title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: In March 1945, after the liberation of France and heavy setbacks in the war, the Japanese in a last ditch effort to gather support in Indochina overthrew the French administration, imprisoned their civil servants and proclaimed independence for Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, which became the Empire of Vietnam with Bảo Đại as its Emperor. The Empire of Vietnam was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan. After the Surrender of Japan, Bảo Đại abdicated on 25 August 1945 while the Viet Minh launched the August Revolution.


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: The Nguyễn dynasty retained the bureaucratic and hierarchic system of previous dynasties. The emperor was the head of state who wielded absolute authority. Under the emperor was the Ministry of Interior (which worked on papers, royal messages and recording) and four Grand Secretariats (), later renamed the Ministry of Secret Council.


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: The Emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty was an absolutist ruler, which means he was both the head of state and the head of government. The Gia Long Code in 1812 declared the Vietnamese monarch as the universal ruler of all Vietnam; using the Confucian concept Mandate of Heaven to provide monarchs absolute power. Their reign and popular images were judged based on how prosperous the livelihood (民生, "dân sinh") of the people and the Confucian concept of "chính danh" (rectification of names), according to the Confucian biblical Analects, everything has to stay in its right order. Gia Long also perceived the ancient Chinese conception of Hua-Yi and in 1805 he confessed his Empire as "Trung Quốc" (中國, "the Middle Kingdom"), the Vietnamese term which often refers to China but now was taken by Gia Long to emphasis his Son of Heaven status and the devaluation of China. Following next decades, Confucianism and the Mandate of Heaven theory gradually lost their positions within the Vietnamese officials and intellectuals. When the fourth emperor, Tự Đức, ceded Southern Vietnam to France and called all Southern officials to give up arms, many ignored, disobeyed the Son of Heaven, and continued to fight against invaders. Many dissents viewed him as surrendering and frightened of France. Rebellions against Tự Đức erupted every year from 1860 until he died in 1883.


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: A dual theory of sovereignty existed in Vietnam. All the Nguyễn monarchs were addresses as "hoàng đế" (黃帝, Sino-Vietnamese title for "Emperor") in the court while referring himself the first person honorific "trẫm" (he who give the order). They also used the concept of "thiên tử" (天子, "Son of Heaven", which is borrowed from China) to demonstrate that the ruler was descended and commissioned by heaven to rule the kingdom. However, in most cases, Nguyen rulers were formally called "vua" (𪼀, the Vietnamese title for "monarch" or " sovereign ruler") by the ordinary Vietnamese folks. The concept of a divine Son of Heaven has not been dogmatically practiced, and the monarch's divinity was not absolute due to the dual theory. For example, Xu Jiyu, a Chinese geographer, reported that the bureaucrats in the Vietnamese court sat down and even felt free to search themselves for body lice during the court audiences. Gia Long once told the son of J. B. Chaigneau, one of his advisors, that the use of Son of Heaven in Vietnam was an "absurdity" and "at least in mixed Vietnamese-European Company." Once the young crown prince being chosen to succeed, his obligation was to be filial with parents, being well-educated in politics and classics, internalise the morals and ethics of a ruler.


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: After the 1884 Treaty of Huế was signed, the Nguyễn dynasty became two protectorates of France and the French installed their own administrators. Although the Emperors of the Nguyễn dynasty were still nominally in control of the protectorates of Annam and Tonkin, the Resident-Superior of Annam gradually gained more influence over the imperial court in Huế. In 1897 the Resident-Superior was granted the power to appoint the Nguyễn dynasty Emperors and presided over the meetings of the Viện cơ mật. These moves incorporated French officials directly into the administrative structure of the Imperial Huế Court and further legitimised French rule in the legislative branch of the Nguyễn government. From this period onwards any imperial edicts issued by the Emperors of Đại Nam had to be confirmed by the Resident-Superior of Annam giving him both legislative and executive power over the Nguyễn government.


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: In the year 1898 the federal government of French Indochina took over the financial and property management duties of the Nguyễn dynasty's imperial court meaning that the Nguyễn dynasty Emperor (at the time Thành Thái) became a salaried employee of the Indochinese colonial structure, reducing their power to being only a civil servant of the Protectorate government. The Resident-Superior of Annam also took over the management of provincial mandarins and was a member of the Supreme Council ("Conseil supérieur") of the Government-General of French Indochina.


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: Vietnam's monetary subunit was the quan (貫). One quan equaled 10 coins, equivalent to ₫600. Officials received the following taxes ():


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: When mandarins retired, they could receive one hundred to four hundred quan from the emperor. When they died, the royal court provided twenty to two hundred quan for a funeral.


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: During the reign of Gia Long, the kingdom was divided into twenty-three quasi-militant protectorates "trấn" and four military departments "doanh." Each protectorate, besides having their own separated regional governments, was under patrol of one greater, powerful unit called Overlord of Citadel, or the Viceroy. For examples, the northern protectorates had "Bắc thành Tổng trấn" (Viceroy of Northern Protectorates) in Hanoi, and southern protectorates had "Gia Định thành Tổng trấn" (Viceroy of Gia Định Protectorates) resides in Saigon. Two famously viceroys during Gia Long's reign were Nguyễn Văn Thành (Hanoi) and Lê Văn Duyệt (Saigon). By 1802, these were:


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: In 1831, Minh Mạng reorganised his kingdom by converting all these protectorates into 31 provinces ("tỉnh"). Each province had a series of smaller jurisdictions: the prefecture ("phủ"), the subprefecture ("châu", in areas whereas having a significant population of ethnic minorities). Under prefecture and subprefecture, there was the district ("huyện"), the canton ("tổng"). Under district and canton, the bundle of hamlets around one common religious temple or social factor point, the village "(làng" or the commune "xã") was the lowest administrative unit, which one respected person nominally took care of village administrative, which called lý trưởng.


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: Two nearby provinces were combined into a pair. Every pair had a governor-general ("Tổng đốc") and a governor ("Tuần phủ"). Frequently, there were twelve governor-generals and eleven governors, although, in some periods, the Emperor would appoint a "commissioner in charge of patrolled borderlands" ("kinh lược sứ") that supervising entire northern of the southern part of the kingdom. In 1803, Vietnam had 57 prefectures, 41 subprefectures, 201 districts, 4,136 cantons and 16,452 villages, and then by 1840s its had been increased to 72 prefectures, 39 subprefectures and 283 districts, which an average 30,000 people per district. Cambodia had been absorbed into the Vietnamese administrative system, bore the name Tây Thành Province from 1834 to 1845. With areas having minority groups like Tày, Nùng, Mèo (Hmong people), Mường, Mang and Jarai, the Huế court imposed the co-existing tributary and quasi-bureaucratic governance system, while allowing these people to have their own local rulers and autonomy.


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: The Nguyễn dynasty viewed cultures that were "non-Chinese" as barbaric and called themselves the Central Kingdom (Trung Quốc, 中國). This includes the Han Chinese under the Qing dynasty who were viewed as "non-Chinese". As the Qing have caused the Chinese to not be "Han" anymore. Chinese were referred to as ""Thanh nhân"" (清人)"." This occurred after Vietnam had sent a delegate to Beijing, whereupon a diplomatic disaster caused Vietnam to view other "non-Chinese" as barbaric in much the same way as the Qing. By the Nguyễn dynasty the Vietnamese themselves were ordering Cambodian Khmer to adopt Vietnamese culture by ceasing "barbarous" habits like cropping hair and ordering them to grow it long besides making them replace skirts with trousers. Han Chinese Ming dynasty refugees numbering 3,000 came to Vietnam at the end of the Ming dynasty. They opposed the Qing dynasty and were fiercely loyal to the Ming dynasty. Vietnamese women married these Han Chinese refugees since most of them were soldiers and single men. They did not wear Manchu hairstyle unlike later Chinese migrants to Vietnam during the Qing dynasty.


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: Under emperor Minh Mạng sinicisation of ethnic minorities became state policy. He claimed the legacy of Confucianism and China's Han dynasty for Vietnam, and used the term "Han people" (漢人, "Hán nhân") to refer to the Vietnamese. According to the emperor, "We must hope that their barbarian habits will be subconsciously dissipated, and that they will daily become more infected by Han [Sino-Vietnamese] customs." These policies were directed at the Khmer and hill tribes. Nguyễn Phúc Chu had referred to the Vietnamese as "Han people" in 1712, distinguishing them from the Chams. The Nguyễn lords established colonies after 1790. Gia Long said, ""Hán di hữu hạn"" (漢 夷 有 限, "The Vietnamese and the barbarians must have clear borders"), distinguishing the Khmer from the Vietnamese. Minh Mang implemented an acculturation policy for minority non-Vietnamese peoples. ""Thanh nhân"" (清人 referring to the Qing dynasty) or ""Đường nhân"" (唐人 referring to the Tang dynasty) were used to refer to ethnic Chinese by the Vietnamese, who called themselves ""Hán dân"" (漢民) and ""Hán nhân"" (漢人 referring to the Han dynasty) during 19th-century Nguyễn rule. Since 1827, descendants of Ming dynasty refugees were called "Minh nhân" (明人) or "Minh Hương" (明 鄉) by Nguyễn rulers, to distinguish with ethnic Chinese. "Minh nhân" were treated as Vietnamese since 1829. They were not allowed to go to China, and also not allowed to wear the Manchu queue.


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: The Nguyễn dynasty popularized Qing-influenced clothing. Trousers were adopted by female White H'mong speakers, replacing their traditional skirts. The Qing-influenced tunics and trousers were worn by the Vietnamese. The "áo dài" was developed in the 1920s, when compact, close-fitting tucks were added to predecessor of the áo dài, áo ngũ thân. Chinese-influenced trousers and tunics were ordered by lord Nguyễn Phúc Khoát during the 18th century, replacing traditional Vietnamese áo tràng vạt dervied from Chinese "Jiaoling youren" (Chinese: 交領右衽). Although the Chinese-influenced trousers and tunic were mandated by the Nguyen government, skirts were worn in isolated north Vietnamese hamlets until the 1920s. Chinese style clothing was ordered for the Vietnamese military and bureaucrats by Nguyễn Phúc Khoát.


