Shanxi
name ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A province in the northern part of China. Capital: Taiyuan.
"Shi-whang-ti having obſerv’d in viſiting his Empire that the Northern Provinces, eſpecially Pe-che-li, Shan-ſi, and Shen-ſi, were much expoſed to the ſudden Incurſions of the Tartars ; he fent a formidable Army, which having driven them back a great way beyond the Frontiers of the Empire, he immediately put in Execution the Scheme he had form'd to ſecure his Country againſt ſuch dangerous Neighbours, by building a Wall from the Sea to the Extremities of the Province of Shen-ſi."
- 2 Alternative spelling of Shaanxi, a province in northwestern China. Capital: Xi'an. alt-of, alternative, proscribed
"The "Yenan Period," 1935-1947, was the decisive decade of the Chinese Revolution.*[…] Liu Bao-zhei had helped create the Yenan spirit; he had joined the Eighth Route Army in 1937, leaving his home in Henan Province to fight the Japanese in the North. We met Liu on a state farm nestled in the Nanniwan Valley, near Yenan. His face, rough and creased, reflected many years of labor in the harsh climate of northern Shanxi Province. Liu wore a towel tied about his head in the traditional peasant fashion of the area."
Example
More examples"Shi-whang-ti having obſerv’d in viſiting his Empire that the Northern Provinces, eſpecially Pe-che-li, Shan-ſi, and Shen-ſi, were much expoſed to the ſudden Incurſions of the Tartars ; he fent a formidable Army, which having driven them back a great way beyond the Frontiers of the Empire, he immediately put in Execution the Scheme he had form'd to ſecure his Country againſt ſuch dangerous Neighbours, by building a Wall from the Sea to the Extremities of the Province of Shen-ſi."
Etymology
c. late 20th c., from the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 山西 (Shānxī, “[Land] West of the [Taihang] Mountains”), in reference to the location of the province's central Fen River valley.
c. late 20th c., from the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 陝西 /陕西 (Shǎnxī).
Related phrases
More for "shanxi"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.