1839 went out to China. At Macao he spent some eighteen months in the Lazarist seminary, preparing himself for the regular work of a missionary. Having acquired some command of the Chinese tongue, and modified his personal appearance and dress in accordance with Chinese taste, he started from Canton. He at first superintended a Christian mission in the southern provinces, and then passing to Peking, where he perfected his knowledge of the language, eventually settled in the Valley of Black Waters or He Shuy, a little to the north of the capital, and just within the borders of Mongolia. There, beyond the Great Wall, a large but scattered population of native Christians had found a refuge from the persecutions of Kia-King, to be united half a century later in a vast but vague apostolic vicariate. The assiduity with which Huc devoted himself to the study of the dialects and customs of the Tatars, for whom at the cost of much labour he translated various religious works, was an admirable preparation for undertaking in 1844, at the instigation of the vicar apostolic of Mongolia, an expedition whose object was to dissipate the obscurity which hung over the country and habits of the Tibetans. September of that year found the missionary at Dolon Nor occupied with the final arrangements for his journey, and shortly afterwards, accompanied by his fellow-Lazarist, Joseph Gabet, and a young Tibetan priest who had embraced Christianity, he set out. To escape attention the little party assumed the dress of lamas or priests. Crossing the Hwang-ho, they advanced into the terrible sandy tract known as the Ordos Desert. After suffering dreadfully from want of water and fuel they entered Kansu, having recrossed the flooded Hwang-ho, but it was not till January 1845 that they reached Tang-Kiul on the boundary. Rather than encounter alone the horrors of a four months’ journey to Lhasa they resolved to wait for eight months till the arrival of a Tibetan embassy on its return from Peking. Under an intelligent teacher they meanwhile studied the Tibetan language and Buddhist literature, and during three months of their stay they resided in the famous Kunbum Lamasery, which was reported to accommodate 4000 persons. Towards the end of September they joined the returning embassy, which comprised 2000 men and 3700 animals. Crossing the deserts of Koko Nor, they passed the great lake of that name, with its island of contemplative lamas, and, following a difficult and tortuous track across snow-covered mountains, they at last entered Lhasa on the 29th of January 1846. Favourably received by the regent, they opened a little chapel, and were in a fair way to establish an important mission, when the Chinese ambassador interfered and had the two missionaries conveyed back to Canton, where they arrived in October of the same year. For nearly three years Huc remained at Canton, but Gabet, returning to Europe, proceeded thence to Rio de Janeiro, and died there shortly afterwards. Huc returned to Europe in shattered health in 1852, visiting India, Egypt and Palestine on his way, and, after a prolonged residence in Paris, died on the 31st of March 1860.
His writings comprise, besides numerous letters and memoirs in the Annales de la propagation de la foi, the famous Souvenirs d’un voyage dans la Tartarie, le Thibet, et la Chine pendant les années 1844–1846 (2 vols., Paris, 1850; Eng. trans. by W. Hazlitt, 1851, abbreviated by M. Jones, London, 1867); its supplement, crowned by the Academy, entitled L’Empire chinois (2 vols., Paris, 1854; Eng. trans., London, 1859); and an elaborate historical work, Le Christianisme en Chine, &c. (4 vols., Paris, 1857–1858; Eng. trans., London, 1857–1858). These works are written in a lucid, racy, picturesque style, which secured for them an unusual degree of popularity. The Souvenirs is a narrative of a remarkable feat of travel, and contains passages of so singular a character as in the absence of corroborative testimony to stir up a feeling of incredulity. That Huc was suspected unjustly was amply proved by later research. But he was by no means a practical geographer, and the record of his travels loses greatly in value from the want of precise scientific data.
See, for information specially relating to the whole subject, the Abbé Desgodin’s Mission du Thibet de 1855 à 1870 (Verdun, 1872); and “Account of the Pundit’s Journey in Great Tibet,” in the Royal Geographical Society’s Journal for 1877.
