beginning when the last Qin ruler Ziying handed it over to Emperor Gaozu of Han in 206 BCE, it was successively passed on to later dynastic emperors signifying the right to govern the Chinese world. The Heirloom Seal of the Realm was lost sometime between the Tang and Ming dynasties.

Another version of the legend claims that it was interred in the burial crypt of the first Emperor of Qin Shi Huangdi and the jade seal which was passed on for over one thousand years was another piece of jade from Lantian.

The China Daily writes that the Heshibi and the Heirloom seal have been conflated, and considers the Heshibi to be a legend.

Literature
The jade annulus of Mr. He was mentioned in numerous classical Chinese texts, and present day Sinophones know the story from traditional chengyu idioms, such as wánbìguīzhào (完璧歸趙, lit. "return the whole jade annulus to Zhao") means "to return something intact to its rightful owner". The following literary examples are divided between using the Heshibi as a trope for something valuable or using it with other legendary treasures such as the Marquis of Sui's pearl.

Heshibi as a single treasure
The c. 239 BCE Lüshi Chunqiu (Master Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals) is an encyclopedic text compiled under the patronage of the Qin dynasty Chancellor Lü Buwei. The Mengdong (孟冬, "Almanac for the First Month of Winter") writes Mr. He (龢氏) with an early variant character. "Now, if one were to show a child a hundred pieces of gold and a ball of glutinous millet, the child would surely take the millet. If one were to show an ignorant person the jade disc of the He family [龢氏之璧] and a hundred pieces of gold, the ignorant man would surely take the gold. If one were to show a worthy man a jade [annulus] of the He family and the most perfect teachings concerning the Dao and its Power, the worthy man would surely take the teachings. The more refined one's knowledge, the more refined one's choices. The cruder one's knowledge, the cruder one's choices. (Chapter 10)" The preceding Lüshi Chunqiu story similarly concerns "A rustic from Song found a jade while plowing and presented it to the Director of the City Walls, [who refused it and explained] "You regard jade as a treasure, but I regard not accepting it as a treasure."

The c. 3rd–1st century BCE Chuci (Songs of Chu) poetry anthology mentions the story of Bian He several times. "Disgust with the World" includes him in a context of rulers who rejected loyal people, "And I grieve, too, for Bian He, the man of Chu [悲楚人之和氏兮] / The jade he presented was judged worthless stone [獻寶玉以為石] / Both King Li and King Wu refused to examine it / And he ended with both his feet cut off for his pains." "Reckless Remonstrance" says, "Bian He clasps his block of jade and weeps tears of blood [和抱璞而泣血兮] / Where can he find a craftsman good enough to shape it?" "Lament for the Worthy" includes Jing He in a list of loyal retainers who were mistreated, "Or Shen Sheng of Jin who met a hapless end / Or Jing He who wept tears of blood [荊和氏之泣血] / Or Shen Xu of Wu who had his eyes gouged out."

Two contexts in the c. 139 BCE Huananzi (quoted above) refer to Mr. Bian's (卞氏) jade annulus and to Mr. He (和氏) crying bloody tears. "If you understand the proper sequence of things, you will be calm. Now when it came to giving away Mr. Bian's jade annulus [卞氏之璧], when he had not yet obtained it, [Mr. Bian] was ahead. When he pleaded to present it and would not give up despite his indignation, he was behind." (Chapter 14.56) "Thus when your [views] tally with what is essential, you will value what is true and [give] equal [consideration to] the present and the ancient. If you do not have the means to heed persuasions, then you will value what has come down from the past, [simply] because it is remote. This is why [Bian] He [和氏] cried so hard that he bled at the foot of Mount Jing." (Chapter 19.7).

Heshibi with other treasures
The Marquis of Sui's pearl is commonly used with the Heshibi, for example, the Shiji lists "the treasures of Sui and He [隨和之寶] among Qin Shi Huangdi's imported valuables.

The c. 4th to 2nd centuries BCE Mozi ([Sayings of] Mozi) mentions them with the legendary Nine Tripod Cauldrons, namely, a set of Chinese ritual bronze ding "tripod cauldrons", said to have been cast by mythical Yu the Great after controlling the Great Flood. In response to criticism from his disciple Wu Mazi (巫馬子) that "To leave contemporaries alone and to praise the early kings is to praise rotten bones", Mozi (c. 470–391 BCE) explains how a state's yi ("righteousness; justice") is more important than the ritual "efficacy" (lì, 利 "benefit; profit") of its treasures. "The jade of Ho [和氏之璧], the pearl of Duke Sui, and the nine tings—these are what the feudal lords value as excellent treasures. Can they enrich the country, multiply the people, put the government in order, and place the state in safety? Of course they cannot. Excellent treasures are to be valued for their efficacy. Now since the jade of Ho, the pearl of Duke Sui, and the nine tings cannot benefit men, then they are not the excellent treasures in the world. On the other hand, if righteousness is employed in the government of the state the population will be increased, the government will be in order, and the state will be secure. The excellent treasures are to be valued for their efficacy. Now righteousness can benefit men. So then righteousness is the excellent treasure of the world. (Chapger 11)"

The 3rd-century Hanfeizi Jie Lao (解老, "Explanations of Laozi") chapter uses He's jade annulus and Sui's pearl in order to differentiate between lǐ (禮, "ritual; ceremony; good form; propriety") and wén (文, "ornamentation; embellishment; elaboration; cultured"). "Propriety is the mode expressive of feelings. Embellishment is the decoration of qualities. Indeed, the superior man takes the inner feelings but leaves the outer looks, likes the inner qualities but hates the outer decorations. Who judges inner feelings by outer looks, finds the feelings bad. Who judges inner qualities by outer decorations, finds the inner qualities rotten. How can I prove this? The jade of Pien Ho was not decorated with the five bright colours [和氏之璧不飾以五采]. The bead of Marquis Sui was not decorated with yellow gold. Their qualities are so good that nothing is fit to decorate them. Verily, anything that functions only after being decorated must have poor qualities. For this reason, between father and son propriety is simple and not brilliant. Hence the saying: “Propriety is superficial semblance only.”"

