title: Persepolis

text: Archaeological evidence shows that the earliest remains of Persepolis date back to 515 BC. André Godard, the French archaeologist who excavated Persepolis in the early 1930s, believed that it was Cyrus the Great who chose the site of Persepolis, but that it was Darius I who built the terrace and the palaces. Inscriptions on these buildings support the belief that they were constructed by Darius.


title: Persepolis

text: With Darius I, the scepter passed to a new branch of the royal house. Persepolis probably became the capital of Persia proper during his reign. However, the city's location in a remote and mountainous region made it an inconvenient residence for the rulers of the empire. The country's true capitals were Susa, Babylon and Ecbatana. This may be why the Greeks were not acquainted with the city until Alexander the Great took and plundered it.


title: Persepolis

text: Darius I's construction of Persepolis was carried out parallel to that of the Palace of Susa. According to Gene R. Garthwaite, the Susa Palace served as Darius' model for Persepolis. Darius I ordered the construction of the Apadana and the Council Hall ( or the "Triple Gate"), as well as the main imperial Treasury and its surroundings. These were completed during the reign of his son, Xerxes I. Further construction of the buildings on the terrace continued until the downfall of the Achaemenid Empire. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, the Greek historian Ctesias mentioned that Darius I's grave was in a cliff face that could be reached with an apparatus of ropes.


title: Persepolis

text: Around 519 BC, construction of a broad stairway was begun. The stairway was initially planned to be the main entrance to the terrace above the ground. The dual stairway, known as the Persepolitan Stairway, was built symmetrically on the western side of the Great Wall. The 111 steps measured wide, with treads of and rises of . Originally, the steps were believed to have been constructed to allow for nobles and royalty to ascend by horseback. New theories, however, suggest that the shallow risers allowed visiting dignitaries to maintain a regal appearance while ascending. The top of the stairways led to a small yard in the north-eastern side of the terrace, opposite the Gate of All Nations.


title: Persepolis

text: Grey limestone was the main building material used at Persepolis. After natural rock had been leveled and the depressions filled in, the terrace was prepared. Major tunnels for sewage were dug underground through the rock. A large elevated water storage tank was carved at the eastern foot of the mountain. Professor Olmstead suggested the cistern was constructed at the same time that construction of the towers began.


title: Persepolis

text: The uneven plan of the terrace, including the foundation, acted like a castle, whose angled walls enabled its defenders to target any section of the external front. Diodorus Siculus writes that Persepolis had three walls with ramparts, which all had towers to provide a protected space for the defense personnel. The first wall was tall, the second, and the third wall, which covered all four sides, was in height, though no presence of the wall exists in modern times.


title: Persepolis

text: After invading Achaemenid Persia in 330 BC, Alexander the Great sent the main force of his army to Persepolis by the Royal Road. Diodorus Siculus writes that on his way to the city, Alexander and his army were met by 800 Greek artisans who had been captured by the Persians. Most were elderly and suffered some form of mutilation, such as a missing hand or foot. They explained to Alexander the Persians wanted to take advantage of their skills in the city but handicapped them so they could not easily escape. Alexander and his staff were disturbed by the story and provided the artisans with clothing and provisions before continuing on to Persepolis. Diodorus does not cite this as a reason for the destruction of Persepolis, but it is possible Alexander started to see the city in a negative light after this encounter.


title: Persepolis

text: Upon reaching the city, Alexander stormed the "Persian Gates", a pass through modern-day Zagros Mountains. There Ariobarzanes of Persis successfully ambushed Alexander the Great's army, inflicting heavy casualties. After being held off for 30 days, Alexander the Great outflanked and destroyed the defenders. Ariobarzanes himself was killed either during the battle or during the retreat to Persepolis. Some sources indicate that the Persians were betrayed by a captured tribal chief who showed the Macedonians an alternate path that allowed them to outflank Ariobarzanes in a reversal of Thermopylae. After several months, Alexander allowed his troops to loot Persepolis.


title: Persepolis

text: Around that time, a fire burned "the palaces" or "the palace". Scholars agree that this event, described in historic sources, occurred at the ruins that have now been re-identified as Persepolis. From Stolze's investigations, it appears that at least one of these, the castle built by Xerxes I, bears traces of having been destroyed by fire. The locality described by Diodorus Siculus after Cleitarchus corresponds in important particulars with the historic Persepolis, for example, in being supported by a mountain on the east.


title: Persepolis

text: It is believed that the fire which destroyed Persepolis started from Hadish Palace, which was the living quarters of Xerxes I, and spread to the rest of the city. It is not clear if the fire was an accident or a deliberate act of revenge for the burning of the Acropolis of Athens during the second Persian invasion of Greece. Many historians argue that, while Alexander's army celebrated with a symposium, they decided to take revenge against the Persians. If that is so, then the destruction of Persepolis could be both an accident and a case of revenge. The fire may also have had the political purpose of destroying an iconic symbol of the Persian monarchy that might have become a focus for Persian resistance.


title: Persepolis

text: Several much later Greek and Roman accounts (including Arrian, Diodorus Siculus and Quintus Curtius Rufus) describe that the burning was the idea of Thaïs, mistress of Alexander's general Ptolemy I Soter, and possibly of Alexander himself. She is said to have suggested it during a very drunken celebration, according to some accounts to revenge the destruction of Greek sanctuaries (she was from Athens), and either she or Alexander himself set the fire going.


title: Persepolis

text: The "Book of Arda Wiraz", a Zoroastrian work composed in the 3rd or 4th century, describes Persepolis' archives as containing "all the Avesta and Zend, written upon prepared cow-skins, and with gold ink", which were destroyed. Indeed, in his "Chronology of the Ancient Nations", the native Iranian writer Biruni indicates unavailability of certain native Iranian historiographical sources in the post-Achaemenid era, especially during the Parthian Empire. He adds: "[Alexander] burned the whole of Persepolis as revenge to the Persians, because it seems the Persian King Xerxes had burnt the Greek City of Athens around 150 years ago. People say that, even at the present time, the traces of fire are visible in some places."


title: Persepolis

text: Paradoxically, the event that caused the destruction of these texts may have helped in the preservation of the Persepolis Administrative Archives, which might otherwise have been lost over time to natural and man-made events. According to archaeological evidence, the partial burning of Persepolis did not affect what are now referred to as the "Persepolis Fortification Archive" tablets, but rather may have caused the eventual collapse of the upper part of the northern fortification wall that preserved the tablets until their recovery by the Oriental Institute's archaeologists.


title: Persepolis

text: In 316 BC, Persepolis was still the capital of Persia as a province of the great Macedonian Empire (see Diodorus Siculus xix, 21 seq., 46; probably after Hieronymus of Cardia, who was living about 326). The city must have gradually declined in the course of time. The lower city at the foot of the imperial city might have survived for a longer time; but the ruins of the Achaemenids remained as a witness to its ancient glory. It is probable that the principal town of the country, or at least of the district, was always in this neighborhood.


title: Persepolis

text: The city of Estakhr, five kilometers north of Persepolis, was the seat of the local governors around 200 BC. From there, the foundations of the second great Persian Empire were laid, and Estakhr acquired special importance as the center of priestly wisdom and orthodoxy. The Sasanian kings covered the face of the rocks in this neighborhood, and in part even the Achaemenid ruins, with their sculptures and inscriptions. They must themselves have been built largely there, although never on the same scale of magnificence as their ancient predecessors. The Romans knew as little about Estakhr as the Greeks had known about Persepolis, despite the fact that the Sasanians maintained relations for four hundred years, friendly or hostile, with the empire.


title: Persepolis

text: At the time of the Muslim invasion of Persia, Estakhr offered a desperate resistance. It was still a place of considerable importance in the first century of Islam, although its greatness was speedily eclipsed by the new metropolis of Shiraz. In the 10th century, Estakhr dwindled to insignificance, as seen from the descriptions of Istakhr, a native (), and of Al-Muqaddasi (). During the following centuries, Estakhr gradually declined, until it ceased to exist as a city.


title: Persepolis

text: Odoric of Pordenone may have passed through Persepolis on his way to China in 1320, although he mentioned only a great, ruined city called "Comerum". In 1474, Giosafat Barbaro visited the ruins of Persepolis, which he incorrectly thought were of Jewish origin. "Hakluyt's Voyages" included a general account of the ruins of Persepolis attributed to an English merchant who visited Iran in 1568. António de Gouveia from Portugal wrote about cuneiform inscriptions following his visit in 1602. His report on the ruins of Persepolis was published as part of his in 1611.


title: Persepolis

text: In 1618, García de Silva Figueroa, King Philip III of Spain's ambassador to the court of Abbas I, the Safavid monarch, was the first Western traveler to link the site known in Iran as "Chehel Minar" as the site known from Classical authors as Persepolis.


title: Persepolis

text: Pietro Della Valle visited Persepolis in 1621, and noticed that only 25 of the 72 original columns were still standing, due to either vandalism or natural processes. The Dutch traveler Cornelis de Bruijn visited Persepolis in 1704.


title: Persepolis

text: The fruitful region was covered with villages until its frightful devastation in the 18th century; and even now it is, comparatively speaking, well cultivated. The Castle of Estakhr played a conspicuous part as a strong fortress, several times, during the Muslim period. It was the middlemost and the highest of the three steep crags which rise from the valley of the Kur, at some distance to the west or northwest of the necropolis of Naqsh-e Rustam.


title: Persepolis

text: The French voyagers Eugène Flandin and Pascal Coste are among the first to provide not only a literary review of the structure of Persepolis, but also to create some of the best and earliest visual depictions of its structure. In their publications in Paris, in 1881 and 1882, titled , the authors provided some 350 ground breaking illustrations of Persepolis. French influence and interest in Persia's archaeological findings continued after the accession of Reza Shah, when André Godard became the first director of the archeological service of Iran.


title: Persepolis

text: The first scientific excavations at Persepolis were carried out by Ernst Herzfeld and Erich Schmidt representing the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. They conducted excavations for eight seasons, beginning in 1930, and included other nearby sites.