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: An 1841 polemic, "On Distinguishing Barbarians", was based on the Qing sign "Vietnamese Barbarians' Hostel" (越夷會館) on the Fujian residence of Nguyen diplomat and Hoa Chinese Lý Văn Phức. It argued that the Qing did not subscribe to the neo-Confucianist texts from the Song and Ming dynasties which were learned by the Vietnamese, who saw themselves as sharing a civilization with the Qing. This event triggered a diplomatic disaster. The consequence was that non-"Han Chinese highland tribes" and other non-Vietnamese peoples living near (or in) Vietnam were called "barbarian" by the Vietnamese imperial court. The essay distinguishes the Yi and Hua, and mentions Zhao Tuo, Wen, Shun and Taibo. Kelley and Woodside described Vietnam's Confucianism.


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: Emperors Minh Mạng, Thiệu Trị and Tự Đức, were opposed to French involvement in Vietnam, and tried to reduce the country's growing Catholic community. The imprisonment of missionaries who had illegally entered the country was the primary pretext for the French to invade (and occupy) Indochina. Like Qing China, a number of incidents involved other European nations during the 19th century.


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: Although the previous Nguyễn lords were faithful Buddhists, Gia Long was not a Buddhist. He adopted Neo-Confucianism and actively restricted Buddhism. Scholars, elites, and officials attacked Buddhist doctrines and criticized them as superstitious and useless. The third emperor, Thiệu Trị, elevated Confucianism as the true religion and while regarding Buddhism as superstition.


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: Building new Buddhist pagodas and temples were forbidden. Buddhist clergies and nuns were forced to join public works in order to limit the influence of Buddhism and promote Confucianism as the sole dominant belief of the society. However, such embracing a Sinic Confucian culture among the Vietnamese populace whom lived amidst a Southeast Asian infrastructure, widening the distance between the population and the court far away. Buddhism is still prevalence in the mainstream society and had its presence within the royal palace. Empress mother, queens, princess, and concubines were devout Buddhists, despite the patriarchy prohibition.


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: Confucianism itself was the ideology of the Nguyen court, also provided the basic core of classical education and civil examination every year. Gia Long pursued Confucianism to create and maintain a conservative society and social structures. Confucian rituals and ideas were circulations based within ancient Confucian teaching such as The Analects and Spring and Autumn Annals in Vietnamese-script collections. The court rigidly imported these Chinese books from Chinese merchants. Confucian rituals such as "cầu đảo" (offering heaven for wind and rain during a drought) that the emperor and court officials perform for wishing heaven to rain down his kingdom. If the offer went successful, they had to conduct "lễ tạ" (thanksgiving ritual) to heaven. In addition, the emperor believed that holy spirits and natural goddesses of his country can also make rain. In 1804, Gia Long built the Nam Hải Long Vương Temple (Temple of Southern Ocean Dragon King) in Thuận An, northeast of Hue in his faithfulness to the spirit of Thuận An ("Thần Thuận An"), the place where most of "cầu đảo" ritual was performed. His successor, Minh Mạng, continued to build several temples dedicated to the "Vũ Sư" (rainmaking goddess) and altars for "Thần Mây" (Cloud Goddess) and "Thần Sấm" (Thunder Goddess).Nguyễn Trường Tộ, a prominent Catholic and reformist intellectual, launched an attack on Confucian structures in 1867 as decadent. He wrote to Tự Đức: "the evil that has been brought on China and on our country by the Confucian way of life." He criticized the court's Confucian education as dogmatic and unrealistic, promoted for his education reform.


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: During Gia Long's years, Catholicism was peacefully worshipped without any restriction. Began with Minh Mạng, who considered Christianity as a heterodox religion for its rejection of ancestor worship, the important belief of the Vietnamese monarchy. After reading the Bible (Old and New Testament), he considered the Christianity religion irrational and ridiculous, and praised Tokugawa Japan for its notorious policies on Christians. Minh Mạng also was influenced by anti-Christian propaganda written by Vietnamese Confucian officials and literati, which described the mixing of men and women and liberal society among the Church. The most thing he worried about Christianity and Catholicism was writing texts that proved that Christianity was a means for Europeans to take over foreign countries. He also praised the anti-Christian policy in Japan. Churches were destroyed and many Christians were imprisoned. The persecution got intense during the reign of his grandson Tự Đức, when most of the state efforts were to annihilate Vietnamese Christianity. Unironically, even during the height of the anti-Catholic campaign, many Catholic scholars were still permitted to hold high positions in the royal court.


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: After a royal edict in late 1862, Catholicism was officially recognised and worshippers obtained state protection. It is estimated that late-19th century Vietnam had about 600,000 to 700,000 Catholic Christians.


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: Before the French conquest, the Vietnamese population was very sparse due to the agricultural backbones economy of the country. The population in 1802 was 6.5 million people and had only grown to 8 million by 1840. Rapid industrialization after the 1860s ushered in massive population growth and rapid urbanization in the late 19th century. Many peasants left tenant farms and poured into cities, they were hired by French-owned factories. By 1880 the Vietnamese were estimated back then as high as 18 million people, while modern estimates by Angus Maddison have suggested a lower figure of 12.2 million people. Vietnam under the Nguyễn dynasty was always a multiethnic complex. Nearly 80% percent of the Empire's population were ethnic Vietnamese (called Annamites then), whom language belonged to the Mon-Khmer (Mon—Annamite then) stock, and the rest were Cham, Chinese, Khmer, Mường, Tày (called Thô then), and other 50 ethnic minorities such as the Mang, Jarai, Yao.


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: The Annamites are distributed across the lowland of the country from Tonkin to Cochichina. The Chams live in central Vietnam and the Mekong Delta. The Chinese particularly concentrated in urbanised areas such as Saigon, Chợ Lớn, and Hanoi. The Chinese tended to be divided into two groups called "Minh Hương" (明鄉) and "Thanh nhân" (清人). The Minh Hương were Chinese refugees that had migrated and settled down in Vietnam earlier during the 17th century, who married with Vietnamese women, had been substantially assimilated to local Vietnamese and Khmer populaces, and loyal to the Nguyen, compared to the Thanh nhân that recently arrived in Southern Vietnam, dominated the rice trade. During the reign of Minh Mạng, a restriction against the Thanh nhân was issued in 1827, Thanh nhân could not access to the state bureaucracy and had to be integrated into Vietnamese population like the Minh Hương.


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: The Mường people inhabited on the hills west of the Red River Delta, although subordinate to the central authority, they were also permitted to bear arms, a privilege not accorded to any other subjects of the court of Huế. The Tày and the Mang live in the northern highlands of Tonkin, both submitted to Huế court along with taxes and tribute, but are allowed to have their hereditary chiefs.


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: The first photographs of Vietnam were taken by Jules Itier in Danang, in 1845. The first photos of the Vietnamese were taken by Fedor Jagor in November 1857 in Singapore. Due to the forbidden contact to foreigners, photography returned to Vietnam again during the French conquest and had shots taken by Paul Berranger during the French invasion of Da Nang (September 1858). Since the French seizure of Saigon in 1859, the city and southern Vietnam had been opening to foreigners, and photography entered Vietnam exclusively from France and Europe.


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: The House of Nguyễn Phúc (Nguyen Gia Mieu) had historically been founded in the 14th century in Gia Miêu village, Thanh Hóa Province, before they came to rule southern Vietnam from 1558 to 1777, then became the ruling dynasty of the entire Vietnam. Traditionally, the family traces themselves to Nguyễn Bặc (?–979), the first duke of Đại Việt. Princes and male descendants of Gia Long are called Hoàng Thân, while male lineal descendants of previous Nguyen lords are named Tôn Thất. Grandsons of the emperor were Hoàng tôn. Daughters of the emperor were called Hoàng nữ, and always earned the title công chúa (princess).


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: Their succession practically is according to the law of primogeniture, but sometimes conflicted. The first succession conflict arose in 1816 when Gia Long was designing for an heir. His first prince Nguyễn Phúc Cảnh died in 1802. As a result, two rival factions emerged, one support Nguyễn Phúc Mỹ Đường, the eldest son of Prince Cảnh, as the crown prince, while other support Prince Đảm (later Minh Mang). The second conflict was the 1847 succession when two young princes Nguyễn Phúc Hồng Bảo and Hồng Nhậm were dragged by the ill-failing Emperor Thiệu Trị as a potential heir. At first, Thiệu Trị apparently chose Prince Hồng Bảo because he was older, but after hearing advice from two regents Trương Đăng Quế and Nguyễn Tri Phương, he revised the heir at last minute and choose Hồng Nhậm as the crown prince.


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: The following list is the emperors' era names, which have meaning in Chinese and Vietnamese. For example, the first ruler's era name, Gia Long, is the combination of the old names for Saigon (Gia Định) and Hanoi (Thăng Long) to show the new unity of the country; the fourth, Tự Đức, means "Inheritance of Virtues"; the ninth, Đồng Khánh, means "Collective Celebration".


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: After the death of Emperor Tự Đức (and according to his will), Dục Đức ascended to the throne on 19 July 1883. He was dethroned and imprisoned three days later, after being accused of deleting a paragraph from Tự Đức's will. With no time to announce his dynastic title, his era name was named for his residential palace.


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: The Nguyễn dynasty's national flag or the Imperial flag first appeared during the reign of Gia Long. It was a yellow flag with a single or three horizontal red stripes, sometimes in 1822, it was entirely blank yellow or white. The emperor's personal flag was a golden dragon spitting fire, surrounded by clouds, a silver moon, and a black crescent on a yellow background.


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: The Nguyễn dynasty's seal are rich and diverse in types and had strict rules and laws that regulated their manipulation, management, and use. The common practice of using seals was clearly recorded in the book "Khâm định Đại Nam hội điển sự lệ" on how to use seals, how to place them, and on what kinds of documents, which was compiled by the Cabinet of the Nguyễn dynasty in the year Minh Mạng 3 (1822). The various types of seals of the Nguyễn dynasty had different names based on their function, namely Bảo (寶), Tỷ (璽), Ấn (印), Chương (章), Ấn chương (印章), Kim bảo tỷ (金寶璽), Quan phòng (關防), Đồ ký (圖記), Kiềm ký (鈐記), Tín ký (信記), Ấn Ký (印記), Trưởng ký (長記), and Ký (記).


