title: Grand Canal (China)

text: By the year 600, there were major buildups of silt on the bottom of the Honggou canal, obstructing river barges whose drafts were too deep for its waters. The chief engineer of the Sui dynasty, Yuwen Kai, advised the dredging of a new canal that would run parallel to the existing canal, diverging from it at Chenliu (Yanzhou). The new canal was to pass not Xuzhou but Suzhou, to avoid connecting with the Si River, and instead make a direct connection with the Huai River just west of Lake Hongze. With the recorded labor of five million people under the supervision of Ma Shumou, the first major section of the Grand Canal was completed in the year 605—called the Bian Qu. The Grand Canal was fully completed under the second Sui emperor, from the years 604 to 609, first by linking Luoyang to the Yangzhou (and the Yangtze valley), then expanding it to Hangzhou (south), and Beijing (north). This allowed the southern area to provide grain to the northern province, particularly to troops stationed there. Running alongside and parallel to the canal was an imperial roadway and post offices supporting a courier system. The government also planted an enormous line of trees. The history of the canal's construction is handed down in the book "Kaiheji" ('Record of the Opening of the Canal').


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: The earlier dike-building project in 587 along the Yellow River—overseen by engineer Liang Rui—established canal lock gates to regulate water levels for the canal. Double slipways were installed to haul boats over when the difference in water levels were too great for the flash lock to operate.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: Between 604 and 609, Emperor Yang Guang (or Sui Yangdi) of the Sui dynasty ordered several canals to be dug in a 'Y' shape, from Hangzhou in the south to terminate in (modern) Beijing and the capital region along the Yellow River valley. When the canal was completed it linked the systems of the Qiantang River, the Yangtze River, the Huai River, the Yellow River, the Wei River, and the Hai River. Its southern section, running between Hangzhou and the Yangtze, was named the Jiangnan River (the river ‘South of the Yangtze’). The canal's central portions stretched from Yangzhou to Luoyang; the section between the Yangtze and the Huai continued to the Shanyang River, and the next section connected the Huai to the Yellow River and was called the Tongji Channel. The northernmost portion, linking Beijing and Luoyang, was named the Yongji Channel. This portion of the canal was used to transport troops to what is now the North Korean border region during the Goguryeo-Sui Wars (598–614). After the canal's completion in 609, Emperor Yang led a recorded long naval flotilla of boats from the north down to his southern capital at Yangzhou.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: The Grand Canal at this time was not a continuous, man-made canal, but a collection of often noncontiguous artificial channels and either canalized or natural rivers.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: Although the Tang dynasty (618–907) capital at Chang'an was the most thriving metropolis of China in its day, it was the city of Yangzhou—in proximity to the Grand Canal—that was the economic hub of the Tang era. Besides being the headquarters for the government salt monopoly and the largest pre-modern industrial production center of the empire, Yangzhou was also the geographical midpoint along the north–south trade axis, and so became the major center for southern goods shipped north. One of the greatest benefits of the canal system in the Tang dynasty—and subsequent dynasties—was that it reduced the cost of shipping grain that had been collected in taxes (caoyun) from the Yangtze River Delta to northern China. Minor additions to the canal were made after the Sui period to cut down on travel time, but overall no fundamental differences existed between the Sui Grand Canal and the Tang Grand Canal.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: By the year 735, it was recorded that about of grain were shipped annually along the canal. The Tang government oversaw canal lock efficiency and built granaries along the route in case a flood or other disaster impeded the path of shipment. To ensure smooth travel of grain shipments, Transport Commissioner Liu Yan (in office from 763 to 779) had special river barge ships designed and constructed to fit the depths of each section of the entire canal.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: After the An Shi Rebellion (755–763), the economy of northern China was greatly damaged and never recovered due to wars and to constant flooding of the Yellow River. Such a case occurred in the year 858 when an enormous flood along the Grand Canal inundated thousands of acres of farmland and killed tens of thousands of people in the North China Plain. Such an unfortunate event could reduce the legitimacy of a ruling dynasty by causing others to perceive it as having lost the Mandate of Heaven; this was a good reason for dynastic authorities to maintain a smooth and efficient canal system.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: The city of Kaifeng grew to be a major hub, later becoming the capital of the Song dynasty (960–1279). Although the Tang and Song dynasty international seaports—the greatest being Guangzhou and Quanzhou, respectively—and maritime foreign trade brought merchants great fortune, it was the Grand Canal within China that spurred the greatest amount of economic activity and commercial profit. During the Song and earlier periods, barge ships occasionally crashed and wrecked along the Shanyang Yundao section of the Grand Canal while passing the double slipways, and more often than not those were then robbed of the tax grain by local bandits. This prompted Qiao Weiyue, an Assistant Commissioner of Transport for Huainan, to invent a double-gate system known as the pound lock in the year 984. This allowed ships to wait within a gated space while the water could be drained to appropriate levels; the Chinese also built roofed hangars over the space to add further protection for the ships.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: Much of the Grand Canal south of the Yellow River was ruined for several years after 1128 when Du Chong decided to break the dykes and dams holding back the waters of the Yellow River in order to decimate the oncoming Jurchen invaders during the Jin–Song wars. The Jurchen Jin dynasty continually battled with the Song in the region between the Huai River and the Yellow River; this warfare led to the dilapidation of the canal until the Mongols invaded in the 13th century CE and began necessary repairs.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: During the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) the capital of China was moved to Beijing, eliminating the need for the canal arm flowing west to Kaifeng or Luoyang. A summit section was dug across the foothills of the Shandong massif during the 1280s, shortening the overall length by as much as , making the total length about and linking Hangzhou and Beijing with a direct north–south waterway for the first time. As in the Song and Jin era, the canal fell into disuse and dilapidation during the Yuan dynasty's decline.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: The Grand Canal as infrastructure has had influence on other architectural works in the west. The Erie Canal in North America is designed and draws inspiration from the Chinese architecture. Many saw the canal as an economic advantage that could bring economic prosperity, like the canal and its benefits. Matteo Ricci's Journals describes the canal in great detail documenting the economic prosperity. The pound lock is one of the more notable features of the Erie canal that is directly connected to the infrastructure of the Grand Canal as it is used in other similar bodies of water.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: The Grand Canal was renovated almost in its entirety between 1411 and 1415 during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). A magistrate of Jining, Shandong sent a memorandum to the throne of the Yongle Emperor protesting the current inefficient means of transporting 4,000,000 "dan" (428,000,000 liters) of grain a year by means of transferring it along several different rivers and canals in barge types that went from deep to shallow after the Huai River, and then transferred back onto deep barges once the shipment of grain reached the Yellow River. Chinese engineers built a dam to divert the Wen River to the southwest in order to feed 60% of its water north into the Grand Canal, with the remainder going south. They dug four large reservoirs in Shandong to regulate water levels, which allowed them to avoid pumping water from local sources and water tables. Between 1411 and 1415 a total of 165,000 laborers dredged the canal bed in Shandong and built new channels, embankments, and canal locks.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: The Yongle Emperor moved the Ming capital from Nanjing to Beijing in 1403. This move deprived Nanjing of its status as chief political center of China. The reopening of the Grand Canal also benefited Suzhou over Nanjing since the former was in a better position on the main artery of the Grand Canal, and so it became Ming China's greatest economic center. The only other viable contender with Suzhou in the Jiangnan region was Hangzhou, but it was located further down the Grand Canal and away from the main delta. Even the shipwrecked Korean Choe Bu (1454–1504)—while traveling for five months throughout China in 1488—acknowledged that Hangzhou served not as a competitor but as an economic feeder into the greater Suzhou market. Therefore, the Grand Canal served to make or break the economic fortunes of certain cities along its route and served as the economic lifeline of indigenous trade within China.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: The scholar Gu Yanwu of the early Qing dynasty (1644–1912) estimated that the previous Ming dynasty had to employ 47,004 full-time laborers recruited by the "lijia" corvée system in order to maintain the entire canal system. It is known that 121,500 soldiers and officers were needed simply to operate the 11,775 government grain barges in the mid-15th century.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: Besides its function as a grain shipment route and major vein of river-borne indigenous trade in China, the Grand Canal had long been a government-operated courier route as well. In the Ming dynasty, official courier stations were placed at intervals of . Each courier station was assigned a different name, all of which were popularized in travel songs of the period.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: The Manchus invaded China in the mid-17th century, allowed through the northern passes by the Chinese general Wu Sangui once the Ming capital at Beijing had fallen into the hands of a rebel army. The Manchus established the Qing dynasty (1644–1912), and under their leadership, the Grand Canal was overseen and maintained just as in earlier times.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: In 1855, the Yellow River flooded and changed its course, severing the course of the canal in Shandong. This was foreseen by a Chinese official in 1447, who remarked that the flood-prone Yellow River made the Grand Canal like a throat that could be easily strangled (leading some officials to request restarting the grain shipments through the East China Sea). In 1855 the dikes of the canal were opened to flood advancing troops of the Taiping Rebellion's Northern Expedition. Because of various factors—the difficulty of crossing the Yellow River, the increased development of an alternative sea route for grain-ships, and the opening of the Tianjin-Pukou Railway and the Beijing-Hankou Railway—the canal languished and for decades the northern and southern parts remained separate. Many of the canal sections fell into disrepair, and some parts were returned to flat fields. Even today, the Grand Canal has not fully recovered from this disaster. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the need for economic development led the authorities to order heavy reconstruction work.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: The Grand Canal played a major role during the Great Leap Forward as it provided an efficient way to transport grains.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: By the 1990s, pollution in the canal had reached the point where boat and barge crews could tell when they were nearing Hangzhou by the stench of the visibly black water. A $250 million restoration project begun in 2001 has improved water quality to the point where it no longer smells and is once again capable of supporting some fauna.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: The economic importance of the canal likely will continue. The governments of the Shandong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang Provinces planned dredging meant to increase shipping capacity by 40 percent by 2012.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: On June 22, 2014, The Grand Canal was listed as a World Heritage Site, at the 2014 Conference on World Heritage.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: As well as its present-day course, fourteen centuries of canal-building have left the Grand Canal with a number of historical sections. Some of these have disappeared, others are still partially extant, and others form the basis for the modern canal. The following are the most important but do not form an exhaustive list.