title: Persepolis

text: Herzfeld believed that the reasons behind the construction of Persepolis were the need for a majestic atmosphere, a symbol for the empire, and to celebrate special events, especially the "Nowruz". For historical reasons, Persepolis was built where the Achaemenid dynasty was founded, although it was not the center of the empire at that time.


title: Persepolis

text: Excavations of plaque fragments hint at a scene with a contest between Herakles and Apollo, dubbed "A Greek painting at Persepolis".


title: Persepolis

text: Persepolitan architecture is noted for its use of the Persian column, which was probably based on earlier wooden columns. Architects resorted to stone only when the largest cedars of Lebanon or teak trees of India did not fulfill the required sizes. Column bases and capitals were made of stone, even on wooden shafts, but the existence of wooden capitals is probable.


title: Persepolis

text: In 518 BC, a large number of the most experienced engineers, architects, and artists from the four corners of the universe were summoned to engage and with participation, build the first building to be a symbol of universal unity and peace and equality for thousands of years.


title: Persepolis

text: The buildings at Persepolis include three general groupings: military quarters, the treasury, and the reception halls and occasional houses for the King. Noted structures include the Great Stairway, the Gate of All Nations, the Apadana, the Hall of a Hundred Columns, the Tripylon Hall and the Tachara, the Hadish Palace, the Palace of Artaxerxes III, the Imperial Treasury, the Royal Stables, and the Chariot House.


title: Persepolis

text: Ruins of a number of colossal buildings exist on the terrace. All are constructed of dark-grey marble. Fifteen of their pillars stand intact. Three more pillars have been re-erected since 1970. Several of the buildings were never finished. F. Stolze has shown that some of the mason's rubbish remains.


title: Persepolis

text: So far, more than 30,000 inscriptions have been found from the exploration of Persepolis, which are small and concise in terms of size and text, but they are the most valuable documents of the Achaemenid period. Based on these inscriptions that are currently held in the United States most of the time indicate that during the time of Persepolis, wage earners were paid.


title: Persepolis

text: Since the time of Pietro Della Valle, it has been beyond dispute that these ruins represent the Persepolis captured and partly destroyed by Alexander the Great.


title: Persepolis

text: Behind the compound at Persepolis, there are three sepulchers hewn out of the rock in the hillside. The facades, one of which is incomplete, are richly decorated with reliefs. About NNE, on the opposite side of the Pulvar River, rises a perpendicular wall of rock, in which four similar tombs are cut at a considerable height from the bottom of the valley. Modern-day Iranians call this place ("Rustam Relief"), from the Sasanian reliefs beneath the opening, which they take to be a representation of the mythical hero Rostam. It may be inferred from the sculptures that the occupants of these seven tombs were kings. An inscription on one of the tombs declares it to be that of Darius I, concerning whom Ctesias relates that his grave was in the face of a rock, and could only be reached by the use of ropes. Ctesias mentions further, with regard to a number of Persian kings, either that their remains were brought "to the Persians," or that they died there.


title: Persepolis

text: The Gate of All Nations, referring to subjects of the empire, consisted of a grand hall that was a square of approximately in length, with four columns and its entrance on the Western Wall. There were two more doors, one to the south which opened to the Apadana yard and the other opened onto a long road to the east. Pivoting devices found on the inner corners of all the doors indicate that they were two-leafed doors, probably made of wood and covered with sheets of ornate metal.


title: Persepolis

text: A pair of lamassus, bulls with the heads of bearded men, stand by the western threshold. Another pair, with wings and a "Persian Head" (), stands by the eastern entrance, to reflect the power of the empire.


title: Persepolis

text: The name of Xerxes I was written in three languages and carved on the entrances, informing everyone that he ordered it to be built.


title: Persepolis

text: Darius I built the greatest palace at Persepolis on the western side of platform. This palace was called the "Apadana". The King of Kings used it for official audiences. The work began in 518 BC, and his son, Xerxes I, completed it 30 years later. The palace had a grand hall in the shape of a square, each side long with seventy-two columns, thirteen of which still stand on the enormous platform. Each column is high with a square Taurus (bull) and plinth. The columns carried the weight of the vast and heavy ceiling. The tops of the columns were made from animal sculptures such as two-headed lions, eagles, human beings and cows (cows were symbols of fertility and abundance in ancient Iran). The columns were joined to each other with the help of oak and cedar beams, which were brought from Lebanon. The walls were covered with a layer of mud and stucco to a depth of , which was used for bonding, and then covered with the greenish stucco which is found throughout the palaces.


title: Persepolis

text: Foundation tablets of gold and silver were found in two deposition boxes in the foundations of the Palace. They contained an inscription by Darius in Old Persian cuneiform, which describes the extent of his Empire in broad geographical terms, and is known as the DPh inscription:


title: Persepolis

text: At the western, northern and eastern sides of the palace, there were three rectangular porticos each of which had twelve columns in two rows of six. At the south of the grand hall, a series of rooms were built for storage. Two grand Persepolitan stairways were built, symmetrical to each other and connected to the stone foundations. To protect the roof from erosion, vertical drains were built through the brick walls. In the four corners of Apadana, facing outwards, four towers were built.


title: Persepolis

text: The walls were tiled and decorated with pictures of lions, bulls, and flowers. Darius ordered his name and the details of his empire to be written in gold and silver on plates, which were placed in covered stone boxes in the foundations under the Four Corners of the palace. Two Persepolitan style symmetrical stairways were built on the northern and eastern sides of Apadana to compensate for a difference in level. Two other stairways stood in the middle of the building. The external front views of the palace were embossed with carvings of the Immortals, the Kings' elite guards. The northern stairway was completed during the reign of Darius I, but the other stairway was completed much later.


title: Persepolis

text: The reliefs on the staircases allow one to observe the people from across the empire in their traditional dress, and even the king himself, "down to the smallest detail".


title: Persepolis

text: The Apadana hoard is a hoard of coins that were discovered under the stone boxes containing the foundation tablets of the Apadana Palace in Persepolis. The coins were discovered in excavations in 1933 by Erich Schmidt, in two deposits, each deposit under the two deposition boxes that were found. The deposition of this hoard is dated to . The coins consisted in eight gold lightweight Croeseids, a tetradrachm of Abdera, a stater of Aegina and three double-sigloi from Cyprus. The Croeseids were found in very fresh condition, confirming that they had been recently minted under Achaemenid rule. The deposit did not have any Darics and Sigloi, which also suggests strongly that these coins typical of Achaemenid coinage only started to be minted later, after the foundation of the Apadana Palace.


title: Persepolis

text: Next to the Apadana, second largest building of the Terrace and the final edifices, is the Throne Hall or the Imperial Army's "Hall of Honor" (also called the "Hundred-Columns Palace"). This hall was started by Xerxes I and completed by his son Artaxerxes I by the end of the fifth century BC. Its eight stone doorways are decorated on the south and north with reliefs of throne scenes and on the east and west with scenes depicting the king in combat with monsters. Two colossal stone bulls flank the northern portico. The head of one of the bulls now resides in the Oriental Institute in Chicago and a column base from one of the columns in the British Museum.


title: Persepolis

text: At the beginning of the reign of Xerxes I, the Throne Hall was used mainly for receptions for military commanders and representatives of all the subject nations of the empire. Later, the Throne Hall served as an imperial museum.


title: Persepolis

text: Other palaces included the Tachara, which was built under Darius I, and the Imperial treasury, which was started by Darius I in 510 BC and finished by Xerxes I in 480 BC. The Hadish Palace of Xerxes I occupies the highest level of terrace and stands on the living rock. The Council Hall, the Tryplion Hall, the Palaces of D, G, H, storerooms, stables and quarters, the unfinished gateway and a few miscellaneous structures at Persepolis are located near the south-east corner of the terrace, at the foot of the mountain.


title: Persepolis

text: It is commonly accepted that Cyrus the Great was buried in the Tomb of Cyrus in Pasargadae, which is mentioned by Ctesias as his own city. If it is true that the body of Cambyses II was brought home "to the Persians," his burying place must be somewhere beside that of his father. Ctesias assumes that it was the custom for a king to prepare his own tomb during his lifetime. Hence, the kings buried at Naghsh-e Rostam are probably Darius I, Xerxes I, Artaxerxes I and Darius II. Xerxes II, who reigned for a very short time, could scarcely have obtained so splendid a monument, and still less could the usurper Sogdianus. The two completed graves behind the compound at Persepolis would then belong to Artaxerxes II and Artaxerxes III. The unfinished tomb, a kilometer away from the city, is debated to who it belongs. It is perhaps that of Artaxerxes IV, who reigned at the longest two years, or, if not his, then that of Darius III (Codomannus), who is one of those whose bodies are said to have been brought "to the Persians." Since Alexander the Great is said to have buried Darius III at Persepolis, then it is likely the unfinished tomb is his.


title: Persepolis

text: Another small group of ruins in the same style is found at the village of Haji Abad, on the Pulvar River, a good hour's walk above Persepolis. These formed a single building, which was still intact 900 years ago, and was used as the mosque of the then-existing city of Estakhr.


title: Persepolis

text: There is, however, one formidable difficulty. Diodorus Siculus says that the rock at the back of the palace containing the royal sepulchers is so steep that the bodies could be raised to their last resting-place only by means of mechanical advantage. This is not true of the graves behind the compound, to which, as F. Stolze expressly observes, one can easily ride up. On the other hand, it is strictly true of the graves at Naqsh-e Rustam. Stolze accordingly started the theory that the royal castle of Persepolis stood close by Naqsh-e Rustam, and has sunk in course of time to shapeless heaps of earth, under which the remains may be concealed.


title: Persepolis

text: In 1971, Persepolis was the main staging ground for the "2,500 Year Celebration of the Persian Empire" under the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah and Pahlavi dynasty. It included delegations from foreign nations in an attempt to advance the Iranian culture and history.


title: Persepolis

text: Construction of the Sivand Dam, named after the nearby town of Sivand, began on 19 September 2006. Despite 10 years of planning, Iran's Cultural Heritage Organization was not aware of the broad areas of flooding during much of this time, and there is growing concern about the effects the dam will have on the surrounding areas of Persepolis.


