title: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

text: Donald Pinkel was the first director of St. Jude and served from 1962 until 1973. His successor, Alvin Mauer, was director from 1973 to 1983. Joseph Simone was the hospital's third director from 1983 to 1992. Arthur W. Nienhuis was CEO and director of St. Jude from 1993 until 2004. William E. Evans, the hospital's fifth director, served from 2004 to 2014. He was succeeded by current CEO and director James R. Downing on July 15, 2014.


title: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

text: St. Jude Board of Directors is chaired by Paul J. Ayoub and includes Joyce Aboussie, Ruth Gaviria, Tom Penn, and Tony Thomas (producer).


title: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

text: St. Jude and over 46 of its staff members have been the recipients of numerous awards and achievements. In 2010 St. Jude Children's Research Hospital was named the number one children's cancer hospital in the U.S by "U.S. News & World Report". It has also been named one of the top 10 companies to work for in academia by "The Scientist" for 7 successive years. Peter C. Doherty, Ph.D., of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital was co-recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work related to how the immune system kills virus-infected cells. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital won the 2020 Webby Award for Health & Fitness in the category Apps, Mobile & Voice.


title: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

text: St. Jude is associated with several affiliated hospitals in the United States. This program is a network of hematology clinics, hospitals, and universities that are united under the mission of St. Jude.


title: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

text: These sites are used as a means of referring eligible patients to St. Jude as well as a location to administer some care. Through the Domestic Affiliates Program staff at St. Jude work together and collaborate with those at the other institutions. Affiliated sites are expected to comply with standards set by St. Jude and are audited to ensure proper and quality care.


title: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

text: St. Jude also works with Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center, also located in downtown Memphis. St. Jude patients needing certain procedures, such as brain surgery, may undergo procedures at LeBonheur Hospital. Both St. Jude and Le Bonheur are teaching hospitals affiliated with the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. University of Tennessee physicians training in pediatrics, surgery, radiology, and other specialties undergo service rotations at St. Jude Hospital.


title: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

text: The Children's Cancer Center of Lebanon was established in Beirut on April 12, 2002. The center is an affiliate of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and works in association with the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC).


title: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

text: A commitment has been made to establish a research facility in Memphis, Tennessee, one purpose of which will be to serve as a collaborative hub.


title: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

text: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities (ALSAC) are both nonprofits. In 2019, ALSAC raised $1.9 billion from donations, of which $975 million (51%) went to St. Jude. The rest of the funds were either spent on functional expenses for ALSAC or added to their fund balance, which totaled $5.7 billion at the end of 2019. In 2020, ALSAC raised $2.4 billion, of which $2 billion were from donations and contributions (84%). $997 million (42%) of this went to St. Jude. At the end of 2020, St Jude's fund balance was $8.03 billion. 74% percent of St. Jude's total budget comes from donations, and the hospital costs about $1.7 million per day to run.


title: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

text: All medically eligible patients who are accepted for treatment at St. Jude are treated without regard to the family's ability to pay. Families of patients at St. Jude do not pay for treatments that are not covered by insurance, and families without insurance do not need to pay for any expense. All families do not need to pay for travel, housing, or food.


title: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

text: Three separate specially-designed patient housing facilities—Tri Delta Place for short-term (up to one week), Ronald McDonald House for medium-term (one week to 3 months), and Target House for long-term (3 months or more)—provide housing for patients and up to three family members. These policies, along with research expenses and other costs, add up to approximately $1.7 million in operating costs each day.


title: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

text: In January 1964 the former presidential yacht USS Potomac was purchased by Elvis Presley for US$55,000. Presley then gave the Potomac to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, in Memphis, to sell as a fund raiser. The hospital was able to sell the yacht that same year for US$65,000.


title: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

text: From 2000 to 2005, 83.7% of every dollar received by St. Jude went to the current or future needs of St. Jude. In 2002 to 2004, 47% of program expenses went to patient care and 41% to research. As of 2012, 81 cents of every dollar donated to St. Jude goes directly to its research and treatment.


title: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

text: To cover operating costs, ALSAC conducts many fund-raising events and activities. The WGC Invitational, a PGA Tour event, is one of the most visible fund-raising events for the hospital. Other fund-raising programs include the St. Jude Math-A-Thon, Up 'til Dawn, direct mailings, radiothons and television marketing.


title: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

text: In November 2004, St. Jude launched its inaugural "Thanks and Giving" campaign which encourages consumers to help raise funds at participating retailers by adding a donation at checkout or by purchasing specialty items to benefit St. Jude.


title: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

text: Corporations give customers a host of opportunities to support St. Jude. The ultimate goal is to increase awareness with the hope that people will come to identify Thanksgiving with St. Jude, said Joyce Aboussie, vice chairwoman of the nonprofit's board. The official kick-off event for the Thanks and Giving campaign is the Give Thanks Walk. This event is a noncompetitive 5K that is now held in 75 cities across the country. Those participating in the race are encouraged to form teams, invite family and friends, and raise money for St. Jude. These walks have raised over $11 million to date.


title: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

text: One of the hospital's most recent and successful fund-raising efforts has been the Dream Home Giveaway.


title: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

text: At various college campuses, some student organizations, fraternities and sororities raise funds in a program called Up 'til Dawn


title: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

text: Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) Fraternity partnered with St. Jude in the 1970s and 1980s to help raise money to fight childhood cancer. The fraternity renewed its link to St. Jude as its philanthropy of emphasis in 2008.


title: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

text: St. Jude is an International Philanthropic Project of Epsilon Sigma Alpha International, a co-ed service sorority. As of April 2013, ESA has raised more than $160 million in cash and pledges for St. Jude.


title: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

text: In 1999, the Delta Delta Delta collegiate sorority formed a philanthropic partnership with St. Jude. Tri Delta supports St. Jude nationally and supports cancer charities at a local level. At the hospital in Memphis, the sorority donated the Teen Room for teenage patients to relax and spend time with each other. In July 2010, Tri Delta completed its "10 by 10" goal, raising over $10 million in less than four years, six years short of the original goal. Those funds were used to sponsor the Tri Delta Patient Care Floor in the Chili's Care Center. Upon completion of the "10 by 10" campaign, the sorority announced a new fundraising goal of $15 million in 5 years to name the Specialty Clinic located in the Patient Care Center. Three and a half years later, Delta Delta Delta had raised $15 million and completed its goal ahead of schedule. In July 2014, the on-campus residence center was renamed Tri Delta Place as a result of Tri Delta's pledge of $60 Million in 10 years.


title: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

text: In July 2005, Kappa Alpha Psi (ΚΑΨ) fraternity announced St. Jude Children's Research Hospital as its national philanthropic partner. Since that time, Kappa Alpha Psi has raised more than $400,000. At the 2008 ALSAC/St. Jude Board and Awards Dinner, Kappa Alpha Psi received the Volunteer Group of the Year Award for their efforts in the inaugural year of the Sunday of Hope program which secured more than 130 churches to participate and raised more than $280,000.


title: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

text: Lambda Theta Alpha became an official collegiate partner to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in 2010, aiming to raise awareness about childhood cancer and St. Jude in the Latin community, as well as fundraise for the hospital.


title: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

text: Another fundraising is the Country Cares for St. Jude Kids radiothon. During these events, country radio stations around the country allow those involved with St. Jude to share stories with listeners, who are encouraged to donate. The 200 stations involved have helped raise over $400 million since 1989. Country artists have also supported St. Jude through concerts, hospital visits, call-ins, and other forms of support.


title: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

text: Since 2001 the St. Jude Memphis Marathon has raised over $90 million for the kids and families at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.


title: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

text: Eagles for St. Jude was a program created in 2007 by Stanford Financial Group, when it paid to become title sponsor of the St. Jude Classic, the annual PGA Tour event in Memphis. The program, and sponsorship, ended in February 2009, when it was found that Stanford Financial Group was a Ponzi scheme, having defrauded investors out of $8 billion, with a small fraction of that stolen money having been channeled into the Eagles for St. Jude program.


title: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

text: In 1995, St. Jude received an anonymous letter postmarked in Dallas, Texas, containing a $1 million winning McDonald's Monopoly game piece. McDonald's officials came to the hospital, accompanied by a representative from the accounting firm Arthur Andersen, and verified it as a winner. Although game rules prohibited the transfer of prizes, and even after learning that the piece was sent by an individual involved in an embezzlement scheme intended to defraud McDonald's, McDonald's waived the rule and made the annual $50,000 annuity payments.


title: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

text: In 2021, Shift4 Payments founder Jared Isaacman partnered with St. Jude to raise funds and awareness for the hospital around Inspiration4, the first all-civilian mission to space. Isaacman, who funded the flight, led the flight as mission commander alongside mission pilot Dr. Sian Proctor, medical officer Hayley Arceneaux, a St. Jude cancer survivor, and mission specialist Christopher Sembroski. Sembroski won his seat a fundraising initiative for St. Jude. Isaacman committed to give $100 million to St. Jude and invited the public to join him in attempting to raise upwards of $200 million or more in support of St. Jude’s multi-billion dollar expansion. SpaceX CEO and Chief Engineer Elon Musk also committed to donating $50 million to St. Jude.


title: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

text: Over the years, many celebrities such as musicians, political figures, actors and others have become involved with this foundation, visiting the hospital to meet some of the patients and/or filming commercials to encourage individuals to donate to St. Jude. These include:


title: Castle doctrine

text: A castle doctrine, also known as a castle law or a defense of habitation law, is a legal doctrine that designates a person's abode or any legally occupied place (for example, a vehicle or home) as a place in which that person has protections and immunities permitting one, in certain circumstances, to use force (up to and including deadly force) to defend oneself against an intruder, free from legal prosecution for the consequences of the force used. The term is most commonly used in the United States, though many other countries invoke comparable principles in their laws.


