title: Metropolitan Opera

text: Gelb focused on expanding the Met's audience through a number of fronts. Increasing the number of new productions every season to keep the Met's stagings fresh and noteworthy, Gelb partnered with other opera companies to import productions and engaged directors from theater, circus, and film to produce the Met's own original productions. Theater directors Bartlett Sher, Mary Zimmerman, and Jack O'Brien joined the list of the Met's directors along with Stephen Wadsworth, Willy Decker, Laurent Pelly, Luc Bondy and other opera directors to create new stagings for the company. Robert Lepage, the Canadian director of Cirque du Soleil, was engaged by the Met to direct a revival of "Der Ring des Nibelungen" using hydraulic stage platforms and projected 3D imagery.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: To further engage new audiences Gelb initiated live high-definition video transmissions to cinemas worldwide, and regular live satellite radio broadcasts on the Met's own SiriusXM radio channel.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: New stars that emerged during Gelb's tenure include Piotr Beczała, Lawrence Brownlee, Joseph Calleja, Elīna Garanča, Jonas Kaufmann, Mariusz Kwiecień. Debuting conductors included Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Andris Nelsons, and Fabio Luisi. Luisi was named Principal Guest Conductor in 2010 and Principal Conductor in 2011, filling a void created by James Levine's two-year absence due to illness. In 2013, following the severance of the dancers' contracts, Gelb announced that the resident ballet company at the Met would cease to exist.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: In 2014, Gelb and the Met found new controversy with a production of John Adams's opera "The Death of Klinghoffer", due to criticism that the work was antisemitic. In response to the controversy Gelb canceled the scheduled worldwide HD video presentation of a performance, but refused demands to cancel the live performances scheduled for October and November 2014. Demonstrators held signs and chanted "Shame on Gelb".


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: On April 14, 2016, the company announced the conclusion of James Levine's tenure as music director at the conclusion of the 2015–16 season. Gelb announced that Levine would also become Music Director Emeritus. On June 2, the Met board announced the appointment of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who was then the music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, as the company's next music director, as of the 2020–2021 season, conducting five productions each season. He took the title of music director-designate, conducting two productions a year, as of the 2017–2018 season. In February 2018, Nézet-Séguin succeeded Levine as music director of the Metropolitan Opera.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: In response to a December 2017 news article, the Met announced that it would investigate James Levine with regard to sexual abuse allegations dating back to the 1980s, suspended its ties with Levine, and canceled all upcoming engagements with him. Gelb had been contacted directly by a police detective in October 2016 about allegations of sexual abuse of a minor by Levine, had been aware of the accuser's abuse allegations since they were made in a 2016 police report and of the attendant police investigation, but did not suspend Levine or launch an investigation until over a year later.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: Following the investigations in March 2018, the Met stated that there was conclusive evidence for "sexually abusive and harassing conduct" by Levine. On March 12, 2018, the company announced the full termination of its relationship with Levine, including the rescinding of his title of music director emeritus and dismissal of him as artistic director of its young artists program. On March 15, 2018, Levine filed suit against the company with the New York State Supreme Court, for breach of contract and defamation, and continued to deny the allegations. In response to the suit, the company has stated: "It is shocking that Mr. Levine has refused to accept responsibility for his actions, and has today instead decided to lash out at the Met with a suit riddled with untruths." On August 7, 2019, "The New York Times" reported that the Metropolitan Opera and Levine both privately settled their lawsuits. Continuing with the lawsuits "could have put into the public record more details of accusations..."


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: On February 28, 2022, Gleb announced that because of the war in Ukraine, the Met would be severing ties with all staff and employees who are supporters of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The same night, before the premiere of Verdi's "Don Carlos", the Met's chorus and orchestra performed the "State Anthem of Ukraine". Among the singers was Ukrainian bass-baritone Vladyslav Buialskyi, making his Met debut; footage of him standing center-stage as the only singer without a score and with a hand over his heart was aired by Ukrainian news outlets.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: In March 2022, Russian-born soprano Anna Netrebko made a public statement against the war but failed to explicitly denounce Putin, and was replaced by a Ukrainian singer. Netrebko had performed over 200 times at the Met over the past 20 years. Gelb called her dismissal "a great artistic loss for the Met and for opera" adding "but with Putin killing innocent victims in Ukraine there was no way forward" for her to continue to be associated with the Met.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: On March 14, the Met hosted a benefit concert with all proceeds going to relief efforts in Ukraine, with Sergiy Kyslytsya, the Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations in attendance. The concert, which was broadcast on worldwide radio including Ukrainian public radio, began with Buialskyi singing the "State Anthem of Ukraine" as a soloist.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: In 2015, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra Committee formed a separate 501(c)3 organization which does business as 'MET Orchestra Musicians'. When the Metropolitan Opera furloughed its orchestra on April 1, 2020, the orchestra used this organization to fundraise with a goal to give out needs-based grants to its members, associates, music librarians and assistant conductors affiliated with The Metropolitan Opera. As of October 19, 2020, 30% of the orchestra has been forced to move out of New York City due to not being able to afford living costs.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: In 1995, under general manager Joseph Volpe, the Met installed its own system of presenting a scripted version of opera texts designed for the particular needs of the Met and its audiences. Called "Met Titles", the $2.7 million system provides the audience with a script of the opera's text in English on individual screens which face each seat. This system was the first in the world to be placed in an opera house with "each screen (having) a switch to turn it on, a privacy filter to prevent the dim, yellow dot-matrix characters from disturbing nearby viewers and the option to display texts in multiple languages for all productions, (currently German and Spanish) . The custom-designed system features rails of different heights for various sections of the house, individually designed displays for some box seats and commissioned scripts costing up to $8,000 apiece." Owing to the height of the Met's proscenium, it was not feasible to have surtitles displayed above the stage, as is done in most other opera houses. The idea of above-stage titles had been vehemently opposed by then music director James Levine, but the "Met Titles" system has since been acknowledged as an ideal solution, offering texts to only those members of the Met audience who desire them. Surtitlers at the Met have included Sonya Haddad, whose 2004 obituary called her "one of the country's leading practitioners of her art", Cori Ellison and Sonya Friedman.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: In 1998, Volpe initiated the development of a new software application, now called Tessitura. Tessitura uses a single database of information to record, track and manage all contacts with the Met's constituents, conduct targeted marketing and fund raising appeals, handle all ticketing and membership transactions, and provide detailed and flexible performance reports. Beginning in 2000, Tessitura was offered to other arts organizations under license, and it is now used by a cooperative network of more than 200 opera companies, symphony orchestras, ballet companies, theater companies, performing arts centers, and museums in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland. At the Opera Conference 2016 in Montreal Gelb announced that the Met had commissioned a new ticketing system that would be made available to other institutions.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: Outside of New York the Met has been known to audiences in large measure through its many years of live radio broadcasts. The Met's broadcast history goes back to January 1910 when radio pioneer Lee de Forest broadcast experimentally, with erratic signal, two live performances from the stage of the Met that were reportedly heard as far away as Newark, New Jersey. Today the annual Met broadcast season typically begins the first week of December and offers twenty live Saturday matinée performances through May.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: "Hänsel und Gretel". The series came about as the Met, financially endangered in the early years of the Great Depression, sought to enlarge its audience and support through national exposure on network radio. Initially, those broadcasts featured only parts of operas, being limited to selected acts. Regular broadcasts of complete operas began March 11, 1933, with the transmission of "Tristan und Isolde" with Frida Leider and Lauritz Melchior.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: The live broadcasts were originally heard on NBC Radio's Blue Network and continued on the Blue Network's successor, ABC, into the 1960s. As network radio waned, the Met founded its own Metropolitan Opera Radio Network which is now heard on radio stations around the world. In Canada the live broadcasts have been heard since December 1933 first on the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission and, since 1934, on its successor, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation where they are currently heard on CBC Music.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: Technical quality of the broadcasts steadily improved over the years. FM broadcasts were added in the 1950s, transmitted to stations via telephone lines. Starting with the 1973–74 season, all broadcasts were offered in FM stereo. Satellite technology later allowed uniformly excellent broadcast sound to be sent live worldwide.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: Sponsorship of the Met broadcasts during the Depression years of the 1930s was sporadic. Early sponsors included the American Tobacco Company, and the Lambert Pharmaceutical Company, but frequently the broadcasts were presented by NBC itself with no commercial sponsor. Sponsorship of the Saturday afternoon broadcasts by The Texas Company (Texaco) began on December 7, 1940, with Mozart's "Le nozze di Figaro". Texaco's support continued for 63 years, the longest continuous sponsorship in broadcast history and included the first PBS television broadcasts. After its merger with Chevron, however, the combined company ChevronTexaco ended its sponsorship of the Met's radio network in April 2004. Emergency grants allowed the broadcasts to continue through 2005 when the home building company Toll Brothers became primary sponsor.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: In the seven decades of its Saturday broadcasts, the Met has been introduced by the voices of only four permanent announcers. Milton Cross served from the inaugural 1931 broadcast until his death in 1975. He was succeeded by Peter Allen, who served for 29 years, through the 2003–04 season. Margaret Juntwait began her tenure as host the following season. From September 2006 through December 2014, Juntwait also served as host for all of the live and recorded broadcasts on the Met's Sirius XM satellite radio channel, Metropolitan Opera Radio. Beginning in January 2015, producer Mary Jo Heath filled in for Juntwait, who was being treated for cancer and died in June 2015. In September 2015 Heath took over as the new permanent host. Opera singer and director Ira Siff has for several years been the commentator along with Juntwait or Heath.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: Metropolitan Opera Radio is a 24-hour opera channel on Sirius XM Radio, which presents three to four live opera broadcasts each week during the Met's performing season. During other hours it also offers past broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcast archives. The channel was created in September 2006, when the Met initiated a multi-year relationship with Sirius. Margaret Juntwait is the main host and announcer, with William Berger as writer and co-host.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: The Met's experiments with television go back to 1948 when a complete performance of Verdi's "Otello" was broadcast live on ABC-TV with Ramón Vinay, Licia Albanese, and Leonard Warren. The 1949 season opening night "Der Rosenkavalier" was also telecast. In the early 1950s the Met tried a short-lived experiment with live closed-circuit television transmissions to movie theaters. The first of these was a performance of "Carmen" with Risë Stevens which was sent to 31 theaters in 27 US cities on December 11, 1952. Beyond these experiments, however, and an occasional gala or special, the Met did not become a regular presence on television until 1977.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: In that year the company began a series of live television broadcasts on public television with a wildly successful live telecast of "La bohème" with Renata Scotto and Luciano Pavarotti. The new series of opera on PBS was called "Live from the Metropolitan Opera". This series remained on the air until the early 2000s, although the live broadcasts gave way to taped performances and in 1988 the title was changed to "The Metropolitan Opera Presents". Dozens of televised performances were broadcast during the life of the series including an historic complete telecast of Wagner's "Ring Cycle" in 1989. In 2007 another Met television series debuted on PBS, "Great Performances at the Met". This series airs repeat showings of the high-definition video performances produced for the "Metropolitan Opera Live in HD" cinema series.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: In addition to complete operas and gala concerts, television programs produced at the Met have included: an episode of "Omnibus" with Leonard Bernstein (NBC, 1958); "Danny Kaye's Look-In at the Metropolitan Opera" (CBS, 1975); "Sills and Burnett at the Met" (CBS, 1976); and the "MTV Video Music Awards" (1999 and 2001).


