Sunday, 3 October 2010

Watch out Katherine, there's a Tiger on your tail: Woods caught ogling Welsh beauty at the Ryder Cup opening ceremony

By Georgina Littlejohn
Last updated at 1:29 PM on 1st October 2010


You'd have thought that Tiger Woods would be on his best behaviour at the Ryder Cup this week, especially after the headlines he made this year.

But it would seem that the golfer just can't keep that roving eye still in his head, as this picture taken at the Ryder Cup opening ceremony proves.

Woods, 34, was caught staring at Katherine Jenkins's bottom as she performed at the opening ceremony of the tournament, which is taking place in her native Wales for the very first time.

Enlarge   Sneaky peek: Tiger Woods can't help looking at Katherine Jenkins's derriere as she performs at the Ryder Cup opening ceremony Sneaky peek: Tiger Woods can't help looking at Katherine Jenkins's derriere as she performs at the Ryder Cup opening ceremony

Heavenly body: Tiger Woods looks skywards as if for help in diverting his eyes from the curvy figure of opera singer Katherine Jenkins Heavenly body: Tiger Woods looks skywards as if for help in diverting his eyes from the curvy figure of opera singer Katherine Jenkins

Thankfully, the singer, who was wearing a Victoria Beckham creation, seemed completely oblivous to his cheeky gaze as she sang in front of the U.S. Ryder Cup team at Celtic Manor in Newport today.

It was day two of the tournament, but as yet, no clubs have been swung and not one ball has been holed.

Instead, the pomp and pageantry surrounding the world's biggest golf tournament continued with a flourish, and - apart from Woods's - all eyes were on the glamorous wives and girlfriends of the European and American competitors.

Admiring glances: Tiger wasn't the only one watching Katherine as she sang to the crowd at Celtic Manor in Newport Admiring glances: Tiger wasn't the only one watching Katherine as she sang to the crowd at Celtic Manor in Newport

One in particular stood head-and-shoulders above the rest - quite literally - as Angie Watson, wife of US Ryder Cup plater Bubba, joined her fellow WAGs at today's opening ceremony.

The former basketball player, who stands at 6ft 4ins, towered over the ladies as they walked out side by side.

Leading the American ladies, who were dressed in black trousers and stylish red macs, was Lisa Pavin, wife of U.S. Ryder Cup captain Corey, and was closely followed by former cheerleader Kandi Harris, Hunter Mahan's fiancee, and then Watson.

Next to them were the European birdies, who were all dresed in white, some with royal blue scarves round their next, and some waving the Flag of Europe.

Flying the flag: Angie Watson (third from front in red) towers above her fellow Ryder Cup WAGs as they step out at today's opening ceremony Flying the flag: Angie Watson (third from front in red) towers above her fellow Ryder Cup WAGs as they step out at today's opening ceremony

United: Flashing beaming smiles, the golfers' other halves enter the opening ceremony United: Flashing beaming smiles, the golfers' other halves enter the opening ceremony

The girls are all white: The European team WAGs smile and wave their Flags of Europe as they go to take their seats The girls are all white: The European team WAGs smile and wave their Flags of Europe as they go to take their seats

Standing tall: Angie Watson has the best view in the house as she and the other US team WAGs watch the opening Standing tall: Angie Watson has the best view in the house as she and the other US team WAGs watch the opening

The ladies have been the centre of attention since the all jetted into Wales on Monday for the tournament, which takes place every two years.

This is the first time that it has been played on these green lands, although not a single game has been started yet.

Yesterday was all about greeting the teams to the course, with Jenkins, wh performed at the Millennium Stadium last night, kicking off proceedings with a rousing rendition of the Welsh national anthem.

Here come the boys: Captain Corey Pavin leads out his US team Here come the boys: Captain Corey Pavin leads out his US team

Ready for the off: The pairings for tomorrow's opening day are announced Ready for the off: The pairings for tomorrow's opening day are announced

Corey Pavin then gave a speech in which he paid tribute to European team member Colin Montgomerie.

The US teams then stood for the American national anthem, Star Spangled Banner, while the European team got out their seats for the Anthem of Europe.

The opening pairings were then announced for tomorrow morning as the tournament finally tees off after two days of build-up which has included a formal dinner with Prince Charles and a Welcome To Wales concert at the Millennium Stadium.


After all the excitement of the Ryder Cup build-up, there was a horrible anti-climax this morning as play had to be suspended at Celtic Manor.

The first group of fourballs, which included English hope Lee Westwood and German Martin Kaymer, reached only the fifth hole before the match was halted because of rain.

Tiger Woods, playing in the third group, got as far as the third hole but organisers already fear the torrent of rain might force play to be extended into Monday.

The Ryder Cup schedule is tight, with foursomes scheduled for this afternoon and another round of fourballs and foursomes tomorrow before the singles matches involving all the 12 players on Sunday.

Deluge: Tiger Woods looks out mournfully from beneath an umbrella as the morning fourball matches are hit by rain Deluge: Tiger Woods looks out mournfully from beneath an umbrella as the morning fourball matches are hit by rain

Squelch: A team of greenkeepers remove excess water after heavy rainfall on the fourth hole on Day One of the Ryder Cup Squelch: A team of greenkeepers remove excess water after heavy rainfall on the fourth hole on Day One of the Ryder Cup

Europe are 8/13 favourites to win back the trophy they lost at Valhalla two years ago and stormed into an early lead thanks to Colin Montgomerie's early heavyweights.

Westwood and Kaymer raced into an early lead against veteran Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson, as did the Northern Irish pair of Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy against British Open winner Stewart Cink and Matt Kuchar.

Ian Poulter, who once said he was better than Tiger Woods, is playing with rookie Ross Fisher against Tiger and Steve Stricker.

Early pacesetter: Europe's Graeme McDowell celebrates going one up in the fourth in the rain Early pacesetter: Europe's Graeme McDowell celebrates going one up in the fourth in the rain

And the fourth pairing sheltering under the umbrellas are Luke Donald and Padraig Harrington, who are taking on USA newcomers Jeff Overton and Bubba Watson.

From the moment Celtic Manor, near Newport, was awarded the competition, experts suggested the weather conditions would suit the home side.

The forecast is for continuing showers today, dryer weather tomorrow but more rain on Sunday.


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Saturday, 2 October 2010

Child Soldiers

Military use of children

The military use of children takes three distinct forms: children can take direct part in hostilities (child soldiers), or they can be used in support roles such as porters, spies, messengers, look outs, and sexual slaves; or they can be used for political advantage either as human shields or in propaganda.


Throughout history and in many cultures, children have been extensively involved in military campaigns even when such practices were supposedly against cultural morals. Since the 1970s a number of international conventions have come into effect that try to limit the participation of children in armed conflicts, nevertheless the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers reports that the use of children in military forces, and the active participation of children in armed conflicts is widespread.


The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Art. 38, (1989) proclaimed: "State parties shall take all feasible measures to ensure that persons who have not attained the age of 15 years do not take a direct part in hostilities." The Optional protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict to the Convention that came into force in 2002 stipulates that its State Parties "shall take all feasible measures to ensure that persons below the age of 18 do not take a direct part in hostilities and that they are not compulsorily recruited into their armed forces".[1] The Optional Protocol further obligates states to "take all feasible measures to prevent such recruitment and use, including the adoption of legal measures necessary to prohibit and criminalize such practices." (Art 4, Optional Protocol)[2] Likewise under the Optional Protocol states are required to demobilize children within their jurisdiction who have been recruited or used in hostilities, and to provide assistance for their physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration. (Art 6(3) Optional Protocol)[3]


Under Article 8.2.26 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), adopted in July 1998 and entered into force 1 July 2002, "Conscripting or enlisting children under the age of fifteen years into the national armed forces or using them to participate actively in hostilities" is a war crime.[4]


On July 26, 2005, the United Nations Security Council unanimously passed UN Security Council Resolution 1612, the sixth in a series of resolutions about children and armed conflict.[5] Resolution 1612 established the first comprehensive monitoring and reporting system for enforcing compliance among those groups using child soldiers in armed conflict.[6]


Under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict, which was adopted and signed in 2002, the use of anyone under the age of 18 in combat is illegal under international law. National armed forces are permitted to recruit individuals below the age of 18, but are strictly forbidden from deploying them into combat. Non-state actors and guerrilla forces are forbidden from recruiting anyone under the age of 18 for any purpose.


This prohibition traces its roots to the Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, adopted in 1977, which had set the age at 15 years old. Following the civil wars of the 1990s, especially in Sierra Leone, it was recognized that the age of 18 was the most widely recognized dividing line between childhood and adulthood. The International Criminal Court embodied this principle in the Rome Statute by refusing jurisdiction over anyone who committed crimes under the age of 18 and David Crane, Chief Prosecutor in Sierra Leone, additionally refused to prosecute anyone who had committed crimes as a child soldier under the age of 18.


Forced or compulsory recruitment of anyone under the age of 18 for use in armed conflict, is one of the predefined worst forms of child labour, deemed a form of slavery, in terms of the International Labour Organisation's Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999, adopted in 1999.


In terms of the Worst Forms of Child Labour Recommendation ratifying countries should ensure that forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict is a criminal offence, and also provide for other criminal, civil or administrative remedies to ensure the effective enforcement of such national legislation (Article III(12) to (14)).


Red Hand Day on 12 February is an annual commemoration day to draw public attention to the practice of using children as soldiers in wars and armed conflicts.


Recently, a strong international movement has emerged to put an end to the practice. See, for example, Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers.