title: Castle doctrine

text: Depending on the location, a person may have a duty to retreat to avoid violence if one can reasonably do so. Castle doctrines lessen the duty to retreat when an individual is assaulted within one's own home. Deadly force may either be justified, the burdens of production and proof for charges impeded, or an affirmative defense against criminal homicide applicable, in cases "when the actor reasonably fears imminent peril of death or serious bodily harm to him or herself or another". The castle doctrine is not a defined law that can be invoked, but a set of principles which may be incorporated in some form in many jurisdictions. Castle doctrines may not provide civil immunity, such as from wrongful death suits, which have a much lower burden of proof.


title: Castle doctrine

text: Justifiable homicide in self-defense which happens to occur inside one's home is distinct, as a matter of law, from castle doctrine because the mere occurrence of trespassing—and occasionally a subjective requirement of fear—is sufficient to invoke the castle doctrine. The burden of proof of fact is much less challenging than that of justifying a homicide in self-defense. With justifiable homicide in self-defense, one generally must objectively prove to a trier of fact, against all reasonable doubt, the intent in the intruder's mind to commit violence or a felony. It would be a misconception of law to infer that because a state has a justifiable homicide in self-defense provision pertaining to one's domicile, it has a castle doctrine protecting the estate and exonerating any duty whatsoever to retreat therefrom. The doctrine can be misused as a pretext for extrajudicial punishment in private spaces. The use of this legal principle in the United States has been controversial in relation to a number of cases in which it has been invoked, including the deaths of Japanese exchange student Yoshihiro Hattori and Scottish businessman Andrew de Vries.


title: Castle doctrine

text: The legal concept of the inviolability of the home has been known in Western civilization since the age of the Roman Republic. In English common law the term is derived from the dictum that "an Englishman's home is his castle" (see "Semayne's case"). This concept was established as English law by the 17th century jurist Sir Edward Coke, in his "The Institutes of the Laws of England", 1628:


title: Castle doctrine

text: The term 'castle' was defined in 1763 by Prime Minister William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, "The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the crown. It may be frail – its roof may shake – the wind may blow through it – the storm may enter – the rain may enter – but the King of England cannot enter."


title: Castle doctrine

text: English common law came with colonists to the New World, where it has become known as the castle doctrine. The term has been used in England to imply a person's absolute right to exclude anyone from their home, although this has always had restrictions, such as bailiffs having increasing powers of entry since the late-20th century.


title: Castle doctrine

text: According to 18th-century Presbyterian minister and biblical commentator Matthew Henry, the prohibition of murder found in the Old Testament contains an exception for legitimate self-defense. A home defender who struck and killed a thief caught in the act of breaking in at night was not guilty of bloodshed. "If a thief is caught breaking in and is struck so that he dies, the thief owes no blood-debt to the home-defender; but if the thief lives, he owes a blood-debt to the home-defender and must make restitution."


title: Castle doctrine

text: By the 18th century, many US state legal systems began by importing English common law such as Acts of Parliament of 2 Ed. III (Statute of Northampton), and 5 Rich. II (Forcible Entry Act 1381) in law since 1381—which imposed criminal sanctions intending to discourage the resort to self-help. This required a threatened party to retreat, whenever property was "involved" and resolve the issue by civil means.


title: Castle doctrine

text: Then as now, there were English politicians who were for or against the use of self-help over state-help. William Blackstone, in Book 4, Chapter 16 of his "Commentaries on the Laws of England", proclaims that the laws "leave him (the inhabitant) the natural right of killing the aggressor (the burglar)" and goes on to generalize in the following words:


title: Castle doctrine

text: Not only was the doctrine considered to justify defense against neighbors and criminals, but any of the Crown's agents who attempted to enter without a proper warrant as well. Prohibitions of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution share a common background with current castle doctrine laws.


title: Castle doctrine

text: In 1841, The Preemption Act was passed to "appropriate the proceeds of the sales of public lands... and to grant 'pre-emption rights' to individuals" who were already living on federal lands (commonly referred to as "squatters"). During this same period, claim clubs sprung up all over the US advocating vigilance and the castle doctrine. This was in concurrence with the culture of manifest destiny which led to westward expansion and the American Indian Wars, the last of which ended by the 1920s.


title: Castle doctrine

text: On the American frontier, the doctrine of no duty to retreat extended outside a residence. It asserted that a man in an altercation that he did not provoke was not obliged to flee from his attacker, but was free to stand his ground and defend himself. A state Supreme Court justice wrote in 1877,


title: Castle doctrine

text: American West historian Richard M. Brown wrote that under the circumstances, for a man in the American West to flee under such circumstances would be cowardly and un-American.


title: Castle doctrine

text: Legendary dentist and gambler Doc Holliday successfully used this defense when he shot Billy Allen as he entered a saloon. Holliday owed Allen $5 () which Allen wanted paid and had threatened Holliday. Although Allen was unarmed at the time, Holliday had received reports that Allen had been armed and looking for him earlier in the day. During the subsequent trial, Holliday asserted he was within his rights and the jury agreed. He was acquitted on March 28, 1885.


title: Castle doctrine

text: Today, the penal and civil forcible-entry laws of most American states forbid the use of force in the recovery of possession of land. At most the Castle Doctrine is an affirmative defense for individuals inevitably charged with criminal homicide, not a permission or pretext to commit homicide—which is generally unlawful. A minority of states permit individuals who have the right of immediate possession of land to use reasonable force to regain possession of that land, with Texas being the only state to allow the use of deadly force to regain possession of land or property.


title: Castle doctrine

text: The term "make my day law" came to be used in the United States in 1985 when Colorado passed a law that shielded people from any criminal or civil liability for using force against a home invader, including deadly force. (The law's nickname is a reference to the line "Go ahead, make my day" (meaning 'do something so I have an excuse to kill you') uttered by actor Clint Eastwood's character "Dirty Harry" Callahan in the 1983 police film "Sudden Impact".)


title: Castle doctrine

text: Each jurisdiction incorporates the castle doctrine into its laws in different ways. The circumstance in which it may be invoked include the premises covered (abode only, or other places too), the degree of retreat or non-deadly resistance required before deadly force can be used, etc. Typical conditions that apply to some castle doctrine laws include:


title: Castle doctrine

text: In Colorado, the make-my-day statute provides the occupant with immunity from prosecution only for force used against a person who has made an unlawful entry into the dwelling, but not against a person who remains unlawfully in the dwelling.


title: Castle doctrine

text: In addition to providing a valid defense in criminal law, many laws implementing the castle doctrine, particularly those with a "stand-your-ground clause," also have a clause which provides immunity from any "civil" lawsuits filed on behalf of the assailant (for damages/injuries resulting from the force used to stop them). Without this clause, an assailant could sue for medical bills, property damage, disability, and pain and suffering as a result of the injuries inflicted by the defender; or, if the force results in the assailant's death, their next-of-kin or estate could launch a wrongful death suit. Even if successfully rebutted, the defendant (the homeowner/defender) would still have to pay high legal costs leading up to the suit's dismissal. Without criminal/civil immunity, such civil action could be used as revenge against a lawfully acting defender (who was, originally, the assailant's victim).


title: Castle doctrine

text: Use of force in self-defense which causes damage or injuries to other, non-criminally-acting parties, may not be shielded from criminal or civil prosecution, however.


title: Castle doctrine

text: In US jurisdictions where the Castle Doctrine applies, there is no duty to retreat before deadly force is used against an intruder by a person in their home or, in some jurisdictions, just simply where the person can legally be.


title: Castle doctrine

text: Most states in the United States have stand-your-ground laws where individuals can use deadly force in any location one is legally allowed to be without first attempting to retreat.


title: Castle doctrine

text: In Colorado, the make-my-day statute "was not intended to justify use of physical force against persons who enter a dwelling accidentally or in good faith." In other words, "the unlawful entry element requires a culpable mental state of 'knowingly' on the part of the intruder."


title: Castle doctrine

text: A list of states and their most applicable body of law to justifying homicide in protection of the abode is listed below. Because not all states truly invoke castle doctrine, justifiable homicide in defense of life—which is nearly universal in adoption, but with narrower application—is often what is invoked as a pretext to protect the home. However, the mere fact that one is trespassing is an inappropriate or inadequate defense per se to justifying homicide in many states.


title: Castle doctrine

text: The castle doctrine in its traditional absolute and extrajudicial form is antiquated in most states. However, its vestige saliently remains as a set of principles which are incorporated to a variegated extent through both statutory and case law. It is commonly manifested as an affirmative defense to criminal homicide that occurred within a home; in some states though it slightly enhances the conditions for justifiable homicide in self-defense by laying down no duty to retreat or avert a violent encounter, or by even granting a blanket rebuttable presumption of required killing in defense of life. Where principles are statutized in a penal code, a homicide may be excused criminally, but be a wrongful death civilly. In a strict sense, simple justifiable homicide in self-defense which happens to occur inside one's home is actually distinct as a matter of law from castle doctrine's no duty to retreat in defense of one's domicile. Self-defense protects life while castle doctrine defends estate. While most American states forbid the use of force in the recovery of possession of land, a minority of jurisdictions do invoke pure castle doctrine which unconditionally authorizes violent self-help in protection of one's domicile.


title: Castle doctrine

text: These states uphold castle doctrine in general, but may rely on case law instead of specific legislation, may enforce a duty to retreat, and may impose specific restrictions on the use of deadly force:


title: Castle doctrine

text: Australian states have differing self-defence laws. Under South Australian law, the general defence appears in s15(1) Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 (SA) for defending a person's life, and s15A(1) for defending property, subject to a hybrid test, i.e. the defendant honestly believed the threat to be imminent and made an objectively reasonable and proportionate response to the circumstances as the accused subjectively perceived them.


title: Castle doctrine

text: In July 2003, South Australia's Rann Government introduced laws allowing householders to use "whatever force they deem necessary" when confronted with a home invader. Householders who kill or injure a home invader escape prosecution provided they can prove they had a genuine belief that it was necessary to do so to protect themselves or their family. The law was strongly opposed by then-Director of Public Prosecutions Paul Rofe, QC, and lawyer Marie Shaw, who is now a District Court Judge.