The c. 3rd–1st century BCE Chuci anthology collectively refers to Marquis Sui's pearl and Bian He's jade annulus as Sui He (隨和), and with the Tai'e sword. The "Quenching the Light" poem says, "Shards and stones are prized as jewels / Sui and He rejected [捐棄隨和] / The leaden knife is praised for sharpness / Tai E discarded as blunt."

King Liu An's c. 139 BCE Huainanzi (Philosophers of Huainan) philosophical compendium has five occurrences of the Heshibi, three with the Marquis of Sui's pearl, and one with the Xiahou clan's jade.

The "Surveying Obscurities" chapter figuratively uses these legendary gems as a simile for someone who has attained the Tiandao (天道, Way of Heaven), "It is like the pearl of Marquis Sui [隨侯之珠] / or the jade annulus of Mr. He [和氏之璧] / Those who achieved it became rich / those who lost it became poor." (Chapter 6.3). "A Mountain of Persuasions" chapter mentions the treasures of Mr. He and Marquis Sui twice. The former explains the philosophical essence of Chinese jade. "When a piece of jade is moistened, it looks bright. [When struck], its sound is slow and harmonious. How expansive are its aspects! With no interior or exterior, it does not conceal its flaws or imperfections. Close up, it looks glossy; from a distance, it shines brightly. It reflects like a mirror revealing the pupil of your eye. Subtly it picks up the tip of an autumn hair. It brightly illuminates the dark and obscure. Thus the jade [annulus] of Mr. He [和氏之璧] and the pearl of the marquis of Sui [隨侯之珠] emerged from the essence of a mountain and a spring. When the Superior Man wears them, he complies with their purity and secures his repose. When lords and kings treasure them, they rectify the world. (Chapter 16.19)" The latter compares true understanding with wealth, "Acquiring an army of ten thousand men does not compare to hearing one word that is apposite / acquiring the pearl of the marquis of Sui [隨侯之珠] does not compare to understanding from whence events arise / Acquiring the jade annulus of Mr. Gua [咼氏之璧] does not compare to understanding where events will lead." (Chapter 16.105)

The Huainanzi mentions the Heshibi along with the Xiahou clan's semi-circular jade. "As for [ritual emblems like] the jade annulus of Mr. He [咼氏之璧] and the jade half-annulus of the Xiahou clan [夏后之璜]," if [courtiers] bow courteously and advance with them, they create harmony and amity. [But] at night because of thieves, they create resentment. Such is the difference between the right time and the wrong time." (Chapter 16.90)

Other regalia
Many Chinese classics refer to Bian He's jade annulus in context with other legendary gems, jades, and swords constituting the ceremonial regalia of ancient Chinese states. The most common example is Marquis of Sui's pearl, a legendary glow-in-the-dark gemstone given to the marquis by a grateful snake whose life he saved.

Other luminous gemstones frequently mentioned with the Heshibi are the Yeguangzhibi (夜光之璧, "night-shining jade annulus") and the Míngyuèzhīzhū (明月之珠, "bright-/luminous-moon pearl"). These ancient Chinese names were sufficiently well known to have been applied to foreign gemstones in the earliest accounts of Daqin (the Roman Empire). "The Kingdom of Daqin" section of the 5th-century Book of the Later Han, which was largely based on Ban Yong's report presented to Emperor An of Han in around 125, lists precious Roman trade goods including "luminous jade [夜光璧]" and "bright moon pearls [明月珠]".

The Heshibi is mentioned in the Huainanzi with the Xiahou clan's semi-circular jade pendant: Xiahoushi zhi huang (夏后氏之璜), which was a jewel supposedly included in the ducal regalia of Lu state. Xiàhòu (夏后) is a Chinese compound surname from the Spring and Autumn period (771–476 BCE), and the huáng (璜, "semi-circular jade pendant") was anciently used for ritual purposes or as a belt ornament.

Tai'e or Tai'a (太阿) is the name of a famous Spring and Autumn period iron sword that is usually considered one of the ten legendary swords of China. The legendary bladesmith Ou Yezi made three swords for King Goujian of Yue, named Tài'ē (泰阿), Lóngyuān (龍渊), and Gōngbù (工布).

title: Mr. He's jade


text:
Pituophis catenifer

 * Common name: Pacific gopher snake, coast gopher snake, western gopher snake, more.

Pituophis catenifer is a species of nonvenomous colubrid snake endemic to North America. Nine subspecies are currently recognized, including the nominotypical subspecies, Pituophis catenifer catenifer, described here. This snake is often mistaken for the prairie rattlesnake, but can be easily distinguished from a rattlesnake by the lack of black and white banding on its tail and by the shape of its head, which is narrower than a rattlesnake's.

Etymology
The specific name, catenifer, is Latin for "chain-bearing", referring to the dorsal color pattern.

Description
Adults are 36-84 in (91–213 cm) in length. Dorsally, they are yellowish or pale brown, with a series of large, dark brown or black blotches, and smaller, dark spots on the sides. Ventrally, they are yellowish, either uniform or with brown markings. They also come in several morphs depending on the subspecies.

Behavior
The gopher snake has a unique defensive mechanism, in which it puffs up its body and curls itself into the classic strike pose of a rattlesnake. However, rather than delivering an open-mouthed strike, the gopher snake often strikes with a closed mouth, using its blunt nose to warn off possible predators. Additionally, gopher snakes vibrate their tails in a manner similar to rattlesnakes. One paper found that gopher snakes on islands lacking rattlesnakes vibrate their tails for shorter amounts of time than gopher snakes in mainland California, which is home to numerous rattlesnake species. This suggests that gopher snake tail vibration may in fact be rattlesnake mimicry since the behavior appears to be breaking down in areas without rattlesnakes, perhaps because predators on these islands have no reason to evolve to avoid tail-vibrating snakes (rattlesnakes are venomous, gopher snakes are not).

