▪ I. ‖ sheng1 Mus.
(ʃʌŋ)
Also 8– cheng; 9 sang, sing.
[Chinese shēng.]
A Chinese wind instrument consisting of a set of reed pipes.
| 1795 W. Winterbotham Hist., Geogr., & Philos. View Chinese Empire ix. 428 The ancient cheng differed in the number of their pipes; those used at present have only thirteen: this instrument appears to have some affinity with our organs. 1839 Chinese Repository VIII. 52 The săng.. is a collection of tubes varying in length so as to utter sounds at harmonic intervals from each other. 1845 Encycl. Metropol. XVI. 579/2 The Sheng or Sing; the lower half of a gourd, in which a row of pipes is fixed, with a curved and lateral one on which the performer blows. 1937 Times Lit. Suppl. 16 Jan. 41/3 The sheng is assigned by the notation to a certain level of the voice. 1961 J. Howarth in A. Baines Musical Instruments through Ages xiii. 321 In 1777,..Père Amiot..sent the present of a sheng from China to Paris. 1972 Liu Jung-en Six Yüan Plays 15 The shêng, consisting of thirteen pipes of different lengths forming a circle each with a finger hole and having a mouthpiece through which the musician blows and sucks. 1973 Times 11 June 14/2 The concertina was inspired by the Cheng (Chinese mouth organ). 1980 Early Music July 355/1 These, the sho of Japan and the sheng of China, are forms of free-reed mouth organ with a rigid wind chest held in the hands, the fingers remaining free to open and close the reeds in the cane pipes. |
▪ II. ‖ sheng2
(ʃʌŋ)
[Chinese shēng.]
The principal male character in a Chinese opera. Also attrib.
| 1886 Jrnl. R. Asiatic Soc. (North-China Branch) XX. 208 The characters in Chinese plays are arranged under five denominations... The hero is shêng. He wears a black beard, but his face is not concealed. 1937 Arlington & Acton Famous Chinese Plays p. xxiii, Shêng are divided into Wên, Civil, and Wu, Military. These are the leading actors. 1972 C. P. Mackerras Rise of Peking Opera i. 2 There were seven types of actors in the nan-hsi... Some of these terms can still be found..in Peking Opera today. For example, the sheng and tan were—and still are—the principal male and female characters respectively. 1973 R. F. S. Yang in Yuan-li Wu China 74/1 Yen was the founder of the Yen school of the ‘bearded sheng’ voice. |