title: Castle doctrine

text: In February 2019, Sydney man Bradley Soper was killed when he broke into the home of Francois Schwartz. After investigation, NSW Police detectives advised not to prosecute Schwartz.


title: Castle doctrine

text: Since 1917, with the enacting of the first Brazilian Civil Code, a possessor of a thing, moveable or immoveable, is allowed, in case of disturbance (""turbação"") or expulsion (""esbulho""), to "maintain or to reintegrate himself [at the possession of a thing] using its own force, as well as he does it soon". The acts of force employed by the possessor shall not exceed the necessary ones for eliminating the disturbance or for reintegration (Article 502 of the former Civil Code; Federal Ordinary Law 3.071/1917). This possibility remained untouched on the Brazilian Civil Code of 2002 (Federal Ordinary Law 10.406/2002), in its Article 1.210.


title: Castle doctrine

text: Self-defence of possession is not allowed for the cases of threat (""ameaça""). It is needed for the possessor to be effectively and physically disturbed in its possession (""turbação"") or completely severed from it (""esbulho""). A possessor acting under the prescriptions of Article 1.210 of the Civil Code shall be exempt of any civil or criminal responsibility. In terms of Tort Law, Article 188, inc. I, of the Civil Code states that is not an unlawful act "the regular exercise of a right recognized by the law".


title: Castle doctrine

text: According to the Criminal Code of Canada Sections 34 and 35, (which were updated in 2012 with the passage of Bill C-26) force, up to and including lethal force may be used in defence of one's life or "peaceably" possessed property or the defence of another's life or "peaceably" possessed property, and is not considered an offence so long as the person believes that force is being used against them in the case of self-defence; that someone is about to, or has, broken into or damaged property in the case of defence of property; that they are acting in defence of themselves, someone else or "peaceably" possessed property, and that the act and degree of force is reasonable in the circumstances. The Criminal Code also lays out the factors in either case that will be used to determine what constitutes "reasonable given the circumstances". Additionally, case law in Canada has unambiguously held that the use of lethal force in defence of property alone is not reasonable. The changes made by the government were to clarify the laws involving self-defence and defence of property, and to help legal professionals to apply the law as believed to reflect the values Canadians hold to be acceptable.


title: Castle doctrine

text: In English common law a defendant may seek to avoid criminal or civil liability by claiming that he acted in self-defence. This requires the jury to determine whether the defendant believed that force was necessary to defend him or herself, their property, or to prevent a crime, and that the force used was reasonable. While there is no duty to retreat from an attacker and failure to do so is not conclusive evidence that a person did not act in self-defence, it may still be considered by the jury as a relevant factor when assessing the merits of a self-defence claim. The common law duty to retreat was repealed by the Criminal Law Act 1967. This duty never existed when a person is somewhere he has a lawful right to be, but due to the repeal, now extends to public places, etc.


title: Castle doctrine

text: German law allows self-defense against an unlawful attack, without any duty to retreat. Courts have interpreted this law as applicable to home invasion, including the use of lethal force against law enforcement in cases where the home owner was of the mistaken belief that the intrusion was an unlawful attack on his life.


title: Castle doctrine

text: Under the terms of the Criminal Law (Defence and the Dwelling) Act 2011, property owners or residents are entitled to defend themselves with force, up to and including lethal force. Any individual who uses force against a trespasser is not guilty of an offense if he or she honestly believes that the intruder was there to commit a criminal act and posed a threat to life. However, there is a further provision which requires that the reaction to the intruder is such that another reasonable person in the same circumstances would likely employ. This provision acts as a safeguard against grossly disproportionate use of force, while still allowing a person to use force in nearly all circumstances.


title: Castle doctrine

text: The law was introduced in response to DPP v. Pádraig Nally. The Act largely places previous Irish common law jurisprudence regarding self-defense on a statutory footing.


title: Castle doctrine

text: Israeli law allows property owners to defend themselves with force. This law was introduced in response to the trial of Shai Dromi, an Israeli farmer who shot Arab intruders on his farm late at night in 2007.


title: Castle doctrine

text: Italy passed a law in 2005 that allowed property owners to defend themselves with force but required proof that the intruder posed an immediate physical threat. In 2019, the law was expanded to say that a property owner can protect their property with a firearm against perceived threats without fear of being prosecuted. The law also offers free legal aid and defence counsel costs for those who kill or injure an intruder.


title: Castle doctrine

text: Swedish self defence law allows for defence of property (not only one's home) as well as persons. The force used in defence must not be obviously unproportional to that that is under threat. That is, deadly force can not be used in self defence unless the threat includes deadly force, for example against a simple theft. Sweden also has a citizen's arrest law that provides for arresting e.g. trespassers until police arrives.


title: The Raid 2

text: The Raid 2 (; ), also known as The Raid: Retaliation, is a 2014 Indonesian action thriller film written, directed and edited by the Welsh filmmaker Gareth Evans. It is the sequel to the 2011 film "The Raid" and stars Iko Uwais, Arifin Putra, Oka Antara, Tio Pakusadewo, Alex Abbad, Julie Estelle, Ryuhei Matsuda, Kenichi Endō, and Kazuki Kitamura. The film was released in the United States and Canada by Sony Pictures Classics on 28 March 2014. Like its predecessor, it received generally positive reviews from critics.


title: The Raid 2

text: In the story, special forces officer Rama is sent undercover to expose the corrupt police officials colluding with the crime families of Jakarta's criminal underworld. Like Evans' previous films "Merantau" and "The Raid", the fight scenes showcase the Indonesian fighting style of pencak silat.


title: The Raid 2

text: Immediately after helping his brother, Rama, take down his superior in the previous film, Jakarta gang boss Andi is captured and executed by another criminal, Bejo. Meanwhile, Rama brings his corrupt superior Lt. Wahyu with him to meet Lt. Bunawar, head of an internal investigation unit. Bunawar immediately has Wahyu killed under the pretense of keeping Rama safe from other crooked cops and asks Rama to go undercover as a criminal to expose police chief Reza's crooked dealings with the Bangun and Goto crime syndicates. Rama initially refuses, but agrees after learning of Andi's death.


title: The Raid 2

text: Using the pseudonym "Yuda", Rama thrashes the politician’s son responsible for putting crime lord Bangun's ambitious son Uco in prison and is arrested and put in the same prison as Uco. In prison, Rama gains Uco's trust by saving his life during a violent riot intended to cover up an assassination. Bangun hires Rama alongside Uco after his release two years later, while hiring hitman Prakoso to assassinate another of his rivals. Frustrated with his limited role in his father's organization, Uco meets Bejo, who shares rumors of a plot to turn Reza and others against his father. Bejo allows Uco to kill the gang members responsible for the prison riot, and they hatch a plot to start a gang war to disrupt the truce between Bangun and fellow crime lord Hideaki Goto so Uco can prove his worth to his father and Bejo can take Goto's territory.


title: The Raid 2

text: Uco sets Prakoso up to be killed by the Assassin, Bejo's top enforcer and bodyguard. The Assassin uses his karambit to slice Prakoso's neck, and he bleeds to death in the snow. Prakoso's death gives Uco the motive to blame it on Goto's gang, but Bangun refuses to counterattack. Frustrated, Uco convinces Bejo to have his 2 hitmen, siblings Hammer Girl and Baseball Bat Man, kill several of Goto's men, successfully sparking a gang war between the families. When Bangun and Goto meet to reconcile, Uco lashes out in anger, embarrassing Bangun into conceding territory. Bangun angrily beats Uco when they return to his office. Rama is attacked and learns from Lt. Bunawar that the attackers were Reza's corrupt cops sent after him. He is then asked to protect Uco by fellow criminal Eka.


title: The Raid 2

text: While he is on the way to Bangun's office, Bejo arrives with the Assassin and a mob of henchmen. Uco reveals his betrayal, kills his father, and shoots Eka. Before Bejo can finish Eka off, Rama arrives and gives Eka the chance to escape, but is subdued by the Assassin and driven away to be executed. Eka rescues Rama in a violent car chase, but is critically injured in the process and reveals to Rama he is also an undercover officer. Goto's henchman Ryuichi informs Goto of Uco's betrayal and that police chief Reza is meeting Bejo and Uco at a warehouse. Rama calls Lt. Bunawar, who informs him the gang war has escalated, the commissioner has been killed, and Eka is responsible for the deaths of 10 honest officers. He also informs Rama of the meeting between Reza, Bejo, and Uco. Bejo and Uco meet Reza to discuss terms against Goto.


title: The Raid 2

text: Still shaken after killing his father, Uco discovers Rama's bug in his wallet. He notices Bejo has the same tattoo as the gang member who tried to kill him during the riot, realizing he has been used as a pawn by Bejo and Reza. Meanwhile, Rama infiltrates the warehouse and battles through Bejo's henchmen. Approaching the hallway, he is obstructed by Hammer Girl and Baseball Bat Man and manages to kill them both. Rama then enters the kitchen, where the Assassin awaits him. As the kitchen workers leave, Rama and the Assassin have a one-on-one duel. After an intense, brutal, and bloody battle, Rama puts an end to the Assassin using the Assassin's own karambit.


title: The Raid 2

text: Rama finally makes his way to Bejo and disrupts the meeting. Bejo attempts to shoot Rama (managing to graze his side with a shotgun), but Uco shoots and kills Reza and Bejo. Before Uco can kill Rama as well, Rama throws a karambit at him and stabs him to death; Uco dies in his arms. Weakened and exhausted, Rama limps from the premises and encounters Goto's son Keichi and several henchmen, sent to attack the meeting. While Lt. Bunawar drives to the site, Keichi smirks as he silently offers a deal to Rama, who simply responds that he is done.


title: The Raid 2

text: Other cast members include and , who reprise their roles as Rama's father and wife, Isa, respectively. and make cameos as the mediator and police commissioner, respectively.


