Origin.

Many popular stories were told of his life, the most famous being The Twelve Labours of Heracles; Alexandrian poets of the Hellenistic age drew his mythology into a high poetic and tragic atmosphere. His figure, which initially drew on Near Eastern motifs such as the lion-fight, was widely known.  Heracles was the greatest of Hellenic chthonic heroes, but unlike other Greek heroes, no tomb was identified as his. Heracles was both hero and god, as Pindar says "heros theos"; at the same festival sacrifice was made to him, first as a hero, with a chthonic libation, and then as a god, upon an altar: thus he embodies the closest Greek approach to a "demi-god".  The core of the story of Heracles has been identified by Walter Burkert as originating in Neolithic hunter culture and traditions of shamanistic crossings into the netherworld. It is possible that the myths surrounding Heracles were based on the life of a real person or several people whose accomplishments became exaggerated with time. Based on commonalities in the legends of Heracles and Odysseus, author Steven Sora suggested that they were both based on the same historical person, who made his mark prior to recorded history.

Hero or god.

Heracles' role as a culture hero, whose death could be a subject of mythic telling (see below), was accepted into the Olympian Pantheon during Classical times. This created an awkwardness in the encounter with Odysseus in the episode of "Odyssey" XI, called the Nekuia, where Odysseus encounters Heracles in Hades:  Ancient critics were aware of the problem of the aside that interrupts the vivid and complete description, in which Heracles recognizes Odysseus and hails him, and modern critics find very good reasons for denying that the verse's beginning, in Fagles' translation "His ghost I mean..." were part of the original composition: "once people knew of Heracles' admission to Olympus, they would not tolerate his presence in the underworld", remarks Friedrich Solmsen, noting that the interpolated verses represent a compromise between conflicting representations of Heracles.

Christian chronology.

In Christian circles, a Euhemerist reading of the widespread Heracles cult was attributed to a historical figure who had been offered cult status after his death. Thus Eusebius, "Preparation of the Gospel" (10.12), reported that Clement could offer historical dates for Hercules as a king in Argos: "from the reign of Hercules in Argos to the deification of Hercules himself and of Asclepius there are comprised thirty-eight years, according to Apollodorus the chronicler: and from that point to the deification of Castor and Pollux fifty-three years: and somewhere about this time was the capture of Troy."  Readers with a literalist bent, following Clement's reasoning, have asserted from this remark that, since Heracles ruled over Tiryns in Argos at the same time that Eurystheus ruled over Mycenae, and since at about this time Linus was Heracles' teacher, one can conclude, based on Jerome's date—in his universal history, his "Chronicon"—given to Linus' notoriety in teaching Heracles in 1264 BCE, that Heracles' death and deification occurred 38 years later, in approximately 1226 BCE.

Cult.

The ancient Greeks celebrated the festival of the "Heracleia", which commemorated the death of Heracles, on the second day of the month of Metageitnion (which would fall in late July or early August). What is believed to be an Egyptian Temple of Heracles in the Bahariya Oasis dates to 21 BCE. A reassessment of Ptolemy's descriptions of the island of Malta attempted to link the site at Ras ir-Raħeb with a temple to Heracles, but the arguments are not conclusive. Several ancient cities were named Heraclea in his honor.  Although the Athenians were among the first to worship Heracles as a god, there were Greek cities that refused to recognize the hero's divine status. There are also several "poleis" that merely provided two separate sanctuaries for Heracles, one recognizing him as a god, the other only as a hero. This ambiguity helped create the Heracles cult especially when historians (e.g. Herodotus) and artists encouraged worship such as the painters during the time of the Peisistratos, who often presented Heracles entering Olympus in their works.  Some sources explained that the cult of Heracles persisted because of the hero's ascent to heaven and his suffering, which became the basis for festivals, ritual, rites, and the organization of mysteries. There is the observation, for example, that sufferings ("pathea") gave rise to the rituals of grief and mourning, which came before the joy in the mysteries in the sequence of cult rituals. Also, like the case of Apollo, the cult of Hercules has been sustained through the years by absorbing local cult figures such as those who share the same nature. He was also constantly invoked as a patron for men, especially the young ones. For example, he was considered the ideal in warfare so he presided over gymnasiums and the "ephebes" or those men undergoing military training.  There were ancient towns and cities that also adopted Heracles as a patron deity, contributing to the spread of his cult. There was the case of the royal house of Macedonia, which claimed lineal descent from the hero primarily for purposes of divine protection and legitimator of actions.  The earliest evidence that show the worship of Heracles in popular cult was in 6th century BCE (121–122 and 160–165) via an ancient inscription from Phaleron.

Character.

Extraordinary strength, courage, ingenuity, and sexual prowess with both males and females were among the characteristics commonly attributed to him. Heracles used his wits on several occasions when his strength did not suffice, such as when laboring for the king Augeas of Elis, wrestling the giant Antaeus, or tricking Atlas into taking the sky back onto his shoulders. Together with Hermes he was the patron and protector of gymnasia and palaestrae. His iconographic attributes are the lion skin and the club. These qualities did not prevent him from being regarded as a playful figure who used games to relax from his labors and played a great deal with children. By conquering dangerous archaic forces he is said to have "made the world safe for mankind" and to be its benefactor. Heracles was an extremely passionate and emotional individual, capable of doing both great deeds for his friends (such as wrestling with Thanatos on behalf of Prince Admetus, who had regaled Heracles with his hospitality, or restoring his friend Tyndareus to the throne of Sparta after he was overthrown) and being a terrible enemy who would wreak horrible vengeance on those who crossed him, as Augeas, Neleus, and Laomedon all found out to their cost. There was also a coldness to his character, which was demonstrated by Sophocles' depiction of the hero in "The Trachiniae". Heracles threatened his marriage with his desire to bring two women under the same roof; one of them was his wife Deianeira.  In the works of Euripides involving Heracles, his actions were partly driven by forces outside rational human control. By highlighting the divine causation of his madness, Euripides problematized Heracles' character and status within the civilized context. This aspect is also highlighted in "Hercules Furens" where Seneca linked the hero's madness to an illusion and a consequence of Herakles' refusal to live a simple life, as offered by Amphitryon. It was indicated that he preferred the extravagant violence of the heroic life and that its ghosts eventually manifested in his madness and that the hallucinatory visions defined Herakles' character.

Mythology.

Birth and childhood.

A major factor in the well-known tragedies surrounding Heracles is the hatred that the goddess Hera, wife of Zeus, had for him. A full account of Heracles must render it clear why Heracles was so tormented by Hera, when there were many illegitimate offspring sired by Zeus. Heracles was the son of the affair Zeus had with the mortal woman Alcmene. Zeus made love to her after disguising himself as her husband, Amphitryon, home early from war (Amphitryon did return later the same night, and Alcmene became pregnant with his son at the same time, a case of heteropaternal superfecundation, where a woman carries twins sired by different fathers). Thus, Heracles' very existence proved at least one of Zeus' many illicit affairs, and Hera often conspired against Zeus' mortal offspring as revenge for her husband's infidelities. His twin mortal brother, son of Amphitryon, was Iphicles, father of Heracles' charioteer Iolaus.  On the night the twins Heracles and Iphicles were to be born, Hera, knowing of her husband Zeus' adultery, persuaded Zeus to swear an oath that the child born that night to a member of the House of Perseus would become High King. Hera did this knowing that while Heracles was to be born a descendant of Perseus, so too was Eurystheus. Once the oath was sworn, Hera hurried to Alcmene's dwelling and slowed the birth of the twins Heracles and Iphicles by forcing Ilithyia, goddess of childbirth, to sit crosslegged with her clothing tied in knots, thereby causing the twins to be trapped in the womb. Meanwhile, Hera caused Eurystheus to be born prematurely, making him High King in place of Heracles. She would have permanently delayed Heracles' birth had she not been fooled by Galanthis, Alcmene's servant, who lied to Ilithyia, saying that Alcmene had already delivered the baby. Upon hearing this, she jumped in surprise, loosing the knots and inadvertently allowing Alcmene to give birth to Heracles and Iphicles.  Fear of Hera's revenge led Alcmene to expose the infant Heracles, but he was taken up and brought to Hera by his half-sister Athena, who played an important role as protectress of heroes. Hera did not recognize Heracles and nursed him out of pity. Heracles suckled so strongly that he caused Hera pain, and she pushed him away. Her milk sprayed across the heavens and there formed the Milky Way. But with divine milk, Heracles had acquired supernatural powers. Athena brought the infant back to his mother, and he was subsequently raised by his parents.  The child was originally given the name Alcides by his parents; it was only later that he became known as Heracles. He was renamed Heracles in an unsuccessful attempt to mollify Hera. He and his twin were just eight months old when Hera sent two giant snakes into the children's chamber. Iphicles cried from fear, but his brother grabbed a snake in each hand and strangled them. He was found by his nurse playing with them on his cot as if they were toys. Astonished, Amphitryon sent for the seer Tiresias, who prophesied an unusual future for the boy, saying he would vanquish numerous monsters.

Youth.

After killing his music tutor Linus with a lyre, he was sent to tend cattle on a mountain by his foster father Amphitryon. Here, according to an allegorical parable, "The Choice of Heracles", invented by the sophist Prodicus (c. 400 BCE) and reported in Xenophon's "Memorabilia" 2.1.21–34, he was visited by two allegorical figures—Vice and Virtue—who offered him a choice between a pleasant and easy life or a severe but glorious life: he chose the latter. This was part of a pattern of "ethicizing" Heracles over the 5th century BCE.  Later in Thebes, Heracles married King Creon's daughter, Megara. In a fit of madness, induced by Hera, Heracles killed his children and Megara. After his madness had been cured with hellebore by Antikyreus, the founder of Antikyra, he realized what he had done and fled to the Oracle of Delphi. Unbeknownst to him, the Oracle was guided by Hera. He was directed to serve King Eurystheus for ten years and perform any task Eurystheus required of him. Eurystheus decided to give Heracles ten labours, but after completing them, Heracles was cheated by Eurystheus when he added two more, resulting in the Twelve Labors of Heracles.

Labours of Heracles.

Driven mad by Hera, Heracles slew his own children. To expiate the crime, Heracles was required to carry out ten labours set by his archenemy, Eurystheus, who had become king in Heracles' place. If he succeeded, he would be purified of his sin and, as myth says, he would become a god, and be granted immortality.  Despite the difficulty, Heracles accomplished these tasks, but Eurystheus in the end did not accept the success the hero had with two of the labours: the cleansing of the Augean stables, because Heracles was going to accept pay for the labour; and the killing of the Lernaean Hydra, as Heracles' nephew, Iolaus, had helped him burn the stumps of the multiplying heads.  Eurystheus set two more tasks, fetching the Golden Apples of Hesperides and capturing Cerberus. In the end, with ease, the hero successfully performed each added task, bringing the total number of labours up to the magic number twelve.  Not all versions and writers give the labours in the same order. The "Bibliotheca" (2.5.1–2.5.12) gives the following order:

Further adventures.