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: Seals in the Nguyễn dynasty were overseen by a pair of agencies referred to as the Office of Ministry Seals Management - Officers on Duty (印司 - 直處, "Ấn ty - Trực xứ"), this is a term that refers to two agencies which were established within each of the Six Ministries, these agencies were tasked with keeping track of the seals, files, and chapters of their ministry. On duty of the Office of Ministry Seals Management were the correspondents of each individual ministry that received and distributed documents and records of a government agency. These two agencies usually had a few dozen officers who would import documents from their ministry. Usually the name of the ministry is directly attached to the seal agency's name, for example "Office of Civil Affairs Ministry Seals Management - Civil Affairs Ministry Officers on Duty" (吏印司吏直處, "Lại Ấn ty Lại Trực xứ").


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: Since the Nguyễn dynasty period seals have a fairly uniform shape (with or without a handle), the uniform description of these seals in Vietnamese are:


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: Seals were also given to people after they received a noble title. For example, after Léon Louis Sogny received the title of "Baron of An Bình" (安平男) in the year Bảo Đại 14 (保大拾肆年, 1939) he was also given a golden seal and a" Kim Bài" (金牌) with his noble title on it. The seal had the seal script inscription "An Bình Nam chi ấn" (安平男之印).


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: In its 143 years of existence, the government of the Nguyễn dynasty had created more than 100 imperial seals. These imperial seals were made of jade, bronze, silver, gold, ivory, and meteorite.


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: Like Imperial China and Royal Korea, the Vietnamese used the sun as the "Symbol of the Empire" and auspicious clouds and the Taijitu as "Symbols of the State". The heraldic systems of both the Later Lê and Nguyễn dynasties were similar to those found in China during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The sun symbol as a flaming disc in Vietnam dates back to the 11th century and during the Nguyễn dynasty period this symbol was often depicted with pointed rays. The moon symbolised the state, the sun the empire, stars the sovereigns, and clouds the heaven.


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: The "Achievement of the Empire" and the "Achievement of the State" were identical to their Imperial Chinese counterparts, the "Achievement of the Empire" first appeared in Vietnam during the 11th century and were identical during the Later Lê and Nguyễn periods consisting of two Dragons surrounding a flaming sun, while the "Achievement of the State" is known to have been as used as early as the Trần dynasty period and this early Trần version consists of two Dragons surrounding a lotus flower (a symbol of Buddhism). During the Nguyễn dynasty period the "Achievement of the State" typically consisted of two dragons surrounding a moon or two dragons surrounding a Taijitu, this symbol was commonly found on the caps of high-ranking mandarins. The two dragons surrounding the moon implies that the emperor, or "sovereign", (represented by the dragons) was also the head of state (represented by either the moon or a Yin-Yang symbol). During the period of French domination (法屬, "Pháp thuộc") these symbols could be interpreted as the French National Assembly (that is: the French people) was the sovereign over the Empire (the dragons), the Nguyễn Emperor now merely being the head of state (moon or Yin-Yang symbol). Moons also appeared on the shields of common Nguyễn dynasty soldiers representing the state, while soldiers of the imperial guards sometimes had shields depicting a red sun showcasing that they were a function of the empire.


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: Dragon motifs appeared on many state symbols during the Nguyễn dynasty period including on imperial edicts, coins, buildings, and the badges of the Imperial Guard. During the Minh Mạng period (1820–1841) dragons on silver Tiền coins were often depicted facing dexter (to the right), while during the Thiệu Trị period (1841–1847) and later these coins depicted dragons guardant (facing forwards). Dragons were considered to be one of the four sacred animals together with the Phượng hoàng (Phoenix), Kỳ lân (Unicorn), and the Linh quy (Sacred turtle). During the Nguyễn dynasty period the depiction of dragons in Vietnamese art reached their zenith and the quality and variety of Nguyễn dynasty dragons was much higher than those of earlier dynasties.


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: In the third month of the year "Bính Tý", or Gia Long 15 (1816), Emperor Gia Long instructed the court to create special clothes, hats, and seals for himself and the crown prince to denote independence from China. These regalia all depicted five-clawed dragons (蠪𠄼𤔻, "rồng 5 móng"), in Chinese symbolism (including Vietnamese symbolism) five-clawed dragons are symbols of an Emperor, while four-clawed dragons are seen as symbols or kings. To denote the high status of Emperor all monarchial robes, hats, and seals were adorned with five-clawed dragons and ordered the creation of new seals with five-clawed dragons as their seal knobs to showcase imperial legitimacy. Meanwhile, the wardrobes and other symbols of vassals and princes were adorned with four-clawed dragons symbolising their status as "kings".


title: Nguyễn dynasty

text: The two national coats of arms of the French protectorate of Annam would also consist of golden dragons with one being a sword per fess charged with a scroll inscribed with two Traditional Chinese characters "Đại Nam" (大南) and supported by a single Vietnamese dragon and the other being a golden five-clawed dragon positioned affronté.


title: Spiritualism

text: Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century, Spiritualism (when not lowercase) became most known as a social religious movement according to which the laws of nature and of God include "the continuity of consciousness after the transition of death" and "the possibility of communication between those living on Earth and those who have made the transition". The afterlife, or the "spirit world", is seen by spiritualists not as a static place, but as one in which spirits continue to evolve. These two beliefs—that contact with spirits is possible, and that spirits are more advanced than humans—lead spiritualists to a third belief: that spirits are capable of providing useful insight regarding moral and ethical issues, as well as about the nature of God. Some spiritualists will speak of a concept which they refer to as "spirit guides"—specific spirits, often contacted, who are relied upon for spiritual guidance. Emanuel Swedenborg has some claim to be the father of Spiritualism. Spiritism, a branch of spiritualism developed by Allan Kardec and today practiced mostly in Continental Europe and Latin America, especially in Brazil, emphasizes reincarnation.


title: Spiritualism

text: Spiritualism developed and reached its peak growth in membership from the 1840s to the 1920s, especially in English-speaking countries. By 1897, spiritualism was said to have more than eight million followers in the United States and Europe, mostly drawn from the middle and upper classes.


title: Spiritualism

text: Spiritualism flourished for a half century without canonical texts or formal organization, attaining cohesion through periodicals, tours by trance lecturers, camp meetings, and the missionary activities of accomplished mediums. Many prominent spiritualists were women, and like most spiritualists, supported causes such as the abolition of slavery and women's suffrage. By the late 1880s the credibility of the informal movement had weakened due to accusations of fraud perpetrated by mediums, and formal spiritualist organizations began to appear. Spiritualism is currently practiced primarily through various denominational spiritualist churches in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.


title: Spiritualism

text: Spiritualism and its belief system became protected characteristics under Law in the U.K. in 2009 by Alan Power at the UKEAT (Appeal Court,) London, England.


title: Spiritualism

text: Spiritualists believe in the possibility of communication with the spirits of dead people, whom they regard as "discarnate humans". They believe that spirit mediums are gifted to carry on such communication, but that anyone may become a medium through study and practice. They believe that spirits are capable of growth and perfection, progressing through higher spheres or planes, and that the afterlife is not a static state, but one in which spirits evolve. The two beliefs—that contact with spirits is possible, and that spirits may dwell on a higher plane—lead to a third belief, that spirits can provide knowledge about moral and ethical issues, as well as about God and the afterlife. Many believers therefore speak of "spirit guides"—specific spirits, often contacted, and relied upon for worldly and spiritual guidance.


title: Spiritualism

text: According to Spiritualists, anyone may receive spirit messages, but formal communication sessions (séances) are held by mediums, who claim thereby to receive information about the afterlife.


title: Spiritualism

text: As an informal movement, Spiritualism does not have a defined set of rules, but various Spiritualist organizations within the United States have adopted variations on some or all of a "Declaration of Principles" developed between 1899 and 1944 and revised as recently as 2004. In October 1899, a six article "Declaration of Principles" was adopted by the National Spiritualist Association (NSA) at a convention in Chicago, Illinois. An additional two principles were added by the NSA in October 1909, at a convention in Rochester, New York. Finally, in October 1944, a ninth principle was adopted by the National Spiritualist Association of Churches, at a convention in St. Louis, Missouri.


title: Spiritualism

text: In the UK, the main organization representing Spiritualism is the Spiritualists' National Union (SNU), whose teachings are based on the Seven Principles.


title: Spiritualism

text: Spiritualism first appeared in the 1840s in the "Burned-over District" of upstate New York, where earlier religious movements such as Millerism and Mormonism had emerged during the Second Great Awakening, although Millerism and Mormonism did not associate themselves with Spiritualism.


title: Spiritualism

text: This region of New York State was an environment in which many thought direct communication with God or angels was possible, and that God would not behave harshly—for example, that God would not condemn unbaptised infants to an eternity in Hell.


title: Spiritualism

text: In this environment, the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) and the teachings of Franz Mesmer (1734–1815) provided an example for those seeking direct personal knowledge of the afterlife. Swedenborg, who claimed to communicate with spirits while awake, described the structure of the spirit world. Two features of his view particularly resonated with the early Spiritualists: first, that there is not a single Hell and a single Heaven, but rather a series of higher and lower heavens and hells; second, that spirits are intermediates between God and humans, so that the divine sometimes uses them as a means of communication. Although Swedenborg warned against seeking out spirit contact, his works seem to have inspired in others the desire to do so.


title: Spiritualism

text: Swedenborg was formerly a highly regarded inventor and scientist, achieving several engineering innovations and studying physiology and anatomy. Then, “in 1741, he also began to have a series of intense mystical experiences, dreams, and visions, claiming that he had been called by God to reform Christianity and introduce a new church."