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: In 12 BCE, in order to solve the problem of the Grand Canal having to use of the perilous course of the Yellow River in Northern Jiangsu, a man named Li Hualong created the Jia Canal. Named after the Jia River whose course it followed, it ran from Xiazhen (modern Weishan) on the shore of Shandong's Weishan Lake to Suqian in Jiangsu. The construction of the Jia Canal left only of Yellow River navigation on the Grand Canal, from Suqian to Huai'an, which by 1688 had been removed by the construction of the Middle Canal by Jin Fu.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: In 1566, to escape the problems caused by flooding of the Yellow River around Yutai (now on the western shore of Weishan Lake), the Nanyang New Canal was opened. It ran for from Nanyang (now Nanyang Town, located in the center of Weishan Lake) to the small settlement of Liucheng (in the vicinity of modern Gaolou Village, Weishan County, Shandong) north of Xuzhou City. This change in effect moved the Grand Canal from the low-lying and flood-prone land west of Weishan Lake onto the marginally higher land to its east. It was fed by rivers flowing from east to west from the borders of the Shandong massif.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: North of the Jizhou Canal summit section, the Huitong Canal ran downhill, fed principally by the River Wen, to join the Wei River in the city of Linqing. In 1289, a geological survey preceded its one-year construction. The Huitong Canal, built by an engineer called Ma Zhizhen, ran across sharply sloping ground and the high concentration of locks gave it the nicknames "chahe" or "zhahe", i.e. 'the river of locks'. Its great number of feeder springs (between two and four hundred, depending on the counting method and season of the year) also led to it being called the "quanhe" or 'river of springs'.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: This, the Grand Canal's first true summit section, was engineered by the Mongol Oqruqči in 1238 to connect Jining to the southern end of the Huitong Canal. It rose to a height of 42 meters (138 ft) above the Yangtze, but environmental and technical factors left it with chronic water shortages until it was re-engineered in 1411 by Song Li of the Ming. Song Li's improvements, recommended by a local man named Bai Ying, included damming the rivers Wen and Guang and drawing lateral canals from them to feed reservoir lakes at the very summit, at a small town called Nanwang.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: In 369 CE, General Huan Wen of the Eastern Jin dynasty connected the shallow river valleys of the Huai and the Yellow. He achieved this by joining two of these rivers' tributaries, the Si and the Ji respectively, at their closest point, across a low watershed of the Shandong massif. Huan Wen's primitive summit canal became a model for the engineers of the Jizhou Canal.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: The Shanyang Canal originally opened onto the Yangtze a short distance south of Yangzhou. As the north shore of the Yangtze gradually silted up to create the sandbank island of Guazhou, it became necessary for boats crossing to and from the Jiangnan Canal to sail the long way around the eastern edge of that island. After a particularly rough crossing of the Yangtze from Zhenjiang, the local prefect realized that a canal dug directly across Guazhou would reduce the journey time and thus make the crossing safer. The Yilou Canal was opened in 738 CE and still exists, though not as part of the modern Grand Canal route.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: The Grand Canal nominally runs between Beijing and Hangzhou over a total length of ; however, only the section from Hangzhou to Liangshan County is currently navigable. Its course is today divided into seven sections. From south to north these are the Jiangnan Canal, the Li Canal, the Inner Canal, the Middle Canal, the Lu Canal, the South Canal, the North Canal, and the Tonghui River.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: Training Lake “Lianhu” was used to feed water to the Grand Canal section near Jiangnan. Since the canal was man-made there was not enough naturally flowing water to keep the canal at proper depth so that boats could travel through it. So a man-made lake was used to feed water to the Jiangnan section of the Grand Canal. It was protected by the Government from reclamation and any use of the lake water without proper taxation was deemed illegal. It was supposed to be protected from profitable exploitation, but because the government changed over the years, lake Lianhu had been reclaimed many times and it started to become more shallow. The government changed the lake to become more profitable farmland which led to reclamations and agricultural irrigation using the lake. This began to lead to Lake Lianhu not being able to properly feed water to the Grand Canal. Loss of depth due to reclamation and maintenance costs became too high for the lake to become practical to use. Even though it was a man made lake it was still a beautiful sight. Many different people praised its beauty and various poems have been written about the lake. In recent years recreational uses for the lake have become more popular and may lead to the lake being restored.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: This southernmost section of the canal runs from Hangzhou in Zhejiang, where the canal connects with the Qiantang River, to Zhenjiang in Jiangsu, where it meets the Yangtze. After leaving Hangzhou heading north toward Beijing, the canal passes around the eastern border of Lake Tai, through the major cities of Jiaxing, Suzhou, Wuxi, and Changzhou before reaching Zhenjiang.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: The Jiangnan (or ‘South of the Yangtze’) Canal is heavily utilized by barge traffic bringing coal, containers and construction materials to the booming delta. It is generally a minimum of 100 meters wide in the congested city centers, and often two or three times this width in the neighboring countryside. In recent years, broad bypass canals have been dug around the major cities to reduce ‘traffic jams’.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: The Suzhou section of the Jiangnan Canal flows through the western part of the city. It includes ten city gates and over 20 stone bridges of traditional design and historic areas that have been well preserved as well as temples and pavilions.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: The Inner Canal runs between the Yangtze and Huai rivers, skirting the Shaobo, Gaoyou, and Hongze lakes of central Jiangsu. This section connects the cities of Huai'an and Yangzhou. Here the land lying to the west of the canal is higher than its bed while the land to the east is lower. Traditionally the Shanghe region west of the canal has been prone to frequent flooding, while the Xiahe region to its east has been hit by less frequent but immensely damaging inundations caused by the failure of the Grand Canal levees. Recent works have allowed floodwaters from Shanghe to be diverted safely out to sea. Like the Jiangnan Canal, the Inner Canal is heavily utilized by barge traffic bringing coal, construction materials and increasingly shipping containers around Jiangsu Province.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: This ‘Middle Canal’ section runs from Huai'an to Weishan Lake, passing through Luoma Lake and following more than one course, the result of the impact of centuries of Yellow River flooding. After Pizhou, a northerly course passes through Tai'erzhuang to enter Weishan Lake at Hanzhuang bound for Nanyang and Jining (this course is the remnant of the New Nanyang Canal of 1566 – see below). A southerly course passes close by Xuzhou and enters Weishan Lake near Peixian. This latter course is less used today. Canal is utilized by barge traffic bringing coal and construction materials around northern Jiangsu Province.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: At Weishan Lake, both courses enter Shandong province. From here to Linqing, the canal is called the Lu or ‘Shandong’ Canal. It crosses a series of lakes—Zhaoyang, Dushan, and Nanyang—which nominally form a continuous body of water. At present, diversions of water mean that the lakes are often largely dry land. North of the northernmost Nanyang Lake is the city of Jining. Further on, about north of Jining, the highest elevation of the canal ( above sea level) is reached at the town of Nanwang. In the 1950s a new canal was dug to the south of the old summit section. The old summit section is now dry, while the new canal holds too little water to be navigable. About further north, passing close by Dongping Lake, the canal reaches the Yellow River. By this point waterless, it no longer connects to the river. It reappears again in Liaocheng City on the north bank where, intermittently flowing through a renovated stone channel, it reaches the city of Linqing on the Shandong – Hebei border. Liangshan County is the northern terminus of the canal for barge traffic.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: The fifth section of the canal extends for a distance of from Linqing to Tianjin along the course of the canalized Wei River. Though one of the northernmost sections, its name derives from its position relative to Tianjin. The Wei River at this point is heavily polluted while drought and industrial water extraction have left it too low to be navigable. The canal, now in Hebei province, passes through the cities of Dezhou and Cangzhou. Although to spectators, the canal appears to be a deep waterway in these city centers, its depth is maintained by weirs and the canal is all but dry where it passes through the surrounding countryside. At its terminus, the canal joins the Hai River in the center of Tianjin City before turning north-west.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: In Tianjin, the canal heads northwest, for a short time following the course of the Yongding, a tributary of the Hai River, before branching off toward Tongzhou on the edge of the municipality of Beijing. It is here that the modern canal stops and that a Grand Canal Cultural Park has been built. During the Yuan dynasty, a further canal on the Tonghui River connected Tongzhou with a wharf called the Houhai or "rear sea" in central Beijing. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, however, the water level in the Tonghui River dropped and ships could not travel from Tongzhou to Beijing. Tongzhou then became the northern shipping terminus of the canal. Cargo was unloaded at Tongzhou and transported to Beijing by land. The Tonghui river still exists as a wide, concrete-lined storm-channel and drain for the suburbs of Beijing.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: The Eastern Zhejiang Canal (), also known as the Hangzhou–Ningbo Canal () is located in Zhejiang. Its west end is in Xixing Street, Binjiang District, Hangzhou City, crossing Cao'e River and Shaoxing City to its east end, the Yong River estuary in Ningbo City. The canal is 239 kilometers (149 mi) long. Early canal construction took place in the Shanyin old canal in Shaoxing City, in the Spring and Autumn period (approximately 771 to 476 BC). In the third century AD, an official named He Xun supervised the construction of the Xixing Canal, establishing the complete Eastern Zhejiang Canal.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: In the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279), the capital was established at Linan, which meant that the Eastern Zhejiang Canal became an important shipping channel. From the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368) to the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912), the Eastern Zhejiang Canal lost its privilege but remained navigable. In recent years, because of newer modes of transportation, the canal has been gradually replaced. The reconstruction of the canal began in 2002, by 2007 it was partially navigable, and the renovation project finished in 2009, though the Ningbo section was not navigable until the end of 2013.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: In May 2013, the Eastern Zhejiang Canal was listed in the seventh group of Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level and was included in the Grand Canal. In November 2008, as an extension of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and the passage between the Grand Canal and the Maritime Silk Road, the Eastern Zhejiang Canal was placed into the nomination file in the UNESCO World Heritage program. In 2014, with Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and Sui & Tang Grand Canal, the Eastern Zhejiang Canal became one World Heritage site.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: Though the canal nominally crosses the watersheds of five river systems, in reality, the variation between these is so low that it has only a single summit section. The elevation of the canal bed varies from 1 m below sea level at Hangzhou to 38.5 m above at its summit. At Beijing, it reaches 27 m, fed by streams flowing downhill from the mountains to the west. The water flows from Beijing toward Tianjin, from Nanwang north toward Tianjin, and from Nanwang south toward Yangzhou. The water level in the Jiangnan Canal remains scarcely above sea level (the Zhenjiang ridge is 12 meters higher than that of the Yangtze River).