After completing these tasks, Heracles fell in love with Princess Iole of Oechalia. King Eurytus of Oechalia promised his daughter, Iole, to whoever could beat his sons in an archery contest. Heracles won but Eurytus abandoned his promise. Heracles' advances were spurned by the king and his sons, except for one: Iole's brother Iphitus. Heracles killed the king and his sons—excluding Iphitus—and abducted Iole. Iphitus became Heracles' best friend. However, once again, Hera drove Heracles mad and he threw Iphitus over the city wall to his death. Once again, Heracles purified himself through three years of servitude—this time to Queen Omphale of Lydia.

Omphale.

Omphale was a queen or princess of Lydia. As penalty for a murder, imposed by Xenoclea, the Delphic Oracle, Heracles was to serve as her slave for a year. He was forced to do women's work and to wear women's clothes, while she wore the skin of the Nemean Lion and carried his olive-wood club. After some time, Omphale freed Heracles and married him. Some sources mention a son born to them who is variously named. It was at that time that the cercopes, mischievous wood spirits, stole Heracles' weapons. He punished them by tying them to a stick with their faces pointing downward.

Hylas.

While walking through the wilderness, Heracles was set upon by the Dryopes. In Apollonius of Rhodes' "Argonautica" it is recalled that Heracles had mercilessly slain their king, Theiodamas, over one of the latter's bulls, and made war upon the Dryopes "because they gave no heed to justice in their lives". After the death of their king, the Dryopes gave in and offered him Prince Hylas. He took the youth on as his weapons bearer and beloved. Years later, Heracles and Hylas joined the crew of the "Argo". As Argonauts, they only participated in part of the journey. In Mysia, Hylas was kidnapped by the nymphs of a local spring. Heracles, heartbroken, searched for a long time but Hylas had fallen in love with the nymphs and never showed up again. In other versions, he simply drowned. Either way, the "Argo" set sail without them.

Rescue of Prometheus.

Hesiod's "Theogony" and Aeschylus' "Prometheus Unbound" both tell that Heracles shot and killed the eagle that tortured Prometheus (which was his punishment by Zeus for stealing fire from the gods and giving it to mortals). Heracles freed the Titan from his chains and his torments. Prometheus then made predictions regarding further deeds of Heracles.

Heracles' constellation.

On his way back to Mycenae from Iberia, having obtained the Cattle of Geryon as his tenth labour, Heracles came to Liguria in North-Western Italy where he engaged in battle with two giants, Albion and Bergion or Dercynus, sons of Poseidon. The opponents were strong; Hercules was in a difficult position so he prayed to his father Zeus for help. Under the aegis of Zeus, Heracles won the battle. It was this kneeling position of Heracles when he prayed to his father Zeus that gave the name Engonasin (""Εγγόνασιν"", derived from "εν γόνασιν"), meaning "on his knees" or "the Kneeler", to the constellation known as Heracles' constellation. The story, among others, is described by Dionysius of Halicarnassus.

Heracles' sack of Troy.

Before Homer's Trojan War, Heracles had made an expedition to Troy and sacked it. Previously, Poseidon had sent a sea monster (Greek: kētŏs, Latin: cetus) to attack Troy. The story is related in several digressions in the "Iliad" (7.451–53; 20.145–48; 21.442–57) and is found in pseudo-Apollodorus' Bibliotheke (2.5.9). This expedition became the theme of the Eastern pediment of the Temple of Aphaea. Laomedon planned on sacrificing his daughter Hesione to Poseidon in the hope of appeasing him. Heracles happened to arrive (along with Telamon and Oicles) and agreed to kill the monster if Laomedon would give him the horses received from Zeus as compensation for Zeus' kidnapping Ganymede. Laomedon agreed. Heracles killed the monster, but Laomedon went back on his word. Accordingly, in a later expedition, Heracles and his followers attacked Troy and sacked it. Then they slew all Laomedon's sons present there save Podarces, who was renamed Priam, who saved his own life by giving Heracles a golden veil Hesione had made. Telamon took Hesione as a war prize and they had a son, Teucer.

Colony at Sardinia.

After Heracles had performed his Labours, gods told him that before he passed into the company of the gods, he should create a colony at Sardinia and make his sons, whom he had with the daughters of Thespius, the leaders of the settlement. When his sons became adults, he sent them together with Iolaus to the island.

Death.

This is described in Sophocles's "Trachiniae" and in Ovid's "Metamorphoses" Book IX. Having wrestled and defeated Achelous, god of the Acheloos river, Heracles takes Deianira as his wife. Travelling to Tiryns, a centaur, Nessus, offers to help Deianira across a fast flowing river while Heracles swims it. However, Nessus is true to the archetype of the mischievous centaur and tries to steal Deianira away while Heracles is still in the water. Angry, Heracles shoots him with his arrows dipped in the poisonous blood of the Lernaean Hydra. Thinking of revenge, Nessus gives Deianira his blood-soaked tunic before he dies, telling her it will "excite the love of her husband".  Several years later, rumor tells Deianira that she has a rival for the love of Heracles. Deianira, remembering Nessus' words, gives Heracles the bloodstained shirt. Lichas, the herald, delivers the shirt to Heracles. However, it is still covered in the Hydra's blood from Heracles' arrows, and this poisons him, tearing his skin and exposing his bones. Before he dies, Heracles throws Lichas into the sea, thinking he was the one who poisoned him (according to several versions, Lichas turns to stone, becoming a rock standing in the sea, named for him). Heracles then uproots several trees and builds a funeral pyre on Mount Oeta, which Poeas, father of Philoctetes, lights. As his body burns, only his immortal side is left. Through Zeus' apotheosis, Heracles rises to Olympus as he dies.  No one but Heracles' friend Philoctetes (Poeas in some versions) would light his funeral pyre (in an alternative version, it is Iolaus who lights the pyre). For this action, Philoctetes or Poeas received Heracles' bow and arrows, which were later needed by the Greeks to defeat Troy in the Trojan War.  Philoctetes confronted Paris and shot a poisoned arrow at him. The Hydra poison subsequently led to the death of Paris. The Trojan War, however, continued until the Trojan Horse was used to defeat Troy.  According to Herodotus, Heracles lived 900 years before Herodotus' own time (c. 1300 BCE).

Lovers.

Women.

Marriages.

During the course of his life, Heracles married four times.

Affairs.

An episode of his female affairs that stands out was his stay at the palace of Thespius, king of Thespiae, who wished him to kill the Lion of Cithaeron. As a reward, the king offered him the chance to perform sexual intercourse with all fifty of his daughters in one night. Heracles complied and they all became pregnant and all bore sons. This is sometimes referred to as his Thirteenth Labour. Many of the kings of ancient Greece traced their lines to one or another of these, notably the kings of Sparta and Macedon.  Yet another episode of his female affairs that stands out was when he carried away the oxen of Geryon, he also visited the country of the Scythians. Once there, while asleep, his horses suddenly disappeared. When he woke and wandered about in search of them, he came into the country of Hylaea. He then found the dracaena of Scythia (sometimes identified as Echidna) in a cave. When he asked whether she knew anything about his horses, she answered, that they were in her own possession, but that she would not give them up, unless he would consent to stay with her for a time. Heracles accepted the request, and became by her the father of Agathyrsus, Gelonus, and Scythes. The last of them became king of the Scythians, according to his father's arrangement, because he was the only one among the three brothers that was able to manage the bow which Heracles had left behind and to use his father's girdle.  Dionysius of Halicarnassus writes that Heracles and Lavinia, daughter of Evander, had a son named Pallas.

Men.

As a symbol of masculinity and warriorship, Heracles also had a number of male lovers. Plutarch, in his "Eroticos," maintains that Heracles' male lovers were beyond counting. Of these, the one most closely linked to Heracles is the Theban Iolaus. According to a myth thought to be of ancient origins, Iolaus was Heracles' charioteer and squire. Heracles in the end helped Iolaus find a wife. Plutarch reports that down to his own time, male couples would go to Iolaus's tomb in Thebes to swear an oath of loyalty to the hero and to each other. He also mentions Admetus, known in myth for assisting in the hunt for the Calydonian Boar, as one of Heracles's male lovers.  One of Heracles' male lovers, and one represented in ancient as well as modern art, is Hylas.  Another reputed male lover of Heracles is Elacatas, who was honored in Sparta with a sanctuary and yearly games, Elacatea. The myth of their love is an ancient one.  Abdera's eponymous hero, Abderus, was another of Heracles' lovers. He was said to have been entrusted with—and slain by—the carnivorous mares of Thracian Diomedes. Heracles founded the city of Abdera in Thrace in his memory, where he was honored with athletic games.  Another myth is that of Iphitus.  Another story is the one of his love for Nireus, who was "the most beautiful man who came beneath Ilion" ("Iliad", 673). But Ptolemy adds that certain authors made Nireus out to be a son of Heracles.  Pausanias makes mention of Sostratus, a youth of Dyme, Achaea, as a lover of Heracles. Sostratus was said to have died young and to have been buried by Heracles outside the city. The tomb was still there in historical times, and the inhabitants of Dyme honored Sostratus as a hero. The youth seems to have also been referred to as Polystratus.  A series of lovers are only known in later literature. Among these are Eurystheus, Adonis, Corythus, and Nestor who was said to have been loved for his wisdom. In the account of Ptolemaeus Chennus, Nestor's role as lover explains why he was the only son of Neleus to be spared by the hero.  A scholiast commenting on Apollonius' "Argonautica" lists the following male lovers of Heracles: "Hylas, Philoctetes, Diomus, Perithoas, and Phrix, after whom a city in Libya was named". Diomus is also mentioned by Stephanus of Byzantium as the eponym of the deme Diomeia of the Attic phyle Aegeis: Heracles is said to have fallen in love with Diomus when he was received as guest by Diomus' father Collytus. Perithoas and Phrix are otherwise unknown, and so is the version that suggests a sexual relationship between Heracles and Philoctetes.

Children.

