History.

The device is named after American physicist Clarence Zener, who first described the Zener effect in 1934 in his primarily theoretical studies of breakdown of electrical insulator properties. Later, his work led to the Bell Labs implementation of the effect in form of an electronic device, the Zener diode.

Operation.

A conventional solid-state diode allows significant current if it is reverse-biased above its reverse breakdown voltage. When the reverse bias breakdown voltage is exceeded, a conventional diode is subject to high current due to avalanche breakdown. Unless this current is limited by circuitry, the diode may be permanently damaged due to overheating. A Zener diode exhibits almost the same properties, except the device is specially designed so as to have a reduced breakdown voltage, the so-called Zener voltage. By contrast with the conventional device, a reverse-biased Zener diode exhibits a controlled breakdown and allows the current to keep the voltage across the Zener diode close to the Zener breakdown voltage. For example, a diode with a Zener breakdown voltage of 3.2 V exhibits a voltage drop of very nearly 3.2 V across a wide range of reverse currents. The Zener diode is therefore ideal for applications such as the generation of a reference voltage (e.g. for an amplifier stage), or as a voltage stabilizer for low-current applications.  Another mechanism that produces a similar effect is the avalanche effect as in the avalanche diode. The two types of diode are in fact constructed the same way and both effects are present in diodes of this type. In silicon diodes up to about 5.6 volts, the Zener effect is the predominant effect and shows a marked negative temperature coefficient. Above 5.6 volts, the avalanche effect becomes predominant and exhibits a positive temperature coefficient.  In a 5.6 V diode, the two effects occur together, and their temperature coefficients nearly cancel each other out, thus the 5.6 V diode is useful in temperature-critical applications. An alternative, which is used for voltage references that need to be highly stable over long periods of time, is to use a Zener diode with a temperature coefficient (TC) of +2 mV/°C (breakdown voltage 6.2–6.3 V) connected in series with a forward-biased silicon diode (or a transistor B-E junction) manufactured on the same chip. The forward-biased diode has a temperature coefficient of −2 mV/°C, causing the TCs to cancel out.  Modern manufacturing techniques have produced devices with voltages lower than 5.6 V with negligible temperature coefficients, but as higher-voltage devices are encountered, the temperature coefficient rises dramatically. A 75 V diode has 10 times the coefficient of a 12 V diode.  Zener and avalanche diodes, regardless of breakdown voltage, are usually marketed under the umbrella term of "Zener diode".  Under 5.6 V, where the Zener effect dominates, the IV curve near breakdown is much more rounded, which calls for more care in targeting its biasing conditions. The IV curve for Zeners above 5.6 V (being dominated by avalanche), is much sharper at breakdown.

Construction.

The Zener diode's operation depends on the heavy doping of its p-n junction. The depletion region formed in the diode is very thin (<1 μm) and the electric field is consequently very high (about 500 kV/m) even for a small reverse bias voltage of about 5 V, allowing electrons to tunnel from the valence band of the p-type material to the conduction band of the n-type material.  At the atomic scale, this tunneling corresponds to the transport of valence band electrons into the empty conduction band states; as a result of the reduced barrier between these bands and high electric fields that are induced due to the high levels of doping on both sides. The breakdown voltage can be controlled quite accurately in the doping process. While tolerances within 0.07% are available, the most widely used tolerances are 5% and 10%. Breakdown voltage for commonly available Zener diodes can vary widely from 1.2 V to 200 V.  For diodes that are lightly doped the breakdown is dominated by the avalanche effect rather than the Zener effect. Consequently, the breakdown voltage is higher (over 5.6 V) for these devices.

Surface Zeners.

The emitter-base junction of a bipolar NPN transistor behaves as a Zener diode, with breakdown voltage at about 6.8 V for common bipolar processes and about 10 V for lightly doped base regions in BiCMOS processes. Older processes with poor control of doping characteristics had the variation of Zener voltage up to ±1 V, newer processes using ion implantation can achieve no more than ±0.25 V. The NPN transistor structure can be employed as a "surface Zener diode", with collector and emitter connected together as its cathode and base region as anode. In this approach the base doping profile usually narrows towards the surface, creating a region with intensified electric field where the avalanche breakdown occurs. The hot carriers produced by acceleration in the intense field sometime shoot into the oxide layer above the junction and become trapped there. The accumulation of trapped charges can then cause 'Zener walkout', a corresponding change of the Zener voltage of the junction. The same effect can be achieved by radiation damage.  The emitter-base Zener diodes can handle only smaller currents as the energy is dissipated in the base depletion region which is very small. Higher amount of dissipated energy (higher current for longer time, or a short very high current spike) causes thermal damage to the junction and/or its contacts. Partial damage of the junction can shift its Zener voltage. Total destruction of the Zener junction by overheating it and causing migration of metallization across the junction ("spiking") can be used intentionally as a 'Zener zap' antifuse.

Subsurface Zeners.

A subsurface Zener diode, also called 'buried Zener', is a device similar to the surface Zener, but with the avalanche region located deeper in the structure, typically several micrometers below the oxide. The hot carriers then lose energy by collisions with the semiconductor lattice before reaching the oxide layer and cannot be trapped there. The Zener walkout phenomenon therefore does not occur here, and the buried Zeners have voltage constant over their entire lifetime. Most buried Zeners have breakdown voltage of 5–7 volts. Several different junction structures are used.

Uses.

Zener diodes are widely used as voltage references and as shunt regulators to regulate the voltage across small circuits. When connected in parallel with a variable voltage source so that it is reverse biased, a Zener diode conducts when the voltage reaches the diode's reverse breakdown voltage. From that point on, the low impedance of the diode keeps the voltage across the diode at that value.  In this circuit, a typical voltage reference or regulator, an input voltage, "U", is regulated down to a stable output voltage "U". The breakdown voltage of diode D is stable over a wide current range and holds "U" approximately constant even though the input voltage may fluctuate over a wide range. Because of the low impedance of the diode when operated like this, resistor "R" is used to limit current through the circuit.  In the case of this simple reference, the current flowing in the diode is determined using Ohm's law and the known voltage drop across the resistor "R";  The value of "R" must satisfy two conditions:  A load may be placed across the diode in this reference circuit, and as long as the Zener stays in reverse breakdown, the diode provides a stable voltage source to the load. Zener diodes in this configuration are often used as stable references for more advanced voltage regulator circuits.  Shunt regulators are simple, but the requirements that the ballast resistor be small enough to avoid excessive voltage drop during worst-case operation (low input voltage concurrent with high load current) tends to leave a lot of current flowing in the diode much of the time, making for a fairly wasteful regulator with high quiescent power dissipation, suitable only for smaller loads.  These devices are also encountered, typically in series with a base-emitter junction, in transistor stages where selective choice of a device centered on the avalanche or Zener point can be used to introduce compensating temperature co-efficient balancing of the transistor p–n junction. An example of this kind of use would be a DC error amplifier used in a regulated power supply circuit feedback loop system.  Zener diodes are also used in surge protectors to limit transient voltage spikes.  Another application of the Zener diode is the use of noise caused by its avalanche breakdown in a random number generator.

Waveform clipper.

Two Zener diodes facing each other in series clip both halves of an input signal. Waveform clippers can be used not only to reshape a signal, but also to prevent voltage spikes from affecting circuits that are connected to the power supply.

Voltage shifter.

A Zener diode can be applied to a circuit with a resistor to act as a voltage shifter. This circuit lowers the output voltage by a quantity that is equal to the Zener diode's breakdown voltage.

Voltage regulator.

A Zener diode can be applied in a voltage regulator circuit to regulate the voltage applied to a load, such as in a linear regulator.