Life expectancy
Wild gopher snakes typically live 12 to 15 years, but the oldest captive recorded lived over 33 years.

Common names
Common names for this species, or its several subspecies, are: Pacific gopher snake, Henry snake, coast gopher snake, bullsnake, Churchill's bullsnake, Oregon bullsnake, Pacific pine snake, western bullsnake, western gopher snake, Sonoran gopher snake, western pine snake, great basin gopher snake, blow snake, and yellow gopher snake.

Subspecies
As of 2022, there is largely agreement on the recognition of six subspecies occurring in Canada, USA, and mainland Mexico. However, there is not agreement among taxonomist on status of populations from Baja California and adjacent islands. The Cape gophersnake (Pituophis catenifer vertebralis) and Central Baja California gophersnake (Pituophis catenifer bimaris) are recognized by some as single species with no subspecies Pituophis vertebralis, or as a species with two subspecies Pituophis v. vertebralis and P. v. bimaris by others. Other subspecies including the Coronado Island gophersnake (Pituophis catenifer coronalis) and San Martin Island gophersnake (Pituophis catenifer fulginatus) are of questionable validity.

title: Pituophis catenifer


text:
Carlos Zárate vs. Alfonso Zamora

The boxing fight between Mexicans Carlos Zárate and Alfonso Zamora, respectively the WBC and WBA World Bantamweight titleholders, was known as The Battle of the Z Boys. Held in Inglewood, California, on April 23, 1977, the bout was not recognized as a unification fight by either of the sanctioning bodies without any specific reason given for withholding the sanction. As it turned out, the fight was one of the most-anticipated 10-round fights in history among boxing fans.

Before the fight
Alfonso Zamora was the first one of the so-called "Z boys" to become a world champion, when he knocked out Soo Hwan Hong in four rounds on March 14, 1975, in Inglewood. He defended his title three times before Zarate had his first world title shot; one of his challengers was Eusebio Pedroza, the future WBA world Featherweight champion, whom Zamora defeated by knockout in two rounds in Tijuana on April 3, 1976.

Zarate, for his part, won the WBC world title one year and two months after Zamora became WBA world champion, on May 8, 1976, when he defeated defending champion Rodolfo Martinez by a ninth round knockout in Inglewood.

Zarate and Zamora were both once trained by the same man, Arturo Hernandez. But Hernandez sold Zamora's contract to his father, Alfonso Zamora Sr., and Mr. Zamora Sr. took this as a form of disrespect towards him and his son. Ever since, Zarate and Zamora's managerial teams carried on a war of words that was not missed by the Latin American sports media.

Zarate had a record of 45–0 with 44 knockouts, and Zamora was 29-0, with 29 knockouts. Their combined record of 74–0 with 73 knockouts arguably made for one of the most power-punch-packed matchups in boxing history. Fans in Mexico and the rest of Latin America were captivated by the announcement of the fight. The fact that both the WBA and WBC refused to recognize it as a world championship bout did little, if anything, to cool the ardor of enthusiastic boxing fans.

The fight
The Los Angeles police department knew from experience, (such as the 1969 fight between Lionel Rose and Chucho Castillo, which was fought in Inglewood, and, much later on, the first bout between Riddick Bowe and Andrzej Gołota) that boxing fights can end up in riots. Because of this, they sent an anti-riot squad to the Inglewood Forum on the day of the event.

The anti-riot team would have to jump into the ring when, 52 seconds into the fight, an apparently drunk fan jumped into it with the apparent intention of attacking one of the combatants. The man did not reach any of the night's main stars, however, because five policemen were able to stop him, immediately taking him out of the arena. Zamora and Zarate began slugging right after that incident, with Zamora winning the first round on the judge's scorecards by throwing more punches than Zarate.

In the second round, Zamora appeared hurt after a right-and-left combination by Zarate, but he roared back to hit Zarate with a right-and-left combination of his own later in that round.

Round three was filled with combinations from both fighters. Zarate, however, began to connect with long jabs and short-range hooks. Zamora began to throw wide punches and seemed spent. He suffered a knockdown towards the end of the round.

By round four, Zarate looked stronger and fresher than Zamora. He kept attacking the WBA champion, who tried in vain to answer. Early in the round, Zarate dropped Zamora twice, and Alfonzo Zamora Sr. threw in the towel, giving Zarate a fourth-round knockout victory.

Aftermath
Immediately after the fight was over, Alfonso Zamora Sr. and Arturo Hernandez had a fight of their own, and the anti-riot police once again intervened, putting a stop to the fight between Zarate and Zamora's trainers.

Zarate went on to lose to Wilfredo Gómez for Gómez's WBC World Jr. Featherweight championship. He defended his WBC World Bantamweight title five more times before losing it on June 3, 1979, to Lupe Pintor by a 15-round split decision in Las Vegas, Nevada. Admiration towards Zarate by boxing fans grew considerably after he beat Zamora. Zarate retired after losing to Pintor, but had a mildly successful comeback during the middle 1980s, going as far as challenging Jeff Fenech for the WBC World Jr. Featherweight championship on October 16, 1987, in Sydney, Australia.