title: Spiritualism

text: Mesmer did not contribute religious beliefs, but he brought a technique, later known as hypnotism, that it was claimed could induce trances and cause subjects to report contact with supernatural beings. There was a great deal of professional showmanship inherent to demonstrations of Mesmerism, and the practitioners who lectured in mid-19th-century North America sought to entertain their audiences as well as to demonstrate methods for personal contact with the divine.


title: Spiritualism

text: Perhaps the best known of those who combined Swedenborg and Mesmer in a peculiarly North American synthesis was Andrew Jackson Davis, who called his system the "harmonial philosophy". Davis was a practising Mesmerist, faith healer and clairvoyant from Blooming Grove, New York. He was also strongly influenced by the socialist theories of Fourierism. His 1847 book, "The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations, and a Voice to Mankind", dictated to a friend while in a trance state, eventually became the nearest thing to a canonical work in a Spiritualist movement whose extreme individualism precluded the development of a single coherent worldview.


title: Spiritualism

text: Spiritualists often set March 31, 1848, as the beginning of their movement. On that date, Kate and Margaret Fox, of Hydesville, New York, reported that they had made contact with a spirit that was later claimed to be the spirit of a murdered peddler whose body was found in the house, though no record of such a person was ever found. The spirit was said to have communicated through rapping noises, audible to onlookers. The evidence of the senses appealed to practically minded Americans, and the Fox sisters became a sensation. As the first celebrity mediums, the sisters quickly became famous for their public séances in New York. However, in 1888 the Fox sisters admitted that this "contact" with the spirit was a hoax, though shortly afterward they recanted that admission.


title: Spiritualism

text: Amy and Isaac Post, Hicksite Quakers from Rochester, New York, had long been acquainted with the Fox family, and took the two girls into their home in the late spring of 1848. Immediately convinced of the veracity of the sisters' communications, they became early converts and introduced the young mediums to their circle of radical Quaker friends.


title: Spiritualism

text: Consequently, many early participants in Spiritualism were radical Quakers and others involved in the mid-nineteenth-century reforming movement. These reformers were uncomfortable with more prominent churches because those churches did little to fight slavery and even less to advance the cause of women's rights.


title: Spiritualism

text: Such links with reform movements, often radically socialist, had already been prepared in the 1840s, as the example of Andrew Jackson Davis shows. After 1848, many socialists became ardent spiritualists or occultists. Socialist ideas, especially in the Fourierist vein, exerted a decisive influence on Kardec and other Spiritists.


title: Spiritualism

text: The most popular trance lecturer prior to the American Civil War was Cora L. V. Scott (1840–1923). Young and beautiful, her appearance on stage fascinated men. Her audiences were struck by the contrast between her physical girlishness and the eloquence with which she spoke of spiritual matters, and found in that contrast support for the notion that spirits were speaking through her. Cora married four times, and on each occasion adopted her husband's last name. During her period of greatest activity, she was known as Cora Hatch.


title: Spiritualism

text: Another famous woman Spiritualist was Achsa W. Sprague, who was born November 17, 1827, in Plymouth Notch, Vermont. At the age of 20, she became ill with rheumatic fever and credited her eventual recovery to intercession by spirits. An extremely popular trance lecturer, she traveled about the United States until her death in 1861. Sprague was an abolitionist and an advocate of women's rights.


title: Spiritualism

text: Yet another prominent Spiritualist and trance medium prior to the Civil War was Paschal Beverly Randolph (1825–1875), a man of mixed race, who also played a part in the abolitionist movement. Nevertheless, many abolitionists and reformers held themselves aloof from the Spiritualist movement; among the skeptics was the famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass.


title: Spiritualism

text: Another social reform movement with significant Spiritualist involvement was the effort to improve conditions of Native Americans. As Kathryn Troy notes in a study of Indian ghosts in seances:


title: Spiritualism

text: Undoubtedly, on some level Spiritualists recognized the Indian spectres that appeared at seances as a symbol of the sins and subsequent guilt of the United States in its dealings with Native Americans. Spiritualists were literally haunted by the presence of Indians. But for many that guilt was not assuaged: rather, in order to confront the haunting and rectify it, they were galvanized into action. The political activism of Spiritualists on behalf of Indians was thus the result of combining white guilt and fear of divine judgment with a new sense of purpose and responsibility.


title: Spiritualism

text: In the years following the sensation that greeted the Fox sisters, demonstrations of mediumship (séances and automatic writing, for example) proved to be a profitable venture, and soon became popular forms of entertainment and spiritual catharsis. The Fox sisters were to earn a living this way and others would follow their lead. Showmanship became an increasingly important part of spiritualism, and the visible, audible, and tangible evidence of spirits escalated as mediums competed for paying audiences. As independent investigating commissions repeatedly established, most notably the 1887 report of the Seybert Commission, fraud was widespread, and some of these cases were prosecuted in the courts.


title: Spiritualism

text: Despite numerous instances of chicanery, the appeal of Spiritualism was strong. Prominent in the ranks of its adherents were those grieving the death of a loved one. Many families during the time of the American Civil War had seen their men go off and never return, and images of the battlefield, produced through the new medium of photography, demonstrated that their loved ones had not only died in overwhelmingly huge numbers, but horribly as well. One well known case is that of Mary Todd Lincoln who, grieving the loss of her son, organized séances in the White House which were attended by her husband, President Abraham Lincoln. The surge of Spiritualism during this time, and later during World War I, was a direct response to those massive battlefield casualties.


title: Spiritualism

text: In addition, the movement appealed to reformers, who fortuitously found that the spirits favoured such causes "du jour" as abolition of slavery, and equal rights for women. It also appealed to some who had a materialist orientation and rejected organized religion. In 1854 the utopian socialist Robert Owen was converted to Spiritualism after "sittings" with the American medium Maria B. Hayden (credited with introducing Spiritualism to England); Owen made a public profession of his new faith in his publication "The Rational quarterly review" and later wrote a pamphlet, "The future of the Human race; or great glorious and future revolution to be effected through the agency of departed spirits of good and superior men and women.


title: Spiritualism

text: A number of scientists who investigated the phenomenon also became converts. They included chemist and physicist William Crookes (1832–1919), evolutionary biologist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913) and physicist Sir Oliver Lodge. Nobel laureate Pierre Curie was impressed by the mediumistic performances of Eusapia Palladino and advocated their scientific study. Other prominent adherents included journalist and pacifist William T. Stead (1849–1912) and physician and author Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930).


title: Spiritualism

text: Doyle, who lost his son Kingsley in World War I, was also a member of the Ghost Club. Founded in London in 1862, its focus was the scientific study of alleged paranormal activities in order to prove (or refute) the existence of paranormal phenomena. Famous members of the club included Charles Dickens, Sir William Crookes, Sir William F. Barrett, and Harry Price. The Paris séances of Eusapia Palladino were attended by an enthusiastic Pierre Curie and a dubious Marie Curie. The celebrated New York City physician, John Franklin Gray, was a prominent spiritualist. Thomas Edison wanted to develop a "spirit phone", an ethereal device that would summon to the living the voices of the dead and record them for posterity.


title: Spiritualism

text: The claims of Spiritualists and others as to the reality of spirits were investigated by the Society for Psychical Research, founded in London in 1882. The society set up a Committee on Haunted Houses.


title: Spiritualism

text: Prominent investigators who exposed cases of fraud came from a variety of backgrounds, including professional researchers such as Frank Podmore of the Society for Psychical Research and Harry Price of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, and professional conjurers such as John Nevil Maskelyne. Maskelyne exposed the Davenport brothers by appearing in the audience during their shows and explaining how the trick was done.


title: Spiritualism

text: The psychical researcher Hereward Carrington exposed fraudulent mediums' tricks, such as those used in slate-writing, table-turning, trumpet mediumship, materializations, sealed-letter reading, and spirit photography. The skeptic Joseph McCabe, in his book "Is Spiritualism Based on Fraud?" (1920), documented many fraudulent mediums and their tricks.


title: Spiritualism

text: Magicians and writers on magic have a long history of exposing the fraudulent methods of mediumship. During the 1920s, professional magician Harry Houdini undertook a well-publicised campaign to expose fraudulent mediums; he was adamant that "Up to the present time everything that I have investigated has been the result of deluded brains." Other magician or magic-author debunkers of spiritualist mediumship have included Chung Ling Soo, Henry Evans, Julien Proskauer, Fulton Oursler, Joseph Dunninger, and Joseph Rinn.


title: Spiritualism

text: In February 1921 Thomas Lynn Bradford, in an experiment designed to ascertain the existence of an afterlife, committed suicide in his apartment by blowing out the pilot light on his heater and turning on the gas. After that date, no further communication from him was received by an associate whom he had recruited for the purpose.


title: Spiritualism

text: The movement quickly spread throughout the world; though only in the United Kingdom did it become as widespread as in the United States.


title: Spiritualism

text: Spiritualist organizations were formed in America and Europe, such as the London Spiritualist Alliance, which published a newspaper called "The Light", featuring articles such as "Evenings at Home in Spiritual Séance", "Ghosts in Africa" and "Chronicles of Spirit Photography", advertisements for "Mesmerists" and patent medicines, and letters from readers about personal contact with ghosts.


title: Spiritualism

text: In Britain, by 1853, invitations to tea among the prosperous and fashionable often included table-turning, a type of séance in which spirits were said to communicate with people seated around a table by tilting and rotating the table. One prominent convert was the French pedagogist Allan Kardec (1804–1869), who made the first attempt to systematise the movement's practices and ideas into a consistent philosophical system. Kardec's books, written in the last 15 years of his life, became the textual basis of spiritism, which became widespread in Latin countries. In Brazil, Kardec's ideas are embraced by many followers today. In Puerto Rico, Kardec's books were widely read by the upper classes, and eventually gave birth to a movement known as "mesa blanca" (white table).