title: Persepolis

text: Many archaeologists worry that the dam's placement between the ruins of Pasargadae and Persepolis will flood both. Engineers involved with the construction deny this claim, stating that it is impossible, because both sites sit well above the planned waterline. Of the two sites, Pasargadae is considered the more threatened.


title: Persepolis

text: Archaeologists are also concerned that an increase in humidity caused by the lake will speed Pasargadae's gradual destruction. However, experts from the Ministry of Energy believe this would be negated by controlling the water level of the dam reservoir.


title: Persepolis

text: One bas-relief from Persepolis is in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England. The largest collection of reliefs is at the British Museum, sourced from multiple British travellers who worked in Iran in the nineteenth century. The Persepolis bull at the Oriental Institute is one of the university's most prized treasures, part of the division of finds from the excavations of the 1930s. New York City's Metropolitan Museum and Detroit Institute of Art houses objects from Persepolis, as does the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology of the University of Pennsylvania. The Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon and the Louvre of Paris hold objects from Persepolis as well. A bas-relief of a soldier that had been looted from the excavations in 1935–36 and later purchased by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts was repatriated to Iran in 2018, after being offered for sale in London and New York.


title: Daryl Hall

text: Daryl Franklin Hohl (born October 11, 1946), known professionally as Daryl Hall, is an American rock, R&B and soul singer and musician, best known as the co-founder and principal lead vocalist of Daryl Hall and John Oates (with guitarist and songwriter John Oates). Outside of his work in Hall & Oates, he has also released five solo albums, including the 1980 progressive rock collaboration with guitarist Robert Fripp titled "Sacred Songs" and the 1986 album "Three Hearts in the Happy Ending Machine", which provided his best selling single, "Dreamtime", that peaked at number five on the "Billboard" Hot 100. He has also collaborated on numerous works by other artists, such as Fripp's 1979 release "Exposure", and Dusty Springfield's 1995 album "A Very Fine Love", which produced a UK Top 40 hit with "Wherever Would I Be". Since late 2007, he has hosted the streaming television series "Live from Daryl's House," in which he performs alongside other artists, doing a mix of songs from each's catalog. The show has been rebroadcast on a number of cable and satellite channels as well.


title: Daryl Hall

text: In the 1970s and early 1980s, Hall scored numerous "Billboard" chart hits and is regarded as one of the best soul singers of his generation. Fripp, who worked with Hall several times, has written, "Daryl's pipes were a wonder. I have never worked with a more able singer." He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2014.


title: Daryl Hall

text: Hall was born in Pottstown, a Pennsylvania borough from Philadelphia, to a family of German descent. His parents each had a background in music; his father came from a choral-group clan and his mother was a vocal coach. He started recording while still a student at Owen J. Roberts High School, from which he graduated in 1964. In college at Temple University in Philadelphia, he majored in music, while continuing to record, working with Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff as both an artist and a session musician. During his first semester at Temple, in the fall of 1965, he and four other Temple University students formed the vocal harmony group the Temptones.


title: Daryl Hall

text: They were popular additions to the largely black Philly soul scene, defeating both The Ambassadors and The Delfonics in a contest at the Uptown Theater. The Temptones recorded a handful of singles for Arctic Records, produced by Jimmy Bishop. While performing at the Uptown Theater, Hall formed creative affiliations with such artists as Smokey Robinson, The Temptations, and many other top soul singers of the 1960s.


title: Daryl Hall

text: In 1967, Hall met John Oates, who was also an undergraduate at Temple University. According to Daryl Hall, they met when "We got in the middle of a fight at a dance – I have no idea what the fight was about. I guess the Greek letters on one gang's jackets didn't appeal to the other gang. We both beat it out the back and met on the elevator while leaving the place rather quickly." Hall was by then a senior, while Oates was a freshman. They played together until Oates transferred to a different school at age 19. Hall did not let Oates' departure discourage him from pursuing his own musical career: he dropped out of college in 1968 and worked with Tim Moore in a short-lived rock band, Gulliver, and released an album on the Elektra Records label. He was a member of the studio group behind the project Electric Indian whose song "Keem-O-Sabe" became a big hit in 1969. In 1969 Hall again began recording songs by other artists, which led to the duo Hall & Oates signing their first record contract in early 1972.


title: Daryl Hall

text: Signed to Atlantic by Ahmet Ertegun and managed by Tommy Mottola in the early 1970s, Daryl Hall and John Oates have sold more albums than any other duo in music history. Their second album, "Abandoned Luncheonette," produced by Arif Mardin and released in 1973, yielded the single "She's Gone", which went to No. 7 in the U.S. Top 10 on re-release in 1976 after reaching No. 1 on the R&B charts when it was covered by Tavares. The duo recorded one more album with Atlantic, "War Babies" (produced by Todd Rundgren), before they were dropped and promptly signed to RCA. During their tenure at RCA the duo catapulted to international superstardom.


title: Daryl Hall

text: From the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, Daryl Hall and John Oates scored six U.S. No. 1 singles, including "Rich Girl" (also No. 1 R&B), "Kiss on My List", "Private Eyes", "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)" (also No. 1 R&B), "Maneater" and "Out of Touch" from their six multi-platinum albums – "Bigger Than Both of Us", "Voices", "Private Eyes", "H2O", "Rock 'n Soul Part 1" and "Big Bam Boom" – the last five of which were released consecutively. The era also produced an additional six U.S. Top 10 singles, "Sara Smile", "One on One", "Family Man," "You Make My Dreams," "Say It Isn't So" and "Method of Modern Love".


title: Daryl Hall

text: In 1972, Daryl Hall and John Oates opened for David Bowie, who was performing in his first tour of the United States as his stage persona Ziggy Stardust.


title: Daryl Hall

text: Later in 1985 the duo performed at the Philadelphia leg of the seminal Live Aid concert. After their set, the duo returned to the stage to back Mick Jagger and Tina Turner.


title: Daryl Hall

text: In addition to his work with Oates, Hall has made music as a solo artist, as well as recording with Robert Fripp in the late 1970s, working on Fripp's critically praised "Exposure" album from 1979. In 1977 Fripp produced and performed on Hall's debut solo album, the much-acclaimed "Sacred Songs." This album was released in 1980.


title: Daryl Hall

text: In 1984 Hall co-wrote and produced, with Arthur Baker, the single "Swept Away" for Diana Ross, which reached US No. 19, US R & B No. 3 and US Dance/Club Play No. 1.


title: Daryl Hall

text: In 1985 he performed two songs during the first Farm Aid concert in Champaign, Illinois. Hall participated in the We Are the World session as well as closing the Live Aid show in Philadelphia. He also made an album with Dave Stewart that year, "Three Hearts in the Happy Ending Machine", which yielded his #5 solo single "Dreamtime". He has recorded such solo works as "Soul Alone" in 1993 and "Can't Stop Dreaming" in 1996, both of which were received well internationally. In 1994 composed "Gloryland" that was official album of the 1994 FIFA World Cup.


title: Daryl Hall

text: In 2007 Hall guest-starred on the HBO series "Flight of the Conchords", playing an MC of a "world music" festival.


title: Daryl Hall

text: On March 12, 2008, Hall played a well-received set with his band at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.


title: Daryl Hall

text: Hall was slated to sing the National Anthem of the United States before Game 5 of the 2008 World Series at Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park but, due to an illness, could not appear, and Oates sang it instead.


title: Daryl Hall

text: In 2010 Hall was back in the studio working on a solo recording with bassist and musical director T-Bone Wolk. Wolk died of a heart attack on February 28, 2010, hours after completing a session with Hall. Hall released a statement about the death of his bassist of nearly 30 years: "It's not if I will go on, but how? T-Bone was one of the most sensitive and good human beings that I have ever known."


title: Daryl Hall

text: On June 11, 2010, Hall shared the stage with electronic duo Chromeo for a special late night set at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. Their set consisted of a mix of both Hall & Oates and Chromeo tracks.


title: Daryl Hall

text: On August 12, 2011, UK Electronic duo Nero released their debut album "Welcome Reality", which features guest vocals by Hall on the track "Reaching Out", which also samples Hall & Oates' 1980s hit "Out of Touch". "Reaching Out" was released as the sixth single on December 6, 2011.


title: Daryl Hall

text: Hall restores and preserves historic homes in both the United States and England. In 2008, he purchased the 18th century Bray House, in Kittery Point, Maine and is in the process of restoring it. He also has restored a Georgian-style home in London, England, first built in 1740, with direct waterfront access to the River Thames. He purchased two homes located near Hartford, Connecticut – one built in 1771, the other in 1780 – and had them moved to the same property in New York's Dutchess County where they were combined and restored. After having the houses moved, he discovered that both homes, by coincidence, were connected to the same family. Hall has a home in Charleston, South Carolina.


title: Daryl Hall

text: Hall hosted the 2014 television show "Daryl's Restoration Over-Hall" on the DIY Network, which showed him and a crew working on restoring one of his homes in Connecticut.


title: Daryl Hall

text: Since 2007, Hall has hosted the online show/webcast "Live from Daryl's House", which features live music acts in a podcast/videocast first from his home in Millerton, New York, and more recently from his club Daryl's House in Pawling, New York. The webcast has featured appearances by Ben Folds, Johnny Rzeznik, CeeLo Green, The O'Jays, Smokey Robinson, KT Tunstall, Joe Walsh, Rob Thomas, Todd Rundgren, Darius Rucker, Eric Hutchinson, Cheap Trick, Aaron Neville, Chuck Prophet, Travie McCoy, Ray Manzarek and Robbie Krieger of The Doors and many others, as well as a holiday special featuring Shelby Lynne and songs from the Hall and Oates release "Home for Christmas".


title: Daryl Hall

text: In a June 2008 interview with "Blues & Soul" magazine, Hall said of the webcast, "For me it was sort of an obvious thing. I've been touring my whole adult life really, and, you know, you can't be EVERYWHERE! Nor do I WANT to be everywhere at this point! I only like to spend so much time per year on the road. So I thought 'Why don't I just do something where anyone who wants to see me anywhere in the world CAN?! And, instead of doing the artist/audience performance-type thing, I wanted to deconstruct it and make the audience more of a fly-on-the-wall kind of observer... I mean, what I've always done onstage is very natural. I talk to the audience and it's a very sitting-roomy kind of thing. So I just thought I'd basically bring that to the web."