title: The Raid 2

text: Writer-director Gareth Evans decided to make the sequel after "The Raid" hit at the box office. He saw it as an opportunity to receive funding for a script he wrote in 2009, "Berandal", which he had trouble funding for two years. "Berandal" was originally conceived as a standalone action drama film which incorporates bigger action scenes and according to Evans tells the story of "a young guy who goes into prison, befriends the son of a mob boss, comes out, joins him as an enforcer and then has to survive a gang war". After "The Raid", Evans began significantly rewriting the "Berandal" script to connect its storyline with that of the first film; the process included tweaking the protagonist's character motivation and adding a police procedural subplot.


title: The Raid 2

text: Julie Estelle was cast as "Hammer Girl" in December 2012; Evans also tweeted that internationally renowned silat practitioner Cecep Arif Rahman was also given a major part in the film. Marsha Timothy, Mathias Muchus, Tio Pakusadewo, and Alex Abbad, who worked with Evans in "Merantau", were also cast in the film. Japanese actors Matsuda Ryuhei (known for his roles in Taboo and Nana), Kenichi Endō (known for his roles included "Crows Zero", "Crows Zero 2" and


title: The Raid 2

text: "") and Kitamura Kazuki, known for his roles in "", "Dead or Alive" and "Ley Lines", but also known for being the only one of the three Japanese actors appeared in Indonesian films, following his appearance in the 2014 film "Killers".


title: The Raid 2

text: Evans also revealed on Twitter that Yayan Ruhian, who played Mad Dog in "The Raid", will return for the sequel as a new character called Prakoso, the machete-wielding chief assassin of Bangun. He claimed that he would not do a martial arts film without Ruhian being involved. Ruhian, who is a choreographer of the film, also trained Estelle in pencak silat.


title: The Raid 2

text: In January 2013, PT Merantau Films and XYZ Films announced the start of production. The filming process took about seven months and ended in July 2013.


title: The Raid 2

text: The film's lead cinematographer Matt Flannery tweeted that at least three RED cameras were used in a test shoot of a chase scene. Gareth Evans mentioned that they were using RED Scarlet for 95% of the shoot, Epic for slow mo, and Go Pro 3 for quick cuts during the car chase.


title: The Raid 2

text: A teaser trailer was released at Twitch Film on 6 November 2013. "The Hollywood Reporter" stated that the trailer "unleashes more action than most Hollywood blockbusters." A longer Indonesian trailer was released on 31 December 2013. The American trailer was released on 21 January 2014. On 26 March 2014, a deleted scene (given the title "Gang War") was released to promote the film.


title: The Raid 2

text: The film was marketed internationally through Celluloid Nightmares, a partnership between US-based XYZ Films and France's Celluloid Dreams.


title: The Raid 2

text: Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions acquired the film's distribution rights for the United States, Latin America and Spain; and Kadokawa Pictures for Japan. Distribution rights to other countries were sold to eOne Entertainment for Canada and the United Kingdom; Koch Media for Germany, Switzerland and Austria; Calinos Films for Turkey; HGC for China; and Madman Entertainment for Australia.


title: The Raid 2

text: The film had its world premiere at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival on 21 January 2014. It also screened at South by Southwest on 10 March 2014 and ARTE Indonesia Arts Festival on 14 March 2014. Following a wide release on 11 April 2014, due to low returns the majority of theaters closed the film one week later. This was similar to what occurred during the theatrical run of the first film.


title: The Raid 2

text: "The Raid 2" was banned in neighboring Malaysia. The film was scheduled to hit Malaysian screens on 28 March, but had not been shown anywhere in the country due to its excessive violence. Indonesian politician, and former , Pramono Edhie Wibowo criticized the decision and demanded an explanation. He further asked the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to "actively perform its mediation function with the Malaysian government."


title: The Raid 2

text: The US release was given an R rating by the MPAA for "strong bloody violence throughout, sexuality and language", cutting a few frames of graphic violence. Director Evans stated the cuts are very minimal and similar to his original cut. The film received an R-15 rating in Japan with 4 minutes cut, and an R-18 uncut version which was screened in the Tokyo metropolitan area.


title: The Raid 2

text: Overseas, the film grossed $2,627,209 in the United States and Canada. In Japan, it grossed () at the box office. In other overseas territories outside Indonesia, the film grossed $3,939,707, for an overseas total of outside of Indonesia.


title: The Raid 2

text: In the United States, the film grossed from physical DVD and Blu-ray sales, . In the United Kingdom, "The Raid 2" was 2015's best-selling foreign-language film on home video.


title: The Raid 2

text: , the film has an approval rating of 82% on review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 175 reviews, with an average rating of 7.50/10. The site's consensus states: "Although its high-energy plot and over-the-top violence may play better with genre aficionados, "The Raid 2" definitely delivers more of everything audiences loved about its predecessor." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 71 out of 100 based on reviews from 34 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: The Raid 2

text: During its world premiere at Sundance, "The Raid 2" received an overwhelming reaction. Mark Olsen of the "Los Angeles Times" reported that "The screening caused an explosion of excitement and enthusiasm for the film on social media."


title: The Raid 2

text: In a 3-out-of-5 mixed review, Joey Magidson of the website "Awards Circuit" wrote that he "appreciate(s) the directing skills on display in "The Raid 2", but at a certain point, all of the fighting and killing nearly got to be too much for me. I'm recommending the film, but not in the same way as the last one." He added that while it is "creative enough to be worth a recommendation, it lacks the originality of the first flick" and concluded that ""The Raid 2 "will delight genre fans, but might not impress to[o] many others."


title: The Raid 2

text: Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" gave the film 4 out of 5 stars and wrote that it """may not have the first Raid's absolute novelty, and the plot is a bit superfluous. But the sheer mayhem-stamina of this followup is really staggering." Henry Barnes of "The Guardian" gave it 3 out of 5 stars, writing "Out of the tower block and into Jakarta's crime underworld, Gareth Evans's gory sequel is even more violent – you'll thrill despite yourself."


title: The Raid 2

text: Chris Nashawaty of "Entertainment Weekly" said, ""The Raid 2" will make you feel like Christmas came nine months early. Some action sequels don't know when to say when. But here's one where too much is just the right amount."


title: The Raid 2

text: Simon Abrams of "RogerEbert.com" praised the film for its "involving plot"; calling the cast, especially Uwais, "charming" and dialogue "winningly precise" while noting that the sequel is "a great step up after the already-impressive "The Raid"." Glenn Kenny of "RogerEbert.com" gave the film 2 out of 4 stars, and wrote "The action stuff in The Raid 2, while likely to alienate the squeamish and summon dark thoughts of cinematic nihilism amongst overthinking highbrows, really IS like nothing else out there."


title: The Raid 2

text: David Rooney of "The Hollywood Reporter" gave the film a positive review, remarking, "Evans gives the audience a knowing wink by having Rama endure repeated batterings that would leave mere mortals in traction, not to mention some nasty blade wounds. Yet he keeps coming back, finding the stamina to snap more limbs and crush more skulls. Taking place inside moving vehicles, a subway car, a noodle bar, warehouses, a porn factory, tight corridors and in the most electrifying mano-a-mano clash, a gleaming nightclub kitchen and wine cellar, the fights are dynamite."


title: The Raid 2

text: "Rolling Stone" chief critic Peter Travers wrote, ""The Raid 2" lets its warriors rip for two and a half thrilling hours. With the precision of dance and the punch of a K.O. champion, Evans keeps the action coming like nobody's business."


title: The Raid 2

text: Amber Wilkinson of "The Daily Telegraph" commented, "Hyper-violent it may be but there is beauty in its brutality," and wrote, "To say a martial arts movie brings something fresh in terms of choreography may sound like fighting talk, but Gareth Evans's sequel to his 2011 film is endlessly inventive."


title: The Raid 2

text: Matt Risley of "Total Film" gave the film 5 stars and wrote: "Sumptuously shot, perfectly paced and flat-out exhilarating, "The Raid 2" cements Evans as the best action director working today and may not be the best action, gangster, or even martial-arts movie ever made. But as a combination of all three, it's unparalleled in recent memory and offers a tantalising glimpse into a post-Bayhem action-movie world. Brutal, beautiful and brilliant" and also wrote, "The sheer imagination on show, both in the cinematography and choreography, guarantees each brawl is instantly iconic. Immaculately edited, each traumatic, tensely tactile fight would blur into chaos if not for Evans's pinpoint pacing something that refreshes all the more in the face of modern blockbusting's tendency to start big and just keep getting bigger, until burnout."


title: The Raid 2

text: On 19 December 2014, it won the award for Best Foreign Language Film from the Florida Film Critics Circle over Sweden's "Force Majeure" and Poland's "Ida"; a first for an Indonesian film. It also received two nominations at the 2014 Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards, for Best Stunts, and Best Foreign Language Film; losing the former to "Edge of Tomorrow "and the latter to Polish film, "Ida". Another nomination came from the 2014 Chicago Film Critics Association Awards on the Best Foreign Language Film category, which it lost to Ruben Östlund's "Force Majeure" from Sweden. For the 8th Houston Film Critics Society Awards, it also received a nomination in the foreign film category, again losing to "Force Majeure".


title: The Raid 2

text: The film received 10 nominations at the local 2014 Maya Awards, organized by online film community "Piala Maya". On 20 December 2014, it won four of its ten nominations: Best Cinematography for Matt Flanery and Dimas Subono, Best Editing for Evans and Andi Novianto, Best Special Effects, and Best Supporting Actor for Arifin Putra. It was also nominated for Best Film, Best Original Score, Most Memorable Featured Appearance for Julie Estelle as 'The Hammer Girl' (all three lost to ""); Best Hair & Make-Up and Best Sound Mixing (both lost to "Killers"), as well as another nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category for Oka Antara (who lost to co-star Arifin Putra).