title: Spiritualism

text: Spiritualism was mainly a middle- and upper-class movement, and especially popular with women. American Spiritualists would meet in private homes for séances, at lecture halls for trance lectures, at state or national conventions, and at summer camps attended by thousands. Among the most significant of the camp meetings were Camp Etna, in Etna, Maine; Onset Bay Grove, in Onset, Massachusetts; Lily Dale, in western New York State; Camp Chesterfield, in Indiana; the Wonewoc Spiritualist Camp, in Wonewoc, Wisconsin; and Lake Pleasant, in Montague, Massachusetts. In founding camp meetings, the Spiritualists appropriated a form developed by U.S. Protestant denominations in the early nineteenth century. Spiritualist camp meetings were located most densely in New England, but were also established across the upper Midwest. Cassadaga, Florida, is the most notable Spiritualist camp meeting in the southern states.


title: Spiritualism

text: A number of Spiritualist periodicals appeared in the nineteenth century, and these did much to hold the movement together. Among the most important were the weeklies the "Banner of Light" (Boston), the "Religio-Philosophical Journal" (Chicago), "Mind and Matter" (Philadelphia), the "Spiritualist" (London), and the "Medium" (London). Other influential periodicals were the "Revue Spirite" (France), "Le Messager" (Belgium), "Annali dello Spiritismo" (Italy), "El Criterio Espiritista" (Spain), and the "Harbinger of Light" (Australia). By 1880, there were about three dozen monthly Spiritualist periodicals published around the world. These periodicals differed a great deal from one another, reflecting the great differences among Spiritualists. Some, such as the British "Spiritual Magazine" were Christian and conservative, openly rejecting the reform currents so strong within Spiritualism. Others, such as "Human Nature", were pointedly non-Christian and supportive of socialism and reform efforts. Still others, such as the "Spiritualist", attempted to view Spiritualist phenomena from a scientific perspective, eschewing discussion on both theological and reform issues.


title: Spiritualism

text: Books on the supernatural were published for the growing middle class, such as 1852's "Mysteries", by Charles Elliott, which contains "sketches of spirits and spiritual things", including accounts of the Salem witch trials, the Lane ghost, and the Rochester rappings.


title: Spiritualism

text: "The Night Side of Nature", by Catherine Crowe, published in 1853, provided definitions and accounts of wraiths, doppelgängers, apparitions and haunted houses.


title: Spiritualism

text: Mainstream newspapers treated stories of ghosts and haunting as they would any other news story. An account in the "Chicago Daily Tribune" in 1891, "sufficiently bloody to suit the most fastidious taste", tells of a house believed to be haunted by the ghosts of three murder victims seeking revenge against their killer's son, who was eventually driven insane.


title: Spiritualism

text: Many families, "having no faith in ghosts", thereafter moved into the house, but all soon moved out again.


title: Spiritualism

text: In the 1920s many "psychic" books were published of varied quality. Such books were often based on excursions initiated by the use of Ouija boards. A few of these popular books displayed unorganized Spiritualism, though most were less insightful.


title: Spiritualism

text: The movement was extremely individualistic, with each person relying on his or her own experiences and reading to discern the nature of the afterlife. Organisation was therefore slow to appear, and when it did it was resisted by mediums and trance lecturers. Most members were content to attend Christian churches, and particularly universalist churches harboured many Spiritualists.


title: Spiritualism

text: As the Spiritualism movement began to fade, partly through the publicity of fraud accusations and partly through the appeal of religious movements such as Christian science, the Spiritualist Church was organised. This church can claim to be the main vestige of the movement left today in the United States.


title: Spiritualism

text: London-born Emma Hardinge Britten (1823–99) moved to the United States in 1855 and was active in Spiritualist circles as a trance lecturer and organiser. She is best known as a chronicler of the movement's spread, especially in her 1884 "Nineteenth Century Miracles: Spirits and Their Work in Every Country of the Earth", and her 1870 "Modern American Spiritualism", a detailed account of claims and investigations of mediumship beginning with the earliest days of the movement.


title: Spiritualism

text: William Stainton Moses (1839–92) was an Anglican clergyman who, in the period from 1872 to 1883, filled 24 notebooks with automatic writing, much of which was said to describe conditions in the spirit world. However, Frank Podmore was skeptical of his alleged ability to communicate with spirits and Joseph McCabe described Moses as a "deliberate impostor", suggesting his apports and all of his feats were the result of trickery.


title: Spiritualism

text: Adelma Vay (1840–1925), Hungarian (by origin) spiritistic medium, homeopath and clairvoyant, authored many books about spiritism, written in German and translated into English.


title: Spiritualism

text: Eusapia Palladino (1854–1918) was an Italian Spiritualist medium from the slums of Naples who made a career touring Italy, France, Germany, Britain, the United States, Russia and Poland. Palladino was said by believers to perform spiritualist phenomena in the dark: levitating tables, producing apports, and materializing spirits. On investigation, all these things were found to be products of trickery.


title: Spiritualism

text: The British medium William Eglinton (1857–1933) claimed to perform spiritualist phenomena such as movement of objects and materializations. All of his feats were exposed as tricks.


title: Spiritualism

text: The Bangs Sisters, Mary "May" E. Bangs (1862–1917) and Elizabeth "Lizzie" Snow Bangs (1859–1920), were two Spiritualist mediums based in Chicago, who made a career out of painting the dead or "Spirit Portraits".


title: Spiritualism

text: Mina Crandon (1888–1941), a spiritualist medium in the 1920s, was known for producing an ectoplasm hand during her séances. The hand was later exposed as a trick when biologists found it to be made from a piece of carved animal liver. In 1934, the psychical researcher Walter Franklin Prince described the Crandon case as "the most ingenious, persistent, and fantastic complex of fraud in the history of psychic research."


title: Spiritualism

text: The American voice medium Etta Wriedt (1859–1942) was exposed as a fraud by the physicist Kristian Birkeland when he discovered that the noises produced by her trumpet were caused by chemical explosions induced by potassium and water and in other cases by lycopodium powder.


title: Spiritualism

text: Another well-known medium was the Scottish materialization medium Helen Duncan (1897–1956). In 1928 photographer Harvey Metcalfe attended a series of séances at Duncan's house and took flash photographs of Duncan and her alleged "materialization" spirits, including her spirit guide "Peggy". The photographs revealed the "spirits" to have been fraudulently produced, using dolls made from painted papier-mâché masks, draped in old sheets. Duncan was later tested by Harry Price at the National Laboratory of Psychical Research; photographs revealed Duncan's ectoplasm to be made from cheesecloth, rubber gloves, and cut-out heads from magazine covers.


title: Spiritualism

text: Spiritualists reacted with an uncertainty to the theories of evolution in the late 19th and early 20th century. Broadly speaking the concept of evolution fitted the spiritualist thought of the progressive development of humanity. At the same time, however, the belief in the animal origins of humanity threatened the foundation of the immortality of the spirit, for if humans had not been created by God, it was scarcely plausible that they would be specially endowed with spirits. This led to Spiritualists embracing spiritual evolution.


title: Spiritualism

text: The Spiritualists' view of evolution did not stop at death. Spiritualism taught that after death spirits progressed to spiritual states in new spheres of existence. According to Spiritualists evolution occurred in the spirit world "at a rate more rapid and under conditions more favourable to growth" than encountered on earth.


title: Spiritualism

text: In a talk at the London Spiritualist Alliance, John Page Hopps (1834–1911) supported both evolution and Spiritualism. Hopps claimed humanity had started off imperfect "out of the animal's darkness" but would rise into the "angel's marvellous light". Hopps claimed humans were not fallen but rising creatures and that after death they would evolve on a number of spheres of existence to perfection.


title: Spiritualism

text: Theosophy is in opposition to the spiritualist interpretation of evolution. Theosophy teaches a metaphysical theory of evolution mixed with human devolution. Spiritualists do not accept the devolution of the theosophists. To theosophy humanity starts in a state of perfection (see Golden age) and falls into a process of progressive materialization (devolution), developing the mind and losing the spiritual consciousness. After the gathering of experience and growth through repeated reincarnations humanity will regain the original spiritual state, which is now one of self-conscious perfection.


title: Spiritualism

text: Theosophy and Spiritualism were both very popular metaphysical schools of thought especially in the early 20th century and thus were always clashing in their different beliefs. Madame Blavatsky was critical of Spiritualism; she distanced theosophy from Spiritualism as far as she could and allied herself with eastern occultism.


title: Spiritualism

text: The theory contains only one half the explanation of man's origins and needs spiritualism to carry it through and complete it. For while this ascent on the physical side has been progressing through myriads of ages, the Divine descent has also been going on—man being spiritually an incarnation from the Divine as well as a human development from the animal creation. The cause of the development is spiritual. Mr. Darwin's theory does not in the least militate against ours—we think it necessitates it; he simply does not deal with our side of the subject. He can not go lower than the dust of the earth for the matter of life; and for us, the main interest of our origin must lie in the spiritual domain.


title: Spiritualism

text: Spiritualists believed that without Spiritualism "the doctrine of Darwin is a broken link". Gerald Massey said "Spiritualism will accept evolution, and carry it out and make both ends meet in the perfect circle".


title: Spiritualism

text: A famous medium who rejected evolution was Cora L. V. Scott; she dismissed evolution in her lectures and instead supported a type of pantheistic Spiritualism.


title: Spiritualism

text: Alfred Russel Wallace believed qualitative novelties could arise through the process of spiritual evolution, in particular the phenomena of life and mind. Wallace attributed these novelties to a supernatural agency. Later in his life, Wallace was an advocate of Spiritualism and believed in an immaterial origin for the higher mental faculties of humans; he believed that evolution suggested that the universe had a purpose, and that certain aspects of living organisms are not explainable in terms of purely materialistic processes, in a 1909 magazine article entitled "The World of Life", which he later expanded into a book of the same name. Wallace argued in his 1911 book "World of Life" for a spiritual approach to evolution and described evolution as "creative power, directive mind and ultimate purpose". Wallace believed natural selection could not explain intelligence or morality in the human being so suggested that non-material spiritual forces accounted for these. Wallace believed the spiritual nature of humanity could not have come about by natural selection alone, the origins of the spiritual nature must originate "in the unseen universe of spirit".


title: Spiritualism

text: Oliver Lodge also promoted a version of spiritual evolution in his books "Man and the Universe" (1908), "Making of Man" (1924) and "Evolution and Creation" (1926). The spiritualist element in the synthesis was most prominent in Lodge's 1916 book "Raymond, or Life and Death" which revived a large interest for the public in the paranormal.