According to the website of Human Rights Watch as of July 2007:

In over twenty countries around the world, children are direct participants in war. Denied a childhood and often subjected to horrific violence, an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 children are serving as soldiers for both rebel groups and government forces in current armed conflicts.[7]

Under the terms of Protocol I of the Geneva Conventions, children over the age of fifteen who have volunteered can be used as spotters, observers, message-carriers. (see above International humanitarian law)


The Capetown Principles and Best Practices, adopted by the NGO Working Group on the Convention on the Rights of Children and UNICEF at a symposium on the prevention of recruitment of children into the armed forces and on demobilization and social regeneration of child soldiers in Africa in April 1997, proposed that African Governments should adopt and ratify the Optional protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict raising the minimum age from 15 to 18, and that African Governments should ratify and implement other pertinent treaties and incorporate them into national law. The symposium define a child soldier as any person under age 18 who is "part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or group in any capacity, including but not limited to cooks, porters, messengers and those accompanying such groups, other than purely as family members. The definition includes girls recruited for sexual purposes and for forced marriage. It does not, therefore, only refer to a child who is carrying or has carried arms."[8]


As of 2007, Africa has the largest number of child soldiers. In 2004 one estimate put the number of children involved in armed conflict including combat roles at 100,000.[9]

Cote d'Ivoire – Children serve in armed militia groups linked to the government, including the Alliance patriotique de l’ethnie Wé (APWé) and the Union patriotique de résistance du Grand Ouest (UPRGO). The ex-rebel groups now allied into the New Forces (Forces Nouvelles de Côte d'Ivoire, FAFN) also had child soldiers.Rwanda – Child soldiers have been used by Rwandan government forces and paramilitaries, as well as government-backed forces operating within the Democratic Republic of Congo. Some child recruitment is still reported in refugee camps.Sierra Leone - In Armies of the Young: Child Soldiers in War and Terrorism anthropologist David M. Rosen discusses the murders, rapes, tortures, and the thousands of amputations committed by Small Boys Unit of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) during Sierra Leone's civil war (1991-2001.) [12]Somalia – Nearly all factional militias in Somalia use child soldiers, with an estimated 200,000 children involved over a 16 year period. In late 2006, Islamic Courts Union used large numbers of child soldiers to fight against Ethiopian and Somalian forces, reportedly resulting in the death of "countless" teenage fighters.Uganda – Over the past twenty years, the rebel Lord's Resistance Army has abducted more than 30,000 boys and girls as soldiers. Girls are often forced to be sex slaves. The government has recruited small numbers of children into its forces as young as 13, including Local Defense Units.Zimbabwe - The ZANU-PF government of Robert Mugabe sponsors a "youth militia" -- the National Youth Service, known as the "Green Bombers". The children are armed, provided with narcotics, and used for acts of urban violence against political dissidents. They are believed responsible for some of the worst acts of political violence in recent history.[13]

See interactive Map of Child Soldiers


In 2004 the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers reported that in Asia thousands of children are involved in fighting forces in active conflict and ceasefire situations in Afghanistan, Burma, Indonesia, Laos, Philippines, Nepal and Sri Lanka, although government refusal of access to conflict zones has made it impossible to document the numbers involved.[14] In 2004 Burma was unique in the region, as the only country where government armed forces forcibly recruit and use children between the ages of 12 and 16.[14]

Burma - As many as 70,000 boys serve in Burma's national army, with children as young as 12 forcibly recruited off the streets. Approximately 5,000-7,000 children serve with a range of different armed ethnic opposition groups.[15]Laos - Males are subject to compulsory military service from the age of 15.Nepal - An estimated 6,000-9,000 children serve in the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) forces. Although a peace agreement is in place, the Maoists have not yet demobilized children from their ranks.[16]

In Sri Lanka, thousands of children are believed to be in the ranks of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE),[18] a rebel group banned as a terrorist organization by a number of countries. Since signing a ceasefire agreement in 2001, the latest available UNICEF figures show that the LTTE has abducted 5,666 children until July 2006, although the organization speculates that only about a third of such cases are reported to them. Sri Lankan soldiers nicknamed one unit the Baby Battalion, due to the number of children in it.[7] In response to widespread international condemnation of alleged children recruitment practices, the LTTE informed that they have made (taking effect in Oct. 2006) child recruitment illegal for its groups.[18]


More recently, the para-military group known as the Karuna Group, which is apparently a splinter group from the LTTE, has been held responsible for the abduction of children according to UNICEF and Human Rights Watch.[19]


In Armies of the Young: Child Soldiers in War and Terrorism anthropologist David M. Rosen discusses the creation of troops of boys aged twelve and up, modelled on the Hitler Youth, and armed by the Arab Nazi party in Palestine and that carried out military attacks as part of the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. [20]


Child soldiers are still being today used by Palestinians in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On May 23, 2005, Amnesty International reiterated its calls to Palestinian armed groups to put an immediate end to the use of children in armed activities: "Palestinian armed groups must not use children under any circumstances to carry out armed attacks or to transport weapons or other material."[21]


Professor of Georgetown University William O'Brien wrote about active participation of Palestinian children in the First Intifada: "It appears that a substantial number, if not the majority, of troops of the intifada are young people, including elementary schoolchildren. They are engaged in throwing stones and Molotov cocktails and other forms of violence." (Law and Morality in Israel's War With the PLO, New York


Arab journalist Huda Al-Hussein wrote in London Arab newspaper on October 27, 2000: "While UN organizations save child-soldiers, especially in Africa, from the control of militia leaders who hurl them into the furnace of gang-fighting, some Palestinian leaders… consciously issue orders with the purpose of ending their childhood, even if it means their last breath."[22]


Palestinians and their proponents strongly deny that the practice is either widespread or planned. According to the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers 2004 Global Report on the Use of Child Soldiers, there were at least nine documented suicide attacks involving Palestinian minors between October 2000 and March 2004:[23] but also stated "There was no evidence of systematic recruitment of children by Palestinian armed groups. However, children are used as messengers and couriers, and in some cases as fighters and suicide bombers in attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians. All the main political groups involve children in this way, including Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine."[24]


Recruitment of children to fight as soldiers against Israelis has been documented [8] in Palestinian school textbooks and the photographic record of Palestinian recruitment of children as soldiers, marching and training often with real machine guns, by the website project "InHonor.net" [9] [10] [11]. Recruitment also exists in the content of Palestinian children's television programming. [12] [13] [14] [15]

Chechnya - According to the UN report, the Chechen separatist forces included a large number of children, some as young as 11 (including females), during the First Chechen War: "Child soldiers in Chechnya were reportedly assigned the same tasks as adult combatants, and served on the front lines soon after joining the armed forces."[16] In 2004 the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers reported that in Chechnya, under-18s are believed to be involved in a range of armed groups in the war against Russia, although the numbers are impossible to establish given a virtual ban on media and human rights organizations from operating in the region. Some children allegedly took part in suicide bombings.[25]Bosnia and Herzegovina - Both sexes can voluntarily join the armed forces from the age of 17. Teenage soldiers fought in the Bosnian War in the early 1990s, partially due to a former law that dropped the conscription age to 16 in times of war.Serbia - In times of war, the compulsory military service age can be dropped to 16 for both sexes. Teenage soldiers and paramilitary fighters fought in the wars during the breakup of Yugoslavia.Canada - In Canada, people may join the reserve component of the Canadian Forces at age 16 with parental permission, and the regular component at 17 years of age. They may not volunteer for a tour of duty until reaching age 18.[28]. In the celebrated case of Omar Khadr however, Canada has consented to a Canadian child soldier (Khadr was 15 when he was captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan) being interned at Guantanamo Bay and facing prosecution by the United States.United States - In the United States 17-year-olds may join the armed forces, but may not be deployed in combat situations. The United States military is based on voluntary recruitment, though minors also must have parental permission to enlist (or permission from a legal guardian in the absence of parents). Males under eighteen years of age are not draft eligible, and females are not eligible for conscription at any age. The United States military requires all soldiers to possess a high school diploma or equivalent; this requirement may be waived for young soldiers for up to 180 days from the date of enlistment (with the agreement that the child obtains a high school diploma or equivalent within 180 days) and during wartime.

The United States has recently come under fire for the detention and trial of child soldiers and non-combatant minors captured during military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Omar Khadr, a 15 year old Canadian citizen, arrested in Afghanistan in 2002, and held at Guantanamo for the past five years was to have been one of the first detainees to be charged before a military commission. Human Rights Watch charges that, "the US government incarcerated him with adults, reportedly subjected him to abusive interrogations, failed to provide him any educational opportunities, and denied him any direct contact with his family."[29] In 2004, three Afghan children were released from Guantanamo, believed to be between the ages of 13 and 15 at the time of their capture, to rehabilitation programs operated by UNICEF in Afghanistan.

Bolivia - The government of Bolivia has acknowledged that children as young as 14 may have been forcibly conscripted into the armed forces during recruitment sweeps.[30] About 40% of the Bolivian army is believed to be under the age of 18, with half of those below the age of 16.[31]Colombia - Between 11,000 and 14,000 children are estimated to be involved with left-wing guerrilla groups and right-wing paramilitaries in Colombia. According to Human Rights Watch, "Approximately 80 percent of child combatants in Colombia belong to one of the two left-wing guerrilla groups, the FARC or ELN. The remainder fights in paramilitary ranks."[32]Haiti - In Haiti an unknown number of children participate in various loosely-organized armed groups that are engaged in political violence.[33]

Throughout history and in many cultures, children have been extensively involved in military campaigns even when such practices were supposedly against cultural morals.


The earliest mentions of minors being involved in wars come from antiquity. It was customary for youths in the Mediterranean basin to serve as aides, charioteers and armor bearers to adult warriors. Examples of this practice can be found in the Bible (such as David's service to King Saul), in Hittite and Egyptian art, and in Greek mythology (such as the story of Hercules and Hylas), philosophy and literature.


Also in a practice dating back to antiquity, children were routinely taken on campaign, together with the rest of a military man's family, as part of the baggage. This exposed them to harm from rearguard attacks, such as the one at the battle of Agincourt, where the retainers and children of the English army were massacred by the French.


The Romans also made use of youths in war, though it was understood that it was unwise and cruel to use children in war, and Plutarch implies that regulations required youths to be at least sixteen years of age.


In medieval Europe, young boys from about twelve years of age were used as military aides ("squires"), though in theory their role in actual combat was limited. The so-called Children's Crusade in 1212 recruited thousands of children as untrained soldiers under the assumption that divine power would enable them to conquer the enemy, although none of the children actually entered combat; according to the legend, they were instead sold into slavery. While most scholars no longer believe that the Children's Crusade consisted solely, or even mostly, of children, it nonetheless exemplifies an era in which the entire family took part in a war effort.