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: Beginning on December 30, 2006, as part of the company's effort to build revenues and attract new audiences, the Met (along with NCM Fathom) broadcast a series of six performances live via satellite into movie theaters called "Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD". The first broadcast was the Saturday matinee live performance of the 110-minute version of Julie Taymor's production of "The Magic Flute". The series was carried in over 100 movie theaters across North America, Japan, Britain and several other European countries. During the 2006–07 season, the series included live HD transmissions of "I puritani", "The First Emperor", "Eugene Onegin", "The Barber of Seville", and "Il trittico". In addition, limited repeat showings of the operas were offered in most of the presenting cities. Digital sound for the performances was provided by Sirius Satellite Radio.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: These movie transmissions have received wide and generally favorable press coverage. The Met reports that 91% of available seats were sold for the HD performances. According to General Manager Peter Gelb, there were 60,000 people in cinemas around the world watching the March 24 transmission of "The Barber of Seville". "The New York Times" reported that 324,000 tickets were sold worldwide for the 2006/07 season, while each simulcast cost $850,000 to $1 million to produce.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: The 2007/08 season began on December 15, 2007, and featured eight of the Met's productions starting with "Roméo et Juliette" and ending with "La fille du régiment" on April 26, 2008. The Met planned to broadcast to double the number of theaters in the US as the previous season, as well as to additional countries such as Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. The number of participating venues in the US, which includes movie theatre chains as well as independent theatres and some college campus venues, is 343. while "the scope of the series expands to include more than 700 locations across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia".


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: By the end of the season 920,000 people—exceeding the total number of people who attended live performances at the Met over the entire season—attended the 8 screenings bringing in a gross of $13.3 million from North America and $5 million from overseas.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: Year-round, online video and audio of hundreds of complete operas and excerpts are available to viewers via Met Player, the Met Opera's own online archive of recorded performances. Complete operas and selections are also available on the online music service Rhapsody, and for purchase on iTunes.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: The Metropolitan Opera Radio channel on Sirius XM Radio (see above) is available to listeners via the internet in addition to satellite broadcast.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: The Met's official site also provides complete composer and background information, detailed plot summaries, and cast and characters for all current and upcoming opera broadcasts, as well as for every opera broadcast since 2000. The Met's online archive database provides links to all Rhapsody, Sirius XM, and Met Player operas, with complete program and cast information. The online archive also provides an exhaustive searchable list of every performance and performer in the Metropolitan Opera's history.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: When people's movements were heavily restricted in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Met cancelled the season's remaining performances but live streamed free of charge an opera every day, normally available on paid subscription. On September 23, 2020, the Met announced the cancellation of its entire 2020–2021 season. The Met reopened in time for the 2021-2022 season, beginning with a concert of Verdi's Requiem to mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11. On October 24, 2022, the Met, in conjunction with the NY Philharmonic and Carnegie Hall dropped their masking requirements, the last COVID-related restriction that was still in place. This was nearly 3 years since the original start of the pandemic.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: The first Metropolitan Opera House opened on October 22, 1883, with a performance of "Faust". It was located at 1411 Broadway between 39th and 40th Streets and was designed by J. Cleaveland Cady. Gutted by fire on August 27, 1892, the theater was immediately rebuilt, reopening in the fall of 1893. Another major renovation was completed in 1903. The theater's interior was extensively redesigned by the architects Carrère and Hastings. The familiar red and gold interior associated with the house dates from this time. The old Met had a seating capacity of 3,625 with an additional 224 standing room places.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: The theater was noted for its elegance and excellent acoustics and it provided a glamorous home for the company. Its stage facilities, however, were found to be severely inadequate from its earliest days. Over the years many plans for a new opera house were explored and abandoned, including a proposal to incorporate a new Metropolitan Opera House into the construction of Rockefeller Center. It was only with the development of Lincoln Center that the Met was able to build itself a new home. The Met held a lavish farewell gala performance for the old house on April 16, 1966. The theater closed after a short season of ballet later in the spring of 1966 and was demolished in 1967.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: The present Metropolitan Opera House is located in Lincoln Center at Lincoln Square in the Upper West Side and was designed by architect Wallace K. Harrison. It has a seating capacity of approximately 3,732 with an additional 245 standing room places at the rear of the main floor and the top balcony. As needed, the size of the orchestra pit can be decreased and another row of 35 seats added at the front of the auditorium. The lobby is adorned with two famous murals by Marc Chagall, "The Triumph of Music" and "The Sources of Music". Each of these gigantic paintings measures 30 by 36 feet.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: After numerous revisions to its design, the new building opened September 16, 1966, with the world premiere of Samuel Barber's "Antony and Cleopatra".


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: The theater, while large, is noted for its excellent acoustics. The stage facilities, state of the art when the theater was built, continue to be updated technically and are capable of handling multiple large complex opera productions simultaneously. When the opera company is on hiatus, the Opera House is annually home to the spring season of American Ballet Theatre. It has also hosted visits from other noted opera and ballet companies.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: To provide a home for its regular Tuesday night performances in Philadelphia, the Met purchased an opera house originally built in 1908 by Oscar Hammerstein I, the Philadelphia Opera House at North Broad and Poplar Streets. Renamed the Metropolitan Opera House, the theater was operated by the Met from 1910 until it sold the house in April 1920. The Met debuted at its new Philadelphia home on December 13, 1910, with a performance of Richard Wagner's "Tannhäuser" starring Leo Slezak and Olive Fremstad.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: The Philadelphia Met was designed by noted theater architect William H. McElfatrick and had a seating capacity of approximately 4,000. The theater still stands and currently functions as a church and community arts center.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: In the Met's inaugural season of 1883–1884, Auguste Vianesi, who conducted most of the performances that season including the opening night, was listed in the playbills as "Musical Director and Conductor"; thereafter, the Met did not have another officially designated "music director" until Rafael Kubelík in 1973. However, a number of the Met's conductors have assumed a strong leadership role at different times in the company's history. They set artistic standards and influenced the quality and performance style of the orchestra, but without any official title. The Met has also had many famed guest conductors who are not listed here.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: Over the years, a number of deaths have occurred at the Metropolitan Opera House. On February 10, 1897, French bass Armand Castelmary suffered a heart attack onstage in the finale of act one of Flotow's "Martha". He died in the arms of his friend, tenor Jean de Reszke, after the curtain was brought down. The performance resumed with Giuseppe Cernusco substituting in the role of Sir Tristram. On May 10, 1935, Herbert Witherspoon, the incoming General Manager suffered a heart attack and died at his desk. On March 4, 1960, leading baritone Leonard Warren died of a heart attack onstage after completing the aria "Urna fatale" in act two of Verdi's "La forza del destino". On April 30, 1977, Betty Stone, a member of the Met chorus, was killed in an accident offstage during a tour performance of "Il trovatore" in Cleveland. On July 23, 1980, Helen Hagnes Mintiks, a 30-year-old Canadian-born violinist, was murdered by Met stagehand Craig Crimmins during the intermission of a performance of the Berlin Ballet. The event was cited by numerous publications as "The Phantom of the Opera" murder. On January 5, 1996, tenor Richard Versalle died while playing the role of Vitek during the production of Leoš Janáček's "The Makropulos Case". Versalle was climbing a ladder in the opening scene when he suffered a heart attack and fell to the stage.