title: The Raid 2

text: On 6 January 2014, media outlets quoted director Gareth Evans stating that "The Raid 3" would take place two hours before the end of "The Raid 2". On 19 April, during an interview with "Metro", director Evans said that he is planning to take a break from martial arts movies for two or three years before filming it. On 21 January 2015, Evans responded on Twitter, "The Raid 3 isn't going to be happening anytime soon. Ideas in my head. Nothing written. No set date. 2018/19 possibly."


title: The Raid 2

text: In a November 2016 interview with "Impact", Evans stated the third film was no longer going forward with the franchise likely having ended, stating, "Moving back to UK felt like a closing chapter on that franchise—we ended the story pretty neatly (I feel) in Part 2. I'm aware there's an interest for it [...] So never say never, but it's unlikely to happen anytime soon."


title: LineageOS

text: LineageOS is an Android-based operating system for smartphones, tablet computers, and set-top boxes, with mostly free and open-source software. It is the successor to CyanogenMod, from which it was forked in December 2016, when Cyanogen Inc. announced it was discontinuing development and shut down the infrastructure behind the project. Since Cyanogen Inc. retained the rights to the Cyanogen name, the project rebranded its fork as LineageOS.


title: LineageOS

text: LineageOS was officially launched on 24 December 2016, with the source code available on both GitHub and GitLab. In March 2017, it reportedly had one million users with the OnePlus One being the most popular device.


title: LineageOS

text: CyanogenMod (often abbreviated "CM") was a popular open-source operating system for smartphones and tablet computers, based on the Android mobile platform. CyanogenMod users can opt-in to report their use of the firmware. In March 2015, Forbes indicated over 50 million people were running CyanogenMod on their phones.


title: LineageOS

text: In 2013, the founder, Stefanie Kondik, obtained venture funding under the name Cyanogen Inc. to allow commercialization of the project. In her view, the company did not capitalize on the project's success and in 2016 she either left or was forced out as part of a corporate restructure which involved a change of CEO, closure of offices and projects, and cessation of services. The code itself, being both open source and popular, was forked under the new name LineageOS and efforts began to resume development as a community project.


title: LineageOS

text: CyanogenMod offered a number of features and options not available in the official firmware distributed by most mobile device vendors. Features supported by CyanogenMod included native theme support, FLAC audio codec support, a large Access Point Name list, "Privacy Guard" (per-application permission management application), support for tethering over common interfaces, CPU overclocking, root access, soft buttons and other "tablet tweaks," toggles in the notification pull-down (such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and satellite navigation), and other interface and performance enhancements. Many of the features from CyanogenMod were later integrated into the official Android code base. CyanogenMod's developers said that it did not contain spyware or bloatware.


title: LineageOS

text: Like CyanogenMod, the LineageOS project is developed by many device-specific maintainers and uses Gerrit for its code review process. It also retained the old versioning format (for example, Android 7.1 is LineageOS 14.1). Prior to the official launch of LineageOS, many developers from XDA had already developed unofficial versions of LineageOS from the source code. All the released builds are signed with LineageOS' private keys.


title: LineageOS

text: Builds were released on a weekly basis until 12 November 2018, when the release cycle for devices has changed: the latest LineageOS branch is built daily, with devices receiving a "nightly" OTA update, while devices on the older branch were moved to a weekly release cycle.


title: LineageOS

text: Starting on 5 June 2020, the latest LineageOS branch is also moved to a weekly release cycle, as the server couldn't build all available supported devices in just one day, with some devices receiving updates later on the next day.


title: LineageOS

text: Like its predecessor, CyanogenMod, LineageOS is perceived as free from unnecessary software often pre-installed by a phone's manufacturer or carrier that is considered to be bloatware.


title: LineageOS

text: LineageOS allows the community to get involved with development in various ways. Gerrit is used for the code review process for both the operating system and the infrastructure.


title: LineageOS

text: The wiki, containing information regarding installation, support, and development of LineageOS, is also open to contributions through Gerrit. Other Lineage platforms include Crowdin for managing translations, Gitlab Issues for bug tracking, and a stats page, which displays the number of active installations from users who opt in to report this statistic. There is also an IRC channel hosted on Libera.chat ("#lineageos") and subreddit ("r/lineageos").


title: LineageOS

text: The XDA Developers forums have been used by members of the Lineage community since the software's inception. Many devices are left unsupported by official releases so community members develop their own unofficial ROMs allowing older phones to use Lineage. These unofficial releases are often bundled with software intended to aid the user's experience that would otherwise be unseen in an official release. They also come with known bugs and security issues that may not be seen in official releases.


title: LineageOS

text: During August 2017 the LineageOS team held a Summer Survey in which they asked users for feedback to improve the development of the operating system. The results were published in October and, according to the team, they used the gathered data to improve the upcoming LineageOS 15 release. A second Summer Survey was conducted in August 2018.


title: LineageOS

text: As a response to one of the main suggestions received during their first public survey, LineageOS launched a section on their blog titled "LineageOS Engineering Blog" where Lineage maintainers and developers can contribute articles discussing advanced technical information pertaining to Android development.


title: LineageOS

text: LineageOS is also known for posting a "regularly irregular review" on its blog in which the active development of the work is discussed.


title: LineageOS

text: Although they are not included in LineageOS as such due to legal issues, users can flash the normal Google apps, including the Google Play Store and Play Apps, with a Zip package, usually referred to as "gapps", while installing LineageOS. A side effect of using LineageOS and other custom roms is the impact on SafetyNet API. App developers can choose to enable a toggle in the app developer console to hide their app on the Play Store if a device doesn't pass SafetyNet tests, or can choose to check the SafetyNet status of a device to disable certain functionality. Notable examples would be Netflix, which is hidden on the Play Store, and Google Pay, which checks SafetyNet each time the app is used. Devices running LineageOS may have a smaller selection of usable apps in the Play Store as a result of these checks. LineageOS can be made to work with apps such as Netflix and Google Pay by installing Magisk and certain modules designed to hide the bootloader status.


title: LineageOS

text: LineageOS offers several features that Android Open Source Project (AOSP) does not include. Some of these features are:


title: LineageOS

text: As LineageOS evolved through development, the Trust interface was introduced for all the LineageOS 15.1 builds released since 12 June 2018. The interface can be found on supported devices under Security and Privacy tab under the Settings option, and enables the user to "get an overview of the status of core security features and explanations on how to act to make sure the device is secure and the data is private".


title: LineageOS

text: Additionally, while carrying out any action on the device, the trust icon is displayed, notifying the user that the action is safe.


title: LineageOS

text: The number of devices supported by LineageOS has increased over time, with 157 for 17.1 and 18.1 . Official builds on currently supported development branches are labeled as "nightly". For the first two months of the project, parallel experimental builds were also produced, allowing in-place upgrades from previous CyanogenMod installations and easing migration to LineageOS.


title: LineageOS

text: In 2019, LineageOS development builds were available for 109 phone models with over 2.8 million active installs. As of 26 April 2022, 41 devices are receiving official 19 builds and 136 devices are receiving official 18.1 builds.


title: LineageOS

text: During the first week of April 2018 LineageOS released new builds with the "LOSGenuine" prank that informed unaware users of the software possibly being counterfeit via a persistent notification (which could not be disabled unless the user ran the following command in a root shell):


title: LineageOS

text: When the notification was tapped, the software claimed that the device was "uncertified" and needed to mine "LOSCoins", which were a virtual currency and could not actually be spent. Affected builds also had a preinstalled "Wallet" app that showed the current balance of LOSCoins.