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: From the Tang to Qing dynasties, the Grand Canal served as the main artery between northern and southern China and was essential for the transport of grain to Beijing. Although it was mainly used for shipping grain, it also transported other commodities and the corridor along the canal developed into an important economic belt. Records show that, at its height, every year more than 8,000 boats transported four to six million dan (240,000–360,000 metric tons) of grain. The convenience of transport also enabled rulers to lead inspection tours to southern China. In the Qing dynasty, the Kangxi and Qianlong emperors made twelve trips to the south, on all occasions but one reaching Hangzhou.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: The Grand Canal also enabled cultural exchange and political integration to occur between the north and south of China. The canal even made a distinct impression on some of China's early European visitors. Marco Polo recounted the Grand Canal's arched bridges as well as the warehouses and prosperous trade of its cities in the 13th century. The famous Roman Catholic missionary Matteo Ricci traveled from Nanjing to Beijing along the canal at the end of the 16th century.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the canal has been used primarily to transport vast amounts of bulk goods such as bricks, gravel, sand, diesel, and coal. The Jianbi ship locks on the Yangtze are currently handling some 75,000,000 tons each year, and the Li Canal is forecast to reach 100,000,000 tons in the next few years. When first constructed, the canal served as a major source of transportation, linking northern and southern China. With the introduction of expressways, railways and high speed railways in modern China, passenger travel on the canal became far less common.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: Currently, ships can only travel up to Jining. The section from Jining to Beijing is not available for transport due to the silt deposit buildup from the Yellow River and lack of water sources. There are plans for restoring transportation up to Tai'an.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: The Grand Canal is currently being upgraded to serve as the Eastern Route of the South-North Water Transfer Project. Additional amounts of water from the Yangtze will be drawn into the canal in Jiangdu City, where a giant pumping station was already built in the 1980s, and is then fed uphill by pumping stations along the route and through a tunnel under the Yellow River, from where it can flow downhill to reservoirs near Tianjin. Construction on the Eastern Route officially began on December 27, 2002, and water was supposed to reach Tianjin by 2012. However, water pollution has affected the viability of this project.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: In 1169, with China divided between the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty in the north and the Southern Song dynasty in the south, the Southern Song Emperor Xiaozong sent a delegation to the Jurchen to wish their ruler well for the New Year. A scholar-official named Lou Yue, secretary to the delegation, recorded the journey, much of which was made upon the Grand Canal, and submitted his "Diary of a Journey to the North" to the emperor on his return.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: In 1170, the poet, politician, and historian Lu You traveled along the Grand Canal from Shaoxing to the river Yangtze, recording his progress in a diary.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: In the late 1200s, Marco Polo traveled extensively through China and his trips included time on the Grand Canal, then a major artery for shipping silk, porcelain, and wine.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: In 1345, Arab traveler Ibn Battuta traveled China and journeyed through the Abe Hayat river (Grand Canal) up to the capital Khanbalik (Beijing).


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: In 1488, the shipwrecked Korean scholar Choe Bu traveled the entire length of the Grand Canal on his way from Zhejiang to Beijing (and on to Korea) and left a detailed account of his trip.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: In 1600, Matteo Ricci traveled to Beijing from Nanjing via the Grand Canal waterway to gain the support of the Wanli Emperor of the Ming dynasty with the help of Wang Zhongde, the Director of the Board of Rites in the central government of China at the time.


title: Grand Canal (China)

text: In 1793, after a largely fruitless diplomatic mission to Jehol, a large part of Lord Macartney's embassy returned south to the Yangtze delta via the Grand Canal.


title: Crust punk

text: Crust punk (also known as crust or stenchcore) is a form of music influenced by English punk rock and extreme metal. The style, which evolved in the early 1980s in England, often has songs with dark and pessimistic lyrics that linger on political and social ills. The term "crust" was coined by Hellbastard on their 1986 "Ripper Crust" demo.


title: Crust punk

text: Crust is partly defined by its "bassy" and "dirty" sound. It is often played at a fast tempo with occasional slow sections. Vocals are usually raspy screams, but can also be grunted/growled. Crust punk takes cues from the anarcho-punk of Crass and Discharge and the heavy metal of bands like Venom, Trouble, Hellhammer, Celtic Frost, Black Sabbath and Motörhead. While the term was first associated with Hellbastard, Amebix have been described as the originators of the style, along with Discharge and Antisect.


title: Crust punk

text: Crust punk is a derivative form of anarcho-punk, mixed with metal riffs. The tempos are often fast, but just short of thrashcore or grindcore. However, many groups confine themselves to a crawling, sludgy pace. The overall musical sound has been described as being "stripped down". Drumming is typically done at high speed, with D-beats sometimes being used. In "Sober Living for the Revolution: Hardcore Punk, Straight Edge, and Radical Politics", author Gabriel Kuhn referred to the genre as a "blend of 1977 British punk, roots culture and black metal", with the genre often taking influence from death metal, grindcore and powerviolence.


title: Crust punk

text: Vocals in crust punk are often shrieked or shouted, and may be shared between two or more vocalists. The lyrical content of crust punk tends to be bleak and nihilistic, yet politically engaged. Crust punk songs are often about nuclear war, militarism, animal rights, police, personal grievances, oppressive states and fascism. Amebix were also interested in various forms of mysticism and Gnosticism. Malcolm "Scruff" Lewty, guitarist and vocalist of Hellbastard, describes the distinction between metal and crust punk lyrics "Metal lyrics were so dumb, so far removed from daily life. Venom were going on about Satan... and bikes... and Satan... and women... and Satan! You know what? I never got up in the morning and said, 'Fuck yeah! Satan! Let's go and meet my disciples from Hell!' I'd switch on the TV and know I was going to see hundreds of people dying because there'd been an earthquake in the third world... and all these people starving to death while military expenditure still increased... That was — and still is — the reality of it. The whole heavy metal thing is just an escape from reality, into this other world of... well, bullshit basically."


title: Crust punk

text: The initial inspiration for the crust punk scene came from the anarcho-punk of Crass and D-beat of Discharge. Swedish D-beat groups such as Crude SS, Skitslickers/Anti Cimex and Mob 47 and the Finnish Rattus were also early influences. Amebix also brought in influences from various post-punk bands, including Public Image Ltd., Bauhaus, Joy Division, and especially Killing Joke.


title: Crust punk

text: Crust was founded by the bands Amebix and Antisect. The term "crust" was coined by Hellbastard on their 1986 "Ripper Crust" demo. In his book "Trapped in a Scene", punk historian Ian Glasper said ""Rippercrust" is widely regarded as the first time the word 'crust' was used in the punk context, and hence the specific starting point of the whole crust punk genre, although some would attribute that accolade to the likes of Disorder, Chaos UK, and Amebix several years earlier. In the same book, he quoted the group's vocalist and guitarist Malcolm "Scruff" Lewty "A lot of people say we started the crust punk genre, but whatever. If they wanna say that, I don't mind, but I'm certainly no Malcolm McLaren, saying I invented something I didn't." However, in "Sober Living for the Revolution: Hardcore Punk, Straight Edge, and Radical Politics", author Gabriel Kuhn Punk stated that the name of the genre came from the "crusty" appearance of the genre's practitioning bands. journalist Felix von Havoc contends that Doom, Excrement of War, Electro Hippies and Extreme Noise Terror were among the first bands to have the traditional UK "crust" sound. Additional subgenres of this style began to develop. Deviated Instinct, from Norwich, created "stenchcore", bringing "both the look and sound — dirty and metallic, respectively — to their natural conclusion". Initially an anarcho-punk group, they began to take increasing influence from metal. As vocalist Julian "Leggo" Kilsby comments "We were very much a part of the anarcho scene, to start with, very politically motivated... all the way through the band's existence, really, although it got less obvious as time went by. But I never really liked the straightforward 'War is bad...' lyrics that were so prevalent at the time, so as my writing skills improved I wanted to add more depth to our lyrics and make them more metaphorical; I'd always been into horror films, so that started to manifest itself in the imagery I was using.


title: Crust punk

text: Extreme Noise Terror is credited with developing this style into grindcore. However, Pete Hurley, the guitarist for the group, declared that he had no interest in being remembered as a pioneer of this style: "'grindcore' was a legendarily stupid term coined by a hyperactive kid from the West Midlands, and it had nothing to do with us whatsoever. ENT were, are, and — I suspect — always will be a hardcore punk band... not a grindcore band, a stenchcore band, a trampcore band, or any other sub-sub-sub-core genre-defining term you can come up with."


title: Crust punk

text: American crust punk began in New York City, also in the mid-1980s, with the work of Nausea. The group emerged from the Lower East Side squat scene and New York hardcore, living with Roger Miret of Agnostic Front. The early work of Neurosis, from San Francisco, also borrowed from Amebix, and inaugurated crust punk on the West Coast. Disrupt (Boston), Antischism (South Carolina), MISERY and Destroy (Minneapolis) were also significant U.S. crust groups.


title: Crust punk

text: An important American crust punk band was Aus Rotten from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Crust punk also flourished in Minneapolis, shepherded by the Profane Existence label. In this period, the ethos of crust punk became particularly codified, with vegetarianism, feminism, and sometimes straight edge being prescribed by many of the figures in the scene. The powerviolence scene associated with Slap-a-Ham Records was in close proximity to crust punk, particularly in the case of Man Is the Bastard and Dropdead. Crust was also prominent in the American South, where Prank Records and CrimethInc. acted as focal points of the scene. The most well-known representative of Southern crust was His Hero Is Gone. Prominent crust punk groups (Driller Killer, Totalitär, Skitsystem, Wolfbrigade, and Disfear) also emerged from Sweden, which had always had a strong D-beat scene. Many of these groups developed in parallel with the much more commercial Scandinavian death metal scene.


title: Crust punk

text: Some notable crust bands in the 2000s include Iskra, Behind Enemy Lines, and Tragedy. The Spanish city A Coruña has a crust scene which includes bands as Black Panda, Ekkaia and Madame Germen. In 2017, Bandcamp Daily wrote that Fluff Fest, held in Czechia since 2000, has become a "summer ritual" for many fans of crust punk in Europe.


title: Crust punk

text: Crust punk groups, such as Antisect, Sacrilege and Anti System took some influence from early black metal bands like Venom, Hellhammer, and Celtic Frost, while Amebix's lead vocalist and guitarist sent his band's early demo tape to Cronos of Venom, who replied by saying "We'll rip you off". Similarly, Bathory was initially inspired by crust punk as well as heavy metal.