A Zener diode is a special type of diode designed to reliably allow current to flow "backwards" when a certain set reverse voltage, known as the "Zener voltage", is reached.

齐纳二极管(英语:Zener diode),是利用二极管在反向电压作用下的稽纳击穿(崩溃)效应,制造而成的一种具有稳定电压功能的电子技术元件,因此又称为“稳压管”。


Origins.

According to Aristotle ("Poetics", ii. 5), Hegemon of Thasos was the inventor of a kind of parody; by slightly altering the wording in well-known poems he transformed the sublime into the ridiculous. In ancient Greek literature, a "parodia" was a narrative poem imitating the style and prosody of epics "but treating light, satirical or mock-heroic subjects". Indeed, the components of the Greek word are παρά "para" "beside, counter, against" and ᾠδή "oide" "song". Thus, the original Greek word παρῳδία "parodia" has sometimes been taken to mean "counter-song", an imitation that is set against the original. The "Oxford English Dictionary", for example, defines parody as imitation "turned as to produce a ridiculous effect". Because "par-" also has the non-antagonistic meaning of "beside", "there is nothing in "parodia" to necessitate the inclusion of a concept of ridicule."  In Greek Old Comedy even the gods could be made fun of. "The Frogs" portrays the hero-turned-god Heracles as a glutton and the God of Drama Dionysus as cowardly and unintelligent. The traditional trip to the Underworld story is parodied as Dionysus dresses as Heracles to go to the Underworld, in an attempt to bring back a poet to save Athens. The Ancient Greeks created satyr plays which parodied tragic plays, often with performers dressed like satyrs.  Parody was used in early Greek philosophical texts to make philosophical points. Such texts are known as "spoudaiogeloion," a famous example of which is the "Silloi" by Pyrrhonist philosopher Timon of Phlius which parodied philosophers living and dead. The style was a rhetorical mainstay of the Cynics and was the most common tone of the works made by Menippus and Meleager of Gadara.  In the 2nd century CE, Lucian of Samosata created a parody of travel texts such as "Indica" and "The Odyssey". He described the authors of such accounts as liars who had never traveled, nor ever talked to any credible person who had. In his ironically named book "True History" Lucian delivers a story which exaggerates the hyperbole and improbable claims of those stories. Sometimes described as the first science fiction, the characters travel to the moon, engage in interplanetary war with the help of aliens they meet there, and then return to the earth to experience civilization inside a 200-mile-long creature generally interpreted as being a whale. This is a parody of Ctesias' claims that India has a one-legged race of humans with a single foot so huge it can be used as an umbrella, Homer's stories of one-eyed giants, and so on.

Music.

In classical music, as a technical term, "parody" refers to a reworking of one kind of composition into another (for example, a motet into a keyboard work as Girolamo Cavazzoni, Antonio de Cabezón, and Alonso Mudarra all did to Josquin des Prez motets). More commonly, a parody mass ("missa parodia") or an oratorio used extensive quotation from other vocal works such as motets or cantatas; Victoria, Palestrina, Lassus, and other composers of the 16th century used this technique. The term is also sometimes applied to procedures common in the Baroque period, such as when Bach reworks music from cantatas in his "Christmas Oratorio".  The musicological definition of the term "parody" has now generally been supplanted by a more general meaning of the word. In its more contemporary usage, musical parody usually has humorous, even satirical intent, in which familiar musical ideas or lyrics are lifted into a different, often incongruous, context. Musical parodies may imitate or refer to the peculiar style of a composer or artist, or even a general style of music. For example, "The Ritz Roll and Rock", a song and dance number performed by Fred Astaire in the movie "Silk Stockings", parodies the Rock and Roll genre. Conversely, while the best-known work of Weird Al Yankovic is based on particular popular songs, it also often utilises wildly incongruous elements of pop culture for comedic effect.

English term.

The first usage of the word "parody" in English cited in the "Oxford English Dictionary" is in Ben Jonson, in "Every Man in His Humour" in 1598: "A Parodie, a parodie! to make it absurder than it was." The next citation comes from John Dryden in 1693, who also appended an explanation, suggesting that the word was in common use, meaning to make fun of or re-create what you are doing.

Modernist and post-modernist parody.

In the 20th century, parody has been heightened as the central and most representative artistic device, the catalysing agent of artistic creation and innovation. This most prominently happened in the second half of the century with postmodernism, but earlier modernism and Russian formalism had anticipated this perspective. For the Russian formalists, parody was a way of liberation from the background text that enables to produce new and autonomous artistic forms.  Historian Christopher Rea writes that "In the 1910s and 1920s, writers in China’s entertainment market parodied anything and everything... They parodied speeches, advertisements, confessions, petitions, orders, handbills, notices, policies, regulations, resolutions, discourses, explications, sutras, memorials to the throne, and conference minutes. We have an exchange of letters between the Queue and the Beard and Eyebrows. We have a eulogy for a chamber pot. We have 'Research on Why Men Have Beards and Women Don’t,' 'A Telegram from the Thunder God to His Mother Resigning His Post,' and 'A Public Notice from the King of Whoring Prohibiting Playboys from Skipping Debts.'"  Jorge Luis Borges's (1939) short story "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote", is often regarded as predicting postmodernism and conceiving the ideal of the ultimate parody. In the broader sense of Greek "parodia", parody can occur when whole elements of one work are lifted out of their context and reused, not necessarily to be ridiculed. Traditional definitions of parody usually only discuss parody in the stricter sense of something intended to ridicule the text it parodies. There is also a broader, extended sense of parody that may not include ridicule, and may be based on many other uses and intentions. The broader sense of parody, parody done with intent other than ridicule, has become prevalent in the modern parody of the 20th century. In the extended sense, the modern parody does not target the parodied text, but instead uses it as a weapon to target something else. The reason for the prevalence of the extended, recontextualizing type of parody in the 20th century is that artists have sought to connect with the past while registering differences brought by modernity. Major modernist examples of this recontextualizing parody include James Joyce's "Ulysses", which incorporates elements of Homer's "Odyssey" in a 20th-century Irish context, and T. S. Eliot's "The Waste Land", which incorporates and recontextualizes elements of a vast range of prior texts, including Dante's "The Inferno". The work of Andy Warhol is another prominent example of the modern "recontextualizing" parody. According to French literary theorist Gérard Genette, the most rigorous and elegant form of parody is also the most economical, that is a "minimal parody", the one that literally reprises a known text and gives it a new meaning.  Blank parody, in which an artist takes the skeletal form of an art work and places it in a new context without ridiculing it, is common. Pastiche is a closely related genre, and parody can also occur when characters or settings belonging to one work are used in a humorous or ironic way in another, such as the transformation of minor characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern from Shakespeare's drama Hamlet into the principal characters in a comedic perspective on the same events in the play (and film) "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead". Similarly, Mishu Hilmy's "Trapped in the Netflix" uses parody to deconstruct contemporary Netflix shows like Mad Men providing commentary through popular characters. Don Draper mansplaining about mansplaining, Luke Danes monologizing about a lack of independence while embracing codependency. In Flann O'Brien's novel "At Swim-Two-Birds", for example, mad King Sweeney, Finn MacCool, a pookah, and an assortment of cowboys all assemble in an inn in Dublin: the mixture of mythic characters, characters from genre fiction, and a quotidian setting combine for a humor that is not directed at any of the characters or their authors. This combination of established and identifiable characters in a new setting is not the same as the post-modernist trope of using historical characters in fiction out of context to provide a metaphoric element.

Reputation.