title: LineageOS

text: Many users mistook the prank for actual malware, and others reportedly found it to be in "poor taste". It was especially criticized for being too "late" for an April Fool's joke, since many users didn't receive the update until days later, making the jest less obvious. On 10 April 2018, LineageOS team director "ciwrl" issued an official apology for the deceptive prank.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: The Hongwu Emperor (21 October 1328 – 24 June 1398), personal name Zhu Yuanzhang (), courtesy name Guorui (), was the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty of China, reigning from 1368 to 1398.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: As famine, plagues and peasant revolts increased across China proper in the 14th century, Zhu Yuanzhang rose to command the Red Turban forces that conquered China proper, ending the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty and forcing the remnant Yuan court (known as Northern Yuan in historiography) to retreat to the Mongolian Plateau. Zhu claimed the Mandate of Heaven and established the Ming dynasty at the beginning of 1368 and occupied the Yuan capital, Khanbaliq (present-day Beijing), with his army that same year. Trusting only his family, he made his many sons feudal princes along the northern marches and the Yangtze valley. Having outlived his eldest son Zhu Biao, Zhu enthroned Zhu Biao's son via a series of instructions. This ended in failure when the Jianwen Emperor's attempts to unseat his uncles led to the Jingnan Rebellion.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: The era of Hongwu was noted for its tolerance of minorities and religions; Ma Zhou, the Chinese historian, indicates that the Hongwu ordered the renovation and construction of many mosques in Xi’an and Nanjing. Wang Daiyu also recorded that the emperor wrote 100 characters praising Islam, Baizi zan.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: The reign of the Hongwu Emperor is notable for his unprecedented political reforms. The emperor abolished the position of chancellor, drastically reduced the role of court eunuchs, and adopted draconian measures to address corruption. He also established the Embroidered Uniform Guard, one of the best known secret police organizations in imperial China. In the 1380s and 1390s a series of purges were launched to eliminate his high-ranked officials and generals; tens of thousands were executed. The reign of Hongwu also witnessed much cruelty. Various cruel methods of execution were introduced for punishable crimes and for those who directly criticized the emperor, and massacres were also carried out against everyone who resisted his rule.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: The emperor encouraged agriculture, reduced taxes, incentivized the cultivation of new land, and established laws protecting peasants' property. He also confiscated land held by large estates and forbade private slavery. At the same time, he banned free movement in the empire and assigned hereditary occupational categories to households. Through these measures, Zhu Yuanzhang attempted to rebuild a country that had been ravaged by war, limit and control its social groups, and instill orthodox values in his subjects, eventually creating a strictly regimented society of self-sufficient farming communities.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Zhu was born to a family of impoverished peasant tenant farmers in Zhongli County in the Huai River plain, which is in present-day Fengyang, Anhui Province. His father's name was Zhu Shizhen (朱世珍, original name Zhu Wusi 朱五四) and his mother was Chen Erniang. He had seven older siblings, several of whom were "given away" by his parents, as they not always had enough food to support the family. When he was 16, severe drought ruined the harvest where his family lived and famine subsequently killed everyone in his family except for him and one of his brothers. He then buried them by wrapping them in white cloth.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: His grandfather, who lived to be 99 years old, had served in the Southern Song army and navy, which had fought against the Mongol invasion, and told his grandson tales of it.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Destitute after his family's death, Zhu accepted a suggestion to take up a pledge made by his brother and became a novice monk at the Huangjue Temple, a local Buddhist monastery. However, he was forced to leave the monastery after it ran short of funds.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: For the next few years, Zhu led the life of a wandering beggar and personally experienced the hardships of the common people. After about three years, he returned to the monastery and stayed there until he was around 24 years old. He learned to read and write during the time that he spent with the Buddhist monks.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: The monastery where Zhu lived was eventually destroyed by an army suppressing a local rebellion. In 1352, Zhu joined one of the many insurgent forces that had risen in rebellion against the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. He rose rapidly through the ranks and became a commander. His rebel force later joined the Red Turbans (then led by Han Shantong), a millenarian sect related to the White Lotus Society, and one that followed cultural and religious traditions of Buddhism, Manichaeism and other religions. Widely seen as a defender of Confucianism and neo-Confucianism among the predominant Han population in China proper, Zhu emerged as a leader of the rebels that were struggling to overthrow the Yuan dynasty.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: In 1356, Zhu and his army conquered Nanjing, which became his base of operations and the capital of the Ming dynasty during his reign. Zhu's government in Nanjing became famous for good governance, and the city attracted vast numbers of people fleeing from other more lawless regions. It is estimated that Nanjing's population increased tenfold over the next 10 years. In the meantime, the Yuan government had been weakened by internal factions fighting for control, and it made little effort to retake the Yangtze River valley. By 1358, central and Southern China had fallen into the hands of different rebel groups. During that time the Red Turbans also split up. Zhu became the leader of a smaller faction (called "Wu" around 1360), while the larger faction, under Chen Youliang, controlled the center of the Yangtze River valley.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Zhu Yuanzhang was the Duke of Wu, which was nominally under the control of Han Shantong's son Han Lin'er (), who was enthroned as the Longfeng Emperor of the Song dynasty.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Zhu was able to attract many talents into his service. One of them was Zhu Sheng (), who advised him to "build high walls, stock up rations, and delay claiming kingship" (). Another, Jiao Yu, was an artillery officer, who later compiled a military treatise outlining the various types of gunpowder weapons. Another one, Liu Bowen, became one of Zhu's key advisors, and edited the military-technology treatise titled "Huolongjing" in later years.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Beginning in 1360, Zhu and Chen Youliang fought a protracted war for supremacy over the former territories controlled by the Red Turbans. The pivotal moment in the war was the Battle of Lake Poyang in 1363. The battle lasted three days and ended with the defeat and retreat of Chen's larger navy. Chen died a month later in battle. Zhu did not participate personally in any battles after that and remained in Nanjing, where he directed his generals to go on campaigns.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: In 1367, Zhu's forces defeated Zhang Shicheng's Zhou (周) regime, which was centered in Suzhou and had previously included most of the Yangtze River Delta, and Hangzhou, which was formerly the capital of the Song dynasty. This victory granted Zhu's government authority over the lands north and south of the Yangtze River. The other major warlords surrendered to Zhu and on 23 January 1368, Zhu proclaimed himself emperor of the Ming dynasty in Nanjing and adopted "Hongwu" (lit. "vastly martial") as his era name.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: In 1368, Ming armies headed north to attack territories that were still under Yuan rule. Toghon Temür (Emperor Shun of Yuan) gave up his capital, Khanbaliq (present-day Beijing), and the rest of northern China in September 1368 and retreated to the Mongolian Plateau. On 15 October 1371, one of Hongwu's sons, Zhu Shuang, was married to the sister of Köke Temür, a Bayad general of the Yuan dynasty.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: The Ming army captured the last Yuan-controlled province of Yunnan in 1381, and China proper was unified under Ming rule.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Under Hongwu's rule, Mongol and other foreign bureaucrats who had dominated the government during the Yuan dynasty along with Northern Chinese officials were replaced by Han Chinese officials. The emperor re-instituted, then abolished, then restored, the Confucian civil service imperial examination system, from which most state officials were selected based on their knowledge of literature and philosophy. The Ming examination curriculum followed that set by the Yuan in 1313: a focus on the Four Books over the Five Classics and the commentaries of Zhu Xi. The Confucian scholar-bureaucrats who had been previously marginalized during the Yuan dynasty were reinstated to their predominant roles in the government.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: "Barbarian" (i.e. Mongol-related) elements, including garments and names, were made illegal. There was no clear definition on what was "barbarian", and individual clothing styles and names were banned at the emperor’s will. There were also attacks on palaces and administrative buildings previously used by the rulers of the Yuan dynasty. But many of Taizu's government institutions were actually modeled on those of the Yuan dynasty: community schools required for primary education in every village.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Ming's legal system established by Hongwu contains various methods of execution including flaying, and slow slicing. One of his generals, Chang Yuchun, carried out massacres in Shandong and Hunan provinces to take revenge against people who resisted his army. Over time, Hongwu became increasingly fearful of rebellions and coups, and also ordered the execution of those of his advisors who criticized him. Manicheanism and the White Lotus Sect, which played significant roles during the revolts against the Yuan, were outlawed. He was also said to have ordered the massacre of several thousand people living in Nanjing after having heard one talked about him without respect. In the Hu Weiyong case alone, tens of thousands of officials and their families were executed over sedition, treason, corruption and other charges. According to an anecdote noted by Ming dynasty writers, in 1380, after much killing, a lightning bolt struck his palace and he stopped the massacres for some time, as he was afraid divine forces would punish him. In the 1390s, however, tens of thousands more people were executed due to their association with an alleged plot of rebellion by general Lan Yu.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: When the Ming dynasty emerged, Hongwu's military officers were given noble titles. These privileged the holder with a stipend, but in all other aspects was merely symbolic. Mu Ying's family was among them. Special rules against abuse of power were implemented on the nobles.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: As Hongwu came from a peasant family, he was aware of how peasants used to suffer under the oppression of the scholar-bureaucrats, and the wealthy. Many of the latter, relying on their connections with government officials, encroached unscrupulously on peasants' lands and bribed the officials to transfer the burden of taxation to the poor. To prevent such abuse, he instituted two systems: "Yellow Records" and "Fish Scale Records". They served both to secure the government's income from land taxes and to affirm that peasants would not lose their lands.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: However, the reforms did not eliminate the threat of the bureaucrats to peasants. Instead, the expansion of the bureaucrats and their growing prestige translated into more wealth, and tax exemption for those in the government service. The bureaucrats gained new privileges, and some became illegal money-lenders and managers of gambling rings. Using their power, the bureaucrats expanded their estates at the expense of peasants' lands through outright purchase of those lands, and foreclosure on their mortgages whenever they wanted the lands. The peasants often became either tenants, or workers, or sought employment elsewhere.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Since the beginning of the Ming dynasty in 1357, great care was taken by Hongwu to distribute land to peasants. One way was by forced migration to less-dense areas. Hongtong County, for example, was the source of many of those migrants due to its particularly dense population. The migrants were gathered under a pagoda tree () and escorted to neighboring provinces. "The great pagoda tree in Hongtong, Shanxi" became a common idiom when referring to one's ancestral home in certain areas of Henan and Hebei. Public works projects, such as the construction of irrigation systems, and dikes, were undertaken in an attempt to help farmers. In addition, Hongwu also reduced the demands for forced labor on the peasantry.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: In 1370, Hongwu ordered that some lands in Hunan and Anhui should be given to young farmers who had reached adulthood. The order was intended to prevent landlords from seizing the land, as it also decreed that the titles to the lands were not transferable. During the middle part of his reign, he passed an edict, stating that those who brought fallow land under cultivation could keep it as their property without being taxed. The policy was well received by the people and in 1393, cultivated land rose to 8,804,623 "qing" and 68 "mu", something not achieved during any other Chinese dynasty. Hongwu also instigated the planting of 50 million trees in the vicinity of Nanjing, reconstructing canals, irrigation, and repopulation of the North.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Under the Hongwu reign, rural China was reorganized into "li" (), communities of 110 households. The position of community chief rotates among the ten most populous households, while the rest were further divided into tithings ("jia", 甲). Together, the system was known as "lijia". The communities were responsible for collecting tax and drafting labor for the local government. Village elders were also obliged to keep surveillance on the community, report criminal activities, and ensure that the residents are fully committed to agricultural work.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: The Yuan dynasty "Zhuse Huji" () system was continued and the households were categorized into different types. The most basic types, namely civilian households (), military households (), craftsmen households () and salt worker households (), defined the family's form of corvée labor. Military households, for example, accounted for around one-sixth of the total population at the beginning of the Yongle era, and each was required to provide an adult man as soldier, and at least one more person to work in support roles in the military. The military, craftsmen and salt worker households were hereditary, and converting into civilian households was impossible except in a few very rare situations. A family may simultaneously belong in one of the minor categories, e.g. physician households and scholar households, according to their occupation. In addition to the aforementioned "good" households, discriminatory types also existed, such as entertainer households ().