Young boys often took part in battles during early modern warfare. One of their more visible roles was as the ubiquitous "drummer boy" – the film Waterloo (based on the Battle of Waterloo) graphically depicts French drummer boys leading Napoleon's initial attack, only to be gunned down by Allied soldiers. During the age of sail, young boys formed part of the crew of British Royal Navy ships and were responsible for many important tasks including bringing powder and shot from the ship's magazine to the gun crews. These children were called "powder monkeys". During the Siege of Mafeking in the Second Boer War, Robert Baden-Powell recruited and trained 12-15 year old boys as scouts, thus freeing up the limited number of men for the actual fighting. The boys' success led indirectly to Baden-Powell founding the Boy Scouts, a youth organization originally run along military lines. At the outbreak of the First World War, boys as young as 13 were caught up in the overwhelming tide of patriotism and in huge numbers cheerfully enlisted for active service others to avoid the harsh and dreary lives they had working in British industry. Many were to serve in the bloodiest battles of the war, such as ex-miner Dick Trafford who took part in the Battle of Loos, and Frank Lindley who, seeking to avenge his dead brother, went over the top on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Both were just sixteen. Typically many were able to pass themselves off as older men, such as George Thomas Paget, who at 17 joined a Bantam battalion in the Welsh Regiment. George died of wounds in captivity just five weeks after landing in France. George Mahers who served briefly in France when he was just thirteen years and nine months old. He was sent back to England along with five other under-age boys.


A young boy, Bugler John Cook, served in the U.S. Army at the age of 15 and received the Medal of Honor for his acts during the Civil War Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day in American history. Cook is the only child to ever receive this honor.[34]


By a law signed by Nicholas I of Russia in 1827, a disproportionate number of Jewish boys, known as the cantonists, were forced into military training establishments to serve in the army. The 25-year conscription term officially commenced at the age of 18, but boys as young as eight were routinely taken to fulfill the hard quota.


In World War II, children frequently fought in insurrections. During the Holocaust, Jews of all ages, including teenagers such as Shalom Yoran, participated in the Jewish resistance simply in order to survive. Many members of the youth movement Hashomer Hatzair fought in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943. Many other anti-fascist resistance movements across Nazi-occupied Europe consisted partially of children (for example, Szare Szeregi in Poland). A number of child soldiers served in the Soviet Union's armed forces during the war.[35] In some cases, orphans also unofficially joined the Soviet Red Army. Such children were affectionately known as "son of the regiment" (Russian: ??? ?????) and sometimes willingly performed military missions such as reconnaissance.


On the opposite side, Hitler Youth (Hitlerjugend) was an organization in Nazi Germany that trained youth physically and indoctrinated them with Nazi ideology to the point of fanaticism. By the end of World War II, members of the Hitler Youth were taken into the army at increasingly younger ages. During the Battle of Berlin in 1945 they were a major part of the German defenses.


In some cases, youth organizations were, and still are, militarized in order to instill discipline in their ranks, sometimes to indoctrinate them with propaganda and prepare for subsequent military service.


During the Indochina Wars, child soldiers were used by all local sides of the conflict. Both the government forces and the insurgent armies employed even small children, including in the direct combat roles.


In the most notorious case, the Khmer Rouge communist group exploited thousands of desensitized conscripted children to commit mass murders and other inhuman acts during the Cambodian genocide. The brainwashed child soldiers were taught to follow any order without hesitation.[17]


Thousands of children were recruited and used by all sides during Sierra Leone’s conflict (1993-2002), including the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), and the pro-government Civil Defense Forces (CDF). Children were often forcibly recruited, given drugs and used to commit atrocities. Thousands of girls were also recruited as soldiers and often subjected to sexual exploitation. Many of the children were survivors of village attacks, while others were found abandoned. They were used for patrol purposes, attacking villages, and guarding workers in the diamond fields. In his book A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Child Soldier, Ishmael Beah chronicles his life during the conflict in Sierra Leone.


In June 2007, the Special Court for Sierra Leone found three accused men from the rebel Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious violations of international humanitarian law, including the recruitment of children under the age of 15 years into the armed forces. With this, the Special Court became the first-ever UN backed tribunal to deliver a guilty verdict for the military conscription of children.[36]


During the later stages of the Iran-Iraq War, both sides were accused of using adolescents to fill out the ranks of soldiers depleted by years of warfare. Large numbers of adolescents fought alongside adults in the ranks of the Iranian Basij militia. On Iraqi side, the regime of Saddam Hussein raised teenage paramilitary units called "Saddam's Cubs" (Ashbal Saddam), and recruited children as young as 10.

^ Adoption by the UN General Assembly of a new treaty prohibiting the use of children under age eighteen in combat Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, New York, May 25, 2000^ UNICEF: Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child^ UNICEF: Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child^ Wikisource:Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court#Article 8 - War crimes^ Children and Armed Conflict: International Law/United Nations by the Center for Defence Information^ Children and Armed Conflict: UN enters “era of application” in its campaign against child soldiers, Center for Defence Information October 12, 2005^ Staff. Campaign Page: Child Soldiers, Human Rights Watch.^ [1] UNICEF, Cape Town Principles and Best Practices, April 1997, p. 8^ Some Facts^ [2] "They Came Here to Kill Us" Human Rights Watch, January 2007^ [3] "Early To War" Human Rights Watch, July 2007^ Project MUSE^ United States Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs. Zimbabwe Public Announcement (July 12, 2007) (html). Retrieved on 2007-08-08.^ a b Child Soldiers Global Report 2004PDF (2.29 MB) Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers pp. 18,159-161^ [4] "My Gun Was As Tall As Me", Human Rights Watch, 2002.^ [5] "Nepal: Maoists Should Release Child Soldiers Now", Human Rights Watch, May 2007.^ [6] Human Rights Watch Interactive Map of Child Soldiers^ a b Bureau Report LTTE rebels make child recruitment illegal: Report, Zee News October 27, 2006^ UNICEF condemns abduction and recruitment of Sri Lankan children by the Karuna group, UNICEF 22 June 2006^ Glazer, Ilsa M. Armies of the Young: Child Soldiers in War and Terrorism (review) Anthropological Quarterly - Volume 79, Number 2, Spring 2006, pp. 373-384^ Israel/Occupied Territories: Palestinian armed groups must not use children 23 May 2005^ Arab Journalist Decries Palestinian Child-Soldiers translated by MEMRI. Special Dispatch 147, November 1, 2000.^ Child Soldiers Global Report 2004PDF (2.29 MB) Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers p. 292^ Child Soldiers Global Report 2004PDF (2.29 MB) Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers p. 304 cites in footnote 18 that this Information is from Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group (PHRMG), March 2004.^ Child Soldiers Global Report 2004PDF (2.29 MB) Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers p. 217^ Human Rights Watch: Promises Broken^ Under-18s were deployed to Iraq, BBC^ Basic Eligibility Requirements. Canadian Forces. Retrieved on 2007-09-02.^ US: Move Khadr and Hamdan Cases to Federal Court. Human Rights Watch. Retrieved on 2007-07-26.^ Global March Against Child Labour: Bolivia 2001^ Global March Against Child Labour: Bolivia 2001^ Colombia: Armed Groups Send Children to War Human Rights News a website of Human Rights Watch February 22, 2005^ Human Rights Watch: Child Soldier Map^ Slinger, P.W. Children At War. New York: Pantheon Books, 2005.13.^ Beevor, Anthony; Kinnunen, Matti (2003). Stalingrad (in Finnish). Helsinki: WSOY.^ "Guilty Verdicts in the Trial of the AFRC Accused"PDF (104 KB), press release from the Special Court for Sierra Leone, 20 June 2007; "Sierra Leone Convicts 3 of War Crimes", Associated Press, 20 June 2007 (hosted by The Washington Post); "First S Leone war crimes verdicts", BBC News, 20 June 2007Kuomintang

Kuomintang
Traditional Chinese: ?????
Simplified Chinese: ?????
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Burma

Pyi-daung-zu Myan-ma Naing-ngan-daw
Union of Myanmar


Flag Coat of arms
Anthem: Kaba Ma Kyei


Capital Naypyidaw

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Berlin

Berlin


Flag Coat of arms


Details
Location within Germany and EU


Coordinates
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Child

A child is most often defined as a young human being between birth and puberty; a boy or girl. The legal definition of "child" generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger than the age of majority.
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Sexual slavery

Part of a series on
Slavery
Period and context


History · Antiquity
Religious views: Biblical ·
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Human shield

Human shield is a military and political term describing the presence of civilians in or around combat targets to deter an enemy from attacking those targets.
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Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers

The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers was formed in June 1998 to "advocate for the adoption of, and adherence to, national, regional and international legal standards (including an Optional
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United Nations United Nations????? ???????
..... Click the link for more information. Convention on the Rights of the Child

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, often referred to as CRC or UNCRC
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Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict

The Optional protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict is a protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child adopted by General Assembly of the United Nations on
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Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court

The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (often referred to as the International Criminal Court Statute or the Rome Statute
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Confucius (551 BCE)

Confucius

Confucius (Chinese: ???; pinyin: Kong Fuzi; Wade-Giles: K'ung-fu-tzu), lit. "Master Kung,"[1] September 28, 551 BCE - 479 BCE) was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher, whose teachings and philosophy have deeply influenced Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese thought and life.


His philosophy emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity. These values gained prominence in China over other doctrines, such as Legalism (??) or Taoism (??) during the Han Dynasty[2][3][4] (206 BC–220 AD). Confucius' thoughts have been developed into a system of philosophy known as Confucianism (??). It was introduced to Europe by the Jesuit Matteo Ricci, who was the first to Latinise the name as "Confucius."


His teachings may be found in the Analects of Confucius (??), a collection of "brief aphoristic fragments", which was compiled many years after his death. Modern historians do not believe that any specific documents can be said to have been written by Confucius,[5][6] but for nearly 2,000 years he was thought to be the editor or author of all the Five Classics[7][8] such as the Classic of Rites (editor), and the Spring and Autumn Annals (??) (author).