All of Heracles' marriages and almost all of his heterosexual affairs resulted in births of a number of sons and at least four daughters. One of the most prominent is Hyllus, the son of Heracles and Deianeira or Melite. The term "Heracleidae", although it could refer to all of Heracles' children and further descendants, is most commonly used to indicate the descendants of Hyllus, in the context of their lasting struggle for return to Peloponnesus, out of where Hyllus and his brothers—the children of Heracles by Deianeira—were thought to have been expelled by Eurystheus.  The children of Heracles by Megara are collectively well known because of their ill fate, but there is some disagreement among sources as to their number and individual names. Apollodorus lists three, Therimachus, Creontiades and Deicoon; to these Hyginus adds Ophitus and, probably by mistake, Archelaus, who is otherwise known to have belonged to the Heracleidae, but to have lived several generations later. A scholiast on Pindar' s odes provides a list of seven completely different names: Anicetus, Chersibius, Mecistophonus, Menebrontes, Patrocles, Polydorus, Toxocleitus.  Other well-known children of Heracles include Telephus, king of Mysia (by Auge), and Tlepolemus, one of the Greek commanders in the Trojan War (by Astyoche).  According to Herodotus, a line of 22 Kings of Lydia descended from Hercules and Omphale. The line was called Tylonids after his Lydian name.  The divine sons of Heracles and Hebe are Alexiares and Anicetus.

Heracles around the world.

Rome.

In Rome, Heracles was honored as "Hercules", and had a number of distinctively Roman myths and practices associated with him under that name.

Egypt.

Herodotus connected Heracles to the Egyptian god Shu. Also he was associated with Khonsu, another Egyptian god who was in some ways similar to Shu. As Khonsu, Heracles was worshipped at the now sunken city of Heracleion, where a large temple was constructed.  Most often the Egyptians identified Heracles with Heryshaf, transcribed in Greek as "Arsaphes" or "Harsaphes" (Ἁρσαφής). He was an ancient ram-god whose cult was centered in Herakleopolis Magna.

Other cultures.

Via the Greco-Buddhist culture, Heraclean symbolism was transmitted to the Far East. An example remains to this day in the Nio guardian deities in front of Japanese Buddhist temples.  Herodotus also connected Heracles to Phoenician god Melqart.  Sallust mentions in his work on the Jugurthine War that the Africans believe Heracles to have died in Spain where, his multicultural army being left without a leader, the Medes, Persians, and Armenians who were once under his command split off and populated the Mediterranean coast of Africa.  Temples dedicated to Heracles abounded all along the Mediterranean coastal countries. For example, the temple of "Heracles Monoikos" (i.e. the lone dweller), built far from any nearby town upon a promontory in what is now the Côte d'Azur, gave its name to the area's more recent name, Monaco.  The gateway to the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean, where the southernmost tip of Spain and the northernmost of Morocco face each other is, classically speaking, referred to as the Pillars of Hercules/Heracles, owing to the story that he set up two massive spires of stone to stabilise the area and ensure the safety of ships sailing between the two landmasses.

Uses of Heracles as a name.

In various languages, variants of Hercules' name are used as a male given name, such as Hercule in French, Hércules in Spanish, Iraklis () in Modern Greek and Irakli () in Georgian.  There are many teams around the world that have this name or have Heracles as their symbol. The most popular in Greece is G.S. Iraklis Thessaloniki.  "Heracleum" is a genus of flowering plants in the carrot family Apiaceae. Some of the species in this genus are quite large. In particular, the giant hogweed ("Heracleum mantegazzianum") is exceptionally large, growing up to 5 m tall.

Heracles ( ;, "Hēraklês", Glory/Pride of "Hēra", "Hera"), born Alcaeus (, "Alkaios") () or Alcides (, "Alkeidēs") () was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon. He was a great-grandson and half-brother (as they are both sired by the god Zeus) of Perseus. He was the greatest of the Greek heroes, a paragon of masculinity, the ancestor of royal clans who claimed to be Heracleidae (), and a champion of the Olympian order against chthonic monsters. In Rome and the modern West, he is known as Hercules, with whom the later Roman emperors, in particular Commodus and Maximian, often identified themselves. The Romans adopted the Greek version of his life and works essentially unchanged, but added anecdotal detail of their own, some of it linking the hero with the geography of the Central Mediterranean. Details of his cult were adapted to Rome as well.

赫拉克勒斯(,,引申自「赫拉」和kleos「荣耀」,即赫拉克勒斯被称为赫拉的荣耀,转写:Heracles,音译赫剌克勒斯、海格-{}-力斯、海克-{}-力士、赫克力士),是希腊神话最伟大的半神英雄,男性的杰出典范,伟大的赫拉克勒斯后裔祖先。赫拉克勒斯相当于罗马神话里的赫丘利(海克力斯),后来的罗马皇帝,比如康茂德和马克西米安都常常以其自居。罗马人基本采用希腊人对赫拉克勒斯生活和事迹刻画的版本,并零星的补充一些罗马风格的细节,有些甚至将其和统一地中海的英雄联系起来。在罗马也曾大行对赫丘利的崇拜之风。


Medical career.

Urbani graduated with a medical degree in 1981 from the University of Ancona and specialized in infectious and tropical diseases from the University of Messina. He subsequently earned a postgraduate degree in tropical parasitology.  Urbani started volunteering for the African endemic disease cause since young joining the Italian Catholic NGO Mani Tese. In 1987 Urbani went to Ethiopia for one month. In 1989 he was primary aid in the infectious diseases department of Macerata. After years working in the epidemic medicine field, in 1993 he became an external consultant of the World Health Organization.  In 1996, he joined Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and moved with his family to Phnom Penh, Cambodia for a year. Upon his return to his workplace in Macerata, he became president of the Italian section of MSF. He helped launch a campaign against multinational pharmaceutical companies that keep the high cost of indispensable medicines against AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. In 1999 he was part of the delegation that received the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to MSF. With the prize money, Urbani decided to create a fund to promote an international campaign for access to essential medicines for the world's poorest populations.

SARS outbreak.

In late February 2003, Urbani was called into The French Hospital of Hanoi to look at patient Johnny Chen, an American businessman who had fallen ill with what doctors thought was a bad case of influenza. Urbani realized that Chen's ailment was probably a new and highly contagious disease. He immediately notified the WHO, triggering a response to the epidemic (principally isolation and quarantine measures) that would end it within five months. He also persuaded the Vietnamese Health Ministry to begin isolating patients and screening travelers, thus slowing the early pace of the epidemic.  On 11 March 2003, as he flew from Hanoi to a conference in Bangkok, Thailand, where he was to talk on the subject of childhood parasites, Urbani started feeling feverish on the plane. A colleague who met him at the airport called an ambulance. Urbani had contracted SARS while treating infected patients in Hanoi. His Bangkok hospital room became an improvised isolation ward, and communication occurred via an intercom. As his lungs weakened, he was put on a respirator. During a moment of consciousness, Urbani asked for a priest to give him last rites and asked for his lung tissue to be donated for scientific research. Urbani died on 29 March 2003, after 18 days of intensive care.  SARS-CoV Urbani strain later became the reference variant of this outbreak.

Personal life.

Urbani married Giuliana Chiorrini in 1983, and in 1987 their first child, Tommaso, was born. He had two more children.

Carlo Urbani (; 19 October 1956 – 29 March 2003) was an Italian doctor and microbiologist and the first to identify severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) as a new and dangerously contagious viral disease. Although he became infected and died, his early warning to the World Health Organization (WHO) triggered a swift and global response credited with saving numerous lives.

卡洛·乌尔巴尼(,1956年-10月19日-2003年-3月29日),又译乌尔班尼或厄巴尼,意大利医生,是首位留意到SARS是一种全新传染病的医生。乌尔巴尼是无国界医生意大利分会的会长,亦曾代表无国界医生领取1999年诺贝尔和平奖。2003年出现SARS症状后不久病逝。


Caballerosidad.

"" in Spanish, or in Portuguese, or the English mixture of both but not a proper word in any of the previously mentioned languages, "caballerismo", is a Latin American understanding of manliness that focuses more on honour and chivalry. The meaning of "caballero" is "gentleman" (derived from the one who follows a code of honour like knights used to do, or shares certain values and ideals associated with them that included, among others like a particular pride in honour, treating women kindly with especial delicacy and attention). Latin American scholars have noted that positive descriptors of machismo resemble the characteristics associated with the concept of caballerosidad. Understandings of machismo in Latin American cultures are not all negative; they

Depictions.

The depictions of Machismo vary, like the Argentine gaucho, though their characteristics are quite familiar. Machismo is based on biological, historical, cultural, psycho-social and interpersonal traits or behaviors. Some of the well known traits are;  The psycho-social traits

Criticism and controversy.

Controversy surrounding colonial connotations.

There is controversy surrounding the concept of machismo as originally from Spanish and Portuguese descent. The use of Spanish and Portuguese produces historical colonial connotations through its promotion of Spanish and Portuguese masculine social construction, when the term should be used to describe specific Latin American historical masculinities. However, the word "machismo" does resemble words in Spanish and Portuguese language which is the cause why it is often associated with Spain and Portugal. In addition, by identifying machismo as a form of Europeanness, it offers legitimacy to the concept of a wicked

Consequences of a one-sided negative depiction.

Researchers are concerned regarding the unbalanced representation of machismo within Latin American cultures, and are now focused on creating a balanced representation. They have repeatedly pointed out the positive characteristics consistent with machismo, or : nurturance, protection of the family and its honor, dignity, wisdom, hard work, responsibility, spirituality, and emotional connectedness. Latin American scholars propose there are really two different constructs within machismo, one positive construct and one negative construct. The negative construct of machismo is based on the traditional Western concept of hypermasculinity.'s characteristics are exalted, while machismo's characteristics are seen as predominantly negative.  The other side of machismo, the positive side (, ), refers to a connection to family and chivalry. However, the focus on the negative aspects and avoidance of the positive aspects of machismo coincides with the concept of marginalization and powerlessness of Hispanic and Latino, and more broadly

Negative depictions of machismo in popular literature.

Throughout popular literature, the term has continued to be associated with negative characteristics, such as sexism, misogyny, chauvinism, hypermasculinity, and hegemonic masculinity. Scholars characterize macho men as violent, rude, womanizing, and prone to alcoholism. Authors from a various disciplines typified macho men as domineering through intimidation, seducing and controlling women and children through violence, intimidation and for the former sexuality.  For example, in American literature, an example of machismo comes from Tennessee Williams' character Stanley Kowalski, an egotistical brother-in-law,

Influences.

Machismo has been influenced and supported by many different factors. The Catholic religion plays a vital role to many within the Spanish community. For this reason the male dominated world that is often referenced in the Bible is seen among the people. Examples can be found throughout the Bible showing how women should be submissive to their husbands: "Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire [shall be] to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee" (Genesis 3:16). The ideologies that the man is stronger, the moneymaker, and the protector all back up the mindset that wives must listen to their husbands.

Masculinity in context: "Chile".

The revolution of copper mining sets the tone of traditional masculinity. The industrious labor performed by the working class male is accredited by status amongst peers and ability to provide for the family. Men who work in the mines are often away

Puerto Rican machismo and American cultural influences of gender equality.