Sometimes the reputation of a parody outlasts the reputation of what is being parodied. For example, "Don Quixote", which mocks the traditional knight errant tales, is much better known than the novel that inspired it, "Amadis de Gaula" (although Amadis is mentioned in the book). Another case is the novel "Shamela" by Henry Fielding (1742), which was a parody of the gloomy epistolary novel "Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded" (1740) by Samuel Richardson. Many of Lewis Carroll's parodies of Victorian didactic verse for children, such as "You Are Old, Father William", are much better known than the (largely forgotten) originals. Stella Gibbons's comic novel "Cold Comfort Farm" has eclipsed the pastoral novels of Mary Webb which largely inspired it.  In more recent times, the television sitcom "'Allo 'Allo!" is perhaps better known than the drama "Secret Army" which it parodies.  Some artists carve out careers by making parodies. One of the best-known examples is that of "Weird Al" Yankovic. His career of parodying other musical acts and their songs has outlasted many of the artists or bands he has parodied. Yankovic is not required under law to get permission to parody; as a personal rule, however, he does seek permission to parody a person's song before recording it. Several artists, such as rapper Chamillionaire and Seattle-based grunge band Nirvana stated that Yankovic's parodies of their respective songs were excellent, and many artists have considered being parodied by him to be a badge of honor.  In the US legal system the point that in most cases a parody of a work constitutes fair use was upheld in the case of Rick Dees, who decided to use 29 seconds of the music from the song "When Sonny Gets Blue" to parody Johnny Mathis' singing style even after being refused permission. An appeals court upheld the trial court's decision that this type of parody represents fair use. "Fisher v. Dees" 794 F.2d 432 (9th Cir. 1986)

Film parodies.

Some genre theorists, following Bakhtin, see parody as a natural development in the life cycle of any genre; this idea has proven especially fruitful for genre film theorists. Such theorists note that Western movies, for example, after the classic stage defined the conventions of the genre, underwent a parody stage, in which those same conventions were ridiculed and critiqued. Because audiences had seen these classic Westerns, they had expectations for any new Westerns, and when these expectations were inverted, the audience laughed.  Perhaps the earliest parody film was the 1922 "Mud and Sand", a Stan Laurel film that made fun of Rudolph Valentino's film "Blood and Sand". Laurel specialized in parodies in the mid-1920s, writing and acting in a number of them. Some were send-ups of popular films, such as "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"—parodied in the comic "Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pryde" (1926). Others were spoofs of Broadway plays, such as "No, No, Nanette" (1925), parodied as "Yes, Yes, Nanette" (1925). In 1940 Charlie Chaplin created a satirical comedy about Adolf Hitler with the film "The Great Dictator", following the first-ever Hollywood parody of the Nazis, the Three Stooges' short subject "You Nazty Spy!".  About 20 years later Mel Brooks started his career with a Hitler parody as well. After "The Producers" (1968), Brooks became one of the most famous film parodists and did spoofs on any kind of film genre. "Blazing Saddles" (1974) is a parody of western films, "Young Frankenstein" (1974) is a Frankenstein spoof, "Spaceballs" (1987) is a "Star Wars" spoof, "Robin Hood Men in Tights" (1993) is Brooks' take on the classic Robin Hood tale, "Dinocroc" (2004) is a "Godzilla" spoof and "Supergator" (2007) is a "King Kong" spoof.  The British comedy group Monty Python is also famous for its parodies, for example, the King Arthur spoof "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (1974), and the Jesus satire "Life of Brian" (1979). In the 1980s the team of David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker parodied well-established genres such as disaster, war and crime movies with the "Airplane!", "Hot Shots!" and "Naked Gun" series respectively. There is a 1989 film parody from Spain of the TV series "The A-Team" called "El equipo Aahhgg" directed by José Truchado.  More recently, parodies have taken on whole film genres at once. One of the first was "Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood" and the "Scary Movie" franchise. Other recent genre parodies include. "Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday The 13th", "Not Another Teen Movie", "Date Movie", "Epic Movie", "Meet the Spartans", "Superhero Movie", "Disaster Movie", "Vampires Suck", and "The 41-Year-Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt Superbad About It", all of which have been critically panned.

Copyright.

Many parody films have as their target out-of-copyright or non-copyrighted subjects (such as "Frankenstein" or Robin Hood) whilst others settle for imitation which does not infringe copyright, but is clearly aimed at a popular (and usually lucrative) subject. The spy film craze of the 1960s, fuelled by the popularity of James Bond is such an example. In this genre a rare, and possibly unique, example of a parody film taking aim at a non-comedic subject over which it actually holds copyright is the 1967 James Bond spoof "Casino Royale". In this case, producer Charles K. Feldman initially intended to make a serious film, but decided that it would not be able to compete with the established series of Bond films. Hence, he decided to parody the series.

Poetic parodies.

Kenneth Baker considered poetic parody to take five main forms.  A further, more constructive form of poetic parody is one that links the contemporary poet with past forms and past masters through affectionate parodying – thus sharing poetic codes while avoiding some of the anxiety of influence.  More aggressive in tone are playground poetry parodies, often attacking authority, values and culture itself in a carnivalesque rebellion: “Twinkle, Twinkle little star,/ Who the hell do you think you are?”

Self-parody.

A subset of parody is "self-parody" in which artists parody their own work (as in Ricky Gervais's "Extras").

Copyright issues.

Although a parody can be considered a derivative work of a pre-existing, copyrighted work, some countries have ruled that parodies can fall under copyright limitations such as fair dealing, or otherwise have fair dealing laws that include parody in their scope.

United States.

Parodies are protected under the fair use doctrine of United States copyright law, but the defense is more successful if the usage of an existing copyrighted work is transformative in nature, such as being a critique or commentary upon it.  In "Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.", the Supreme Court ruled that a rap parody of "Oh, Pretty Woman" by 2 Live Crew was fair use, as the parody was a distinctive, transformative work designed to ridicule the original song, and that "even if 2 Live Crew's copying of the original's first line of lyrics and characteristic opening bass riff may be said to go to the original's 'heart,' that heart is what most readily conjures up the song for parody, and it is the heart at which parody takes aim."  In 2001, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, in "Suntrust v. Houghton Mifflin", upheld the right of Alice Randall to publish a parody of "Gone with the Wind" called "The Wind Done Gone", which told the same story from the point of view of Scarlett O'Hara's slaves, who were glad to be rid of her.  In 2007, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied a fair use defense in the "Dr. Seuss Enterprises v. Penguin Books" case. Citing the "Campbell v. Acuff-Rose" decision, they found that a satire of the O.J. Simpson murder trial and parody of "The Cat in the Hat" had infringed upon the children's book because it did not provide a commentary function upon that work.

Canada.

Under Canadian law, although there is protection for Fair Dealing, there is no explicit protection for parody and satire. In "Canwest v. Horizon", the publisher of the Vancouver Sun launched a lawsuit against a group which had published a pro-Palestinian parody of the paper. Alan Donaldson, the judge in the case, ruled that parody is not a defence to a copyright claim.

United Kingdom.

In 2006 the "Gowers Review of Intellectual Property" recommended that the UK should "create an exception to copyright for the purpose of caricature, parody or pastiche by 2008". Following the first stage of a two-part public consultation, the Intellectual Property Office reported that the information received "was not sufficient to persuade us that the advantages of a new parody exception were sufficient to override the disadvantages to the creators and owners of the underlying work. There is therefore no proposal to change the current approach to parody, caricature and pastiche in the UK."  However, following the Hargreaves Review in May 2011 (which made similar proposals to the Gowers Review) the Government broadly accepted these proposals. The current law (effective from 1 October 2014), namely Section 30A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, now provides an exception to infringement where there is fair dealing of the original work for the purpose of parody (or alternatively for the purpose of caricature or pastiche). The legislation does not define what is meant by "parody", but the UK IPO – the Intellectual Property Office (United Kingdom) – suggests that a "parody" is something that imitates a work for humorous or satirical effect. See also Fair dealing in United Kingdom law.

