gunite See shotcrete
Gunn, Thomfson William) (b. Aug. 29, 1929, Gravesend, Kent, Eng.—d. April 25, 2004, San Francisco, Calif., U.S.) British-U.S. poet. Educated at Cambridge and Stanford universities, he lived in San Fran¬ cisco from the 1950s and taught for many years at the University of Cali¬ fornia, Berkeley. His early verse appeared in Fighting Terms (1954) and The Sense of Movement (1957); in the late 1950s his poems became more experimental. My Sad Captains (1961), Moly (1971), Jack Straw’s Castle (1976), and The Passages of Joy (1982) discuss his homosexuality; The Man with Night Sweats (1992) has AIDS as a subject. Other collections include Collected Poems (1993) and Boss Cupid (2000).
gunpowder Any of several mixtures used as propelling charges in guns and as blasting agents in mining. The first such explosive was black powder, a mixture of saltpeter (potassium nitrate), sulfur, and charcoal. It originated in the 9th century in China and made its way west in the 13th century. The recipe was refined and finally fixed in the 14th century; black powder is still widely used for ignition charges, primers, fuses, blank charges in military ammunition, and fireworks. In 1838 it was discovered that cotton could be made explosive by dipping it in concentrated nitric acid, and the form of nitrocellulose known as guncotton came into use as an ingredient of gunpowder in the 1860s. In the 1880s Paul Vieille (1854- 1934) used nitrocellulose to create the first smokeless gunpowder; mod¬ ern gunpowder consists of either nitrocellulose alone or a combination of nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin.
Gunpowder Plot (1605) Conspiracy by English Roman Catholic zeal¬ ots to blow up Parliament and kill James I. Angered by James’s refusal to grant more religious toleration to Catholics, a group of conspirators led by Robert Catesby (1573-1605) recruited Guy Fawkes to their plot. One member warned his brother-in-law Lord Monteagle not to attend Parlia¬ ment on the appointed day (November 5, 1605), and Monteagle alerted the government. Fawkes was arrested in a rented cellar under the palace at Westminster, where he had concealed 20 barrels of gunpowder. Under torture, he revealed the names of the conspirators, and they were all either killed while resisting arrest or executed in 1606. The plot bitterly inten¬ sified Protestant suspicions of Catholics.
Gunther, John (b. Aug. 30, 1901, Chicago, Ill., U.S.—d. May 29, 1970, New York, N.Y.) U.S. journalist and author. He worked for the Chi¬ cago Daily News London bureau (1924-36) before publishing Inside Europe (1936), the first of his highly successful sociopolitical books describing and interpreting various regions of the world, including Inside Asia (1939), Inside Latin America (1941), Inside Africa (1955), Inside Russia Today (1958), Inside Europe Today (1961), and Inside South America (1967). He was also a war correspondent and radio commenta¬ tor.
Guo Moruo Vgwo-'mo-'rwoV or Kuo Mo-jo Vgwo-'mo-'joV orig. Guo Kaizhen (b. Nov. 1892, Shawan, Luoshan county, Sichuan prov¬ ince, China—d. June 12, 1978, Beijing) Chinese scholar and writer. In his youth he abandoned medical studies to devote himself to foreign litera¬ ture, producing a popular translation of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Sorrows of Young Werther (1922). He wrote prolifically in every genre, including poetry, fiction, plays, nine autobiographical volumes, transla¬ tions of Western works, and historical and philosophical treatises, includ¬ ing a monumental study of ancient inscriptions. Initially a liberal democrat, he became a Marxist in the 1920s, and his work was banned by the Guomindang. Following the 1949 revolution, he was named to the highest official literary positions and later to the presidency of the Chi¬ nese Academy of Sciences.
Guo Xiang \'gw6-'shyaq\ or Kuo Hsiang (d. 312, China) Chinese Neo-Daoist philosopher. He was a high government official who adapted and completed another philosopher’s unfinished commentary on the writ¬ ings of Zhuangzi. Interpreting dao (“the way”) as nothingness, he argued that it cannot produce being and cannot be a first cause. He concluded that there is no agent of causality in the universe; all things spontaneously produce themselves, and everything has its own nature. Happiness comes from following that distinctive nature, and dissatisfaction and regret come from failing to follow it. He also interpreted Daoist “nonaction” to mean spontaneous action rather than sitting still, a deviation from original Dao- ism that agreed with Zhuangzi’s thought.