HUCBALD (Hugbaldus, Hubaldus), Benedictine monk, and writer on music, was born at the monastery of Saint Amand near Tournai, in or about 840, if we may believe the statement of his biographers to the effect that he died in 930, aged 90. He studied at the monastery, where his uncle Milo occupied an important position. Hucbald made rapid progress in the acquirement of various sciences and arts, including that of music, and at an early age composed a hymn in honour of St Andrew, which met with such success as to excite the jealousy of his uncle. It is said that Hucbald in consequence was compelled to leave St Amand, and started an independent school of music and other arts at Nevers. In 860, however, he was at St Germain d’Auxerre, bent upon completing his studies, and in 872 he was back again at St Amand as the successor in the headmastership of the convent school of his uncle, to whom he had been reconciled in the meantime. Between 883 and 900 Hucbald went on several missions of reforming and reconstructing various schools of music, including that of Rheims, but in the latter year he returned to St Amand, where he remained to the day of his death on the 25th of June 930, or, according to other chroniclers, on the 20th of June 932. The only work which can positively be ascribed to him is his Harmonica Institutio. The Musica Enchiriadis, published with other writings of minor importance in Gerbert’s Scriptores de Musica, and containing a complete system of musical science as well as instructions regarding notation, has now been proved to have originated about half a century later than the death of the monk Hucbald, and to have been the work of an unknown writer belonging to the close of the 10th century and possibly also bearing the name of Hucbald. This work is celebrated chiefly for an essay on a new form of notation described in the present day as Dasia Notation. The author of the Harmonica Institutio wrote numerous lives of the saints and a curious poem on bald men, dedicated to Charles the Bald.
Authorities.—Sir John Hawkins, General History of the Science and Practice of Music (i. 153); Histoire littéraire de la France (vi. 216 et seq.); Coussemaker, Mémoire sur Hucbald (Paris, 1841); Hans Müller, Hucbald’s echte und unechte Schriften über Musik (Leipzig, 1884); Spitta, Die Musica Enchiriadis und seine Zeitalter (Vierteljahresschrift für Musikwissenschaft, 1889, 5th year).
HU-CHOW-FU, a city of China, in the province of Cheh-Kiang (30° 48′ N., 120° 3′ E.), a little S. of Tai-hu Lake, in the midst of the central silk district. According to Chinese authorities it is 6 m. in circumference, and contains about 100,000 families. A broad stream or canal crosses the city from south to north, and forms the principal highway for boat traffic. The main trade of the place is in raw silk, but some silk fabrics, such as flowered crape (chousha), are also manufactured. Silk is largely worn even by the lowest classes of the inhabitants.
HUCHOWN, “of the Awle Ryale” (fl. 14th century), Scottish poet, is referred to by Wyntoun in his Chronicle in these words:—
þat cunnande was in littratur.
He made a gret Gest of Arthure,
And þe Awntyr of Gawane,
Þe Pistil als of Suet Susane.
He was curyousse in his stille,
Fayr of facunde and subtile,
And ay to pleyssance hade delyte,
Mad in metyr meit his dyte
Litil or noucht neuir þe lesse
Wauerande fra þe suythfastnes.”
(Cott. MS. bk. v. II, 4308-4318).
Much critical ingenuity has been spent in endeavouring to identify (a) the poet and (b) the works named in the foregoing passage. It has been assumed that “Huchown,” or “Hucheon,” represents the “gude Sir Hew of Eglyntoun” named by Dunbar (q.v.) in his Lament for the Makaris (i. 53). The only known Sir Hugh of Eglintoun of the century is frequently mentioned in the public records from the middle of the century onwards, as an auditor of accounts and as witness to several charters. By 1360 he had married Dame Egidia, widow of Sir James Lindsay and half-sister of Robert the Steward. His public office and association with the Steward sorts well with the designation “of the Awle Ryale,” if that be interpreted as “Aula Regalis” or “Royal Palace.” He appears to have died late in 1376 or early in 1377.
