Wiktionary
n. A Chinese wind instrument, being a free-reed mouth organ consisting of 13 or more bamboo pipes of various lengths, which are fixed at their bases in a wind chest made from a dried gourd (or, more recently, wood or chrome-plated brass).
Wikipedia
The sheng ( Chinese: 笙; Pinyin shēng) is a Chinese mouth-blown free reed instrument consisting of vertical pipes.
It is one of the oldest Chinese instruments, with images depicting its kind dating back to 1100 BCE, and there are actual instruments from the Han era that have been preserved today. Traditionally, the sheng has been used as an accompaniment instrument for solo suona or dizi performances. It is one of the main instruments in kunqu and some other forms of Chinese opera. Traditional small ensembles also make use of the sheng, such as the wind and percussion ensembles in northern China. In the modern large Chinese orchestra, it is used for both melody and accompaniment.
The sheng has been used in the works of a few non-Chinese composers, including Unsuk Chin, Lou Harrison, Tim Risher, Daníel Bjarnason, Guus Janssen and Christopher Adler. Some believe that Johann Wilde and Pere Amiot traveled to China and brought the first shengs to Europe in 1740 and 1777 respectively, although there is evidence that free reed musical instruments similar to shengs were known in Europe a century earlier.
Sheng may refer to:
- Sheng (instrument) (笙), a Chinese wind instrument
- Sheng (surname) (盛), a Chinese surname
- Sheng (生), the main role in Beijing opera
- Sheng (升), ancient Chinese unit of volume, approximately 1 liter
- Sheng pu'er, a type of pu-erh tea
- Provinces of China (省), administrative divisions called shěng in Mandarin
- Sheng (linguistics), a slang dialect of the Swahili language
Sheng is the Mandarin pinyin and Wade–Giles romanization of the Chinese surname written in Chinese character. It is romanized as Shing in Cantonese. Sheng is listed 146th in the Song dynasty classic text Hundred Family Surnames. As of 2008, it is the 175th most common surname in China, shared by 700,000 people.
Usage examples of "sheng".
To make things worse, the weight of the sheng had been reduced with the times from twelve catties to five catties, and at the same time the relation of cash to silver had fallen from 1640 to 1250 cash the tael.
It occurred to Zilin that Jiu Ximin had ordered Sheng Li to remain simply in order to shame her.
Then Sheng will get the message that his conspiracy's known to us and he'll get it unofficially, not from us but from an unsanctioned mental case.
By placing calabash seeds inside rhinoceros horn lanterns, Prince Liu Sheng was able to establish the world's first twenty-four-hour-a-day salt mine.
He remembered years ago as a child he had been watching Chen-tse Jin Arn and Chen Sheng secretly through a hole in the garden wall when they were smoking opium.
Moreover, might I suggest that my cousin Wei Feng's man, Minister Sheng, be appointed head of that committee, reporting back directly to this Council with his findings.