title: Daryl Hall

text: Hall hosted WGN America's 2010 New Year's Eve coverage as a "Live from Daryl's House" special. The special featured clips of previous episodes. Steve Dahl, a Chicago radio host, praised the special as the best New Year's Eve special on television for 2010–11, though he criticized the show's lack of a live countdown to midnight.


title: Daryl Hall

text: In July 2018, BMG partnered with Hall and Jonathan Wolfson to secure worldwide rights for "Live from Daryl's House" and will begin producing new segments beginning that fall, the company announced. The agreement includes worldwide rights to the complete run of 82 episodes filmed from 2007–2016, and the company is seeking distribution partners for the new episodes.


title: Daryl Hall

text: Hall was married to Bryna Lublin from 1969 to 1972. He converted to Lublin's religion, Judaism, in order to marry her. He has not actively participated in religion since, but has said that he feels more of a connection to Judaism than to his original affiliation, Methodism. While Hall admits to having had a passing interest in the ideas of English occultist, ceremonial magician, artist and writer Aleister Crowley, he does not consider Thelema to be his faith.


title: Daryl Hall

text: Hall had a nearly 30-year relationship with songwriter Sara Allen (the inspiration for the song "Sara Smile", and a frequent collaborator with Hall & Oates), which ended in 2001 for undisclosed reasons. They were never married. The two have remained friends, and Allen briefly appears in a May 2016 episode of "Live from Daryl's House".


title: Daryl Hall

text: According to interviews with Hall in the VH1 "Behind the Music" documentary, the death of Janna Allen, a close musical collaborator and Sara Allen's sister, affected him very deeply.


title: Daryl Hall

text: Hall had one biological child named Darren with Andrea Zabloski from Duluth, Minnesota. According to Hall, he and his son are not close.


title: Daryl Hall

text: Hall was married to Amanda Aspinall, daughter of British gambling mogul John Aspinall, from 2009 to 2015. Aspinall had two children from a previous relationship; her daughter March sang backing vocals on songs "Save Me", "Message to Ya" and "Eyes for You" on Hall's 2011 album, "Laughing Down Crying". Amanda Aspinall died in January 2019.


title: Daryl Hall

text: Daryl Hall and John Oates had six No. 1 hits on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart between 1977 and 1984, all six of which were written or co-written by Hall: "Rich Girl", "Kiss on My List" (which Hall wrote with Janna Allen), "Private Eyes" (with Sara Allen, Janna Allen & Warren Pash), "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)" (with John Oates & Sara Allen), "Maneater" (with John Oates & Sara Allen) and "Out of Touch" (with John Oates). In addition, "Do It For Love" (written with John Oates) and "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" (by Edmund Hamilton Sears & Richard Storrs Willis) topped the U.S. Adult Contemporary charts. "Everytime You Go Away", written by Hall and featured on the Hall & Oates album "Voices", reached No. 1 in the US and Canada in 1985 when covered by Paul Young.


title: Daryl Hall

text: The Daryl Hall and John Oates song "She's Gone", which Hall and Oates co-wrote, reached No. 1 on the "Billboard" Hot Soul Singles chart when covered by Tavares in 1974.


title: Daryl Hall

text: Hall also sang lead vocals on, and wrote or co-wrote, nine more popular "Billboard" songs that also made it to the Top 10: "Say It Isn't So", "Adult Education" (with John Oates & Sara Allen), "Sara Smile" (with John Oates – a song that refers to Hall's then-girlfriend), "Method of Modern Love" (with Janna Allen), "You Make My Dreams" (with John Oates & Sara Allen), "Everything Your Heart Desires", "One on One", "Did It in a Minute" (with Sara Allen & Janna Allen) and "So Close" (with George Green).


title: Daryl Hall

text: Hall has also had hits which were cover versions, including reaching No. 12 with his 1980 rendition of The Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Loving Feeling"


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: The Four Seasons are an American rock and pop band formed in 1960 in Newark, New Jersey. Since 1970, they have also been known at times as Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. The band evolved out of a previous band called The Four Lovers, with Frankie Valli as the lead singer, Bob Gaudio on keyboards and tenor vocals, Tommy DeVito on lead guitar and baritone vocals, and Nick Massi on bass guitar and bass vocals. On nearly all of their 1960s hits, they were credited as The 4 Seasons.


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: The legal name of the organization is the Four Seasons Partnership, formed by Gaudio and Valli, and was taken after a failed audition in 1960. While band members have come and gone, Gaudio and Valli remain the band's constants, with each owning 50% of the act and its assets, including virtually all of its recording catalog. Gaudio no longer plays live, leaving Valli as the only original member of the band who still tours .


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: The band's original line-up was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, and joined the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999. They are one of the best-selling musical groups of all time, having sold an estimated 100 million records worldwide.


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: Frankie Valli's first commercial release was "My Mother's Eyes" (as Frankie Valley) in 1953. The following year, he and guitarist Tommy DeVito formed "The Variatones" (with Hank Majewski, rhythm guitar, Frank Cottone, accordion, and Billy Thompson, drums), which between 1954 and 1956 performed and recorded under a variety of names before settling on the name "The Four Lovers". The same year, the quartet released their first record, Otis Blackwell's "You're the Apple of My Eye", which appeared on the "Billboard" Top 100 singles chart, peaking at #62. Five more Four Lovers singles (on RCA Victor) were released over the next year, with virtually no sales, airplay, or jukebox play. In 1957, the band's seventh single (this time on Epic) had a similar lack of success.


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: From 1956 until 1958, the group stayed together, performing in clubs and lounges as "The Four Lovers" and recording on music labels under various names: Frankie Tyler, Frankie Valli, Frankie Valli and the Travelers, Frankie Valli and the Romans, the Village Voices, and the Topics are some of the 18 "stage names" used individually or collectively by the members of the band. In 1958, Charles Calello replaced Nick Massi on bass in the lineup.


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: In 1959, the band started working with producer/songwriter Bob Crewe, primarily for session work (Crewe wrote "I Go Ape", which Valli recorded with the intention of releasing it as a "solo" single, only to be beaten to the punch by an unrelated song of the same name from Neil Sedaka, who became friends with Valli later on). Later that year, "The Four Lovers" were performing in Baltimore on the same stage as the Royal Teens, who were riding the wave of success of "Short Shorts", a song co-written by then-15-year-old Bob Gaudio, who was also the Royal Teens' keyboardist. In late 1959, Gaudio was added to "The Four Lovers" on keyboards and guitar, as a replacement for rhythm guitarist Hank Majewski. Early the following year, Nick Massi returned to replace Calello, who remained the band's musical arranger.


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: In 1960, despite the changes of personnel, the fortunes of "The Four Lovers" had not changed—they failed an audition for a lounge at a Union Township, Union County, New Jersey bowling establishment. According to Gaudio, "We figured we'll come out of this with something. So we took the name of the bowling alley. It was called the Four Seasons." Despite the last few years of frustration of "The Four Lovers", this proved to be the turning point for the band. Later, on a handshake agreement between keyboardist/composer Bob Gaudio and lead singer Frankie Valli, the Four Seasons Partnership was formed.


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: The Four Seasons signed as artists to Crewe's production company, and they released their first Crewe-produced single under their new name in 1961 ("Bermuda"/"Spanish Lace" on Gone Records). The single did not chart. The band continued working with producer Bob Crewe as background vocalists and sometimes leads under different names, for productions on Crewe's own Topix label. As a follow-up, Bob Gaudio wrote a song that, after some discussion between Crewe and Gaudio, was titled "Sherry". After the song was recorded, Crewe and the members of the band solicited record labels to release it. It was Frankie Valli who spoke with Randy Wood, West Coast sales manager for Vee-Jay Records (not the founder of Dot Records) who, in turn, suggested the release of "Sherry" to the decision-makers at Vee-Jay. "Sherry" made enough of an impression that Crewe was able to sign a deal between his production company and Vee-Jay for its release. They were the first white artists to sign with Vee-Jay.


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: In 1962, the band released their first album, featuring the single "Sherry", which was not only their first charted hit but also their first number-one song. Under the guidance of Bob Crewe, the Four Seasons followed up "Sherry" with several million-selling singles, generally composed by Crewe and Gaudio, including "Big Girls Don't Cry" (their second #1 hit), "Walk Like a Man" (their third #1), "Candy Girl" (written by Larry Santos), "Ain't That a Shame", and several others. Also, they released a Christmas album in December 1962 and charted with a unique rendition of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town".


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: From 1962 to early 1964, the Beach Boys were the only band to match the Four Seasons in record sales in the United States, and their first three Vee-Jay non-holiday single releases (i.e., ignoring their version of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town") marked the first time that a rock band hit #1 on the "Billboard" singles charts with three consecutive entries.


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: In 1962, they were invited to perform their hit "Big Girls Don't Cry" on the show "American Bandstand."


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: Despite the band's success, Vee-Jay Records was in financial distress. The label had released several early Beatles singles in America. When the Beatles became hugely popular, Vee-Jay was swamped with orders, and they shipped more than two million Beatles records in a single month. The demands of mass production, the cash-flow problems involved, and the loss of the Beatles when Trans-Global (a firm licensed by EMI to distribute its products) canceled Vee-Jay's contract on August 3, 1963, due to non-payment of royalties, found Vee-Jay hard-pressed to stay afloat. Vee-Jay continued to produce one Beatles album (in various forms) in defiance of the cancellation. After over a year of legal negotiations, Capitol Records was finally able to stop Vee-Jay, effective October 15, 1964.