As a territory of the U.S., Puerto Rico tends to take on the same progressive movements as U.S. These movements include LGBTQ rights, minority rights, and equality. In regards to equality and what separates men and women, gender roles determine what is socially acceptable in different geographical areas. In Puerto Rico the machismo culture has or had a strong presence. Men were to work outside the home, manage the finances, and make the decisions. Women were to be subordinate to their husbands and be the homemakers. Women would often would have to be dependent on men for everything. Growing up boys are taught to the machismo code girls are taught the marianismo code. Machismo is a term originating in the early 1930s and 40s best defined as having masculinity and Pride. Machismo is a factor challenged among different groups due to how an ideal man is expected to be portrayed which builds pressure. Mentally men may feel the need to take up more opportunities to meet expectations, such as supporting the home, or maintaining employment leading to stress. This may also take a toll as physically well straining to be strong and overexerting the body, or the opposite of putting on weight by not having the desired physique and feeling inferior. This is further expressed through Puerto Ricans Americans outside the island.  However, the roles are beginning to shift as women's rights and equality movements sweep the mainland, Puerto Rico is beginning to feel the effects. While Puerto Ricans may be motivated by the progressive of the mainland they base their movements off of their situations in Puerto Rico. Beginning in the 1950s the employment rate for women began to rise as the employment rate fell due to the island's industrialization. Also, during the 1950s to 1980s the field of the white collar women emerged furthering the rise in women employment. However, women were not released from their homemaker duties because they had a job. In fact, women were now expected to contribute to the household's finances and be the homemaker. This

Machismo in Cuba.

Early Beginnings.

Machismo is a source of pride for men and they must prove their manliness by upholding their dominance in their reputation and their household. Machismo comes from the assertion of male dominance in everyday life. Examples of this would be men dominating their wives, controlling their children, and demanding the utmost respect from others in the household. Machismo has become deeply woven in Cuban society and have created barriers for women to reach full equality. The reason for this is the patriarchy that runs high in Cuban society. Cuba's patriarchal society stems from the fact that Spain has had a history of using brutal war tactics and humiliation as a means to keep and establish their power. Tomas de Torquemada, who ruled as a grand inquisitor under King Ferdinand and Queen Elizabeth of Spain, used degrading and humiliating forms of torture to get information out of prisoners. Men like Torquemada create the domino effect throughout history of repressive and toxic masculinity that has plagued Cuban society.  In Uva de Aragon Clavijo's, novel "El Caiman Ante El Espejo", Clavijo

Cuban Machismo and its Effect on Women and LGBT Community..

Because of the objectification of women"," domestic violence often ignored when women decide to seek help from the police"." Domestic abuse victims are given psychological counseling as a way to cope with their trauma, but little is done criminally to solve the problem. Domestic Abuse cases or other violent crimes committed against women, are very rarely reported on by the media, and the government does not release statistics that show the people the extent of the crimes. The Cuban Revolution changed some of the ways the people of Cuba viewed women. Fidel Castro in his own words saw that the women were going through ‘a revolution within the revolution, and established the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC). This organization, headed by Vilma Espin, Castro's sister in law, helped women establish themselves better into the working world and in women's right

Cuban Machismo in the Media.

In 1975, a new Cuban Law came onto the island: the "Codigo de la Familia" (Family Law). It was put into effect on March 8, 1975, 15 years after the Cuban Revolution. The new Family Law of 1975 really helped a lot of women get jobs on the island and provided children with protection under the law so that child begging and homelessness amongst children was practically eradicated. The law also stated that it was required for both sexes to participated in domestic chores But just because the law was passed, does not mean it was heavily reinforced, particularly in the domestic sphere. One of the aspects of the new family law was not only to create equality outside of the home but inside of it as well. This new family law was not received well by many people in Cuba. And many people backlashed against the law. These grievances reflected in the media that was made in Cuba, particularly, during the "Golden Age of Cuban Cinema".

Closer Look: "Hasta Cierto Punto", 1983 (Up to A Certain Point, 1983).

"Hasta Cierto Punto directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea" is a movie that follows Oscar, an educated playwright who writes a movie on the effects of machismo in Cuban Society. In the opening scene of this movie, there is an interview with a young black man who is asked about "machismo." The young man laughs and says in the movie, "Oh, they've managed to change my attitudes on that score; I'm certainly changed up to a certain point. I’ve probably changed up to 80% now. Maybe they can work on me and change me to 87%. But they will never, never get me up to 100%, no way!" These attitudes on-screen reflect that of many men in Cuba and their attitudes towards women having more equality in everyday life. The film that Oscar was meant to write for is directed by his friend Arturo. Both are well-educated men with stable careers in their fields, wives, cars,

Implications.

Generational cycle.

Some people identify that machismo is perpetuated through the pressure to raise children a certain way and instill social constructions of gender throughout a child's development. This is complemented by the distant father-son relationship in which intimacy and

Mental health.

There is accumulating evidence that supports the relation between the way men are traditionally socialized to be masculine and its harmful mental and physical health consequences. Respectively, "machismo," is sociocultural term associated with male and female socialization in Hispanic cultures; it is a set of values, attitudes and beliefs about masculinity. Although the construct of machismo holds both positive and negative aspects of masculinity, emerging research suggests the gender role conceptualization of machismo has associations with negative cognitive-emotional factors (i.e., depression symptoms; trait anxiety and anger; cynical hostility) among Hispanic populations.  Similarly, a well-documented disparity notes Latino adolescents reporting higher levels of depression than other ethnic backgrounds. Research suggests this may be associated to adolescent perceived gender role discrepancies which challenge the traditional perceptions of gender role (i.e., machismo).  Enhanced understanding on associations between the gender role conceptualizations of "machismo" with negative cognitive-emotional factors may prove invaluable to mental health professionals. According to Fragoso and Kashubeck, "if a therapist notes that a client seems to endorse high levels of machismo, that

Negative implications.

Violence.

"Machismo as a cultural factor is substantially associated with crime, violence, and lawlessness independently of the structural control variables" (26-27). One key aspect of Machismo's association to violence is its influence in a man's behavior towards proving his strength (57). While strength and fortitude are recognized as key components to the stereotype of machismo, demonstrations of violence and aggressive actions have become almost expected of men and have been justified as desirable products of being tough and macho. It can be

Domestic/sexual violence.

In many cases, a man's position of superiority over a female partner can lead him to gain control over different aspects of her life. Since women are viewed as subservient to men in many cultures, men often have power to decide whether his wife can work, study, socialize, participate in the community, or even

Gender roles.

The power difference in the relationship between a man and a woman not only creates the social norm of machismo, but by consequence also creates the social concept of marianismo. which is the idea that women are meant to be pure and wholesome. Marianismo derives its origins from Spanish Colonization, as many social constructs from Latin America do. It emphasizes the perfect femininity of a woman and her virginity. One could argue that in the similar manner of Patriarchy, the man is the head of the household while the "fragile" woman is submissive and tends to remain behind the scenes. This brings to focus the idea that women are inferior and are thus dependent on their husbands. As a result, they not only rely on their husbands for financial support, but in the social realm are put at the same level as "children under age 12, mentally ill persons, and spendthrifts" (265). By way of tradition, not only are women given limited opportunities in what they are able to do and to be, but they are also viewed as people that cannot even take

Sexually-transmitted infections.

One implication of the Machismo concept is the pressure for a man to be sexually experienced. Male infidelity is of common practice in many cultures, as men are not as expected to hold nearly the same level of chastity as women are. Meanwhile, girls are oftentimes brought up to tolerate an unfaithful partner, since it is a part of the

Sexuality and sexual orientation.

For men in many Latin American countries, their perceived level of masculinity determines the amount of respect they receive in society. Because homosexual men are associated with feminine attributes, they are perceived with lower level of masculinity, and as a result, they receive less respect than heterosexual men in society. This, in turn, can limit their "ability to achieve upward social mobility, to be taken seriously, or to hold positions of power". Also, because homosexuality is seen as taboo or even sinful in many Christian denominations, homosexual men tend to lack a support system, leaving many unable express their true sexuality. To deal with such oppression, they must make the choice either to conform to heteronormativity and repress their homosexual identity, to assimilate towards masculine ideals and practices while maintaining their homosexual identity in private, or to openly express their homosexuality and suffer ostracization from society. This creates a hierarchy of homosexuality corresponding to how much "respect, power, and social standing" a homosexual man can expect to receive. The more a man acts in accordance with the stereotypical heterosexual hegemonic masculinity, the higher on the social hierarchy they are.  On the lower end of the hierarchy are the locas or maricones. These men are those that are deemed as effeminate because they do not live by the social construct of hegemonic masculinity and

Positive implications.

Altruism.

Machismo can also pressure men to defend the well-being of his loved ones, his community, and his country. It allows him to perform altruistic acts in order to provide protection to others. In the past, and even in many current societies where people rely on subsistence agriculture and economy to survive, machismo helped provide men with the courage to drive off potential threats to protect his land and his crop. Today, this contributes to the substantial gender gap in the makeup of military and armed forces around the world, even considering growing female representation in the military today. Beyond the realm of the armed forces, however, the machismo

Men and work.

In many cultures in the world, there is a long-standing tradition that the man is the head of the household and is responsible for providing for the family. In some cases, this may mean he is the only parent working in paid-work while in other conditions this may mean both parents are working but the man is expected to be the primary income contributor. In either case, part of the masculine identity and his self-respect is defined by his ability to provide for his

Ancient History.

Although culture may present homophobia, misogyny and masculinity as innately bundled together, history presents different models of masculinity Masculinity was part of homosexuality in ancient Greece. Neither was it all misogyny. Goddesses were worshiped in temples, and the female poet Sappho wrote of Lesbian love. In ancient times, women too had their share of machismo-like vices, and virtues. The lore of the Amazons tells of women heroically fighting as defenders in the Trojan War, and according to National Geographic, "Archaeology shows that these fierce women also smoked pot, got tattoos, killed and loved men." Homosexual-machismo helped thwart Sparta's power hold over ancient Greek city-states: In 371BC the Sacred Band of Thebes was an elite fighting unit composed of 150 homosexual male pairs. They were credited with helping remove Sparta's military

Tradeoffs.

Machismo changes some dynamics of life in a way have both positive and negative effects. For example, machismo grants women authority in the home but at the expense of a man's relationship to his children and work related stress having worked long hours.

Female respect and responsibility.