According to tradition, Confucius was born in 551 BC. Spring and Autumn Period, at the beginning of the Hundred Schools of Thought philosophical movement. Confucius was born in or near the city of Qufu, in the Chinese State of Lu (now part of Shandong Province). Early accounts say that he was born into a poor but noble family that had fallen on hard times.[9]


The Records of the Grand Historian (??), compiled some four centuries later, indicate that the marriage of Confucius' parents did not conform to Li (?) and therefore was a yehe (??), or "illicit union",[10] for when they got married, his father was a very old man and past proper age for marriage but his mother was only in her late teens. His father died when he was three,[11] and he was brought up in poverty by his mother. His social ascendancy linked him to the growing class of shì (?), a class whose status lay between that of the old nobility and the common people, that comprised men who sought social positions on the basis of talents and skills, rather than heredity.


As a child, Confucius was said to have enjoyed putting ritual vases on the sacrifice table.[10] He married a young girl named Qi Quan (??) at nineteen and she had their first child Kong Li (??) when he was twenty. Confucius is reported to have worked as a shepherd, cowherd, clerk and book-keeper.[12] When Confucius was twenty-three, his mother died and he entered three years of mourning.


He is said to have risen to the position of Justice Minister (???) in Lu at fifty-three.[13] According to the Records of the Grand Historian, the neighboring state of Qi (?) was worried that Lu was becoming too powerful. Qi decided to sabotage Lu's reforms by sending one hundred good horses and eighty beautiful dancing girls to the Duke of Lu. The Duke indulged himself in pleasure and did not attend to official duties for three days. Confucius was deeply disappointed and resolved to leave Lu and seek better opportunities. Yet to leave at once would expose the misbehavior of the Duke and therefore bring public humiliation to the ruler Confucius was serving, so Confucius waited for the Duke to make a lesser mistake. Soon after, the Duke neglected to send to Confucius a portion of the sacrificial meat that was his due according to custom, and Confucius seized this pretext to leave both his post and the state of Lu.[10][14]


While some early sources picture the state of Lu as well regulated, due, in part, to the wise administration of Confucius, many scholars think this is unlikely, and hold that Confucius in fact never held any major position, either in Lu or anywhere else.


According to tradition, after Confucius's resignation, he began a long journey (or set of journeys) around the small kingdoms of northeast and central China, including the states of Wei (?), Song (?), Chen (?) and Cai (?).[15] At the courts of these states, he expounded his political beliefs but did not see them implemented.


According to the Zuo Commentary to the Spring and Autumn Annals, at sixty-eight[13] Confucius returned home. The Analects pictures him spending his last years teaching disciples and transmitting the old wisdom via a set of texts called the Five Classics.[16][17]


Burdened by the loss of both his son and his favorite disciples,[18][19] he died at the age of 72 (or 73).[20]


In the Analects??, Confucius presents himself as a "transmitter who invented nothing".[7] He put the greatest emphasis on the importance of study,[21][22] and it is the Chinese character for study (or learning) that opens the text. In this respect, he is seen by Chinese people as the Greatest Master.[23] Far from trying to build a systematic theory of life and society or establish a formalism of rites, he wanted his disciples to think deeply for themselves and relentlessly study the outside world,[24] mostly through the old scriptures and by relating the moral problems of the present to past political events (like the Annals) or past expressions of feelings by common people and reflective members of the elite (preserved in the poems of the Book of Odes[25]).[26]


In times of division, chaos, and endless wars between feudal states, he wanted to restore the Mandate of Heaven “??” that could unify the "world" (i.e. China) and bestow peace and prosperity on the people.[27] Because his vision of personal and social perfections was framed as a revival of the ordered society of earlier times, Confucius is often considered a great proponent of conservatism, but a closer look at what he proposes often shows that he used (and perhaps twisted) past institutions and rites to push a new political agenda of his own: a revival of a unified royal state, whose rulers would succeed to power on the basis of their moral merit, not their parentage;[28][29] these would be rulers devoted to their people, reaching for personal and social perfection.[30] Such a ruler would spread his own virtues to the people instead of imposing proper behavior with laws and rules.[31]


One of the deepest teachings of Confucius may have been the superiority of personal exemplification over explicit rules of behavior. Because his moral teachings emphasise self-cultivation, emulation of moral exemplars, and the attainment of skilled judgment rather than knowledge of rules, Confucius's ethics may be considered a type of virtue ethics. His teachings rarely rely on reasoned argument, and ethical ideals and methods are conveyed more indirectly, through allusions, innuendo, and even tautology. This is why his teachings need to be examined and put into proper context in order to be understood.[32][33] A good example is found in this famous anecdote:

??????,?:“????”????When the stables were burnt down, on returning from court, Confucius said, "Was anyone hurt?" He did not ask about the horses. Analects X.11, tr. A. Waley

The anecdote is not long, but it is of paramount importance. In his time horses were perhaps 10 times more expensive than stablemen. The passage conveys the lesson that by not asking about the horses, Confucius demonstrated that a sage values human beings over property; readers of this lesson are led to reflect on whether their response would follow Confucius's, and to pursue ethical self-improvement if it would not. Confucius, an exemplar of human excellence, serves as the ultimate model, rather than a deity or a universally true set of abstract principles. For these reasons, according to many Eastern and Western commentators, Confucius's teaching may be considered a Chinese example of humanism.[34]


Perhaps his most famous teaching was the Golden Rule stated in the negative form, often called the silver rule:

???????????????????????????? ????????Adept Kung asked: "Is there any one word that could guide a person throughout life?"
The Master replied: "How about 'shu': never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself?"
Analects XV.24, tr. David Hinton

Confucius's teachings were later turned into a very elaborate set of rules and practices by his numerous disciples and followers who organised his teachings into the Analects. In the centuries after his death, Mencius[35] and Xun Zi[36] both composed important teachings elaborating in different ways on the fundamental ideas associated with Confucius. In time, these writings, together with the Analects and other core texts came to constitute the philosophical corpus known in the West as Confucianism. After more than a thousand years, the scholar Zhu Xi created a very different interpretation of Confucianism which is now called Neo-Confucianism, to distinguish it from the ideas expressed in the Analects. Neo-Confucianism held sway in China and Vietnam[37] until the 1800s.

Michele Ruggieri, and other Jesuits after him, while translating Chinese books into Western languages, translated ??? as Confucius. This Latinised form has since been commonly used in Western countries.In systematic Romanisations: Kong Fuzi (or Kong fu zi) in pinyin.K'ung fu-tzu in Wade-Giles (or, less accurately, Kung fu-tze). Fuzi means teacher. Since it was disrespectful to call the teacher by name according to Chinese culture, he is known as just "Master Kong", or Confucius, even in modern days.The character 'fu' is optional; in modern Chinese he is more often called Kong Zi.

(In Wade-Giles translation by D. C. Lau, this name appears as Kung Ch'iu.)

His courtesy name was ??, Zhòng Ní.In 1 CE (first year of the Yuanshi period of the Han Dynasty), he was given his first posthumous name: ?????, Lord Baochéngxuan, which means "Laudably Declarable Lord Ni."His most popular posthumous names are ????, ????,Zhìshèngxianshi, meaning "The Former Teacher who Arrived at Sagehood" (comes from 1530, the ninth year of the Jianing period of the Ming Dynasty);??,??, Zhìshèng, "the Greatest Sage";??,??, Xianshi, literally meaning "first teacher". It has been suggested that '??' can be used, however, to express something like, "the Teacher who assists the wise to their attainment".[38]He is also commonly known as ????, ????,Wànshìshibiao, "the Model Teacher" in Chinese.

Although Confucianism is often followed in a religious manner by the Chinese, arguments continue over whether it is a religion. Confucianism lacks an afterlife, its texts express complex and ambivalent views concerning deities, and it is relatively unconcerned with some spiritual matters often considered essential to religious thought, such as the nature of the soul.


Confucius' principles gained wide acceptance primarily because of their basis in common Chinese tradition and belief. He championed strong familial loyalty, ancestor worship, respect of elders by their children (and, according to later interpreters, of husbands by their wives), and the family as a basis for an ideal government. He expressed the well-known principle, "Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself" (similar to the Golden Rule). He also looked nostalgically upon earlier days, and urged the Chinese, particularly those with political power, to model themselves on earlier examples. "The superior man seeks for it in himself. The petty man seeks for it in others"


Because no texts survive that are demonstrably authored by Confucius, and the ideas associated with him most closely were elaborated in writings that accrued over the period between his death and the foundation of the first Chinese empire in 221 BCE, many scholars are very cautious about attributing specific assertions to Confucius himself.


The Confucian theory of ethics as exemplified in Li is based on three important conceptual aspects of life: ceremonies associated with sacrifice to ancestors and deities of various types, social and political institutions, and the etiquette of daily behavior. It was believed by some that li originated from the heavens. Confucius's view was more nuanced. His approach stressed the development of li through the actions of sage leaders in human history, with less emphasis on its connection with heaven. His discussions of li seem to redefine the term to refer to all actions committed by a person to build the ideal society, rather than those simply conforming with canonical standards of ceremony. In the early Confucian tradition, li, though still linked to traditional forms of action, came to point towards the balance between maintaining these norms so as to perpetuate an ethical social fabric, and violating them in order to accomplish ethical good. These concepts are about doing the proper thing at the proper time, and are connected to the belief that training in the li that past sages have devised cultivates in people virtues that include ethical judgment about when li must be adapted in light of situational contexts.


In early Confucianism, yì (? [?]) and li are closely linked terms. Yì can be translated as righteousness, though it may simply mean what is ethically best to do in a certain context. The term contrasts with action done out of self-interest. While pursuing one's own self-interest is not necessarily bad, one would be a better, more righteous person if one based one's life upon following a path designed to enhance the greater good, an outcome of yì. This is doing the right thing for the right reason. Yì is based upon reciprocity.