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: While the label went through internal turmoil with the Beatles and Capitol Records, a separate royalty dispute between Vee-Jay and the Four Seasons headed to court. In January 1964, after several successful albums but a lack of money from Vee-Jay, the Seasons left Vee-Jay and moved to Philips Records, then a division of Mercury Records. In the 1965 settlement of the lawsuit, Vee-Jay retained release rights for all material the band recorded for the label. Vee-Jay exercised those rights liberally over the following year. The group was obligated to deliver one final album to Vee-Jay, which they did in the form of a "faux" live LP. (When Vee-Jay was finally declared bankrupt in 1966, the Four Seasons' Vee-Jay catalog reverted to the band to settle unpaid royalties, and the tracks were then reissued by Philips.)


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: The change of label did not diminish the popularity of the Four Seasons in 1964, nor did the onslaught of the British Invasion and Beatlemania. However, "Dawn (Go Away)" was kept from the #1 spot on the Hot 100 by no fewer than three Beatles singles in the March 21, 1964, edition (two weeks later, the top five slots were filled by Beatles singles). In a two-record set dubbed "The Beatles vs the Four Seasons: The International Battle of the Century!", Vee-Jay created an elaborate two-disc package that the purchaser could use to write on and score individual recordings by their favorite artist. The discs were reissues of the albums "Introducing... The Beatles" and "Golden Hits of the Four Seasons", featuring each original album's label, title, and catalog number. Today, this album package is a collector's item.


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: Nick Massi left the Four Seasons in September 1965. The band's arranger, Charles Calello (a former member of "The Four Lovers"), stepped in as a temporary replacement. A few months later, Joe Long was permanently hired and became a mainstay of the band on bass and backing vocals until 1975, with Calello returning to arranging. In the meantime, the Four Seasons released recordings under a variety of names, including the Valli Boys, the Wonder Who?, and Frankie Valli. Every Valli "solo" recording from 1965 to "My Eyes Adored You" in 1974 was recorded by the Four Seasons at the same time and in the same sessions as other Four Seasons material; these were usually distinguished in that material written and marketed as Valli solo numbers did not have Valli's trademark falsetto. Valli's first post-1960 single without the Seasons was 1975's "Swearin' to God".


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: More top 20 singles followed in 1965, 1966, and 1967, including "Let's Hang On!", "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" (as the Wonder Who?), "Working My Way Back to You", "Opus 17 (Don't You Worry 'bout Me)", "I've Got You Under My Skin", "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" (released under Valli's name as a "solo" single), "Beggin'" (later covered by Norwegian duo Madcon and Italian band Måneskin), "Tell It to the Rain", "C'mon Marianne", and "I Make a Fool of Myself" (Frankie Valli "solo"). Also, other Crewe/Gaudio songs that did not become hits for either Valli or the Four Seasons became international hits in cover versions, such as "Silence Is Golden" (the Tremeloes) and "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine (Anymore)" (the Walker Brothers). However, 1968's "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" was the band's last top 40 hit for seven years (reaching #24), just after Valli's last "solo" hit of the 1960s, the #29 charted "To Give (The Reason I Live)".


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: By 1969, the band's popularity had declined, with public interest moving towards rock with a harder edge and music with more socially conscious lyrics. Aware of that, Bob Gaudio partnered with folk-rock songwriter Jake Holmes to write a concept album titled "The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette", which discussed contemporary issues from the band's standpoint, including divorce ("Saturday's Father"), and Kinks-style satirical looks at modern life (e.g., "American Crucifixion and Resurrection" and "Genuine Imitation Life").


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: The album cover was designed to resemble the front page of a newspaper, pre-dating Jethro Tull's "Thick as a Brick" by several years. The record was a commercial failure and led to the band's departure from Philips shortly after that, but it did catch the attention of Frank Sinatra, whose 1969 album, "Watertown", involved Gaudio, Holmes, and Calello. The Seasons' last single on Philips, 1970's "Patch of Blue", featured the band's name as "Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons", but the change in billing did not revive the band's fortunes. Reverting to the "Four Seasons" billing without Valli's name upfront, the group issued a single on Crewe's eponymous label, a rendition of "And That Reminds Me", which peaked at number 45 on the Billboard chart.


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: After leaving Philips, the Four Seasons recorded a one-off single for the Warner Bros. label in England, "Sleeping Man", backed by "Whatever You Say", which was never released in the USA. John Stefan, the band's lead trumpeter, arranged the horn parts. Following that single, the band signed to Motown. The first LP, "Chameleon", released by Motown subsidiary label MoWest Records in 1972, failed to sell. A 1971 Frankie Valli solo single on Motown, "Love Isn't Here", and three Four Seasons singles, "Walk On, Don't Look Back" on MoWest in 1972, "How Come" and "Hickory" on Motown in 1973, sank without a trace. A song from "Chameleon", "The Night", later became a Northern Soul hit and reached the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart, but was not commercially released in the United States as a single, although promotional copies were distributed in 1972, showing the artist as Frankie Valli.


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: In late 1973 and early 1974, the Four Seasons recorded eight songs for a second Motown album, which the company refused to release, and later in 1974, the label and the band parted ways. On behalf of the Four Seasons Partnership, Valli tried to purchase the entire collection of master recordings the group had made for Motown. After hearing the amount needed to buy them all, Valli arranged to purchase "My Eyes Adored You" for $4,000. He took the tape to Larry Uttal, the owner and founder of Private Stock Records, who wanted to release it as a Frankie Valli solo single. Although the band remained unsigned in the later part of 1974, Valli had a new label—and a new solo career.


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: While new hits for the Four Seasons had dried up in the first half of the 1970s, the band never lost its popularity as a performing act. Longtime member Joe Long stayed in the group until 1975. The new lineup boasted two new lead singers in Don Ciccone (formerly of the Critters) and Gerry Polci, who eased the singing load on an ailing Frankie Valli (who was gradually losing his hearing due to otosclerosis, though eventually surgery restored most of it). As "My Eyes Adored You" climbed the Hot 100 singles chart in early 1975, Valli and Gaudio managed to get the Four Seasons signed with Warner Bros. Records as the disco era dawned. At the same time, Uttal was persuaded to release "The Four Seasons Story", a two-record compilation of the band's biggest hit singles from 1962 to 1970. It quickly became a gold record, selling over one million copies before the RIAA started awarding platinum records for million-selling albums.


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: In 1975, record sales exploded for both Valli and the Four Seasons as both acts had million-selling singles in the United States ("My Eyes Adored You" hit #1 on the Hot 100 for Valli in March, "Who Loves You" peaked at #3 in November for the band and number 6 in the UK chart). In the United Kingdom, Tamla Motown released "The Night" as a single on the 'Mowest' label and saw it reach the #7 position on the UK Singles Chart. "My Eyes Adored You" was also a top 10 hit in the United Kingdom in February of that year. Valli had his first truly solo hit in the summer of 1975 when the Bob Crewe-produced "Swearin' to God" followed "My Eyes Adored You" into the upper reaches of the Hot 100, peaking at the #6 position and capitalizing on the growing disco craze. The song was released in three forms: the eight-minute album version, the ten-minute extended 12-inch single version, and the four-minute single version. This record featured Patti Austin on bridge vocals before she became well-known. Valli followed this with a discofied #11 hit version of Ruby & the Romantics' "Our Day Will Come", also featuring Austin.


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: The album "Who Loves You" became a surprise million-seller for the band, as it was the first Four Seasons album to prominently feature lead vocals by anyone other than Valli ("Sorry" on "Half & Half" had featured Gaudio, DeVito and Long minus Valli, while "Wall Street Village Day" on "Genuine Imitation Life Gazette" featured Valli on just a couple of 'bridge' section lead vocal lines). Gerry Polci did about half of the lead vocals, sharing them with Valli and one led by Ciccone ('Slip Away'). The title song had Valli doing the lead on the verses, but none of the trademark falsettos in the chorus. It was a top 10 British hit in October 1975, relaunching their career there.


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: The Four Seasons opened 1976 atop the Billboard chart with their fifth #1 single, "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)", co-written by Bob Gaudio and his future wife, Judy Parker. The single also hit number one in the United Kingdom. "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)" had Polci singing lead on the verses, Ciccone featured on specific sections, and Valli on lead vocals only on the two bridge sections and backup vocals on the chorus.


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: Although the band also scored minor chart placements with "Silver Star" (with Valli on harmony vocals) (#38 in 1976) and "Down the Hall" (#65 in 1977), both sung by Polci, and "Spend the Night in Love" (#91 in 1980), which again featured Polci as main lead vocalist and Valli singing the bridge section and contributing to backup group vocals, "December, 1963" marked the end of the Seasons' hit-making run. Both singles were hits in the United Kingdom, with "Silver Star" making the top 10. (A dance remix of "December, 1963" returned them briefly to the upper reaches of the "Billboard" singles charts almost two decades later).


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: The success of "Who Loves You" increased the popularity of the Four Seasons as a touring group and reignited recording unit, but when 1977's "Helicon" album was released by Warner Bros., the climate was changing again, both for the band and for Valli. The new record yielded only one USA single, "Down the Hall", which limped onto the Hot 100. In the UK they had chart hits with both "Down the Hall" and "Rhapsody" (with verses sung by Don Ciccone and Valli appearing to notable effect only as lead voice over group harmonies on the chorus). At the same time, Valli's string of solo hits had come to an end as he parted ways with Private Stock Records. "Helicon" saw Polci and Ciccone heavily featured as lead vocalists, Valli, besides his co-lead chorus vocal on "Rhapsody" and some backing vocals, only taking a brief bridge lead vocal on two songs that were sung mainly by Polci. However, on "New York Street Song (No Easy Way)", Valli also clearly stands out over the group harmonies on two notable a cappella sections. Plus, Valli took one solo lead vocal role on the album's concluding song, the brief Gaudio-Parker-penned "I Believe in You".


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: Excluding Valli's 1978 "Grease" single, which hit #1 while the motion picture of the same name became the highest-grossing musical in cinematic history, the last top 40 hit for the band was behind them. Both Valli and the band released singles and albums on an occasional basis, but after "Grease", only a remixed version of their biggest seller, "December 1963" would visit the upper half of the Hot 100 (in 1994). In January 1981, Warners released "Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons Reunited Live". Produced by Bob Gaudio, it was a double album of concert recordings which included the two studio recordings "Spend the Night in Love" and "Heaven Must Have Sent You (Here in the Night)" sung by Valli. The latter became a UK single but failed to chart, while the former was released as a single in America, inching its way into the Hot 100.