Zamora's popularity was not diminished after losing to Zarate, but his self-esteem was. Zamora lost his WBA World Bantamweight title in his very next fight, being knocked out in ten rounds by Panamanian Jorge Luján on November 19 in Los Angeles. He only won four of his last eight bouts, retiring before the 1970s were over. A proposed "super-fight" against Wilfredo Gómez was mentioned early in 1983, but Zamora did not accept, as he had permanently retired from boxing.

title: Carlos Zárate vs. Alfonso Zamora


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad

 This page is an archive of the proposed deletion of the article below. Further comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or on a Votes for Undeletion nomination). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result of the debate was Delete. R e  dwolf24  (talk) 01:07, 29 August 2005 (UTC)

Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad
A college kid. He is a friend of mine but I don't think he warrants an entry into Wikipedia. __earth 12:21, August 22, 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep - gets over 14,000 Google hits. - ulayiti (talk)  19:21, 22 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Changed vote to delete after reading comment by Sdedeo below. I should have looked more carefully. - ulayiti (talk)  20:45, 22 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. Ulayti, you may want to regoogle and reconsider your vote. Note that google actually only displays 54 results ; the rest for the 14,000 articles are duplicates. Sdedeo 20:40, 22 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Keep, 54 google hits is over 1/3 of wikipedia's 184 . Kappa 22:43, 22 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Comment. Woah... I just googled myself and I get 174 results. Should I be on wikipedia too? Weird google! Sdedeo 02:31, 23 August 2005 (UTC)
 * I think we need a bit more information before we can answer that. Kappa 02:38, 23 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Whatever, man, I am almost as famous as wikipedia! Don't take that away from me! Sdedeo 02:48, 23 August 2005 (UTC)
 * I get 184... I'm more famous than you! :) - ulayiti (talk)  07:06, 23 August 2005 (UTC)
 * delete does my vote count? __earth 08:33, August 23, 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete, non-notable. Earth, your vote should count; you've been participating in Wikipedia for quite a while and have over 1200 article edits. Of course, an unethical or sloppy admin could decide to ignore your vote.  But on the whole, most admins act in good faith. Nandesuka 12:49, 23 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete nn. Dottore So 17:53, 23 August 2005 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in an undeletion request). No further edits should be made to this page.


text: User talk:62.131.218.197

title: User talk:62.131.218.197


text:
Maitland Ward

Ashley Maitland Welkos (born February 3, 1977), known professionally as Maitland Ward, is an American actress and model. She made her acting debut as Jessica Forrester on the CBS soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful (1994–1996). Continuing to appear in film and television through the mid-2000s, she came to further prominence for playing Rachel McGuire on the sixth and seventh seasons of the ABC sitcom Boy Meets World (1998–2000). After retiring from mainstream acting in 2007, Ward began performing in pornographic films in 2019.

Acting career
Ward starred as Jessica Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful, where she appeared from 1994 to 1996. She landed that role, which was her first acting role, when she was 16 and still a junior in high school. Ward had guest-starring roles on USA High and the seventh season of ABC's Home Improvement; and co-starred with Jay Thomas and Mario Lopez in the 1997 television film Killing Mr. Griffin.

Her character of Rachel McGuire was added to Boy Meets World in 1998, at the beginning of the sixth season, as a main cast member. This role lasted until the series ended in 2000. After Ward's stint on Boy Meets World, she appeared in the independent film Dish Dogs, a romantic comedy in which she co-stars with Brian Dennehy, Matthew Lillard and Sean Astin. Later, she appeared in the 2004 comedy film White Chicks with Shawn and Marlon Wayans.

Cosplay and social media
After retiring from mainstream acting, Ward began engaging in cosplay and making appearances at various comics conventions. Her first cosplay was a slave Princess Leia outfit; she was given the idea by photographers that she had worked with on the red carpet. She also appeared as Jessica 6 from Logan's Run and as Red Sonja. In recent years, she has also made comics-convention appearances wearing only body paint.

Adult film career
Beginning in mid-2013, Ward began posting nude and topless photographs of herself on Snapchat and Instagram, gaining a large following on both sites. In April 2016, she posted her first nude pictures to social media of her being body-painted for Luciano Paesani for a Los Angeles exhibition called "Living Art". In 2019, she announced on Instagram that she would be performing in an adult film entitled Drive, a move described by In Touch Weekly as a "drastic career-shift". Ward received support from former Boy Meets World co-star Trina McGee.

In May 2019, Ward signed with adult talent agency Society 15. She stated that she had been approached by adult actress and director Kayden Kross and was "just floored" by the proposition of doing adult films. She told In Touch Weekly, "It's been an evolution. It's all been my authentic journey because everything that I have done along the way is something I wanted to explore and do. I just did it publicly for my fans, that is the exhibitionist style of me." Drive was released online at the website Deeper.com on September 30, 2019.

Of her decision, Ward stated that she feared being typecast and believed that if she became a porn actress, new fans would have an opportunity to discover her. Upon Drive's release, Ward promised "more taboo stuff to come", and she subsequently appeared in multiple additional porn scenes released on Deeper.com. She has said that she did not perceive any stigma associated with being a pornographic actress, and that she regards her transition into adult films as a savvy business move.

Personal life
A native of Long Beach, California, Ward married real estate agent Terry Baxter on October 21, 2006. The couple met on a set. After getting married, Baxter and Ward moved to New York, where they still live. While they were there, Ward studied writing and screenwriting at New York University.

In 2022, Atria Books published her autobiography, Rated X: How Porn Liberated Me from Hollywood (1st. Ed., September, 2022).