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Travelers were required to carry a "luyin" (), a permit issued by the local government, and their neighbors were required to have knowledge of their itinerary. Unauthorized domestic migration was banned, and offenders were exiled. The policy was strictly enforced during the Hongwu era.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Zhu Yuanzhang passed a law on mandatory hairstyle on 24 September 1392, mandating that all males grow their hair long and making it illegal for them to shave part of their foreheads while leaving strands of hair which was the Mongol hairstyle. The penalty for both the barber and the person who was shaved and his sons was castration if they cut their hair and their families were to be sent to the borders for exile. This helped eradicated partially shaved Mongol hairstyles and enforced long Han hairstyle.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: The Hongwu Emperor realized that the Northern Yuan still posed a threat to the Ming dynasty, even though they had been driven away after the collapse of the Yuan dynasty. He decided to reassess the orthodox Confucian view that the military class was inferior to that of the scholar bureaucracy. He kept a powerful army, which in 1384 he reorganized using a model known as the "weisuo" system (). Each military unit consisted of 5,600 men divided into five battalions and ten companies. By 1393 the total number of "weisuo" troops had reached 1,200,000. Soldiers were also assigned land on which to grow crops whilst their positions were made hereditary. This type of system can be traced back to the "fubing" system () of the Sui and Tang dynasties.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Training was conducted within local military districts. In times of war, troops were mobilized from all over the empire on the orders of the Ministry of War, and commanders were appointed to lead them to battle. After the war, the army was disbanded into smaller groups and sent back to their respective districts, while the commanders had to return their authority to the state. This system helped to prevent military leaders from having too much power. The military was under the control of a civilian official for large campaigns, instead of a military general.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Hongwu attempted, and largely succeeded in, the consolidation of control over all aspects of government, so that no other group could gain enough power to overthrow him. He also buttressed the country's defense against the Mongols. He increasingly concentrated power in his own hands. He abolished the Chancellor's post, which had been head of the main central administrative body under past dynasties, by suppressing a plot for which he had blamed his chancellor Hu Weiyong. Many argue that Hongwu, because of his wish to concentrate absolute authority in his own hands, removed the only insurance against incompetent emperors.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: However, Hongwu could not govern the sprawling Ming Empire all by himself and had to create the new institution of the "Grand Secretary". This cabinet-like organisation progressively took on the powers of the abolished prime minister, becoming just as powerful in time. Ray Huang argued that Grand-Secretaries, outwardly powerless, could exercise considerable positive influence from behind the throne. Because of their prestige and the public trust which they enjoyed, they could act as intermediaries between the emperor and the ministerial officials, and thus provide a stabilising force in the court.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: In Hongwu's elimination of the traditional offices of grand councilor, the primary impetus was Hu Weiyong's alleged attempt to usurp the throne. Hu was the Senior Grand Councilor and a capable administrator; however over the years, the magnitude of his powers, as well as involvement in several political scandals eroded the paranoid emperor's trust in him. Finally, in 1380, Hongwu had Hu and his entire family arrested and executed on charges of treason. Using this as an opportunity to purge his government, the emperor also ordered the execution of countless other officials, as well as their families, for associating with Hu. The purge lasted over a decade and resulted in more than 30,000 executions. In 1390, even Li Shanchang, one of the closest old friends of the emperor, who was rewarded as the biggest contributor to the founding of the Ming Empire, was executed along with over 70 members of his extended family. A year after his death, a deputy in the Board of Works made a submission to the emperor appealing Li's innocence, arguing that since Li was already at the apex of honour, wealth and power, the accusation that he wanted to help "someone else" usurp the throne was clearly ridiculous. Hongwu was unable to refute the accusations and finally ended the purge shortly afterwards.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Hongwu also noted the destructive role of court eunuchs under the previous dynasties. He drastically reduced their numbers, forbidding them to handle documents, insisting that they remain illiterate, and executing those who commented on state affairs. The emperor had a strong aversion to the eunuchs, epitomized by a tablet in his palace stipulating: ""Eunuchs must have nothing to do with the administration"". This aversion to eunuchs did not long continue among his successors, as the Hongwu and Jianwen emperors' harsh treatment of eunuchs allowed the Yongle Emperor to employ them as a power base during his coup. In addition to Hongwu's aversion to eunuchs, he never consented to any of his consort kin becoming court officials. This policy was fairly well-maintained by later emperors, and no serious trouble was caused by the empresses or their families.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: The Embroidered Uniform Guard or "Jinyiwei" was transformed into a secret police organization during the Hongwu era. It was given the authority to overrule judicial proceedings in prosecutions with full autonomy in arresting, interrogating and punishing anyone, including nobles and the emperor's relatives. In 1393, Jiang Huan (), the chief of "Jinyiwei", accused general Lan Yu of plotting rebellion. 15,000 people was executed in familial extermination during the subsequent purges, according to Hongwu.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Through the repeated purges and the elimination of the historical posts, Hongwu fundamentally altered the centuries-old government structure of China, greatly increasing the emperor's absolutism.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: The legal code drawn up in the time of Hongwu was considered one of the great achievements of the era. The "History of Ming" mentioned that as early as 1364, the monarchy had started to draft a code of laws. This code was known as "Da Ming Lü" (, "Code of the Great Ming" or "Laws of the Great Ming"). The emperor devoted much time to the project and instructed his ministers that the code should be comprehensive and intelligible, so as not to allow any official to exploit loopholes in the code by deliberately misinterpreting it. The Ming code laid much emphasis on family relations. The code was a great improvement on the code of the Tang dynasty in regards to the treatment of slaves. Under the Tang code, slaves were treated as a species of domestic animal; if they were killed by a free citizen, the law imposed no sanction on the killer. Under the Ming dynasty, the law protected both slaves and free citizens.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Later during his reign, however, the "Code of the Great Ming" was set aside in favor of the far harsher legal system documented in "Da Gao" (大誥, "Great Announcements"). Compared to the "Da Ming Lü", the penalties for almost all crimes were drastically increased, with more than 1,000 crimes eligible for capital punishment. Much of the "Da Gao" was dedicated to the government and officials, particularly for anti-corruption. Officials who embezzled more than the equivalent of 60 "liang" (one "liang" was around 30 grams) of silver were to be beheaded and then flayed, the skin publicly exhibited. Zhu Yuanzhang granted all people the right to capture officials suspected of crimes and directly send them to the capital, a first in Chinese history. Apart from regulating the government, "Da Gao" aimed to set limits to various social groups. For example, "idle men" () who did not change their lifestyles after the new law came into effect would be executed and their neighbors exiled. "Da Gao" also included extensive sumptuary laws, down to details such as banning ornaments in heating rooms in the houses of commoners.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Supported by the scholar-bureaucrats, he accepted the Confucian viewpoint that merchants were solely parasitic. He felt that agriculture should be the country's source of wealth and that trade was ignoble. As a result, the Ming economic system emphasized agriculture, unlike the economic system of the Song dynasty, which had preceded the Yuan dynasty and relied on traders and merchants for revenues. Hongwu also supported the creation of self-supporting agricultural communities.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: However, his prejudice against merchants did not diminish the numbers of traders. On the contrary, commerce increased significantly during the Hongwu era because of the growth of industry throughout the empire. This growth in trade was due in part to poor soil conditions and the overpopulation of certain areas, which forced many people to leave their homes and seek their fortunes in trade. A book titled "Tu Pien Hsin Shu", written during the Ming dynasty, gave a detailed description of the activities of merchants at that time.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Although the Hongwu era saw the reintroduction of paper currency, its development was stifled from the beginning. Not understanding inflation, Hongwu gave out so much paper money as rewards that by 1425, the state was forced to restore copper coins because the paper currency had sunk to only 1/70 of its original value.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Hongwu tried to remove Mencius from the Temple of Confucius as certain parts of his work were deemed harmful. These include "the people are the most important element in a nation; the spirits of the land and grain are the next; the sovereign is the lightest" ("Mengzi, Jin Xin II"), as well as, "when the prince regards the ministers as the ground or as grass, they regard him as a robber and an enemy" ("Mengzi, Li Lou II"). The effort failed due to the objection from important officials, particularly Qian Tang (), Minister of Justice. Eventually, the emperor organized the compilation of the "Mencius Abridged" () in which 85 lines were deleted. Apart from those mentioned above, the omitted sentences also included those describing rules of governance, promoting benevolence, and those critical of King Zhou of Shang.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: At the Guozijian, law, math, calligraphy, equestrianism, and archery were emphasized by Hongwu in addition to Confucian classics and also required in the Imperial Examinations. Archery and equestrianism were added to the exam by Hongwu in 1370, similarly to how archery and equestrianism were required for non-military officials at the College of War () in 1162 by Emperor Xiaozong of Song. The area around the Meridian Gate of Nanjing was used for archery by guards and generals under Hongwu.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: A cavalry based army modeled on the Yuan military was implemented by the Hongwu and Yongle Emperors. Hongwu's army and officialdom incorporated Mongols.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Equestrianism and archery were favorite pastimes of He Suonan who served in the Yuan and Ming militaries under Hongwu. Archery towers were built by Zhengtong Emperor at the Forbidden City and archery towers were built on the city walls of Xi'an which had been erected by Hongwu.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Hongwu wrote essays which were posted in every village throughout China warning the people to behave or else face horrifying consequences. The 1380s writings of Hongwu includes the ""Great warnings"" or ""Grand Pronouncements"", and the ""Ancestral Injunctions"". He wrote the "Six Maxims" (六諭, 聖諭六言) which inspired the Sacred Edict of the Kangxi Emperor.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Around 1384, Hongwu ordered the Chinese translation and compilation of Islamic astronomical tables, a task that was carried out by the scholars Mashayihei, a Muslim astronomer, and Wu Bozong, a Chinese scholar-official. These tables came to be known as the "Huihui Lifa" ("Muslim System of Calendrical Astronomy"), which was published in China a number of times until the early 18th century,