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: In addition, several audience members have died at the Met. The most widely known incident was the suicide of operagoer Bantcho Bantchevsky on January 23, 1988, during an intermission of Verdi's "Macbeth".


title: Metropolitan Opera

text: The company's annual operating budget for the 2011–12 season was $325 million, of which $182 million (43%) comes from private donations. The total potential audience across a season is 800,000 seats. The average audience rate for the 3800-seat theater in 2011 was 79.2%, down from a peak of 88% in 2009. Beyond performing in the opera house in New York, the Met has gradually expanded its audience over the years through technology. It has broadcast regularly on radio since 1931 and on television since 1977. In 2006, the Met began live satellite radio and internet broadcasts as well as live high-definition video transmissions presented in cinemas throughout the world. In 2011, the total HD audience reached 3 million through 1600 theaters worldwide. In 2014, according to Wheeler Winston Dixon, high ticket prices are making it difficult for average people to attend performances.


title: Pastry War

text: The Pastry War (; ), also known as the First French Intervention in Mexico or the First Franco-Mexican War (1838–1839), began in November 1838 with the naval blockade of some Mexican ports and the capture of the fortress of San Juan de Ulúa in Veracruz by French forces sent by King Louis-Philippe. It ended several months later in March 1839 with a British-brokered peace. The intervention followed many claims by French nationals of losses due to unrest in Mexico. This incident, the first and lesser of Mexico's two 19th-century wars with France, preceded the French invasion of 1861–1867 which supported the short reign of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico, whom the Mexicans executed by firing squad at the end of that later conflict.


title: Pastry War

text: During the early years of the new Mexican republic there was widespread civil disorder as factions competed for control of the country. The fighting often resulted in the destruction or looting of private property. Average citizens had few options for claiming compensation as they had no representatives to speak on their behalf. Foreigners whose property was damaged or destroyed by rioters or bandits were usually also unable to obtain compensation from the Mexican government and they began to appeal to their own governments for help and compensation.


title: Pastry War

text: Commercial relationships between France and Mexico existed prior to Spain's recognition of Mexico's independence in 1830, and after the establishment of diplomatic relationships France rapidly became Mexico's third largest trade partner. However, France had yet to secure trade agreements similar to those that the United States and United Kingdom (then Mexico's two largest trade partners) had, and as a result of this French goods were subject to higher taxes.


title: Pastry War

text: In a complaint to King Louis-Philippe, a French pastry chef known only as Monsieur Remontel claimed that in 1832 Mexican officers looted his shop in Tacubaya (then a town on the outskirts of Mexico City). Remontel demanded 60,000 pesos as reparations for the damage (his shop was valued at less than 1,000 pesos).


title: Pastry War

text: In view of Remontel's complaint (which gave its name to the ensuing conflict) and of other complaints from French nationals (among them the looting in 1828 of French shops at the Parian market and the execution in 1837 of a French citizen accused of piracy), in 1838 prime minister Louis-Mathieu Molé demanded from Mexico the payment of 600,000 pesos (3 million Francs) in damages, an enormous sum for the time, when the typical daily wage in Mexico City was about one peso (8 Mexican reals). However, Mexican sources claim that the officers, from Santa Anna's government, simply refused to pay for their bills.


title: Pastry War

text: When president Anastasio Bustamante made no payment, the King of France ordered a fleet under Rear Admiral Charles Baudin to declare and carry out a blockade of all Mexican ports on the Gulf of Mexico from Yucatán to the Rio Grande, to bombard the Mexican fortress of San Juan de Ulúa, and to seize the city of Veracruz, which was the most important port on the Gulf coast. French forces captured Veracruz by December 1838 and Mexico declared war on France.


title: Pastry War

text: With trade cut off, the Mexicans began smuggling imports in Mexico via Corpus Christi (then part of the Republic of Texas). Fearing that France would blockade the Republic's ports as well, a battalion of Texan forces began patrolling Corpus Christi Bay to stop Mexican smugglers. One smuggling party abandoned their cargo of about a hundred barrels of flour on the beach at the mouth of the bay, thus giving Flour Bluff its name. The United States soon sent the schooner "Woodbury" to help the French in their blockade


title: Pastry War

text: Meanwhile, acting without explicit government authority, Antonio López de Santa Anna, known for his military leadership, came out of retirement from his hacienda named "Manga de Clavo" near Xalapa and surveyed the defenses of Veracruz. He offered his services to the government, which ordered him to fight the French by any means necessary. He led Mexican forces against the French and fought at the Battle of Veracruz (1838). In a skirmish with the rear guard of the French, Santa Anna was wounded in the leg by French grapeshot. His leg was amputated and buried with full military honors. Exploiting his wounds with eloquent propaganda, Santa Anna catapulted back to power.


title: Pastry War

text: The French forces withdrew on 9 March 1839 after a peace treaty was signed. As part of said treaty the Mexican government agreed to pay 600,000 pesos as damages to French citizens while France received promises for future trade commitments in place of war indemnities. However, this amount was never paid and that was later used as one of the justifications for the second French intervention in Mexico of 1861.


title: Pastry War

text: Following the Mexican victory in 1867 and the collapse of the Second French Empire in 1870, Mexico and France would not resume diplomatic relationships until 1880 when both countries renounced claims related to the wars.


title: Prisons in North Korea

text: North Korean prisons have conditions that are unsanitary, life-threatening and are comparable to historical concentration camps. A significant number of prisoners have died each year, since they are subject to torture and inhumane treatment. Public and secret executions of prisoners, even children, especially in cases of attempted escape, are commonplace. Infanticides (and infant killings upon birth) also often occur. The mortality rate is exceptionally high, because many prisoners die of starvation, illnesses, work accidents, or torture.


title: Prisons in North Korea

text: During the height of the North Korean famine, the government’s response was to set up many low-level labor camps for those who were caught crossing the North Korean-Chinese border or were repatriated from China. These labor training facilities were also used in response to the black market activity that resulted in people searching for food throughout the countryside (Haggard & Noland, 2012).


title: Prisons in North Korea

text: In 2004, these “labor training” facilities were made a regular form of punishment under the new reforms of the criminal code which included a list of economic and social crimes. This list was increased in 2007 with the corresponding punishments growing (Haggard & Noland, 2012).


title: Prisons in North Korea

text: The DPRK government denies all allegations of human rights violations in prison camps, claiming that this is prohibited by criminal procedure law, but former prisoners testify that there are completely different rules in the prison camps. The DPRK government has released no information on prisoners or prison camps and has not allowed access to any human rights organizations. According to a North Korean defector, North Korea considered inviting a delegation of the UN Commission on Human Rights to visit the Yodok prison camp in 1996.


title: Prisons in North Korea

text: Lee Soon-ok gave detailed testimony on her treatment in the North Korean prison system to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary in 2002. In her statement she said, "I testify that most of the 6,000 prisoners who were there when I arrived in 1987 had quietly perished under the harsh prison conditions by the time I was released in 1992." Many other former prisoners, including Kang Chol-hwan and Shin Dong-hyuk, gave detailed and consistent testimonies on the human rights crimes in North Korean prison camps.


title: Prisons in North Korea

text: According to the testimony of former camp guard Ahn Myong-chol of Camp 22, the guards are trained to treat the detainees as subhumans. He gave an account of children in one camp who were fighting over corn retrieved from cow dung.


title: Prisons in North Korea

text: North Korean prison camps are of two types: large internment camps for political prisoners (Kwan-li-so in Korean) and reeducation prison camps (Kyo-hwa-so in Korean).


title: Prisons in North Korea

text: The internment camps for people who are accused of political offences and people who are accused of being politically unreliable are run by the State Security Department. Reports by refugees also indicate that all religious activities are considered illegal; offenders are frequently arrested and sent to political prison camps. Refugees reported that people were subjected to arrests and disappearances for owning Bibles (US Commission on International Religious Freedom, 2008). Political prisoners were historically subjected to the family responsibility principle, in which the immediate family members of convicted political criminals were also regarded as political criminals and interned. However, since 1994, there has been a near-abandonment of the use of the family responsibility principle.


title: Prisons in North Korea

text: It has been estimated that a quarter of a million people are still political prisoners, one-third of them are children, and they are routinely forced to do slave labor, tortured, and raped. According to satellite imagery and the testimonies of defectors, including testimonies by former prison guards, these human rights violations continue unabated (Park, 2013).


title: Prisons in North Korea

text: According to former guards who have defected from North Korea, in the event of the Kim Family Regime's collapse or in the event of another crisis in North Korea, they were ordered to kill all political prisoners. The immediate kill of approximately 120,000 North Korean political prisoners would constitute a genocide (Collins, 2017).


title: Prisons in North Korea

text: According to the law which was passed by the North Korean regime, “guilt by association”, a person who is accused of committing a crime and a person who is accused of being politically unreliable and three generations of his or her family members are all sent to the same political prison camp (Collins, 2017).


title: Prisons in North Korea

text: The internment camps are located in central and northeastern North Korea. They consist of many prison labour colonies in secluded mountain valleys, completely isolated from the outside world. The total number of prisoners who are incarcerated in the camps is estimated to range from 150,000 to 200,000. Yodok camp and Pukchang camp are separated into two sections: One section for political prisoners who are in lifelong detention, another section which is similar to re-education camps with prisoners who are sentenced to long-term imprisonment which ranges from 5 to 20 years.


title: Prisons in North Korea

text: The prisoners are forced to perform hard and dangerous slave work with primitive means in mining and agriculture. The food rations are very small, so the prisoners are constantly on the brink of starvation. Along with the hard work, the small food rations cause a huge number of the prisoners to die. It is estimated that 40% of the prisoners die from malnutrition.


title: Prisons in North Korea

text: Moreover, many prisoners are crippled from work accidents, frostbite or torture. Additionally, a rigid punishment regimen exists in the camps. Prisoners who work too slowly and prisoners who do not obey orders are beaten or tortured. In cases when one prisoner is accused of stealing food or attempting to escape, the other prisoners are publicly executed.


title: Prisons in North Korea

text: Initially, there were around twelve political prison camps, but some of them were merged or closed (e. g. Onsong prison camp, Kwan-li-so No. 12, following a suppressed riot with around 5,000 dead people in 1987). Today there are six political prison camps in North Korea, with the size determined from satellite images and the number of prisoners estimated by former prisoners and NGOs.


title: Prisons in North Korea

text: Most of the camps are documented in testimonies of former prisoners and, for all of them, coordinates and satellite images are available.


title: Prisons in North Korea

text: During the height of the famine in the mid to late 1990s, thousands of North Koreans crossed the border into China in search of food or jobs to support their families back home. The Chinese government, fearful of the consequences from the North Korean government, repatriated the North Korean refugees back to their country. The North Korean border police often tortured North Koreans that were forcibly repatriated, although the government at the time stated the repatriated citizens would be treated fairly. If it was determined those who fled to China had any contact with South Koreans or Protestant Christian organizations, they were sent to labor colonies or gyohwaso (felony-level penitentiaries) (US Commission on International Religious Freedom, 2008).


title: Prisons in North Korea

text: The South Korean journalist Kang Chol-hwan is a former prisoner of Yodok Political Prison Camp and has written a book, "The Aquariums of Pyongyang", about his time in the camp. The South Korean human rights activist Shin Dong-hyuk is the only person known to have escaped from Kaechon Political Prison Camp. He gave an account of his time in the camp.