Awards and nominations

 * Soap Opera Digest Awards
 * 1995: Nominated, Outstanding Female Newcomer – The Bold and the Beautiful
 * Young Artist Awards
 * 1995: Won, Best Performance by a Youth Actress in a Daytime Series – The Bold and the Beautiful
 * 1996: Nominated, Best Performance by a Youth Actress in a Daytime Series – The Bold and the Beautiful
 * AVN Awards
 * 2020: Won, Best Supporting Actress – Drive
 * 2020: Won, Best Three-Way Sex Scene (G/G/B) – Drive
 * 2020: Won, Fan Award - Favorite Camming Cosplayer
 * 2021: Won, Best Actress – Muse
 * 2021: Won, Best Boy/Girl Sex Scene – Higher Power
 * 2023: Won, Best Leading Actress – Drift
 * 2023: Won, Mainstream Venture of the Year
 * 2024: Won, Best Actress - Featurette – My DP 6, Casting Couch
 * XBIZ Awards
 * 2020: Won, Crossover Star of the Year
 * 2020: Won, Best Actress - Feature Movie – Drive
 * 2020: Won, Best Sex Scene - Feature Movie – Drive
 * 2020: Nominated, Best New Starlet
 * 2021: Won, Best Acting - Lead – Muse
 * 2021: Won, Best Sex Scene - Feature Movie – Muse
 * 2022: Won, Performer of the Year
 * 2022: Won, Best Acting - Lead – Muse 2
 * 2023: Won, Best Sex Scene - Feature Movie – Drift
 * NightMoves Awards
 * 2020: Won, Best Actress (Editor's Choice)
 * XRCO Awards
 * 2021: Won, Best Actress – Muse
 * 2022: Won, Best Actress – Muse 2
 * 2023: Won, Best Actress – Drift
 * XCritic Awards
 * 2021: Won, Best Actress – Muse
 * 2022: Won, Best Actress – Muse 2

title: Maitland Ward


text:
Niccolò Ammaniti

Niccolò Ammaniti is an Italian writer, winner of the Premio Strega in 2007 for As God Commands (also published under the title The Crossroads). He became noted in 2001 with the publication of I'm Not Scared (Io non ho paura), a novel which was later made into a movie directed by Gabriele Salvatores.

Biography
Niccolò Ammaniti was born in Rome on 25 September 1966. He studied Biological Sciences at university, and though he did not complete his degree, his first novel, Branchie (published by Ediesse in 1994, and then by Einaudi in 1997), drew from his unfinished dissertation. In 1999, Branchie was adapted into a movie with the same title. In 1995, Ammaniti and his father Massimo published the essay Nel nome del figlio. In 1996, he appeared with his sister in the low-budget movie Growing Artichokes in Mimongo.

A short novel written with Luisa Brancaccio for the anthology Gioventù Cannibale edited by Daniele Brolli came out in 1996, as did a collection of short stories, Fango. Fango was shortlisted as a finalist work at the 1997 Premio Nazionale di Narrativa Bergamo. In 1999, Ammaniti published the novel Steal You Away (Ti prendo e ti porto via), followed by the 2001 I'm Not Scared (Io non ho paura), which won the 2001 Viareggio Prize and was adapted into a film directed by Gabriele Salvatores in 2003.

In 2006, he published As God Commands (Come Dio comanda), which won the Strega Prize. The novel was adapted into a movie, once again directed by Gabriele Salvatores. In 2009, he published Let the Games Begin (Che la festa cominci), and in 2010 Me and You (Io e te), which was later adapted into a movie directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. The script, co-written by Bertolucci, Ammaniti, and others, was nominated for Best Screenplay at the 2013 David di Donatello awards and at the 2013 Italian Golden Globe.

In 2015, he published the novel Anna, which six years later was adapted into a TV show aired on Sky Italia and directed by Ammanity himself. His directorial debut came in 2017 with the TV series The Miracle, released one year later, a project he both created and co-directed alongside Francesco Munzi and Lucio Pellegrini. In 2023, eight years since his last novel, he published La vita intima, winning the Viareggio Prize again, 22 years after his initial recognition with I'm Not Scared.

title: Niccolò Ammaniti


text:
Talk:Scene

Theatre
... is missing.... It's much older than filolm and tv, and yet the art where the term "scene" was first introduced. 217.243.215.134 (talk) 18:59, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Ocean Colour Scene
Does Ocean Colour Scene REALLY need to be on this disambiguation page? 22:36, 8 June 2008 (UTC)
 * I am wondering the same thing. Remove?--DustWolf (talk) 22:21, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

Scene Subculture
Is there a page on the Scene Subculture? Coocooforcocopuffs 01:40, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

That that I have found. As far as I can tell there is no ONE subculture refered to as the scene, but rather the word Scene is itself used to describe different subcultures. I mentioned that a bit in the article Scene (sociology) Corrupt one 02:36, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

hey it didn't occur to me that the scene was a subculture before it became popular! i would speculate that it has origins in rave music becoming too violent/mainstream/whatever so that people who went raves to socialize started to form around the indie/alternative/hardcore music they liked and being ravers that was not music especially palatable to musicians.

but i wouldn't write that in the page because it's just speculation.

We really should have an article on this. I suggest under "Scenesters" :D —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.113.85.225 (talk) 23:11, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Actually, you are wrong. A scene is NOT a larval form of a subculture, although it may cause some to grow and evolve. I put a section up a while back, but it got kicked off. I tried other ways and now have a subpage on my user account for it. Check it out, and see what you think Corrupt one 23:37, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

I do not understand why there is no page. And yes, there is a subculture called Scene. I do not understand why it is so difficult for people to understand this. Maybe it is not as well known or "sold out" as emo, but it definitely exists because for one, I am a scene kid. I say, we fight for a page on it. There are pages on emo, punk, mod, and teddy boy subcultures, but not Scene. Scene is an adaption of EMO fashion, but the lifestyle is more original and related to punk or indie than emo itself. Scene can be disambiguated, but I do know that it also refers to a very, very popular youth subculture. 216.152.24.74 (talk) 02:31, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

 * It was deleted at Articles for deletion/Scene (youth subculture) for lack of reliable sources. What is left of the article currently lives on a section at 2000s_in_fashion. --Enric Naval (talk) 19:30, 2 December 2008 (UTC)
 * And I too have a subpage at User:Graeme Bartlett/sandbox3. When it is up to standard we can put it in article space. The main problem is the reliable sources.  Also see User:Corrupt one/Scene (sociology) (referred to above), and Scene (community). Improvements are welcome. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 20:20, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

The Scene (community) article was deleted twice because it was patent nonsense. This means that a summary of it and a wikilink to it are patent nonsense too and must be deleted. Devil Master (talk) 19:37, 5 July 2009 (UTC)

Scenes as a varriation of community of interest
I tried to add an article called Scenes (sociology) about groups of people who are associated by vague common interests and other things. It is now just a subpage on my User account. Come And have a look at User:Corrupt one/Scene (sociology). Hopefully you can do something with it. Corrupt one 23:32, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

title: Talk:Scene


text:
Anders Andersen (Norway)

Anders Andersen (22 October 1846 – 1 September 1931) was a sawmill worker who participated in forming the Norwegian Labour Party.

