title: Classic of Poetry

text: Various traditions concern the gathering of the compiled songs and the editorial selection from these make up the classic text of the "Odes": "Royal Officials' Collecting Songs" () is recorded in the "Book of Han", and "Master Confucius Deletes Songs" () refers to Confucius and his mention in the "Records of the Grand Historian", where it says from originally some 3,000 songs and poems in a previously extant ""Odes"" that Confucius personally selected the "300" which he felt best conformed to traditional ritual propriety, thus producing the "Classic of Poetry".


title: Classic of Poetry

text: In 2015 the Anhui University purchased a group of looted manuscripts, among which the oldest extant version of the "Classic of Poetry" (at least part of it). The manuscript has been published in the first volume of this collection of manuscripts, ().


title: Classic of Poetry

text: The Confucian school eventually came to consider the verses of the "Airs of the States" to have been collected in the course of activities of officers dispatched by the Zhou Dynasty court, whose duties included the field collection of the songs local to the territorial states of Zhou. This territory was roughly the Yellow River Plain, Shandong, southwestern Hebei, eastern Gansu, and the Han River region. Perhaps during the harvest. After the officials returned from their missions, the king was said to have observed them himself in an effort to understand the current condition of the common people. The well-being of the people was of special concern to the Zhou because of their ideological position that the right to rule was based on the benignity of the rulers to the people in accordance with the will of Heaven, and that this Heavenly Mandate would be withdrawn upon the failure of the ruling dynasty to ensure the prosperity of their subjects. The people's folksongs were deemed to be the best gauge of their feelings and conditions, and thus indicative of whether the nobility was ruling according to the mandate of Heaven or not, accordingly the songs were collected from the various regions, converted from their diverse regional dialects into standard literary language, and presented accompanied with music at the royal courts.


title: Classic of Poetry

text: The "Classic of Poetry" historically has a major place in the Four Books and Five Classics, the canonical works associated with Confucianism. Some pre-Qin dynasty texts, such as the "Analects" and a recently excavated manuscript from 300 BCE entitled "Confucius' Discussion of the "Odes"", mention Confucius' involvement with the "Classic of Poetry" but Han dynasty historian Sima Qian's "Records of the Grand Historian" was the first work to directly attribute the work to Confucius. Subsequent Confucian tradition held that the "Shijing" collection was edited by Confucius from a larger 3,000-piece collection to its traditional 305-piece form. This claim is believed to reflect an early Chinese tendency to relate all of the Five Classics in some way or another to Confucius, who by the 1st century BCE had become the model of sages and was believed to have maintained a cultural connection to the early Zhou dynasty. This view is now generally discredited, as the "Zuo zhuan" records that the "Classic of Poetry" already existed in a definitive form when Confucius was just a young child.


title: Classic of Poetry

text: In works attributed to him, Confucius comments upon the "Classic of Poetry" in such a way as to indicate that he holds it in great esteem. A story in the "Analects" recounts that Confucius' son Kong Li told the story: "The Master once stood by himself, and I hurried to seek teaching from him. He asked me, 'You've studied the Odes?' I answered, 'Not yet.' He replied, 'If you have not studied the Odes, then I have nothing to say.'"


title: Classic of Poetry

text: According to Han tradition, the "Poetry" and other classics were targets of the burning of books in 213 BCE under Qin Shi Huang, and the songs had to be reconstructed largely from memory in the subsequent Han period. However the discovery of pre-Qin copies showing the same variation as Han texts, as well as evidence of Qin patronage of the "Poetry", have led modern scholars to doubt this account.


title: Classic of Poetry

text: During the Han period there were three different versions of the "Poetry" which each belonged to different hermeneutic traditions. The Lu "Poetry" ( "Lǔ shī"), the Qi "Poetry" ( "Qí shī") and the Han "Poetry" ( "Hán shī") were officially recognized with chairs at the Imperial Academy during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han (156–87 BCE). Until the later years of the Eastern Han period, the dominant version of the "Poetry" was the Lu "Poetry", named after the state of Lu, and founded by Shen Pei, a student of a disciple of the Warring States period philosopher Xunzi.


title: Classic of Poetry

text: The Mao Tradition of the "Poetry" ( "Máo shī zhuàn"), attributed to an obscure scholar named Máo Hēng () who lived during the 2nd or 3rd centuries BCE, was not officially recognized until the reign of Emperor Ping (1 BCE to 6 CE). However, during the Eastern Han period, the Mao "Poetry" gradually became the primary version. Proponents of the Mao "Poetry" said that its text was descended from the first generation of Confucius' students, and as such should be the authoritative version. Xu Shen's influential dictionary "Shuowen Jiezi", written in the 2nd-century CE, quotes almost exclusively from the Mao "Poetry". Finally, the renowned Eastern Han scholar Zheng Xuan used the Mao "Poetry" as the basis for his annotated 2nd-century edition of the "Poetry". Zheng Xuan's edition of the Mao text was itself the basis of the "Right Meaning of the Mao "Poetry"" ( "") which became the imperially authorized text and commentary on the "Poetry" in 653 CE.


title: Classic of Poetry

text: By the 5th-century, the Lu, Qi, and Han traditions had died out, leaving only the Mao "Poetry", which has become the received text in use today.


title: Classic of Poetry

text: The "Book of Odes" has been a revered Confucian classic since the Han Dynasty, and has been studied and memorized by centuries of scholars in China. The individual songs of the "Odes", though frequently on simple, rustic subjects, have traditionally been saddled with extensive, elaborate allegorical meanings that assigned moral or political meaning to the smallest details of each line. The popular songs were seen as good keys to understanding the troubles of the common people, and were often read as allegories; complaints against lovers were seen as complaints against faithless rulers, "if a maiden warns her lover not to be too rash... commentators promptly discover that the piece refers to a feudal noble whose brother had been plotting against him...".


title: Classic of Poetry

text: The extensive allegorical traditions associated with the "Odes" were theorized by Herbert Giles to have begun in the Warring States period as a justification for Confucius' focus upon such a seemingly simple and ordinary collection of verses. These elaborate, far-fetched interpretations seem to have gone completely unquestioned until the 12th century, when scholar Zheng Qiao (, 1104–1162) first wrote his scepticism of them. European sinologists like Giles and Marcel Granet ignored these traditional interpretations in their analysis of the original meanings of the "Odes". Granet, in his list of rules for properly reading the "Odes", wrote that readers should "take no account of the standard interpretation", "reject in no uncertain terms the distinction drawn between songs evicting a good state of morals and songs attesting to perverted morality", and "[discard] all symbolic interpretations, and likewise any interpretation that supposes a refined technique on the part of the poets". These traditional allegories of politics and morality are no longer seriously followed by any modern readers in China or elsewhere.


title: Classic of Poetry

text: "The Odes" became an important and controversial force, influencing political, social and educational phenomena. During the struggle between Confucian, Legalist, and other schools of thought, the Confucians used the "Shijing" to bolster their viewpoint. On the Confucian side, the "Shijing" became a foundational text which informed and validated literature, education, and political affairs. The Legalists, on their side, attempted to suppress the "Shijing" by violence, after the Legalist philosophy was endorsed by the Qin Dynasty, prior to their final triumph over the neighboring states: the suppression of Confucian and other thought and literature after the Qin victories and the start of Burning of Books and Burying of Scholars era, starting in 213 BCE, extended to attempt to prohibit the "Shijing".


title: Classic of Poetry

text: As the idea of allegorical expression grew, when kingdoms or feudal leaders wished to express or validate their own positions, they would sometimes couch the message within a poem, or by allusion. This practice became common among educated Chinese in their personal correspondences and spread to Japan and Korea as well.


title: Classic of Poetry

text: Modern scholarship on the "Classic of Poetry" often focuses on doing linguistic reconstruction and research in Old Chinese by analyzing the rhyme schemes in the "Odes", which show vast differences when read in modern Mandarin Chinese. Although preserving more Old Chinese syllable endings than Mandarin, Modern Cantonese and Min Nan are also quite different from the Old Chinese language represented in the Odes.


title: Classic of Poetry

text: C.H. Wang refers to the account of King Wu's victory over the Shang dynasty in the "Major Court Hymns" as the "Weniad" (a name that parallels "The Iliad"), seeing it as part of a greater narrative discourse in China that extols the virtues of "wén" ( "literature, culture") over more military interests.


title: Callie Khouri

text: Carolyn Ann "Callie" Khouri (born November 27, 1957) is an American film and television screenwriter, producer, and director. In 1992, she won the Academy Award for Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for the film "Thelma & Louise", which was controversial upon its release, but which subsequently became a classic. It was inducted into the Library of Congress National Film Registry in December 2016.


title: Callie Khouri

text: Her other films include "Mad Money", released in 2008, and the biopic "Respect" in 2021. She also created the series "Nashville", which premiered on ABC in 2012. The critics awarded it strong reviews and it ran for six seasons.


title: Callie Khouri

text: Carolyn Ann (Callie) Khouri was born in San Antonio, Texas, but was brought up in Kentucky. She is the daughter of a Lebanese-American father and her family name means priest in Arabic. Khouri's interest in theater arts began when she took part in high school plays. Following her graduation from St Mary High School in Paducah, Kentucky, she studied landscape architecture at Purdue University before changing her major to drama. Khouri dropped out of Purdue and moved to Los Angeles, where she waited tables and studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute and with acting teacher Peggy Feury. She soon realized that being an actress was not her destiny: "I can't stand people looking at me," said Khouri.


title: Callie Khouri

text: In 1985, she took her first step toward “film production by pursuing a position as a commercial and music video production assistant.” From 1996 to 1998, and from 2000 to 2002, Khouri served on the Writers Guild of America board of directors; she sat on the board of trustees of the Writer's Guild Foundation from 2001 to 2004. She was a member of Hollywood Women's Political Committee, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting Women's Media Watch Project.


title: Callie Khouri

text: On June 2, 1990, she married David Weaver Warfield, a writer and a producer. She later divorced him, and married musician T Bone Burnett in 2009.


title: Callie Khouri

text: Khouri is a screenwriter, director, producer, feminist, lecturer, and author of non-fiction. She also worked as an actress, lecturer, and waiter in Nashville. While working for a company that made commercials and music videos, she began writing "Thelma & Louise", her first produced screenplay. "Thelma & Louise" won Khouri the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, a Golden Globe Award, and a PEN Literary Award, as well as the London Film Critics Circle Award for Film of the Year and a nomination for Best Original Screenplay from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.