In the traditional household, the man is expected to work and provide for his family while his wife stays home to care for the children. As such, fathers are seen as a distant authority figure to his children while mothers assume the majority of responsibility in this domestic realm and thus gain agency and the ultimate respect of her children. With this female empowerment, decisions in the household can take on a more egalitarian approach, where mothers can have equal say in the household. Meanwhile, the machismo mentality in men as a provider and protector of the family can inspire him to persevere through challenges introduced by work.  "Within each of our memories there Is the Image of a father who worked long hours, suffered to keep his family alive, united, and

Prevalence and acculturation in the 21st century.

Despite machismo's documented history in Hispanic and Latin American communities, research throughout the years has shown a shift in prevalence among younger generations. In Brazil, researchers found that while the majority of young men interviewed held traditional attitudes on gender roles and machismo, there was a small sample of men that did not agree with these views. Macho attitudes still prevail, the values place women into a lower standard.  Acculturation and education have been proposed to be a factor in how machismo is passed down through Hispanic and Latino generations in the United States. According to researchers who measured self-reported levels of machismo among 72 university students, 37 whom identified as Hispanic, the "somewhat unique population of college-educated students who have been heavily influence[d] by egalitarian attitudes, values, and norms" may explain why ethnicity did not directly predict machismo attitudes in two studies. Because education and acculturation of American values in Latino individuals may result in the development of attitudes supporting gender-equality, this demonstrates how machismo may gradually decline over time in the United States.  Moreover, researchers analyzed a large cross-sectional survey among 36 countries, including 6 Latin American countries, from 2009 and discovered countries with less gender inequality had adolescents that supported attitudes

Activism around machismo.

Young Lords.

Founded in 1969, the Young Lords were an organization of Puerto Rican revolutionary nationalists in Chicago and New York City. Working toward the liberation of all oppressed people, the Young Lords opposed racism, capitalism, and assimilationist ideologies. Seeking self-determination and community control of institutions and land, the organization's leaders made a distinct choice to denounce machismo in their revised 13-Point Program and Platform. Previously reading, "We want equality for women. Machismo must be revolutionary... Not oppressive.", the organization moved toward a more radical position, stating "We want equality for women. Down with machismo and male chauvinism". This revised version of the organization's ideological platform was published in their newspaper, "Palante" in November 1970 - thirteen months following the original platform's publication in

Machismo (; ; ; from Spanish and Portuguese ""macho"", male) is the sense of being'manly' and self-reliant, the concept associated with "a strong sense of masculine pride: an exaggerated masculinity." It is associated with "a man's responsibility to provide for, protect, and defend his family."

大男子主义(英语:Male chauvinism),又称男性沙文主义、男性至上主义、男性优越主义或者大男人主义,是一种认为男尊女卑、男性必定优于女性,因此男性更应统治女性的意识形态。


Signs and symptoms.

A popping or cracking sound, significant pain, swelling, immediate loss of erection leading to flaccidity, and skin hematoma of various sizes are commonly associated with the sexual event.

Causes.

Penile fracture is a relatively uncommon clinical condition. Vaginal intercourse and aggressive masturbation are the most common causes. A 2014 study of accident and emergency records at three hospitals in Campinas, Brazil, showed that woman on top positions caused the greatest risk with the missionary position being the safest. The research conjectured that when the receptive partner is on top, they usually control the movement and are not able to interrupt movement when the penis suffers a misaligned penetration. Conversely, when the penetrative partner is controlling the movement, they have better chances of stopping in response to pain from misalignment, minimizing harm.  The practice of "taqaandan" (also "taghaandan") also puts men at risk of penile fracture. Taqaandan, which comes from a Kurdish word meaning "to click", involves bending the top part of the erect penis while holding the lower part of the shaft in place, until a click is heard and felt. Taqaandan is said to be painless and has been compared to cracking one's knuckles, but the practice of taqaandan has led to an increase in the prevalence of penile fractures in western Iran. Taqaandan may be performed to achieve detumescence.

Diagnosis.

Imaging studies.

Ultrasound examination is able to depict the tunica albuginea tear in the majority of cases (as a hypoechoic discontinuity in the normally echogenic tunica). In a study on 25 patients, Zare Mehrjardi et al. concluded that ultrasound is unable to find the tear just when it is located at the penile base. In their study magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) accurately diagnosed all of the tears (as a discontinuity in the normally low signal tunica on both T1- and T2-weighted sequences). They concluded that ultrasound should be considered as the initial imaging method, and MRI can be helpful in cases that ultrasound does not depict any tear but clinical suspicions for fracture are still high. In the same study, authors investigated accuracy of ultrasound and MRI for determining the tear location (mapping of fracture) in order to perform a tailored surgical repair. MRI was more accurate than ultrasound for this purpose, but ultrasound mapping was well correlated with surgical results in cases where the tear was clearly visualized on ultrasound exam. The advantage of ultrasound in the diagnosis of penile fracture is unrivaled when its noninvasive, cost-effective, and nonionising nature are considered.  Penile trauma can result from a blunt or penetrating injury, the latter being rarely investigated by imaging methods, almost always requiring immediate surgical exploration. In the erect penis, trauma results from stretching and narrowing of the tunica albuginea, which can undergo segmental rupture of one or both of the corpora cavernosa, constituting a penile fracture.  In the ultrasound examination, a lesion of the tunica albuginea presents as an interruption in (loss of continuity of) the echoic line representing it (Figure 4). Small, moderate, or broad hematomas demonstrate the extent of that discontinuity. Intracavernous hematomas, sometimes without the presence of a tunica albuginea fracture, can be observed when there is a lesion of the smooth muscle of the trabeculae surrounding the sinusoid spaces or the subtunical venular plexus.  In 10-15% of penile traumas, there can be an accompanying urethral lesion. When blood is observed in the urethral meatus, contrast-enhanced evaluation of the urethra is necessary. In cases in which the ultrasound findings are inconclusive, the use of magnetic resonance imaging can facilitate the diagnosis and is recommended by various authors.

Treatment.

Penile fracture is a medical emergency, and emergency surgical repair is the usual treatment. Delay in seeking treatment increases the complication rate. Non-surgical approaches result in 10–50% complication rates including erectile dysfunction, permanent penile curvature, damage to the urethra and pain during sexual intercourse, while operatively treated patients experience an 11% complication rate.  In some cases, retrograde urethrogram may be performed to rule out concurrent urethral injury.

Legal issues.

In the United States, the case of "Doe v. Moe", 63 Mass. App. Ct. 516, 827 N.E.2d 240 (2005), tested liability for a penile fracture injury caused during sexual intercourse. The court declined to find duty as between two consensual adults. The plaintiff in this case, a man who suffered a fractured penis, complained that the defendant, his ex-girlfriend, had caused his injury while she was on top of him during sexual intercourse. The court ruled in her favor, determining that her conduct was neither legally wanton nor reckless.

Penile fracture is rupture of one or both of the "tunica albuginea", the fibrous coverings that envelop the penis's "corpora cavernosa". It is caused by rapid blunt force to an erect penis, usually during vaginal intercourse, or aggressive masturbation. It sometimes also involves partial or complete rupture of the urethra or injury to the dorsal nerves, veins and arteries.

阴茎折断指的是覆盖阴茎海绵体的白膜其中之一或两者全部破裂的情况。病因是阴茎勃起后遭到剧烈的打击,有时也会伴随着尿道阻断或阴茎背部神经、静动脉血管受损。


Characteristics.

Common musical aesthetics include a bass-heavy drumbeat, often providing the slowed down breakbeat samples similar to standard 1990s hip hop beats, giving the genre a more psychedelic and mainstream feel. Vocals in trip hop are oftentimes female and feature characteristics of various singing styles including R&B, jazz and rock. The female-dominant vocals of trip hop may be partially attributable to the influence of genres such as jazz and early R&B, in which female vocalists were more common. However, there are notable exceptions: Massive Attack and Groove Armada collaborated with male and female vocalists,Tricky often features vocally in his own productions along with Martina Topley-Bird, and Chris Corner provided vocals for later albums with Sneaker Pimps.  Trip hop is also known for its melancholic sound. This may be partly due to the fact that several acts were inspired by post-punk bands; Tricky and Massive Attack both covered and sampled songs of Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cure. Tricky opened his second album "Nearly God" by a version of "Tattoo", a proto-trip-hop song of Siouxsie and the Banshees initially recorded in 1983.  Trip hop tracks often incorporate Rhodes pianos, saxophones, trumpets, and flutes, and may employ unconventional instruments such as the theremin and Mellotron. Trip hop differs from hip hop in theme and overall tone. Instead of gangsta rap with its hard-hitting lyrics, trip hop offers a more aural atmospherics with instrumental hip hop, turntable scratching, and breakbeat rhythms. Regarded in some ways as a 1990s update of fusion, trip hop may be said to "transcend" the hardcore rap styles and lyrics with atmospheric overtones to create a more mellow tempo.

History.

1990s.

The term "trip-hop" first appeared in print in June 1994. Andy Pemberton, a music journalist writing for "Mixmag", used it to describe "In/Flux", a single by American producer DJ Shadow and UK act RPM, with the latter signed to Mo' Wax Records.  In Bristol, hip hop began to seep into the consciousness of a subculture already well-schooled in Jamaican forms of music. DJs, MCs, b-boys and graffiti artists grouped together into informal soundsystems. Like the pioneering Bronx crews of DJs Kool Herc, Afrika Bambataa and Grandmaster Flash, the soundsystems provided party music for public spaces, often in the economically deprived council estates from which some of their members originated. Bristol's soundsystem DJs, drawing heavily on Jamaican dub music, typically used a laid-back, slow and heavy drum beat ("down tempo").  Bristol's Wild Bunch crew became one of the soundsystems to put a local spin on the international phenomenon, helping to birth Bristol's signature sound of trip hop, often termed "the Bristol Sound". The Wild Bunch and its associates included at various times in its existence the MC Adrian "Tricky Kid" Thaws, the graffiti artist and lyricist Robert "3D" Del Naja, producer Jonny Dollar and the DJs Nellee Hooper, Andrew "Mushroom" Vowles and Grant "Daddy G" Marshall. As the hip hop scene matured in Bristol and musical trends evolved further toward acid jazz and house in the late 1980s, the golden era of the soundsystem began to end. The Wild Bunch signed a record deal and evolved into Massive Attack, a core collective of 3D, Mushroom and Daddy G, with significant contributions from Tricky Kid (soon shortened to Tricky), Dollar, and Hooper on production duties, along with a rotating cast of other vocalists.  Another influence came from Gary Clail's Tackhead soundsystem. Clail often worked with former The Pop Group singer Mark Stewart. The latter experimented with his band Mark Stewart & the Maffia, which consisted of New York session musicians Skip McDonald, Doug Wimbish, and Keith LeBlanc, who had been a part of the house band for the Sugarhill Records record label. Produced by Adrian Sherwood, the music combined hip hop with experimental rock and dub and sounded like a premature version of what later became trip hop. In 1993, Kirsty MacColl released "Angel", one of the first examples of the genre crossing over to pop, a hybrid that dominated the charts toward the end of the 1990s.