Just as action according to Li should be adapted to conform to the aspiration of adhering to yì, so yì is linked to the core value of rén (?). Rén is the virtue of perfectly fulfilling one's responsibilities toward others, most often translated as "benevolence" or "humaneness"; translator Arthur Waley calls it "Goodness" (with a capital G), and other translations that have been put forth include "authoritativeness" and "selflessness." Confucius's moral system was based upon empathy and understanding others, rather than divinely ordained rules. To develop one's spontaneous responses of rén so that these could guide action intuitively was even better than living by the rules of yì. To cultivate one's attentiveness to rén one used another Confucian version of the Golden Rule: one must always treat others just as one would want others to treat oneself. Virtue, in this Confucian view, is based upon harmony with other people, produced through this type of ethical practice by a growing identification of the interests of self and other.


In this regard, Confucius articulated an early version of the Golden Rule:

"What one does not wish for oneself, one ought not to do to anyone else; what one recognises as desirable for oneself, one ought to be willing to grant to others." (Confucius and Confucianism, Richard Wilhelm)

Confucius' political thought is based upon his ethical thought. He argues that the best government is one that rules through "rites" (li) and people's natural morality, rather than by using bribery and coercion. He explained that this is one of the most important analects: 1. "If the people be led by laws, and uniformity sought to be given them by punishments, they will try to avoid the punishment, but have no sense of shame. If they be led by virtue, and uniformity sought to be given them by the rules of propriety, they will have the sense of shame, and moreover will become good." (Translated by James Legge) {The Great Learning} This "sense of shame" is an internalisation of duty, where the punishment precedes the evil action, instead of following it in the form of laws as in Legalism.


While he supported the idea of government by an all-powerful sage, ruling as an Emperor, probably because of the chaotic state of China at his time, his ideas contained a number of elements to limit the power of rulers. He argued for according language with truth; thus honesty was of paramount importance. Even in facial expression, truth must always be represented. In discussing the relationship between a subject and his king (or a son and his father), he underlined the need to give due respect to superiors. This demanded that the inferior must give advice to his superior if the superior was considered to be taking the wrong course of action. This was built upon a century after Confucius's death by his latter day disciple Mencius, who argued that if the king was not acting like a king, he would lose the Mandate of Heaven and be overthrown. Therefore, tyrannicide is justified because a tyrant is more a thief than a king. Other Confucian texts, though celebrating absolute rule by ethical sages, recognise the failings of real rulers in maxims such as, "An oppressive government is more feared than a tiger."


Some well known Confucian quotes:


"When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them."


"What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others"


"With coarse rice to eat, with water to drink, and my crooked arm for a pillow - is not joy to be found therein? Riches and honors acquired through unrighteousness are to me as the floating clouds"


Confucius' disciples and his only grandson, Zisi, continued his philosophical school after his death. These efforts spread Confucian ideals to students who then became officials in many of the royal courts in China, thereby giving Confucianism the first wide-scale test of its dogma. While relying heavily on Confucius' ethico-political system, two of his most famous later followers emphasized radically different aspects of his teachings. Mencius (4th century BCE) articulated the innate goodness in human beings as a source of the ethical intuitions that guide people towards rén, yì, and li, while Xun Zi (3rd century BCE) underscored the realistic and materialistic aspects of Confucian thought, stressing that morality was inculcated in society through tradition and in individuals through training.


This realignment in Confucian thought was parallel to the development of Legalism, which saw filial piety as self-interest and not a useful tool for a ruler to create an effective state. A disagreement between these two political philosophies came to a head in 223 BC when the Qin state conquered all of China. Li Ssu, Prime Minister of the Qin Dynasty convinced Qin Shi Huang to abandon the Confucians' recommendation of awarding fiefs akin to the Zhou Dynasty before them which he saw as counter to the Legalist idea of centralizing the state around the ruler. When the Confucian advisers pressed their point, Li Ssu had many Confucian scholars killed and their books burned - considered a huge blow to the philosophy and Chinese scholarship.


Under the succeeding Han Dynasty and Tang Dynasty, Confucian ideas gained even more widespread prominence. Under Wudi, the works of Confucius were made the official imperial philosophy and required reading for civil service examinations in 140 BC which was continued nearly unbroken until the end of the 19th Century. As Moism lost support by the time of the Han, the main philosophical contenders were Legalism which Confucian thought somewhat absorbed, the teachings of Lao-tzu whose focus on more mystic ideas kept it from direct conflict with Confucianism, and the new Buddhist religion which gained acceptance during the Southern and Northern Dynasties era.


During the Song Dynasty, the scholar Zhu Xi (1130-1200 CE) added ideas from Daoism and Buddhism into Confucianism. In his life, Zhu Xi was largely ignored but not long after his death his ideas became the new orthodox view on what Confucian texts actually meant. Modern historians view Zhu Xi as having created something rather different and call his way of thinking Neo-Confucianism. Both Confucian ideas and Confucian-trained officials were relied upon in the Ming Dynasty and even the Yuan Dynasty although Kublai Khan distrusted handing over provincial control. In the modern era, there are still some Confucian scholars in a movement sometimes called New Confucianism but during the Cultural Revolution, Confucianism was frequently attacked by leading figures in the Communist Party of China. This was partially a continuation of the condemnations of Confucianism by intellectuals and activists in the early 20th Century as a cause of the ethnocentric close-mindedness and refusal of the Qing Dynasty to modernize that led to the tragedies that befell China in the 19th Century.


In modern times, Asteroid 7853, "Confucius," was named after the Chinese thinker.


Quote: "Respect yourself and others will respect you."
Quote: "Today I have seen Lao-tzu and can only compare him to the dragon."[39]


The Chinese have a tradition of holding spectacular memorial ceremonies of Confucius (??) every year, using ceremonies that supposedly derived from Zhou Li ?? as recorded by Confucius, on the date of Confucius' birth. This tradition was interrupted for several decades in mainland China, where the official stance of the Communist Party and the State was that Confucius and Confucianism represented reactionary feudalist beliefs where it is held that the subservience of the people to the aristocracy is a part of the natural order. All such ceremonies and rites were therefore banned. Only after the 1990s, did the ceremony resume. As it is now considered a veneration of Chinese history and tradition, even communist party members may be found in attendance.


In Taiwan, where the Nationalist Party (Kuomingtang) strongly promoted Confucian beliefs in ethics and behavior, the tradition of memorial ceremony of Confucius (??) is supported by the government and has continued without interruption. While not a national holiday, it does appear on all printed calendars, much as Father's Day does in the West.


Confucius's works, words are studied by many scholars in many other Asian countries, such as Korea, Japan, Vietnam, etc. And many of those countries still hold the traditional memorial ceremony every year.


The works of Confucius were translated into European languages through the agency of Jesuit scholars stationed in China[40]. Matteo Ricci started to report on the thoughts of Confucius, and father Prospero Intorcetta published the life and works of Confucius into Latin in 1687.[41] It is thought that such works had considerable importance on European thinkers of the period, particularly among the Deists and other philosophical groups of the Enlightenment who were interested by the integration of the system of morality of Confucius into Western civilization.[42][43]


Soon after Confucius' death, Qufu, his hometown in the state of Lu and now in present-day Shandong Province, became a place of devotion and remembrance. It is still a major destination for cultural tourism, and many Chinese people visit his grave and the surrounding temples. In pan-China cultures, there are many temples where representations of the Buddha, Laozi and Confucius are found together. There are also many temples dedicated to him, which have been used for Confucianist ceremonies.


Confucius' descendants were repeatedly identified and honored by successive imperial governments with titles of nobility and official posts. They were honored with the rank of a marquis thirty-five times since Gaozu of the Han Dynasty, and they were promoted to the rank of duke forty-two times from the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty. Emperor Xuanzong of Tang first bestowed the title of "Marquis Wenxuan" on Kong Sui of the 35th generation. In 1055, Emperor Zhenzong of Song first bestowed the title of "Duke Yansheng" on Kong Zong of the 46th generation. Despite repeated dynastic change in China, the title of Duke Yansheng was bestowed upon successive generations of descendants until it was abolished by the Nationalist Government in 1935. The last holder of the title, Kung Te-cheng of the 77th generation, was appointed Sacrificial Official to Confucius.


Today, there are thousands of reputed descendants of Confucius.[44] The main lineage fled from the Kong ancestral home in Qufu to Taiwan during the Chinese Civil War. The current head of the household is Kung Te-cheng, a professor at National Taiwan University. He previously served in the Republic of China government as President of the Examination Yuan. Kung married Sun Qifang, the great-granddaughter of the Qing dynasty scholar-official and first president of Peking University Sun Jianai, whose Shouxian, Anhui, family created one of the first business combines in modern-day China, which included the largest flour mill in Asia, the Fou Foong Flour Company in Shanghai. The Qianlong Emperor married a daughter to Kong Xianpei of the 72nd generation, linking the Aisin-Gioro Imperial house with the Kong family.