title: Callie Khouri

text: Khouri described her experience filming "Thelma & Louise" in an interview by David Konow, a scholarly author and journalist: "While I was writing "Thelma and Louise", it was the most fun I had ever had in my life, bar none," she says. "It was such a pure experience. There was no self-censorship there, there was no second guessing. From a creative standpoint, it was the freest I had ever been in my life. I loved every moment I got to spend time with those characters. Nothing came close to it, including winning all the awards and everything else. As much fun as all that was, it wasn't as much fun as sitting alone in a crummy office on Vine at 2 in the morning writing that screenplay."


title: Callie Khouri

text: At the Oscar ceremony she said, "for everyone who wanted to see a happy ending for "Thelma and Louise", for me this is it," brandishing the statue high. After winning the Academy Award for best screenplay, she felt motivated enough to continue on with her career and express "her feelings about the lack of female directors in Hollywood", not to mention that most of her career began because of her stance on women's rights. In an interview with "The Huffington Post", she stated that adult women "are a market that I feel is underserved in the entertainment population at large. I don't see the kind of women represented that I know or that I'm attracted to. I really want to try to write more nuanced, less simplistic kind of stuff, and it's hard to find a place to do that."


title: Callie Khouri

text: "At first I had no desire to write screenplays. I kind of wished I had because I was reaching the end of my time producing music videos. I was struggling so hard to figure out what it was that I was supposed to be doing. I kept thinking I'm supposed to be doing something creative. I can't believe I have such a knack for the vernacular and I don't have anywhere to apply it." "I felt I had not found my true path. And then a series of events occurred that led me to the point where I didn't have anything to lose if I wrote a screenplay." She began writing sitcoms with a comedian friend but was plagued by second thoughts about her work. Khouri was frustrated and kept "contemplating and meditating" until she got this idea of "two women going on a crime spree." She felt as if a light bulb had gone on over her head, making her more interested in the idea.


title: Callie Khouri

text: She originally created the character Louise as a woman living in Texas who works as a communication secretary, "somebody sitting behind one of those big desks with a headset on directing people and taking calls and all that stuff." She imagined that Louise considered herself a liability as an employee, and that women would never be able to achieve power. This version of Louise would always remain narrow in her ambitions, someone "who never realized women could be executives until she saw one come in the front door."


title: Callie Khouri

text: The character Thelma, on the other hand, was first written as a character who "had kids and stuff like that, but I realized that she couldn't have kids. The idea that Darryl wanted her to wait, because the kids would be a sacrifice for him financially, fit perfectly. And, of course, she's really a child herself. I had to set it up that way. I love to laugh, and I wanted this to be a movie you were enjoying and having a good time with because you were watching these women get their lives. Even though they would lose them, they were becoming more and more themselves. It was a beautiful experience, a liberating experience to watch that."


title: Callie Khouri

text: Her second film as a writer, the romantic comedy-drama "Something to Talk About" (1995), earned mixed reviews from critics.


title: Callie Khouri

text: In June 2002, Khouri made her directorial debut with her adaptation of "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood", which grossed a total of $73,839,240 worldwide. The film opened at number two in the box office behind "The Sum of All Fears"s second weekend.


title: Callie Khouri

text: In 2006, Khouri created, wrote and directed the pilot for the legal television series "Hollis & Rae" that was produced by Steven Bochco.


title: Callie Khouri

text: Khouri directed "Mad Money" in 2008, a crime-caper film starring Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah, and Katie Holmes.


title: Callie Khouri

text: In 2012 she developed ABC's country music drama series, "Nashville", starring Connie Britton and Hayden Panettiere. Khouri's husband T Bone Burnett was the show's executive music producer and composer for the first season. Leaving the show shortly after the first season production wrapped, Burnett later stated that he was upset with television executives' treatment of his wife. His assistant and the managing producer Buddy Miller took over for Burnett in season two. "Nashville" received positive reviews from critics, and Khouri continued on the show without Burnett's involvement. In 2016, "Nashville" moved to CMT.


title: Callie Khouri

text: Khouri works as a part-time lecturer of theatre arts. She has taught a master class on film-making at the Athena Film Festival at Barnard College in New York City, as well as a writing and directing course at the Arts Initiative Columbia University in New York, featuring "Thelma & Louise".


title: Callie Khouri

text: According to an interview in "Variety" Khouri takes an opposing approach toward guns in social media: "in other countries where they have violent video games but less access to guns, they have less mass shootings. I have a really hard time saying, if there were no violent games, people would stop shooting each other. I think that until they have no way of shooting each other, they won't stop." says Khouri. "We have a speed limit. Why can't we have a bullet limit? The idea that we don't need limits stricter than we have now on guns is absolutely insane. Because ultimately, people don't kill people — guns kill people, and people with guns kill people." She also argued that America has lost its moral compass and that "it's worse than it's ever been!" in the matters of gun control. She claimed that there is no quick route to end gun control because Hollywood actors such as Sylvester Stallone "make a fortune from violence. Do you think those types of movies will stop getting made? I don't," says Khouri.


title: Callie Khouri

text: The National Women's History Museum (NWHM) is a non-profit organization that recognizes powerful women who contribute toward feminist filmmaking, such as Callie Khouri and Susan Sarandon. It also receives support, as well as generous donations, from other women such as Shonda Rhimes, Meryl Streep, and Frances Fisher. On August 23, 2014, Callie Khouri was honored by the National Women's History Museum and NWHM Los Angeles Council in "Women Making History Brunch" at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, California, for winning an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and WGA. "She's revolutionary," said Geena Davis on working with Khouri, who also is the creator and executive producer of "Nashville"." "She creates characters that are in charge of their own fate to the bitter end. Female characters who are in charge of themselves."


title: Dagen H

text: ' (H-day), today usually called "'" (), was 3 September 1967, the day Sweden switched from driving on the left-hand side of the road to the right. The "H" stands for ""Högertrafik"", the Swedish word for right-hand traffic.


title: Dagen H

text: However, the change was unpopular; in a 1955 referendum, 83 percent voted to keep driving on the left. Nevertheless, the Swedish Parliament approved Prime Minister Tage Erlander's proposal on 10 May 1963 of right hand traffic beginning in 1967, as the number of cars on the road tripled from 500,000 to 1.5 million and was expected to reach 2.8 million by 1975. The "Statens Högertrafikkommission" (HTK) ("the state right-hand traffic commission") was established to oversee the change. It also began implementing a four-year education programme on the advice of psychologists.


title: Dagen H

text: The campaign included displaying the "Dagen H" logo on various commemorative items, including milk cartons and underwear. Swedish television held a contest for songs about the change, and the winning entry was "Håll dig till höger, Svensson" ('Keep to the right, Svensson') written by "Expressen" journalist Peter Himmelstrand and performed by The Telstars.


title: Dagen H

text: As "Dagen H" neared, every intersection was equipped with an extra set of poles and traffic signals wrapped in black plastic. Workers roamed the streets early in the morning on "Dagen H" to remove the plastic. A parallel set of lines was painted on the roads with white paint, then covered with black tape. Before "Dagen H", Swedish roads had used yellow lines. Approximately 350,000 signs had to be removed or replaced, including some 20,000 in Stockholm alone.


title: Dagen H

text: Vehicles had to have their original left-hand-traffic headlamps replaced with right-traffic units. One of the reasons the Riksdag pushed ahead with Dagen H despite public unpopularity was that most vehicles in Sweden at the time used inexpensive, standard-size round headlamps, but the trend towards more expensive model-specific headlamps had begun in Continental Europe and was expected to spread through most other parts of the world. Further delay in changing over from left- to right-hand traffic would have greatly increased the cost burden to vehicle owners.


title: Dagen H

text: On "Dagen H", Sunday, 3 September 1967, all non-essential traffic was banned from the roads from 01:00 to 06:00. Any vehicles on the roads during that time had to follow special rules. All vehicles had to come to a complete stop at 04:50, then carefully change to the right-hand side of the road and stop again (to give others time to switch sides of the road and avoid a head-on collision) before being allowed to proceed at 05:00. In Stockholm and Malmö, however, the ban was longerfrom 10:00 on Saturday until 15:00 on Sundayto allow work crews to reconfigure intersections. Certain other towns also saw an extended ban, from 15:00 on Saturday until 15:00 on Sunday.


title: Dagen H

text: One-way streets presented unique problems. Bus stops had to be constructed on the other side of the street. Intersections had to be reshaped to allow traffic to merge.


title: Dagen H

text: The relatively smooth changeover saw a temporary reduction in the number of accidents. On the day of the change, only 157 minor accidents were reported, of which only 32 involved personal injuries, with only a low number being serious. On the Monday following "Dagen H", there were 125 reported traffic accidents, compared to a range of 130 to 198 for previous Mondays, none of them fatal. Experts suggested that changing to driving on the right reduced accidents while overtaking, as people already drove left-hand drive vehicles, thereby having a better view of the road ahead; additionally, the change made a marked surge in perceived risk that exceeded the target level and thus was followed by very cautious behaviour that caused a major decrease in road fatalities. Indeed, fatal car-to-car and car-to-pedestrian accidents dropped sharply as a result, and the number of motor insurance claims went down by 40%.


title: Dagen H

text: These initial improvements did not last, however. The number of motor insurance claims returned to "normal" over the next six weeks and, by 1969, the accident rates were back to the levels seen before the change.


title: Dagen H

text: Trams in central Stockholm, in Helsingborg and most lines in Malmö (which ultimately abolished its tram system in 1973) were withdrawn and replaced by buses, and over one thousand new buses were purchased with doors on the right-hand side. Some 8,000 older buses were retrofitted to provide doors on both sides, while Gothenburg and Malmö exported their right-hand drive (RHD) buses to Pakistan and Kenya. The modification of buses, paid by the state, was the largest cost of the change.


title: Dagen H

text: Although all road traffic in Sweden became right handed, metro and railways did not switch to new rules and continue to drive on the left, with the exception of tram systems. Additionally, many of them were abandoned as a result of "Dagen H"; only the trams in Norrköping and Gothenburg and three suburban lines in the Stockholm area (Nockebybanan and Lidingöbanan) survived. Gothenburg had high cost for rebuilding trams, while Stockholm had cost only for bus purchasing, since the remaining lines had bidirectional trams with doors on both sides. In any event, most trams in Stockholm were replaced by the metro, a decision made long before the Dagen H decision.


title: Dagen H

text: Fellow Nordic country Iceland changed to driving on the right in May 1968, on a day known as H-dagurinn.