Internet culture.

Parody is a prominent genre in online culture, thanks in part to the ease with which digital texts may be altered, appropriated, and shared. Japanese kuso and Chinese e'gao are emblematic of the importance of parody in online cultures in Asia. Video mash-ups and other parodic memes, such as humorously-altered Chinese characters, have been particularly popular as a tool for political protest in the People's Republic of China, the government of which maintains an extensive censorship apparatus. Chinese internet slang makes extensive use of puns and parodies on how Chinese characters are pronounced or written, as illustrated in the Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon.

Social and political uses.

Parody is often used to make a social or political statement. Examples include Swift's "A Modest Proposal", which satirized English neglect of Ireland by parodying emotionally disengaged political tracts; and, recently, "The Daily Show, The Larry Sanders Show" and "The Colbert Report", which parody a news broadcast and a talk show to satirize political and social trends and events.  On the other hand, the writer and frequent parodist Vladimir Nabokov made a distinction: "Satire is a lesson, parody is a game."  Some events, such as a national tragedy, can be difficult to handle. Chet Clem, Editorial Manager of the news parody publication "The Onion", told "Wikinews" in an interview the questions that are raised when addressing difficult topics: Parody is by no means necessarily satirical, and may sometimes be done with respect and appreciation of the subject involved, without being a heedless sarcastic attack.  Parody has also been used to facilitate dialogue between cultures or subcultures. Sociolinguist Mary Louise Pratt identifies parody as one of the "arts of the contact zone", through which marginalized or oppressed groups "selectively appropriate", or imitate and take over, aspects of more empowered cultures.  Shakespeare often uses a series of parodies to convey his meaning. In the social context of his era, an example can be seen in "King Lear" where the fool is introduced with his coxcomb to be a parody of the king.

A parody (), also called a spoof, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), a caricature or a joke, is a work which is created to imitate, make fun of or comment on an original work—its subject, author, style or some other target—by means of satiric or ironic imitation. As the literary theorist Linda Hutcheon puts it, "parody... is imitation, not always at the expense of the parodied text." Another critic, Simon Dentith, defines parody as "any cultural practice which provides a relatively polemical allusive imitation of another cultural production or practice". Parody may be found in art or culture, including literature, music (although "parody" in music has an earlier, somewhat different meaning than for other art forms), film, animation and gaming.

戏仿,又称谐仿或谐拟,是在自己的作品对其他作品进行借用,以达到调侃、嘲讽、游戏甚至致敬的目的。属二次创作的一种。「谐拟」仍然是一种模拟,但却因为语言的嬉戏而诙谐。「谐拟」不是「再现」,谐拟的再书写必须以被模仿的客体逼真度为基础,与模拟的客体虚中有实,但仍解构了被模仿的客体的原型。


History.

Incendiary and flaming weapons were used in warfare for centuries before Greek fire was invented. They included a number of sulfur-, petroleum-, and bitumen-based mixtures. Incendiary arrows and pots containing combustible substances surrounded by caltrops or spikes, or launched by catapults, were used as early as the 9th century BC by the Assyrians and were extensively used in the Greco-Roman world as well. Furthermore, Thucydides mentions that in the siege of Delium in 424 BC a long tube on wheels was used which blew flames forward using a large bellows. The Roman author Julius Africanus, writing in the 3rd Century AD, records a mixture that ignited from adequate heat and intense sunlight, used in grenades or night attacks:Automatic fire also by the following formula. This is the recipe: take equal amounts of sulphur, rock salt, ashes, thunder stone, and pyrite and pound fine in a black mortar at midday sun. Also in equal amounts of each ingredient mix together black mulberry resin and Zakynthian asphault, the latter in a liquid form and free-flowing, resulting in a product that is sooty colored. Then add to the asphalt the tiniest amount of quicklime. But because the sun is at its zenith, one must pound it carefully and protect the face, for it will ignite suddenly. When it catches fire, one should seal it in some sort of copper receptacle; in this way you will have it available in a box, without exposing it to the sun. If you should wish to ignite enemy armaments, you will smear it on in the evening, either on the armaments or some other object, but in secret; when the sun comes up, everything will be burnt up.In naval warfare, the Eastern Roman Emperor Anastasius I (r. 491–518) is recorded by chronicler John Malalas to have been advised by a philosopher from Athens called Proclus to use sulfur to burn the ships of Vitalianus. Greek fire proper, however, was developed in and is ascribed by the chronicler Theophanes to Kallinikos (Latinized Callinicus), an architect from Heliopolis in the former province of Phoenice, by then overrun by the Muslim conquests:  The accuracy and exact chronology of this account is open to question: Theophanes reports the use of fire-carrying and "siphōn"-equipped ships by the Byzantines a couple of years before the supposed arrival of Kallinikos at Constantinople. If this is not due to chronological confusion of the events of the siege, it may suggest that Kallinikos merely introduced an improved version of an established weapon. The historian James Partington further thinks it likely that Greek fire was not in fact the creation of any single person but "invented by chemists in Constantinople who had inherited the discoveries of the Alexandrian chemical school." Indeed, the 11th-century chronicler George Kedrenos records that Kallinikos came from Heliopolis in Egypt, but most scholars reject this as an error. Kedrenos also records the story, considered rather implausible by modern scholars, that Kallinikos' descendants, a family called "Lampros", "brilliant," kept the secret of the fire's manufacture and continued doing so to Kedrenos' time.  Kallinikos' development of Greek fire came at a critical moment in the Byzantine Empire's history: weakened by its long wars with Sassanid Persia, the Byzantines had been unable to effectively resist the onslaught of the Muslim conquests. Within a generation, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt had fallen to the Arabs, who in set out to conquer the imperial capital of Constantinople. Greek fire was used to great effect against the Muslim fleets, helping to repel the Muslims at the first and second Arab sieges of the city. Records of its use in later naval battles against the Saracens are more sporadic, but it did secure a number of victories, especially in the phase of Byzantine expansion in the late 9th and early 10th centuries. Utilisation of the substance was prominent in Byzantine civil wars, chiefly the revolt of the thematic fleets in 727 and the large-scale rebellion led by Thomas the Slav in 821–823. In both cases, the rebel fleets were defeated by the Constantinopolitan Imperial Fleet through the use of Greek fire. The Byzantines also used the weapon to devastating effect against the various Rus' raids on the Bosporus, especially those of 941 and 1043, as well as during the Bulgarian war of 970–971, when the fire-carrying Byzantine ships blockaded the Danube.  The importance placed on Greek fire during the Empire's struggle against the Arabs would lead to its discovery being ascribed to divine intervention. The Emperor Constantine Porphyrogennetos (r. 945–959), in his book "De Administrando Imperio", admonishes his son and heir, Romanos II (r. 959–963), to never reveal the secrets of its composition, as it was "shown and revealed by an angel to the great and holy first Christian emperor Constantine" and that the angel bound him "not to prepare this fire but for Christians, and only in the imperial city." As a warning, he adds that one official, who was bribed into handing some of it over to the Empire's enemies, was struck down by a "flame from heaven" as he was about to enter a church. As the latter incident demonstrates, the Byzantines could not avoid capture of their precious secret weapon: the Arabs captured at least one fireship intact in 827, and the Bulgars captured several "siphōns" and much of the substance itself in 812/814. This, however, was apparently not enough to allow their enemies to copy it (see below). The Arabs, for instance, employed a variety of incendiary substances similar to the Byzantine weapon, but they were never able to copy the Byzantine method of deployment by "siphōn", and used catapults and grenades instead.  Greek fire continued to be mentioned during the 12th century, and Anna Komnene gives a vivid description of its use in a naval battle against the Pisans in 1099. However, although the use of hastily improvised fireships is mentioned during the 1203 siege of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade, no report confirms the use of the actual Greek fire. This might be because of the general disarmament of the Empire in the 20 years leading up to the sacking, or because the Byzantines had lost access to the areas where the primary ingredients were to be found, or even perhaps because the secret had been lost over time.  Records of a 13th-century event in which "Greek fire" was used by the Saracens against the Crusaders can be read through the Memoirs of the Lord of Joinville during the Seventh Crusade. One description of the memoir says "the tail of fire that trailed behind it was as big as a great spear; and it made such a noise as it came, that it sounded like the thunder of heaven. It looked like a dragon flying through the air. Such a bright light did it cast, that one could see all over the camp as though it were day, by reason of the great mass of fire, and the brilliance of the light that it shed."  In the 19th century, it is reported that an Armenian by the name of Kavafian approached the government of the Ottoman Empire with a new type of Greek fire he claimed to have developed. Kavafian refused to reveal its composition when asked by the government, insisting that he be placed in command of its use during naval engagements. Not long after this, he was poisoned by imperial authorities, without their ever having found out his secret.

