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CHENG

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 78 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CHENG , TsdHENG or TSCHIANG (Ger. Scheng), an See also:

ancient See also:Chinese See also:wind See also:instrument, a See also:primitive See also:organ, containing the principle of the See also:free See also:reed which found application in the See also:accordion, See also:concertina and See also:harmonium. The cheng resembles a See also:tea-pot filled with See also:bamboo pipes of graduated lengths. It consists of a See also:gourd or turned wooden receptacle acting as wind See also:reservoir, in' the See also:side of which is inserted an insufflation See also:tube curved like a See also:swan's See also:neck or the spout of a tea-pot. The See also:cup-shaped reservoir is closed by means of a See also:plate of See also:horn pierced with seventeen See also:round holes arranged round the edge in an unfinished circle, into which See also:fit the bamboo pipes. The pipes are cylindrical as far as they are visible above the plate, but the See also:lower end inserted in the wind reservoir is cut to the shape of a See also:beak, somewhat like the mouth-piece of the See also:clarinet, to receive the reed. The construction of the free reed is very See also:simple: it consists of a thin plate of metal—gold according to the Jesuit missionary See also:Joseph See also:Amiot,' but See also:brass in the specimens brought to Europe—of the thickness of See also:ordinary See also:paper. In this plate is cut a rectangular flap or See also:tongue which remains fixed at one end, while at the other the tongue is filed so that, instead of closing the See also:aperture, it passes freely through, vibrating as the See also:air is forced through the See also:pipe (see FREE-REED VIBRATOR). The See also:metal plate is fastened with See also:wax longitudinally across the See also:diameter of the beak end of the pipe, a little layer of wax being applied also to the free end of the vibrating tpngue for the purpose of tuning by adding See also:weight and impetus. About See also:half an See also:inch above the horn plate a small round hole or stop is bored through the pipe, which speaks only when this hole is covered by the See also:finger. A See also:longitudinal aperture about an inch See also:long cut in the upper end of the bamboo pipe serves to determine the length of the vibrating See also:column of air proper to See also:respond to the vibrations of the free reed. The length of the bamboo above this opening is purely ornamental, as are also four or five of the seventeen pipes which have no reeds and do not speak, being merely inserted for the purposes of symmetry in See also:design.

The notes of the cheng, like those of the concertina, speak either by See also:

inspiration or expiration of air, the former being the more usual method. Mahillon states that performers on the cheng in See also:China are rare, as the method of playing by inspiration induces inflammation of the See also:throat.' Amiot, who gives a description of the instrument with illustrations showing the construction, states that in the See also:great Chinese See also:encyclopaedia Eulh-ya, articles Yu and Ho, the Yu of ancient China was the large cheng With nineteen free reeds (twenty-four pipes), and the Ho the small cheng with thirteen reeds or seventeen pipes described in this See also:article. The See also:compass of the latter is given by him as the See also:middle See also:octave with See also:chromatic intervals, the thirteenth See also:note giving the octave of the first. Mahillon gives the compass of a See also:modern cheng as follows: 14 25 7 5 14 4 or 8 3 2 or 6 12 II 10 13 E. F. F. Chladni,' who examined a cheng sent from China to Herr See also:Muller, organist of the See also:church of St See also:Nicholas, See also:Leipzig, at the beginning of the 19th See also:century, gives an excellent description of the instrument, reproducing in See also:illustration a plate from Giulio Ferrario's See also:work on See also:costume.4 Miiller's cheng had the same compass as Mahillen's. Chladni's article was motived by the publication of an See also:account of the See also:exhibition of G. J. Grenie's Orgue expressif, invented about 181o, in the See also:Conservatoire of 1 Memoire sur la musique See also:des Chinois (See also:Paris, 1779), pp. 78 and 82, pl. vi., or Memoire sur See also:les Chinois, tome vi. pl. vi. 2 See also:Catalogue descriptif, vol. ii.

(See also:

Ghent, 1896), p. 91; also vol. i. (188o), pp. 29, 44, 154. 3 " Weitere Nachrichten von dem . chinesischen Blasinstrumente Tscheng odor Tschiang," in Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (Leipzig, 1821), Bd. See also:xxiii. No. 22,pp.369, 374 et seq., and illustration appendix ii. 4 It Costume anticho e moderno (See also:Milan, 1816), pl. 66, vol. i. Paris.' Grenie's invention, perfected by See also:Alexandre and Debain about 184o, produced the harmonium. Kratzenstein (see under HARMONIUM) of St See also:Petersburg was the first to apply the free reed to the organ in the second half of the 18th century. Inventions of similar See also:instruments, which after a See also:short See also:life were relegated to oblivion, followed at the beginning of the 19th century.

An interesting See also:

reproduction of a See also:Persian cheng dating from the loth or lrth century is to be seen on a Persian See also:vase described and illustrated together with a See also:shawm in the See also:Gazette archeologique (tome xi., 1886). (K. S.) CHEN-See also:HAI [CHINHAI],a See also:district See also:town of China, in the See also:province of Cheh-kiang, at the mouth of the Yung-kiang, 12 M. N.E. of Ningpo, in 29° 58' N., 1 21° 45' E. It lies at the See also:foot of a See also:hill on a tongue of See also:land, and is partly protected from the See also:sea on the N. by a See also:dike about 3 M. long, composed entirely of large blocks of hewn See also:granite. The walls are 20 ft. high and 3 M. in circumference. The defences were formerly of considerable strength, and included a well-built but now dismantled citadel on a precipitous cliff, 250 ft. high, at the extremity of the tongue of land on which the town is built. In the neighbourhood an engagement took See also:place between the See also:English and Chinese in 1841.

End of Article: CHENG

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