title: Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood

text: Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood is the second album by American rapper DMX. The album was released on December 22, 1998, by Def Jam Recordings Music Group Inc. and Ruff Ryders, a little more than seven months after his debut album, "It's Dark and Hell Is Hot". It entered the charts at number 1 (and stayed there for three consecutive weeks) with over 670,000 units shipped in the first week. The album eventually went 3× platinum in the US.


title: Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood

text: DMX became the second rapper to have two albums released in the same calendar year debut at number one on the "Billboard" 200. The latter album to have done so was released posthumously by Tupac Shakur under the alias Makaveli.


title: Grenadines

text: The Grenadines is a chain of small islands that lie on a line between the larger islands of Saint Vincent and Grenada in the Lesser Antilles. Nine are inhabited and open to the public (or ten, if the offshore island of Young Island is counted): Bequia, Mustique, Canouan, Union Island, Petit St Vincent, Palm Island and Mayreau, all in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, plus Petite Martinique and Carriacou in Grenada. Several additional privately owned islands such as Calivigny are also inhabited. Notable uninhabited islands of the Grenadines include Petit Nevis, used by whalers, and Petit Mustique, which was the centre of a prominent real estate scam in the early 2000s.


title: Grenadines

text: The northern two-thirds of the chain, including about 32 islands and cays, are part of the country of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The southern third of the chain belongs to the country of Grenada. Carriacou is the largest and most populous of the Grenadines.


title: Grenadines

text: The islands are politically divided between the island nations of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada. They lie between the islands of Saint Vincent in the north and Grenada in the south. Neither Saint Vincent nor Grenada are Grenadine islands. The islands north of the Martinique Channel belong to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the islands south of the channel belong to Grenada.


title: Grenadines

text: The total population of the Grenadine islands within Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is estimated to be 10,234.


title: Grenadines

text: Carriacou and Petite Martinique is a dependency of Grenada and has a population of 10,900 people. Carriacou is the largest of the Grenadine chain. These islands contains:


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: From 2004 until 2007, Asashōryū was sumo's sole "yokozuna" between the retirement of Musashimaru and the promotion of fellow Mongolian Hakuhō, and was criticized at times by the media and the Japan Sumo Association for not upholding the standards of behaviour expected of a holder of such a prestigious rank. He became the first "yokozuna" in history to be suspended from competition in August 2007 when he participated in a charity football match in his home country despite having withdrawn from a regional sumo tour claiming injury. After a career filled with a multitude of other controversies, both on and off the "dohyō", his career was cut short when he retired from sumo in February 2010 after allegations that he assaulted a man outside a Tokyo nightclub.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: Asashōryū comes from an ethnic Mongol family with a strong background in Mongolian wrestling, with his father and two of his elder brothers all achieving high ranks in the sport. He also trained in judo in Mongolia. He originally came to Japan as an exchange student, together with his friend, the future Asasekiryū, where they attended Meitoku Gijuku High School in Kōchi Prefecture. They both trained together at the sumo club there.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: He was recruited by the former "ōzeki" Asashio of the Wakamatsu stable (now Takasago stable), who gave him the "shikona" of Asashōryū, literally "morning blue dragon," Asa being a regular prefix in the Wakamatsu stable. The second part of the "shikona", Akinori, is an alternative reading of Meitoku, the name of his high school. He made his professional debut in January 1999. At that time, fellow Mongolians Kyokushūzan and Kyokutenhō were in the top division and stars back in their home country, but Asashōryū was quick to overtake them both. He attained elite "sekitori" status in September 2000 by winning promotion to the "jūryō" division, and reached the top "makuuchi" division just two tournaments later in January 2001. In May 2001, he made his "san'yaku" debut at "komusubi" rank and earned his first "sanshō" special prize, for Outstanding Performance.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: In 2002, Asashōryū put together back-to-back records of 11–4, 11–4 and 12–3 and was promoted to sumo's second highest rank of "ōzeki" in July. In November 2002, he took his first top division tournament championship "(yūshō") with a 14–1 record. It took Asashōryū only 23 tournaments from his professional debut to win his first top division title, the fastest ever. In January 2003, he won his second straight championship. Shortly after the tournament, Asashōryū was granted the title of "yokozuna", the highest rank in sumo. His promotion coincided with the retirement of the injury-plagued Takanohana, the last active Japanese born "yokozuna" until Kisenosato in January 2017.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: While his first tournament as "yokozuna" ended in a disappointing 10–5 record, Asashōryū won a further twenty-three tournaments. Combined with his two "yūshō" as an "ōzeki", he had twenty-five career championships in the top division. This puts him in fourth place on the all-time list, behind only Hakuhō, Taihō, and Chiyonofuji.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: Asashōryū nominally shared the "yokozuna" rank with Musashimaru, but in fact his rival only fought a handful of bouts in 2003 due to injury. The two did not meet in competition all year. Asashōryū won his first championship as a "yokozuna" in May 2003 and came back from an injury sustained in the July tournament to win his third title of the year in September. Musashimaru announced his retirement in November, leaving Asashōryū as sumo's only "yokozuna".


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: Asashōryū began 2004 with two consecutive perfect 15–0 tournament wins ("zensho-yūshō") in January and March. Nobody had attained a "zensho-yūshō" since 1996; yet Asashōryū went on to add three more such titles after 2004, for a career total of five. At that time only Taihō, with eight, and Chiyonofuji and Kitanoumi with seven, had recorded more 15–0 scores. His unbeaten run continued into the first five days of the May 2004 tournament, giving him a winning streak of 35 bouts in total, the longest run since Chiyonofuji's 53 in 1988. Although he was then upset by "maegashira" Hokutōriki, he gained revenge by defeating Hokutōriki in a playoff on the final day to claim the championship. On 27 November 2004, Asashōryū became the first wrestler to win five tournaments in a year since Chiyonofuji achieved the feat in 1986, and won his ninth Emperor's Cup. Asashōryū's below average 9–6 score in the September "basho" of 2004, the only one he did not win, was attributed in part to the official ceremony for his marriage, which was held in August 2004 (although he had actually married in December 2002). The hectic social round that inevitably follows Japanese weddings affected his pre-tournament preparations, as it prevented him from doing any training.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: He continued to dominate sumo in 2005, becoming the first wrestler ever to win all six "honbasho" (sumo tournaments) in the same year. The great "yokozuna" Taihō achieved the feat of six consecutive tournament victories twice, but never in a calendar year. Asashōryū lost only six bouts all year (0–1–0–2–2–1). One of those rare losses came on 11 September 2005, at the start of the September tournament when he dropped his first Day 1 bout during his tenure as "yokozuna". On 26 November 2005, a visibly emotional Asashōryū wept after winning his eighty-third bout of the year, (surpassing Kitanoumi's record set in 1978) and clinching the tournament at the same time. The six championships of 2005 (including two more 15–0 wins in January and May) combined with his victory from the final tournament of 2004, meant Asashōryū became the first man in sumo history to win seven consecutive tournament championships.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: Asashōryū's consecutive "basho" streak came to an end in January 2006, when "ōzeki" Tochiazuma took the first tournament championship of the year. Asashōryū's performance in January was a surprisingly poor 11–4 but he successfully rebounded by winning the March tournament. However, his six losses in those tournaments matched his loss total for all of 2005. In the May tournament, he sustained an injury to the ligaments in his elbow on the second day falling out of the ring in a surprising loss to Wakanosato and was visibly slow to rise from the ground. He was absent from the tournament the next day and later released a statement confirming he was withdrawing from the tournament. Doctors told him he would not be able to compete for two months, which meant he would miss the July tournament as well. However, Asashōryū was ready by the start of the July tournament and won with a 14–1 record. In the following tournament, Asashōryū won his eighteenth career title with a 13–2 record. He also won the final tournament of 2006 for his nineteenth career title, the fifth he has won with a perfect 15–0 record.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: In January 2007, Asashōryū posted a 14–1 record, his fourth straight championship since returning from injury, and became the fifth man to win twenty career championships. In March, he dropped his first two bouts but then won thirteen in a row for a 13–2 score. However, this was not enough to win the title—he lost a playoff for the first time in his career, to fellow Mongolian Hakuhō. In May he turned in a below par 10–5 record, losing to all four "ōzeki" and "maegashira" Aminishiki (although he appeared to be carrying an injury). Hakuhō won this tournament as well and was promoted to "yokozuna" immediately afterwards. Asashōryū had been the sole "yokozuna" for a total of 21 tournaments since the retirement of Musashimaru in November 2003 – the longest period of time in sumo history. In July he lost to Aminishiki once again on the opening day but rallied to win the next fourteen bouts, taking his 21st title with a 14–1 record. He was suspended by the Sumo Association from the next two tournaments (see below).


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: Asashōryū returned to tournaments in January 2008. On the final day, he faced Hakuhō in a battle of 13–1 "yokozuna", but was defeated, giving him a final record of 13–2. In March the two "yokozuna" faced off for the title again on the last day, marking only the fifth time in the last 30 years that two "yokozuna" have contested the championship on the last day of two consecutive tournaments. In this rematch, Asashōryū was the victor, winning his 22nd title, thus equalling Takanohana's haul of tournament championships.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: In the May tournament he lost to Kisenosato on the opening day. He injured his back in this match and subsequent losses to Kotoōshū (the eventual winner of the tournament) and Chiyotaikai put him out of contention.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: Asashōryū got off to a bad start in the July tournament by losing to Toyonoshima on the first day. After a second loss to "maegashira" Tochinonada on day five, he pulled out of the tournament on the sixth day citing pain in his elbow. The September tournament unfolded in a similarly poor fashion. After compiling a lacklustre 5–4 record through the first nine days, Asashōryū forfeited his tenth-day match to "maegashira" Gōeidō and withdrew. He had elbow pain, and presented a medical certificate.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: He returned to Mongolia in October 2008, staying until shortly before the tournament in Kyushu in November, which he did not enter. He stated that he would not withdraw for a third time partway through a tourney, and suggested that he would retire if his comeback proved unsuccessful.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: The January 2009 "honbasho", Asashōryū's first full tournament since May 2008, was a remarkable success. He won his first fourteen matches, losing only on the last day to Hakuhō. He then won the resulting playoff to earn his 23rd championship and pass Takanohana on the all-time list to become the fourth ever wrestler to have won 23 tournaments (the other three being Taihō, Kitanoumi and Chiyonofuji). His victory came exactly twenty years after "yokozuna" Hokutoumi also returned from three tournaments out to win the championship with a 14–1 record. Sumo Association head Musashigawa described Asashōryū's comeback as "amazing." Ticket sales and television ratings showed a marked increase as his winning run continued. After his playoff win Asashōryū announced to the crowd, "Everyone, thank you very much. Really. I am back."