Manufacture.

General characteristics.

As Constantine Porphyrogennetos' warnings show, the ingredients and the processes of manufacture and deployment of Greek fire were carefully guarded military secrets. So strict was the secrecy that the composition of Greek fire was lost forever and remains a source of speculation. Consequently, the "mystery" of the formula has long dominated the research into Greek fire. Despite this almost exclusive focus, however, Greek fire is best understood as a complete weapon system of many components, all of which were needed to operate together to render it effective. This comprised not only the formula of its composition, but also the specialized dromon ships that carried it into battle, the device used to prepare the substance by heating and pressurizing it, the "siphōn" projecting it, and the special training of the "siphōnarioi" who used it. Knowledge of the whole system was highly compartmentalised, with operators and technicians aware of the secrets of only one component, ensuring that no enemy could gain knowledge of it in its entirety. This accounts for the fact that when the Bulgarians took Mesembria and Debeltos in 814, they captured 36 "siphōns" and even quantities of the substance itself, but were unable to make any use of them.  The information available on Greek fire is exclusively indirect, based on references in the Byzantine military manuals and a number of secondary historical sources such as Anna Komnene and Western European chroniclers, which are often inaccurate. In her "Alexiad", Anna Komnene provides a description of an incendiary weapon, which was used by the Byzantine garrison of Dyrrhachium in 1108 against the Normans. It is often regarded as an at least partial "recipe" for Greek fire:This fire is made by the following arts: From the pine and certain such evergreen trees, inflammable resin is collected. This is rubbed with sulfur and put into tubes of reed, and is blown by men using it with violent and continuous breath. Then in this manner it meets the fire on the tip and catches light and falls like a fiery whirlwind on the faces of the enemies. At the same time, the reports by Western chroniclers of the famed "ignis graecus" are largely unreliable, since they apply the name to any and all sorts of incendiary substances.  In attempting to reconstruct the Greek fire system, the concrete evidence, as it emerges from the contemporary literary references, provides the following characteristics:

Theories on composition.

The first and, for a long time, most popular theory regarding the composition of Greek fire held that its chief ingredient was saltpeter, making it an early form of gunpowder. This argument was based on the "thunder and smoke" description, as well as on the distance the flame could be projected from the "siphōn", which suggested an explosive discharge. From the times of Isaac Vossius, several scholars adhered to this position, most notably the so-called "French school" during the 19th century, which included chemist Marcellin Berthelot.  This view has been rejected since, as saltpeter does not appear to have been used in warfare in Europe or the Middle East before the 13th century, and is absent from the accounts of the Muslim writers – the foremost chemists of the early medieval world – before the same period. In addition, the behavior of the proposed mixture would have been radically different from the "siphōn"-projected substance described by Byzantine sources.  A second view, based on the fact that Greek fire was inextinguishable by water (some sources suggest that water intensified the flames) suggested that its destructive power was the result of the explosive reaction between water and quicklime. Although quicklime was certainly known and used by the Byzantines and the Arabs in warfare, the theory is refuted by literary and empirical evidence. A quicklime-based substance would have to come in contact with water to ignite, while Emperor Leo's "Tactica" indicate that Greek fire was often poured directly on the decks of enemy ships, although admittedly, decks were kept wet due to lack of sealants. Likewise, Leo describes the use of grenades, which further reinforces the view that contact with water was not necessary for the substance's ignition. Furthermore, Zenghelis (1932) pointed out that, based on experiments, the actual result of the water–quicklime reaction would be negligible in the open sea.  Another similar proposition suggested that Kallinikos had in fact discovered calcium phosphide, which can be made by boiling bones in urine within a sealed vessel. On contact with water it releases phosphine, which ignites spontaneously. However, extensive experiments with calcium phosphide also failed to reproduce the described intensity of Greek fire.  Consequently, although the presence of either quicklime or saltpeter in the mixture cannot be entirely excluded, they were not the primary ingredient. Most modern scholars agree that Greek fire was based on either crude or refined petroleum, comparable to modern napalm. The Byzantines had easy access to crude oil from the naturally occurring wells around the Black Sea (e.g., the wells around Tmutorakan noted by Constantine Porphyrogennetos) or in various locations throughout the Middle East. An alternate name for Greek fire was "Median fire" (), and the 6th-century historian Procopius records that crude oil, called "naphtha" (in Greek: "naphtha", from Old Persian "naft") by the Persians, was known to the Greeks as "Median oil" (). This seems to corroborate the availability of naphtha as a basic ingredient of Greek fire.  Naphtha was also used by the Abbasids in the 9th century, with special troops, the "naffāṭūn", who wore thick protective suits and used small copper vessels containing burning oil, which they threw onto the enemy troops. There is also a surviving 9th century Latin text, preserved at Wolfenbüttel in Germany, which mentions the ingredients of what appears to be Greek fire and the operation of the "siphōn"s used to project it. Although the text contains some inaccuracies, it clearly identifies the main component as naphtha. Resins were probably added as a thickener (the "Praecepta Militaria" refer to the substance as, "sticky fire"), and to increase the duration and intensity of the flame. A modern theoretical concoction included the use of pine tar and animal fat along with other ingredients.  A 12th century treatise prepared by Mardi bin Ali al-Tarsusi for Saladin records an Arab version of Greek fire, called "naft", which also had a petroleum base, with sulfur and various resins added. Any direct relation with the Byzantine formula is unlikely. An Italian recipe from the 16th century has been recorded for recreational use; it includes coal from a willow tree, alcohol, incense, sulfur, wool and camphor as well as two undetermined components (burning salt and "pegola"); the concoction was guaranteed to "burn under water" and to be "beautiful."

Methods of deployment.

The chief method of deployment of Greek fire, which sets it apart from similar substances, was its projection through a tube ("siphōn"), for use aboard ships or in sieges. Portable projectors ("cheirosiphōnes", χειροσίφωνες) were also invented, reputedly by Emperor Leo VI. The Byzantine military manuals also mention that jars ("chytrai" or "tzykalia") filled with Greek fire and caltrops wrapped with tow and soaked in the substance were thrown by catapults, while pivoting cranes ("gerania") were employed to pour it upon enemy ships. The "cheirosiphōnes" especially were prescribed for use at land and in sieges, both against siege machines and against defenders on the walls, by several 10th-century military authors, and their use is depicted in the "Poliorcetica" of Hero of Byzantium. The Byzantine dromons usually had a "siphōn" installed on their prow under the forecastle, but additional devices could also on occasion be placed elsewhere on the ship. Thus in 941, when the Byzantines were facing the vastly more numerous Rus' fleet, "siphōn"s were placed also amidships and even astern.