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: In 1984, a long-awaited collaboration between the Four Seasons and the Beach Boys, "East Meets West", was released on FBI Records, owned by the Four Seasons Partnership, which included most of the surviving Beach Boys (including Brian Wilson). However, the record did not sell well. Even after the rise and fall of the band's sales in the disco era, the Four Seasons, in one version or another (the group became a sextet as Jerry Corbetta, formerly of Sugarloaf, joined the lineup), continued to be a popular touring act, with Valli being the only constant in the midst of a fluctuating lineup. Although Gaudio is still officially part of the band (he and Valli are still equal partners in the Four Seasons Partnership), he now restricts his activities to writing, producing, and the occasional studio work. In August 1985, MCA Records released the band album "Streetfighter", which yielded two singles in the title track and "Book of Love", a post-disco-style revamp of the Monotones' 1957 recording. In September 1992, a band album was released entitled "Hope + Glory" on the MCA/Curb label.


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: In 2003, Valli revamped the group and started touring with a new band of Four Seasons consisting of Landon Beard, Todd Fournier, and brothers Brian Brigham and Brandon Brigham. Beard, Fournier and the Brigham brothers performed as The Four Seasons for 15 years, longer than any other lineup and longer than any of the band's other members except Valli and Gaudio. In 2018, the Beard/Fournier/Brigham quartet spun off and began performing as The Modern Gentlemen, with Valli's blessing, and Valli recruited a new quartet of musicians to back him.


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: A massive 3CD + 1DVD box set "...Jersey Beat... The Music Of Frankie Valli & the 4 Seasons" was released in mid-2007, marketed as the most comprehensive collection of Four Seasons music yet. The album title "Jersey Beat" is a play on "Jersey Boys," a successful Broadway musical about the Four Seasons, as well as on "Mersey Beat", a term first coined as the title of a music magazine published in Liverpool, England, from 1961, but subsequently also used to describe Liverpool's "beat music" culture of the early 1960s.


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: In 2008, the Four Seasons' "Beggin'" was revived by two acts. Pilooski made an electro remix of that song, while rap act Madcon used it as the basis of their song "Beggin'". The latter reached number 5 in the UK charts and was a hit across Europe. The song was featured in a TV commercial for adidas shoes entitled "Celebrate Originality". The Adidas commercial is a popular hit on YouTube and features a house party with famous celebrities such as David Beckham, Russel Simmons, Kevin Garnett, Missy Elliott, Katy Perry, and Mark Gonzales.


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: As part of the "BBC Proms in the Park" they performed with the BBC Concert Orchestra in Hyde Park on September 10, 2016.


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: In 2020, the group launched a YouTube channel, featuring the group virtually re-recording some of their songs.


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: A limited-edition 44-disc career box set called "Working Our Way Back to You: The Ultimate Collection" was initially going to be released in the summer of 2021 by The Four Seasons Partnership and Snapper Records, but it missed the release due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the box set was re-scheduled for release on December 9, 2022, before the release date was pushed back to April 14, 2023. It will include every album released by the band, a CD of unreleased tracks from the band's Mowest years, three live shows taken from soundboard recordings as well as numerous other rare tracks and alternative versions.


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: From 1956 until "My Eyes Adored You" in 1975, records which the Four Seasons recorded had the following artist credit (a sampling):


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: This is not a complete list of album releases. These recordings have been reissued on a variety of labels, some of which are noted here. This list includes only those Frankie Valli solo albums (the first two) that were recorded as Four Seasons productions.


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: The US chart position on the "Billboard" Hot 100 singles chart follows the song title. Only singles that reached a position of #30 or higher on the Hot 100 are listed.


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: "Jersey Boys", a musical play based on the lives of the Four Seasons and directed by Des McAnuff ("The Who's Tommy", "700 Sundays)", premiered at his La Jolla Playhouse and opened on November 6, 2005 to generally positive reviews. It subsequently won multiple Tony Awards after its move to Broadway. The original cast included John Lloyd Young as Frankie Valli, Daniel Reichard as Bob Gaudio, Christian Hoff as Tommy DeVito, and J. Robert Spencer as Nick Massi. The play portrays the history of the Four Seasons in four parts, with each part narrated by a different member of the band and supposedly reflecting that band member's perspective on the band's history. The author of the book of the play, Rick Elice, interviewed Valli, Gaudio, and DeVito in writing the play, and pieced together Nick Massi's point of view based on those interviews (Massi had died before the play was written.) The Broadway production won four 2006 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Actor (for John Lloyd Young as Frankie Valli), Best Featured Actor (for Christian Hoff as Tommy DeVito), and Best Lighting Design. There are currently three U.S. productions of "Jersey Boys" running outside New York and other productions overseas including productions in Toronto, London, Australia, South Africa and The Netherlands.


title: The Four Seasons (band)

text: The movie adaptation, directed by Clint Eastwood, starred John Lloyd Young as Frankie Valli, Vincent Piazza as Tommy DeVito, Michael Lomenda as Nick Massi and Erich Bergen as Bob Gaudio. This film was released on June 20, 2014.


title: Kurtwood Smith

text: Kurtwood Larson Smith (born July 3, 1943) is an American television and film actor. He is known for playing Clarence Boddicker in "RoboCop" (1987), Robert Griggs in "Rambo III" (1988), and Red Forman in "That '70s Show" (1998–2006), as well as for his many appearances in science fiction films and television programs ("Lou Grant", "Star Trek", "The X-Files"). He also starred in the seventh season of "24". He voiced Gene on "Regular Show" (2012–2017), Leslie Claret on "Patriot" (2015–2018), and Old Man Peterson on "The Ranch" (2017–2020).


title: Kurtwood Smith

text: Smith was born in New Lisbon, Wisconsin, the son of Mabel Annette Lund (née Larson) and George Smith. Smith's mother was a fan of a country singer named Kurt (or Curt) in the early 1940s. However, she thought "Kurt Smith" was too short a name, so she added "wood" ("she just tacked it on to the end", he said); Smith has said that he is likely the only Kurtwood. Smith's father was a Major during the Second World War and was killed in Europe.


title: Kurtwood Smith

text: Smith grew up in the San Fernando Valley and graduated from Canoga Park High School in Canoga Park, California in 1961; he was class president in his senior year. Smith graduated from San Jose State College (now San José State University) in 1965 with a B.A. and Stanford University in 1969 with an M.F.A.


title: Kurtwood Smith

text: On stage, Smith won three Drama-Logue Awards for his performances in "Billy Budd", "Idiot's Delight", and "Green Grow the Lilacs". In his film career, he portrayed Clarence Boddicker in Paul Verhoeven's science fiction action movie "RoboCop" and the father role as Red Forman on the Fox sitcom "That '70s Show", which ran from 1998 to 2006. After "That '70s Show" ended, Smith played Senator Blaine Mayer in the seventh season of the action thriller "24", and portrayed Dick Clayton in the CBS series "Worst Week". He enjoyed a recurring role as a rogue FBI agent in Seasons 3–5 of the NBC (later CBS) series "Medium", appearing in later episodes as a ghost after his character's death. He played the main character Henry Langston in the ABC sci-fi/drama "Resurrection" which ran for two seasons (2014–15). Currently, he is a regular on the Amazon original dramedy series "Patriot".


title: Kurtwood Smith

text: His other roles included playing the leader of the Ku Klux Klan, Stump Sisson, in "A Time to Kill". He also played the role of Mr. Sue on Fox's "espionage comedy" "The New Adventures of Beans Baxter" in 1987. He also starred as the strict father of Robert Sean Leonard's Neil in 1989's "Dead Poets Society". He made a number of appearances in the "Star Trek" franchise, playing the President of the Federation in "", a Cardassian named Thrax in the "" episode "", and a Krenim scientist named Annorax in the "" two-part episode "Year of Hell".


title: Kurtwood Smith

text: He also has an extensive voice acting résumé, appearing in computer games such as "", and "FreeSpace 2", and on a number of animated series. He played a recurring role on the claymation series "Gary & Mike" as the vengeful Officer Dick and voiced the dinosaurian military commander character General Galapagos in the Savage Steve Holland produced Fox animated series "Terrible Thunderlizards". He played the voice of Bob Johnson on "Squirrel Boy" and provided the voice of Kanjar Ro in "" and starred as the sheriff in "Last of the Dogmen". Smith appeared on the Netflix series "The Ranch" as Mr. Peterson, a farmer dying of brain cancer. Smith worked in the stop-motion AMC+ series "Ultra City Smiths" where he voiced Carpenter K. Smith.


title: The Split (TV series)

text: The Split is a British legal drama television series, written and created by Abi Morgan, that first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 24 April 2018. The first series, commissioned in August 2016, follows the lives of the Defoe family, who all work in divorce law for the family firm, aside from eldest sister Hannah (Nicola Walker), who works for rival family law firm Noble & Hale and youngest daughter who is a nanny. The series co-stars Stephen Mangan, Fiona Button, Annabel Scholey and Barry Atsma. Series 2 saw the return of the Defoe family at newly merged law firm Noble Hale Defoe, with most of the original cast confirmed. The third and final series premiered on 4 April 2022. For her performance in the final series, Walker received a TV Choice Award nomination for Best Actress and a National Television Award nomination for Drama Performance while "The Split" was nominated for Returning Drama.


title: The Split (TV series)

text: Production for the first series began in July 2017 in London. On 13 January 2017, SundanceTV announced that it would be partnering with the BBC to produce the series. SundanceTV will thus hold exclusive rights for broadcast in the United States. Series 1 was released on DVD on 4 June 2018.


title: The Split (TV series)

text: A second series was commissioned in May 2018 with production beginning in March 2019. Donna Air and Ben Bailey Smith joined the cast for the second series as high-profile clients for the law firm and Damien Molony as the character Tyler Donaghue. The first episode of series 2 aired in the UK on BBC One on 11 February 2020 and in the United States on Sundance TV beginning on 15 May 2020. During filming Series 2, production visited Maidstone TV Studios to film a studio show segment.


