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Wu Zhen ...

Wu Zhen: one of the group of Chinese painters later known as the Four Masters of the Yuan, or Mongol, dynasty (1206-1368). His fame derives particularly from his incorruptible life as a ...
Wu, Chien-Shiung: Chinese-born American physicist who provided the first experimental proof that the principle of parity conservation does not hold in weak subatomic interactions.
Wu-ch'ang: industrial city and capital of Hupeh sheng (province), central China. Located on the south bank of the Yangtze River, it is the oldest city of the Wu-han conurbation (Han-kou, Han-yang, ...
Wu-chou: city on the eastern border of the Kwangsi Chuang autonomous ch'u (district), southern China. Wu-chou is situated at the confluence of the Hsi River with its northern tributary, the Kuei ...
Wu-han: fifth largest city of the People's Republic of China, in Hupeh Province, located at the confluence of the Han and Yangtze rivers. It is a conurbation of three adjacent cities-Han-k'ou ...
Wu-hsi: city in southern Kiangsu sheng (province), China. Wu-hsi is situated along the Grand Canal at that waterway's junction with the Hsi-ch'eng Canal near the northeastern corner of T'ai Lake. The ...
Wu-hsing: city in northern Chekiang sheng (province), China. Wu-hsing is situated close to the southern shore of T'ai Lake, some 40 miles (65 km) north of Hang-chou and 39 miles (63 ...
Wu-hu: city and river port in southeast Anhwei sheng (province), China. Wu-hu has long been a communication and strategic centre of some importance, being situated at the junction of the Yangtze ...
Wu-i Mountains: mountain range on the border between Fukien and Kiangsi provinces, China. The Wu-i Mountains originally bore the name of a cluster of peaks in northwestern Fukien, but the name is ...
Wu-kung Mountains: mountain range, chiefly in west-central Kiangsi Province, China, forming a part of the frontier area between Kiangsi and Hunan provinces. The range is about 80 miles (130 km) long and ...
Wu-t'ai, Mount: mountain and mountain chain in northeast Shansi Province, China. The mountain chain is a massif with a southwest-northeast axis, separated from the Heng Shan (mountains) to the northwest by the ...
Wu-t'ung-ch'iao: town in south-central Szechwan sheng (province), China. Situated between Lo-shan and I-pin on the Min River, Wu-t'ung-ch'iao was formerly a minor market town and briefly achieved status as a municipality ...
Wu-ti: founder and first emperor of the Western Chin dynasty (265-316/317), which briefly reunited China during the turbulent period following the dissolution of the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220).
Wu-ti: autocratic Chinese emperor (141/140-87/86 BC), who vastly increased the authority of the Han dynasty and extended Chinese influence abroad. He made Confucianism the state religion of China.
Wu-ti: founder and first emperor of the Southern Liang dynasty (502-557), which briefly held sway over South China. A great patron of Buddhism, he helped establish that religion in the south ...
Wu-wang: founder and first ruler (reigned 1111-1104 BC) of the Chou dynasty (1111-255 BC). He was regarded by later Confucians as a wise king.
wu-wei: (Chinese: "nonaction"), in Chinese Taoism, the principle of yielding to others as the most effective response to the problems of human existence. Wu-wei does not mean total passivity. Rather, it ...
Wu-wei: city in Kansu sheng (province), China. Situated at the eastern end of the Kansu Corridor (through which the Silk Road ran southeast to northwest) to the north of the provincial ...
Wujing: five ancient Chinese books whose prestige is so great that in the fourfold classification of Chinese writings the jing ("classics") are placed before shi ...
Wular Lake: lake, the largest in the Jammu and Kashmir territory, in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. Located in the Indian-held sector of the territory, the lake is 10 miles ...
wulfenite: lead molybdate, PbMoO₄, a minor source of molybdenum and the second most common molybdenum mineral. It occurs in the oxidized zone of lead and molybdenum deposits. Fine crystals have been ...
Wulfhere: king of the Mercians from 657, who made himself overlord of much of England south of the Humber River. He exercised control over Essex, London, Surrey, and the West Saxon ...
Wulfstan: bishop of London, 996-1002, archbishop of York, 1002-23, and bishop of Worcester, 1002-16, the author of many Old English homilies, treatises, and law codes. He was a product of the ...