Anders Andersen was born just outside Hønefoss in Ringerike, Norway. Around 1868, he moved to Arendal  in Aust-Agder and lived there for 20 years. He was member of a recently founded local labour group called Samhold when he somewhat coincidentally became the first party leader in 1887. The labour group Samhold soon after ceased to exist due to local circumstances and it was not represented at the next party congress.

In 1889, Andersen moved from Arendal and settled at Røyken in Buskerud where he worked as a farm manager. He continued to be active in the labor movement, as a member of the municipal council and trade unionist. Not even among his colleagues in Røyken was it commonly known that he had been the first leader of the Labour Party. Anders Andersen died in 1931 near 85 years of age. After his death, the Labour Party paid for a headstone on his grave. The memorial has later been moved to Kistefos museum at Jevnaker in Oppland. He is honored each year on 1 May.

title: Anders Andersen (Norway)


text:
Operation Tupac

Operation Tupac is the codename of a military-intelligence contingency program that was run in the 1980s by Pakistan's main intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). It has a three-part action plan to provide covert support to anti-India separatists and militants in the insurgency in Indan-administered Jammu and Kashmir. The program was authorized and initiated in 1988 by the order of the then-President of Pakistan, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. It has since been diminished since the Early 2000s by the later Military Dictator and President of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf.

Background
The codename of the program is derived from the name of Túpac Amaru II, an 18th-century Peruvian revolutionary who led a large Andean uprising against Spanish colonial rule in Peru. The program is thought to be actively ongoing as the ISI has maintained its support for Kashmiri separatists, Islamists and other ideological militants in their fight against the Indian administration in Jammu and Kashmir.

After the Mujahideen victory against the Soviet Union occupation in Afghanistan, Mujahideen fighters, under the Operation Tupac with the aid of Pakistan, slowly infiltrated Kashmir with the goal of spreading radical Islamist ideology to wage jihad in Jammu and Kashmir.

While all Kashmiri separatist groups received funding and support, organizations that espoused an explicit pro-Pakistan stance in the Kashmir conflict were more heavily favoured by the Pakistani state. Under this program, the ISI helped create six separatist militant groups in Indian-administered Kashmir, including Lashkar-e-Taiba,. American intelligence officials have speculated that the ISI has continued to provide protection, support and intelligence to Lashkar-e-Taiba, among other militant groups in the region.

Scope and objectives of the program
The primary objectives of Pakistan's Operation Tupac upon its execution were:

 * to provide arms support and finance to separatists, militants and Islamists in India.
 * to trigger a Balkanization of India.
 * to utilize the spy network to act as an instrument of sabotage.
 * to exploit porous borders with Nepal and Bangladesh, Myanmar to set up bases and train anti-india militants for conduct operations against india.
 * to install sleeper cells in India and its neighbour countries.

ISI role
The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), intelligence agency of Pakistan has been involved in running military intelligence programs in India, with one of the subsections of its Joint Intelligence Bureau (JIB) department devoted to perform various operations in India. The Joint Signal Intelligence Bureau (JSIB) department has also been involved in providing communications support to Pakistani agents operating in regions of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir of India. The Joint Intelligence North section of the Joint Counter-Intelligence Bureau (JCIB) wing deals particularly with India. In the 1950s the ISI's Covert Action Division was alleged for supplied arms to insurgents in Northeast India.

In 2011, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) sponsors and oversees militancy in Kashmir.

Former Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf in Oct 2014 said during TV interview, "We have source (in Kashmir) besides the (Pakistan) army...People in Kashmir are fighting against (India). We just need to incite them."

In 2019, Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan publicly discouraged Pakistani people from going to Kashmir to do a jihad. People who went to Kashmir will do an "injustice to the Kashmiri people". Indian commentator Luv Puri claims most of the Pakistani militants who had crossed the border over the years and were caught by the Indian security forces were found to belong to the Punjab province of Pakistan.

India has also accused the ISI of reinvigorating separatism and insurgencies in the country via support to pro-Khalistan militant groups such as the International Sikh Youth Federation (ISYF), in order to destabilize India. A report by India's Intelligence Bureau (IB) indicated that ISI was "desperately trying to revive Sikh" militant activity in India. The ISI is also allegedly active in printing and supplying counterfeit Indian rupee notes.

title: Operation Tupac


text:
Godfrey III, Count of Louvain

Godfrey III (Gottfried, Godfried; c. 1142 – 21 August 1190) was count of Louvain (or Leuven), landgrave of Brabant, margrave of Antwerp, and duke of Lower Lorraine (as Godfrey VIII) from 1142 to his death.

Origins
Godfrey was the son of Godfrey II and Luitgarde of Sulzbach. He was still an infant at his succession (therefore called dux in cunis) of which a few Brabantian vassals sought to take advantage to become independent of the duke (Wars of Grimbergen, 1141–1159).

Career
On 30 March 1147, Godfrey was present at the coronation of Henry Berengar, son of Conrad III of Germany, in Aachen. When Conrad left on Crusade, war began anew in 1148. Peace was elusive until the election of Conrad's successor, Frederick Barbarossa. By marriage to Margaret, daughter of Henry II of Limburg, Godfrey united two powerful and antagonistic houses in the region.