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: In the following tournament in March he went undefeated for the first nine days but then lost to three of the five "ōzeki" over the next five days, putting him out of contention for the championship. He also lost his final day match to Hakuhō to finish at 11–4. In the May tournament he lost early to Aminishiki, then won ten in a row before falling to Harumafuji on Day 14. He again lost to Hakuhō, on the final day, finishing at 12–3.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: Asashōryū returned to Mongolia after the May tournament to receive treatment for a bruised chest suffered in his defeat to Harumafuji. In June he received the Hero of Labour Award from outgoing Mongolian President Nambaryn Enkhbayar, the highest government award in Mongolia and equivalent to the Japanese People's Honour Award. He performed poorly in the July tournament with a 10–5 record, his worst finish in just over two years.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: He damaged ligaments in his right knee during a regional tour of Akita in August 2009 (the first time he had injured his knee), hampering his preparations for the September tournament. Despite this, he won his first 14 matches, before finally losing to Hakuhō, leaving both wrestlers at 14–1. Asashōryū would win the resulting playoff to win his 24th "yūshō", tying him with Kitanoumi for third on the all-time "yūshō" list. The triumph took place on his 29th birthday. He finished on 11–4 in the Kyushu tournament in November, losing his last four matches.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: In the January 2010 tournament, which was to prove to be the last of his career, Asashōryū clinched his 25th "yūshō" on Day 14 after beating Harumafuji to go 13–1, two wins ahead of Hakuhō on 11–3. He was however beaten by Hakuhō on the final day for the seventh straight time in regulation matches, and he finished on 13–2.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: In January 2007, "Shūkan Gendai", a weekly tabloid magazine, reported that Asashōryū had paid opponents about ¥800,000 ($10,000) per fight to allow him to win the previous November 2006 tournament with a perfect score. Asashōryū denied these claims in court on 3 October 2008, during the first ever court appearance by a "yokozuna". He appeared as part of a lawsuit brought by the Japan Sumo Association and about 30 other wrestlers seeking around ¥660 million ($8.12 million) from "Shūkan Gendai" publisher, Kodansha Ltd. He said the allegations were "complete lies ... I am very sad and disgusted." Also appearing in court, in defence of the magazine, was former wrestler Itai, who had made similar allegations of bout-fixing in 2000 regarding his own career. Itai suggested that Asashōryū's win over Chiyotaikai in the November 2006 tournament was an example of a fixed match.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: On 26 March 2009, the Tokyo District Court ordered Kodansha, the publisher of the magazine, and Yorimasa Takeda, the freelance writer of the articles, to pay ¥42.90 million ($437,000) in damages, believed to be the highest award for libel damages against a magazine in Japanese history. Chief judge Yasushi Nakamura stated that the reporting was "slipshod in the extreme."


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: After his tournament victory in July 2007, Asashōryū decided to skip the regional summer tour of Tōhoku and Hokkaidō beginning on 3 August because of injury. The medical forms submitted to the Japan Sumo Association indicated that injuries to his left elbow and a stress fracture in his lower back would require six weeks of rest to heal. However, he was then seen on television participating in a football match for charity with Hidetoshi Nakata in his homeland of Mongolia. He was reported to have done so at the request of the Japanese Foreign Ministry and the Mongolian government. However, the suggestion that he had exaggerated the extent of his injuries to avoid his duties on the exhibition tour caused a media storm.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: Asashōryū was ordered to return to Japan and on 1 August 2007, the Sumo Association suspended him for the upcoming September tournament as well as the next one in November, the first time in the sport's history that an active "yokozuna" has been suspended from a main tournament. They also announced that Asashōryū and his stablemaster Takasago would have their salaries cut by 30% for the next four months. He was also instructed to restrict his movements to his home, his stable, and the hospital. Isenoumi, a Director of the Sumo Association, called Asashōryū's behaviour "a serious indiscretion. Given that a yokozuna should act as a good example for the other wrestlers, this punishment for his action is appropriate." It was the most severe punishment ever imposed on a "yokozuna" since the Grand Tournament system was adopted over 80 years ago. Asashōryū responded by saying he would get his injuries treated and prepare for the winter regional tour and the January 2008 tournament. However, his stablemaster reported that Asashōryū was finding the severity of the punishment difficult to deal with, and two doctors from the Sumo Association diagnosed him as suffering from acute stress disorder, and then dissociative disorder. On 28 August he was allowed to return to Mongolia for treatment. After recuperation and onsen treatment, he returned to Japan on 30 November 2007, apologising for his actions at a press conference.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: During the January 2010 tournament, a tabloid magazine claimed Asashōryū punched his personal manager after getting drunk during a night out in downtown Nishiazabu. After the tournament Asashōryū was reprimanded by Japan Sumo Association (JSA) head Musashigawa, and he apologised once again for his behaviour. However, it subsequently emerged that it was not his manager but a restaurant employee who was attacked, reportedly sustaining a broken nose. The man did not file a report with the police, and on 31 January 2010, Asashōryū told the authorities that he had reached a settlement with him. Despite this, the police did not rule out the possibility of questioning Asashōryū about the assault.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: Subsequently, on 4 February 2010, he announced his decision to retire, after discussing the matter at a meeting with the Board of Directors of the Sumo Association. He stated, "I feel heavy responsibility as a yokozuna that I have caused trouble to so many people. I am the only person who can put an end to it all. I think it's my destiny that I retire like this." Asashōryū did not comment directly on the brawl, except to say that what actually happened was "quite different" to media reports. "I decided to step down to bring this to a closure."


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: Asashōryū referred to criticism for not showing "hinkaku" (dignity) as a "yokozuna". "Everybody talks about dignity, but when I went into the ring, I felt fierce like a devil." Asked what his most memorable bout was, he chose his first win over Musashimaru in May 2001, with his parents watching him.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: JSA Chief Director Musashigawa revealed that directors were debating on that day whether to punish Asashōryū. "He felt compelled to resign for misconduct that was inexcusable, and the board accepted. I want to apologize to all of the fans and to the person injured in the incident." The Yokozuna Deliberation Council had recommended his retirement, and would have pressed for his dismissal if he had not chosen to go.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: In Mongolia, there was anger at the news. One high-ranking Mongolian official accused the Sumo Association of using the incident as an excuse to get rid of Asashōryū before he could reach Taihō's 32 tournament victories. "I feel that they did not want him to break the record for most titles. This behavior is unjust. The Mongolian people disapprove." The "Zuunii Medee" newspaper called for sumo broadcasts in Mongolia to be suspended. Reacting to the tense mood among the Mongolian public, a spokesman at the Foreign Ministry of Mongolia issued a statement that the "resignation of Asashōryū will have no influence to the friendship between Mongolian and Japanese citizens." and he requested people stay calm. Reaction in Japan was more mixed, with some of the public saying the "yokozuna" had to go while others said they would miss him. News media compared his case with earlier "yokozuna" Maedayama who was forced to resign in 1949 after dropping out of a tournament claiming illness but subsequently photographed at a baseball game. Both his stablemaster and the Sumo Association received criticism for their handling of this incident and Asashōryū in general.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: As Asashōryū never obtained Japanese citizenship, he was not eligible to stay in the sumo world as an "oyakata", or coach. He was, however, entitled to a formal retirement ceremony, or "danpatsu-shiki", at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan and was also given a retirement allowance by the Sumo Association, believed to be around ¥120 million ($1.34 million).


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: Asashōryū gave a press conference in Mongolia on 11 March, and denied committing any "act of violence," but said he did not regret his decision to retire. He claimed it was "an undeniable fact" that there were people within the Sumo Association "trying to push me out of sumo" and that he could have gone on to win 30 or more tournament titles. Asked about rumours that he would enter mixed martial arts, he replied, "I haven't really thought about what to do next." He refused to take any questions from Japanese reporters.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: He was questioned voluntarily by investigators in May, and reportedly said that his hand "may have struck" the man, but he denied assault. In July police reported him to the public prosecutors. His former stablemaster Takasago said if Asashōryū was indicted then his retirement ceremony may be cancelled. However, the event went ahead as planned on 3 October, with around 380 dignitaries taking turns in snipping his "oichiomage" or topknot before Takasago made the final cut. Asashōryū said to the 10,000 fans at the Kokugikan, "In another life as a Japanese, I would like to become a "yokozuna" with Japanese spirit ... I want to show everyone that I can become a better person."


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: Asashōryū received criticism from Sumo Association officials and the media throughout his "yokozuna" career for various other infractions of the strict code of conduct expected of top sumo wrestlers, both on the "dohyō" and off it. His breaches of etiquette during tournament bouts ranged from merely accepting the prize money with the wrong hand, and raising his arms in victory after clinching the championship, to giving opponents an extra shove after the bout was already over (such as Hakuhō in May 2008), and appealing to judges to overturn the referee's decision. In July 2003, he pulled on fellow Mongolian Kyokushūzan's "mage" (traditional Japanese top knot) during their bout on day five of the tournament, resulting in an immediate "hansoku-make", or disqualification. He was the first "yokozuna" to be disqualified from a bout. They reportedly brawled in the communal bath afterwards, and Asashōryū was also accused of breaking the wing mirror of Kyokushūzan's car. Some Japanese fans called on him to "go back to Mongolia" after this incident. He also had an uneasy relationship with his stablemaster Takasago. In July 2004, he apologized after a row with Takasago over his wedding arrangements resulted in him being seen drunk in public and damaging stable property, and his tendency to return to Mongolia without informing his stablemaster led to embarrassments like being unable to attend the funeral of Takasago stable's previous head coach Fujinishiki in December 2003. He was also sometimes seen in public in a business suit or in casual dress instead of the traditional kimono that wrestlers are expected to wear.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: Immediately after his retirement from sumo there was speculation that Asashōryū would switch to mixed martial arts, and he was reported to be forming an MMA camp for Mongolian athletes. However, he instead became a businessman. Asashōryū had held business interests in Mongolia whilst still active in sumo, launching a family holding company as early as 2003. Based in Ulaanbaatar and investing exclusively inside Mongolia, the company has assets in banking, real estate and mining.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: In 2012, his wealth was estimated to be between US$50 and 75 million. He is also active in philanthropy, establishing the Asashoryu Foundation which has supported the Mongolian Olympic team, given scholarships to Mongolian college students studying in Mongolia and Japan, and donated English-language textbooks to schools.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: In 2007, Asashōryū bought the National Circus Palace (a 2,000-seat circus building in Ulaanbaatar) through his company, "Asa Consulting". Since then the palace has been renamed to "Asa Tsirk".