Wulfstan, Saint: also spelled Wulstan bishop of Worcester from 1062, the last surviving English holder of a bishopric after the Norman Conquest (1066). He ended the capture and sale of slaves at ...
Wundt, Wilhelm: German physiologist and psychologist who is generally acknowledged as the founder of experimental psychology.
Wupatki National Monument: desert area of archaeological sites in north-central Arizona, U.S. It lies along the Little Colorado River near the San Francisco Mountains, 30 miles (48 km) north-northeast of Flagstaff and about ...
Wuppertal: city, North Rhine-Westphalia Land (state), northwestern Germany. The city extends for 10 miles (16 km) along the steep banks of the Wupper River, a right-bank tributary of ...
Wurlitzer Family: American family of musical-instrument makers and dealers.
Wurm glacial stage: major division of late Pleistocene deposits and time in Alpine Europe (the Pleistocene epoch began about 1,600,000 years ago and ended about 10,000 years ago). The Wurm glacial stage followed ...
Wurttemberg: former German state, successively a countship, a duchy, a kingdom, and a republic before its partition after World War II. Its territory approximated the central and eastern areas of present-day ...
Wurtz, Charles-Adolphe: French chemist and educator noted for his research on organic nitrogen compounds, hydrocarbons, and glycols.
wurtzite: a zinc sulfide mineral that occurs typically in Potosi, Bolivia; Butte, Mont.; and Goldfield, Nev. It is a rare and unstable (at temperatures below 1,020° C, [1,870° F]) hexagonally symmetrical ...
Wurzburg: city, northwestern Bavaria Land (state), south-central Germany. It lies along and is an inland port of the canalized Main River, about 60 miles (100 km) southeast of ...
Wurzburg, University of: autonomous, state-supported university in Wurzburg, Ger., founded in 1582. Early a famous centre for the study of Roman Catholic theology, it was secularized in 1814 and became best known for ...
Wust, Georg: German oceanographer who, by collecting and analyzing many systematic observations, developed the first essentially complete understanding of the physical structure and deep circulation of the Atlantic Ocean.
Wuthrich, Kurt: Swiss scientist who, with John B. Fenn and Tanaka Koichi, won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2002 for developing techniques to identify and analyze proteins and other large biological ...
Ww: town, southwestern Sudan. It lies on the western bank of the Jur River (a tributary of Al-Ghazal River), about 140 miles (220 km) northwest of Rumbek. Waw serves as a ...
Wyandotte: city, Wayne County, southeastern Michigan, U.S., on the Detroit River, just southwest of Detroit. Settled in about 1820, it was laid out in 1854 on the site of the Indian ...
Wyandotte Cave: cave in Crawford county, southern Indiana, U.S., near the village of Wyandotte, about 30 miles (48 km) west of New Albany. With 25 miles (40 km) of passages on five ...
Wyandotte Constitution: in the period immediately preceding the American Civil War, document under which Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state (Jan. 29, 1861), concluding the struggle known as ...
Wyat, Sir Thomas: poet who introduced the Italian sonnet and terza rima verse form and the French rondeau into English literature.
Wyat, Sir Thomas, The Younger: English soldier and conspirator who led an unsuccessful rebellion against Queen Mary I, probably the most formidable uprising ever faced by a Tudor monarch.
Wyatt, James: English architect chiefly remembered for his Romantic country houses, especially the extraordinary Gothic Revival Fonthill Abbey.
Wyatt, John: English mechanic who contributed to the development of power spinning.
Wychavon: district, administrative county of Worcestershire, west-central England, in the southeastern part of the county. Most of the district is in the historic county of Worcestershire, but the area around Hinton ...
Wycherley, William: English dramatist who attempted to reconcile in his plays a personal conflict between deep-seated puritanism and an ardent physical nature. He perhaps succeeded best in The Country-Wife (1675), in which ...
Wyckoff, Ralph Walter Graystone: American research scientist, a pioneer in the application of X-ray methods to determine crystal structures and one of the first to use these methods for studying biological substances.
Wycliffe, John: English theologian, philosopher, church reformer, and promoter of the first complete translation of the Bible into English. He was one of the forerunners of the Protestant Reformation. The politico-ecclesiastical theories ...
Wycombe: district, administrative and historic county of Buckinghamshire, England, in the southern part of the wooded Chiltern Hills. The River Thames forms its southern boundary. The predominantly rural district overlaps the ...