title: The Split (TV series)

text: Series 3 premiered on BBC One on 4 April 2022. All six episodes were released on BBC iPlayer on the same day. Season three premiered on AMC+ and Sundance Now in the US on 23 June 2022 in full a week ahead of its linear broadcast premiere, with the show moving from SundanceTV to sister network BBC America, starting 27 June, with each episode airing weekly. It is unknown if season 3 will air in simulcast on both networks or not.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: Dynasties in Chinese history, or Chinese dynasties, were hereditary monarchical regimes that ruled over China during much of its history. From the legendary inauguration of dynastic rule by Yu the Great circa 2070 BC to the abdication of the Xuantong Emperor on 12 February 1912 in the wake of the Xinhai Revolution, China was ruled by a series of successive dynasties. Dynasties of China were not limited to those established by ethnic Han—the dominant Chinese ethnic group—and its predecessor, the Huaxia tribal confederation, but also included those founded by non-Han peoples.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: Dividing Chinese history into periods ruled by dynasties is a convenient method of periodization. Accordingly, a dynasty may be used to delimit the era during which a family reigned, as well as to describe events, trends, personalities, artistic compositions, and artifacts of that period. For example, porcelain made during the Ming dynasty may be referred to as "Ming porcelain". The word "dynasty" is usually omitted when making such adjectival references.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: The longest-reigning orthodox dynasty of China was the Zhou dynasty, ruling for a total length of 789 years, albeit it is divided into the Western Zhou and the Eastern Zhou in Chinese historiography, and its power was drastically reduced during the latter part of its rule. The largest orthodox Chinese dynasty in terms of territorial size was either the Yuan dynasty or the Qing dynasty, depending on the historical source.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: Chinese dynasties often referred to themselves as "" (; "Celestial Dynasty" or "Heavenly Dynasty"). As a form of respect and subordination, Chinese tributary states referred to Chinese dynasties as "" (; "Celestial Dynasty of the Exalted State") or "" (; "Celestial Dynasty of the Great State").


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: In the Chinese language, the character "" () originally meant "morning" and "today". Politically, the word is taken to refer to the regime of the incumbent ruler.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: As the founder of China's first orthodox dynasty, the Xia dynasty, Yu the Great is conventionally regarded as the inaugurator of dynastic rule in China. In the Chinese dynastic system, sovereign rulers theoretically possessed absolute power and private ownership of the realm, even though in practice their actual power was dependent on numerous factors. By tradition, the Chinese throne was inherited exclusively by members of the male line, but there were numerous cases whereby the consort kins came to possess "de facto" power at the expense of the monarchs. This concept, known as (; "All under Heaven belongs to the ruling family"), was in contrast to the pre-Xia notion of (; "All under Heaven belongs to the public") whereby leadership succession was non-hereditary.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: The rise and fall of dynasties is a prominent feature of Chinese history. Some scholars have attempted to explain this phenomenon by attributing the success and failure of dynasties to the morality of the rulers, while others have focused on the tangible aspects of monarchical rule. This method of explanation has come to be known as the dynastic cycle.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: Cases of dynastic transition (; ) in the history of China occurred primarily through two ways: military conquest and usurpation. The supersession of the Liao dynasty by the Jin dynasty was achieved following a series of successful military campaigns, as was the later unification of China proper under the Yuan dynasty; on the other hand, the transition from the Eastern Han to the Cao Wei, as well as from the Southern Qi to the Liang dynasty, were cases of usurpation. Oftentimes, usurpers would seek to portray their predecessors as having relinquished the throne willingly—a process called (; "voluntary abdicating and passing the throne")—as a means to legitimize their rule.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: One might incorrectly infer from viewing historical timelines that transitions between dynasties occurred abruptly and roughly. Rather, new dynasties were often established before the complete overthrow of an existing regime. For example, AD 1644 is frequently cited as the year in which the Qing dynasty succeeded the Ming dynasty in possessing the Mandate of Heaven. However, the Qing dynasty was officially proclaimed in AD 1636 by the Emperor Taizong of Qing through renaming the Later Jin established in AD 1616, while the Ming imperial family would rule the Southern Ming until AD 1662. The Ming loyalist Kingdom of Tungning based in Taiwan continued to oppose the Qing until AD 1683. Meanwhile, other factions also fought for control over China during the Ming–Qing transition, most notably the Shun and the Xi dynasties proclaimed by Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong respectively. This change of ruling houses was a convoluted and prolonged affair, and the Qing took almost two decades to extend their rule over the entirety of China proper.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: Similarly, during the earlier Sui–Tang transition, numerous regimes established by rebel forces vied for control and legitimacy as the power of the ruling Sui dynasty weakened. Autonomous regimes that existed during this period of upheaval included, but not limited to, Wei (; by Li Mi), Qin (; by Xue Ju), Qi (; by Gao Tancheng), Xu (; by Yuwen Huaji), Liang (; by Shen Faxing), Liang (; by Liang Shidu), Xia (; by Dou Jiande), Zheng (; by Wang Shichong), Chu (; by Zhu Can), Chu (; by Lin Shihong), Wu (; by Li Zitong), Yan (; by Gao Kaidao), and Song (; by Fu Gongshi). The Tang dynasty that superseded the Sui launched a decade-long military campaign to reunify China proper.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: Frequently, remnants and descendants of previous dynasties were either purged or granted noble titles in accordance with the (; "two crownings, three respects") system. The latter served as a means for the reigning dynasty to claim legitimate succession from earlier dynasties. For example, the Emperor Xiaojing of Eastern Wei was accorded the title "Prince of Zhongshan" by the Emperor Wenxuan of Northern Qi following the latter's deposition of the former. Similarly, Chai Yong, a nephew of the Emperor Shizong of Later Zhou, was conferred the title "Duke of Chongyi" by the Emperor Renzong of Song; other descendants of the Later Zhou ruling family came to inherit the noble title thereafter.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: According to Chinese historiographical tradition, each new dynasty would compose the history of the preceding dynasty, culminating in the "Twenty-Four Histories". This tradition was maintained even after the Xinhai Revolution overthrew the Qing dynasty in favor of the Republic of China. However, the attempt by the Republicans to draft the history of the Qing was disrupted by the Chinese Civil War, which resulted in the political division of China into the People's Republic of China on mainland China and the Republic of China on Taiwan.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: Dynastic rule in China collapsed in AD 1912 when the Republic of China superseded the Qing dynasty following the success of the Xinhai Revolution. While there were attempts after the Xinhai Revolution to reinstate dynastic rule in China, they were unsuccessful at consolidating their rule and gaining political legitimacy.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: During the Xinhai Revolution, there were numerous proposals advocating for the replacement of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty by a new dynasty of Han ethnicity. Kong Lingyi (), the Duke of Yansheng and a 76th-generation descendant of Confucius, was identified as a potential candidate for Chinese emperorship by Liang Qichao. Meanwhile, gentry in Anhui and Hebei supported a restoration of the Ming dynasty under Zhu Yuxun (), the Marquis of Extended Grace. Both suggestions were ultimately rejected.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: The Empire of China (AD 1915–1916) proclaimed by Yuan Shikai sparked the National Protection War, resulting in the premature collapse of the regime 101 days later. The Manchu Restoration (AD 1917) was an unsuccessful attempt at reviving the Qing dynasty, lasting merely 11 days. Similarly, the Manchukuo (AD 1932–1945; monarchy since AD 1934), a puppet state of the Empire of Japan during World War II with limited diplomatic recognition, is not regarded as a legitimate regime. Ergo, historians usually consider the abdication of the Xuantong Emperor on 12 February 1912 as the end of the Chinese dynastic system. Dynastic rule in China lasted almost four millennia.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: China was politically divided during multiple periods in its history, with different regions ruled by different dynasties. These dynasties effectively functioned as separate states with their own court and political institutions. Political division existed during the Three Kingdoms, the Sixteen Kingdoms, the Northern and Southern dynasties, and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms periods, among others.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: Relations between Chinese dynasties during periods of division often revolved around political legitimacy, which was derived from the doctrine of the Mandate of Heaven. Dynasties ruled by ethnic Han would proclaim rival dynasties founded by other ethnicities as illegitimate, usually justified based on the concept of Hua–Yi distinction. On the other hand, many dynasties of non-Han origin saw themselves as the legitimate dynasty of China and often sought to portray themselves as the true inheritor of Chinese culture and history. Traditionally, only regimes deemed as "legitimate" or "orthodox" (; ) are termed (; "dynasty"); "illegitimate" or "unorthodox" regimes are referred to as (; usually translated as either "state" or "kingdom"), even if these regimes were dynastic in nature.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: Traditionally, periods of disunity often resulted in heated debates among officials and historians over which prior dynasties could and should be considered orthodox, given that it was politically imperative for a dynasty to present itself as being linked in an unbroken lineage of moral and political authority back to ancient times. However, the Northern Song statesman Ouyang Xiu propounded that such orthodoxy existed in a state of limbo during fragmented periods and was restored after political unification was achieved. From this perspective, the Song dynasty possessed legitimacy by virtue of its ability to end the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period despite not having succeeded the orthodoxy from the Later Zhou. Similarly, Ouyang considered the concept of orthodoxy to be in oblivion during the Three Kingdoms, the Sixteen Kingdoms, and the Northern and Southern dynasties periods.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: Traditionally, as most Chinese historiographical sources uphold the idea of unilineal dynastic succession, only one dynasty could be considered orthodox at any given time. Most historical sources consider the legitimate line of succession to be as follows:


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: These historical legitimacy disputes are similar to the modern competing claims of legitimacy by the People's Republic of China based in Beijing and the Republic of China based in Taipei. Both regimes formally adhere to the One-China principle and claim to be the sole legitimate representative of the whole of China.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: There were several groups of Chinese dynasties that were ruled by families with patrilineal relations, yet due to various reasons these regimes are considered to be separate dynasties and given distinct retroactive names for historiographical purpose. Such conditions as differences in their official dynastic title and fundamental changes having occurred to their rule would necessitate nomenclatural distinction in academia, despite these ruling clans having shared common ancestral origins.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: Additionally, numerous other dynasties claimed descent from earlier dynasties as a calculated political move to obtain or enhance their legitimacy, even if such claims were unfounded.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: The agnatic relations of the following groups of Chinese dynasties are typically recognized by historians:


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: The Central Plain is a vast area on the lower reaches of the Yellow River which formed the cradle of Chinese civilization. "Central Plain dynasties" (; ) refer to dynasties of China that had their capital cities situated within the Central Plain. This term could refer to dynasties of both Han and non-Han ethnic origins.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: "Unified dynasties" (; ) refer to dynasties of China, regardless of their ethnic origin, that achieved the unification of China proper. "China proper" is a region generally regarded as the traditional heartland of the Han people, and is not equivalent to the term "China". Imperial dynasties that had attained the unification of China proper may be known as the "Chinese Empire" or the "Empire of China" (; ).


