Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/411

* HUYSMANS. 355 HWEI-SANG. (1894) is a tour de force in nauseating de- scription. Then in A rebours (1884) Huysmans turns as it were in a fierce desperation from materialism to a frenzied spiritualism. "All that transfigures or transforms reality enchants him/' he makes his hero say. After this there are some barren years save for the insit^iificant En rade (1887) and Un dilcmiiie (1887). Then La-bas (18'.)1) carries tlie psychic evolution a step fur- ther in a morbid treatment of astrology and Satanism. This recrudescence of the occult and reassert ion of the e.xtra-natural suggests a fas- cinated conteniphition of religious mysticism, and in En route (1890) we find Huysmans indeed 'on the road' toward such Christianity as may ' be consistent with pessimism. From this point the progress is steady and the course phiin. La cntludittle (18!)7) carries the reader to the door of a Benedictine retreat, and L'ohlale (1898) ushers liim within. All this latter work is full of "lingcriug spiritual muscles to see if they are growing;" it is thoroughly morbid, but thorough- ly characteristic, too. of a French generation weaiy of material progress and of all problems save those that defy solution. Yet in spite of glaring errors of taste, in spite of a recondite vocabulary and of a studied absence of structural unity, these novels are perhaps the frankest and sulitlest analyses of tlie progress of a pilgrim soul since Bunyan's Christian allegory. And they are essentially autobiographic ; for Huys- mans, like his hero, retreated for some time to a Trappist monastery, and became an unpro- fessed member of the Benedictine community at iSolesmes, "too much a man of letters to be a numk, too much a monk to stay among men of letters," as is said of Durtal in the conclusion of En route, which is to English readers the most attractive of all his works and "one of the most characteristic novels of our quarter century." It is well translated by Kegan Paul. HTrrStrM, hoi'snm. .Jan van (1682-1749). A celebrated Dutch painter of flowers and fruits. He was born at Amsterdam, April 1.5, 1682, and !icr|uired the rudiments of his art from his father, Justus ( 1G.'>9-1716), a landscape paint- er of considerable talent. ,Jan at first devoted himself to land-scapes, in the classic style, smooth and "rifelcss. and only later in life began to paint fruits and flowers, studyincr especially the works iif De Heem and Abraham Mignon (q.v.). ITis work difl'ered from that of liis predecessors in that he preferred to paint upon a light back- groimd. He surpassed in mellowness, purity, and delicacy of coloring, and in the exquisite dispo- sition of his lights and shadows. He was fond of introducing birds' nests with eggs, dewdrops, insects, butterflies, and like motifs, rendered with such realism as almost to produce an illusion. The tissue of his flowers and the soft down of his fruit are incomparable in delicacv. His work.s were very popular and commanded the highest prices. He died at Amsterdam. February 7, 1749. Hnysiui's masterpieces are in the chief (iernian and Dutch galleries, especially those of Berlin and .Amsterdam; the Louvre is the richest of all, having ten pieces, and there are excellent examples in the Knglish private collections. HTJZVARESCH, hoosh-va'resh. See Pah- LAVI LaNC.UAGE and lilTERATUKE. HWANG-HAI, hwang'hi'. See Yellow Sea. HWANG-HO, hwiing'hO'. See Hoano-ho. HWANG-TI, hwang'te' (Chin., Yellow Em- peror, (jr Kuler). The third of the Wu Ti, or 'Five .Sovereigns,' who are reputed to have gov- erned China in its legendary period, prior to B.C. 2.'i5G. Like Fuh-hi (q.v.) ana many more of the great leaders of Chinese primitive times, his birth was miraculous, and many wonderful things are attributed to him. The year n.c. 2097 is given as the fir.st of his reign, and as he ruled under the influence of the clement earth, he be- came known as the 'Yellow Emperor,' a circum- stance which, if he ever lived, might point to the region now known as Shensi (q.v.) as the loca- tion of his realm. There the earth is yellow, the at- mosphere is tinged with j-ellow, and trees, houses, etc., are covered with the yellow dust from the mantle of loess (q.v.) which covers half the province. Yellow is still the Im])erial color. He is said by the Chinese to have regulated the calendar, and to have introduced in the sixty-first year of his reign the sexagenary cycle by which successive days have ever since been designated, the a])plication of the cycle of years dating only from the Han dynasty (which began in B.C. 200 ). He is also credited with having intro- duced a decimal system, the .arts of wood, pot- tery, and metals, boats and wheeled vehicles, and many other beneficent things. To Hwang- ti"s wife is due the credit of having been the first to instruct the people in the rearing of silkworms. That Hwang-ti was a virtuous ruler and his reign a prosperous one are vouched for by the statement that both the Fu-hwang and the K'i-lin appeared in his court. He died at the age of 111, and was succeeded by Shao- hao, B.C. 2597. See the Chinese Repository, vol. xi.: Mayer, Chinese Reader's Mamial (Shang- hai, 1874) ; De la Couperie, The Western Origin of Chinese Civilization (London. 1884) ; and Dver Ball, Things Chinese (London and New York, 180.S). HWEI-SANG, hwa'sang' (c.420-e..50.5) . A Buddhist monk, who traveled to the land Fusang, which has been identified by some with Mexico. In 499 Hwei-sang came to King Chow, the Imperial city of the dynasty of Tsi, and in 502 told the Emperor the story of his travels in Fusang, a coun- try to the cast, so called from a plant, the fu- sang. His story was taken down in writing; its principal point was that Fusang hod been con- verted to Buddhism by monks from Cabul in 458. The identification of Fusang with Jtexico was first made by De Guignes in 1701, in the M6- moires de rAeademie des Inscriptions et Belles- Lettres. vol. xxviii.. and was laushed at. In later times (1862-6.3) Gustav d'Kichtal upheld the theory, and (1875) so did Charles G. Leiand. (Consult his Fusang, or the Disrofcr;/ of .{nicr- ira.) I!ut the strongest impetus given to this belief was by Vining, .Ire Inglorious Columbus (IS.S5). and by .John Fri'er (1901). in Harper's Magazine (vol. ciii., p. 251 sqq.), and in Har- per's l-'nciiclopcriiia of United fitales llistorg. "Hui ,'^hcn," which should be consulted. He finds traces of Buddhist art in the idols of the .-ztecs: of lama in the Aztec tlama : of Oautama, in Cuatcmala, Huafomo, Ciiofemotzin : of Sakhga in Oaxaca. Zacntecas. Saealcpee, Zdcatlan, Saca- pulas, an<l Tagsacca ; of a correspondence between Fusang from fusana, and Urxirn from maguey (or agave) : while he explains nwny all diHicuI- ties by mistakes in the report of Hweisang's