Mainstream breakthrough.

Massive Attack's first album "Blue Lines" was released in 1991 to huge success in the United Kingdom. "Blue Lines" was seen widely as the first major manifestation of a uniquely British hip hop movement, but the album's hit single "Unfinished Sympathy" and several other tracks, while their rhythms were largely sample-based, were not seen as hip hop songs in any conventional sense. Produced by Dollar, Shara Nelson (an R&B singer) featured on the orchestral "Unfinished", and Jamaican dance hall star Horace Andy provided vocals on several other tracks, as he would throughout Massive Attack's career. Massive Attack released their second album entitled "Protection" in 1994. Although Tricky stayed on in a lesser role, and Hooper again produced, the fertile dance music scene of the early 1990s had informed the record, and it was seen as an even more significant shift away from the Wild Bunch era.  In the June 1994 issue of UK magazine "Mixmag", music journalist Andy Pemberton used the term "trip hop" to describe the hip hop instrumental "In/Flux", a 1993 single by San Francisco's DJ Shadow, and other similar tracks released on the Mo' Wax label and being played in London clubs at the time. "In/Flux", with its mixed up bpms, spoken word samples, strings, melodies, bizarre noises, prominent bass, and slow beats, gave the listener the impression they were on a musical trip, according to Pemberton. Soon, however, Massive Attack's dubby, jazzy, psychedelic, electronic textures, rooted in hip hop sampling technique but taking flight into many styles, were described by journalists as the template of the eponymous genre.  In 1993, Icelandic musician Björk released "Debut", produced by Wild Bunch member Nellee Hooper. The album, although rooted in four-on-the-floor house music, contained elements of trip hop and is credited as one of the first albums to introduce electronic dance music into mainstream pop. She had been in contact with London's underground electronic music scene and was romantically involved with trip hop musician Tricky. Björk embraced trip hop even more with her 1995 album "Post" by collaborating with Tricky and Howie B. "Homogenic", her 1997 album, has been described as a pinnacle of trip hop music.  1994 and 1995 saw trip hop near the peak of its popularity, with artists such as Howie B and Earthling making significant contributions. Ninja Tune, the independent record label founded by the Coldcut duo, would significantly influence the trip-hop sound in London and beyond with breakthrough artists DJ Food, 9 Lazy 9, Up, Bustle & Out, Funki Porcini and The Herbaliser, among others. The period also marked the debut of two acts who, along with Massive Attack, would define the Bristol scene for years to come.  In 1994 Portishead, a trio comprising singer Beth Gibbons, Geoff Barrow, and Adrian Utley, released their debut album "Dummy". Their background differed from Massive Attack in many ways: one of Portishead's primary influences was 1960s and 1970s film soundtrack LPs. Nevertheless, Portishead shared the scratchy, jazz-sample-based aesthetic of early Massive Attack (whom Barrow had briefly worked with during the recording of "Blue Lines"), and the sullen, fragile vocals of Gibbons also brought them wide acclaim. In 1995, "Dummy" was awarded the Mercury Music Prize as the best British album of the year, giving trip-hop as a genre its greatest exposure yet. Portishead's music, seen as cutting edge in its film-noir feel and stylish, yet emotional appropriations of past sounds, was also widely imitated, causing the band to recoil from the trip-hop label they had inadvertently helped popularize.  Tricky also released his debut solo album "Maxinquaye" in 1995, to great critical acclaim. The album was produced largely in collaboration with Mark Saunders. Tricky employed whispered, often abstract stream-of-consciousness murmuring, remote from the gangsta-rap braggadocio of the mid-1990s US hip hop scene. Even more unusually, however, many of the solo songs on "Maxinquaye" featured little of Tricky's own voice: his then-lover, Martina Topley-Bird, sang them, including her reimagining of Public Enemy's militant 1988 rap "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos", while other songs were male-female duets dealing with sex and love in oblique ways, over beds of sometimes dissonant samples. Within a year Tricky had released two more full-length albums which were considered even more challenging, without finding the same popularity as his Bristol contemporaries Massive Attack and Portishead. Through his brief collaborations with Björk, however, he also exerted influence closer to the pop and alternative rock mainstream, and he developed a large cult fan-base.  Musician Poe released her 1995 debut "Hello", an album that featured trip-hop elements, to critical praise.  Although not as popular in the United States, bands like Portishead and Sneaker Pimps saw moderate airplay on alternative-rock stations across the country.

"Post-trip hop".

After the initial success of trip hop in the mid-1990s, "post-trip-hop" artists include Baby Fox, Bowery Electric, Esthero, Morcheeba, Sneaker Pimps, Anomie Belle, Alpha, Jaianto, Mudville and Cibo Matto and Lamb. These artists incorporated trip hop into other genres, including ambient, soul, IDM, industrial, dubstep, breakbeat, drum and bass, acid jazz, and new-age. The first printed use of the term "post-trip hop" was in an October 2002 article of "The Independent", and was used to describe the band Second Person.  Trip hop has also influenced artists in other genres, including Gorillaz, Emancipator, Nine Inch Nails, Travis, Queens of the Stone Age, Allflaws, How to Destroy Angels, Beth Orton, The Flaming Lips,, Beck, and Deftones. Several tracks on Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue's 1997 album "Impossible Princess" also displayed a trip hop influence.  Various prominent artists and groups, such as Janet Jackson, Kylie Minogue, Madonna, Björk, and Radiohead, have also been influenced by the genre. Trip hop has spawned several subgenres, including illbient (dub-based trip hop which combines ambient and industrial hip hop).

2000s.

Trip hop continued to influence notable artists in the 2000s. Norwegian avant-garde band Ulver incorporated trip hop in their ambient/electronic/jazzy album "Perdition City". Atmospheric rock band Antimatter included some trip hop elements in their first two albums. Australian composer Rob Dougan proposed a mix of trip hop beats, orchestral music and electronics. RJD2 began his career as a DJ, but in 2001, began releasing albums under El-P's Def Jux Label. Zero 7's album "Simple Things", and in particular, its lead single "Destiny", was regarded highly by underground listeners and achieved significant popularity. In 2006, Gotye debuted his second studio album, "Like Drawing Blood". The songs on the album featured down-tempo hip-hop beats and dub style bass reminiscent of trip hop. Hip hop groups Zion I and the Dub Pistols also displayed heavy trip hop influence. Norwegian singer and songwriter Kate Havnevik is a classically trained musician, but also incorporates trip hop into her work.  Many producers who were not explicitly trip-hop artists also displayed its influence during the early 2000s. Daniel Nakamura, aka Dan The Automator, released two albums that were heavily inspired by trip hop. 2000 album "Deltron 3030", was a concept album about a rapper, portrayed by Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, from the future. 2001 saw the release of his side project, Lovage. "Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By", with special guests Mike Patton, Prince Paul, Maseo, Damon Albarn, and Afrika Bambaataa. British producer Fatboy Slim's breakthrough album, "Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars", was his most commercially successful release.

2010s.

Major notable releases include Massive Attack's "Heligoland," their first studio album in seven years, and Dutch's "A Bright Cold Day" in 2010, which was met with positive reviews including a 7/10 score from inyourspeakers.com. The latter group consists of members including Jedi Mind Tricks producer Stoupe the Enemy of Mankind.  DJ Shadow's "The Less You Know, the Better" was released in 2011 after a highly publicised unveiling of songs, including appearances on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 show and previews at a performance in Antwerp in August 2010. The album was met with "generally favorable reviews" on Metacritic, with some criticising Shadow's lack of originality. Sam Richards of "NME" felt that the album sounded "like the work of a man struggling to recall his motivations for making music in the first place."  Geoff Barrow's album titled "»" was released in 2012 and received high scores from journalists, including an 8/10 from NME and Spin magazine.  Lana Del Rey released her second album, "Born to Die" in 2012, which contained a string of trip hop ballads. The album topped the charts in eleven countries, including Australia, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom; it has sold 3.4 million copies worldwide as of 2013 according to International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

Trip hop (sometimes used synonymously with "downtempo") is a musical genre that originated in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom, especially Bristol. It has been described as "a fusion of hip hop and electronica until neither genre is recognizable", and may incorporate a variety of styles, including funk, dub, soul, psychedelia, R&B, and house, as well as other forms of electronic music. Trip hop can be highly experimental.

Trip hop(又称痴哈,中文也译作“神游舞曲”、“吹泡音乐”)是一种缓拍电乐流派,起源于20世纪90年代的英国,尤其是英国布里斯托。Trip hop是trip(痴幻状态)和hip-hop(嘻哈)的词语结合,衍生自后迷幻浩室(post acid house),最先是被英国音乐媒体和记者用以形容一种更具实验性的、深受灵魂乐、放克和爵士乐影响的碎拍乐(breakbeat),被形容为“20世纪90年代后半期欧洲音乐的又一选择”,“融合了嘻哈音乐和电子音乐,而两者最终都消融其中”。提起Trip hop,便不得不提缓拍音乐。尽管身为电子音乐的一员,Trip hop的节奏却不像传统电子音乐那样快,而且鼓点节奏更灵活多变,节奏型有很多后半拍和副点,配合迷离的女声,给人以一种迷离的、迷幻的体验。 Trip hop音乐融合了多种风格,而且和其他流派多有共通之处,例如,它和氛围音乐(ambient music)便有不少相似之处。与嘻哈类似的是,Trip hop有着鲜明的节奏鼓点,同时又混合了浩室音乐、电子舞曲、R&B和dub 雷鬼(dub reggae)音乐的元素。从本质上说,Trip hop极具实验性。


Overview.

Anting is one of the centres of the Chinese automotive industry; it is home to Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation and includes the German/Chinese joint venture: Shanghai Volkswagen Automotive. This enterprise has the largest market share of passenger cars in China.  The Shanghai International Circuit, China's first Formula One race track, is located near the town, a 15-minute drive away. The Shanghai Auto Museum is also located here, on Boyuan Road.

Subdivisions.

, Anting is divided into 20 residential communities () and 43 villages, among the most well-known of which is Tamiao (), which is nicknamed the "Auto City". In the southern part of town, an extension of "Anting Auto City" called "Anting New Town" () is being built in the fashion of "Anting German Town" ().  The first phase of Anting New Town construction will be completed in June 2007, with the second phase slated to begin before the end of 2007, the latter spanning three years. Upon completion the hope is that the resulting town will be a modern community, with a noticeably German urban aesthetic, with a capacity of over 50,000 residents. However, amid tentative financial troubles and poor sales of housing and retail, the phase 2 of Anting New Town may be delayed.