Wye, River: river in England and Wales, about 130 mi (210 km) long. It flows from the moorlands of central Wales, generally southeastward through England to its Irish Sea mouth in the ...
Wyeth, Andrew: American watercolourist and worker in tempera noted primarily for his realistic depictions of the buildings, fields, hills, and people of his private world.
Wykeham, William of: English prelate and statesman, the founder of Winchester College and of New College, Oxford.
Wyler, William: American director of motion pictures that combine a high technical polish with a clear narrative style and sensitive handling of human relationships. Most of his films were based on novels ...
Wylie, Elinor: American poet and novelist whose work, written from an aristocratic and traditionalist point of view, reflected changing American attitudes in the aftermath of World War I.
Wyndham: most northerly seaport of Western Australia. It lies at the mouth of the King River, on the West Arm of Cambridge Gulf (an inlet of Joseph Bonaparte Gulf of the ...
Wyndham, George: British Conservative politician and man of letters who, as chief secretary for Ireland, was responsible for the Irish Land Purchase Act of 1903, also known as the Wyndham Land Purchase ...
Wyndham, John: English science-fiction writer who examined the human struggle for survival when catastrophic natural phenomena suddenly invade a comfortable English setting.
Wyndham, Sir William, 3rd Baronet: English Tory politician, a close associate of Henry Saint John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke.
Wynn, Ed: American comedian and actor in vaudeville, theatre, and motion pictures and on radio and television. He was also a producer, author, and songwriter.
Wynne, Ellis: clergyman and author whose Gweledigaetheu y Bardd Cwsc (1703; "Visions of the Sleeping Bard") is generally considered the greatest Welsh prose classic. An adaptation of Sir Roger L'Estrange's translation of ...
Wyntoun, Andrew of: Scottish chronicler whose Orygynale Cronykil is a prime historical source for the later 14th and early 15th centuries and is one of the few long examples of Middle Scots writing.
Wynyard: town, northern Tasmania, Australia, at the mouth of the River Inglis on Bass Strait. Founded in 1841, it was made a municipality in 1856 and named Table Cape for a ...
Wyoming: county, northeastern Pennsylvania, U.S., consisting of a mountainous region on the Allegheny Plateau that is bisected northwest-southeast by the Susquehanna River. Other principal waterways are Mehoopany, Tunkhannock, Bowman, and Meshoppen ...
Wyoming: county, western New York state, U.S., consisting of a plateau region bounded by the Genesee River to the southeast. Cliffs as high as 600 feet (183 metres) line the Genesee ...
Wyoming: constituent state of the United States of America. It is the ninth largest state, with an area of 97,809 square miles (253,326 square kilometres). It shares boundaries with six other ...
Wyoming Massacre: (July 3, 1778), during the American Revolution, the killing of 360 American settlers in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania, part of the stepped-up British campaign of frontier attacks in the ...
Wyoming, University of: public, coeducational institution of higher learning in Laramie, Wyoming, U.S. It is a land-grant university, comprising colleges of Agriculture, Arts and Sciences, Business, Education, Engineering, Health Sciences, and Law as ...
Wyong: town, eastern New South Wales, Australia, on the Wyong River, immediately west of the Tuggerah Lakes (coastal lagoons). The district was settled in 1823 for the purpose of exploiting its ...
Wyre: borough (district), administrative and historic county of Lancashire, northwestern England, bordering on the Irish Sea north and east of the resort of Blackpool. The borough, named for the River Wyre, ...
Wyre Forest: district, administrative county of Worcestershire, west-central England, in the northern part of the county. Nearly all of the district lies in the historic county of Worcestershire, except for an area ...
Wyspianski, Stanislaw: Polish dramatist and painter, a leading artist of the early 20th-century period who was noted literarily for his aspiration to a uniquely Polish national theatre. He was a prominent member ...
Wyss, Johann Rudolf: folklorist, editor, and writer, remembered for his collections of Swiss folklore and for his completion and editing of his father's novel Swiss Family Robinson.
Wyszynski, Stefan: Polish archbishop of Gniezno and Warsaw and primate of Poland.
Wythe, George: jurist, one of the first U.S. judges to state the principle that a court can invalidate a law considered to be unconstitutional. He also was probably the first great American ...