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: The concept of "great unity" or "grand unification" (; ) was first mentioned in the "Gongyang Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals" that was supposedly authored by the Qi scholar Gongyang Gao. Other prominent figures like Confucius and Mencius also elaborated on this concept in their respective works.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: Historians typically consider the following dynasties to have unified China proper: the Qin dynasty, the Western Han, the Xin dynasty, the Eastern Han, the Western Jin, the Sui dynasty, the Tang dynasty, the Wu Zhou, the Northern Song, the Yuan dynasty, the Ming dynasty, and the Qing dynasty. The status of the Northern Song as a unified dynasty is disputed among historians as the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun were partially administered by the contemporaneous Liao dynasty while the Western Xia exercised partial control over Hetao; the Northern Song, in this sense, did not truly achieve the unification of China proper.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: According to the historian and sinologist Karl August Wittfogel, dynasties of China founded by non-Han peoples that ruled parts or all of China proper could be classified into two types, depending on the means by which the ruling ethnic groups had entered China proper.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: "Infiltration dynasties" or "dynasties of infiltration" (; ) refer to Chinese dynasties founded by non-Han ethnicities that tended towards accepting Han culture and assimilating into the Han-dominant society. For instance, the Han Zhao and the Northern Wei, established by the Xiongnu and Xianbei ethnicities respectively, are considered infiltration dynasties of China.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: "Conquest dynasties" or "dynasties of conquest" (; ) refer to dynasties of China established by non-Han peoples that tended towards resisting Han culture and preserving the identities of the ruling ethnicities. For example, the Liao dynasty and the Yuan dynasty, ruled by the Khitan and Mongol peoples respectively, are considered conquest dynasties of China.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: These terms remain sources of controversy among scholars who believe that Chinese history should be analyzed and understood from a multiethnic and multicultural perspective.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: It was customary for Chinese monarchs to adopt an official name for the realm, known as the (; "name of the state"), upon the establishment of a dynasty. During the rule of a dynasty, its functioned as the formal name of the state, both internally and for diplomatic purposes.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: There were instances whereby the official name was changed during the reign of a dynasty. For example, the dynasty known retroactively as Southern Han initially used the name "Yue", only to be renamed to "Han" subsequently.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: The official title of several dynasties bore the character "" (; "great"). In "Yongzhuang Xiaopin" by the Ming historian Zhu Guozhen, it was claimed that the first dynasty to do so was the Yuan dynasty. However, several sources like the "History of Liao" and the "History of Jin" compiled by the Yuan historian Toqto'a revealed that the official dynastic name of some earlier dynasties such as the Liao and the Jin also contained the character "". It was also common for officials, subjects, or tributary states of a particular dynasty to include the term "" (or an equivalent term in other languages) when referring to this dynasty as a form of respect, even if the official dynastic name did not include it. For instance, "The Chronicles of Japan" referred to the Tang dynasty as "" (; "Great Tang") despite its dynastic name being simply "Tang".


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: While all dynasties of China sought to associate their respective realm with (; "Central State"; usually translated as "Middle Kingdom" or "China" in English texts) and various other names of China, none of these regimes officially used such names as their dynastic title. Although the Qing dynasty explicitly identified their state with and employed ""—and its Manchu equivalent ""Dulimbai Gurun"" ()—in official capacity in numerous international treaties beginning with the Treaty of Nerchinsk dated AD 1689, its dynastic name had remained the "Great Qing". "", which has become nearly synonymous with "China" in modern times, is a concept with geographical, political, and cultural connotations.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: The adoption of , as well as the importance assigned to it, had promulgated within the Sinosphere. Notably, rulers of Vietnam and Korea also declared for their respective realm.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: In Chinese historiography, historians generally do not refer to dynasties directly by their official name. Instead, historiographical names, which were most commonly derived from their official name, are used. For instance, the Sui dynasty is known as such because its formal name was "Sui". Likewise, the Jin dynasty was officially the "Great Jin".


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: When more than one dynasty shared the same Chinese character(s) as their formal name, as was common in Chinese history, prefixes are retroactively applied to dynastic names by historians in order to distinguish between these similarly-named regimes. Frequently used prefixes include:


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: A dynasty could be referred to by more than one retroactive name in Chinese historiography, albeit some are more widely used than others. For instance, the Western Han is also known as the "Former Han", and the Yang Wu is also called the "Southern Wu".


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: Scholars usually make a historiographical distinction for dynasties whose rule were interrupted. For example, the Song dynasty is divided into the Northern Song and the Southern Song, with the Jingkang Incident as the dividing line; the original "Song" founded by the Emperor Taizu of Song was therefore differentiated from the "Song" restored under the Emperor Gaozong of Song. In such cases, the regime had collapsed, only to be re-established; a nomenclatural distinction between the original regime and the new regime is thus necessary for historiographical purpose. Major exceptions to this historiographical practice include the Western Qin, the Southern Liang, and the Tang dynasty; the first two were interrupted by the Later Qin, while the continuity of the latter was broken by the Wu Zhou.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: In Chinese sources, the term "dynasty" (; ) is usually omitted when referencing dynasties that have prefixes in their historiographical names. Such a practice is sometimes adopted in English usage, even though the inclusion of the word "dynasty" is also widely seen in English scholarly writings. For example, the Northern Zhou is also sometimes referred to as the "Northern Zhou dynasty".


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: Often, scholars would refer to a specific Chinese dynasty by attaching the word "China" after the dynastic name. For instance, "Tang China" refers to the Chinese state under the rule of the Tang dynasty and the corresponding historical era.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: While the earliest orthodox Chinese dynasties were established along the Yellow River and the Yangtze River in China proper, numerous Chinese dynasties later expanded beyond the region to encompass other territorial domains.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: At various points in time, Chinese dynasties exercised control over China proper (including Hainan, Macau, and Hong Kong), Taiwan, Manchuria (both Inner Manchuria and Outer Manchuria), Sakhalin, Mongolia (both Inner Mongolia and Outer Mongolia), Vietnam, Tibet, Xinjiang, as well as parts of Central Asia, the Korean Peninsula, Afghanistan, and Siberia.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: Territorially, the largest orthodox Chinese dynasty was either the Yuan dynasty or the Qing dynasty, depending on the historical source. This discrepancy can be mainly attributed to the ambiguous northern border of the Yuan realm: whereas some sources describe the Yuan border as located to the immediate north of the northern shore of Lake Baikal, others posit that the Yuan dynasty reached as far north as the Arctic coast. In contrast, the borders of the Qing dynasty were demarcated and reinforced through a series of international treaties, and thus were more well-defined.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: Apart from exerting direct control over the Chinese realm, various dynasties of China also maintained hegemony over other states and tribes through the Chinese tributary system. The Chinese tributary system first emerged during the Western Han and lasted until the 19th century AD when the Sinocentric order broke down.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: The modern territorial claims of both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China are inherited from the lands once held by the Qing dynasty at the time of its collapse.


title: Dynasties in Chinese history

text: This list includes only the major dynasties of China that are typically found in simplified forms of Chinese historical timelines. This list is neither comprehensive nor representative of Chinese history as a whole.


title: Heuristic

text: A heuristic (; ), or heuristic technique, is any approach to problem solving or self-discovery that employs a practical method that is not guaranteed to be optimal, perfect, or rational, but is nevertheless sufficient for reaching an immediate, short-term goal or approximation. Where finding an optimal solution is impossible or impractical, heuristic methods can be used to speed up the process of finding a satisfactory solution. Heuristics can be mental shortcuts that ease the cognitive load of making a decision.


title: Heuristic

text: Heuristics are the strategies derived from previous experiences with similar problems. These strategies depend on using readily accessible, though loosely applicable, information to control problem solving in human beings, machines and abstract issues. When an individual applies a heuristic in practice, it generally performs as expected. However it can alternatively create systematic errors.


title: Heuristic

text: The most fundamental heuristic is trial and error, which can be used in everything from matching nuts and bolts to finding the values of variables in algebra problems. In mathematics, some common heuristics involve the use of visual representations, additional assumptions, forward/backward reasoning and simplification. Here are a few commonly used heuristics from George Pólya's 1945 book, "How to Solve It": This is because only the general problem can provide to a specific problem—a context from which to draw meaning.


title: Heuristic

text: In psychology, heuristics are simple, efficient rules, either learned or inculcated by evolutionary processes. These psychological heuristics have been proposed to explain how people make decisions, come to judgements, and solve problems. These rules typically come into play when people face complex problems or incomplete information. Researchers employ various methods to test whether people use these rules. The rules have been shown to work well under most circumstances, but in certain cases can lead to systematic errors or cognitive biases.


title: Heuristic

text: The study of heuristics in human decision-making was developed in the 1970s and the 1980s by the psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, although the concept had been originally introduced by the Nobel laureate Herbert A. Simon. Simon's original primary object of research was problem solving that showed that we operate within what he calls "bounded rationality". He coined the term "satisficing", which denotes a situation in which people seek solutions, or accept choices or judgements, that are "good enough" for their purposes although they could be optimised.


title: Heuristic

text: Rudolf Groner analysed the history of heuristics from its roots in ancient Greece up to contemporary work in cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence, proposing a cognitive style "heuristic versus algorithmic thinking", which can be assessed by means of a validated questionnaire.