Transportation.

Anting is served by Line 11 of the Shanghai Metro, connected to the Lifehub shopping center Anting Station. Anting North Railway Station is on the Shanghai–Nanjing Intercity Railway.

Accommodation.

The first 5* International hotel, Crowne Plaza Shanghai Anting Golf, opened its doors in Anting, Jiading District on 4 September 2012. It is located at 6555 Boyuan Road.

Entertainment.

Lifehub@Anting, an entertainment complex located just beside the Metro Line 11, provides numerous Clothing outlets, local and international restaurants and coffee shops, a supermarket, film theatre, etc.

Anting () is a town in Jiading District, Shanghai, bordering Kunshan, Jiangsu to the west. It has 96,000 inhabitants and, after the July 2009 merger of Huangdu (), an area of.

阿诺·雅各·奥拜克(英语:Arnold Jacob "Red" Auerbach,1917年-9月20日-2006年-10月29日),美国传奇篮球教练,绰号“红头”奥拜克。(Red Auerbach)。


Etymology and names.

The two Chinese characters of the city's name are (, "great") and (, "plain"), referring to the location where the Fen River leaves the mountains and enters a relatively flat plain. Throughout its long history, the city had various names, including () (from which the city's abbreviated single-character name () is derived), () and (). Taiyuan has also been known as "Yangku"(), since the county seat of Taiyuan was called Yangku () in Qing Dynasty.  During the Tang dynasty and subsequent Five Dynasties, the status of the city of Taiyuan was elevated to be the Northern Capital, hence the name (), and (, different from present-day Beijing).

History.

Taiyuan is an ancient city with more than 2500 years of urban history, dating back from 497 BC. It was the capital or secondary capital (, ) of Zhao, Former Qin, Eastern Wei, Northern Qi,, Later Tang, Later Jin, Later Han, Northern Han. Its strategic location and rich history make Taiyuan one of the economic, political, military, and cultural centers of Northern China.

Pre-Qin dynasty history.

From about 859 BC the area around modern-day Taiyuan was occupied by the Rong people. In 662 BC the Rong were driven out by the Di people.  During the Spring and Autumn period, the state of Jin emerged to the south of Taiyuan. In 541 BC, the Jin army led by General, drove out the Di Tribes, and Taiyuan became part of the state of Jin.  In 497 BC, the first ancient city of Jinyang was built around the southern Jinyuan District of present-day Taiyuan, by Dong Anyu (), who was a steward of (), an upper-level official of the state of Jin.  During the Battle of Jinyang in 453 BC, Zhi Yao diverted the flow of the Fen River to inundate the city of Jinyang, caused significant damage to the Zhao. Later, Zhao Xiangzi alerted Wei and Han, who both decided to ally with Zhao. On the night of 8 May 453 BC, Zhao troops broke the dams of the Fen River and let the river flood the Zhi armies, and eventually annihilated the Zhi army, with the help from Wei and Han.  The Tripartition of Jin happened in 403 BC, when the state of Jin, then a strong power in Northern China, was divided into three smaller states of Han, Zhao and Wei. This event is the watershed between the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods in Chinese history. Jinyang, was chosen as the capital of Zhao, by Zhao Ji. Later, the capital of Zhao was moved to Handan in modern Hebei.

Qin dynasty.

In 248 BC, the state of Qin attacked Zhao under General, and obtained the area around Jinyang from Zhao. Qin set up the Commandery of Taiyuan (), with the city of Jinyang as its administrative center. Although, the name "Taiyuan" had appeared in historic records before, potentially referring to different regions in nowadays southern and central Shanxi, this was the first time "Taiyuan" was officially used to refer to present-day Taiyuan.  In 246 BC, there was an uprising in Jinyang, and it was quickly quelled by Meng'ao.  In 221 BC, Qin conquered the rest of China, and officially started the first imperial dynasty of China. Qin established thirty-six commanderies on its territory, and Taiyuan was one of them. Also, the capital of commandery of Taiyuan is Jinyang.

Han dynasty and Three Kingdoms.

In 206 BC, Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang established the Han dynasty. During that period, the Qin administrative system of commanderies was abolished, the two Commanderies of Taiyuan and Yanmen were combined as the vassal state of Han () under the rule of King Xin of Han ().  Later, King Xin of Han moved the capital from Jinyang to Mayi (present-day Shuozhou) with the approval from the emperor Gaozu. However, King Xin of Han conspired with the Xiongnu against Gaozu, and attacked Han for many years. In 196 BC, King Xin of Han was killed after he lost a battle. And the vassal state of Han was replaced by the vassal state of, with Jinyang as the administrative center of Dai.  During the tumultuous Three Kingdoms, the population of Taiyuan decreased significantly due to constant warfares. Taiyuan was ruled by Gongsun Zan, Yuan Shao, and then by Cao Cao, and was part of Cao Wei afterwards.

Jin dynasty and Sixteen Kingdoms.

During the Jin dynasty, Taiyuan was again changed into a vassal state. Following the ending of the Jin dynasty, ethnic minority peoples settled a series of short-lived sovereign states in northern China, commonly referred to as Sixteen Kingdoms. Taiyuan was part of Former Zhao, Later Zhao, Former Qin, Former Yan, Former Qin again, Western Yan, and Later Yan chronologically.  In 304, Liu Yuan founded the Xiongnu state of Former Zhao, whose army raided the area around Taiyuan for years and eventually obtained Taiyuan in 316. In 319, Taiyuan became part of Later Zhao, founded by Shi Le. Later, Taiyuan was obtained by Former Yan in 358, and by Former Qin in 370. Former Qin was founded by Fu Jian in 351 with capital of Chang'an.  Fu Jian died in 384. His son Fu Pi declared himself an emperor in 385, with Jinyang (central city of Taiyuan) as the capital. But the next year, Fu Pi was defeated by the Western Yan prince Murong Yong in 386, and Taiyuan became part of Western Yan. In 394, Taiyuan was conquered by Later Yan army.

Southern and Northern Dynasties.

In 386, Tuoba Gui founded Northern Wei. In 396, Northern Wei expanded to Taiyuan.  In 543, Eastern Wei was founded by Gao Huan, with the capital at the city of Ye, and Taiyuan as the alternative capital (), where the Mansion of the "Great Chancellor" Gao Huan () was located.  In 550, Northern Qi was founded by Gao Yang, who maintained his father Gao Huan's choice of Taiyuan as the alternative capital. The Buddhist Tianlongshan Grottoes of Taiyuan started during this period, and continued for many centuries afterwards.  In 577, Taiyuan was conquered and became part of Northern Zhou.

Sui dynasty.

In 581, Emperor Wen of Sui founded Sui dynasty. Jinyang was first the administrative center of Bing Zhou (), which was changed into Taiyuan Commandery. In 617, Li Yuan rose in rebellion based in Taiyuan, and expanded quickly.

Tang dynasty.

In 618, Li Yuan founded Tang dynasty, which is generally considered a golden age of Chinese civilization. Taiyuan expanded significantly during the Tang dynasty, partly because Taiyuan was the military base of the founding emperors Li Yuan and Li Shimin. As Li Shimin wrote in 619: "Taiyuan, the base of the imperial regime and the foundation of the state." ()  In 690, Wu Zetian set Taiyuan as the Northern Capital, (), one of the three capitals, along with Chang'an and Luoyang, as depicted in the poem by : "The king of the heaven has three capitals, the Northern capital is one of them." (""). In 742 AD, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang changed its name further to "Beijing" (). During Tang Dynasty, the title "Northern Capital" to Taiyuan had been endowed or abolished multiple times.

Five Dynasties.

In 923, Li Cunxu, son of Li Keyong, founded Later Tang with capital of Daming, and soon conquered most of North China, and ended Later Liang. Afterwards, Li Cunxu moved the capital from Daming to Luoyang, and Taiyuan was set as a provisional capital, titled "Beijing" ("Northern Capital").  In 936, Shi Jingtang established Later Jin in Taiyuan with the help from Khitan Liao dynasty. The next year, Shi Jingtang moved the capital from Taiyuan to Luoyang, and then to Kaifeng, and Taiyuan became a provisional northern capital ("Beijing") again.

Song dynasty.

Zhao Kuangyin (Emperor Taizu of Song ) established the Song dynasty and embarked on the campaign of re-unification of China. Using a power struggle at the Northern Han court Taizu moved against it in the late 968. By early 969 his armies encircled Taiyuan and defeated the reinforcements sent by the Khitan. However, an attempt to flood the city failed. The siege was lifted after three months, as heavy rains caused diseases in the besieging army, the supplies were running low, and another Khitan relief force was advancing towards the city.  Taizu launched the second invasion of Northern Han in September 969, but the armies were recalled after his death (November 14,969).  Taizu's brother Taizong subjugated the last independent kingdoms in the south of China by 978, and in 979 launched the third campaign against the Northern Han and its overlord the Khitan state of Liao. Using the north-western route instead of the southern (used in the previous campaigns) the armies of Taizong defeated a major Liao force. Isolated, the Northern Han resisted for only fifteen days before surrendering. In contrast to the mild policies of his brother, Taizong dealt harshly with the city. He ordered the flooding of Taiyuan by releasing the Fen River, and set the city on fire. The former capital was downgraded from the prefecture to county town status.  It was not until 982 that a new city was founded on the banks of the Fen River. The oldest existing building in Taiyuan today is the Temple of the Goddess () inside the Jin Ci Complex. It was originally built in 1023 and reconstructed in 1102.  From 1027 one of the two private markets for Tangut goods, particularly salt, operated in Taiyuan. During the Song period many people, including the family of Wang Anshi, migrated south.

Jin dynasty.

The Jurchen Jin dynasty was founded in 1115, and in 1125, Taiyuan was conquered by Jin. The same year, after the conquest of North China by Jin, the capital of Song was shifted to Lin'an, which marked the end of Northern Song, and the start of the Southern Song dynasty.

Yuan dynasty.

The Mongol empire emerged in 1206 under the leadership of Genghis Khan, and it expanded quickly. In 1218, Taiyuan was conquested by the Mongol army led by General Muqali. Kublai Khan established the Yuan dynasty in 1271, and the administrative area of Taiyuan Lu () was expanded.  The Taoist was built in early Yuan dynasty, initiated by Taoist monk Song Defang ().

Ming dynasty.

In 1368, Hongwu Emperor established the Ming dynasty, and Taiyuan was obtained from Yuan, by General Xu Da.  The Ming dynasty installed Nine Military Garrisons to defend the northern territory during the reign of the Hongzhi Emperor, which included the Garrison of Taiyuan ().  Shanxi merchants became prominent in Chinese business history since the beginning of Ming dynasty, thanks to the logistic requirements of the military around the borders of northern Shanxi to defend Ming against the remnant Mongol Northern Yuan dynasty.  In the ending period of Ming dynasty, the rebel leader Li Zicheng conquered Taiyuan, and Taiyuan became part of Great Shun temporarily in 1644.