In 1159 Godfrey ended the war with the Berthout, lords of Grimbergen, by burning their impressive castle at Grimbergen. In 1171, Godfrey was at war with Hainaut, but was defeated. In 1172, he bought the County of Aarschot from its wayward count Godfried III, which in future generations would give rise to the dynasty of the dukes of Aarschot that remain to this day. In 1179, he gave his son Henry in marriage to a niece of Philip of Alsace, Count of Flanders.

Between 1182 and 1184 Godfrey went on a Jerusalem campaign. In the interim, Barbarossa granted Henry the title "Duke of Brabant". Godfrey died in 1190, on 10 or 21 August. He left an increased territory and built the fortress of Nedelaer (near Vilvoorde). The ducal title was transmitted to his son at the Diet of Schwäbisch Hall (September 1190).

Marriages and children
Godfrey married twice:
 * Firstly, to Margaret of Limbourg, daughter of Henry II, Duke of Limburg, in 1158, by whom he had two children:
 * Henry I, Duke of Brabant (1165 – 5 September 1235). Henry was installed in 1180 as duke of Lower Lorraine until 1222. He was made count of Louvain in 1183, until 1198. He was installed as Duke of Brabant in 1191.
 * Albert de Louvain (1166 – 24 November 1192). Albert was elected Bishop of Louvain (Liege) in 1191, but assassinated in Reims in 1192.
 * Secondly, Godfrey married Imagina of Loon, daughter of Louis I, Count of Loon, by whom he had two children:
 * William of Louvain, Lord of Perwez en Ruysbroek. He married Marie of Orbais, daughter of Enguerrand of Orbais.
 * Godfrey of Louvain (d. 1226), who went to England in 1196 and became Senechal of the Honour of Eye. He married Alice de Hastings, daughter and heiress of Robert de Hastings (d. c. 1190), feudal baron of Little Easton in Essex, by whom he had:
 * Matthew de Lovaine, Lord of Little Easton, Seneschal of the Honour of Eye (b. about 1202 in Little Easton – d. 1 June 1258 in Little Easton)

title: Godfrey III, Count of Louvain


text:
User:Xiong/Table

Source code

Appearance

title: User:Xiong/Table


text: Category:Saturniidae

title: Category:Saturniidae


text:
Birds of Prey (Drake novel)

Birds of Prey is a novel by science fiction / fantasy author David Drake, first published in 1984. It is related as a historical novel set in the Late Roman Empire, in the second half of the Third Century. There is a science-fictional twist to the story, starting with hints of a time warp on the very first page and slowly revealing to the reader—and the protagonist—what is really going on behind the scenes. The story is told in a very vivid style, suggestive of cinematography.

Plot summary
The novel relates an episode in the life of Aulus Perennius, a middle-aged operative of the Bureau of Imperial Affairs, an agency which has evolved into an intelligence service over the life of the Empire. He is accompanied by his protégé Gaius, a dashing young cavalry officer with an unfortunate tendency to act without thinking, and an odd figure named Calvus, tall, slim, bald, incredibly strong, and rather clueless. (The story hints that Gaius is Aulus' biological son, but never makes a clear statement on the matter.)

At the beginning of the story Aulus' own mentor, head of the Bureau of Imperial Affairs, has summoned him back to Rome on a matter urgent enough to pull him out of a deep-cover operation in Palmyra just as it was coming to its critical phase. (This scene is a bit reminiscent of James Bond being summoned by his own boss for a new assignment). At the direct behest of the emperor the Bureau has been ordered to provide Calvus with any sort of support requested, and Calvus has asked only for the services of the Bureau's best agent—requesting Aulus by name.

Invoking the authority of the Bureau, Aulus orders an ancient Liburnian out of dry-dock storage to be outfitted for a trip to Cilicia in southern Anatolia, technically a part of the Roman Empire but at that time under the control of Odenath, to provide some unspecified service for Calvus. En route they are beset by pirates and other parties; the story of the journey takes up the greater part of the book. (In a sea battle with pirates, the Romans face a desperate plight due to the authorities in Rome having failed to provide an adequate Marine contingent; capture by brutal Gothic and Herulian raiders; the apparent warm hospitality offered by an isolated Christian community turns out to mask a virulently bloodthirsty, fanatic sect; a giant, predatory Allosaurus, displaced from the distant past, rampages in the countryside...)

Calvus, though taken for a male, is actually a female (of sorts) sent back from the far distant future to destroy the seed creche or "brood chamber" of monstrous aliens—intelligent social insects—who, by her time, have multiplied into billions, emerged from their underground creches, and are in the process of destroying the human race. As a desperate measure a set of six mutually telepathic sisters, including Calvus, are specially bred to be sent on the mission together. (The book hints that the future human race has evolved to be somewhat different from ourselves, and that the six sterile sisters—akin to worker ants or bees—are uncommon only in their preparation for this particular mission; there is a suggestion that, waging an existential struggle against social insects, future humanity was driven to emulate these enemies...)

Calvus is the only one of the siblings to arrive at the proper time in the past; there are strong hints that the presence of a handful of extinct creatures such as dinosaurs and sabre-toothed cats in Aulus' time are a side effect of the unintentional displacement of the other siblings into the far distant past.

The time-travel technology did not allow Calvus to take any weapons or other gadgets along, so she herself serves as the weapon. She has a limited ability to influence the thoughts of humans other than her sisters—which is how she induced the emperor to issue orders for the Bureau's cooperation—and at the end of the story she destroys the creche by self-destructing as a nuclear or thermal bomb. Before then, through her association with Aulus and separation from her sisters, she learns to experience her humanity almost in the way ordinary humans do.

