Hoyle, Edmond (b. 1671/72—d. Aug. 29, 1769, London, Eng.) Brit¬ ish writer on card games. Hoyle wrote A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist in 1742, and in 1760 he established a set of rules for whist that remained in effect until 1864. His codification of the laws of backgammon (1743) is still largely in force. He is memorialized in the phrase “accord¬ ing to Hoyle” and in various game rule books that contain his name in the title as an indication of authority.
Hoyle, Sir Fred (b. June 24, 1915, Bingley, Yorkshire, Eng.—d. Aug. 20, 2001, Bournemouth, Dorset) British mathematician and astronomer. He was educated at the University of Cambridge, where he became a lec¬ turer in 1945. Within the framework of Albert Einstein’s theory of relativ¬ ity, Hoyle formulated a mathematical basis for the steady-state theory of the universe, making the expansion of the universe and the creation of matter interdependent. Controversy about the theory grew in the late 1950s and early ’60s. New observations of distant galaxies and other phe¬ nomena supported the big-bang model and weakened the steady-state theory, which has since generally fallen out of favour. Though forced to alter some of his conclusions, Hoyle persistently tried to make his theory consistent with new evidence. He is known also for his popular science works and fiction.
Hrabanus Maurus See Rabanus Maurus
Hrosvitha or Roswitha \ros-'ve-ta\ (b. c. 935—d. c. 1000) German writer, regarded as the first German woman poet. Of noble birth, she lived as a nun in a Benedictine convent most of her life. There she wrote six prose comedies in Latin (c. 960), based in form on those of Terence but embodying Christian themes, to edify her fellow nuns. She also wrote narrative poems based on Christian legends and two verse chronicles.
Hrozny \'hroz-ne\, Bedrich (b. May 6, 1879, Lysa nad Labem, Bohe¬ mia, Austria-Hungary—d. Dec. 18,
1952, Prague) Czech archaeologist and linguist. He was the first to deci¬ pher Hittite cuneiform writing, a major advance in the study of the ancient Middle East. In Language of the Hittites (1915), he argued that Hittite (see Anatolian languages) was one of the Indo-European lan¬ guages. He later substantiated his claim by translating a number of Hit¬ tite documents. In 1925 he led an expedition to Turkey that excavated the ancient city of Kanesh.
Hsi-an See Xi'an Hsi Hsia See Xi Xia Hsi-ning See Xining Hsi River See Xi River
Hsi-tsang See Tibet Hsi Wang Mu See Xi Wang Mu Hsia dynasty See Xia dynasty Hsiang-kang See Hong Kong Hsiang River See Xiang River Hsiang Yu See Xiang Yu hsiao See xiao
Hsing-K'ai Hu See Lake Khanka Hsiung-nu See Xiongnu
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Hsuan-hsueh ► Hubble I 903
Hsuan-hsueh See Xuanxue Hsuan-tsang See Xuanzang Hsiian Tsung See Xuanzong Hsiin-tzu See Xunzi
HTML in full HyperText Markup Language Markup language derived from SGML that is used to prepare hypertext documents. Relatively easy for nonprogrammers to master, HTML is the language used for docu¬ ments on the World Wide Web. The text coding consists of commands contained in angle brackets <> that affect the display of elements such as titles, headings, text, font style, colour, and references to other documents, which can be interpreted by an Internet browser according to style rules.
HTTP in full HyperText Transfer Protocol Standard application- level protocol used for exchanging files on the World Wide Web. HTTP runs on top of the TCP/IP protocol. Web browsers are HTTP clients that send file requests to Web servers, which in turn handle the requests via an HTTP service. HTTP was originally proposed in 1989 by Tim Berners- Lee, who was a coauthor of the 1.0 specification. HTTP in its 1.0 version was “stateless”: each new request from a client established a new con¬ nection instead of handling all similar requests through the same connec¬ tion between a specific client and server. Version 1.1 includes persistent connections, decompression of HTML files by client browsers, and mul¬ tiple domain names sharing the same IP address.