Projectors.

The use of tubular projectors (σίφων, "siphōn") is amply attested in the contemporary sources. Anna Komnene gives this account of beast-shaped Greek fire projectors being mounted to the bow of warships: As he [the Emperor Alexios I] knew that the Pisans were skilled in sea warfare and dreaded a battle with them, on the prow of each ship he had a head fixed of a lion or other land-animal, made in brass or iron with the mouth open and then gilded over, so that their mere aspect was terrifying. And the fire which was to be directed against the enemy through tubes he made to pass through the mouths of the beasts, so that it seemed as if the lions and the other similar monsters were vomiting the fire.  Some sources provide more information on the composition and function of the whole mechanism. The Wolfenbüttel manuscript in particular provides the following description:...having built a furnace right at the front of the ship, they set on it a copper vessel full of these things, having put fire underneath. And one of them, having made a bronze tube similar to that which the rustics call a "squitiatoria", "squirt," with which boys play, they spray [it] at the enemy.  Another, possibly first-hand, account of the use of Greek fire comes from the 11th-century "Yngvars saga víðförla", in which the Viking Ingvar the Far-Travelled faces ships equipped with Greek fire weapons: [They] began blowing with smiths’ bellows at a furnace in which there was fire and there came from it a great din. There stood there also a brass [or bronze] tube and from it flew much fire against one ship, and it burned up in a short time so that all of it became white ashes... The account, albeit embellished, corresponds with many of the characteristics of Greek fire known from other sources, such as a loud roar that accompanied its discharge. These two texts are also the only two sources that explicitly mention that the substance was heated over a furnace before being discharged; although the validity of this information is open to question, modern reconstructions have relied upon them. Based on these descriptions and the Byzantine sources, John Haldon and Maurice Byrne designed a hypothetical apparatus as consisting of three main components: a bronze pump, which was used to pressurize the oil; a brazier, used to heat the oil (πρόπυρον, "propyron", "pre-heater"); and the nozzle, which was covered in bronze and mounted on a swivel (στρεπτόν, "strepton"). The brazier, burning a match of linen or flax that produced intense heat and the characteristic thick smoke, was used to heat oil and the other ingredients in an airtight tank above it, a process that also helped to dissolve the resins into a fluid mixture. The substance was pressurized by the heat and the usage of a force pump. After it had reached the proper pressure, a valve connecting the tank with the swivel was opened and the mixture was discharged from its end, being ignited at its mouth by some source of flame. The intense heat of the flame made necessary the presence of heat shields made of iron (βουκόλια, "boukolia"), which are attested in the fleet inventories.  The process of operating Haldon and Byrne's design was fraught with danger, as the mounting pressure could easily make the heated oil tank explode, a flaw which was not recorded as a problem with the historical fire weapon. In the experiments conducted by Haldon in 2002 for the episode "Fireship" of the television series "Machines Times Forgot", even modern welding techniques failed to secure adequate insulation of the bronze tank under pressure. This led to the relocation of the pressure pump between the tank and the nozzle. The full-scale device built on this basis established the effectiveness of the mechanism's design, even with the simple materials and techniques available to the Byzantines. The experiment used crude oil mixed with wood resins, and achieved a flame temperature of over and an effective range of up to.

Hand-held projectors.

The portable "cheirosiphōn" ("hand-"siphōn""), the earliest analogue to a modern flamethrower, is extensively attested in the military documents of the 10th century, and recommended for use in both sea and land. They first appear in the "Tactica" of emperor Leo VI the Wise, who claims to have invented them. Subsequent authors continued to refer to the "cheirosiphōnes", especially for use against siege towers, although Nikephoros II Phokas also advises their use in field armies, with the aim of disrupting the enemy formation. Although both Leo VI and Nikephoros Phokas claim that the substance used in the "cheirosiphōnes" was the same as in the static devices used on ships, Haldon and Byrne consider that the former were manifestly different from their larger cousins, and theorize that the device was fundamentally different, "a simple syringe [that] squirted both liquid fire (presumably unignited) and noxious juices to repel enemy troops." The illustrations of Hero's "Poliorcetica" show the "cheirosiphōn" also throwing the ignited substance.

Grenades.

In its earliest form, Greek fire was hurled onto enemy forces by firing a burning cloth-wrapped ball, perhaps containing a flask, using a form of light catapult, most probably a seaborne variant of the Roman light catapult or onager. These were capable of hurling light loads, around, a distance of.

Effectiveness and countermeasures.

Although the destructiveness of Greek fire is indisputable, it did not make the Byzantine navy invincible. It was not, in the words of naval historian John Pryor, a "ship-killer" comparable to the naval ram, which, by then, had fallen out of use. While Greek fire remained a potent weapon, its limitations were significant when compared to more traditional forms of artillery: in its "siphōn"-deployed version, it had a limited range, and it could be used safely only in a calm sea and with favourable wind conditions.  The Muslim navies eventually adapted themselves to it by staying out of its effective range and devising methods of protection such as felt or hides soaked in vinegar.

In literature.

In Steve Berry's 2007 novel "The Venetian Betrayal" Greek Fire is described and used as a weapon.  In William Golding's 1958 play "The Brass Butterfly", derived from his "Envoy Extraordinary (novella)", the Greek inventor Phanocles demonstrates explosives to the emperor Mamillius. The emperor decides that his empire is not ready for this or for Phanocles's other inventions and sends him on "a slow boat to China".  In Victor Canning's stage play "Honour Bright" (1960), the crusader Godfrey of Ware returns with a casket of Greek Fire given to him by an old man in Athens.  In Rick Riordan's Greek storyline, Greek Fire is described as being a very soft green solid that, when it explodes, all of the substance is spread out over an area and burns continuously. It is very strong and dangerous.  In C. J. Sansom's historical mystery novel "Dark Fire", Thomas Cromwell sends the lawyer Matthew Shardlake to recover the secret of Greek fire, following its discovery in the library of a dissolved London monastery.  In Michael Crichton's sci-fi novel "Timeline", Professor Edward Johnston is stuck in the past in 14th century Europe, and claims to have knowledge of Greek fire.  In Mika Waltari's novel "The Dark Angel", some old men who are the last ones who know the secret of Greek fire are mentioned as present in the last Christian services held in Hagia Sophia before the Fall of Constantinople. The narrator is told that in the event of the city's fall, they will be killed so as to keep the secret from the Turks.  In George R. R. Martin's fantasy series of novels "A Song of Ice and Fire", and its television adaptation "Game of Thrones", wildfire is similar to Greek fire. It was used in naval battles as it could remain lit on water, and its recipe was jealously guarded.  In Leland Purvis's graphic novel "Vox : collected works, 1999-2003", there is a passage detailing Callinicus and Greek Fire.

Greek fire was an incendiary weapon used by the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire beginning. Used to set light to enemy ships, it consisted of a combustible compound emitted by a flame-throwing weapon. Greek fire was first used by the Romans besieged in Constantinople (673–78). Some historians believe it could be ignited on contact with water, and was probably based on naphtha and quicklime. The Byzantines typically used it in naval battles to great effect, as it could continue burning while floating on water. The technological advantage it provided was responsible for many key Byzantine military victories, most notably the salvation of Constantinople from two Arab sieges, thus securing the Empire's survival.