title: Spiritualism

text: The first of these continued the tradition of individual practitioners, organised in circles centered on a medium and clients, without any hierarchy or dogma. Already by the late 19th century Spiritualism had become increasingly syncretic, a natural development in a movement without central authority or dogma. Today, among these unorganised circles, Spiritualism is similar to the new age movement. However, theosophy with its inclusion of Eastern religion, astrology, ritual magic and reincarnation is an example of a closer precursor of the 20th-century new age movement. Today's syncretic Spiritualists are quite heterogeneous in their beliefs regarding issues such as reincarnation or the existence of God. Some appropriate new age and neo-pagan beliefs, while others call themselves "Christian spiritualists", continuing with the tradition of cautiously incorporating spiritualist experiences into their Christian faith.


title: Spiritualism

text: Spiritualism also influenced art, having a pervasive influence on artistic consciousness, with spiritualist art having a huge impact on what became modernism and therefore art today.


title: Spiritualism

text: Spiritualism also inspired the pioneering abstract art of Vasily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Kasimir Malevich, Hilma af Klint, Georgiana Houghton, and František Kupka.


title: Spiritualism

text: The second direction taken has been to adopt formal organization, patterned after Christian denominations, with established liturgies and a set of seven principles, and training requirements for mediums. In the United States the spiritualist churches are primarily affiliated either with the National Spiritualist Association of Churches or the loosely allied group of denominations known as the spiritual church movement; in the U.K. the predominant organization is the Spiritualists' National Union, founded in 1890.


title: Spiritualism

text: Formal education in spiritualist practice emerged in 1920s, with organizations like the William T. Stead Center in Chicago, Illinois, and continue today with the Arthur Findlay College at Stansted Hall in England, and the Morris Pratt Institute in Wisconsin, United States.


title: Spiritualism

text: Diversity of belief among organized Spiritualists has led to a few schisms, the most notable occurring in the U.K. in 1957 between those who held the movement to be a religion "sui generis" (of its own with unique characteristics), and a minority who held it to be a denomination within Christianity. In the United States, this distinction can be seen between the less Christian organization, the National Spiritualist Association of Churches, and the more Christian spiritual church movement.


title: Spiritualism

text: The practice of organized Spiritualism today resembles that of any other religion, having discarded most showmanship, particularly those elements resembling the conjurer's art. There is thus a much greater emphasis on "mental" mediumship and an almost complete avoidance of the apparently miraculous "materializing" mediumship that so fascinated early believers such as Arthur Conan Doyle. The first Spiritualist church in Australia was the United Stanmore & Enmore Spiritualist Church established in 1913. In 1921, Conan Doyle gave a farewell to Australia speech there.


title: Spiritualism

text: Already as early as 1882, with the founding of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), parapsychologists emerged to investigate spiritualist claims. The SPR's investigations into Spiritualism exposed many fraudulent mediums which contributed to the decline of interest in physical mediumship.


title: Ratanji Tata

text: Sir Ratanji Jamsetji Tata (20 January 1871 – 5 September 1918) was an Indian financier and philanthropist during the British Raj.


title: Ratanji Tata

text: Ratanji Tata was born in Bombay in British India as the son of the noted Parsi merchant Jamsetji Tata. Ratan Tata was educated at St. Xavier's College in Bombay and afterwards entered his father's firm. On the death of the elder Tata in 1904, Ratan Tata and his brother Dorabji Tata inherited a very large fortune, much of which they devoted to philanthropic works of a practical nature and to the establishment of various industrial enterprises for developing the resources of India.


title: Ratanji Tata

text: An Indian institute of scientific and medical research (Indian Institute of Science, IISc) was founded at Bangalore in 1905, and in 1912 the Tata Steel began work at Sakchi, in the Central Provinces, with marked success. The most important of the Tata enterprises, however, was the storing of the water power of the Western Ghats (1915), which provided Bombay with an enormous amount of electrical power, and hence vastly increased the productive capacity of its industries.


title: Ratanji Tata

text: Sir Ratan Tata, who was knighted in 1916, did not confine his benefactions to India. In England, where he had a permanent residence at York House, Twickenham, he founded in 1912 the Ratan Tata department of social science and administration at the London School of Economics, and also established a Ratan Tata Fund at the University of London for studying the conditions of the poorer classes. In 1909, he donated a sum of Rs. 50,000 (equivalent to approximately Rs. 40 million in 2022) to Mahatma Gandhi to aid the struggle of Indians' right to work in the Transvaal. This donation helped in securing the finances of Gandhi's protests against the Anglo-Boer rulers.


title: Ratanji Tata

text: He was a great connoisseur of arts. The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (formerly Prince of Wales Museum) has a section displaying the collections of Sir Ratanji Tata (acquired in 1923) along with two other sections that of Sir Dorab Tata (acquired in 1933) and Sir Purushottam Mavji (acquired in 1915).


title: Ratanji Tata

text: He married Navajbai Sett in 1893 and left for England the final time in 1915. They adopted, Naval Tata from the family of a distant relative. He died on 5 September 1918 at St Ives in Cornwall, England and was buried at Brookwood Cemetery, Woking, near London, by the side of his father (Jamsetji Tata).


title: Ratanji Tata

text: Through an aunt, Jerbai Tata, who married a Bombay merchant, Dorabji Saklatvala, he was cousin of Shapurji Saklatvala who later became a Communist Member of the British Parliament.


title: Tanya Reynolds

text: Tanya Louise Reynolds (born 4 November 1991) is an English actress. She landed her first major role as a series regular on the Sky 1 comedy-drama "Delicious" (2016–2019). Reynolds gained further prominence for portraying Lily Iglehart on the Netflix comedy-drama "Sex Education" (2019–2021), where she was a part of the main cast in the first three series. Reynolds was named as one of Screen International's Stars of Tomorrow 2020.


title: Tanya Reynolds

text: Reynolds was born and raised in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire. Her father was a builder and her mother was a sign writer. She is of half English and half Italian descent. Her first experience in acting was at the age of four in the school nativity.


title: Tanya Reynolds

text: Reynolds attended the Oxford School of Drama, after winning a fully-funded scholarship, and purportedly conceded that otherwise she would not have been able to afford the drama school fees. Reynolds graduated in 2015.


title: Tanya Reynolds

text: Reynolds first appeared on screen in several short films, including "Civilised People" by UK comedy duo In Cahoots, which was shown at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2015, "The Jealous Boyfriend", also by In Cahoots, and "Introducing Lucy". In 2016, Reynolds landed her first TV appearance in "Delicious", where she played Teresa Benelli for 12 episodes.


title: Tanya Reynolds

text: 2017 saw Reynolds furthering her TV career, with parts in "Outlander", playing Lady Isobel Dunsany, and in the BBC thriller series "Rellik", as 20 year old Sally. The same year she starred as Pearl Marston in the BBC crime drama "Death in Paradise" in the episode: "Murder from Above" shown in January 2018.


title: Tanya Reynolds

text: In 2018, Reynolds was a leading actor in the feature film "Fanny Lye Deliver'd", among a cast that included Charles Dance and Maxine Peake. She also played a leading role as Teresa in the Sky One comedy "Delicious", alongside a cast which included Iain Glen and Dawn French.


title: Tanya Reynolds

text: In 2019, starred as Lily Iglehart for series one of the Netflix comedy-drama "Sex Education", in later series her recurring role was changed to a main role. The series was released on 11 January 2019, to critical acclaim. Reynolds stars as Mrs. Elton in a 2020 film remake of Jane Austen's "Emma", alongside Anya Taylor-Joy and Bill Nighy.


title: Tanya Reynolds

text: Reynolds was named as one of Screen International's Stars of Tomorrow 2020, which showcases talent within the television and film industry of Great Britain and Ireland.


title: Tanya Reynolds

text: In 2021, Reynolds got the chance to play Queen Victoria in the NBCUniversal series "Dodger (TV series)", alongside Christopher Eccleston as Fagin and David Threlfall as Chief of Police.


title: Rashomon effect

text: The Rashomon effect is a storytelling and writing method in cinema in which an event is given contradictory interpretations or descriptions by the individuals involved, thereby providing different perspectives and points of view of the same incident. The term, derived from the 1950 Japanese film "Rashomon", is used to describe the phenomenon of the unreliability of eyewitnesses.


title: Rashomon effect

text: The effect is named after Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film "Rashomon", in which a murder is described in four contradictory ways by four witnesses. The term addresses the motives, mechanism, and occurrences of the reporting on the circumstance and addresses contested interpretations of events, the existence of disagreements regarding the evidence of events, and subjectivity versus objectivity in human perception, memory, and reporting.


title: Rashomon effect

text: The Rashomon effect has been defined in a modern academic context as "the naming of an epistemological framework—or ways of thinking, knowing, and remembering—required for understanding complex and ambiguous situations".


title: Rashomon effect

text: The history of the term and its permutations in cinema, literature, legal studies, psychology, sociology, and history is the subject of a 2015 multi-author volume edited by Blair Davis, Robert Anderson and Jan Walls, titled "Rashomon Effects: Kurosawa, Rashomon and their legacies".


title: Rashomon effect

text: Valerie Alia termed the same effect "The Rashomon Principle" and has used this variant extensively since the late 1970s, first publishing it in an essay on the politics of journalism in 1982. She developed the term in a 1997 essay "The Rashomon Principle: The Journalist as Ethnographer" and in her 2004 book, "Media Ethics and Social Change".


title: Rashomon effect

text: A useful demonstration of this principle in scientific understanding can be found in Karl G. Heider's 1988 journal article on ethnography. Heider used the term to refer to the effect of the subjectivity of perception on recollection, by which observers of an event are able to produce substantially different but equally plausible accounts of it.


title: Rashomon effect

text: In the Queensland Supreme Court case of "The Australian Institute for Progress Ltd v The Electoral Commission of Queensland & Ors (No 2)", Applegarth J wrote that:


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: The New Safe Confinement (NSC or New Shelter, rarely Arka) is a structure put in place in 2016 to confine the remains of the number 4 reactor unit at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, in Ukraine, which was destroyed during the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. The structure also encloses the temporary Shelter Structure (sarcophagus) that was built around the reactor immediately after the disaster. The New Safe Confinement is designed to prevent the release of radioactive contaminants, protect the reactor from external influence, facilitate the disassembly and decommissioning of the reactor, and prevent water intrusion.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: The New Safe Confinement is a megaproject that is part of the Shelter Implementation Plan and supported by the Chernobyl Shelter Fund. It was designed with the primary goal of confining the radioactive remains of reactor 4 for the next 100 years. It also aims to allow for a partial demolition of the original sarcophagus, which was hastily constructed by Chernobyl liquidators after a beyond design-basis accident destroyed the reactor.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: The word is used rather than the traditional to emphasize the difference between the containment of radioactive gases—the primary focus of most reactor containment buildings—and the confinement of solid radioactive waste, which is the primary purpose of the New Safe Confinement.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: In 2015, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) stated that the international community was aiming to close a €100 million funding gap, with administration by the EBRD in its role as manager of the Chernobyl decommissioning funds. The total cost of the Shelter Implementation Plan, of which the New Safe Confinement is the most prominent element, is estimated to be around €2.15 billion (US$2.3 billion). The New Safe Confinement accounts for €1.5 billion.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: The French consortium Novarka with partners Vinci Construction Grands Projets and Bouygues Travaux Publics designed and built the New Safe Confinement. Construction was completed at the end of 2018.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: The original shelter, formally referred to as the "Shelter Structure" and often called "the sarcophagus", was constructed between May and November 1986. It was an emergency measure to confine the radioactive materials within reactor 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The shelter was constructed under extreme conditions, with very high levels of radiation, and under extreme time constraints. The Shelter Structure was moderately successful in confining radioactive contamination and providing for post-accident monitoring of the destroyed nuclear reactor unit; it has been estimated that up to 95% of the original radioactive inventory of reactor 4 remains inside the ruins of the reactor building.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: The Shelter Structure is primarily supported by the damaged remains of the reactor 4 building. These are largely considered to be structurally unsound as a result of explosive forces caused by the accident. Three major structural members support the roof of the Shelter Structure. Two beams, usually referred to as B-1 and B-2, run in an east-west direction and support the roof beams and panels. A third, more massive member, the "Mammoth Beam", spans the largest distance across the roof from east to west and assists in supporting the roof beams and panels. The roof of the shelter consists of diameter steel pipes laid horizontally north to south, and steel panels that rest at an angle, also in the north-south direction.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: The Shelter Structure was never intended to be a permanent containment structure. Its continued deterioration has increased the risk of its radioactive inventory leaking into the environment. Between 2004 and 2008, workers stabilized the roof and western wall of the shelter. However, construction of the New Safe Confinement was necessary to continue confining the radioactive remains of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant reactor 4.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: Further upgrades to the area in preparation for New Safe Confinement construction were completed in 2010. These included road and rail connections, site services (power, water, drains, and communications), facilities for workers (including medical and radiation protection facilities), and the installation of a long-term monitoring system.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: In 1992, Ukraine's government held an international competition for proposals to replace the sarcophagus.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: In the autumn of 1992, Design Group Partnership (DGP) of Manchester was invited to assist the Atomic Energy Authority (AEA) for the UK's submission for the international competition organized by the Ukrainian government.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: DGP's senior management was assembled to generate a solution. David Haslewood suggested an arch, built off-site, and then slid over the existing Soviet-built sarcophagus because:


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: Of the 394 entries, only the British submission proposed a sliding arch approach. There was no top design choice, but the French submission came as second best with the UK and German proposals coming joint third.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: Subsequently, a pan-European study (the TACIS programme) re-examined the proposals of the competition's top three finalists. The study selected the sliding arch concept as the best solution for their further investigations and recommendations, primarily to reduce the chance of the construction workers receiving a harmful dose of radiation. The French consortium named Novarka eventually won the contract for the final sliding arch design.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: On 17 September 2007 Vinci Construction Grands Projets and Bouygues Travaux Publics announced that they won the contract to design and build the New Safe Confinement as 50/50 partners of the French consortium Novarka. The original 432 million euros contract comprises the design and construction of the New Safe Confinement and planned to employ 900 people at its peak.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: The New Safe Confinement design is an arch-shaped steel structure with an internal height of and a distance between the centers of the upper and lower arch chords. The internal span of the arch is , and the external span is . The dimensions of the arch were determined based on the need to operate equipment inside the new shelter and decommission the existing shelter. The overall length of the structure is , consisting of 13 arches assembled apart to form 12 bays. Vertical walls assembled around, but not supported by the existing structures of the reactor building seal the ends of the structure.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: The arches are constructed of tubular steel members and are externally clad with three-layer sandwich panels. These external panels are also used on the end walls of the structure. Internally, polycarbonate panels cover each arch to prevent the accumulation of radioactive particles on the frame members.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: Large parts of the arches were shop-fabricated and transported to the assembly site west of reactor 4. Each of the steel tubes is made of high-strength steel to reduce cost and assembly weight. The steel used in the construction of the tubular members has a yield strength of no less than .


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: To prevent corrosion of the structure, stainless steel was chosen as the material for the inner and outer walls. An air conditioning system also circulates warm, dry air at 50 Pa between the layers of the panels to further prevent corrosion. Dehumidifiers keep the air below 40% humidity, preventing both condensation and water from dripping into the interior of the structure.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: The site of the New Safe Confinement is slightly sloped, ranging in elevation from on the eastern side to on the western side. The foundation was required to account for this difference without extensive site leveling.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: The ground upon which the foundation was built is unique in that it contains a technogenic layer just below the surface that is approximately in overall depth. Radioactive contamination from the accident created the technogenic layer. It consists of various materials including nuclear material, stone, sand, loamy sands, unreinforced concrete, and construction wastes. It is considered unfeasible to determine the geotechnical characteristics of this soil layer. As a result of this, no assumptions about the load-bearing properties of the technogenic layer were made during the design of the foundation.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: The water table at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant fluctuates from on average in December to on average in May.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: Several options were considered for the foundation design for the New Safe Confinement. Ultimately, the final design was specified as consisting of three lines of two foundation panels, each in length, and a high pile cap that reaches to a height of of elevation. This option was selected to minimize the cost of the foundation, the number of cuts into radioactive soil layers, dose uptake of workers, and risk to the environment from further contamination. The foundation has a slight elevation difference between the area in which the New Safe Confinement was constructed and the final resting area around reactor 4.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: Special consideration was necessary for the excavation required for foundation construction due to the high level of radioactivity found in the upper layers of soil. The conceptual designers of the New Safe Confinement recommended the use of rope operated grabs for the first of pile excavation for the Chernobyl site. This reduced the direct exposure of workers to the most contaminated sections of the soil. Deeper excavation for the foundation piles were accomplished using hydraulic clam shells operated under bentonite slurry protection.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: The foundation is designed to withstand horizontal acceleration structural loads of up to , as well as to withstand an F3 tornado. The original design for the structure required it to withstand an F1 tornado until an independent beyond-design-basis analysis was carried out to evaluate the effects of an F3 tornado on the structure.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: The system used in the assembly of the New Safe Confinement derived from civilian bridge launching and bridge cantilever methods. The New Safe Confinement was assembled in the following steps:


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: This process of assembly was deemed advantageous because it took advantage of the designed mobility of the structure to maximize the distance between workers and the reactor building, thereby minimizing their exposure to radiation.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: As each bay was completed, infrastructure equipment—including that for ventilation systems, radiation monitoring, plumbing, and electrical was installed.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: The New Safe Confinement was constructed west of reactor 4, and slid into place. Sliding of the structure along foundation rails was a difficult process. It was pushed on Teflon pads by hydraulic pistons, and guided by lasers. , the New Safe Confinement is the world's largest movable land-based structure.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: Two options were initially considered for moving the structure: hydraulic jacks to push the structure forward, or pulling the structure with large, multi-stranded steel cables. The first option would require the relocation of the hydraulic jacks after each push. This process would necessitate more worker interaction with the system and a greater worker exposure to radiation. The second option was initially chosen because it would expose workers to a lower radiation dose, and would have moved the structure into its final position in less than 24 hours. However, the structure was moved using hydraulic jacks, beginning the move on November 14, 2016, and finishing on November 29.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: The operational phase of the New Safe Confinement involves the demolition of the unstable structures associated with the original Shelter Structure. The goal of demolition has imposed significant requirements upon the load carrying capacity of the arches and foundation of the New Safe Confinement, as these structures must carry the weight of not only the disassembled structure, but also the suspended cranes to be used in demolition.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: The New Safe Confinement design includes two bridge cranes suspended from the arches. These cranes travel east to west on common runways and each has a span of .