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Mongol and Central Asian Semu Muslim women and men were required by the "Code of the Great Ming" to marry Han Chinese after the first Ming emperor Hongwu passed the law in Article 122.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Hongwu ordered the construction of several mosques in Nanjing, Yunnan, Guangdong and Fujian provinces, and had inscriptions praising the Islamic prophet Muhammad placed in them. He rebuilt the Jinjue Mosque (literally meaning: "Pure Enlightenment Mosque") in Nanjing and large numbers of Hui people moved to the city during his rule.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Hongwu designated the "country without conquest" (). He listed 15 countries that Ming would not attempt to conquest, such as Japan, Taiwan and Vietnam.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Hongwu was a non-interventionist, refusing to intervene in a Vietnamese invasion of Champa to help the Chams, only rebuking the Vietnamese for their invasion, being opposed to military action abroad. He specifically warned future emperors only to defend against foreign barbarians, and not engage in military campaigns for glory and conquest. In his 1395 ancestral injunctions, the emperor specifically wrote that China should not attack Champa, Cambodia or Annam (Vietnam). With the exception of his turn against aggressive expansion, much of Hongwu's foreign policy and his diplomatic institutions were based on Yuan practice.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Hongwu sent a message to the Japanese that his army would "capture and exterminate your bandits, head straight for your country, and put your king in bonds". In fact, many of the "dwarf pirates" and "eastern barbarians" raiding his coasts were Chinese, and Hongwu's response was almost entirely passive. The Ashikaga shōgun replied "Your great empire may be able to invade Japan, but our small state is not short of a strategy to defend ourselves." The necessity of protecting his state against the Northern Yuan remnants meant that the most Hongwu was able to accomplish against Japan was a series of "sea ban" measures. Private foreign trade was made punishable by death, with the trader's family and neighbors exiled; ships, docks, and shipyards were destroyed, and ports were sabotaged. The plan was at odds with Chinese tradition and was counterproductive as it tied up resources. 74 coastal garrisons had to be established from Guangzhou to Shandong, though they were often manned by local gangs. Hongwu's measures limited tax receipts, impoverished and provoked both coastal Chinese and Japanese against the Hongwu regime, and actually "increased" piracy- offering too little as a reward for good behavior and enticement for Japanese authorities to root out their own smugglers and pirates. Regardless of the policy, piracy had dropped to negligible levels by the time of its abolition in 1568.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Nonetheless, the sea ban was added by Hongwu to his "Ancestral Injunctions" and so continued to be broadly enforced through most of the rest of his dynasty: for the next two centuries, the rich farmland of the south and the military theaters of the north were linked only by the Jinghang Canal.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Despite the deep distrust, in Hongwu's "Ancestral Injunctions", he listed Japan along with 14 other countries as "countries against which campaigns shall not be launched", and advised his descendants to maintain peace with them. This policy was violated by his son Yongle Emperor who ordered multiple interventions in Annam (present-day northern Vietnam), but remained influential for several centuries afterwards.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: The "History of Ming", compiled during the early Qing dynasty, describes how Hongwu met with an alleged merchant of "Fulin" (拂菻; the Byzantine Empire) named "Nieh-ku-lun" (). In September 1371, he had the man sent back to his native country with a letter announcing the founding of the Ming dynasty to his ruler (i.e. John V Palaiologos). It is speculated that the merchant was actually a former bishop of Khanbaliq (Beijing) called Nicolaus de Bentra, sent by Pope John XXII to replace Archbishop John of Montecorvino in 1333. The "History of Ming" goes on to explain that contacts between China and "Fu lin" ceased after this point, and diplomats of the great western sea (the Mediterranean Sea) did not appear in China again until the 16th century, with the Italian Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: After a 30-year reign, Hongwu died on 24 June 1398, at the age of 69. After his death, his physicians were penalized. He was buried at Xiaoling Mausoleum on the Purple Mountain, in the east of Nanjing. The mass sacrifice of concubines after the emperor's death, a practice long disappeared among Chinese dynasties, was revived by Zhu Yuanzhang, probably to clear potential obstacles to the reign of his chosen successor. At least 38 concubines were killed as part of Hongwu's funeral human sacrifice.


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Historians consider Hongwu as one of the most significant emperors of China. As Patricia Buckley Ebrey puts it, "Seldom has the course of Chinese history been influenced by a single personality as much as it was by the founder of the Ming dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang." His rise to power was fast despite his having a poor and humble origin. In 11 years, he went from being a penniless monk to the most powerful warlord in China. Five years later, he became emperor of China. Simon Leys described him this way: 'an adventurer from peasant stock, poorly educated, a man of action, a bold and shrewd tactician, a visionary mind, in many respects a creative genius; naturally coarse, cynical, and ruthless, he eventually showed symptoms of paranoia, bordering on psychopathy.'


title: Hongwu Emperor

text: Zhu Yuanzhang had many Korean and Mongolian women among his concubines along with his Empress Ma and had 16 daughters and 26 sons with all of them.


Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team is an American reality television series that premiered in 2006 on CMT. The series follows the auditioning process and the forming of the Dallas Cowboys' annual Cheerleading squad. The series features director Kelli McGonagill Finglass and choreographer Judy Trammell.


title: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team

text: After 16 seasons on CMT, CMT announced that they would not renew the show for a 17th season. Despite this, the Dallas Cowboys organization, and the show production company, are working together to reach an agreement with a new platform for the show to stream on for future seasons, with the exception of the 2022-23 Dallas Cowboys season.


text: The show tracks the progression of women who are in the audition process of trying to become a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader. The show begins at Texas Stadium (Seasons 1–3), then moves with the team to AT&T Stadium in subsequent seasons: first the open audition "cattle call", then the five-person audition "cut-down", followed by personal interviews, uniform fittings, BMI testing, physical fitness testing, etiquette training, mock media interviews, and calendar shoots. Successful candidates must also complete a knowledge test on various subjects including, but not limited to: the Dallas Cowboys and their history, NFL Football in general and the rules of the game, general history, government, and current events. There is also the grueling elite dance choreography that tests each girl's capacity to grasp dance combinations and perform the trademark kick-line/jump-split routine for which the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders is known. Girls are judged by a hand-picked panel of experts, and scoring is based on physical appearance, physical fitness, dance style, poise, grace, intelligence, and showmanship. Once training camp opens, the girls are put through a program of elite dance training and physical conditioning that is comparable to some professional sports training programs. If a girl is struggling, she is called into Finglass' office to discuss the nature of her difficulty and is generally given an opportunity to correct the shortcoming(s) to avoid being dismissed ("cut") from the squad. Due to Covid protocols, auditions went virtual in 2020, and have remained so through the current year.


text: While the show did not run for the 2022 season, this season shall be included as a filler in the event the show is later renewed.


title: Claudette Colbert

text: Claudette Colbert ( ; born Émilie Claudette Chauchoin; September 13, 1903July 30, 1996) was an American actress. Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the late 1920s and progressed to films with the advent of talking pictures. Initially associated with Paramount Pictures, she gradually shifted to working as an actress free of the studio system. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for "It Happened One Night" (1934), and received two other Academy Award nominations during her career. Colbert's other notable films include "Cleopatra" (1934) and "The Palm Beach Story" (1942).


title: Claudette Colbert

text: With her round face, big eyes, aristocratic manner, and flair for light comedy and emotional drama, Colbert's versatility led to her becoming one of the best-paid stars of the 1930s and 1940s and, in 1938 and 1942, the highest-paid. In all, Colbert starred in more than 60 movies. Among her frequent co-stars were Fred MacMurray, in seven films (1935–1949), and Fredric March, in four films (1930–1933).


title: Claudette Colbert

text: By the early 1950s, Colbert had turned from the screen to television and stage work, and she earned a Tony Award nomination for "The Marriage-Go-Round" in 1959. Her career waned in the early 1960s, however in the late 1970s, it experienced a resurgence in theater. Colbert received a Sarah Siddons Award for her Chicago theater work in 1980. Colbert's television work in "The Two Mrs. Grenvilles" (1987) earned her a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award nomination.


title: Claudette Colbert

text: In 1999, the American Film Institute named Colbert the 12th-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema.


title: Claudette Colbert

text: Émilie Claudette Chauchoin () was born in 1903 in Saint-Mandé, France, to Jeanne Marie ( Loew; 1877–1970) and Georges Claude Chauchoin (1867–1925).


title: Claudette Colbert

text: Although christened "Émilie", she was called "Lily" after Jersey-born actress Lillie Langtry, and because an unmarried aunt of the same name—her maternal grandmother's adopted child, Émilie Loew—was living with the family. Jeanne, Emilie Loew, and Colbert's grandmother, Marie Augustine Loew, were born in the Channel Islands. Thus, they were already fluent English speakers before coming to the U.S. Colbert's brother, Charles Auguste Chauchoin (1898–1971), was also born in the Bailiwick of Jersey. Jeanne held various occupations. While Georges Chauchoin had lost the sight in his right eye and had not settled into a profession, he worked as investment banker, suffering business setbacks. Marie Loew had already been to the U.S., and Georges' brother-in-law (surnamed Vedel) was already living in New York City. Marie was willing to help Georges financially, but also encouraged him to try his luck in the U.S.


title: Claudette Colbert

text: To pursue more employment opportunities, Colbert and her family, including Marie and Emilie Loew, emigrated to Manhattan in 1906.


title: Claudette Colbert

text: They lived in a fifth-floor walk-up at 53rd Street. Colbert stated that climbing those stairs every day until 1922 made her legs beautiful. Her parents formally changed her legal name to Lily Claudette Chauchoin. Georges Chauchoin worked as a minor official at First National City Bank, and the family was naturalized in 1912. Before Colbert entered public school, she quickly learned English from her grandmother Marie, and grew up as bilingual speaking both English and French. She had hoped to become a painter ever since she had grasped her first pencil. Her mother was an opera music fan.


title: Claudette Colbert

text: Colbert studied at Washington Irving High School, which was known for its strong arts program. Her speech teacher, Alice Rossetter, encouraged her to audition for a play Rossetter had written. In 1919, Colbert made her stage debut at the Provincetown Playhouse in "The Widow's Veil" at the age of 15. Her interests, though, still leaned towards painting, fashion design, and commercial art.