title: Crust punk

text: Crust punk was affected by a second wave of black metal in the 1990s, with some bands emphasizing these black metal elements. Iskra are probably the most obvious example of second wave black metal-influenced crust punk; Iskra coined their own phrase "blackened crust" to describe their new style. The Japanese group Gallhammer also fused crust punk with black metal while the English band Fukpig has been said to have elements of crust punk, black metal, and grindcore. Germany's Downfall of Gaia has been described as mixing crustgrind and black metal, along with elements of sludge metal, doom metal and post-metal. North Carolina's Young and in the Way have been playing blackened crust since their formation in 2009. In addition, Norwegian band Darkthrone have incorporated crust punk traits in their mid-to-late 2000s material. As Daniel Ekeroth wrote in 2008,


title: Crust punk

text: Red and anarchist black metal (also known as RABM or anarchist black metal) is a subgenre that melds black metal with anarchist crust punk, promoting ideologies such as anarchism, environmentalism, or Marxism. Artists labelled RABM include Iskra, Panopticon, Skagos, Storm of Sedition, Not A Cost, Black Kronstadt, and Vidargangr.


title: Crust punk

text: Crack rock steady is a punk rock fusion-genre, which combines elements of crust punk and ska punk. Lyrics often focus on themes such as drug-use, religion, politics and social issues. Other genres sometimes incorporated in conjunction with the style include hardcore punk and heavy metal. Notable bands within the genre include Choking Victim, Leftöver Crack, Morning Glory and Star Fucking Hipsters.


title: Crust punk

text: Crustcore (also known as crusty hardcore), is a sub-genre of crust punk that takes influence from hardcore punk and sometimes thrashcore. Felix Havok described Extreme Noise Terror's segment of the "Earslaughter" split album with Chaos UK as the first album in the genre. Crustcore bands include Extreme Noise Terror, Doom, Disrupt, Wolfbrigade, Neurosis, Baptists, Discharge and Filth.


title: Crust punk

text: Crust punk had a major impact on grindcore's emergence. The first grindcore, practiced by the British bands such as Napalm Death and Extreme Noise Terror emerged from the crust punk scene. This early style is sometimes dubbed "crustgrind".


title: Crust punk

text: Neo crust is a genre that merges crust punk with elements of various extreme music styles including black metal, screamo, post-rock, hardcore punk, death metal and doom metal. Unlike most other punk–metal fusion genres, neo-crust's sound is neither distinctively rooted in punk or metal, insead frequently shifting between the two, disregarding genre boundaries. It is often dark and heavy however also melodic. Notable bands include His Hero is Gone, Tragedy, Fall of Efrafa and From Ashes Rise.


title: Crust punk

text: Crust punks are associated with a DIY-oriented branch of punk garb. Similar to anarcho-punk, most clothing is black in color. Denim jackets and hooded sweatshirts with sewn-on patches, or vests covered in studs, spikes and band patches are characteristic elements of the crust punk style of dress or pants covered in band patches. Crust punks also sometimes wear dreadlocks and piercings. Julian "Leggo" Kilsby of Deviated Instinct describes crust as "a punk-y biker look, more akin to Mad Max. "Mad Max 2" is the crustiest film ever made!"


title: Crust punk

text: Members of the sub-culture are generally outspokenly political, possessing anarchist and anti-consumerist views.


title: O'Neill cylinder

text: An O'Neill cylinder (also called an O'Neill colony) is a space settlement concept proposed by American physicist Gerard K. O'Neill in his 1976 book "". O'Neill proposed the colonization of space for the 21st century, using materials extracted from the Moon and later from asteroids.


title: O'Neill cylinder

text: An O'Neill cylinder would consist of two counter-rotating cylinders. The cylinders would rotate in opposite directions to cancel any gyroscopic effects that would otherwise make it difficult to keep them aimed toward the Sun. Each would be in diameter and long, connected at each end by a rod via a bearing system. Their rotation would provide artificial gravity.


title: O'Neill cylinder

text: While teaching undergraduate physics at Princeton University, O'Neill set his students the task of designing large structures in outer space, with the intent of showing that living in space could be desirable. Several of the designs were able to provide volumes large enough to be suitable for human habitation. This cooperative result inspired the idea of the cylinder and was first published by O'Neill in a September 1974 article of "Physics Today".


title: O'Neill cylinder

text: O'Neill's project was not the first example of this concept. In 1954, German scientist Hermann Oberth described the use of gigantic habitable cylinders for space travel in his book ("People in Space—New Projects for Rockets and Space Travel"). In 1970, science-fiction author Larry Niven proposed a similar, but larger-scale, concept in his novel Ringworld. Shortly before O'Neill proposed his cylinder, Arthur C. Clarke used such a cylinder (albeit of extraterrestrial construction) in his novel "Rendezvous with Rama".


title: O'Neill cylinder

text: To save the immense cost of rocketing the materials from Earth, these habitats would be built with materials launched into space from the Moon with a magnetic mass driver.


title: O'Neill cylinder

text: In the September 1974 edition of "Physics Today" Magazine, Dr. O'Neill argued that life onboard an O'Neill Cylinder would be better than some places on Earth. This would be because of an abundance in food, climate and weather control, and the fact that there would be no need for vehicles that use combustion engines that would create smog and pollution. The inhabitants would also keep themselves active and entertained by practicing current earth sports such as skiing, sailing, and mountain climbing, thanks to artificially generated gravity due to the cylinder's rotation. In addition to these sports new sports would also be created out of the habitat being enclosed in a cylinder in space and these circumstances would be creatively taken advantage of.


title: O'Neill cylinder

text: The cylinders rotate to provide artificial gravity on their inner surface. At the radius described by O'Neill, the habitats would have to rotate about twenty-eight times an hour to simulate a standard Earth gravity; an angular velocity of 2.8 degrees per second. Research on human factors in rotating reference frames


title: O'Neill cylinder

text: indicate that, at such low rotation speeds, few people would experience motion sickness due to coriolis forces acting on the inner ear. People would, however, be able to detect spinward and antispinward directions by turning their heads, and any dropped items would appear to be deflected by a few centimetres. The central axis of the habitat would be a zero-gravity region, and it was envisaged that recreational facilities could be located there.


title: O'Neill cylinder

text: The habitat was planned to have oxygen at partial pressures roughly similar to terrestrial air, 20% of the Earth's sea-level air pressure. Nitrogen would also be included to add a further 30% of the Earth's pressure. This half-pressure atmosphere would save gas and reduce the needed strength and thickness of the habitat walls.


title: O'Neill cylinder

text: At this scale, the air within the cylinder and the shell of the cylinder provide adequate shielding against cosmic rays. The internal volume of an O'Neill cylinder is great enough to support its own small weather systems, which may be manipulated by altering the internal atmospheric composition or the amount of reflected sunlight.


title: O'Neill cylinder

text: Large mirrors are hinged at the back of each stripe of window. The unhinged edge of the windows points toward the Sun. The purpose of the mirrors is to reflect sunlight into the cylinders through the windows. Night is simulated by opening the mirrors, letting the window view empty space; this also permits heat to radiate to space. During the day, the reflected Sun appears to move as the mirrors move, creating a natural progression of Sun angles. Although not visible to the naked eye, the Sun's image might be observed to rotate due to the cylinder's rotation. Light reflected by mirrors is polarized, which might confuse pollinating bees.


title: O'Neill cylinder

text: To permit light to enter the habitat, large windows run the length of the cylinder. These would not be single panes, but would be made up of many small sections, to prevent catastrophic damage, and so the aluminum or steel window frames can take most of the stresses of the air pressure of the habitat. Occasionally a meteoroid might break one of these panes. This would cause some loss of the atmosphere, but calculations showed that this would not be an emergency, due to the very large volume of the habitat.


title: O'Neill cylinder

text: The habitat and its mirrors must be perpetually aimed at the Sun to collect solar energy and light the habitat's interior. O'Neill and his students carefully worked out a method of continuously turning the colony 360 degrees per orbit without using rockets (which would shed reaction mass).


title: O'Neill cylinder

text: First, the pair of habitats can be rolled by operating the cylinders as momentum wheels. If one habitat's rotation is slightly off, the two cylinders will rotate about each other. Once the plane formed by the two axes of rotation is perpendicular in the roll axis to the orbit, then the pair of cylinders can be yawed to aim at the Sun by exerting a force between the two sunward bearings. Pushing the cylinders away from each other will cause both cylinders to gyroscopically precess, and the system will yaw in one direction, while pushing them towards each other will cause yaw in the other direction. The counter-rotating habitats have no net gyroscopic effect, and so this slight precession can continue throughout the habitat's orbit, keeping it aimed at the Sun. This is a novel application of control moment gyroscopes.


title: O'Neill cylinder

text: In 1990 and 2007, a smaller design derivative known as Kalpana One was presented, which addresses the wobbling effect of a rotating cylinder by increasing the diameter and shortening the length. The logistical challenges of radiation shielding are dealt with by constructing the station in low Earth orbit and removing the windows.


title: O'Neill cylinder

text: In 2014, a new construction method was suggested that involved inflating a bag and taping it with a spool (constructed from asteroidal materials) like the construction of a composite overwrapped pressure vessel.


title: O'Neill cylinder

text: At a Blue Origin event in Washington on May 9, 2019 Jeff Bezos proposed building O'Neill colonies rather than colonizing other planets.


title: Cynicism (contemporary)

text: Cynicism is an attitude characterized by a general distrust of the motives of "others". A cynic may have a general lack of faith or hope in people motivated by ambition, desire, greed, gratification, materialism, goals, and opinions that a cynic perceives as vain, unobtainable, or ultimately meaningless and therefore deserving of ridicule or admonishment. The term originally derives from the ancient Greek philosophers, the Cynics, who rejected conventional goals of wealth, power, and honor. They practiced shameless nonconformity with social norms in religion, manners, housing, dress, or decency, instead advocating the pursuit of virtue in accordance with a simple and natural way of life.


title: Cynicism (contemporary)

text: By the 19th century, emphasis on the ascetic ideals and the critique of current civilization based on how it might fall short of an ideal civilization or negativistic aspects of Cynic philosophy led the modern understanding of cynicism to mean a disposition of disbelief in the sincerity or goodness of human motives and actions. Modern cynicism is a distrust toward professed ethical and social values, especially when there are high expectations concerning society, institutions, and authorities that are unfulfilled. It can manifest itself as a result of frustration, disillusionment, and distrust perceived as owing to organizations, authorities, and other aspects of society.