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: On 3 August 2017, Asashōryū was appointed as a diplomatic advisor and special ambassador to Japan by Mongolian President Khaltmaagiin Battulga.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: He returned to Japan in November 2021 and was a spectator during the Kyūshū tournament, during which time he also reunited with the recently retired Hakuhō.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: Asashōryū was a relative lightweight early in his career, weighing just in 2001, and relied on speed and technique to compete against often much heavier opponents. However, he gradually put on weight and by 2010 was about , right on average. In his later career he tended to confront his opponents head on with the intention of out-muscling them. In training, he was reported to do multiple repetitions of biceps curls with dumb-bells, and whilst in the gym with NHK commentator Hiro Morita in 2008 he reportedly bench pressed . He had an intense approach to "keiko" (training), and some high-profile wrestlers avoided training with him, fearing injury.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: Asashōryū's favoured techniques according to his Sumo Association profile were "migi-yotsu/yori", a left hand outside, right hand inside grip on his opponent's "mawashi" (belt), and "tsuppari", a series of rapid thrusts to the chest. His most common winning "kimarite" throughout his career were "yorikiri" (force out), "oshidashi" (push out), "uwatenage" (outer arm throw), "shitatenage" (inner arm throw) and "tsukidashi" (thrust out). He used 45 different kimarite in his career, a wider range than most wrestlers. In July 2009, he defeated Harumafuji by an "inner thigh throw" or "yaguranage", a technique not seen in the top division since 1975. His trademark, however, was "tsuriotoshi", or "lifting body slam", a feat of tremendous strength normally only used on much smaller and weaker opponents. In 2004, Asashōryū twice dumped the Kotomitsuki using this technique.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: Asashōryū's brothers were active in other combat sports: Dolgorsürengiin Sumyaabazar was a mixed martial arts fighter, and Dolgorsürengiin Serjbüdee, a professional wrestler, competed in New Japan Pro-Wrestling under the name Blue Wolf (after the Mongolian Blue Wolf legend). All Dolgorsüren brothers have strong backgrounds in Mongolian wrestling.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: Asashōryū first met his first wife in high school when they were both 15 years old. They married in 2002 and their reception in Tokyo in 2004 was broadcast live on TV. They divorced in 2009 having been separated for several years. He has a son and a daughter. In July 2020 he announced via Twitter that he was getting married, uploading a picture of himself with his presumed fiancée.


title: Asashōryū Akinori

text: Asashōryū's nephew Byambasuren became a professional sumo wrestler in November 2017, joining the Tatsunami stable. His "shikona" is Hōshōryū, and he made his first tournament appearance in January 2018. He reached the top division in September 2020. Asashōryū was in the Fukuoka International Center on the 12th day of the November 2021 tournament and saw his nephew lose to Daieishō. He joked that Hōshōryū "should have shown a little more spirit."


title: True Blood (season 7)

text: The seventh and final season of the HBO supernatural drama series "True Blood" premiered on June 22, 2014 and contained ten episodes. The season was ordered on July 15, 2013. At the beginning of September it was announced that it would be the final season. The season was preceded by a farewell special titled "Farewell to Bon Temps", in which executive producers Alan Ball and Brian Buckner united with various cast members to reminisce about the series and gave a special preview of the final season.


title: True Blood (season 7)

text: A seventh season was ordered on July 15, 2013, and was later announced to be the final season. Brian Buckner continued as executive producer and showrunner.


title: True Blood (season 7)

text: At the end of December 2013, actor Luke Grimes, who had portrayed the vampire James in the sixth season, asked to be released from his contract over creative differences (according to cast and crew Grimes didn't want to play the role once he found out his character was going to be bisexual in season seven). Australian actor Nathan Parsons was later announced as his replacement. After having recurring roles as Ginger and Lettie Mae Thornton since the first season, both Tara Buck and Adina Porter were promoted to series regulars.


title: True Blood (season 7)

text: Filming on the final episode wrapped in the early hours of July 10, 2014. Charlaine Harris, author of the series of novels on which the show is based, filmed a cameo for the series finale (she was director for Eric and Pam's commercial).


title: Jacen Solo

text: Jacen Solo is a fictional character in literature based on the "Star Wars" film series, set in what is now designated as the original-canon "Star Wars Legends" continuity. The son of Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo, as well as the nephew of Luke Skywalker, he is a major character in several novels, particularly the "New Jedi Order" series. He becomes the antagonist of the "Legacy of the Force" series under the name Darth Caedus.


title: Jacen Solo

text: Jacen's other familial connections of note to his native continuity include being the brother of Jaina Solo and Anakin Solo as well as the cousin of Ben Skywalker.


title: Jacen Solo

text: Jacen has been noted as an influence for Kylo Ren, the canonical son of Han and Leia and villain of the "Star Wars" sequel trilogy, and Jacen Syndulla, the canonical son of Kanan Jarrus and Hera Syndulla from the epilogue series finale of "Star Wars Rebels".


title: Jacen Solo

text: Jacen Solo was created for the "Thrawn" trilogy of novels by Timothy Zahn, set about five years after "Return of the Jedi". He is introduced as one of an unnamed pair of twins Leia is pregnant with in the first installment of the trilogy, the 1991 novel "Heir to the Empire". In the third installment, the 1993 novel "The Last Command", he is born five minutes after his sister Jaina on Coruscant. The twins, and eventually their younger brother Anakin, were sent to live at various safe havens, under the protection of Leia's handmaiden, Winter.


title: Jacen Solo

text: In "Jedi Search", the twins returned to Coruscant at age three and had many adventures there. Once, they became lost in the underworld of Imperial City with C-3PO, but they were quickly rescued and returned to their mother, the Chief of State of the New Republic.


title: Jacen Solo

text: In "The Crystal Star", all three children were abducted, together with many other children with Force abilities, by Hethrir. Hethrir tried to brainwash them into becoming Dark Jedi in order to bring about the rebirth of the Galactic Empire, but the children defeated their captor.


title: Jacen Solo

text: In the "Young Jedi Knights" series, Jacen travels to Yavin 4 with his sister to begin his Jedi training. Jacen discovers a strong connection to the Living Force — the concentration on the present moment — and can communicate with and calm many of the jungle creatures near the Academy. He even keeps a small menagerie of animals in his room in the Great Massassi Temple. He and his sister befriend the Wookiee Lowbacca (nicknamed Lowie by his friends) and the warrior princess Tenel Ka.


title: Jacen Solo

text: In "Heirs of the Force" and "Shadow Academy", Jacen and Jaina discover a crashed TIE fighter from the Battle of Yavin. Jaina installs a hyperdrive in the downed starfighter and begins fixing it to fly again. Jacen, Lowbacca, and Tenel Ka help her to practice their Force skills until all are held captive by the TIE's original pilot, Qorl, who had been living in the jungle for two decades. They eventually escape, but so does Qorl, leaving the jungle moon behind and searching for any remnants of the Galactic Empire. Qorl discovers the Shadow Academy, a training ground for Dark Jedi commanded by one of Luke Skywalker's fallen students, Brakiss, along with the remains of the Dathomiri Nightsisters. These elements of the so-called Second Imperium kidnap Jacen, Jaina and Lowbacca, but they resist the dark side and are rescued by Luke Skywalker and Tenel Ka.


title: Jacen Solo

text: The friends return to Coruscant for a short vacation, and are reunited with the twins' childhood friend Zekk. They are forced to fight Jacen and Jaina several times, and the twins and their friends finally progress far enough to be tasked with building their first lightsabers. Jacen uses a corusca gem he had gained earlier for his focusing crystal.


title: Jacen Solo

text: Jacen's hard-learned lesson hits home once again in "Lightsabers", when Tenel Ka rushes to complete her lightsaber to keep up with her friends. She uses an imperfect crystal and her blade shorts out in a sparring match with Jacen. His lightsaber passes through thin air where her weapon had been seconds before and severs the young woman's arm. Though she bears him no ill will for the accident, Jacen is wracked with guilt.


title: Jacen Solo

text: In "Darkest Knight", the twins and Tenel Ka go to Kashyyyk with Lowbacca to witness his sister's adulthood rites. In "Jedi Under Siege", the Jedi trainees and the Shadow Academy have their final confrontation on Yavin 4. The twins, with help from Luke and Zekk, bring down the Shadow Academy and the Second Imperium forever.


title: Jacen Solo

text: Throughout the series, Jacen and Jaina continue their training at Yavin 4, meeting new friends like Raynar Thul. They cannot convince Zekk to stay at the Academy with them, but Jacen and Jaina remain friends with him. With his and Raynar's help, they discover a threat to the New Republic: the Diversity Alliance, an alien, anti-human group. The Alliance is building up massive support among peoples that had been oppressed by the Empire. They are led by a Twi'lek Nolaa Tarkona, the sister of Oola, who was murdered by Jabba the Hutt in "Return of the Jedi".


title: Jacen Solo

text: In "Jedi Bounty", Jacen, Jaina, and their friends are briefly held captive on Ryloth and have to escape to its harsh surface. They have gone there in an attempt to rescue Lowbacca, who had misguidedly joined the anti-human Diversity Alliance. In the following book, "The Emperor's Plague", they get to the bottom of a plot they had suspected all along, and catch up with Raynar's father, Bornan Thul, to race the Diversity Alliance fleet to an Imperial storehouse hidden in the deep core. There is hidden a supply of deadly diseases created by General Evir Derricote almost two decades before. Tarkona wishes to unleash a plague against humans and wipe them all out, but the Jedi and Alliance dissidents defeat her. She succumbs to one of the diseases herself on a faraway planet. Bornan Thul dies from one of the plagues right before his son's eyes.


title: Jacen Solo

text: In "Return to Ord Mantell", they go on a trip with their father to the titular planet to watch a race. There, they run into Czethros, a bounty hunter who once hunted Han. They are ambushed by Black Sun agents, but are helped by Anja Gallandro, a young woman who wields a lightsaber, though she is not a Jedi. Although attracted to Tenel Ka, Jacen becomes infatuated with the older woman. Anja had blamed Han Solo for killing her father, but Solo reveals that her father died in a trap while finding treasure.


