Duke Jian of Qi Duke Jian of Qi Duke Jian of Qi (; died 481 BC) was from 484 to 481 BC ruler of the State of Qi, a major power during the Spring and Autumn period of ancient China. His personal name was Lü Ren (呂壬), ancestral name Jiang (姜), and Duke Jian was his posthumous title. Duke Jian succeeded his father, Duke Dao of Qi, who was killed in 485 BC after four years of reign. Duke Jian made his trusted official Kan Zhi (闞止), a native of the neighbouring State of Lu, his prime minister. In 481 BC Kan Zhi plotted
The World Is What It Is The World Is What It Is The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V. S. Naipaul is a biography of the Nobel Prize-winning author V. S. Naipaul by Patrick French. It was published in 2008 (by Picador in the UK and Knopf in the USA). The title is a quotation from Naipaul's book "A Bend in the River". "The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it." French deals with Naipaul's family background and his life from his birth in 1932 until his second marriage