title: Cynicism (contemporary)

text: Cynicism is often confused with pessimism or nihilism, perhaps due to its distrust in others. The differences between the three is that cynicism is a distrust by prudence; while due to a sense of defeatism, pessimism is the distrust of potential success. Nihilism on its part is the general distrust cast upon the belief that anything in life (including life itself) has any valuable meaning.


title: Cynicism (contemporary)

text: Modern cynicism has been defined as an attitude of distrust toward claimed ethical and social values and a rejection of the need to be socially involved. It is pessimistic about the capacity of human beings to make correct ethical choices, and one antonym is naiveté. Modern cynicism is sometimes regarded as a product of mass society, especially in those circumstances where the individual believes there is a conflict between society's stated motives and goals and actual motives and goals.


title: Cynicism (contemporary)

text: Cynicism can appear more active in depression. In his bestselling "Critique of Cynical Reason" (1983), Peter Sloterdijk defined modern cynics as "borderline melancholics, who can keep their symptoms of depression under control and yet retain the ability to work, whatever might happen ... indeed, this is the essential point in modern cynicism: the ability of its bearers to work—in spite of anything that might happen."


title: Cynicism (contemporary)

text: One active aspect of cynicism involves the desire to expose hypocrisy and to point out gaps between ideals and practices. George Bernard Shaw allegedly expressed this succinctly: "The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who don't have it".


title: Cynicism (contemporary)

text: A study published in "Neurology" journal in 2014 found an association between high levels of late-life "cynical distrust" (interpreted and measured in the study in terms of hostility) and dementia. The survey included 622 people who were tested for dementia for a period of 8 years. In that period, 46 people were diagnosed with dementia. "Once researchers adjusted for other factors that could affect dementia risk, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and smoking, people with high levels of cynical distrust were three times more likely to develop dementia than people with low levels of cynicism. Of the 164 people with high levels of cynicism, 14 people developed dementia, compared to nine of the 212 people with low levels of cynicism."


title: Cynicism (contemporary)

text: Research has also shown that cynicism is related to feelings of disrespect. According to a study published in the "" in 2020"," "everyday experiences of disrespect elevated cynical beliefs and vice versa. Moreover, cynical individuals tended to treat others with disrespect, which in turn predicted more disrespectful treatment by others."


title: Cynicism (contemporary)

text: In a 1996 paper, J. N. Cappella and K. H. Jamieson claimed that "healthy skepticism may have given way to corrosive cynicism". Cynicism regarding government or politics can logically lead to political withdrawal and effective political helplessness. In 2013 conservative politician and political theorist William J. Bennett warned that America could "crumble from within; that we would become cynical and withdraw".


title: Cynicism (contemporary)

text: A 2004 experiment and paper called "The Effects of Strategic News on Political Cynicism, Issue Evaluations, and Policy Support: A Two-Wave Experiment" found that the way the news media presents the news can cause political cynicism. The experiment also demonstrated "a negative relation between efficacy and cynicism suggesting that efficacious citizens were less likely to be cynical about politics". It was found that straight dry, "issues-based" news did not cause political cynicism, but that "Strategic News" and "game news" did. The latter two types of news presentation emphasize:


title: Cynicism (contemporary)

text: Social cynicism results from high expectations concerning society, institutions and authorities; unfulfilled expectations lead to disillusionment, which releases feelings of disappointment and betrayal.


title: Cynicism (contemporary)

text: In organizations, cynicism manifests itself as a general or specific attitude, characterized by frustration, hopelessness, disillusionment and distrust in regard to economic or governmental organizations, managers or other aspects of work.


title: Theotokos

text: Theotokos (Greek: ) is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern Christianity. The usual Latin translations are "Dei Genitrix" or "Deipara" (approximately "parent (fem.) of God"). Familiar English translations are "Mother of God" or "God-bearer" – but these both have different literal equivalents in Greek, Μήτηρ Θεοῦ and Θεοφόρος ("Who gave birth to one who was God", "Whose child was God", respectively).


title: Theotokos

text: The title has been in use since the 3rd century, in the Syriac tradition (as ) in the Liturgy of Mari and Addai (3rd century) and the Liturgy of St James (4th century). The Council of Ephesus in AD 431 decreed that Mary is the "Theotokos" because Her Son Jesus is both God and man: one divine person from two natures (divine and human) intimately and hypostatically united.


title: Theotokos

text: The title of Mother of God (Greek: ) or Mother of Incarnate God; abbreviated ΜΡ ΘΥ (first and last letter of each word in Greek), is most often used in English, largely due to the lack of a satisfactory equivalent of the Greek τόκος. For the same reason, the title is often left untranslated, as "Theotokos", in Orthodox liturgical usage of other languages.


title: Theotokos

text: "Theotokos" is also used as the term for an Eastern icon, or type of icon, of the Mother with Child (typically called a "Madonna" in western tradition), as in "the Theotokos of Vladimir" both for the original 12th-century icon and for icons that are copies or imitate its composition.


title: Theotokos

text: Theotokos is an adjectival compound of two Greek words Θεός "God" and τόκος "childbirth, parturition; offspring". A close paraphrase would be "[she] whose offspring is God" or "[she] who gave birth to one who was God". The usual English translation is simply "Mother of God"; Latin uses "Deipara" or "Dei Genitrix".


title: Theotokos

text: The Church Slavonic translation is "Bogoroditsa" (Russian/Serbian/Bulgarian ). The full title of Mary in Slavic Orthodox tradition is (Russian ), from Greek "Our Most Holy Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary". German has the translation "Gottesgebärerin" (lit. "bearer of God").


title: Theotokos

text: "Mother of God" is the literal translation of a distinct title in Greek, Μήτηρ τοῦ Θεοῦ (translit. "Mētēr tou Theou"), a term which has an established usage of its own in traditional Orthodox and Catholic theological writing, hymnography, and iconography.


title: Theotokos

text: In an abbreviated form, (), it often is found on Eastern icons, where it is used to identify Mary. The Russian term is (also ).


title: Theotokos

text: Variant forms are the compounds Θεομήτωρ (translit. "Theomētōr"; also spelled Θεομήτηρ, translit. "Theomētēr") and Μητρόθεος (translit. "Mētrotheos"), which are found in patristic and liturgical texts.


title: Theotokos

text: The theological dispute over the term concerned the term Θεός "God" vs. Χριστός "Christ", and not τόκος ("genitrix", "bearer") vs. μήτηρ ("mater", "mother"), and the two terms have been used as synonyms throughout Christian tradition. Both terms are known to have existed alongside one another since the early church, but it has been argued, even in modern times, that the term "Mother of God" is unduly suggestive of Godhead having its origin in Mary, imparting to Mary the role of a Mother Goddess. But this is an exact reiteration of the objection by Nestorius, resolved in the 5th century, to the effect that the term "Mother" expresses exactly the relation of Mary to the incarnate Son ascribed to Mary in Christian theology.


title: Theotokos

text: Theologically, the terms "Mother of God", "Mother of Incarnate God" (and its variants) should not be taken to imply that Mary is the source of the divine nature of Jesus, who Christians believe existed with the Father from all eternity.


title: Theotokos

text: Within the Orthodox and Catholic tradition, "Mother of God" has not been understood, nor been intended to be understood, as referring to Mary as Mother of God "from eternity" — that is, as Mother of God the Father — but only with reference to the birth of Jesus, that is, the Incarnation.


title: Theotokos

text: To make it explicit, it is sometimes translated "Mother of God Incarnate". (cf. the topic of Christology, and the titles of God the Son and Son of man).


title: Theotokos

text: The Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381 affirmed the Christian faith on "one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds (æons)", that "came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary, and was made man". Since that time, the expression "Mother of God" referred to the Dyophysite doctrine of the hypostatic union, about the uniqueness with the twofold nature of Jesus Christ God, which is both human and divine (nature distincted, but not separable nor mixed). Since that time, Jesus was affirmed as true Man and true God from all eternity.


title: Theotokos

text: The status of Mary as "Theotokos" was a topic of theological dispute in the 4th and 5th centuries and was


title: Theotokos

text: the subject of the decree of the Council of Ephesus of 431 to the effect that, in opposition to those who denied Mary the title "Theotokos" ("the one who gives birth to God") but called her "Christotokos" ("the one who gives birth to Christ"), Mary "is" "Theotokos" because her son Jesus is one person who is both God and man, divine and human. This decree created the Nestorian Schism. Cyril of Alexandria wrote, "I am amazed that there are some who are entirely in doubt as to whether the holy Virgin should be called "Theotokos" or not. For if our Lord Jesus Christ is God, how is the holy Virgin who gave [Him] birth, not ["Theotokos"]?" (Epistle 1, to the monks of Egypt; PG 77:13B). But the argument of Nestorius was that divine and human natures of Christ were distinct, and while Mary is evidently the "Christotokos" (bearer of Christ), it could be misleading to describe her as the "bearer of God". At issue is the interpretation of the Incarnation, and the nature of the hypostatic union of Christ's human and divine natures between Christ's conception and birth.


title: Theotokos

text: Within the Orthodox doctrinal teaching on the economy of salvation, Mary's identity, role, and status as "Theotokos" is acknowledged as indispensable. For this reason, it is formally defined as official dogma. The only other Mariological teaching so defined is that of her virginity. Both of these teachings have a bearing on the identity of Jesus Christ. By contrast, certain other Marian beliefs which do not bear directly on the doctrine concerning the person of Jesus (for example, her sinlessness, the circumstances surrounding her conception and birth, her Presentation in the Temple, her continuing virginity following the birth of Jesus, and her death), which are taught and believed by the Orthodox Church (being expressed in the Church's liturgy and patristic writings), are not formally defined by the Church.


title: Theotokos

text: Athanasius of Alexandria in 330, Gregory the Theologian in 370, John Chrysostom in 400, and Augustine all used "theotokos".


title: Theotokos

text: Origen (d. 254) is often cited as the earliest author to use "theotokos" for Mary (Socrates, "Ecclesiastical History" 7.32 (PG 67, 812 B) citing Origen's "Commentary on Romans"). Although this testimony is uncertain, the term was used c. 250 by Dionysius of Alexandria, in an epistle to Paul of Samosata.