Hu, Sia, and Heh Vhii... , se-3... , heh\ In ancient Egyptian religion, the forces of nature responsible for the creation and continuance of the uni¬ verse. They were personified abstractions whose meanings can be trans¬ lated as “creative command,” “intelligence,” and “eternity.” Hu and Sia served as crew members in the solar ship of the sun god Re, and they were also regarded as two of the divine attributes of every king. Heh was the personification of infinite space, portrayed as a squatting man with a sun disk on his head.
Hu-ho-hao-t'e See Hohhot
Hu Jintao or Hu Chin-t'ao (b. Dec. 25, 1942, Taizhou, Jiangsu prov¬ ince, China) General secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP; from 2002) and president of China (from 2003). After studying engineering at Tsinghua University in Beijing, Hu laboured as a construction worker in Gansu province, where he met Song Ping, a party elder who became Hu’s mentor and later introduced him to the CCP general secretary, Hu Yaobang. By the mid-1980s Hu Jintao had risen to general secretary of the Chinese Communist Youth League (CCYL), and in 1985 he was appointed party secretary for Guizhou province, where he helped imple¬ ment educational and economic reforms. Named a member of the CCP Central Committee in 1987, he was sent to Tibet the following year as a provincial party secretary. In 1992 he was appointed a member of the Secretariat of the CCP Central Committee, and in 1998 he was elected vice president of China. Hu succeeded President Jiang Zemin as general secretary of the CCP in 2002 and was elected president the following year. In 2004 he became head of the Central Military Commission after Jiang resigned the post.
Hu Shih Vhii-'shhA or Hu Shi (b. Dec. 17, 1891, Shanghai, China—d. Feb. 24, 1962, Taiwan) Chinese Nationalist scholar and diplomat who helped establish the vernacular as the official written language. Hu stud¬ ied under John Dewey at Columbia University and was profoundly influ¬ enced by Dewey’s philosophy and pragmatic methodology. Back in China, he began writing in vernacular Chinese, the use of which spread rapidly. Because he eschewed dogmas such as Marxism and anarchism as solutions for China’s problems, he found himself opposed by the com¬ munists but also distrusted by the Nationalists. In 1937, when war broke out with Japan, he and the Nationalists were reconciled, and Hu became ambassador to the U.S. He finished his life as president of Taiwan’s Aca¬ demia Sinica.
Hua Hengfang also known as Hua Ruoting (b. 1833, Wuxi, Jiangsu province, China—d. 1902, China) Chinese mathematician and translator of Western mathematical works. Apparently inspired by Li Shanlan, Hua was an early enthusiastic proponent of Western-style mathematics. Hua’s personal struggles to understand mathematical materials resulted in excep¬ tionally lucid translations—particularly his fluent and accessible presen¬ tations of works on algebra and calculus. His translations were widely read and adopted by many of the new Western-style schools founded in China in the 19th century by the government and Christian missionaries.
Huai \'hwi\ River River, eastern China. It flows east for 660 mi (1,100 km) and discharges into Hongze L\ke in Jiangsu province. With its many tributaries, it is subject to extensive flooding; work to control the flood¬ ing is ongoing. River traffic from the Huai joins the Grand Canal, pro¬ viding water transport routes north to the Huang He (Yellow River) and south to the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang).
Huainanzi or Huai-nan-tzu VhwI-'nan-'dzoX Chinese Daoist classic written c. 139 bc under the patronage of the nobleman Huainanzi. The work deals with cosmology, astronomy, and statecraft. It asserts that the DAO (way) originated from vacuity, which produced the universe, which in turn produced material forces. These material forces combined to form yin and YANG, which give rise to the multiplicity of things. Many of the teachings of the Huainanzi are still accepted as orthodox by Daoist phi¬ losophers as well as by Confucianists. See also Daoism.