title: Prisons in North Korea

text: The reeducation camps for criminals are run by the Ministry of Social Security. There is a fluent passage between common crimes and political crimes, as people who get on the bad side of influential party members are often denounced on false accusations. They are then forced into false confessions with brutal torture in detention centers (Lee Soon-ok for example had to kneel down whilst being showered with water at icy temperatures with other prisoners, of whom six did not survive) and are then condemned in a brief show trial to a long-term prison sentence.


title: Prisons in North Korea

text: In North Korea, political crimes are greatly varied, from border crossing to any disturbance of the political order, and they are rigorously punished. Due to the dire prison conditions with hunger and torture, a large percentage of prisoners do not survive their sentence terms.


title: Prisons in North Korea

text: One account of a North Korean refugee recalls being kicked repeatedly in the stomach by her North Korean guard in an attempt to abort her 5-month-old unborn baby. After losing consciousness during the beatings, she awoke inside the camp’s clinic where her baby was forcibly removed (Powell et al., 2006).


title: Prisons in North Korea

text: The reeducation camps are large prison building complexes surrounded by high walls. The situation of prisoners is quite similar to that in the political prison camps. They have to perform slave labour in prison factories and in case they do not meet the work quotas, they are tortured and (at least in Kaechon camp) confined for many days in special prison cells, which are too small for them to stand up or lie full-length in.


title: Prisons in North Korea

text: To be distinguished from the internment camps for political prisoners, the reeducation camp prisoners are forced to undergo ideological instruction after work and they are also forced to memorize the speeches of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il and they even have to undergo self-criticism rites. Many prisoners are guilty of common crimes which are also penalized in other countries e. g. illegal border crossing, stealing food or illegal trading.


title: Prisons in North Korea

text: The South Korean human rights activist Lee Soon-ok has written a book ("") about her time in the camp and testified before the US Senate.


title: Prisons in North Korea

text: TIME magazine article, "Running out of Darkness", reports on the efforts of Kim Myong-suk to escape a North Korean prison with the help of a South Korean based charity, Helping Hands Korea (Powell et al., 2006).


title: Prisons in North Korea

text: In December 2016, the "South China Morning Post" reported on the existence of a secret prison in Hyanghari, which is euphemistically known as a 'resort,' where members of the country's political elite are imprisoned.


title: Vincent Chase

text: Vincent Chase is a fictional character on the comedy-drama television series "Entourage". He is played by Adrian Grenier.


title: Vincent Chase

text: Vincent Chase grew up in Queens, New York, along with neighbourhood friends Eric, Turtle, Dom, and Cara. Vince's father was an alcoholic, and, as revealed in the final season, is estranged from the family. Eric mentioned in a Season 1 episode that Vince went to the High School of Performing Arts in New York City (now the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts). Vince's older brother, Johnny "Drama" Chase, is also an actor and has been living in Hollywood for at least twelve years, but with considerably less success. Chase's personal life has been an area of great speculation as he has claimed to have slept with over 1,000 women, but later denied that the number is that high. Vincent is lactose intolerant.


title: Vincent Chase

text: Throughout the series, Vince talks about how he and his entourage are "living the life" after growing up with little money, at one point saying, "I came from nothing, and as much as I like the toys, I really don't need them" when told that offers for him are drying up. He is eager to share the financial and social spoils of his current stardom with them, who he thinks of as his family. While at first glance it seems that his friends are just leeches, they prove to be the ones he can depend on through thick and thin.


title: Vincent Chase

text: Vince is around 33 years old by the end of the series, his 28th birthday being the main storyline in the season 3 episode "Less Than 30". Vince's full ethnic background has never been revealed. It is implied that he has Latino ancestry when Eric argues that Vince should get the role of Pablo Escobar over actor Tom Cruise because "Tom Cruise isn't even Hispanic"; Johnny Drama also references his (and presumably Vince's) "Chilean blood" in the episode "The Sundance Kids." Vince claims to be part Japanese, after his agent, Ari Gold, made a racial slur referring to Japanese people. Vince replies, "C'mon Ari, my grandfather is Japanese." Vince has also stated that he is Italian during an interview for Vanity Fair. Vince and Drama are also part Irish, as revealed in the episode "I Love You Too."


title: Vincent Chase

text: Vincent Chase is a young Hollywood movie star described as potentially the best young actor of his generation. Chase moved to Los Angeles following his half-brother Johnny Chase with friend Sal "Turtle" when the two were 24. He started his career appearing in commercials for Mentos, soon signing with agent Ari Gold who got him doing minor roles on television and cinema, the first of which was a guest spot on "JAG". During this time, he dated and proposed to Mandy Moore, who rejected his proposal. Soon after his best friend Eric Murphy quit his job at Sbarro, dropped out of Queensborough Community College and moved out west. Chase's breakout role was as the lead in the film "Head On", co-starring Jessica Alba. After "Head On", he was offered a role in the action film "Matterhorn", but he passed. (Colin Farrell ends up getting offered the role, but "Matterhorn" never makes it to production). Instead, Vince chooses to star in the independent film "Queens Boulevard", based on the advice of his manager and best friend "E". The film is about a man presumably running from the law in Queens, New York, and was directed by filmmaker Billy Walsh. "Queens Boulevard" (or "Q.B.") was submitted to the Sundance Film Festival upon completion and wins the Grand Jury Award.


title: Vincent Chase

text: Because of his performance in "Q.B.", Vince is offered the title role in the film "Aquaman", which was to be directed by James Cameron. The movie becomes a massive success, making $116 million in ticket sales on its opening weekend, breaking the record set by "Spider-Man".


title: Vincent Chase

text: After the success of "Aquaman", Vince was offered the role of Pablo Escobar in the bio-pic "Medellín", a film that he discovered and wanted to do before "Aquaman", and which was set to be directed by "Crash" director Paul Haggis. But conflict arose when a sequel to "Aquaman" was greenlit with the same start date as "Medellín". "Medellín" was the film Vince wanted to do, and he did attempt to work out a deal to do both movies at once. However, the head of Warner Bros. Studios reneged on an earlier promise to allow Vince to do "Medellín". Vince was subsequently replaced by Jake Gyllenhaal for the "Aquaman" sequel (mirroring the rumors in real-life as to how Gyllenhaal nearly replaced Tobey Maguire in "Spider-Man 2"). During his trouble of getting out of his "Aquaman" contract, Vince found out that he had already lost his role in "Medellín" to Benicio del Toro, leaving him jobless.


title: Vincent Chase

text: Eric Murphy then found a new project for Vince in a film entitled "I Wanna Be Sedated", a biopic about punk-rocker Joey Ramone and his band The Ramones. But after turmoil with the film's producer Bob Ryan and with Vince's agent Ari Gold, the project was sold to Warner Bros., which refused to offer Vince another film for the rest of his career. This led to Vince firing Ari.


title: Vincent Chase

text: His new agent Amanda Daniels found him a new project entitled "The Glimpses of the Moon", an adaptation of the Edith Wharton novel, to be directed by Sam Mendes. But Vince soon found out it might still be possible to get "Medellín" from his former agent Ari. In hopes of getting his dream project, Vince consequently began procrastinating on "Glimpses". Vince also begins a brief romantic relationship with Amanda, after she boldly propositions him for sex, so they can "get it out of the way" - since sexual tension existed between the two ever since they began their agent-client relationship.


title: Vincent Chase

text: After officially receiving an offer for "Medellín" at the very last minute, complications arose during the negotiations, which were taking place during the holiday of Yom Kippur. The film was dumped by the producer as a result. Feeling Amanda had let him down through this, Vince confronts her about it and plans on firing her, only to find out that the death of the project had been out of her hands. Amanda then leaves Vince, both professionally and romantically. Vince then purchases the script, "Medellín", but only after selling his home. Once the script was purchased, negotiations were held with film producer Nick "Nicky" Rubenstein, to finance the project for $30 million. Vince turned to Billy Walsh as the director for the film. (At the time, Walsh was directing pornographic films under the alias "Wally Balls".)


title: Vincent Chase

text: During the production of Medellin, a documentary was filmed showing the process and conflict that "E", Vince and Walsh go through to complete the project. Walsh decides at the beginning of filming that the film's ending is no good, and wants to rewrite the end on his own, much to "E's' dismay. The film does get completed and for now, all is good.


title: Vincent Chase

text: After the "Medellín" project was completed, Walsh submitted it to the Cannes Film Festival, where it was accepted. Someone then leaked a trailer of "Medellín" onto YouTube, and people began to rave over the film. Hype began to build so greatly that Vince and Walsh were offered the film adaptation of the novel "Lost in the Clouds".


title: Vincent Chase

text: Pre-production on the film "Lost in the Clouds" began, with Vince slated to star and Walsh to write/direct. But when Walsh wasn't able to adapt the novel, he began work on a script called "Silo", a post-apocalypse film set in the year 2075. After Ari somehow manages to sell the studio on the new project, "Lost in the Clouds" was dumped and pre-production on "Silo" began. In the meantime, while Walsh was busy writing the script for "Silo", Vincent gained an office in his manager's management group, known as The Murphy Group.


title: Vincent Chase

text: When the Cannes Film Festival finally came around, hype for "Medellín" had grown so large that, upon arrival, Vince and Walsh were receiving multi-million-dollar offers for the film before it even premiered. The highest bidder was Yair Marx, who offered $75 million. Once the movie was finally screened, however, the reception in the theatre was overwhelmingly negative. Marx withdrew his offer, but Harvey Weingard offered to buy it for one dollar. Opting to look at what little bright side there was to things, Ari told Vince, "You should have seen "Shakespeare in Love" before Harvey got his scissor-hands on it."