^ More commonly abbreviated to Chinese: ??; pinyin: Kongzi; see Names section^ Ban 111, vol.56^ Gao 2003^ Chen 2003^ Zhang 1899, p. 111^ Liu 2005, section 3^ a b The Analects 479 BCE - 221 BCE, VII.1^ Kang 1958^ Chien 1978^ a b c Sima 109 BCE - 91 BCE, vol.47^ Chien 1978, p. 25^ Legge 1895, Book 5, V^ a b Temple Of Confucius, 2001^ The Analects 479 BCE - 221 BCE, XVIII.4^ Chien 1978, pp. 37-46^ Watson 1996^ The Analects 479 BC - 221 BCE, IX.14^ The Analects 479 BCE - 221 BCE, XI.8, 9, 10 and 11^ Classic of Rites 300 BCE, Tangong Part 1^ Chien 1978, pp. 50-53^ Chien 1978, pp. 117-120^ The Analects 479 BCE - 221 BCE, I.1^ Gu 1658, vol. 51, sec. 9^ The Analects 479 BCE - 221 BCE, III.3; VI.13 and XVII.11^ The Analects 479 BCE - 221 BCE, XIII.5; XVII.9^ The Analects 479 BCE - 221 BCE, VI.25^ The Analects 479 BCE - 221 BCE, XVI.2^ The Analects 479 BCE - 221 BCE, XIV.9^ Zhang 2002, p. 208^ The Analects 479 BCE - 221 BCE, VI.24 and 30; XIV.16 and 17^ The Analects 479 BCE - 221 BCE, II.20; XII.19^ Derrida 1983, p. 63^ Du 2005^ Lee 1995, pp. 1-3^ Legge 1895^ Xun 325 BCE - 238 BCE^ Li 2005^ Zhang 1988, p. 76^ This quote has been attributed by some scholars to a later student of Confucius as an attempt to create a meeting between Confucius and Lao-tzu which may never have occurred.^ The first was Michele Ruggieri who had returned from China to Italy in 1588, and carried on translating in Latin Chinese classics, while residing in Salerno^ "Windows into China", John Parker, p.25^ "Windows into China", John Parker, p.25, ISBN 0890730504^ "The Eastern origins of Western civilization", John Hobson, p194-195, ISBN 0521547245^ Confucius says: Too many descendants : Mail & Guardian Online"Windows into China", John Parker, ISBN 0890730504"The Eastern origins of Western civilization", John Hobson, ISBN 0521547245Chin, Annping (2007). The Authentic Confucius: A Life of Thought and Politics. New York: Scribner. ISBN 0-74-324618-7.Confucius. (1997). Lun yu, (In English The Analects of Confucius). Translation and notes by Simon Leys. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-04019-4.Confucius. (2003). Confucius: Analects -- With Selections from Traditional Commentaries. Translated by E. Slingerland. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing. (Original work published c. 551–479 BCE) ISBN 0-87220-635-1.Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2005). "Confucianism: An Overview". In Encyclopedia of Religion (Vol. C, pp 1890–1905). Detroit: MacMillan Reference USA.Herrlee Glessner Creel (1949). Confucius and the Chinese Way. (Reprinted numerous times by various publishers.)Mengzi (2006). Mengzi. Translation by B.W. Van Norden. In Philip J. Ivanhoe & B.W. Van Norden, Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy. 2nd ed. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing. ISBN 0-87220-780-3.Van Norden, B.W., ed. (2001). Confucius and the Analects: New Essays. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-513396-X.Wu, J. (1995a). "Confucius". In I. McGreal (ed.), Great Thinkers of the Eastern World: The Major Thinkers of the Philosophical and Religious Classics of China, India, Japan, Korea and the world of Islam (pp 3–8). New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-270085-5Wu. J. (1995b) "Mencius". In I. McGreal (ed.), Great Thinkers of the Eastern World: The Major Thinkers of the Philosophical and Religious Classics of China, India, Japan, Korea and the world of Islam (pp 27–30). New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-270085-5Confucius appears as one of the main characters in Gore Vidal's Creation (novel). The book gives a very sympathetic and human portrait of him and his times.Ancient philosophy

This page lists some links to ancient philosophy. In Europe, the spread of Christianity through the Roman world marked the end of Hellenistic philosophy and ushered in the beginnings of Medieval philosophy.
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Chinese language

This article contains Chinese text.
Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters.
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September 28

September 28 is the 271st day of the year (272nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 94 days remaining until the end of the year.
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Qufu

Temple and Cemetery of Confucius and the Kong Family Mansion in Qufu*
UNESCO World Heritage Site

State Party China
Type Cultural
Criteria i, iv, vi
Reference 704

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China


Traditional Chinese: ??
Simplified Chinese: ??

Transliterations
Kejia (Hakka)
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Qufu

Temple and Cemetery of Confucius and the Kong Family Mansion in Qufu*
UNESCO World Heritage Site

State Party China
Type Cultural
Criteria i, iv, vi
Reference 704

..... Click the link for more information. China

China


Traditional Chinese: ??
Simplified Chinese: ??

Transliterations
Kejia (Hakka)
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Confucianism

Confucianism (Chinese: ??; pinyin: Rújia
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Social philosophy

Social philosophy is the philosophical study of questions about social behavior (typically, of humans). Social philosophy addresses a wide range of subjects, from individual meanings to legitimacy of laws, from the social contract to
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Confucianism

Confucianism (Chinese: ??; pinyin: Rújia
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Zhou Dynasty

??
Zhou Dynasty


?
1122 BC – 256 BC ?



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Eastern philosophy

Eastern philosophy refers very broadly to the various philosophies of Asia, including Indian philosophy, Chinese philosophy, Persian philosophy, Japanese philosophy, and Korean philosophy.
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Chinese language

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Mojibake

Mojibake is the phenomenon of incorrect, unreadable characters (garbage characters) shown when computer software fails to render a text correctly according to its associated character encoding. It is a loanword from Japanese.
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Pinyin

Hanyu Pinyin
Traditional Chinese: ????
Simplified Chinese: ????


Transliterations
Mandarin
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Wade-Giles

Wade-Giles pronounced /?we?d'?a?lz/ (simplified Chinese:
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September 28

September 28 is the 271st day of the year (272nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 94 days remaining until the end of the year.
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Common Era

Common Era (also known as Christian Era and Current Era; [1][2][3] abbreviated CE
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Common Era

Common Era (also known as Christian Era and Current Era; [1][2][3] abbreviated CE
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China

China


Traditional Chinese: ??
Simplified Chinese: ??

Transliterations
Kejia (Hakka)
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Eastern philosophy

Eastern philosophy refers very broadly to the various philosophies of Asia, including Indian philosophy, Chinese philosophy, Persian philosophy, Japanese philosophy, and Korean philosophy.
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Eastern philosophy

Eastern philosophy refers very broadly to the various philosophies of Asia, including Indian philosophy, Chinese philosophy, Persian philosophy, Japanese philosophy, and Korean philosophy.
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Culture of China

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Culture of Korea
This article is about the traditional culture of Korea. For the modern culture, see contemporary culture of North Korea and contemporary culture of South Korea.
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The culture of Japan has evolved greatly over the years, from the country's original Jomon culture to its contemporary hybrid culture, which combines influences from Asia, Europe and North America.
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Culture of Vietnam

The Culture of Vietnam is one of the oldest of such in the Southeast Asia region. Although Vietnam lies geographically in Southeast Asia, long periods of Chinese domination and influence has resulted in the emergence of many East
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Government
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A government is "the organization, that is the governing authority of a political unit,"
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Morality

Morality (from the Latin moralitas "manner, character, proper behavior") is the learning process of distinguishing between virtues and vices.


George Eliot

Eliot, George, pseud. of Mary Ann or Marian Evans, 1819–80, English novelist, b. Arbury, Warwickshire. One of the great English novelists, she was reared in a strict atmosphere of evangelical Protestantism but eventually rebelled and renounced organized religion totally. Her early schooling was supplemented by assiduous reading, and the study of languages led to her first literary work, Life of Jesus (1846), a translation from the German of D. F. Strauss Strauss, David Friedrich , 1808–74, German theologian and philosopher. In Berlin he studied (1831–32) Hegelian philosophy. As tutor at Tübingen he lectured on Hegel, modern philosophy, and Plato. His Das Leben Jesu (2 vol.
..... Click the link for more information. . After her father's death she became subeditor (1851) of the Westminster Review, contributed articles, and came to know many of the literary people of the day. In 1854 she began a long and happy union with G. H. Lewes Lewes, George Henry , 1817–78, English critic and author. As editor of the Leader (1850–54) and of the Fortnightly Review (1865–66), Lewes distinguished himself as a critic.
..... Click the link for more information. , which she regarded as marriage, though it involved social ostracism and could have no legal sanction because Lewes's estranged wife was living. Throughout his life Lewes encouraged Evans in her literary career; indeed, it is possible that without him Evans, subject to periods of depression and in constant need of reassurance, would not have written a word.

In 1856, Mary Ann began Scenes of Clerical Life, a series of realistic sketches first appearing in Blackwood's Magazine under the pseudonym Lewes chose for her, George Eliot. Although not a popular success, the work was well received by literary critics, particularly Dickens and Thackeray. Three novels of provincial life followed—Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), and Silas Marner (1861). She visited Italy in 1860 and again in 1861 before she brought out in the Cornhill Magazine (1862–63) her historical romance Romola, a story of Savonarola Savonarola, Girolamo , 1452–98, Italian religious reformer, b. Ferrara. He joined (1475) the Dominicans. In 1481 he went to San Marco, the Dominican house at Florence, where he became popular for his eloquent sermons, in which he attacked the vice and
..... Click the link for more information. . Felix Holt (1866), a political novel, was followed by The Spanish Gypsy (1868), a dramatic poem. Middlemarch (1871–72), a portrait of life in a provincial town, is considered her masterpiece. She wrote one more novel, Daniel Deronda (1876); the satirical Impressions of Theophrastus Such (1879); and verse, which was never popular and is now seldom read. Lewes died in 1878, and in 1880 she married a close friend of both Lewes and herself, John W. Cross, who later edited George Eliot's Life as Related in Her Letters and Journals (3 vol., 1885–86). Writing about life in small rural towns, George Eliot was primarily concerned with the responsibility that people assume for their lives and with the moral choices they must inevitably make. Although highly serious, her novels are marked by compassion and a subtle humor.


See her letters (ed. by G. S. Haight, 7 vol., 1954–56); her collected essays (ed. by T. Pinney, 1964); biographies by L. and E. Hanson (1952), G. S. Haight (1968), F. R. Karl (1995), R. Ashton (1997), and K. Hughes (1999); studies by E. S. Haldane (1927), J. Thale (1959), B. Hardy (1967), D. Carroll, ed. (1971), T. S. Pearce (1973), and G. Beer (1983).

columbia() orig. Mary Ann Evans later Marian Evans (born Nov. 22, 1819, Chilvers Coton, Warwickshire, Eng.—died Dec. 22, 1880, London) British novelist. Eliot was raised with a strong evangelical piety but broke with religious orthodoxy in her 20s. She worked as a translator, a critic, and a subeditor of the Westminster Review (1851–54). Later she turned to fiction. Adopting a masculine pseudonym to evade prejudice against women novelists, she first brought out Scenes of Clerical Life (1858). This was followed by such classic works as Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Romola (1862–63), Felix Holt, the Radical (1866), and Daniel Deronda (1876). Her masterpiece, Middlemarch (1871–72), provides a thorough study of every class of provincial society. The method of psychological analysis she developed would become characteristic of modern fiction. With the journalist, philosopher, and critic George Henry Lewes (1817–78), a married man, she enjoyed a long and happy, though scandalous, liaison; their Sunday-afternoon salons were a brilliant feature of Victorian life.eb('http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9104535/George-Eliot','Eliot, George') GSE_Pref()Eliot, George 

(real name, Mary Ann Evans). Born Nov. 22, 1819, on the Arbury estate, Warwickshire; died Dec. 22, 1880, in London. English writer.