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: Each crane can carry a variety of interchangeable carriages. Three types of carriages have been designed for the New Safe Confinement:


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: The cranes' carriage interchangeability allows the rotation of the largest members to be demolished, reducing the overall size of the New Safe Confinement by approximately one arch bay.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: After the members to be demolished are removed by crane they must be fragmented into pieces small enough to decontaminate. It is expected that the primary contamination of most demolished elements will be loose surface dust and can easily be removed. Decontamination will take place using vacuum cleaners with HEPA filters, grit blasting (for steel elements), and scarifying (for concrete elements). Once decontaminated to the maximum extent practical, pieces will be further fragmented for eventual disposal. Fragmentation tools include plasma arc cutting torches, diamond circular cutting wheels, and diamond wire cutting. The tools selected for the demolition process were selected based on a number of factors including minimization of individual and collective radiation exposure, the amount of secondary waste generated, the feasibility of remote operation, the cutting efficiency, fire safety, capital cost and operating costs.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: The exact methods for disposing of wastes generated by the demolition process have not been determined, and may include on-site burial outside the New Safe Confinement for low-level waste, and long-term storage inside the New Safe Confinement for medium and high-level wastes. , no policy has been decided for the disposal and processing of fuel containing materials.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: For the removal and storage of nuclear waste within the New Safe Confinement area, the strategies for removing waste is split into three systems. Disposal of solid nuclear waste had the Vector Radioactive Waste Storage Facility built near to the Chernobyl site, consisting of the Industrial Complex for Solid Radwaste Management (ICSRM), a nuclear waste storage site. It is being constructed by Nukem Technologies, a German nuclear decommissioning company, a subsidiary of the Russian Atomstroyexport. This storage is reported to be able to contain of material. The storage is for both temporary high level waste as well as low and intermediate level long-term waste storage.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: The Plant on Liquid Radwaste Management (PLRWM) was constructed to remove, store, and process liquid nuclear waste from the Chernobyl site. Processed liquid is turned into solid waste in 200-L barrels where it can then be stored long-term, at a rate of 2,500 cubic meters a year.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: Spent fuel is stored long-term in the Spent Fuel Storage Facility. 232 storage containers of nuclear waste can be stored in the facility for an expected 100 years.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: Even with the distance given from the main reactor during construction of the New Safe Confinement, construction workers were still subject to radiation. Before the slippage procedure began, construction workers may only have been able to stay on the site for 30 minutes at a time due to radiation. The concrete foundation reduced radiation to workers when assembling the structure, and workers were given decontaminated housing during construction.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: Radioactive dust in the shelter is monitored by hundreds of sensors. Workers in the 'local zone' carry two dosimeters, one showing real-time exposure and the second recording information for the worker's dose log. Workers have a daily and annual radiation exposure limit. Their dosimeter beeps if the limit is reached and the worker's site access is cancelled. The annual limit (20 millisieverts) may be reached by spending 12 minutes above the roof of the 1986 sarcophagus, or a few hours around its chimney. Workers are required to also check their radiation exposure before they leave the New Safe Confinement as an additional measurement for safety.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: To minimize radiation to workers when working inside of the New Safe Confinement, many robots and tools are used to interact with objects inside the shelter remotely. The two installed bridge cranes can be operated from within an isolated control room, which allows for demolition to occur without posing risk to any operators. For the radiation mapping that occurs within the New Safe Confinement, robots have been deployed in both areas of high contamination where humans cannot enter and replacing routes that operators would normally take. Boston Dynamics' Spot model has been implemented in areas of higher radiation to provide very detailed radiation mapping without causing additional radiation spikes by minimizing contact points with radiated surfaces. Without posing risk to workers, the implemented systems were able to look inside reactor 4, deep within the New Safe Confinement.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: There has been concern about Ukraine's ability to properly maintain the New Safe Confinement, with Deputy project manager Victor Zalizetskyi stating that "It looks like Ukraine will be left alone to deal with this structure"


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: The New Safe Confinement was originally intended to be completed in 2005, but the project has suffered lengthy delays.


title: Chernobyl New Safe Confinement

text: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is responsible for managing the Shelter Implementation Plan, including overseeing the construction of the New Safe Confinement.


title: Atomic mass

text: The atomic mass ("m" or "m") is the mass of an atom. Although the SI unit of mass is the kilogram (symbol: kg), atomic mass is often expressed in the non-SI unit dalton (symbol: Da) – equivalently, unified atomic mass unit (u). 1 Da is defined as of the mass of a free carbon-12 atom at rest in its ground state. The protons and neutrons of the nucleus account for nearly all of the total mass of atoms, with the electrons and nuclear binding energy making minor contributions. Thus, the numeric value of the atomic mass when expressed in daltons has nearly the same value as the mass number. Conversion between mass in kilograms and mass in daltons can be done using the atomic mass constant formula_1.


title: Atomic mass

text: where formula_3 is the molar mass constant, formula_4 is the Avogadro constant, and formula_5 is the experimentally determined molar mass of carbon-12.


title: Atomic mass

text: The relative isotopic mass (see section below) can be obtained by dividing the atomic mass "m" of an isotope by the atomic mass constant "m" yielding a dimensionless value. Thus, the atomic mass of a carbon-12 atom is by definition, but the relative isotopic mass of a carbon-12 atom is simply 12. The sum of "relative isotopic masses" of all atoms in a molecule is the "relative molecular" "mass."


title: Atomic mass

text: The atomic mass of an isotope and the "relative isotopic mass" refers to a certain specific isotope of an element. Because substances are usually not isotopically pure, it is convenient to use the "elemental atomic mass" which is the average (mean) atomic mass of an element, weighted by the abundance of the isotopes. The dimensionless (standard) atomic weight is the weighted mean relative isotopic mass of a (typical naturally occurring) mixture of isotopes.


title: Atomic mass

text: The atomic mass of atoms, ions, or atomic nuclei is slightly less than the sum of the masses of their constituent protons, neutrons, and electrons, due to binding energy mass loss (per ).


title: Atomic mass

text: Relative "isotopic" mass (a property of a single atom) is not to be confused with the averaged quantity atomic weight (see above), that is an average of values for many atoms in a given sample of a chemical element.


title: Atomic mass

text: While atomic mass is an absolute mass, relative isotopic mass is a dimensionless number with no units. This loss of units results from the use of a scaling ratio with respect to a carbon-12 standard, and the word "relative" in the term "relative isotopic mass" refers to this scaling "relative" to carbon-12.


title: Atomic mass

text: The relative isotopic mass, then, is the mass of a given isotope (specifically, any single nuclide), when this value is scaled by the mass of carbon-12, where the latter has to be determined experimentally. Equivalently, the relative isotopic mass of an isotope or nuclide is the mass of the isotope relative to 1/12 of the mass of a carbon-12 atom.


title: Atomic mass

text: For example, the relative isotopic mass of a carbon-12 atom is exactly 12. For comparison, the atomic mass of a carbon-12 atom is exactly 12 daltons. Alternately, the atomic mass of a carbon-12 atom may be expressed in any other mass units: for example, the atomic mass of a carbon-12 atom is .


title: Atomic mass

text: As is the case for the related "atomic mass" when expressed in daltons, the relative isotopic mass numbers of nuclides other than carbon-12 are not whole numbers, but are always close to whole numbers. This is discussed fully below.


title: Atomic mass

text: The atomic mass or relative isotopic mass are sometimes confused, or incorrectly used, as synonyms of relative atomic mass (also known as atomic weight) or the standard atomic weight (a particular variety of atomic weight, in the sense that it is standardized). However, as noted in the introduction, atomic mass is an absolute mass while all other terms are dimensionless. Relative atomic mass and standard atomic weight represent terms for (abundance-weighted) averages of relative atomic masses in elemental samples, not for single nuclides. As such, relative atomic mass and standard atomic weight often differ numerically from the relative isotopic mass.


title: Atomic mass

text: The atomic mass (relative isotopic mass) is defined as the mass of a single atom, which can only be one isotope (nuclide) at a time, and is not an abundance-weighted average, as in the case of relative atomic mass/atomic weight. The atomic mass or relative isotopic mass of each isotope and nuclide of a chemical element is, therefore, a number that can in principle be measured to high precision, since every specimen of such a nuclide is expected to be exactly identical to every other specimen, as all atoms of a given type in the same energy state, and every specimen of a particular nuclide, are expected to be exactly identical in mass to every other specimen of that nuclide. For example, every atom of oxygen-16 is expected to have exactly the same atomic mass (relative isotopic mass) as every other atom of oxygen-16.


title: Atomic mass

text: In the case of many elements that have one naturally occurring isotope (mononuclidic elements) or one dominant isotope, the difference between the atomic mass of the most common isotope, and the (standard) relative atomic mass or (standard) atomic weight can be small or even nil, and does not affect most bulk calculations. However, such an error can exist and even be important when considering individual atoms for elements that are not mononuclidic.


title: Atomic mass

text: For non-mononuclidic elements that have more than one common isotope, the numerical difference in relative atomic mass (atomic weight) from even the most common relative isotopic mass, can be half a mass unit or more (e.g. see the case of chlorine where atomic weight and standard atomic weight are about 35.45). The atomic mass (relative isotopic mass) of an uncommon isotope can differ from the relative atomic mass, atomic weight, or standard atomic weight, by several mass units.


title: Atomic mass

text: Relative isotopic masses are always close to whole-number values, but never (except in the case of carbon-12) exactly a whole number, for two reasons:


title: Atomic mass

text: Any mass defect due to nuclear binding energy is experimentally a small fraction (less than 1%) of the mass of an equal number of free nucleons. When compared to the average mass per nucleon in carbon-12, which is moderately strongly-bound compared with other atoms, the mass defect of binding for most atoms is an even smaller fraction of a dalton (unified atomic mass unit, based on carbon-12). Since free protons and neutrons differ from each other in mass by a small fraction of a dalton (), rounding the relative isotopic mass, or the atomic mass of any given nuclide given in daltons to the nearest whole number, always gives the nucleon count, or mass number. Additionally, the neutron count (neutron number) may then be derived by subtracting the number of protons (atomic number) from the mass number (nucleon count).


title: Atomic mass

text: The amount that the ratio of atomic masses to mass number deviates from 1 is as follows: the deviation starts positive at hydrogen-1, then decreases until it reaches a local minimum at helium-4. Isotopes of lithium, beryllium, and boron are less strongly bound than helium, as shown by their increasing mass-to-mass number ratios.


title: Atomic mass

text: At carbon, the ratio of mass (in daltons) to mass number is defined as 1, and after carbon it becomes less than one until a minimum is reached at iron-56 (with only slightly higher values for iron-58 and nickel-62), then increases to positive values in the heavy isotopes, with increasing atomic number. This corresponds to the fact that nuclear fission in an element heavier than zirconium produces energy, and fission in any element lighter than niobium requires energy. On the other hand, nuclear fusion of two atoms of an element lighter than scandium (except for helium) produces energy, whereas fusion in elements heavier than calcium requires energy. The fusion of two atoms of He yielding beryllium-8 would require energy, and the beryllium would quickly fall apart again. He can fuse with tritium (H) or with He; these processes occurred during Big Bang nucleosynthesis. The formation of elements with more than seven nucleons requires the fusion of three atoms of He in the triple alpha process, skipping over lithium, beryllium, and boron to produce carbon-12.