title: Jacen Solo

text: In "Trouble on Cloud City", they discover Czethros is a minor leader of Black Sun, and is trying to gather enough power to overcome the New Republic. Jacen, Tenel Ka, and Lowbacca are ambushed by several Black Sun mercenaries, and Jacen is almost killed.


title: Jacen Solo

text: In "Crisis at Crystal Reef", Jaina attempts to help Kessel and capture Czetheros while Jacen rushes to help Anja with her spice addiction and help her with Black Sun. With help, Anja beats her addiction and accepts her father's death. Jacen thinks Anja has Jedi potential, but it turns out she didn't. He gets over his infatuation with Anja when she goes to work for Lando.


title: Jacen Solo

text: In the "New Jedi Order" series, Luke takes Jacen as his Jedi apprentice. Jacen learns much from Luke, though they disagree on many philosophical issues. Jacen believes in the Force not only as a tool, but as part of something greater. He tells his brother Anakin that the Force is a guide to find one's place in destiny.


title: Jacen Solo

text: When the Yuuzhan Vong attack the New Republic in "", Jacen comes to believe that many Jedi are handling the threat too aggressively. He abandons his powers temporarily to contemplate the Force and butts heads with his father over the morality of 'pirate' attacks on Peace Brigade vessels. Only his love for his mother brings Jacen back into the front lines of the battle. Eventually, Han and Jacen make their peace, the former declaring that while he doesn't always understand his son, he is proud of him.


title: Jacen Solo

text: In "Star by Star" Jacen joins a daring mission to Myrkr. A Jedi strike force, led by Anakin, is to infiltrate a Yuuzhan Vong cloning facility where the invaders craft deadly Jedi-hunting beasts called Voxyn. The mission is a disaster, ending with Anakin's death, in which Jaina reacts by touching the dark side of the Force. Forced into the leadership position, Jacen uses the Force Meld to bind the team together into a cohesive fighting unit. After destroying the voxyn queen, Jacen is captured by the Yuuzhan Vong army under the command of Vergere and Nom Anor. Jacen disappears, along with his presence in the Force.


title: Jacen Solo

text: In "Traitor", Jacen awakes to find himself in the Embrace of Pain, a rack-like torture device favored by the Yuuzhan Vong. The torture nearly breaks Jacen's spirit, until he learns to use the pain he suffers to sustain himself. He remains under the care and tutelage of the avian Vergere, who he learns had once been a Jedi of the Old Republic, and who had even met his grandfather, Anakin Skywalker.


title: Jacen Solo

text: He is put to work on Yuuzhan Vong ship, where he uses a number of herbs to heal slaves and get his captors to trust him. Using the implanted slave seed beneath his flesh as a conduit, Jacen communicates with the living instruments of Yuuzhan Vong technology. He uses this connection to stage a daring escape from captivity, commanding Yuuzhan Vong amphistaffs to surround him like living armor.


title: Jacen Solo

text: Jacen and Vergere flee to Coruscant. The planet's entire surface is undergoing a radical transformation. Yuuzhan Vong organic growths cover the once gleaming metropolis, remaking the planet into a Yuuzhan Vong paradise. The world is to be their new capital, a recreation of the planet that had spawned them, Yuuzhan'tar.


title: Jacen Solo

text: Vergere removes the slave seed from Jacen, but he can still sense the Yuuzhan Vong. Jacen is later surrounded by Yuuzhan Vong warriors whom Vergere had led to him. Wanting revenge, Jacen channels his hatred for Vergere into Force lightning; he is frightened by this connection to the dark side, however, and runs away. Vergere finds him in his destroyed home and gives him back full use of the Force. He is once again surrounded by Yuuzhan Vong captors; left with no choice, he surrenders and agrees to join their cause. He becomes the "khattazz al'Yun," or Avatar of God. Nom Anor intends to use Jacen to sacrifice Jaina, thus fulfilling an ancient Yuuzhan Vong prophecy.


title: Jacen Solo

text: Jacen's true allegiance is his own, however. During a test of Jacen's faith, the Yuuzhan Vong orders him to sacrifice captured Jedi Ganner Rhysode. Instead, the two Jedi turn against their captors. As Ganner holds off the Yuuzhan Vong, Jacen confronts the World Brain. The malevolent entity remembers the bond that Jacen had forged earlier, and Jacen suggests to it to work against the Yuuzhan Vong.


title: Jacen Solo

text: Ganner dies that day, though Jacen escapes with Vergere. He returns to the dwindling New Republic territories a different man: haggard, thin and hardened. He goes on a much needed vacation, but returns to frontline combat aboard the cruiser "Ralroost". His ability to start the Jedi Meld is a large asset to Admiral Kre'fey, and Jacen joined the Alliance Fleet with elements of Garm Bel Iblis's forces in a large-scale deception at Ebaq 9. The battle ends in a victory, but results in Vergere's death. Her spectral form appears to him soon after.


title: Jacen Solo

text: As the newly formed Galactic Alliance emerged, Jacen accompanied his uncle Luke Skywalker into the Unknown Regions to seek a solution to the Yuuzhan Vong menace. Jacen would be instrumental in the search for Zonama Sekot and in the efforts to convince the living planet to join the fight against the Yuuzhan Vong. Jacen kills Supreme Overlord Onimi, who had been using Supreme Overlord Shimrra as a puppet, in a spectacular confrontation where the Force uses Jacen as a conduit to defeat Onimi, considering that Jacen was almost killed with just one hit by Shimrra himself, and in that moment Jacen started believing that he is beyond good and evil, marking the beginning of his fall. After the grueling final confrontation and the war's end, Jacen tells Luke that he had decided to travel the galaxy to learn more about the Force.


title: Jacen Solo

text: While on his five-year journey Jacen enters a realm of the Force known as beyond shadows, thanks to his training with a sect called the Mind Walkers.


title: Jacen Solo

text: In this realm Jacen gazes into the Pool of Knowledge that holds the Throne of Balance, (where in all future events are shown)


title: Jacen Solo

text: In "Dark Nest", Jacen feels an urge through the Force and follows his sister to the Unknown Regions to help the insectoid Killik against an invading Chiss force. He returns to Republic space after his parents, resulting in his uncle and aunt to come for him, Jaina, and the other Jedi. He then travels to the Hapes Cluster to ask Tenel Ka to assist with the Chiss/Killik conflict, believing that the fleet could act as a buffer between the two armies. She obliges and sends a fleet of Hapan Battle Dragons to protect the Killiks.


title: Jacen Solo

text: In "The Unseen Queen", Tenel Ka gives birth to his daughter, Allana, who is then attacked by the Gorog. Jacen successfully repels the attack and keeps his daughter safe. Possessed with a strong fear of his daughter or Tenel Ka being harmed, Jacen uses the Force to send Tenel Ka's grandmother (the person behind the attack) into a coma. Immediately afterward, he sees a vision of a neverending war that will destroy the galaxy, with the Killiks at the heart of it. Determined to save his daughter and the galaxy from his vision, he sets out to provoke the Chiss into destroying the Killiks. Jacen later reveals that he never knew who started the war in his vision.


title: Jacen Solo

text: In "The Swarm War", Luke Skywalker takes his nephew's advice so many times that he even listens when Jacen tells him that he is not ready to face Lomi Plo, the Dark Queen of the Gorog. Jacen, Mara and Luke know that doubt and fear would make Lomi Plo invisible to her enemy. Jacen, along with R2-D2, helps Luke conquer some of his fears about Mara's involvement with the death of his mother, and then accompanies him to face Plo.


title: Jacen Solo

text: During the fight with Plo, Luke falters for a moment when Mara is injured, and doubt enters his mind. Plo then holds him in place, unable to move. In that instant, Jacen is critically wounded by Plo while saving Mara Skywalker's life. A well-placed shot from Mara injures Plo, after which Mara tends to Jacen's wounds. While he and Mara recover, Jacen beseeches Luke to embrace his darker emotions. Luke refuses and goes back to the true Jedi way, defeating the Dark Queen and Raynar Thul without using the dark side.


title: Jacen Solo

text: In the latter novel, Jacen joins his uncle in watching holovideos of his grandparents, Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala; in particular, he sees Anakin fall to the dark side and Padmé die in childbirth partly as a result of Anakin's treachery. (These scenes are first portrayed in ""). Jacen actually sympathizes with Anakin's desire to protect his wife, and reminds Luke that Anakin was a fallible human being.


title: Jacen Solo

text: In "Betrayal", Jacen starts training his young cousin Ben in the ways of the Force. After a successful mission to Adumar that ends in a life-threatening attack, they return for a dinner party at his parents' new home. There, Han voices his concern over Corellia trying to gain independence. Luke orders Jacen and Ben to disable the Centerpoint Station, an ancient artifact that Corellian leader (and Han's cousin) Thrackan Sal-Solo is trying to use to his advantage. Ben disables the station while Jacen keeps Thrackan busy, ensuring the Galactic Alliance's partial victory as another fleet built in secret spoils the main attack.


title: Jacen Solo

text: While travelling to a subterranean base, Ben and Nelani, a Jedi Knight, are forced out of a mining car. Their guide, Brisha Syo creates a dark side phantom of Luke Skywalker, who attacks and very nearly kills Jacen. Eventually, Brisha stops the projections and takes Jacen to an office, where Darth Vectivus, the supposed Sith Lord they are hunting, lives. After fighting Force projections with Ben, Nelani catches up with them. Brisha is revealed to be Lumiya, the Dark Lady of the Sith. She reveals that Vergere is a Sith apprentice, and that Jacen has already received Sith training. Lumiya says that Jacen is going to become the next Sith Lord. Unsure of his next move, Jacen uses the Force to create visions of the future. In each vision in which Lumiya is arrested, the galaxy is consumed in an endless war that eventually places Jacen against Luke. In the vision, Jacen kills his uncle.


title: Jacen Solo

text: Horrified, Jacen spares Lumiya. Nelani then tries to arrest the Sith, but Jacen intervenes. Jacen realizes that Nelani will, if allowed to survive, possibly fulfill the dark vision he had seen. He then fights and kills her, asking her forgiveness before striking the fatal blow. He agrees to consider what Lumiya had said and leaves the asteroid with an unconscious Ben. Jacen then erases Ben's memories of Lumiya and tells him that both she and Nelani had been killed by dark side phantoms. They return to Coruscant; however, after Jacen departs, Lumiya says that she had won.