Qing dynasty.

In 1644, Shunzhi founded the Qing dynasty and defeated the Great Shun Army in Taiyuan in the same year.  Throughout the Qing dynasty, the international trade with Russia, especially of tea, and the creation and development of so-called draft banks, or "Piaohao", boosted the central Shanxi basin to become the financial center of Qing China. Even though most of these Piaohao were based in different neighboring counties of Qi County, Taigu, and Yuci, Taiyuan became a significant trading center, due to its political and economical status in Shanxi.  In 1900, the Taiyuan Massacre occurred, during which a number of Western missionaries were killed.

Republic of China.

The warlord Yan Xishan retained control of Shanxi from the Xinhai Revolution in 1911 to the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. Taiyuan consequently flourished as the center of his comparatively progressive province and experienced extensive industrial development. It was linked by rail both to the far southwest of Shanxi and to Datong in the north. Until the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, Yan's arsenal in Taiyuan was the only factory in China sufficiently advanced to produce field artillery. Because Yan succeeded in keeping Shanxi uninvolved in most of the major battles between rival warlords that occurred in China during the 1910s and 1920s, Taiyuan was never taken from Yan by an invading army until the Japanese conquered it in 1937.  Yan was aware of the threat posed by the Japanese; and, in order to defend against the impending Japanese invasion of Shanxi, Yan entered into a secret "united front" agreement with the Communists in November 1936. After concluding his alliance with the Communists, he allowed agents under Zhou Enlai to establish a secret headquarters in Taiyuan. Yan, under the slogan "resistance against the enemy and defense of the soil", attempted to recruit young patriotic intellectuals to his government from across China. By 1936 Taiyuan became a gathering point for anti-Japanese intellectuals who had fled from Beijing, Tianjin, and Northeast China. A representative of the Japanese army, speaking of the final defense of Taiyuan, said that "nowhere in China have the Chinese fought so obstinately".  From the Japanese occupation of Taiyuan to the Japanese surrender in 1945, the Japanese continued to exploit Taiyuan's industries and resources to supply the Japanese army. After the Japanese army in Shanxi surrendered to Yan Xishan, 10,000–15,000 Japanese troops, including both enlisted men and officers, decided to fight for Yan rather than return to Japan. Yan also retained the services of experienced and foreign-educated Japanese technicians and professional staff brought into Taiyuan by the Japanese to run the complex of industries that they had developed around Taiyuan.  Taiyuan was the last area in Shanxi to resist Communist control during the final stages of the Chinese Civil War. The city was taken by the Communists on 22 April 1949, after they surrounded Taiyuan and cut it off from all means of land and air supply, and taking the city required the support of 1,300 pieces of artillery. Many Nationalist officers committed suicide when the city fell to a Communist army.

Geography.

Taiyuan lies on the Fen River in the north of its fertile upper basin. The city is located at the center of the province with an east–west span of and a north–south span of. It commands the north–south route through the province, as well as important natural lines of transportation through the Taihang Mountains to Hebei in the east and to northern Shaanxi in the west.

Natural resources.

Taiyuan is abundant in natural resources such as coal, iron, marble, silica, bauxite, limestone, graphite, quartz, phosphorus, gypsum, mica, copper, gold and so on. It boosts high production of coal, iron, silica and marble. The western satellite city of Gujiao is the largest production cite of coking coal (metallurgical coal) in China. The tree population in Taiyuan is dominated by coniferous forest, pine, white pine, spruce, and cypress.

Climate.

Taiyuan experiences a cold semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification "BSk"). Spring is dry, with occasional dust storms, followed by early summer heat waves. Summer tends to be warm to hot with most of the year's rainfall concentrated in July and August. Winter is long and cold, but dry and sunny. Because of the aridity, there tends to be considerable diurnal variation in temperature, except during the summer. The weather is much cooler than comparable-latitude cities, such as Shijiazhuang, due to the moderately high altitude. The monthly 24-hour average temperature range from in January to in July, while the annual mean is. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 51 percent in July to 61 percent in May, there are 2,502 hours of sunshine annually.

Environment.

The municipality of Taiyuan is. Taiyuan has a forest area of 146,700 hectares. and total grassland area of in 2007. The forest area coverage rate in the six urban districts has been increased to 21.69% in 2015.

Air pollution.

Taiyuan had suffered from severe air pollution, especially in the 1990s, and the first decade of the 21st century, and once it was even listed among one of ten most air polluted cities in the world. Recently, the air quality has been gradually improved with increasing public awareness of air quality control and stricter and more detailed rules for pollution applied. However, according to the 2014 statistical book issued by the National Bureau of Statistics, even though no longer among the worst polluted cities in China, Taiyuan still has below-average ambient air quality, compared with other major Chinese cities. A 2019 study estimated that in 2016, there were 228,000 households in the city burning coal, burning a total of 1,096,000 tons that year alone. The authors of the study suggested that the local government should do more to transition from coal energy to gas energy, provide more electrical heating infrastructure, and transition to more renewable energy sources. In recent years, the city has taken further action to combat air pollution, creating a "coal-free zone" of 1,460 km in 2017. This zone prevents most people and organizations from buying, selling, storing, transporting, burning, or using coal. In 2019, the Taiyuan City Government expanded the size of this zone slightly, to a total of 1,574 km.

Demographics.

At the 2010 census, Taiyuan prefecture had a total population of 4,201,591 inhabitants on, from whom 3,212,500 are urban on.

Economy.

Consistent with China's economic expansion throughout the 2010's, Taiyuan's economy has shown consistent growth in recent years. In 2018, Taiyuan's GDP was worth 388.450 billion Yuan, more than double what it was in 2010. Disposable income per capita was reported to be 31,031 Yuan in 2018, a 7.2% increase from 2017. In 2015, Taiyuan imported 4,085.130 million USD worth of goods, and exported 6,592.250 million USD worth. Taiyuan's primary, secondary, and tertiary industries were worth 3.9 billion yuan, 105.2 billion yuan, and 132.2 billion yuan respectively in 2007. Shanxi produces a quarter of China's coal, and Taiyuan is the location of the "China Taiyuan Coal Transaction Center", which began trading in 2012.

Transportation.

Taiyuan is one of the transportation hubs in North China, with highways linking neighboring provincial capitals, and airlines to most other major Chinese cities and some international cities.

Public Transportation.

The Taiyuan Metro is under construction, and is expected to start operation around 2020.  In early 2016 the city began the conversion of all its 8000 taxi fleet into purely electric vehicles, initially using BYD Auto model E6.

Air.

The primary airport of the city is Taiyuan Wusu International Airport. It has been expanded for the landing of Airbus A380. The airport has domestic airlines to major cities including Beijing, Shanghai, and coastal cities such as Dalian. International flights to Taipei and Da Nang are available.

Highway.

Taiyuan has a number of major roads, Including the G5, G20 (including Shitai Expressway), G55, G2001 (Ring Highway around Taiyuan), G307, G108, G208.

Railway.

Taiyuan is one of the main national hubs for the high-speed railway system of Northern China. Major high-speed railways passing Taiyuan, including the Shijiazhuang–Taiyuan high-speed railway and Datong–Xi'an high-speed railway. By high-speed trains, the travel time between Taiyuan and Beijing is less than three hours on a distance of. The main high-speed railway station is Taiyuan South railway station. The conventional-speed Taiyuan–Zhongwei–Yinchuan railway, opened in 2011, provides a direct connection with western Shanxi, northern Shaanxi, Ningxia, and points further west.

Food.

Taiyuan's local specialities include:

Sports.

The Shanxi Brave Dragons of the Chinese Basketball Association play at Riverside Sports Arena. The football club Shanxi Metropolis, currently playing in China League Two, plays in the Shanxi Sports Centre Stadium.

Tourism.

Taiyuan is a modern city with just a few historic buildings remaining in the centre. The remnants of old Taiyuan can be found west of the central station, north of Fudong Street and close to Wuyi Road.  One of the main tourist destinations is Shanxi Museum located in West Binhe Road, downtown Taiyuan, which is among the largest museums in China.  The Twin Towers in Yongzuo Temple, which are featured in the emblem of the city, have been regarded as a symbol of Taiyuan for a long time. Yongzuo Temple is at southeast of the city centre, also famous for its peony garden and martyrs cemetery.  The Chongshan Monastery, Longtan Park, and Yingze Park, in the city centre, are popular tourist destinations.  Jinci Temple also called Tangshuyu Temple, located in Jinyuan District of southern Taiyuan, dates back to the Zhou Dynasty. In Jinci, there are three treasures: the Nanlao Spring, the Beauty Status and the Queen status. The Flying Bridge Across the Fish Pond was built during the Song Dynasty, which is famous for its cross-shaped structure.  Along the West Mountain range in western Taiyuan, tourists can find Tianlongshan Grottoes, which were gradually built over many centuries, from the northern Qi dynasty, and contains thousands of Buddhist statues and artwork. The grottoes exist today in a damaged state with many of the sculptures now missing, that visitors to the caves cannot imagine how they looked in the past. Many of the sculptures from the caves are now in museums around the world. However, though the sculptures may be preserved and displayed, visitors to museums cannot understand them in their original historical, spatial, and religious contexts. Researchers at the University of Chicago initiated the Tianlongshan Caves Project in 2013 to pursue research and digital imaging of the caves and their sculptures.  Not far from the Tianlongshan Grottoes are the, which is the only Taoist grottoes site in China. The main eight grottoes were carved in 1234~1239 during the Yuan Dynasty.

International relations.

Taiyuan has a friendship pairing with the following cities:

Taiyuan (, also known as (), ()) is the capital and largest city of Shanxi province, People's Republic of China. It is one of the main manufacturing bases of China. Throughout its long history, Taiyuan was the capital or provisional capital of many dynasties in China, hence the name ().

太原市(太原话:),简称-{并}-(),古称晋阳,别称并州、龙城,是中华人民共和国山西省省会,位于山西省中部。市境东北接阳泉市,东南邻晋中市,西连吕梁市,北接忻州市。地处太原盆地北部,三面环山,东为太行山,西为吕梁山,北为系舟山、云中山。汾河自西北入境,贯穿城区并于南部出境。全市总面积6,909平方公里,人口438.1万,市人民政府驻小店区。太原是华北地区重要的中心城市,全国重要的新材料和先进制造业基地,山西省的政治、经济、文化和国际交流中心,同时是山西经济金融的决策和管理中心,太原都市圈核心区域。