title: Theotokos

text: The oldest preserved extant hymn dedicated to the Virgin Mary, Ὑπὸ τὴν σὴν εὐσπλαγχνίαν (English: "Beneath thy Compassion," Latin: "Sub tuum praesidium",) has been continually prayed and sung for at least sixteen centuries, in the original Koine Greek vocative, as ΘΕΟΤΟΚΕ. The oldest record of this hymn is a papyrus found in Egypt, mostly dated to after 450, but according to a suggestion by de Villiers (2011) possibly older, dating to the mid-3rd century.


title: Theotokos

text: The use of "Theotokos" was formally affirmed at the Third Ecumenical Council held at Ephesus in 431. It proclaimed that Mary truly became the Mother of God by the human conception of the Son of God in her womb:


title: Theotokos

text: The competing view, advocated by Patriarch Nestorius of Constantinople, was that Mary should be called "Christotokos", meaning "Birth-giver of Christ," to restrict her role to the mother of Christ's humanity only and not his divine nature.


title: Theotokos

text: Nestorius' opponents, led by Cyril of Alexandria, viewed this as dividing Jesus into two distinct persons, the human who was Son of Mary, and the divine who was not. To them, this was unacceptable since by destroying the perfect union of the divine and human natures in Christ, it sabotaged the fullness of the Incarnation and, by extension, the salvation of humanity. The council accepted Cyril's reasoning, affirmed the title "Theotokos" for Mary, and anathematized Nestorius' view as heresy. (See Nestorianism)


title: Theotokos

text: In letters to Nestorius which were afterwards included among the council documents, Cyril explained his doctrine. He noted that "the holy fathers... have ventured to call the holy Virgin "Theotokos", not as though the nature of the Word or his divinity received the beginning of their existence from the holy Virgin, but because from her was born his holy body, rationally endowed with a soul, with which the Word was united according to the hypostasis, and is said to have been begotten according to the flesh" (Cyril's second letter to Nestorius).


title: Theotokos

text: Confessing the Word to be united with the flesh according to the hypostasis, we worship one Son and Lord, Jesus Christ. We do not divide him into parts and separate man and God as though they were united with each other [only] through a unity of dignity and authority... nor do we name separately Christ the Word from God, and in similar fashion, separately, another Christ from the woman, but we know only one Christ, the Word from God the Father with his own flesh... But we do not say that the Word from God dwelt as in an ordinary human born of the holy virgin... we understand that, when he became flesh, not in the same way as he is said to dwell among the saints do we distinguish the manner of the indwelling; but he was united by nature and not turned into flesh... There is, then, one Christ and Son and Lord, not with the sort of conjunction that a human being might have with God as in a unity of dignity or authority; for equality of honor does not unite natures. For Peter and John were equal to each other in honor, both of them being apostles and holy disciples, but the two were not one. Nor do we understand the manner of conjunction to be one of juxtaposition, for this is insufficient in regard to natural union... Rather we reject the term 'conjunction' as being inadequate to express the union... [T]he holy virgin gave birth in the flesh to God united with the flesh according to hypostasis, for that reason we call her "Theotokos"... If anyone does not confess that Emmanuel is, in truth, God, and therefore that the holy virgin is "Theotokos" (for she bore in a fleshly manner the Word from God become flesh), let him be anathema. (Cyril's third letter to Nestorius)


title: Theotokos

text: The Nestorian Church, known as the Church of the East within the Syrian tradition, rejected the decision of the Council of Ephesus and its confirmation at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. This was the church of the Sassanid Empire during the late 5th and early 6th centuries. The schism ended in 544, when patriarch Aba I ratified the decision of Chalcedon. After this, there was no longer technically any "Nestorian Church", i.e. a church following the doctrine of Nestorianism, although legends persisted that still further to the east such a church was still in existence (associated in particular with the figure of Prester John), and the label of "Nestorian" continued to be applied even though it was technically no longer correct. Modern research suggests that also the Church of the East in China did not teach a doctrine of two distinct natures of Christ."


title: Theotokos

text: Lutheran tradition retained the title of "Mother of God" (German "Mutter Gottes", "Gottesmutter"), a term already embraced by Martin Luther; and officially confessed in the Formula of Concord (1577), accepted by Lutheran World Federation.


title: Theotokos

text: Calvin rejected calling Mary the "mother of God," saying, "I cannot think such language either right, or becoming, or suitable. ... To call the Virgin Mary the mother of God can only serve to confirm the ignorant in their superstitions."


title: Theotokos

text: In 1994, Pope John Paul II and Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East Mar Dinkha IV signed an ecumenical declaration, mutually recognizing the legitimacy of the titles "Mother of God" and "Mother of Christ." The declaration reiterates the Christological formulations of the Council of Chalcedon as a theological expression of the faith shared by both Churches, at the same time respecting the preference of each Church in using these titles in their liturgical life and piety.


title: Theotokos

text: "Theotokos" is often used in hymns to Mary in the Eastern Orthodox, Eastern Catholic and Oriental Orthodox churches. The most common is "Axion Estin" ("It is truly meet"), which is used in nearly every service.


title: Theotokos

text: Other examples include "Sub tuum praesidium", the "Hail Mary" in its Eastern form, and "All creation rejoices", which replaces "Axion Estin" at the Divine Liturgy on the Sundays of Great Lent.


title: Theotokos

text: The Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God is a Roman Catholic feast day introduced in 1969, based on older traditions associating 1 January with the motherhood of Mary.


title: Theotokos

text: One of the two earliest known depictions of the Virgin Mary is found in the Catacomb of Priscilla (3rd century) showing the adoration of the Magi. Recent conservation work at the Catacombs of Priscilla revealed that what had been identified for decades as the earliest image of the Virgin and Child was actually a traditional funerary image of a Roman matron; the pointing figure with her, formerly identified as a prophet, was shown to have had its arm position adjusted and the star he was supposedly pointing to was painted in at a later date. The putative Annunciation scene at Priscilla is also now recognized as yet another Roman matron with accompanying figure and not the Virgin Mary. Recently another third-century image of the Virgin Mary was identified at the eastern Syrian site of Dura Europos in the baptistry room of the earliest known Christian Church. The scene shows the Annunciation to the Virgin.


title: Theotokos

text: The tradition of Marian veneration was greatly expanded only with the affirmation of her status as "Theotokos" in 431. The mosaics in Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, dating from 432 to 40, just after the council, does not yet show her with a halo. The iconographic tradition of the "Theotokos" or Madonna (Our Lady), showing the Virgin enthroned carrying the infant Christ, is established by the following century, as attested by a very small number of surviving icons, including one at Saint Catherine's Monastery in Sinai, and Salus Populi Romani, a 5th or 6th-century Byzantine icon preserved in Rome. This type of depiction, with subtly changing differences of emphasis, has remained the mainstay of depictions of Mary to the present day. The roughly half-dozen varied icons of the Virgin and Child in Rome from the 6th to 8th centuries form the majority of the representations surviving from this period, as most early Byzantine icons were destroyed in the Byzantine Iconoclasm of the 8th and 9th century, notable exceptions being the 7th-century "Blachernitissa" and "Agiosoritissa".


title: Theotokos

text: The iconographic tradition is well developed by the early medieval period. The tradition of Luke the Evangelist being the first to have painted Mary is established by the 8th century.


title: Theotokos

text: An early icon of the Virgin as queen is in the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere in Rome, datable to 705-707 by the kneeling figure of Pope John VII, a notable promoter of the cult of the Virgin, to whom the infant Christ reaches his hand.


title: Theotokos

text: The earliest surviving image in a Western illuminated manuscript of the Madonna and Child comes from the Book of Kells of about 800 (there is a similar carved image on the lid of St Cuthbert's coffin of 698).


title: The Sisters Brothers (film)

text: The Sisters Brothers is a 2018 Western film directed by Jacques Audiard from a screenplay he co-wrote with Thomas Bidegain, based on the novel of the same name by Patrick deWitt. An American and French co-production, it is Audiard's first English-language work. The film stars John C. Reilly (who also produced) and Joaquin Phoenix as the notorious assassin brothers Eli and Charlie Sisters, and follows the two brothers as they chase after two men (Jake Gyllenhaal and Riz Ahmed) who have banded together to search for gold.


title: The Sisters Brothers (film)

text: The film had its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival on 2 September 2018, where it won the Silver Lion for Best Direction, and was theatrically released in the United States on 21 September 2018. "The Sisters Brothers" received positive reviews from critics, with most praise going to its performances, characters, direction and soundtrack. It was a box office bomb, grossing $13.1 million against its $38 million production budget. It was the final feature film featuring Rutger Hauer released before his death, although he had finished filming several projects released after his passing.


title: The Sisters Brothers (film)

text: In the American West in 1851, gunfighters Eli and Charlie Sisters are hired by the wealthy "Commodore" to kill a man named Hermann Warm.


title: The Sisters Brothers (film)

text: John Morris, a private detective, has been hired by the Commodore to track Warm down and hand him over to the Sisters brothers. Morris finds Warm traveling by wagon train to California with the Gold Rush and befriends him. They travel to Jacksonville where Morris has arranged his rendezvous with the Sisters brothers. Warm finds Morris’ handcuffs, realizes his true intentions, and threatens him at gunpoint but Morris overpowers him. Warm reveals that he plans to find gold using a chemical formula of his own invention; the Sisters brothers have been sent to retrieve the formula, most likely by torturing Warm before killing him. Refusing to allow an innocent man’s murder, Morris frees Warm and the two leave Jacksonville. On the road toward San Francisco, Warm reveals that his ultimate plan is to create a utopian society in Dallas, Texas.


title: The Sisters Brothers (film)

text: The brothers' pursuit is plagued by misfortune. A grizzly bear attacks their camp and mauls Eli's horse, Eli almost dies from a venomous spider bite and Charlie is repeatedly drunk and too hung over to ride. When they discover Morris' betrayal in Jacksonville, they follow the pair to Mayfield. At Ms. Mayfield's hotel and brothel, she denies having seen Warm and Morris but offers the brothers a warm welcome. A sympathetic prostitute warns Eli of an impending attack and he attempts to leave with a drunken Charlie but they are cornered by Mayfield's gunslingers. The brothers kill the gunslingers and interrogate Mayfield as to Warm's and Morris’ whereabouts, before murdering and robbing her.


title: The Sisters Brothers (film)

text: In San Francisco, Charlie and Eli argue about continuing their hunt. Eli wishes to retire and open a store, but Charlie angrily rejects this idea. The next day, Charlie reveals that he has found a claim staked in Morris’ name a few days' ride away. Eli agrees to complete the hunt as their final job.