title: Jacen Solo

text: Fully pledged to Lumiya, Jacen becomes head of the GFFA's newly formed secret police, the Galactic Alliance Guard. With Ben at his side, he begins rounding up Corellians for internment and deportation. During an interrogation of a suspected assassin (who turns out to be Ailyn Vel, Boba Fett's daughter), Jacen tries to use the Force to extract information from her and kills her accidentally in the process.


title: Jacen Solo

text: Jacen also takes command of Rogue Squadron while it participates in the blockade of Corellia. He shoots down a civilian freighter that was attempting to run the blockade, and had fired on him, then relieves his sister from duty because she had refused to do it. He also uses the "Anakin Solo" to fire upon the "Millennium Falcon", while both his sister and his parents are on board. He believes his parents to have been involved in a failed attempt to assassinate Tenel Ka; the Solos had in fact been set up by Dur Gejjen, Prime Minister of Corellia.


title: Jacen Solo

text: In "Sacrifice", Lumiya says she is pleased by his progress, but instructs him that to truly become a Sith he would have to undergo the Trial of Sacrifice: to kill that which he loves most. Doing this, he believes, would allow him to use the powers of the Sith without becoming evil and would "immortalize his love" for his sacrifice. Jacen decides there is only one way to fulfill this last obstacle: he would have to kill Tenel Ka and their daughter Allana. Nevertheless, after Ben tells Mara that he overheard Jacen communicating with Lumiya, Mara tracks Jacen down in the Hapes Consortium. After a long and heated battle, Jacen kills Mara Jade; the sacrifice necessary to becoming a Sith Lord is not Jacen's love, but Ben's. Ben suspects Jacen almost immediately, upon meeting Jacen at his mother's body. Eventually, Jacen chooses the Sith name Darth Caedus.


title: Jacen Solo

text: By "Fury", Darth Caedus is the principal antagonist of the series, and the declared enemy of nearly every other major character: His parents and sister have disowned him, Luke is sworn to redeem him, and Ben is driven to seek justice for his mother. In the novel, Caedus kidnaps Allana so Tenel Ka and the Hapans won't decide to leave the government, but Han, Leia, Luke, Jaina, Ben, and their allies save Allana. After saving Allana, Leia tells Caedus to become a Jedi again, but he refuses. Han and Leia later find out Allana is Caedus and Tenel Ka's child. At the end, Jaina plans to have training from Boba Fett to help her face off against Caedus, despite her parents once being foes with Fett.


title: Jacen Solo

text: In "Revelation", Caedus takes on a new apprentice, Tahiri Veila to replace Ben and turns to the task of ending the war. He entices the Imperial Remnant to join him in an attack on the planet Fondor. Although Admiral Niathal wants to offer the planet the chance to surrender, Caedus is determined to make an example of Fondor by crippling the shipyards and its planetary government. After previously sharing military secrets, which leads to hundreds of deaths and compromises the battle plan at Fondor, Niathal arranges a cease-fire without consulting Caedus. Enraged at this treason, Caedus orders the fleet to ignore Niathal's orders and bombard the major cities. Niathal orders all ships loyal to her to attack the "Anakin Solo". Two-thirds of the fleet side with Caedus, while the rest ally themselves with Niathal. When the Imperial Remnant refuses to assist Caedus, his new apprentice assassinates Imperial Head of State Gilad Pellaeon and turns control over to the Moffs who then come to aid Jacen. A mysterious fleet led by Admiral Daala, loyal to Pellaeon, appears, accompanied by one hundred Mandalorian mercenaries. and together, owing to Daala's experimental weapons, they send the Galactic Alliance Fleet into retreat.


title: Jacen Solo

text: In "Invincible", Jaina takes it upon herself to defeat her brother. Caedus's meditations are disrupted by Luke Skywalker, in an attempt to hide Jaina's attack. Jaina, accompanied by several Mandalorian commandos, confronts Caedus, who quickly dispatches the Mandalorians, while Jaina acts as a sniper. When she finally runs out of ammunition, she seizes a Mandalorian saber and severs Caedus' arm. Jaina withdraws, however, due to her own injuries. After escaping an attack led by Luke Skywalker on the bridge of the "Anakin Solo", Caedus sees a vision of his daughter Allana on a white throne in a time of peace. This vision convinces Caedus that he has won — he would bring peace to the galaxy, and prevent his visions of war and suffering from coming true.


title: Jacen Solo

text: At the book's climax, Caedus and Jaina face off in a final lightsaber duel aboard Caedus' flagship, the "Anakin Solo". In the midst of the duel, Caedus comes back to the light and attempts to persuade Jaina of his intentions to protect Tenel Ka and Allana. Jaina refuses to listen, however, and attacks him after he deactivates and holsters his lightsaber. She later slams the door shut in his face when he tries to leave the fight. After a grueling battle in which both are seriously injured, Jacen is defeated when Jaina severs his Achilles tendon and stabs him in the heart. As he dies, Jacen reaches out to both his former lover and his child through the Force, warning them to flee from an approaching bio-warfare attack designed by the Imperial Remnant to kill them. In this act of selflessness, Jaina sees the remnants of the good man her brother had once been. Following Caedus's death and the war's end, the Galactic Alliance emerges victorious over the Confederation and peace is restored to the galaxy, just as Jacen had foreseen through a vision in the Force.


title: Jacen Solo

text: Though Jacen makes few true appearances in the "Fate of the Jedi", which follows the "Legacy of the Force" series, his legacy is felt throughout the series, as Luke Skywalker is arrested for negligence of duty and is sentenced to a ten-year exile, in which alongside his son Ben, he tries to ascertain the circumstances of how and why Jacen turned to the dark side.


title: Jacen Solo

text: Jacen's spirit makes its first appearance in "Abyss", wherein he warns Luke and Ben about Abeloth, the main antagonist of the series.


title: Jacen Solo

text: Then, in the final novel "Apocalypse", Jacen's spirit (along with Mara's) provides aid to Luke as he partners with Darth Krayt in the final battle against Abeloth. Following Abeloth's destruction, Jacen reveals that Krayt was the dark figure he saw in his vision of the future and the source of his downfall; he saw his daughter Allana standing next to Krayt. In response, Krayt insists that while Caedus's actions simply delayed the Sith, and they are eventually going to succeed in their planned takeover of the galaxy.


title: Jacen Solo

text: In aiding the Jedi against Abeloth, Jacen posthumously redeems himself; however, he still refers to his fate as damnation. While Luke does not forgive his nephew for his complicity in Mara's death, he does receive an understanding of what led Jacen to that point.


title: Jacen Solo

text: The second volume of the "" comic series, set about 140 years after "Return of the Jedi", features Jacen's descendant Ania Solo as the protagonist. In general, the descendants of Jacen, Jaina and Ben are main characters in this era, set when and after Darth Krayt takes over the galaxy. Although they themselves do not appear in person as spirits, older characters like Luke and Mara do.


title: Jacen Solo

text: IGN listed Jacen as #17 on their list of the top 100 "Star Wars" heroes, saying that he had a more "profound effect" than any of the other Solo children on the "Star Wars" setting. Jesse Schedeen, writing for IGN, also listed Darth Caedus as #5 in a reader-inspired list of top "Star Wars" villains, and called his "defining moment of villainy" his murder of Mara Jade. UGO.com listed Jacen as their top "Star Wars" expanded universe character, calling him "one of the most fearsome - and most tragic - villains in the "Star Wars" universe".


title: Jacen Solo

text: With the sequel film "" in production, in April 2014 most of the licensed "Star Wars" novels and comics produced since the 1977 film "Star Wars" were declared non-canon to the franchise. The epilogue of "Family Reunion – and Farewell", the series finale of "Star Wars Rebels", introduced a character named Jacen Syndulla by series creator Dave Filoni in honor of Jacen Solo.


title: James Bedford

text: James Hiram Bedford (April 20, 1893 – January 12, 1967) was an American psychology professor at the University of California who wrote several books on occupational counseling. He is the first person whose body was cryopreserved after legal death, and who remains preserved at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation.


title: James Bedford

text: In June 1965, Ev Cooper's Life Extension Society (LES) offered the opportunity to preserve one person free of charge, stating that "the Life Extension Society now has primitive facilities for emergency short term freezing and storing our friend the large homeotherm (man). LES offers to freeze free of charge the first person desirous and in need of cryogenic suspension." Bedford did not take this opportunity, however, but later used his own funds. Bedford suffered from kidney cancer that had later metastasized into his lungs, a condition that was untreatable at the time. Bedford died in 1967 at 73 years old. Bedford left $100,000 to cryonics research in his will, but more than this amount was utilized by Bedford's wife and son in court, having to defend his will and his cryopreservation due to arguments created by other relatives.


title: James Bedford

text: Bedford's body was frozen with the hope of future revival, claimed by Alcor's Mike Darwin to have occurred within around two hours of his death from cardiorespiratory arrest (secondary to metastasized kidney cancer). His body was preserved by Robert Prehoda (author of the 1969 book "Suspended Animation"), Dr. Dante Brunol (physician and biophysicist) and Robert Nelson (President of the Cryonics Society of California). Nelson then wrote a book about the subject titled "We Froze the First Man". Compared to those employed by modern cryonics organizations, the use of cryoprotectants in Bedford's case was primitive. He was injected with a solution of 15% dimethyl sulfoxide and 85% ringers solution, a compound once thought to be useful for long-term cryogenics, so it is unlikely that his brain was protected. Vitrification was not yet possible, further limiting the possibility of Bedford's eventual recovery. In his first suspended animation stages, his body was stored at Edward Hope's Cryo-Care facility in Phoenix, Arizona, for two years, then in 1969 moved to the Galiso facility in California. Bedford's body was moved from Galiso in 1973 to Trans Time near Berkeley, California, until 1977, before being stored by his son for many years.


title: James Bedford

text: Bedford's body was maintained in liquid nitrogen by his family in southern California until 1982, when it was then moved to Alcor Life Extension Foundation, and has remained in Alcor's care to the present day. In May 1991, his body's condition was evaluated when he was moved to new storage dewar. The examiners concluded that "it seems likely that his external temperature has remained at relatively low subzero temperatures throughout the storage interval." The date of Bedford's cryopreservation, January 12, is known as "Bedford Day" by some promoters of cryopreservation.


title: James Bedford

text: Bedford married twice. His first wife, Anna Chandler Rice, died in 1917, the same year she and Bedford were married. Bedford married his second wife, Ruby McLagan, in 1920. Bedford and McLagan had five children: Doris, Donald, Frances, Barbara, and Norman. James Bedford enjoyed photography and extensive traveling.