Under the influence of various schools of philosophy, especially the positivism of A. Comte and H. Spencer, Eliot adopted the idea of the gradual evolution of society and the harmony of the classes. In the collection of stories Scenes of Clerical Life (vols. 1–2, 1858), which consists of “Amos Barton” (Russian translation, 1860), “Mr. Gilfil’s Love Story” (Russian translation, 1859), and “Janet’s Repentance” (Russian translation, 1860), she dealt with the social and moral conflicts in a village in the English countryside. Democratic sympathies were also manifested in the novel Adam Bede (vols. 1–3, 1859; Russian translation, 1859).


Although in some respects Eliot’s works exhibit a tendency toward naturalism, in the novel The Mill on the Floss (vols. 1–3, 1860; Russian translation, 1860) she presented a typical picture of the life of the provincial petite bourgeoisie. In the novel Silas Marner (1861; Russian translation, 1959) she contrasted altruism to the egoistic morality of the wealthy. Eliot’s novels, including Felix Holt the Radical (vols. 1–3, 1866; Russian translation, 1867) and Middtemarch (vols. 1–4, 1871–72; Russian translation, 1873), were popular in Russia and were highly regarded by N. G. Chernyshevskii, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, I. S. Turgenev, and L. N. Tolstoy.

The Complete Works, vols. 1–10. London-New York, 1908.
The George Eliot Letters, vols. 1–7. New Haven-London, 1954–55.
In Russian translation:
Mel’nitsa na Flosse. Moscow-Leningrad, 1963.Istoriia angliiskoi literatury, vol. 2, fasc. 2. Moscow, 1955.
Ivasheva, V. V. Angliiskii realisticheskii roman XIX v. v ego sovremennom zvuchanii. Moscow, 1974.
Allen, W. George Eliot. London [1965]
George Eliot: The Critical Heritage. London [1971].GSE()

Seppuku

Seppuku

Seppuku (??, Seppuku? "stomach-cutting") is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. Seppuku was originally reserved only for samurai. Part of the samurai honor code, seppuku has been used both voluntarily by samurai to die with honor rather than fall into the hands of their enemies, as a form of capital punishment for samurai who have committed serious offenses, and for reasons that shamed them. Seppuku is performed by plunging a sword into the abdomen and moving the sword left to right in a slicing motion. The practice of committing seppuku at the death of one's master, known as oibara (?? or ???, the kun'yomi or Japanese reading) or tsuifuku (??, the on'yomi or Chinese reading), follows a similar ritual.


The most famous form of seppuku is also known as hara-kiri (???, "cutting the belly") and is written with the same kanji as seppuku but in reverse order with an okurigana. In Japanese, hara-kiri is a colloquialism, seppuku being the more formal term. Samurai (and modern adherents of bushido) would use seppuku, whereas ordinary Japanese (who in feudal times as well as today looked askance at the practice) would use hara-kiri. Hara-kiri is the more common term in English, where it is often mistakenly rendered "hari-kari."


Seppuku was a key part of bushido, the code of the samurai warriors; it was used by warriors to avoid falling into enemy hands, and to attenuate shame. Samurai could also be ordered by their daimyo (feudal lords) to commit seppuku. Later, disgraced warriors were sometimes allowed to commit seppuku rather than be executed in the normal manner. The most common form of seppuku for men was composed of the cutting of the abdomen, and when the samurai was finished, he stretched out his neck for an assistant to decapitate him. Since the main point of the act was to restore or protect one's honor as a warrior, those who did not belong to the samurai caste were never ordered or expected to commit seppuku. Samurai generally could only commit the act with permission.


In his book The Samurai Way of Death, Samurai: The World of the Warrior (ch.4), Dr. Stephen Turnbull states:



Seppuku was commonly performed using a tanto. It could take place with preparation and ritual in the privacy of one's home, or speedily in a quiet corner of a battlefield while one’s comrades kept the enemy at bay.


In the world of the warrior, seppuku was a deed of bravery that was admirable in a samurai who knew he was defeated, disgraced, or mortally wounded. It meant that he could end his days with his transgressions wiped away and with his reputation not merely intact but actually enhanced. The cutting of the abdomen released the samurai’s spirit in the most dramatic fashion, but it is an extremely painful and unpleasant way to die, and sometimes the samurai who was performing the act asked a loyal comrade to cut off his head at the moment of agony.


Sometimes a daimyo was called upon to perform seppuku as the basis of a peace agreement. This would weaken the defeated clan so that resistance would effectively cease. Toyotomi Hideyoshi used an enemy's suicide in this way on several occasions, the most dramatic of which effectively ended a dynasty of daimyo forever, when the Hojo were defeated at Odawara in 1590. Hideyoshi insisted on the suicide of the retired daimyo Hojo Ujimasa, and the exile of his son Ujinao. With one sweep of a sword, the most powerful daimyo family in eastern Japan was put to an end.


In time, committing seppuku came to involve a detailed ritual. This was usually performed in front of spectators if it was a planned seppuku, not one performed on a battlefield. A samurai was bathed, dressed in white robes, fed his favorite meal, and when he was finished, his instrument was placed on his plate. Dressed ceremonially, with his sword placed in front of him and sometimes seated on special cloths, the warrior would prepare for death by writing a death poem. With his selected attendant (kaishakunin, his second) standing by, he would open his kimono (robe), take up his tanto (knife) and plunge it into his abdomen, making a left-to-right cut. The kaishakunin would then perform daki-kubi, a cut in which the warrior was all but decapitated (a slight band of flesh is left attaching the head to the body). Because of the precision necessary for such a maneuver, the second was often a skilled swordsman. The principal agreed in advance when the kaishakunin was to make his cut, usually as soon as the dagger was plunged into the abdomen.


This elaborate ritual evolved after seppuku had ceased being mainly a battlefield or wartime practice and become a para judicial institution (see next section).


The second was usually, but not always, a friend. If a defeated warrior had fought honorably and well, an opponent who wanted to salute his bravery would volunteer to act as his second.


In the Hagakure, Yamamoto Tsunetomo wrote:



From ages past it has been considered ill-omened by samurai to be requested as kaishaku. The reason for this is that one gains no fame even if the job is well done. And if by chance one should blunder, it becomes a lifetime disgrace.


In the practice of past times, there were instances when the head flew off. It was said that it was best to cut leaving a little skin remaining so that it did not fly off in the direction of the verifying officials. However, at present it is best to cut clean through.


A specialized form of seppuku in feudal times was known as kanshi (??, lit. "death of understanding"), in which a retainer would commit suicide in protest of a lord's decision. The retainer would make one deep, horizontal cut into his stomach, then quickly bandage the wound. After this, the person would then appear before his lord, give a speech in which he announced the protest of the lord's action, then reveal his mortal wound. This is not to be confused with funshi (??, lit. indignation death), which is any suicide made to state dissatisfaction or protest. A fictional variation of kanshi was the act of kagebara (??, lit. "shadow stomach") in Japanese theater, in which the protagonist, at the end of the play, would announce to the audience that he had committed an act similar to kanshi, a predetermined slash to the stomach followed by a tight field dressing, and then perish, bringing about a dramatic end.


Some samurai chose to perform a considerably more taxing form of seppuku known as jumonji-giri (?????, lit. "cross-shaped cut"), in which there is no kaishakunin to put a quick end to the samurai's suffering. It involves a second and more painful vertical cut across the belly. A samurai performing jumonji-giri was expected to bear his suffering quietly until perishing from loss of blood, passing away with his hands over his face.


While the voluntary seppuku described above is the best known form, in practice the most common form of seppuku was obligatory seppuku, used as a form of capital punishment for disgraced samurai, especially for those who committed a serious offense such as unprovoked murder, robbery, corruption, or treason. The samurai were generally told of their offense in full and given a set time to commit seppuku, usually before sunset on a given day. If the sentenced was uncooperative, it was not unheard of for them to be restrained, or for the actual execution to be carried out by decapitation while retaining only the trappings of seppuku; even the short sword laid out in front of the victim could be replaced with a fan. Unlike voluntary seppuku, seppuku carried out as capital punishment did not necessarily absolve the victim's family of the crime. Depending on the severity of the crime, half or all of the deceased's property could be confiscated, and the family stripped of rank.


The first recorded time a Westerner saw formal seppuku was the "Sakai Incident" of 1868. On February 15, eleven French sailors of the Dupleix entered a Japanese town called Sakai without official permission. Their presence caused panic among the residents. Security forces were dispatched to turn the sailors back to their ship, but a fight broke out and the sailors were shot dead. Upon the protest of the French representative, financial compensation was paid and those responsible were sentenced to death. The French captain was present to observe the execution. As each samurai committed ritual disembowelment, the gruesome nature of the act shocked the captain, and he requested a pardon, due to which nine of the samurai were spared. This incident was dramatized in a famous short story, Sakai Jiken, by Mori Ogai.