title: Vincent Chase

text: "Medellín" directly goes to DVD and is savagely reviewed by Richard Roeper and Michael Phillips. Vince also goes on to receive a Razzie nomination for "Worst Actor". The failure also apparently lead to "Silo" being scrapped, and Vincent and Turtle decide to decompress in a tropical hideaway, surrounded by multiple gorgeous women. After a few months pass, Ari is informed by producer Carl Ertz that he wants Vince for his next film, "Danger Beach," a mid-budget genre film. Eric informs Vince of the good news, but Vince is content to go out on "Medellín". Eric, Ari, and Drama fly to Mexico to get Vince to come back to L.A. for a meeting with Ertz. However, Ertz never really wanted Vince for the film to begin with. The meeting was just a ploy to get Emile Hirsch and his agent, Ari's rival Adam Davies, to do the film for less money. Despite the fact that the offer wasn't real, Vince decides that he can't go out on a box office bomb, and needs to find a new hit film to regain his stardom.


title: Vincent Chase

text: After Vince discovers that there are no studios willing to offer him any leading roles, Eric discovers a good script for Vince from his newest clients, unknown writers Nick and L.B., called "Nine Brave Souls". It is about nine firefighters on the night before the biggest fire they've ever fought. Ari does not want Vince to do another independent film because his last indie, "Medellín", tanked. Figuring Vince was not going to star in Nick and L.B.'s film, Eric brings the script to Amanda. Amanda likes the script and sends it to her client Edward Norton. Edward Norton wants to make the film, but with more action sequences. However, after Ari finally reads the script, he wants Vince to do the movie. Vince and Ari try to sell the script, newly titled "Smoke Jumpers", to studios with Vince playing the lead role. The studios wanted the script, but not with Vince in the leading role. After realizing he wasn't going to be cast as the lead, Vincent decides to play a supporting role. Ari is set to sell the script to Steve Parles for $500,000 with Vince cast as Ray in the second lead role.


title: Vincent Chase

text: Unfortunately for Vince, Edward Norton wants to buy the script along with Alan Gray, head of Warner Bros. Studios, for $1,000,000 against $2,000,000 if the movie is made. Vince loses his supporting role because Warner Bros. purchases the film. Vince now has a difficult career move to make. He can hold out for a movie he likes, and risk going bankrupt, or he can do a new "Benji" film for $3,000,000. Thinking it will hurt his chances to regain his status as a movie star, Vince chooses to forgo "Benji". He decides he must find a way to get back on "Smoke Jumpers".


title: Vincent Chase

text: Ari takes matters into his own hands to try to get Vince back on "Smoke Jumpers". Ari plans a seemingly harmless day of golf with Alan Gray. Ari knows Alan is a compulsive gambler so intends to hustle Alan, and bet Vince into the movie. However, his plan backfires because Alan's golf instructor is none other than Phil Mickelson. After Ari loses a close game to Alan, Alan becomes enraged because Ari brought up the subject of Vince and "Smoke Jumpers" after promising he wouldn't. Alan becomes so angry that he has a heart attack on the golf course and dies. At Alan's funeral Ari speaks with John Ellis, Alan's boss. Ari tells Ellis that Alan promised Vincent "Smoke Jumpers", but Ellis has other things to discuss with Ari. He wants Ari to take Alan's old job and run Warner Bros. Pictures. This would put Ari in a position to not only get Vince back on "Smoke Jumpers", but to give Vince roles in any future films financed by Warner Bros. Studio. When Vince hears this information, he has a bittersweet feeling because he wants to do "Smoke Jumpers", but he doesn't want to lose Ari as his agent. Ari reconsiders taking the job, but gets bad news from his fellow Hollywood friend and former flame, Dana Gordon. Vince's former agent Amanda Daniels would run the studio if Ari doesn't take the job. Ari and Vince do not have a good relationship with Amanda after she fired him as her client.


title: Vincent Chase

text: Ari goes to Amanda's office to try and bury the hatchet with Amanda. Ari offers to turn down the job if she puts Vince in "Smoke Jumpers". Amanda calls Ari's bluff thinking that he is going to turn down the job anyway. This makes Ari extremely angry, and he storms out of Amanda's office to go meet with John Ellis. Vince goes to meet with Ari under the assumption that Ari had taken the position at the studio. However, to everyone's surprise Ari turned down the job. He informs Vince and Eric that he recommended his friend Dana Gordon, and she was given the job as studio head instead of Amanda. During Vince's meeting with Ari, Dana calls to thank Ari for the recommendation. On speakerphone, Dana assures Vincent that he is in "Smoke Jumpers" for his full quote. Ari is still Vince's agent, Eric's best friend's career is back on track, Vince is no longer in danger of going bankrupt, and is no longer in danger of ending his movie career on a box office bomb.


title: Vincent Chase

text: Unfortunately, Vince has heated confrontations with the director of "Smoke Jumpers". The director fires Vince from the set of the movie. This leads to an altercation between the director and Dana, Ari, Vince, E, and John Ellis. John Ellis makes an executive decision to drop the project and Vince, E, Turtle, and Drama head back to Queens.


title: Vincent Chase

text: Vince is offered a lead role (Nick Carraway) in Martin Scorsese's adaptation/update of "The Great Gatsby" set in the 1980s, courtesy of Gus Van Sant's liking of Vince's "Smoke Jumpers" footage. After the massive success of "Gatsby", Vince is set to star in the upcoming biopic about Enzo Ferrari directed by Frank Darabont. After production of the Ferrari movie was delayed, Vince spends most of his time relaxing. During this period of delayed production on "Ferrari", Vince is paid $4,000,000 to provide the voice of a dog in an animated movie (although the actual title and success of the movie is never revealed). One night he awoke and heard noises and came to the conclusion that the house had been broken into, so Ari recommended a high-security connection that he had to hopefully track down the stalker, but it turned out to be sorority girls who had stolen Turtle's boxers because he was Jamie-Lynn Sigler's boyfriend. Vince then traveled to Italy with Johnny Drama and Turtle to begin the Ferrari picture, while Eric stayed in LA with his new fiancée Sloan McQuewick.


title: Vincent Chase

text: At the beginning of Season 7, as he films an action movie with Nick Cassavetes, Vince is asked to do a dangerous driving stunt in which he is almost killed. This sparks a change in Vince's attitude, but not one for the better. He begins to date porn star Sasha Grey. Vince shows up to an important meeting regarding a new superhero movie, drunk. To make matters worse, Vince arrives to the next meeting high on cocaine. Sasha is offered to do another porn film, and while Vince is reluctant, agrees to let her do the film. Starting in the later episodes, Vince appears increasingly agitated and high strung, hinting at cocaine addiction, which is essentially confirmed when Lloyd discovers a large amount of cocaine at Vince's house. On the season finale, Vince breaks up with Sasha, leaves his house for a room at the Roosevelt hotel, begins offending female partygoers and gets into a fight with Eminem at the opening party for his album "Recovery". At the end of the episode, he is in the hospital after getting beaten severely, only for a police officer to find his secret stash of cocaine, which he brought to the Roosevelt.


title: Vincent Chase

text: At the beginning of Season 8, Vince undergoes court-ordered rehab for 90 days and emerges victorious. Having gotten his confidence back, he focuses on his friendships again. The group goes to great lengths to prevent Vince from relapsing, such as disposing of alcohol or drugs around the house. Vince concocts an idea to make a movie involving the plight of a buried miner, intending to get Drama cast in the role. He ends up writing a 20-page treatment, that surprises Ari and Dana Gordon, who can help get it made. Vince also runs into veteran film producer Carl Ertz at the same rehab center. Ertz had screwed Vince out of a deal and tries to get him to make another one before relapsing. Ertz later commits suicide when Vince and Turtle try to come to his rescue. A small media storm ensues just as Vince is about to undergo mandatory drug testing. He soon confesses to E that he had a couple puffs of marijuana and fears that it will jeopardize his test. The group tries to come to his rescue until Vince talks to Billy Walsh, who gets him a penile implant with a clean urine sample, and the ploy works. Vince also tries to help Turtle as he tries to help a New York friend expand his restaurant business to the west coast. Turtle initially refuses his help, but Vince later reveals that he didn't sell his stock out of the tequila company that Turtle helped launch. Although Turtle sold his stock, Vince bought his share to prevent Turtle from making such a mistake, making Turtle a millionaire. Vince later has an interview with a Vanity Fair reporter named Sophia, who writes an article that he doesn't quite agree with. Vince goes to great lengths to prove to her that he's reformed, even producing a video with women he's slept with, to highlight the gentleman that he is. He succeeds in courting her and spends an unforgettable 24 hours with her, before getting engaged to her, with the ceremony taking place in Paris. The group attends, except for E, with whom Vince later smooth things over.


title: Vincent Chase

text: In the 2015 film, Vince and Sophia separate after nine days of marriage, realizing that the relationship wouldn't work out. Though slightly depressed about the separation, Vince decides to make his directorial debut with the film "Hyde" after Ari manages to become a studio-head and secure him the leading role, which he agreed to only if he could direct. He goes over budget by $15 million and requests an additional $10 million, which Ari tries to secure. During this time, Vince begins dating Emily Ratajkowski, which turns out to be what is causing trouble for extra funding as the son of the main producer of the movie has an infatuation with and is preventing further production. Ari resolves the situation once he brings this information out to the other heads of the studio, but it costs Ari his job in order to secure the $10 million for Vince to finish the movie. The film goes on to make over $450 million in worldwide sales, earning critical acclaim and Vince's older brother, Johnny Drama, a Golden Globe Award. Now that Vince has risen to the top and having established himself as an actor and as a director, he no longer has to worry about proving himself to get by. By the end of the film, Vince attends Lloyd's wedding with his friends and Ari. While talking with Billy Walsh, an idea is presented that they should make a movie or a series about their lives and journey to success, despite Ari's commenting that it was a bad idea.


title: Vincent Chase

text: "Entourage" executive producer Mark Wahlberg named the character after legendary Hollywood acting teacher Vincent Chase, with whom Wahlberg became friends while working on the 1997 Bill Paxton film "Traveller". However, the character of Vincent Chase is a Marty Stu based on Mark Wahlberg himself. Wahlberg has achieved Hollywood success similar to the fictional success of Vincent.. Walt Hickey of FiveThirtyEight has argued that the career of Vincent Chase most closely matches that of Tobey Maguire. Series creator Doug Ellin has also mentioned that the character of Vince has touches of Tobey Maguire in terms of storyline, Leonardo DiCaprio in terms of personality, and Wahlberg in terms of lifestyle.