希腊火(希腊语:)是东罗马帝国所利用的一种可以在水上燃烧的液态燃烧剂,为早期热兵器,主要应用于海战中,「希腊火」或「罗马火」只是阿拉伯人对这种恐怖武器的称呼,东罗马自己则称之为「海洋之火」、「流动之火」、「液体火焰」、「人造之火」和「防备之火」等等。根据文献记载,希腊火多次为东罗马帝国的军事胜利作出颇大的贡献,一些学者和历史学家认为它是东罗马帝国能持续千年之久的原因之一,希腊火的配方现已失传,成分至今仍是一个谜团。


Role.

Unlike most constitutional monarchs, the Emperor is not the "nominal" chief executive. explicitly vests executive power in the Cabinet, of which the Prime Minister is the leader. The Emperor is also not the commander-in-chief of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. The Japan Self-Defense Forces Act of 1954 also explicitly vests this role with the Prime Minister.  The Emperor's powers are limited only to important ceremonial functions. of the Constitution stipulates that the Emperor "shall perform only such acts in matters of state as are provided for in the Constitution and he shall not have powers related to government." It also stipulates that "the advice and approval of the Cabinet shall be required for all acts of the Emperor in matters of state" (Article 3). Article 4

History.

Although the Emperor has been a symbol of continuity with the past, the degree of power exercised by the Emperor has varied considerably throughout Japanese history. In the early 7th century, the Emperor had begun to be called the.

Origin.

The title of Emperor was borrowed from China, being derived from Chinese characters and was retroactively applied to the legendary Japanese rulers who reigned before the 7th–8th centuries AD.  According to the traditional account of the Nihon Shoki, Japan was founded by Emperor Jimmu in 660 BC. Modern historians generally believe that the Emperors till Suinin are 'largely legendary' as there is insufficient material available for verification and study regarding their lives. Emperor Keiko till Emperor Ingyo (376-453 AD) are considered as might be real. Emperor Ankō (401-456) of the 5th century AD, traditionally the 20th emperor, is the earliest generally agreed

Factional control.

There have been six non-imperial families who have controlled Japanese emperors: the Soga (530s–645), the Fujiwara (850s–1070), the Taira (1159-1180s), the Minamoto (and Kamakura Bakufu) (1192–1333), the Ashikaga

Disputes.

The growth of the samurai class from the 10th century gradually weakened the power of the imperial family over the realm, leading to a time of instability. Emperors have been known

Territorial matters.

Until recent centuries, Japan's territory did not include several remote regions of its modern-day territory. The name "Nippon" came into use only many centuries after the start of the current imperial line. Centralized government only began to appear shortly before and during the time of Prince Shōtoku (572–622). The Emperor was more like a revered embodiment of divine harmony than the head of an actual governing

"Shōguns".

From 1192 to 1867, sovereignty of the state was exercised by the "shōguns", or their "shikken" regents (1203–1333), whose authority was conferred by Imperial warrant. When Portuguese explorers first came into contact with the Japanese (see "Nanban period"), they described Japanese conditions in

Meiji Restoration.

After the United States Navy Commodore Matthew C. Perry's Black Ships forcibly opened Japan to foreign trade, and the shogunate proved incapable of hindering the "barbarian" interlopers, the Emperor Kōmei began to assert himself politically. By the early 1860s, the relationship between the imperial court and the Shogunate was changing radically. Disaffected domains and "rōnin" began to rally to the call of "sonnō jōi" ("revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians").

World War II.

The role of the Emperor as head of the State Shinto religion was exploited during the war, creating an Imperial cult that led to kamikaze bombers and other manifestations of fanaticism. This in turn led to the requirement in

Current constitution.

The constitution provides for a parliamentary system of government and guarantees certain fundamental rights. Under its terms, the Emperor of Japan is "the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people" and exercises a purely ceremonial role without the

Relation to Shinto.

In Japanese mythology, according to "Kojiki" and "Nihon Shoki", the Emperor and his family are said to be direct descendants of the sun-goddess Amaterasu. During World War II, the role of the Emperor as head of the Shinto religion was exploited, which resulted in the creation of State

Education.

The Emperors traditionally had an education officer. In recent times, Emperor Taishō had Count

Addressing and naming.

There are two Japanese words equivalent to the English word "Emperor":, which is used exclusively to refer to the Emperor of Japan, and, which is used primarily to describe non-Japanese Emperors. "Sumeramikoto" ("the Imperial person") was also used in Old Japanese. The term "tennō" was used by the Emperors up until the Middle Ages; then, following a period of disuse, it was used again from the 19th century. In English, the term "mikado" ( or ), literally meaning "the honorable gate" (i.e. the gate of the imperial palace, which indicates the person who lives in and possesses the palace; compare Sublime Porte, an old term for the Ottoman government), was once used (as in "The Mikado", a 19th-century operetta), but this term is now obsolete.  Traditionally, the Japanese considered it disrespectful to call any person by his given name, and more so for a person of noble rank. This convention is only slightly relaxed in the modern age and it is still inadvisable among friends to use the given name, use of the family name being the common form of address. In the case of the imperial family, it is considered extremely inappropriate to use the given name. Since Emperor Meiji, it has been customary to have one era per Emperor and to rename each Emperor after his death using the name of the era over which he presided. Before Emperor Meiji, the names of the eras were changed more frequently, and the posthumous names of the Emperors were chosen differently.  Hirohito, as usually called in English outside Japan, was never referred to by his name in Japan. He was given posthumous name "Shōwa Tennō" after his death, which is the only name that Japanese speakers currently use when referring to him.  The current Emperor on the throne is typically referred to as "Tennō Heika" (, "His (Imperial) Majesty the Emperor"), "Kinjō Heika" (, "His Current Majesty") or simply "Tennō", when speaking Japanese. Emperor Akihito received the title "Daijō Tennō" (, Emperor Emeritus), often shortened to "Jōkō" (), upon his abdication on 30 April 2019, and is expected to be renamed "Heisei Tennō" () after his death and will then be referred to exclusively by that name in Japanese. In Japanese culture, it is considered a major faux pas to refer to a living Emperor by his era name, since it is only after his death when his era name becomes his posthumous name.

Marriage traditions.

Throughout history, Japanese Emperors and noblemen appointed the position of chief wife, rather than just keeping a harem or an assortment of female attendants.  The Japanese imperial dynasty consistently practiced official polygamy, a practice that only ended in the Taishō period (1912–1926). Besides the Empress, the Emperor could take, and nearly always took, several secondary consorts ("concubines") of various hierarchical degrees. Concubines were allowed also to other dynasts (Shinnōke, Ōke). After a decree by Emperor Ichijō, some Emperors even had two empresses simultaneously ("kōgō" and "chūgū" are the two separate titles for that situation). With the help of all this polygamy, the imperial clan thus was capable of producing more offspring. (Sons by secondary consorts were usually recognized as imperial princes, too, and could be recognized as heir to the throne if the empress did not give birth to an heir.)  Of the eight female reigning empresses of Japan, none married or gave birth after ascending the throne. Some of them, being widows, had produced children before their reigns.  In the succession, children of the empress were preferred over sons of secondary consorts. Thus it was significant which quarters had preferential opportunities in providing chief wives to imperial princes, i.e. supplying future empresses.  Apparently, the oldest tradition of official marriages within the imperial dynasty were marriages between dynasty members, even half-siblings or uncle and niece. Such marriages were deemed to preserve better the imperial blood or were aimed at producing children symbolic of a reconciliation between two branches of the imperial dynasty. Daughters of others remained concubines, until Emperor Shōmu (701–706)in what was specifically reported as the first elevation of its kindelevated his Fujiwara consort Empress Kōmyō to chief wife.  Japanese monarchs have been, as much as others elsewhere, dependent on making alliances with powerful chiefs and other monarchs. Many such alliances were sealed by marriages. The specific feature in Japan has been the fact that these marriages have been soon incorporated as elements of tradition which controlled the marriages of later generations, though the original practical alliance had lost its real meaning. A repeated pattern has been an imperial son-in-law under the influence of his powerful non-imperial father-in-law.