title: The Sisters Brothers (film)

text: On the way to the claim site, the brothers are ambushed and captured by Warm and Morris, who are then attacked by Mayfield's men sent before her death to claim the formula for herself. The four team up to kill Mayfield's men, after which Charlie and Eli agree to help Warm and Morris find gold in exchange for half the takings. Morris is revealed to be a wealthy young man from Washington DC, who came west in rebellion against his father, now dead, and to whom Warm's Dallas phalanstère project has at last given a purpose in life. Working to dam the river, the new partners develop a camaraderie. Eli reveals to Warm that Charlie killed their abusive, alcoholic father when they were young, and that Charlie's short temper and violent tendencies put him in danger, so Eli reluctantly took up their present employment to protect him.


title: The Sisters Brothers (film)

text: The dam is completed and Warm explains that when his chemical formula is added to water, it causes gold ore to glow briefly, but is extremely caustic. The men pour the formula into the river and begin gathering the gold. When the glow begins to fade, Charlie panics and tries to add more formula, but spills the undiluted substance onto his hand and into the river. Morris, rushing to restrain Charlie, stumbles and is submerged in the contaminated water while Warm, ignoring Eli's warnings, jumps in to rescue him. The next day, Warm, blinded and badly burned, dies from his injuries while Morris shoots himself to end his suffering.


title: The Sisters Brothers (film)

text: Eli takes Charlie to the nearest town, where a doctor amputates his arm. Hired guns sent by the Commodore arrive and demand their surrender. Eli shoots them and he and Charlie decide they must kill the Commodore. They arrive in Oregon City to find that he has already died. The brothers' are the only mourners at the Commodore's open casket; Eli punches the corpse several times "just to make sure". The brothers return home to their mother; though initially suspicious, she welcomes them in.


title: The Sisters Brothers (film)

text: In 2011, it was announced that the film rights to the novel "The Sisters Brothers" had been sold to John C. Reilly's production company, and Reilly was set to play one of the brothers. Four years later, French director Jacques Audiard announced on the radio station RTL that he would direct the film, his first English-language feature. On 25 April 2016, "Deadline Hollywood" reported that Joaquin Phoenix had joined the project. In February 2017, "Variety" reported that Jake Gyllenhaal had also been cast, later announcing that Riz Ahmed joined as well. In May, "Variety" stated that Annapurna Pictures would also produce and co-finance the film, alongside Why Not Productions, with Megan Ellison serving as an executive producer on the project.


title: The Sisters Brothers (film)

text: The film started shooting in early June 2017 in the Spanish city Almería, and continued the shoot throughout the summer in Tabernas, Navarre and Aragon.


title: The Sisters Brothers (film)

text: "The Sisters Brothers" had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on 2 September 2018. It was also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on 7 September, and was theatrically released on 21 September 2018. Annapurna paid between $7.5–9 million for the North American distribution rights.


title: The Sisters Brothers (film)

text: , "The Sisters Brothers" has grossed $3.1 million in the United States and Canada, and $10 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $13.1 million, against a production budget of $38 million.


title: The Sisters Brothers (film)

text: During its limited opening weekend, on 21 September, the film grossed $115,575 from four theaters, an average of $28,894 per venue. It expanded to 27 theaters in its second weekend, making $233,258, and to 54 theaters in its third, grossing $203,525. By its seventh weekend of release, the film had crossed $3 million domestically, after grossing $66,665 in 146 theaters that weekend. Its widest release was at 1,141 theaters.


title: The Sisters Brothers (film)

text: On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of , based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads, ""The Sisters Brothers" rides familiar genre trails in occasionally unexpected ways - a satisfying journey further elevated by its well-matched leading men." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 78 out of 100, based on reviews from 44 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: The Sisters Brothers (film)

text: Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, calling it "resoundingly enjoyable and funny". William Bibbiani of IGN assigned it an 8.0 out of 10, saying, "John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix shine as wild west hitmen who are just smart enough to know they should be smarter, [and] whose quest leads them in unexpected, funny, and surprisingly emotional directions." Owen Gleibermen of "Variety" wrote, ""The Sisters Brothers" is too light to be a true drama and too heavy to be a comedy."


title: The Sisters Brothers (film)

text: The film earned a warm response, including a standing ovation, at the 75th Venice International Film Festival. Jacques Audiard won the Silver Lion for Best Director at the festival.


title: Bex Taylor-Klaus

text: Rebecca Edison "Bex" Taylor-Klaus (born August 12, 1994) is an American actor. They rose to fame for their starring role as Bullet on the crime drama series "The Killing" (2013). They gained further prominence with roles as Sin on the superhero drama series "Arrow" (2013–15), Lex on the comedy series "House of Lies" (2014), as Audrey Jensen on the horror series "Scream" (2015–16), and the voice of on the Netflix animated series "" (2016–18). They played the character Bishop in the drama series "Deputy", which aired from January to April 2020.


title: Bex Taylor-Klaus

text: Taylor-Klaus was born in Atlanta, Georgia to a Jewish family. Taylor-Klaus began acting by performing Shakespeare in an after-school program while in the third grade, and it became a consistent part of their extracurricular and summer activities. They also performed in a high school improvisation troupe and played several roles before completing high school. Working with friends, they also started a junior high school acting troupe to train young actors. In addition to drama, Taylor-Klaus was an accomplished athlete, starting at catcher on the high school varsity softball team as a freshman and also playing third base. They have two siblings; Syd Taylor-Klaus and Josh Taylor-Klaus. In mid-2012, Taylor-Klaus moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career, attending Bridges Academy.


title: Bex Taylor-Klaus

text: Taylor-Klaus began acting in Shakespeare plays while in the third grade. However, their first professional acting role was that of Bullet, a homeless street-wise lesbian teen, on the third season of the AMC crime drama series "The Killing", which aired in 2013. Writing about playing Bullet, Taylor-Klaus said: "to be an actor is to want to visit the dark places that humans strive so hard to stay away from.”


title: Bex Taylor-Klaus

text: From 2013 to 2015, Taylor-Klaus played the recurring role of Sin in The CW superhero drama series "Arrow".


title: Bex Taylor-Klaus

text: Taylor-Klaus gained further success with their starring role of Audrey Jensen, a bi-curious teenager helping friends investigate a serial killer, in the first two seasons of the MTV horror drama series "Scream". They appeared on the series from 2015 to 2016.


title: Bex Taylor-Klaus

text: After gaining prominence from roles in "The Killing" and "Arrow", they went on to play several guest roles in numerous television series, including "Glee" and "iZombie". In 2016, they began voicing the starring role of Katie "Pidge" Holt in the Netflix animated series "".


title: Bex Taylor-Klaus

text: Taylor-Klaus had a starring role as Taylor in the slasher horror film "Hell Fest" (2018). They also starred as Hannah Perez in the 2018 musical comedy film "Dumplin'", which is a film adaptation of Julie Murphy’s "New York Times" bestselling young adult novel. The film, which co-stars Jennifer Aniston, was directed by Anne Fletcher. Taylor-Klaus also played Violette Paich in Mario Sorrenti’s horror film "Discarnate" (2018).


title: Bex Taylor-Klaus

text: In November 2016, Taylor-Klaus came out as gay on Twitter, saying: "hello my name is bex and yes the rumors are true I am gay." In July 2018, Taylor-Klaus came out as non-binary in a similar tweet and stated a preference for they/them pronouns.


title: Bex Taylor-Klaus

text: Taylor-Klaus was diagnosed with ADHD in elementary school and played multiple sports, including baseball, which they said helped to control it.


title: Bex Taylor-Klaus

text: In August 2019, Taylor-Klaus got engaged to their girlfriend, actress Alicia Sixtos, and married in October 2020.


title: Soft Machine

text: Soft Machine are a British rock band from Canterbury formed in mid-1966 by Mike Ratledge (keyboards, 1966–1976), Robert Wyatt (drums, vocals, 1966–1971), Kevin Ayers (bass, guitar, vocals, 1966–1968) and Daevid Allen (guitar, 1966–1967). As a central band of the Canterbury scene, the group became one of the first British psychedelic acts and later moved into progressive rock and jazz fusion. Their varying line-ups have included former members such as Andy Summers (guitar, 1968), Hugh Hopper (bass, 1968–1973), Elton Dean (saxophone 1969–1972), Karl Jenkins (keyboards, saxophone, 1972–1978, 1980–1981, 1984) and Allan Holdsworth (guitar, 1973–1975), and currently consists of John Marshall (drums, 1972–1978, 1980–1981, 1984 and since 2015), John Etheridge (guitar, 1975–1978, 1984 and since 2015), Theo Travis (saxophone, flutes, keyboards since 2015), and Fred Thelonious Baker (bass since 2020).


title: Soft Machine

text: Though they achieved little commercial success, the Soft Machine are considered by critics to have been influential in rock music. Dave Lynch at AllMusic called them "one of the more influential bands of their era, and certainly one of the most influential underground ones". The group were named after the novel "The Soft Machine" by William S. Burroughs.


title: Soft Machine

text: Soft Machine (billed as The Soft Machine up to 1969 or 1970) were formed in mid-1966 by Robert Wyatt (drums, vocals), Kevin Ayers (bass, guitar, vocals), Daevid Allen (guitar) and Mike Ratledge (organ). Allen, Wyatt and future bassist Hugh Hopper first played together in the Daevid Allen Trio in 1963, occasionally accompanied by Ratledge. Wyatt, Ayers, and Hopper had been founding members of The Wilde Flowers, incarnations of which would also include future members of another Canterbury band, Caravan.


title: Soft Machine

text: This first Soft Machine line-up became involved in the early UK underground, performing at the UFO Club and other London clubs like the Speakeasy Club and Middle Earth. According to Wyatt, the negative reactions the Soft Machine received when playing at venues other than these underground clubs were what led to their penchant for long tracks and segued tunes, since playing continuously left their audiences no chance to boo. Their first single, "Love Makes Sweet Music" (recorded 5 February 1967, produced by Chas Chandler), was released by Polydor in February, backed with "Feelin' Reelin' Squeelin (January 1967, produced by Kim Fowley). It was a commercial flop. In April 1967 they recorded nine demo songs with producer Giorgio Gomelsky in De Lane Lea Studios that remained unreleased until 1971 in a dispute over studio costs. They also played in the Netherlands, Germany, and on the French Riviera. During July and August 1967, Gomelsky booked shows along the Côte d'Azur with the band's most famous early gig taking place in the village square of Saint-Tropez. This led to an invitation to perform at producer Eddie Barclay's trendy "Nuit Psychédélique", performing a forty-minute rendering of "We Did It Again", singing the refrain over and over in a trance-like quality. This made them instant darlings of the Parisian "in" crowd, resulting in invitations to appear on television shows and at the Paris Biennale in October 1967. When returning from France, Allen (an Australian) was denied re-entry to the United Kingdom, so the group continued as a trio, while he returned to Paris to form Gong.