title: Alain Badiou

text: Alain Badiou (; ; born 17 January 1937) is a French philosopher, formerly chair of Philosophy at the École normale supérieure (ENS) and founder of the faculty of Philosophy of the Université de Paris VIII with Gilles Deleuze, Michel Foucault and Jean-François Lyotard. Badiou has written about the concepts of being, truth, event and the subject in a way that, he claims, is neither postmodern nor simply a repetition of modernity. Badiou has been involved in a number of political organisations, and regularly comments on political events. Badiou argues for a return of communism as a political force.


title: Alain Badiou

text: Badiou is the son of the mathematician (1905–1996), who was a working member of the Resistance in France during World War II. Alain Badiou was a student at the Lycée Louis-Le-Grand and then the École Normale Supérieure (1955–1960). In 1960, he wrote his "" (roughly equivalent to an MA thesis) on Spinoza for Georges Canguilhem (the topic was "Demonstrative Structures in the First Two Books of Spinoza's Ethics", "Structures démonstratives dans les deux premiers livres de l'Éthique de Spinoza"). He taught at the lycée in Reims from 1963 where he became a close friend of fellow playwright (and philosopher) François Regnault, and published a couple of novels before moving first to the faculty of letters of the University of Reims (the "collège littéraire universitaire") and then to the University of Paris VIII (Vincennes-Saint Denis) in 1969. Badiou was politically active very early on, and was one of the founding members of the Unified Socialist Party (PSU). The PSU was particularly active in the struggle for the decolonization of Algeria. He wrote his first novel, "Almagestes", in 1964. In 1967 he joined a study group organized by Louis Althusser, became increasingly influenced by Jacques Lacan and became a member of the editorial board of "Cahiers pour l'Analyse". By then he "already had a solid grounding in mathematics and logic (along with Lacanian theory)", and his own two contributions to the pages of "Cahiers" "anticipate many of the distinctive concerns of his later philosophy".


title: Alain Badiou

text: The student uprisings of May 1968 reinforced Badiou's commitment to the far Left, and he participated in increasingly militant groups, such as the (UCFml). To quote Badiou himself, the UCFml is "the Maoist organization established in late 1969 by Natacha Michel, Sylvain Lazarus, myself and a fair number of young people". During this time, Badiou joined the faculty of the newly founded University of Paris VIII/Vincennes-Saint Denis which was a bastion of counter-cultural thought. There he engaged in fierce intellectual debates with fellow professors Gilles Deleuze and Jean-François Lyotard, whose philosophical works he considered unhealthy deviations from the Althusserian program of a scientific Marxism.


title: Alain Badiou

text: In the 1980s, as both Althusserian structural Marxism and Lacanian psychoanalysis went into decline (after Lacan died and Althusser was committed to a psychiatric hospital), Badiou published more technical and abstract philosophical works, such as "Théorie du sujet" (1982), and his magnum opus, "Being and Event" (1988). Nonetheless, Badiou has never renounced Althusser or Lacan, and sympathetic references to Marxism and psychoanalysis are not uncommon in his more recent works (most notably "Petit panthéon portatif" / "Pocket Pantheon").


title: Alain Badiou

text: He took up his current position at the ENS in 1999. He is also associated with a number of other institutions, such as the Collège International de Philosophie. He was a member of which, as mentioned above, he founded in 1985 with some comrades from the Maoist UCFml. This organization disbanded in 2007, according to the French Wikipedia article (linked to in the previous sentence). In 2002, he was a co-founder of the Centre International d'Etude de la Philosophie Française Contemporaine, alongside Yves Duroux and his former student Quentin Meillassoux. Badiou has also enjoyed success as a dramatist with plays such as "Ahmed le Subtil".


title: Alain Badiou

text: In the last decade, an increasing number of Badiou's works have been translated into English, such as "Ethics", "Deleuze", "Manifesto for Philosophy", "Metapolitics", and "Being and Event". Short pieces by Badiou have likewise appeared in American and English periodicals, such as "Lacanian Ink", "New Left Review", "Radical Philosophy", "Cosmos and History" and "Parrhesia". Unusually for a contemporary European philosopher his work is increasingly being taken up by militants in countries like India, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa.


title: Alain Badiou

text: In 2005, a fierce controversy in Parisian intellectual life erupted after the publication of Badiou's "Circonstances 3: Portées du mot 'juif"' ("The Uses of the Word 'Jew'"). This book generated a strong response, and the wrangling became a "cause célèbre" with articles going back and forth in the French newspaper "Le Monde" and in the cultural journal "Les Temps modernes". Linguist and Lacanian philosopher Jean-Claude Milner, a past president of Collège international de philosophie, accused Badiou of anti-Semitism.


title: Alain Badiou

text: Badiou forcefully rebutted this charge, declaring that his accusers often conflate a nation-state with religious preference and will label as anti-Semitic anyone who objects to this tendency: "It is wholly intolerable to be accused of anti-Semitism by anyone for the sole reason that, from the fact of the extermination, one does not conclude as to the predicate "Jew" and its religious and communitarian dimension that it receive some singular valorizationa transcendent annunciation!nor that Israeli exactions, whose colonial nature is patent and banal, be specially tolerated. I propose that nobody any longer accept, publicly or privately, this type of political blackmail."


title: Alain Badiou

text: Badiou characterizes the state of Israel as "neither more nor less impure than all states", but objects to "its exclusive identitarian claim to be a Jewish state, and the way it draws incessant privileges from this claim, especially when it comes to trampling underfoot what serves us as international law." For example, he continues, "The Islamic states are certainly no more progressive as models than the various versions of the 'Arab nation' were. Everyone agrees, it seems, on the point that the Taliban do not embody the path of modernity for Afghanistan.” A modern democracy, he writes, must count all its residents as citizens, and "there is no acceptable reason to exempt the state of Israel from that rule. The claim is sometimes made that this state is the only 'democratic' state in the region. But the fact that this state presents itself as a Jewish state is directly contradictory."


title: Alain Badiou

text: Badiou is optimistic that ongoing political problems can be resolved by de-emphasizing the communitarian religious dimension: "The signifier 'Palestinian' or 'Arab' should not be glorified any more than is permitted for the signifier 'Jew.' As a result, the legitimate solution to the Middle East conflict is not the dreadful institution of two barbed-wire states. The solution is the creation of a secular and democratic Palestine...which would show that it is perfectly possible to create a place in these lands where, from a political point of view and regardless of the apolitical continuity of customs, there is 'neither Arab nor Jew.' This will undoubtedly demand a regional Mandela."


title: Alain Badiou

text: Badiou makes repeated use of several concepts throughout his philosophy, in line with his training at Ecole Normale Superieure in the history of philosophy, which entails, in France, a close reading of the great classics of philosophy, in their original languages such as Greek and Latin, which he handles fluently. His method cannot be fully understood if it is not replaced in the ways and means of French academic philosophy, which always engages a detailed decrypting of texts, in their original version, as evinced by philosophers as diverse as Foucault, Deleuze, Balibar, Bourdieu, Derrida, Bouveresse and Engel - all of them alumni of the Ecole Normale Superieure.


title: Alain Badiou

text: One of the aims of his thought is to show that his categories of truth are useful for any type of philosophical critique. Therefore, he uses them to interrogate art and history as well as ontology and scientific discovery. Johannes Thumfart argues that Badiou's philosophy can be regarded as a contemporary reinterpretation of Platonism.


title: Alain Badiou

text: According to Badiou, philosophy is suspended from four conditions (art, love, politics, and science), each of them fully independent "truth procedures." (For Badiou's notion of truth procedures, see below.) Badiou consistently maintains throughout his work (but most systematically in "Manifesto for Philosophy") that philosophy must avoid the temptation to suture itself ('sew itself', that is, to hand over its entire intellectual effort) to any of these independent truth procedures. When philosophy does suture itself to one of its conditions (and Badiou argues that the history of philosophy during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is primarily a history of sutures), what results is a philosophical "disaster." Consequently, philosophy is, according to Badiou, a thinking of the "compossibility" of the several truth procedures, whether this is undertaken through the investigation of the intersections between distinct truth procedures (the intersection of art and love in the novel, for instance), or whether this is undertaken through the more traditionally philosophical work of addressing categories like truth or the subject (concepts that are, as concepts, external to the individual truth procedures, though they are functionally operative in the truth procedures themselves). For Badiou, when philosophy addresses the four truth procedures in a genuinely philosophical manner, rather than through a suturing abandonment of philosophy as such, it speaks of them with a theoretical terminology that marks its philosophical character: "inaesthetics" rather than art; metapolitics rather than politics; ontology rather than science; etc.


title: Alain Badiou

text: Truth, for Badiou, is a specifically philosophical category. While philosophy's several conditions are, on their own terms, "truth procedures" (i.e., they produce truths as they are pursued), it is only philosophy that can speak of the several truth procedures "as" truth procedures. (The lover, for instance, does not think of her love as a question of truth, but simply and rightly as a question of love. Only the philosopher sees in the true lover's love the unfolding of a truth.) Badiou has a very rigorous notion of truth, one that is strongly against the grain of much of contemporary European thought. Badiou at once embraces the traditional modernist notion that truths are genuinely invariant (always and everywhere the case, eternal and unchanging) and the incisively postmodernist notion that truths are constructed through processes. Badiou's theory of truth, exposited throughout his work, accomplishes this strange mixture by uncoupling invariance from self-evidence (such that invariance does not imply self-evidence), as well as by uncoupling constructedness from relativity (such that constructedness does not lead to relativism).