Three Sacred Treasures.

In Japanese mythology, the sacred treasures were bestowed on Ninigi-no-Mikoto, the grandson of the goddess Amaterasu, at the advent of Tenson kōrin. Amaterasu sent him to pacify Japan by bringing the three celestial gifts that are used by the Emperor. The account of Ninigi being sent to earth appears in

Succession.

The origins of the Japanese imperial dynasty are obscure, and it bases its position on the claim that it has "reigned since time immemorial". There are no records of any Emperor who was not said to have been a descendant of other, yet earlier Emperor ( "bansei ikkei"). There is suspicion that Emperor Keitai (c. AD 500) may have been an unrelated outsider, though the sources (Kojiki, Nihon-Shoki) state that he was a male-line descendant of Emperor Ōjin. However, his descendants, including his successors, were according to records descended from at least one and probably several imperial princesses of the older lineage. The tradition built by those legends has chosen to recognize just the putative male ancestry as valid for legitimizing his succession, not giving any weight to ties through the said princesses.  Millennia ago, the Japanese imperial family developed its own peculiar system of hereditary succession. It has been non-primogenitural, more or less agnatic, based mostly on rotation. Today, Japan uses strict agnatic primogeniture, which was adopted from Prussia, by which Japan was greatly influenced in the 1870s.  The controlling principles and their interaction were apparently very complex and sophisticated, leading to even idiosyncratic outcomes. Some chief principles apparent in the succession have been:  Historically, the succession to the Chrysanthemum Throne has always passed to descendants in male line from the imperial lineage. Generally, they have been males, though over the reign of one hundred monarchs there have been nine women (one pre-historical and eight historical) as Emperor on eleven occasions.  Over a thousand years ago, a tradition started that an Emperor should ascend relatively young. A dynast who had passed his toddler years was regarded suitable and old enough. Reaching the age of legal majority was not a requirement. Thus, a multitude of Japanese Emperors have ascended as children, as young as 6 or 8 years old. The high-priestly duties were deemed possible for a walking child. A reign of around ten years was regarded a sufficient service. Being a child was apparently a fine property, to better endure tedious duties and to tolerate subjugation to political power-brokers, as well as sometimes to cloak the truly powerful members of the imperial dynasty. Almost all Japanese empresses and dozens of Emperors abdicated, and lived the rest of their lives in pampered retirement, wielding influence behind the scenes. Several Emperors abdicated to their entitled retirement while still in their teens. These traditions show in Japanese folklore, theater, literature, and other forms of culture, where the Emperor is usually described or depicted as an adolescent.  Before the Meiji Restoration, Japan had eleven reigns of reigning empresses, all of them daughters of the male line of the Imperial House. None ascended purely as a wife or as a widow of an Emperor. Imperial daughters and granddaughters, however, usually ascended the throne as a sort of a "stop gap" measure – if a suitable male was not available or some imperial branches were in rivalry so that a compromise was needed. Over half of Japanese empresses and many Emperors abdicated once a suitable male descendant was considered to be old enough to rule (just past toddlerhood, in some cases). Four empresses, Empress Suiko, Empress Kōgyoku (also Empress Saimei), and Empress Jitō, as well as the mythical Empress Jingū, were widows of deceased Emperors and princesses of the blood imperial in their own right. One, Empress Genmei, was the widow of a crown prince and a princess of the blood imperial. The other four, Empress Genshō, Empress Kōken (also Empress Shōtoku), Empress Meishō, and Empress Go-Sakuramachi, were unwed daughters of previous Emperors. None of these empresses married or gave birth after ascending the throne.  Article 2 of the Meiji Constitution (the Constitution of the Empire of Japan) stated, "The Imperial Throne shall be succeeded to by imperial male descendants, according to the provisions of the Imperial House Law." The 1889 Imperial Household Law fixed the succession on male descendants of the imperial line, and specifically excluded female descendants from the succession. In the event of a complete failure of the main line, the throne would pass to the nearest collateral branch, again in the male line. If the Empress did not give birth to an heir, the Emperor could take a concubine, and the son he had by that concubine would be recognized as heir to the throne. This law, which was promulgated on the same day as the Meiji Constitution, enjoyed co-equal status with that constitution.  Article 2 of the Constitution of Japan, promulgated in 1947 by influence of the U.S. occupation administration, provides that "The Imperial Throne shall be dynastic and succeeded to in accordance with the Imperial Household Law passed by the Diet." The Imperial Household Law of 1947, enacted by the ninety-second and last session of the Imperial Diet, retained the exclusion on female dynasts found in the 1889 law. The government of Prime Minister Yoshida Shigeru hastily cobbled together the legislation to bring the Imperial Household in compliance with the American-written Constitution of Japan that went into effect in May 1947. In an effort to control the size of the imperial family, the law stipulates that only legitimate male descendants in the male line can be dynasts, that imperial princesses lose their status as Imperial Family members if they marry outside the Imperial Family, and that the Emperor and other members of the Imperial Family may not adopt children. It also prevented branches, other than the branch descending from Taishō, from being imperial princes any longer.

Burial traditions.

During the Kofun period, so-called "archaic funerals" were held for the dead Emperors, but only the funerary rites from the end of the period, which the chronicles describe in more detail, are known. They were centered around the rite of the "mogari" (), a provisional depository between death and permanent burial.  Empress Jitō was the

Wealth.

Until the end of World War II, the Japanese monarchy was thought to be among the wealthiest in the world. Before 1911, no distinction was made between the imperial crown estates and the Emperor's personal properties, which were considerable. The Imperial Property Law, which came into effect in January 1911, established two categories of imperial properties: the hereditary or crown estates and the personal ("ordinary") properties of the imperial family. The Imperial Household Minister was given the responsibility for observing any judicial proceedings concerning imperial holdings. Under the terms of the law, imperial properties were only taxable in cases where no conflict with the Imperial House Law existed; however, crown estates could only be used for public or imperially-sanctioned undertakings. Personal properties of certain members of the imperial family, in addition to properties held for imperial family members who were minors, were exempted from taxation. Those family members included the Empress Dowager, the Empress, the Crown Prince and Crown Princess, the Imperial Grandson and the consort of the Imperial Grandson. As a result of the poor economic conditions in Japan, 289,259.25 acres of crown lands (about 26% of the total landholdings) were either sold or transferred to government and private-sector interests in 1921. In 1930, the Nagoya Detached Palace (Nagoya Castle) was donated to the city of Nagoya, with six other imperial villas being either sold or donated at the same time. In 1939, Nijō Castle, the former Kyoto residence of the Tokugawa shoguns and an imperial palace since the Meiji Restoration, was likewise donated to the city of Kyoto.  At the end of 1935, according to official government figures, the Imperial Court owned roughly 3,111,965 acres

References.

Informational notes Citations Bibliography

The Emperor of Japan is the head of the Imperial Family and the head of state of Japan. Under the 1947 constitution, he is defined as "the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people." Historically, he is also the highest authority of the Shinto religion. In Japanese, the Emperor is called, literally "heavenly sovereign".

天皇()是日本的君主,为当今世界唯一使用皇帝名号的国家元首,以其为首的日本皇室则是世界上现存最古老的皇室。在明治维新至1947年期间施行的《大日本帝国宪法》明文规定天皇为日本的国家元首;之后接续施行至今的《日本国宪法》则定义其为「日本国以及日本国民整体的象征」,为「有名无实」的虚位元首,主要职责是任命内阁总理大臣(首相)、批准国务大臣的任免、签署法律和命令、以及进行礼仪性的外交事务等。