Guomindang Vgwo-'min-'daqV See Nationalist Party
guppy Colourful, freshwater, live-bearing topminnows ( Lebistes retic- ulatus and Poecilia reticulata; see killifish) popular as pets in home aquariums. Guppies are hardy, ener¬ getic, easily kept, and prolific. The male, smaller and much more brightly coloured than the female, grows to about 1.5 in. (4 cm). Gup¬ pies have been bred in various ornate strains characterized by colour or pattern and by shape and size of the tail and dorsal fins.
Gupta \'gup-to\ dynasty (4th- 6th centuries) Rulers of an empire in northern and parts of central and western India. The dynasty was founded by Chandra (Candra) Gupta I (r. 320-c. 330). The Gupta era was once regarded as India’s Classical period, but new archaeological evidence has given the Mauryan empire that designation. Nevertheless, the Gupta period is noted for the flourishing of Sanskrit literature (see Kalidasa), its sophis¬ ticated metal coins, its advanced mathematics (which made use of deci¬ mal notation and the numeral zero and at that time was more advanced than anywhere else), and its astronomical advances.
Gur \'gur\ languages formerly Voltaic \val-'ta-ik\ languages Branch of the huge Niger-Congo language family. Gur comprises some 85 languages and language complexes spoken by about 20,000,000 people
(Top) Male and (bottom) female gup¬ pies (Lebistes reticulatus)
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Gurdjieff ► Gutenberg I 819
mainly in Burkina Faso, northern Cote d’Ivoire, northern Ghana, and northern Togo. Moore in Burkina Faso has the largest number of speak¬ ers, more than 6,000,000 (see Mossi). Once considered a Gur language, Dogon is spoken by about 600,000 people in Mali; it is of uncertain affiliation within Niger-Congo.
Gurdjieff \gor-'jef\, George (Ivanovitch) orig. George S. Georgiades (b. 1872?, Alexandropol, Armenia, Russian Empire—d. Oct. 29, 1949, Neuilly, near Paris, France) Armenian mystic and philoso¬ pher. He apparently traveled in the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia as a young man. He taught in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and in 1919 he founded the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man at Tif- lis (now Tbilisi), Georgia. In 1922 he reestablished the institute at Fon¬ tainebleau, France, gathering a group of followers who lived communally, engaging in philosophical dialogue, ritual exercises, and dance. His basic assertion was that ordinary living was akin to sleep and that through spiri¬ tual discipline it was possible to achieve heightened levels of vitality and awareness. The Fontainebleau centre closed in 1933, but Gurdjieff con¬ tinued to teach in Paris until his death.
gurdwara \gur-'dwa-ra\ Sikh place of worship. Each gurdwara houses a copy of the Adi Granth and serves as a meeting place for worship, including recitation, singing, and explication of scripture. A community kitchen and often a school are attached to the building. In private homes a room set aside for devotion is also called a gurdwara. Pilgrimages are often made to the gurdwaras associated with the Sikh Gurus' lives, nota¬ bly the Golden Temple.
Gurjara-Pratihara Vgur-'ja-ro-pro-te-'ha-roV dynasty Either of two dynasties of Hindu India. The Pratiharas were the most important dynasty of 9th-century northern India. The line of Haricandra ruled in Mandor, Marwar (present-day Jodhpur, Rajasthan state), in the 6th-9th centuries, generally with feudatory status. The line of Nagabhata ruled first at Ujjain and later at Kannauj in the 8th—11th centuries. This line is generally con¬ sidered the more important one; at its peak of prosperity and power (c. 836-910), it rivaled the Gupta dynasty in the extent of its territory. The last important Pratihara king was driven from Kannauj by MahmOd of Ghazna (1018). Other Gurjara lines existed, but they did not take the sur¬ name Pratihara.