title: Alain Badiou

text: The idea, here, is that a truth's invariance makes it genuinely indiscernible: because a truth is everywhere and always the case, it passes unnoticed unless there is a rupture in the laws of being and appearance, during which the truth in question becomes, but only for a passing moment, discernible. Such a rupture is what Badiou calls an event, according to a theory originally worked out in "Being and Event" and fleshed out in important ways in "Logics of Worlds". The individual who chances to witness such an event, if he is faithful to what he has glimpsed, can then introduce the truth by naming it into worldly situations. For Badiou, it is by positioning oneself to the truth of an event that a human animal becomes a subject; subjectivity is not an inherent human trait. According to a process or procedure that subsequently unfolds only if those who subject themselves to the glimpsed truth continue to be faithful in the work of announcing the truth in question, genuine knowledge is produced (knowledge often appears in Badiou's work under the title of the "veridical"). While such knowledge is produced in the process of being faithful to a truth event, for Badiou, knowledge, in the figure of the encyclopedia, always remains fragile, subject to what may yet be produced as faithful subjects of the event produce further knowledge. According to Badiou, truth procedures proceed to infinity, such that faith (fidelity) outstrips knowledge. (Badiou, following both Lacan and Heidegger, distances truth from knowledge.) The dominating ideology of the day, which Badiou terms "democratic materialism," denies the existence of truth and only recognizes "bodies" and "languages." Badiou proposes a turn towards the "materialist dialectic," which recognizes that there are only bodies and languages, "except" there are also truths.


title: Alain Badiou

text: In "Handbook of Inaesthetics" Badiou both draws on the original Greek meaning and the later Kantian concept of "aesthesis" as "material perception" and coins the phrase "inaesthetic" to refer to a concept of artistic creation that denies "the reflection/object relation" yet, at the same time, in reaction against the idea of mimesis, or poetic reflection of "nature", he affirms that art is "immanent" and "singular". Art is immanent in the sense that its truth is given in its immediacy in a given work of art, and singular in that its truth is found in art and art alonehence reviving the ancient materialist concept of "aesthesis". His view of the link between philosophy and art is tied into the motif of pedagogy, which he claims functions so as to "arrange the forms of knowledge in a way that some truth may come to pierce a hole in them". He develops these ideas with examples from the prose of Samuel Beckett and the poetry of Stéphane Mallarmé and Fernando Pessoa (who he argues has developed a body of work that philosophy is currently incapable of incorporating), among others.


title: Alain Badiou

text: The major propositions of Badiou's philosophy all find their basis in "Being and Event", in which he continues his attempt (which he began in "Théorie du sujet") to reconcile a notion of the subject with ontology, and in particular post-structuralist and constructivist ontologies. A frequent criticism of post-structuralist work is that it prohibits, through its fixation on semiotics and language, any notion of a subject. Badiou's work is, by his own admission, an attempt to break out of contemporary philosophy's fixation upon language, which he sees almost as a straitjacket. This effort leads him, in "Being and Event", to combine rigorous mathematical formulae with his readings of poets such as Mallarmé and Hölderlin and religious thinkers such as Pascal. His philosophy draws upon both 'analytical' and 'continental' traditions. In Badiou's own opinion, this combination places him awkwardly relative to his contemporaries, meaning that his work had been only slowly taken up. "Being and Event" offers an example of this slow uptake, in fact: it was translated into English only in 2005, a full seventeen years after its French publication.


title: Alain Badiou

text: As is implied in the title of the book, two elements mark the thesis of "Being and Event": the place of ontology, or 'the science of being qua being' (being in itself), and the place of the event – which is seen as a rupture in being – through which the subject finds realization and reconciliation with truth. This situation of being and the rupture which characterizes the event are thought in terms of set theory, and specifically Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory with the axiom of choice. In short, the event is a truth caused by a hidden "part" or set appearing within existence; this part escapes language and known existence, and thus being itself lacks the terms and resources to fully process the event.


title: Alain Badiou

text: For Badiou the problem which the Greek tradition of philosophy has faced and never satisfactorily dealt with is that while beings themselves are plural, and thought in terms of multiplicity, being itself is thought to be singular; that is, "it" is thought in terms of the one. He proposes as the solution to this impasse the following declaration: that the One is not ("l'Un n'est pas"). This is why Badiou accords set theory (the axioms of which he refers to as the "ideas of the multiple") such stature, and refers to mathematics as the very place of ontology: Only set theory allows one to conceive a 'pure doctrine of the multiple'. Set theory does not operate in terms of definite individual elements in groupings but only functions insofar as what belongs to a set is of the same relation as that set (that is, another set too). What individuates a set, therefore, is not an existential positive proposition, but other multiples whose properties (i.e., "structural" relations) validate its presentation. The "structure" of being thus secures the regime of the count-as-one. So if one is to think of a set – for instance, the set of people, or humanity – as counting as one, the multiple elements which belong to that set are secured as one consistent concept (humanity), but only in terms of what does "not" belong to that set. What is crucial for Badiou is that the structural form of the count-as-one, which makes multiplicities thinkable, implies (somehow or other) that the proper name of "being" does not belong to an "element" as such (an original 'one'), but rather the void set (written Ø), the set to which nothing (not even the void set itself) belongs. It may help to understand the concept 'count-as-one' if it is associated with the concept of 'terming': a multiple is "not" one, but it is referred to with 'multiple': one word. To count a set as one is to mention that set. How the being of terms such as 'multiple' does not contradict the non-being of the one can be understood by considering the multiple nature of terminology: for there to be a term without there also being a system of terminology, within which the difference between terms gives context and meaning to any one term, is impossible. 'Terminology' implies precisely difference between terms (thus multiplicity) as the condition for meaning. The idea of a term without meaning is incoherent, the count-as-one is a "structural effect" or a "situational operation"; it is not an event of 'truth'. Multiples which are 'composed' or 'consistent' are count-effects. 'Inconsistent multiplicity' ["meaning?"] is [somehow or other] 'the presentation of presentation.'


title: Alain Badiou

text: Badiou's use of set theory in this manner is not just illustrative or heuristic. Badiou uses the axioms of Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory to identify the relationship of being to history, Nature, the State, and God. Most significantly this use means that (as with set theory) there is a strict prohibition on self-belonging; a set cannot contain or belong to itself. This results from the axiom of foundation – or the axiom of regularity – which enacts such a prohibition (cf. p. 190 in "Being and Event"). (This axiom states that every non-empty set A contains an element y that is disjoint from A.) Badiou's philosophy draws two major implications from this prohibition. Firstly, it secures the inexistence of the 'one': there cannot be a grand overarching set, and thus it is fallacious to conceive of a grand cosmos, a whole Nature, or a Being of God. Badiou is therefore – against Georg Cantor, from whom he draws heavily – staunchly atheist. However, secondly, this prohibition prompts him to introduce the event. Because, according to Badiou, the axiom of foundation 'founds' all sets in the void, it ties all being to the historico-social situation of the multiplicities of de-centred sets – thereby effacing the positivity of subjective action, or an entirely 'new' occurrence. And whilst this is acceptable ontologically, it is unacceptable, Badiou holds, philosophically. Set theory mathematics has consequently 'pragmatically abandoned' an area which philosophy cannot. And so, Badiou argues, there is therefore only one possibility remaining: that ontology can say nothing about the event.


title: Alain Badiou

text: Several critics have questioned Badiou's use of mathematics. Mathematician Alan Sokal and physicist Jean Bricmont write that Badiou proposes, with seemingly "utter seriousness," a blending of psychoanalysis, politics and set theory that they contend is preposterous. Similarly, philosopher Roger Scruton has questioned Badiou's grasp of the foundation of mathematics, writing in 2012:


title: Alain Badiou

text: An example of a critique from a mathematician's point of view is the essay 'Badiou's Number: A Critique of Mathematics as Ontology' by Ricardo L. Nirenberg and David Nirenberg, which takes issue in particular with Badiou's matheme of the Event in "Being and Event", which has already been alluded to in respect of the 'axiom of foundation' above. Nirenberg and Nirenberg write:


title: Alain Badiou

text: Badiou again turns here to mathematics and set theory – Badiou's language of ontology – to study the possibility of an indiscernible element existing extrinsically to the situation of ontology. He employs the strategy of the mathematician Paul J. Cohen, using what are called the "conditions" of sets. These conditions are thought of in terms of domination, a domination being that which defines a set. (If one takes, in binary language, the set with the condition 'items marked only with ones', any item marked with zero negates the property of the set. The condition which has only ones is thus dominated by any condition which has zeros in it [cf. pp. 367–371 in "Being and Event"].) Badiou reasons using these conditions that every discernible (nameable or constructible) set is dominated by the conditions which don't possess the property that makes it discernible as a set. (The property 'one' is always dominated by 'not one'.) These sets are, in line with constructible ontology, relative to one's being-in-the-world and one's being in language (where sets and concepts, such as the concept 'humanity', get their names). However, he continues, the dominations themselves are, whilst being relative concepts, not necessarily intrinsic to language and constructible thought; rather one can axiomatically define a domination – in the terms of mathematical ontology – as a set of conditions such that any condition outside the domination is dominated by at least one term inside the domination. One does not necessarily need to refer to constructible language to conceive of a 'set of dominations', which he refers to as the indiscernible set, or the generic set. It is therefore, he continues, possible to think beyond the strictures of the relativistic constructible universe of language, by a process Cohen calls forcing. And he concludes in following that while ontology can mark out a space for an inhabitant of the constructible situation to decide upon the indiscernible, it falls to the subject – about which the ontological situation cannot comment – to nominate this indiscernible, this generic point; and thus nominate, and give name to, the undecidable event. Badiou thereby marks out a philosophy by which to refute the apparent relativism or apoliticism in post-structuralist thought.


title: Alain Badiou

text: Badiou's ultimate ethical maxim is therefore one of: 'decide upon the undecidable'. It is to name the indiscernible, the generic set, and thus name the event that re-casts ontology in a new light. He identifies four domains in which a subject (who, it is important to note, "becomes" a subject through this process) can potentially witness an event: love, science, politics and art. By enacting fidelity to the event within these four domains one performs a 'generic procedure', which in its undecidability is necessarily experimental, and one potentially recasts the situation in which being takes place. Through this maintenance of fidelity, truth has the potentiality to emerge.