title: Uppingham School

text: Uppingham School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils 13-18) in Uppingham, Rutland, England, founded in 1584 by Robert Johnson, the Archdeacon of Leicester, who also established Oakham School. The headmaster, Richard J. Maloney, belongs to the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and the school to the Rugby Group of British independent schools. Edward Thring was perhaps the school's best-known headmaster (in 1853–1887). His curriculum changes were adopted in other English public schools. John Wolfenden, headmaster from 1934 to 1944, chaired the Wolfenden Committee, whose report recommending the decriminalisation of homosexuality appeared in 1957. Uppingham has a musical tradition based on work by Paul David and Robert Sterndale Bennett. It has the biggest playing-field area of any school in England, in three separate areas of the town: Leicester to the west, Middle to the south, and Upper to the east.


title: Uppingham School

text: In 1584 Uppingham School was founded with a hospital, or almshouse, by Archdeacon Robert Johnson. The original 1584 schoolroom in Uppingham churchyard is still owned by the school and is a Grade I listed building. The original hospital building is now incorporated in the School Library.


title: Uppingham School

text: The first recorded Uppingham schoolboy was Henry Ferne from York, who was chaplain to Charles I. Another prominent early schoolboy was the Jesuit Anthony Turner, one of the martyrs of the Popish Plot.


title: Uppingham School

text: In the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries Uppingham remained a small school of 30–60 pupils, with two staff. Despite its small size, pupils then regularly gained places and scholarships to Oxford and Cambridge universities.


title: Uppingham School

text: During that period, various lasting features of life in the school developed. It became a full boarding school, with all pupils having individual studies. This pattern was set around 1800 and some of the original studies survive, although no longer used as such. The first recorded school play was performed in 1794 and Uppingham has a thriving theatre. The main recreation in the 19th century was cricket – the first recorded cricket match, described in the school magazine, was in 1815 – and the game still thrives there. In 1846 the institution of school praepostors, or prefects, was established. The praepostors are called "pollies" around the school. One of the earliest Old Boys to gain fame was Thomas Bonney, a pupil in the 1850s, who became the most distinguished geologist of his time, and president of the Alpine Club.


title: Uppingham School

text: Edward Thring transformed the school from a small, local grammar school into a large, well-known public school, with 330 pupils. During his headship on 4 April 1876 the entire school, consisting of 300 boys, thirty masters, and their families, moved temporarily to Borth in Wales after an outbreak of typhoid ravaged the town as a result of the poorly maintained water system. In Borth the school took over the disused Cambrian Hotel and a number of boarding houses, remaining there for fourteen months. The move was successful in saving the school from a serious epidemic. The move to Borth is commemorated in an annual service held in the school chapel.


title: Uppingham School

text: Thring also won national and transatlantic reputation as an original thinker and writer on education. At a time when mathematics and classics dominated the curriculum, he encouraged many ‘extra' subjects: French, German, science, history, art, carpentry, and music. In particular, Thring was a pioneer in his introduction of music into the regular system of education.


title: Uppingham School

text: He also opened the first gymnasium in an English school, the forerunner of the present sports hall, and later added a heated indoor swimming pool. He also commissioned a number of buildings, notably the chapel designed by the Gothic Revival architect G. E. Street.


title: Uppingham School

text: Ernest William Hornung was at the school in the 1880s; he wrote several novels but his fame rests upon his creation of the character A. J. Raffles.


title: Uppingham School

text: During this period the school continued to grow, with numbers reaching well over 400. These years saw the formation in 1889 of the Combined Cadet Force; the creation in 1890 of the first school orchestra; in 1896 the re-introduction of hockey; and the adoption of rugby football, with the first match being against Rugby. Uppingham pupils still take part in all these activities today.


title: Uppingham School

text: The buildings of the school also continued to grow with the construction of the tower block, through which one still enters the school, and the combined gymnasium and concert hall, which in 1972 was converted into the school theatre.


title: Uppingham School

text: Uppingham School had been attended by three out of the four First-World-War victims Vera Brittain included as her correspondents in her much-praised "Letters from a Lost Generation".


title: Uppingham School

text: Throughout the Second World War the buildings of Kingswood School in Bath were used by the Admiralty for strategic planning. During that time Kingswood School lodged with Uppingham School sharing Uppingham's resources.


title: Uppingham School

text: Pupils have continued to go on to later fame – Patrick Abercrombie, pioneer town planner; Sir Malcolm Campbell, motor racer; James Elroy Flecker, poet and playwright: CRW Nevinson, official war artist in both world wars; WH Pratt (Boris Karloff), film actor; E.J. Moeran, composer; Lt General Sir Brian Horrocks, Commander of the XXX Corps under Montgomery, and later a TV lecturer on battles and war; and Percy Chapman, captain of the England cricket team 1926–30, who won the Ashes.


title: Uppingham School

text: The growth of the school continued with numbers of well over 600 pupils being reached in the 1960s. In 1973 the first girl attended Uppingham, as a day-girl; with a few more added in 1974. Then in 1975 the first sixth form girls' house, Fairfield, was opened, with its full complement of 50 girls achieved by 1976. This venture proved so successful that in 1986 a second girls' house, Johnson's, was opened; and in 1994 the Lodge House (formerly a boys' house) was converted into the third girls' house. In 2001 the first 13-year-old girls entered the school, with the opening of a new house, Samworths', the first house for girls aged 13–18; followed in 2002 by the conversion of Fairfield into a second house for 13–18-year-old girls and another new house, New House, opened in 2004. Johnson's was converted to a 13–18 girls' house in 2011 with an extension and significant internal reconstruction.


title: Uppingham School

text: The buildings of the school continued to expand. The First World War took the lives of 450 ex-pupils and the school hall was built in their memory. Also built in this period were the main classroom block in the centre of the school, the cricket and rugby pavilions, and a school sanatorium. In 1956 a new science block was opened by the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh; it was extended in the 1960s. In 1989 a new maths block for mathematics and computing was opened by Stephen Hawking. New squash courts were built and in 1970 the sports centre, incorporating the old swimming pool, was opened, with the later addition of a climbing wall and a weights room. In 1981 came a new music school and a new buttery, where the pupils can buy snacks. In 1995 a new arts and design faculty was built, the Leonardo Centre, designed by an old pupil, Piers Gough. In 2003 a language centre (TLC) opened to house all the modern-language classrooms. In 2006 a third music facility, the Paul David Music School (PDMS), opened in School Lane, incorporating all the old houses that were there, to accommodate the growing demand for music at the school. In 2010 the Uppingham School Sports Centre (USSC) was completed, and the old sports centre demolished to create space to develop the new science centre, all part of the new "Western Quad".


title: Uppingham School

text: In the post-war period, sports other than the main ones of rugby, hockey, cricket, athletics, swimming and shooting began to be introduced including tennis, basketball, badminton, fencing, squash, sailing, soccer and golf.


title: Uppingham School

text: In 1945 Douglas Guest succeeded Robert Sterndale Bennett as Director of Music and this area of school life developed further. The concert choir was expanded to involve over half the school: a bandmaster was appointed; music scholarships were introduced; and various music societies were created. All these innovations remain. Recently the school's music facilities have been improved again. The school houses two large three-manual pipe organs, in the memorial hall and the chapel, the latter one being rebuilt in the summer of 2007 by Nicholson Organs of Malvern. A new choir division appears high on the south wall, and a new console and action have been installed, along with new pipework. The organ is notable for a smooth Harrison tone and a rare pair of independent sets of Swell shutters – one opening west into the nave extension and one south across the repositioned choir stalls.


title: Uppingham School

text: In the 1960s Uppingham pioneered the introduction of design and technology into the curriculum, with Uppingham being the first independent school, and one of the first 5 schools in Britain, to evolve and introduce A-level design. Design was taught in the Thring Centre, opened in 1965. These subjects were then transferred with art, woodwork and metalwork to the Leonardo Centre, opened in 1995.


title: Uppingham School

text: The years since the 1970s have also seen a considerable expansion in the subjects taught, particularly at A-level, with the introduction of politics, ancient history, design, business studies, theatre studies, classical civilisation, Spanish, Italian, philosophy & religious studies, ICT and physical education.


title: Uppingham School

text: Uppingham has one of the largest private theatres in the country, in a building based on the original Leipzig Gewandhaus. An extension to the main theatre houses a drama studio to be used for the teaching of theatre studies as well as for performances of smaller productions. There is also a large workshop to provide storage and workspace for technical equipment.


title: Uppingham School

text: In 2005 the school was one of fifty of the country's leading independent schools which were fined for exchanging information on planned fee increases, exposed by "The Times". Each school was required to pay a nominal penalty of £10,000 and all agreed to make ex-gratia payments totalling three million pounds into a trust designed to benefit pupils who attended the schools during the period in respect of which fee information was shared. However, Jean Scott, the head of the Independent Schools Council, said that independent schools had always been exempt from anti-cartel rules applied to business, were following a long-established procedure in sharing the information with each other, and that they were unaware of the change to the law (on which they had not been consulted). She wrote to John Vickers, the OFT director-general, saying, "They are not a group of businessmen meeting behind closed doors to fix the price of their products to the disadvantage of the consumer. They are schools that have quite openly continued to follow a long-established practice because they were unaware that the law had changed."


title: Uppingham School

text: In May 2010, a pupil rebellion was staged over the expulsion of several sixth-form pupils. For a day, 500 pupils failed to attend classes and formed protests in aid of the dismissed pupils.


title: Uppingham School

text: In March 2011, twice Olympic gold medalist Sebastian Coe officially opened the school's new sports centre. The building includes a large sports hall, 25m swimming pool, a 50-station fitness studio, squash courts, gymnasium and two dance studios. It was designed by ORMS Architecture Design and is part of the school's plans to develop the western campus buildings. The school also now has, in a converted squash court behind the theatre, a climbing wall facility, installed in 2010.


title: Uppingham School

text: In November 2014, Sir Alec Jeffreys officially opened the school's new science centre which, along with an extension to the Leonardo Centre, completed the new 'Western Quad'.


title: Uppingham School

text: International schools have been announced for Vietnam and Cairo, Egypt with scheduled openings in September 2023 and September 2024 respectively.


title: Uppingham School

text: In 2019, 45% of pupils scored A*-A for their A-Levels examination, whereas 70% scored A*-A for their GCSEs.