Characters

 * Aulus Perennius: a middle-aged Roman spy, ace agent of the Bureau of Imperial Affairs
 * Gaius: a young cavalry officer, Perennius' protégé, and of whom a startling revelation is made at the book's very end
 * Marcus Optatious Navigatus: Director of the Bureau of Imperial Affairs, like his agent totally dedicated to the crumbling Empire
 * Calvus: the mysterious man who initiates the perilous mission, and who turns out to be female
 * Sestius: a Roman centurion, brave and dedicated companion on a dangerous quest—though he planned to eventually desert
 * Sabellia: a fierce, knife-carrying Gallic woman, able to make men who assault her deeply regret their act
 * Father Ramphion: seemingly a paragon of Christian virtue, but those who learn the truth about him usually do not survive to tell the tale
 * Julia: a Seeress, Aulus' long-lost beloved, who might have died to save him, and on whom he might have begotten a son he never knew
 * The Guardians: six highly intelligent insects, bearing energy weapons and constituting a mortal threat to humanity

Major themes
The book to some extent explores the themes of social order, the client-patron relationship, gender roles, and time travel, but for the most part is a tale of action and adventure rather than a vehicle for philosophical musings.

The story takes place in the midst of the Roman Empire's Third Century Crisis. The Empire is in a very bad shape: Emperors replace each other rapidly, usually by civil war or coup d'état; the current Emperor, Gallienus, has effective power only in Italy and parts of North Africa; to the west, the rival Emperor Postumus rules Gaul, while to the east Palmyra has become an effectively independent power and encroaches on Imperial territory; the urban population bursts out into frequent riots; the Imperial borders are broken, with Germanic Barbarians raiding overland and into the waters of the Mediterranean. Throughout the book, the protagonist Aulus Perennius is acting under the assumption that the Empire is irrevocably doomed—and still, he is doggedly and completely devoted to this doomed Empire, even when having seen much of its seamy side. In this he is similar to Poul Anderson' Dominic Flandry (who serves a space empire consciously modeled on the Roman Empire).

Those who know the basics of Roman history are aware that in fact, this is far from the Empire's end—two decades hence, Diocletian will consolidate, launch the Dominate period and give the Empire another two centuries of life (and much longer to its eastern portion). However, the book provides a bit of secret history: The Roman Empire was indeed on the verge of collapse, about to fall already in the Third Century; it was Calvus, the traveler from the far future, who gave the Empire another lease on life. It was she who used her mental abilities to provide the young Diocletian with the qualities needed to fulfill his crucial role in history. In fact, the future Emperor had been present in the book's plot all along, though under a different name, and on the very first page Drake provides a clue of it to sharp-eyed readers. For herself, Calvus cared little about the Roman Empire and how long it would last—but she knew that to Aulus the future of the Empire was of paramount importance and that he would fight better when given such an incentive; also, contrary to her training and conditioning, she had come to care very much for Aulus and seek to make him happy...

Religion

Aulus Perennius is a staunch devotee of the Sun god, whose worship flourished in the third century Roman Empire, and calls upon this god at moments of crisis ("Unconquered Sun, Creator and Sustainer of life, give me now the strength I need!"). He does not believe in the gods of the traditional Greek-Roman Pantheon, though he respects the goddess Roma as a manifestation of the Empire to whose service he is devoted. Perennius does not care much for Christianity, lumping it together with other Oriental mystery religions: "Fools and their mystery religions, their Isis and Attis and Christos! But when there is increasingly little hope for security in the world, how could anyone blame people who look for hope elsewhere?". Still, he has a thorough knowledge of the Christians, the basics of their theology and the differences between their various factions and sects—such knowledge of the Imperial society being needed in his professional capacity. When told by Calvus—who knew his future, which was her very ancient history—that a rump of the Roman Empire (i.e., the Byzantine Empire) would endure for a thousand years as a Christian theocracy, Perennius finds that unpalatable—but still prefers a Christian Empire to no Empire at all.

Release details

 * 1984, USA, Baen Books/Pocket Books (ISBN 0-671-55912-5), Pub date ? August 1984, paperback (First edition)
 * 1984, UK, Simon & Schuster (ISBN 0-671-55909-5), Pub date ? August 1984, hardback
 * 1991, USA, Tor Books (ISBN 0-8125-3612-6), Pub date ? April 1991, paperback
 * 1991, USA, Tom Doherty Assoc (ISBN 0-8125-1356-8), Pub date ? April 1991, paperback
 * 1999, USA, Baen Books (ISBN 0-671-57790-5), Pub date ? February 1999, paperback

title: Birds of Prey (Drake novel)


text:
Jungfernsee

The Jungfernsee (translated "Virgin Lake") is north of Potsdam, Germany. It was a glacial kettle and is now part of the River Havel, which runs along its southeastern shore, which is also the only part of its shores that is in Berlin. The rest of the lake lies in the Potsdam district.

Overview
It spans 3.52 km in a northwest–southeast direction, widens to 1.45 km in the southeast from just 180 m at its narrowest point. The lake is part of a federal waterway and one point where the Sacrow–Paretz Canal connects to the Havel. Until 1990, there was a border crossing for ships on the lake, at the end of the canal.

On the lake's southern end at the outflow of the Havel is the Glienicke Bridge, also known as the Bridge of Spies. Besides that, other sights around the Jungfernsee include Cecilienhof to the southwest, the Heilandskirche in Sacrow to the north and the park and palace of Glienicke, southeast again. The former royal Dairy in the New Garden also lies on the shore of the lake and is today a restaurant and brewery.

In 1999, the south shore was added to the Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin World Heritage Site.

title: Jungfernsee


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/BlueAirNews

 This page is an archive of the proposed deletion of the article below. Further comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or on a Votes for Undeletion nomination). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result of the debate was Delete. R e  dwolf24  (talk) 01:08, 29 August 2005 (UTC)

BlueAirNews

 * Article appears to be spam. Written by User:Blueairnews. NSR (talk) 12:29, 22 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete. Non-notable website/linkspam. --DrTorstenHenning 13:40, 22 August 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete see above comment for DBZ forum. Alf 17:05, 22 August 2005 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in an undeletion request). No further edits should be made to this page.