title: Soft Machine

text: Sharing the same management as Jimi Hendrix, the band supported The Jimi Hendrix Experience's North America tour throughout 1968. Soft Machine's first album was recorded in New York City in April at the end of the first leg of the tour. Back in London, guitarist Andy Summers, later of The Police, joined the group following the breakup of Dantalian's Chariot. After a few weeks of rehearsals, the quartet began a tour of the U.S. with some solo shows before reuniting with Hendrix during August and September 1968. Summers was fired at the insistence of Ayers. Ayers departed amicably after the final tour date at the Hollywood Bowl in mid-September, and Soft Machine disbanded. Wyatt stayed in the U.S. to record solo demos, while Ratledge returned to London and began composing in earnest. One of Wyatt's demos, "Slow Walkin' Talk", allowed Wyatt to make use of his multi-instrumentalist skills (Hammond organ, piano, drums and vocals) and featured Hendrix on bass guitar.


title: Soft Machine

text: In December 1968, to fulfill contractual obligations, Soft Machine re-formed with former road manager and composer Hugh Hopper on bass added to Wyatt and Ratledge and recorded their second album, "Volume Two" (1969), which started a transition toward jazz fusion. In May 1969 this line-up acted as the uncredited backing band on two tracks of "The Madcap Laughs", the debut solo album by Syd Barrett. In October 1969 the band became a septet with the addition of four horn players, saxophonists Elton Dean and Lyn Dobson, cornet player Mark Charig and trombonist Nick Evans, though the latter two departed after two months.


title: Soft Machine

text: The resulting Soft Machine quintet (Wyatt, Hopper, Ratledge, Dean and Dobson) continued until March 1970, when Dobson departed. The remaining quartet recorded "Third" (1970, which also included a live track, "Facelift", recorded when Dobson was still with the band) and "Fourth" (1971). "Fourth" was the first of their fully instrumental albums and the last one featuring Wyatt.


title: Soft Machine

text: Their propensity for building extended suites from regular-sized compositions, both live and in the studio (already in the Ayers suite in their first album), reached its apogee in the 1970 album "Third", unusual for its time with each of the four sides featuring one suite. "Third" was also unusual for remaining in print for more than ten years in the U.S., and is the best-selling Soft Machine recording.


title: Soft Machine

text: They received unprecedented acclaim across Europe, and they made history by becoming the first rock band invited to play at London's Proms in August 1970. The show was broadcast live on national TV and later appeared as a live album.


title: Soft Machine

text: After differences over the group's musical direction, Wyatt left (or was fired from) the band in August 1971 and formed Matching Mole (a pun on "machine molle", French for "soft machine"; also said at the time to have been taken from stage lighting equipment "Matching Mole"). He was briefly replaced by Australian drummer Phil Howard. This line-up toured extensively in Europe during the end of 1971 (attested by the 2008 release, "Drop") and began the recording of their next album, but further musical disagreements led to Howard's dismissal after the recording of the first LP side of "Fifth" (1972) at the beginning of 1972, with the second LP side recorded with his replacement, John Marshall. Later in 1972, Dean left the band, and was replaced by Karl Jenkins, who also played keyboards in addition to saxophone. Both Marshall and Jenkins were former members of Ian Carr's Nucleus, and the band's next album, "Six" (1973), saw their sound develop even more towards jazz fusion.


title: Soft Machine

text: After the release of "Six" in 1973, Hopper left the band. He was replaced by Roy Babbington, another former Nucleus member, who played 6-string bass guitar, while Karl Jenkins took over as bandleader and composer. After they released "Seven" (1973), the band switched record labels from Columbia to Harvest. On their 1975 album, "Bundles", a significant musical change occurred with Allan Holdsworth adding guitar as a prominent melody instrument to the band's sound, sometimes reminiscent of John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra, setting the album apart from previous Soft Machine albums which had rarely featured guitars. Holdsworth was replaced by John Etheridge, with saxophonist Alan Wakeman added at the beginning of 1976 and Ratledge, the last remaining original member of the band, leaving shortly after. Wakeman's time was the band was brief, but did record with them on the next album "Softs" (1976, which featured Ratledge on two tracks recorded just before his departure). Other musicians in the band during the later period were bassists Percy Jones (of Brand X) and Steve Cook, saxophonist Ray Warleigh, and violinist Ric Sanders. Their 1977 performances and record (titled "Alive and Well", ironically) were among the last for Soft Machine as a working band, their last performance (until the 1984 reformation) being the only Soft Machine concert of 1978, at the Sound & Musik Festival in Dortmund, Germany on 8 December.


title: Soft Machine

text: Marshall and Jenkins resurrected the Soft Machine name for the 1981 record "Land of Cockayne". Soft Machine also briefly reformed for a series of dates at London's Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in the summer of 1984, featuring John Marshall, Karl Jenkins, John Etheridge, Ray Warleigh, bassist Paul Carmichael and pianist Dave MacRae.


title: Soft Machine

text: Soft Heap (Hugh, Elton, Alan, Pip) formed in January 1978, featuring Hugh Hopper and Elton Dean from Soft Machine, and Alan Gowen and Pip Pyle from the band National Health. The newly formed band toured in the spring and summer of 1978 as Soft Head as Dave Sheen replaced Pip Pyle, due to the latter's commitments with the band National Health. The live album "Rogue Element" was recorded on that tour and was released in 1978.


title: Soft Machine

text: The original Soft Heap line-up reconvened in October 1978 to record their eponymous studio album "Soft Heap" which was released in 1979.


title: Soft Machine

text: After two line-up changes that occurred in 1979–81, the new line-up toured intermittently throughout the 1980s, embarking on four tours during the decade with a total of 25 European concerts, culminating with a gig on 11 May 1988 at the Festival "Jazz sous les pommiers" in Coutances, France.


title: Soft Machine

text: Soft Ware (sometimes SoftWhere) formed in September 1999, featuring Elton Dean, Hugh Hopper, John Marshall (on drums) and longtime friend Keith Tippett. This line-up would remain together only briefly, and played just a single gig (Augustusburg Hunting Lodge, Germany, Sept. 4, 1999). Then in 2002, with Tippett unavailable, another former Soft Machine member, Allan Holdsworth (on guitar), was brought in with the remaining three members of Soft Ware, who renamed themselves Soft Works in June 2002 to avoid confusion with Peter Mergener's band Software. As Soft Works, they made their world live debut on 17 August 2002 at the Progman Cometh Festival (at the Moore Theater in Seattle, Washington), released (on 29 July 2003) their only (studio) album, "Abracadabra", consisting of all new material recorded at the Eastcote Studios in London on 5–7 June 2002, and toured Japan in August 2003, Italy in January and February 2004, and Mexico in March 2004.


title: Soft Machine

text: During a Japanese Soft Works tour in August 2003, Elton Dean (on saxophone) and Hugh Hopper (on bass) formed the (very) short-lived band Soft Mountain along with Japanese musicians Hoppy Kamiyama (on keyboards, whose name translates as "God Mountain"), whom Hopper had met a couple of years earlier, and Yoshida Tatsuya (from the band Ruins) on drums. Indeed, looking for a break from relatively fixed set lists and song forms, Hugh Hopper had contacted Kamiyama with the idea of hitting a studio for a day to see what might happen. Kamiyama brought in Tatsuya, and, with no discussion, the quartet dove right in, playing two 45-minute improvisations. In 2007, a year after Elton Dean unexpectedly passed at the age of sixty, the one-time meeting band released their eponymous album "Soft Mountain" that they had recorded on that 10 August 2003 day in Tokyo, Japan. The two-part "Soft Mountain Suite" extracts the best thirty minutes from each improvisation. Soft Mountain named themselves after Hoppy Kamiyama, whose name translates to "God Mountain" in English.


title: Soft Machine

text: In June 2004, Elton Dean and Hugh Hopper formed the (very) short-lived band Soft Bounds along with Sophia Domancich (keyboards) and Simon Goubert (drums), playing at the Festival "Les Tritonales" at Le Triton in Les Lilas, France (a suburb in the northeast of Paris). This concert was partially released as the (unique Soft Bounds) album "Live at Le Triton" in 2005.


title: Soft Machine

text: In October 2004, a new variant of Soft Works, with John Etheridge permanently replacing Holdsworth, took the name of "Soft Machine Legacy" and performed their first two gigs (two Festival shows on 9 October in Turkey and 15 October in Czech Republic), Liam Genockey temporarily replacing John Marshall who had ligament problems (the first Soft Machine Legacy line-up being consequently: Elton Dean, John Etheridge, Hugh Hopper and Liam Genockey). Later on, Soft Machine Legacy released three albums: "Live in Zaandam" (2005), the studio album "Soft Machine Legacy" (2006) recorded in September 2005 and featuring fresh material and the album "Live at the New Morning" (2006). After Elton Dean died in February 2006, the band continued with British saxophonist and flautist Theo Travis, formerly of Gong and The Tangent.


title: Soft Machine

text: In December 2006, the new Legacy line-up recorded the album "Steam" in Jon Hiseman's studio. "Steam" was released in August 2007 by Moonjune before a European tour.


title: Soft Machine

text: Hopper left in 2008 because he was suffering from leukaemia, so the band continued live performances with Fred Baker. Following Hopper's death in 2009, the band announced that they would continue with Roy Babbington again replacing Hugh Hopper on bass.


title: Soft Machine

text: Soft Machine Legacy released their fifth album in October 2010: a 58-minute album entitled "Live Adventures" recorded live in October 2009 in Austria and Germany during a European tour.


title: Soft Machine

text: Founding Soft Machine bassist Kevin Ayers died in February 2013, aged 68, while Daevid Allen died in March 2015 following a short battle with cancer, aged 77.


title: Soft Machine

text: On 18 March 2013, the Legacy band released a new studio album, titled "Burden of Proof". Travis stated that "legally we could actually be called Soft Machine but for various reasons it was decided to be one step removed."