title: Alain Badiou

text: In line with his concept of the event, Badiou maintains, politics is not about politicians, but activism based on the present situation and the (his translators' neologism) rupture. So too does love have this characteristic of becoming "anew". Even in science the guesswork that marks the event is prominent. He vigorously rejects the tag of 'decisionist' (the idea that once something is decided it 'becomes true'), but rather argues that the recasting of a truth comes prior to its veracity or verifiability. As he says of Galileo (p. 401):


title: Alain Badiou

text: While Badiou is keen to reject an equivalence between politics and philosophy, he correlates nonetheless his political activism and skepticism toward the parliamentary-democratic process with his philosophy, based around singular, situated truths, and potential revolutions.


title: Alain Badiou

text: Alain Badiou is a founding member (along with Natacha Michel and Sylvain Lazarus) of the militant French political organisation "L'Organisation Politique", which was active from 1985 until it disbanded in 2007. It called itself a post-party organization concerned with direct popular intervention in a wide range of issues (including immigration, labor, and housing). In addition to numerous writings and interventions, "L'Organisation Politique" highlighted the importance of developing political prescriptions concerning undocumented migrants ("les sans papiers"), stressing that they must be conceived primarily as workers and not immigrants.


title: Alain Badiou

text: Alain Badiou gained great notoriety in 2007 with his pamphlet "The Meaning of Sarkozy" ("De quoi Sarkozy est-il le nom?"), which quickly sold 60,000 copies, whereas for 40 years the sales of his books had oscillated between 2,000 and 6,000 copies.


title: Sima Qian

text: Sima Qian (; ; ) was a Chinese historian of the early Han dynasty (206AD220). He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for his "Records of the Grand Historian", a general history of China covering more than two thousand years beginning from the rise of the legendary Yellow Emperor and the formation of the first Chinese polity to the reigning sovereign of Sima Qian's time, Emperor Wu of Han. As the first universal history of the world as it was known to the ancient Chinese, the "Records of the Grand Historian" served as a model for official history-writing for subsequent Chinese dynasties and the Chinese cultural sphere (Korea, Vietnam, Japan) up until the 20th century.


title: Sima Qian

text: Sima Qian's father Sima Tan first conceived of the ambitious project of writing a complete history of China, but had completed only some preparatory sketches at the time of his death. After inheriting his father's position as court historian in the imperial court, he was determined to fulfill his father's dying wish of composing and putting together this epic work of history. However, in 99 BC, he would fall victim to the Li Ling affair for speaking out in defense of the general, who was blamed for an unsuccessful campaign against the Xiongnu. Given the choice of being executed or castrated, he chose the latter in order to finish his historical work. Although he is universally remembered for the "Records", surviving works indicate that he was also a gifted poet and prose writer, and he was instrumental in the creation of the "Taichu" calendar, which was officially promulgated in 104 BC.


title: Sima Qian

text: As his position in the imperial court was "Grand Historian" ("tàishǐ" , variously translated as court historian, scribe, or astronomer/astrologer), later generations would accord him with the honorific title of "Lord Grand Historian" ("Tàishǐ Gōng" ) for his monumental work, though his "magnum opus" was completed many years after his tenure as Grand Historian ended in disgrace and after his acceptance of punitive actions against him, including imprisonment, castration, and subjection to servility. He was acutely aware of the importance of his work to posterity and its relationship to his own personal suffering. In the postface of the "Records", he implicitly compared his universal history of China to the classics of his day, the "Guoyu" by Zuoqiu Ming", Lisao" by Qu Yuan, and the "Art of War" by Sun Bin, pointing out that their authors all suffered great personal misfortunes before their lasting monumental works could come to fruition. Sima Qian is depicted in the Wu Shuang Pu (無雙譜, Table of Peerless Heroes) by Jin Guliang.


title: Sima Qian

text: Sima Qian was born at Xiayang in Zuopingyi (around present-day Hancheng, Shaanxi Province). He was most likely born about 145, though some sources say he was born about 135. Around 136, his father, Sima Tan, received an appointment to the position of "grand historian" ("tàishǐ" , alt. "grand scribe" or "grand astrologer"). The grand historian position was relatively low-ranking, and its primary duty was to formulate the yearly calendar, identifying which days were ritually auspicious or inauspicious, and present it to the emperor prior to New Year's Day. The grand historian's other duties included traveling with the emperor for important rituals and recording daily events both at the court and around the country. By his account, by the age of ten Sima was able to "read the old writings" and was considered to be a promising scholar. Sima grew up in a Confucian environment, and Sima always regarded his historical work as an act of Confucian filial piety to his father.


title: Sima Qian

text: In 126, around the age of twenty, Sima Qian began an extensive tour around China as it existed in the Han dynasty. He started his journey from the imperial capital, Chang'an (near modern Xi'an), then went south across the Yangtze River to


title: Sima Qian

text: Changsha Kingdom (modern Hunan Province), where he visited the Miluo River site where the Warring States era poet Qu Yuan was traditionally said to have drowned himself. He then went to seek the burial place of the legendary rulers Yu on Mount Kuaiji and Shun in the Jiuyi Mountains (modern Ningyuan County, Hunan). He then went north to Huaiyin (modern Huai'an, Jiangsu Province) to see the grave of Han dynasty general Han Xin, then continued north to Qufu, the hometown of Confucius, where he studied ritual and other traditional subjects.


title: Sima Qian

text: After his travels, Sima was chosen to be a Palace Attendant in the government, whose duties were to inspect different parts of the country with Emperor Wu in 122 BC. Sima married young and had one daughter. In 110 BC, at the age of thirty-five, Sima Qian was sent westward on a military expedition against some "barbarian" tribes. That year, his father fell ill due to the distress of not being invited to attend the Imperial Feng Sacrifice. Suspecting his time was running out, he summoned his son back home to take over the historical work he had begun. Sima Tan wanted to follow the "Annals of Spring and Autumn"—the first chronicle in the history of Chinese literature. It appears that Sima Tan was only able to put together an outline of the work before he died. the postface of the completed "Shiji", there is a short essay on the six philosophical schools that is explicitly attributed to Sima Tan. Otherwise, there are only fragments of the "Shiji" that are speculated to be authored by Sima Tan or based on his notes. Fueled by his father's inspiration, Sima Qian spent much of the subsequent decade authoring and compiling the "Records of the Grand Historian", completing it before 91 BC, probably around 94 BC. Three years after the death of his father, Sima Qian assumed his father's previous position as "taishi". In 105 BC, Sima was among the scholars chosen to reform the calendar. As a senior imperial official, Sima was also in the position to offer counsel to the emperor on general affairs of state.


title: Sima Qian

text: In 99 BC, Sima became embroiled in the Li Ling affair, where Li Ling and Li Guangli, two military officers who led a campaign against the Xiongnu in the north, were defeated and taken captive. Emperor Wu attributed the defeat to Li Ling, with all government officials subsequently condemning him for it. Sima was the only person to defend Li Ling, who had never been his friend but whom he respected. Emperor Wu interpreted Sima's defence of Li as an attack on his brother-in-law, Li Guangli, who had also fought against the Xiongnu without much success, and sentenced Sima to death. At that time, execution could be commuted either by money or castration. Since Sima did not have enough money to atone his "crime", he chose the latter and was then thrown into prison, where he endured three years. He described his pain thus: "When you see the jailer you abjectly touch the ground with your forehead. At the mere sight of his underlings you are seized with terror ... Such ignominy can never be wiped away." Sima called his castration "the worst of all punishments".


title: Sima Qian

text: In 96 BC, on his release from prison, Sima chose to live on as a palace eunuch to complete his histories, rather than commit suicide as was expected of a gentleman-scholar who had been disgraced by being castrated. As Sima Qian himself explained in his "Letter to Ren An":


title: Sima Qian

text: Upon his release from prison in 97/96 BC, Sima Qian continued to serve in the Han court as "zhongshuling" (), a court archivist position reserved for eunuchs with considerable status and with higher pay than his previous position of historian.


title: Sima Qian

text: The "Letter to Ren An" was written by Sima Qian in reply to Ren An in response to the latter's involvement in Crown Prince Liu Ju's rebellion in 91 BC. This is the last record of Sima Qian in contemporary documents. The letter is a reply to a lost letter by Ren An to Sima Qian, perhaps asking Sima Qian to intercede on his behalf as Ren An was facing execution for accusations of being an opportunist and displaying equivocal loyalty to the emperor during the rebellion. In his reply, Sima Qian stated that he is a mutilated man with no influence at court. Some later historians claimed that Sima Qian himself became implicated in the rebellion as a result of his friendship with Ren An and was executed as part of the purge of the crown prince's supporters in court; however, the earliest attested record of this account dates from the 4th century. Moreover, it has also been pointed out that Sima Qian would have been reluctant to render substantive aid to Ren An, given the severe consequences that he suffered for supporting General Li Ling, as well as Ren An's failure to act on his behalf during the Li Ling affair. Although there are many theories regarding the exact dating as well as the true nature and purpose of the "Letter to Ren An", one common interpretation suggests that the letter, in part, tacitly expressed a refusal to play an active role in securing a reduced punishment for Ren An.


title: Sima Qian

text: The early 20th century scholar Wang Guowei stated that there are no reliable records establishing when Sima Qian died. He and most modern historians believe that Sima Qian spent his last days as a scholar in reclusion () after leaving the Han court, perhaps dying around the same time as Emperor Wu in 87/86 BC.


title: Sima Qian

text: Although the style and form of Chinese historical writings varied through the ages, "Records of the Grand Historian" ("Shiji") has defined the quality and style from then onwards. Before Sima, histories were written as certain events or certain periods of history of states; his idea of a general history affected later historiographers like Zheng Qiao (鄭樵) in writing "Tongzhi" and Sima Guang in writing "Zizhi Tongjian". The Chinese historical form of dynasty history, or "jizhuanti" history of dynasties, was codified in the second dynastic history by Ban Gu's "Book of Han", but historians regard Sima's work as their model, which stands as the "official format" of the history of China. The "Shiji" comprises 130 chapters consisting of half a million characters.