In the 1860s, The British Ambassador to Japan, Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford (Lord Redesdale) lived within sight of Sengaku-ji where the Forty-seven Ronin are buried. In his book Tales of Old Japan, he describes a man who had come to the graves to kill himself:



I will add one anecdote to show the sanctity which is attached to the graves of the Forty-seven. In the month of September 1868, a certain man came to pray before the grave of Oishi Chikara. Having finished his prayers, he deliberately performed hara-kiri, and, the belly wound not being mortal, dispatched himself by cutting his throat. Upon his person were found papers setting forth that, being a Ronin and without means of earning a living, he had petitioned to be allowed to enter the clan of the Prince of Choshiu, which he looked upon as the noblest clan in the realm; his petition having been refused, nothing remained for him but to die, for to be a Ronin was hateful to him, and he would serve no other master than the Prince of Choshiu: what more fitting place could he find in which to put an end to his life than the graveyard of these Braves? This happened at about two hundred yards' distance from my house, and when I saw the spot an hour or two later, the ground was all bespattered with blood, and disturbed by the death-struggles of the man.


Mitford also describes his friend's eyewitness account of a Seppuku:



There are many stories on record of extraordinary heroism being displayed in the hara-kiri. The case of a young fellow, only twenty years old, of the Choshiu clan, which was told me the other day by an eye-witness, deserves mention as a marvellous instance of determination. Not content with giving himself the one necessary cut, he slashed himself thrice horizontally and twice vertically. Then he stabbed himself in the throat until the dirk protruded on the other side, with its sharp edge to the front; setting his teeth in one supreme effort, he drove the knife forward with both hands through his throat, and fell dead.


During the Meiji Restoration, the Tokugawa Shogun's aide committed Seppuku:



One more story and I have done. During the revolution, when the Taikun (Supreme Commander), beaten on every side, fled ignominiously to Yedo, he is said to have determined to fight no more, but to yield everything. A member of his second council went to him and said, "Sir, the only way for you now to retrieve the honour of the family of Tokugawa is to disembowel yourself; and to prove to you that I am sincere and disinterested in what I say, I am here ready to disembowel myself with you." The Taikun flew into a great rage, saying that he would listen to no such nonsense, and left the room. His faithful retainer, to prove his honesty, retired to another part of the castle, and solemnly performed the hara-kiri.


In his book Tales of Old Japan, Mitford describes witnessing a hara-kiri [1]:



As a corollary to the above elaborate statement of the ceremonies proper to be observed at the hara-kiri, I may here describe an instance of such an execution which I was sent officially to witness. The condemned man was Taki Zenzaburo, an officer of the Prince of Bizen, who gave the order to fire upon the foreign settlement at Hyogo in the month of February 1868,—an attack to which I have alluded in the preamble to the story of the Eta Maiden and the Hatamoto. Up to that time no foreigner had witnessed such an execution, which was rather looked upon as a traveller's fable.


The ceremony, which was ordered by the Mikado himself, took place at 10:30 at night in the temple of Seifukuji, the headquarters of the Satsuma troops at Hiogo. A witness was sent from each of the foreign legations. We were seven foreigners in all.


After another profound obeisance, Taki Zenzaburo, in a voice which betrayed just so much emotion and hesitation as might be expected from a man who is making a painful confession, but with no sign of either in his face or manner, spoke as follows:


"I, and I alone, unwarrantably gave the order to fire on the foreigners at Kobe, and again as they tried to escape. For this crime I disembowel myself, and I beg you who are present to do me the honour of witnessing the act."


Bowing once more, the speaker allowed his upper garments to slip down to his girdle, and remained naked to the waist. Carefully, according to custom, he tucked his sleeves under his knees to prevent himself from falling backwards; for a noble Japanese gentleman should die falling forwards. Deliberately, with a steady hand, he took the dirk that lay before him; he looked at it wistfully, almost affectionately; for a moment he seemed to collect his thoughts for the last time, and then stabbing himself deeply below the waist on the left-hand side, he drew the dirk slowly across to the right side, and, turning it in the wound, gave a slight cut upwards. During this sickeningly painful operation he never moved a muscle of his face. When he drew out the dirk, he leaned forward and stretched out his neck; an expression of pain for the first time crossed his face, but he uttered no sound. At that moment the kaishaku, who, still crouching by his side, had been keenly watching his every movement, sprang to his feet, poised his sword for a second in the air; there was a flash, a heavy, ugly thud, a crashing fall; with one blow the head had been severed from the body.


A dead silence followed, broken only by the hideous noise of the blood throbbing out of the inert heap before us, which but a moment before had been a brave and chivalrous man. It was horrible.


The kaishaku made a low bow, wiped his sword with a piece of rice paper which he had ready for the purpose, and retired from the raised floor; and the stained dirk was solemnly borne away, a bloody proof of the execution.


The two representatives of the Mikado then left their places, and, crossing over to where the foreign witnesses sat, called us to witness that the sentence of death upon Taki Zenzaburo had been faithfully carried out. The ceremony being at an end, we left the temple.


The ceremony, to which the place and the hour gave an additional solemnity, was characterized throughout by that extreme dignity and punctiliousness which are the distinctive marks of the proceedings of Japanese gentlemen of rank; and it is important to note this fact, because it carries with it the conviction that the dead man was indeed the officer who had committed the crime, and no substitute. While profoundly impressed by the terrible scene it was impossible at the same time not to be filled with admiration of the firm and manly bearing of the sufferer, and of the nerve with which the kaishaku performed his last duty to his master."


Seppuku as judicial punishment was officially abolished in 1873, shortly after the Meiji Restoration, but voluntary seppuku did not completely die out. Dozens of people are known to have committed seppuku since then, including some military men who committed suicide in 1895 as a protest against the return of a conquered territory to China; by General Nogi and his wife on the death of Emperor Meiji in 1912; and by numerous soldiers and civilians who chose to die rather than surrender at the end of World War II.


In 1970, famed author Yukio Mishima and one of his followers committed public seppuku at the Japan Self-Defense Forces headquarters after an unsuccessful attempt to incite the armed forces to stage a coup d'état. Mishima committed seppuku in the office of General Kanetoshi Mashita. His second, a 25-year-old named Masakatsu Morita, tried three times to ritually behead Mishima but failed; his head was finally severed by Hiroyasu Koga. Morita then attempted to commit seppuku himself. Although his own cuts were too shallow to be fatal, he gave the signal and he too was beheaded by Koga.

"That the custom of following a master in death is wrong and unprofitable is a caution which has been at times given of old; but, owing to the fact that it has not actually been prohibited, the number of those who cut their belly to follow their lord on his decease has become very great. For the future, to those retainers who may be animated by such an idea, their respective lords should intimate, constantly and in very strong terms, their disapproval of the custom. If, notwithstanding this warning, any instance of the practice should occur, it will be deemed that the deceased lord was to blame for unreadiness. Henceforward, moreover, his son and successor will be held to be blameworthy for incompetence, as not having prevented the suicides."Disembowelment

Disembowelment (evisceration) is the removing of some or all of the vital organs, usually from the abdomen.


Disembowelment as torture
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Samurai

Samurai (?,
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Kanji

  (??
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Kanji

  (??
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Kanji

  (??
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Okurigana

Okurigana (????, literally "accompanying letters") are kana suffixes following kanji stems in Japanese written words.
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Japanese language

Japanese
??? Nihongo
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Colloquialism

A colloquialism is an expression not used in formal speech, writing or paralinguistics. Colloquialisms denote a manner of speaking or writing that is characteristic of familiar "common" conversation; informal colloquialisms can
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Samurai

Samurai (?,
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English language

English  
Pronunciation: /'??gl??/[1]
Spoken in: Listed in the article
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Samurai

Samurai (?,
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Daimyo

The daimyo (??, daimyo
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Stephen Turnbull (historian)

Stephen Richard Turnbull is an historian specializing in eastern military history, especially the Samurai of Japan.


He attended Cambridge University where he gained his first degree.
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Daimyo

The daimyo (??, daimyo
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Toyotomi Hideyoshi
In this Japanese name, the family name is Toyotomi.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi

Portrait of Toyotomi Hideyoshi drawn in 1601

Imperial Regent of Japan


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Siege of Odawara (1590)

Siege of Odawara
Part of the Sengoku period


One of the towers of Odawara Castle


Date May - August 4, 1590
Location Odawara Castle, Sagami Province, Japan
Result Siege succeeds; Toyotomi victory
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Forty-seven Ronin

The revenge of the Forty-seven Ronin (????,
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Kaishakunin
For the manga group, see Kaishaku (manga group)

A kaishakunin (Japanese: ???) is an appointed second whose duty is to behead one who has committed seppuku at the moment of agony.
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Kaishakunin
For the manga group, see Kaishaku (manga group)

A kaishakunin (Japanese: ???) is an appointed second whose duty is to behead one who has committed seppuku at the moment of agony.
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Decapitation

Decapitation (from Latin, caput, capitis, meaning head), or beheading, is the removal of a living organism's head. Beheading typically refers to the act of intentional decapitation, e.g.
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Kaishakunin
For the manga group, see Kaishaku (manga group)

A kaishakunin (Japanese: ???) is an appointed second whose duty is to behead one who has committed seppuku at the moment of agony.
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Hagakure

Hagakure (Kyujitai: ??; Shinjitai: ??; meaning In the Shadow of Leaves
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Yamamoto Tsunetomo
In this Japanese name, the family name is Yamamoto.

Yamamoto Tsunetomo (
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Kaishakunin
For the manga group, see Kaishaku (manga group)

A kaishakunin (Japanese: ???) is an appointed second whose duty is to behead one who has committed seppuku at the moment of agony.
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Capital punishment

Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the execution of a person by the state as punishment for a crime. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences.
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Sakai incident

The Sakai incident was the killing of 11 French sailors from the French corvette Dupleix in the port of Sakai near Osaka, Japan in 1868.
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February 15

February 15 is the 46th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 319 days remaining until the end of the year (320 in leap years).
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French corvette Dupleix (1861)

The Dupleix was a steam and sail corvette of the French Marine Nationale. She was the first French vessel named after the 18th Century Governor of Pondichéry and
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Sakai, Osaka
Sakai
??

Sakai's location in Osaka, Japan.
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Algernon Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale

Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale GCVO, KCB (24 February 1837 - 17 August 1916), of Batsford Park, Gloucestershire, and Birdhope Craig, Northumberland, was a British diplomat, collector